Some Hats Are Important

Xander gets a threatening call, saying he has to obey or his girlfriend dies.

Her mouth tasted like peaches – she had been eating them before. It was something he noted as his and her lips locked in the bliss that can only be felt when you’re kissing someone you know you love with all your heart. Her auburn hair tickled him in the face as he changed positions, rolling on top of her. Sweet lilac scented perfume filled his nostrils as he lowered his mouth on to hers for another ...

            The phone rang.

            Both of them froze, looking at each other. Amanda raised her eyebrows in a “what ya gonna do?” way. Xander winced. He lifted his finger for the signal of one, then he rolled off her, hearing her sigh. His open shirt flapped as he walked on the carpeted floor of his apartment to the phone. Raising the corded receiver he said a simple, “Yeah?” Quietly he wondered whether the impatience in his voice could be heard.

            Alarm bells immediately went off inside Xander’s head when he heard the garbled voice at the other end of the telephone. “Listen, and listen closely. You have exactly one minute to walk to your bedroom window, and tap the glass twice, or your girlfriend dies.” Before he could so much as respond, a click signaled the other person had disconnected the call.

            Almost without thinking he glanced at the waterproof watch on his wrist, noting the position of the hand counting the seconds. Realizing what he was doing, he instead used it to run it through his blue-dyed hair. A few steps on autopilot carried him back to his girlfriend. He couldn’t resist a glance to the window, but instead he sat on the bed. 

            Apparently there was something in his expression because Amanda immediately asked, “What’s wrong? Who was it?”

            Xander waved the problem away. “Nothing. Just a prank. And a very unfunny one.” A glance at the watch. Twenty-four seconds had passed. His heart beat in his chest, and his foot began tapping. 

            Amanda smiled at him and approached on all fours in a sexy crawl. “Well, then come back to bed.” Xander smiled back, obliging her, maneuvering back into a position on top, stealing a few kisses along the way. But when he was finally there, his eyes widened in panic. There was a red dot on her forehead. Which could only mean ...

            He rolled off her, glancing at the watch. Eight seconds left! He ran to the window, as fast as he could, tapping the glass twice. At the same time he tried to see where the laser dot had been coming from. The most obvious place was right across the street, an abandoned building, but there were so many windows to check.

            Before he found anything, the phone rang again. Amanda got off the bed. “What’s the matter, baby?”

            “I’ll explain later.” Xander rushed past her and straight to the phone, ripping it up. His voice was laced with as much fury as he could muster while keeping it low. “If you so much as hurt a hair ...”

            The same garbled voice as before cut him off. “Oh, I’ll hurt much more than a hair unless you do everythingI say, and I do mean everything. And a sniper rifle isn’t the only way we can kill her, believe me.”

            “What do you want?”

            “Wise choice. First we need to know whether you can follow instructions. Go outside, there will be a man in a hat sitting on a bench reading a newspaper. Steal the hat,” the voice never stopped sounding utterly serious, “and bring it to me.  I think you know which building I’m in. Go to the stairs, and up six floors, I’ll be in the room immediately to the left. Oh and if you call anyone, say the authorities ...”

            Xander glanced at his girlfriend, who stood looking at him in the bedroom doorway. “I know.” He couldn’t help but frowning. “But why do you want a hat?”

            There was a small pause on the other end of the line. “If you’re a good boy, perhaps I will tell you. Get it done. You have four minutes.” Whoever it was hung up. Xander raised his watch, watching his precious seconds tick down.

            “Xander. What’s going on? You’re acting strange.”

            “I’ll explain later. Promise.” He kissed Amanda quick on the mouth, grabbed his coat, and ran outside. His breathing quickened as he made his way down the stairs in his apartment building as fast as he could. Elevator was a waste of time. Shortly after that he pushed out into the sunshine through a door. 

            A quick look around revealed an older man sitting on a bench, reading a paper. Xander swallowed and glanced at his watch. Fifty-eight seconds had already passed. He better do this as fast as he could. Trying to act nonchalant, he forced himself to calm down, and walk slowly by the bench. Once there he reached out with his hand and tried to snatch the grey hat without the man knowing. 

            “Hey! What you think you’re doing!?” 

            Part of the plan had failed, but he had the hat. Xander broke out into a run, straight over the busy traffic street. Several cars had to come to a screeching halt as he ran across, but he managed to get through without serious injury. Without so much as a glance back he ran into the red-brown building directly against his, and up the stairs, hoping the cars had obscured his entry for the old man. Either way it didn’t matter, time was too short for evasive maneuvers.

            He counted. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. To the left. When Xander entered the empty concrete floored room and he saw who was sitting on a slab of building material he was just about ready to kill someone. Preferably the person sitting there grinning. “Joe. THIS WASN’T FUNNY!” Xander threw the hat into his friend’s lap.

            Joe burst out laughing. “Oh man, it was SO funny. Btw, love the open shirt, throw-a coat-over look. Very ... rock star.”

            “You’re wearing a pink polo shirt, you’re gonna talk to me about fashion?” Xander glanced around. The sniper rifle pointed at his house looked very real – probably because it was. Joe’s father had a lot of money, and Joe was exactly the kind to spend it on foolish pranks. Joe’s cell phone lay on a crate nearby, a device attached to it. Xander shook his head. “This time you went too far, Joe.”

            “Oh come on, I was never actually gonna kill her. The rifle isn’t even loaded. And besides ...” Joe stood up, glancing at someone behind Xander. “Oh, come to get your hat back?” The look on Joe’s face changed abruptly to one of horror, Xander turned around. The old man who owned the hat was holding a pair of silver-semi automatic guns. On some kind of instinct – or from watching too many movies with guns in them – Xander threw himself to the ground.

            The gunshots seemed impossibly loud, one after another. Xander counted, six from each gun. Then everything went quiet. He looked up at the white-bearded man, who holstered both his guns in holsters concealing the weapons completely from the casual observer. Xander turned his eyes to another place. Joe lay on the ground, his once-pink polo shirt now stained with pockets of bright red.

            “He shone the laser scope into my eyes before, for fun I assume. Stupid kids.  I calculated his position from that.” The man walked calmly over to Joe, bending down and checking his pulse. He smiled at Xander, “Never hurts to be sure. By the way, I knew what was going on as soon as I entered the room.”

            Still lying on the ground, Xander managed to mutter, “It was just a hat ...”

            “Not when you steal it from Madman Corson.” Another almost friendly grin. The man stood, and picked up the cell phone with the device attached, glancing at the rifle. “He was blackmailing you yes? You should be glad he’s dead.”

            Xander couldn’t bring himself to say a word, just stare, like all thought had been leached from his brain. “Cheer up,” the man said. “Have some candy.” He threw a piece of wrapped hard candy on the floor by him, before walking out of the room. Glad for something, anything, to do, Xander slowly reached for it. He unwrapped it, and rolled it around in his mouth.

            It tasted like peaches ...

           

           

Reviews

[Jesse Przewoznik]

Well. Almost needless to say, I didn't see the second (assuming the first was Xander's friend) twist coming. At all. My jaw honestly may have dropped. The writing style itself isn't bad. It could use a few touches, but most of such only come from writing experience - so bluntly, the story was very good. Not 100% sure what the ending implies, but I don't feel it's supposed to be fully revealed, anyhow. Great work! Keep it up!

[Scene, not herd]

Intriguing. A nice piece with great twists. I enjoyed this, good work!