by Cass Tell
“This is my sister’s restaurant. She has good ideas. I will introduce you but first you pay me.”
Amy got the money from her sport bag and paid Rajiv for the trip. She did a quick count and then whispered to Jack, “Only seven hundred left.”
She realized the money had gone fast, for gas, the motel, food and the taxi. They would need to spend carefully from now on, but they still had their bankcard and a large amount of money in an account at Northern Bank.
Rajiv led them into the restaurant and then into the kitchen. Sweet exotic aromas filled the air, ones she had not smelled for a long time. The meals at Mildred’s house were simple, mostly macaroni and cheese. The aromas here made her mouth water and she realized she was hungry.
A young woman ran to Rajiv and hugged him and they began to speak in a foreign language, singsong sounds that seemed to originate from the top of their mouths. Amy found it to be delightful. She deducted this was Rajiv’s sister.
The young woman said, “Rajiv, please introduce me to your friends.”
Rajiv smiled. “This is Amy and Jack, and this is my sister Sumita.” Then a small girl maybe five or six years old came into the kitchen and ran up to Rajiv and he bent down and hugged her. “And, this is my niece, Oditi. Her name means dawn.”
Amy stuck out her hand and Oditi shook it.
Rajiv and Sumita shifted back to their native language and talked for some time. At a certain point, Rajiv was animated and he made the motion of a fist hitting his eyes and then his nose and then they talked longer.
They stopped and Sumita said, “I understand you need to find a place to stay.”
“Yes,” answered Amy. “We want to start over with a new life.”
Sumita said. “I have a small apartment upstairs if you even want to call it an apartment. You can stay there until you figure out what to do. It is next to a larger apartment where I live with Oditi.”
Amy looked at Jack and he nodded. She turned to Oditi and said, “Thank you very much. Yes, we would like to stay there.”
There was a noise in the other room of the front door opening. Sumita’s face changed from happiness to worry. “Excuse me,” she said.
She took an envelope off a counter and went into the eating area.
Amy watched Sumita approach a man who reminded her of Nalf, a muscular man who rarely smiled.
The man reached across to Sumita and firmly held her by her shoulder as he waived a big fist in front of her face.
Sumita timidly handed him the envelope, the man left and Sumita came back into the kitchen. Her face was drawn.
“Is there something wrong?” Rajiv asked.
Sumita looked to the floor. “It is terrible,” she said. “This men demands money each week and he says it is for insurance, for protection.”
“You mean a protection racket?” Amy asked.
“What’s a protection racket?” Jack asked.
“It’s where bad people come to you and demand money so they can protect you, only they protect you from themselves. They threaten you if you don’t pay.” Amy looked at Sumita and softly asked, “Is that what happened?”
Sumita looked to the ground and with a quivering voice said, “Yes.”
“Did they make threats?” Jack asked.
“Two restaurants in Miami were burned down. He said the same would happen to me if I didn’t pay. I don’t have as much as they ask for, so my restaurant will go out of business and I won’t have enough money to live.”
Rajiv said, “I didn’t know. This is trouble.”
“After Aman died I thought we could find a new life in America. Now, this is a terrible burden to bear.”
“Who’s Aman?” Amy asked.
Rajiv answered. “He was Sumita’s husband. A train crashed in India and he was on it.”
“I’m sorry,” Amy said.
Tears came to Sumita’s eyes. “Life is not easy,” she said.
“I know,” Amy replied, thinking of her own parents.
Chapter 7
They stood in the restaurant’s kitchen and a cold touch of hopelessness bolted up Amy’s spine. The sad thought of Sumita being unable to support Oditi gave Amy a sense of injustice.
She felt the same when reflecting on what happened to her parents and of the evil men who were searching for her and Jack. The feeling of injustice was not only because of Larry and Nalf, but more so because of the wicked men in California.
It had been so stressful to escape that place and they would never have done so without the help of Buddy the truck driver. He was a family friend and he drove them to Las Vegas where other truck drivers safely shuttled them to North Carolina.
Would she and Jack ever be able to get away from Larry and Nalf, and those horrid people in California? The thought of finding a peaceful and normal life seemed remote.
Hopefully, Larry and Nalf were far behind. Now that the tracking device on the taxi was disabled, it would be impossible to track them. Larry and Nalf probably went back to Raleigh, but that did not make sense. Their boss was in jail along with Frankie his bodyguard. Larry and Nalf would probably want to stay far away from Raleigh.
When they were at the warehouse hiding in a truck, Amy had overheard the men talking about their gang in Miami. Were Larry and Nalf headed for Miami? Hopefully not. To be safe, she and Jack would need to go to another city in another state.
Yet, she was tired of running. In his boyish optimism, Jack did not like the idea of running away. He liked the fanciful challenge of facing bad people. Perhaps he had played too many video games.
Only, this was not a video game. It was real life.
Should they try to help Sumita, which would mean staying in Miami and then possibly running into Larry and Nalf? On the other hand, should they ask Rajiv to drive them to the next state, which she thought might be Georgia or Alabama?
However, Sumita needed help and Amy knew the right thing to do. She did not even need to discuss it with Jack, for she knew exactly what he would say.
Amy turned to Sumita and said, “Can you show us the apartment. We will help you if we can.”
Chapter 8
Sumita led them upstairs and down a short hallway to a door at the end, and then she led them into a small studio apartment. It was one main room with a bathroom on the side.
Against one wall was a bunk bed and Jack quickly said, “I want the top.”
Against the opposite wall were an electric stove and mini fridge and a small sink. In the middle of the room sat an old two-person couch facing a small TV suspended on a wall. A metal bar hung across the corner of two walls and some clothes hangers were on the bar.
Amy looked at the bar and realized they did not have any clothes. She said, “We are thankful for this place. How much will it be?”
“If it is only for a few days, I want you to stay for free. After that it would be nice to receive something to pay for electricity.”
“We want to pay,” Amy said.
They agreed on a price and Amy asked, “Are there any shops around here to buy clothing?”
“Yes, two blocks down and turn right there is a small shopping center with several clothing stores.”
Amy looked at Sumita and said, “What I said downstairs is correct. We would like to help you with those bad men, if possible.”
Sumita smiled a half smile. “That’s very nice of you, but I’m wondering what two kids could really do. I’m afraid Oditi and I are in real trouble.”
“Jack and I will give it some thought,” Amy said, knowing that Jack would have many ideas. “We’d like to eat in your restaurant tonight, but first we need to go buy some clothes.”
Chapter 9
They walked into the shopping center and Amy saw a board that listed all the stores in the building. There were five clothing shops so she was sure they could find something. Their clothing could not last much longer, worn out with tears in their shirts and holes in their jeans. All they needed were the basics, pants, shirts, underwear and
possibly new shoes.
As she looked at the board, Jack tapped her on her arm.
He said, “There’s that man.”
“What man?”
“It's the protection-racket guy from Sumita’s restaurant.”
“I don’t see him,” she said.
“Over there, the protection-guy, but I don’t want to point.”
“Where?”
“There, the fifth shop down on the right.”
The man walked into a clothing shop while Amy and Jack moved behind the information board to hide.
Two minutes later the man walked out of the shop carrying an envelope. He then went into the next shop and a minute later came out holding another envelope. Then he walked in the direction of Amy and Jack.
“Get behind the board,” Jack commanded.
They stood behind the information board as the man walked by, Amy’s heart pounding. The man then left the shopping center.
“He’s creepy,” Amy said.
“Let’s follow him,” Jack exclaimed.
“Are you crazy?”
“No. We said we would help Sumita. Maybe we can find out something about him.”
“Like when we followed Carlo Donato to his house and got caught by Nalf and then put in that sewing factory with all those other kids?”
“This time let’s not get caught.”
“That’s easy to say,” she countered.
“Come on. We can stay far behind him and at least try and find out where he goes.”
Amy took a deep breath. “Okay, but be super careful.” She knew her brother, how he took unreasonable risks.
They walked to the front door of the shopping center and looked through the glass and down the street where the protection-guy was walking. He strode like a bull, as if no one would want to get in his way.
They left the shopping center and followed him, staying far behind.
The man walked four blocks and then turned down a street. Amy and Jack ran to the corner hoping they would not lose him. They peered around the corner and he was two blocks ahead of them. Then he walked into the front door of an old four-story building.
There was a small park across from the building so they found a bench under the shade of a tree and they waited.
This time he did not come out in a minute or two. After staying twenty minutes on the bench Amy said, “Wait here.”
“What for?” Jack asked.
“Because it’s better if only one of us goes over there.”
“Where?”
“I’m going over to that building to see if there is a name or something.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No. Let’s not make a parade. The fewer the better. You stay here and watch.”
“Okay,” Jack agreed.
Amy went to a crosswalk, then walked across the street, and turned back to the building. When she got to the front, there was only a street number and a door.
She hesitated, took a deep breath and went to the door. She pushed it open and went inside. On a wall in the entrance, were four mailboxes with names on each box. They were not the names of individual people, but of companies, going from floors one to four. She assumed each company took one floor.
One company had trading in the name. Another was financial services. A third was an insurance company and the fourth was Universal Equipment Supplies. Somehow, that last name seemed similar to her.
There was an elevator, she heard it start up, and then she saw lights above the elevator with the numbers of the floors. It changed from light number four to number three.
When the number two light went on, she shot out the front door of the building.
She looked across the street to the bench where Jack was waiting. He was not there.
Chapter 10
Amy felt a shock of anger when seeing the empty bench. Her brother was supposed to stay there and wait for her. That was so much like him to wander off, led by his endless curiosity.
Then another thought filled her with horror. What if he did not wander off? What if someone took him?
Instead of going to the corner and using the crosswalk, she ran across the street to the small park. The entire park was visible when she got to the bench. Where was he?
She turned and saw Jack coming from around the corner of the old four-story building. He smiled and waved at her.
She motioned with her hand for him to walk down the street, so she could meet him at the crosswalk on the corner.
As he walked past the old building, the large protection-guy came out the front door. The man’s eyes scanned the street, he looked at Jack, and then he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
They met up at the corner with the traffic light.
“What are you doing?” She hissed. “I told you to wait at the bench.”
“But I got an idea,” he said.
“Like what? To scare the life out of me?”
“No. Why should you be scared? I can take care of myself.”
“You’re terrible at taking care of yourself,” she exclaimed.
“You’re the one that needs to be taken care of,” he stated.
“Okay, okay.” The conversation was not helpful. “Where did you go?”
“I wanted to see the backside of the building.”
“And, what did you find?”
“Nothing. There is a parking area and a back door. I wondered if there was an outside fire escape, but there wasn’t.”
“That’s it?” She asked.
“Back there behind those buildings it’s like an industrial zone with some warehouses like what we saw in Raleigh, only everything is rundown. What did you find?” He asked.
“The building seems to have four offices, each taking one floor. I think the protection-guy went to the top floor where there was an office named Universal Equipment Supplies.”
Then it came to her where she remembered that name. When she was in the house of Carlo Donato the boss of the gang of thieves in Raleigh, she had seen the same name.
“You know what?” She said. “That office on the fourth floor may be connected to the gang of thieves in Raleigh.”
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
“The name is the same as Carlo Donato’s company.”
“That can’t be,” Jack stated.
“It’s probably just a coincidence. Let’s get out of here before the protection-guy notices us. He already saw you.”
“I know. He’s big, like Nalf. Where shall we go?”
“Back to the shopping center. We need new clothing,” Amy proposed.
Chapter 11
They got back to Sumita’s restaurant carrying several bags and went the outside stairs to their small apartment.
Amy went to the bathroom first, took a shower, and changed into a new pair of jeans and a new t-shirt, light blue with a pink guitar on the front.
It felt good to be clean and have washed hair. She had a difficult time to remember the last time she had washed like this, maybe four or five days previously at Mildred’s place. Since then they had been running through dirty fields and swamps, riding in a dusty truck and working in a filthy sewing factory.
She put on a brand new pair of sneakers. All she needed was a good meal and a night of sleep in a real bed.
Jack came out of the bathroom, clean and freshly dressed. He looked like a new boy and Amy felt proud at what Jack was becoming. He was a smart kid and she wanted to get him into a good school.
He asked, “Why don’t those shop owners just go to the police and tell them about the protection racket? Then the protection-guy would be arrested, as well as anyone working with him.”
“They’re afraid,” she stated. “Sumita said that shops had been burned down. I bet the lives of the owners of those shops were also threatened. If the protection-guy made a threat to harm Oditi, then Sumita would be terrified.”
“What are we going to do about it?” Jack asked.
“I’m not sure wha
t we can do. We definitely can’t go directly to the police for we don’t want our names to go into any database that the bad guys in California guys would see.”
“Could we burn down the protection-guy’s office?” Jack asked.
Amy chuckled. “He deserves it and I like your radical approach, but that wouldn’t stop him. We need another option.”
While saying it she wondered what in the world they were doing getting involved in something like this. They needed to go to a new place to start a new life, to get into a school and have friends. Moreover, it would be nice to have parents although no one could ever replace their own.
Jack said, “I’m starved. Let’s go downstairs.”
Chapter 12
Amy understood nothing on the menu, so Sumita helped them chose. When it came, it was a mix of spicy dishes accompanied by a flatbread called chapiti.
Amy savored every bite, as she could not remember having such good food. Jack did not say a word, as he was focusing on eating.
When they finished, Rajiv walked to their table and Amy asked him to sit down.
Rajiv said, “It is terrible what is happening here. I never thought this would happen to my sister.”
“It’s not only her,” Amy said. “We saw that protection-guy go into other shops.”
“He’s a jerk,” Jack stated.
“Indeed he is,” Amy said. “Even more than that. How can he take money from hard working people?”
“I made a decision,” Rajiv said.
“What’s that?” Amy asked.
“I’m going to move here to help my sister.”
“You mean to help her fight that protection-jerk?” Jack asked.
“Yes, but I’m not sure what to do.”
“Tell the police,” Jack said.
“He can’t,” Amy stated. “That man makes very real threats.”