Tired Of Dreaming

A struggling artist moves to California in hope for a better future then faces the truth of what is yet to come

"My name is James Monroe and I'm an artist". "I grew up in a small town or I should say small towns that I can't remember". "I never had much but only a paint brush and any color I found use for". "My life long dream is to move to California and open up my own art gallery". "One thing I remember is my grandmother telling me as long as I graduate from school and always make honest choices then I can do anything". "Unfortunately like most of my family members I didn't have my grandmother for much long". "At age seventeen I dropped out of high school and had attempted to pursue my art career full time". "But at that time I only got offers from a freelance agency who promised me as long as I came out with a certain amount of money to give them then they'll promote the first few paintings I've finished but after I saved up the money to give them I never heard from them since and none of my paintings were sold". "During the next ten years from motel to rest stop and car ride to long hikes I've been working odd jobs and saving up each year so I can finally move to California". "Reaching closer to the eleventh year I finally was able to save up fifty six hundred dollars so that I can buy a bus ticket and maybe even rent an apartment". "When I get down there my plan is to start out opening a stand on the beach displaying my newest paintings". James purchases a bus ticket at the station to the first bus going to Los Angeles. When he gets there he gets off a stop that's at the beach. He gets off the bus carrying one bag of clothes and rolling a luggage with his paintings in it. He looks around at the beach seeing all the different types of people and events that are going on. After he leaves the beach he walks around looking at apartments that have "For Rent" signs on them. He sees one that has an upstairs balcony. He writes down the phone number listed on the sign. For the next two days he goes through the process of paper work and making a payment of a security deposit and moving furniture in. In the living room he hangs up all of his paintings. Later that night he works on a new painting symbolizing his new arrival to Los Angeles which is a fictionalized setting of the beach. He paints a red sky with blacks clouds that hover over the water of the beach. He also paints the background scenery in dark with black paint on one side and the other side he paints with light colors like gold on the same side as a figure of a man representing him. In the painting as the figure of the man walks closer to the dark side the waves of the ocean rises up and turn into a brighter blue color. The other paintings he plans to display is of a long road with a variety of different people walking together similar to the roads he hitchhiked on. The two other paintings he has are of fantasy designed backgrounds of a forest fire and a snow covered mountain that has an illusion of a man's face. The next day he opens up his stand on the beach with his paintings held up by easels. He waits hour after hour waiting for a customer. By the mid afternoon A surfer carrying his surf board walks up to the stand looking at the painting of the forest fire. "I like this one". "If you're interested it's on sale for one hundred fifty bucks". The surfer laughs. "Dude, nobody out here is going to buy any of this no matter how good these are". "Yeah and why's that"? "Most of the people around here don't really have the appreciation for art and culture". "Well that's too bad cause I worked ten years to get here so I can just try to make a living off of this". "If you really need to make some money I know where you can go". "Where's that? "I know a few people around and they could always use some extra help". "Okay well I'm welling to do what I got to". "What's your name dude"? "I'm James". "My name is Danny". They shake hands. "Maybe now I can show you around to some new friends". "Sure I just have to bring these back to my apartment, it's close by here". "Alright let's do it"! James packs up the paintings and brings them back to the apartment while Danny follows him. James puts the paintings back into the luggage and locks the door on his way out. "So Danny, where are we going"? "To a friend that lives a couple blocks from here". A few minutes later they both walk up to this party at Villa playing loud music. They come in through the back yard where people are swimming in a pool. As they walk by everyone James looks at every girl in a bikini. They walk inside upstairs to a bedroom. Danny calls out the name "Stevie, Stevie"! A man comes out of a large closet in the bedroom. "Whose your friend Danny"? "This is James I just met him today". Stevie shakes hands with James. "I was stopping by because I heard you needed a new delivery boy". James taps Danny on the shoulder. "Delivering what exactly"? Stevie picks up a package held inside a satchel and hands it to James. "This is a package that you deliver to each specified location listed on an address book in there". "Do you mind me asking what this is"? Stevie opens the top part of the satchel revealing the package to be bagged pounds of marijuana. "Only agree if you can handle it but now it's either a yes or a no". "No problem I can handle this, it's just some grass I guess". Stevie and Danny both look at each other and laugh. Danny and James both go back downstairs and outside. "So when do I start"? "Right now as a matter of fact". Danny points to a bicycle chained to the gate. "Are you good with bikes"? "Yeah I've used them before". Danny unchains the bicycle off the gate and wheels it up to James. "Remember the address book is inside the bag and let me know when your done I'll just be here". James takes the address book out of the satchel and reads the first one. He gets on the bicycle and rides to it. For each delivery he either knocks on a door to an apartment or meets someone at their car dividing each amount they ask for. By the time James finishes all of the deliveries he counts all of the cash he received which a total amount of ten thousand dollars. Then he rides all the way back to Stevie's villa. Danny sees him from the backyard and walks up the front to approach him. "So how did you do"? "I got it all right here". He hands Danny all of the cash. Danny smiles with excitement. "Excellent job man come back inside". They go back inside upstairs to Stevie's room. Danny places the cash on a side table in the room. "Stevie I think I picked a keeper he made it through each delivery". "Hey well not bad for the first time". Stevie picks up the cash and counts it and hands James a half of it. "This is for you and we'll keep in touch for next time". "Thanks guys". Danny and James go outside to the pool. "You know James for your good work I want to reward with something else". Danny points to one of the bikini girls by the pool. "Her name is Beth and I would like you to meet her". "Okay sure". They both walk up to her. "Beth this is our new friend James". Beth shakes hands with James. "We were just wondering if you wanted to keep him some company tonight". James turns head quickly towards Danny. Beth laughs. "I'm not too busy tonight where do you live James"? "My apartment is just a couple blocks away from here". "It's a date then". Later that night Beth and James sit in the living room of the apartment drinking wine. "My life long goal was to always move out here and start my own art gallery". "That's sounds cool everyone else I know just wants to party or get wasted". "I have it all with me if you wanted to look at some". "Sure I'll check some if it out". James takes the paintings out of the luggage. "This is my newest one". He hands her the painting of the beach. "Wow I like this one". "I did it just the other day". James look at his back porch seeing how bright the moon is. "It looks nice out do you want go out to the porch". They go out through the back porch and sit together on a porch swing. James looks up at moon and stars. "For years I always told everybody I was going to become the next best artist of the century but always got a laughed at afterwards". Beth pours herself another glass of wine. "Sometimes I wish I had better support than I did growing up". "I even ask people sometimes if they ever get tired of dreaming and just really hope that whatever they want to do can just happen with no problems or lies". Beth puts down the glass of wine and moves in closer towards James. He looks at her and they kiss. The next morning James wakes up with Beth laying right beside him. His cell phone rings on the night stand. He picks it up and answers it. "Hello"? On the other line Danny walks on the beach with his cell phone. "Hey James it's me this afternoon stop by and meet my at Stevie's we have another job for you to do". "Alright I'll see you then". They both hang up. James looks over at Beth still sleeping and walks into the living room and cleans up moving all of the paintings aside. After he is done cleaning he frames all of the paintings and writes a date on each of them. He also counts what is left over of his money on the kitchen table. He hears Beth waking up. He goes into the bedroom. "Good morning babe". "Hey good morning". "You left your purse in the living room I put it on the table". "Actually I have to go soon". "Yeah I have to get ready for this afternoon anyway". They both walk back into the living room. Beth sees the cash on the kitchen table. She walks over to grab her purse. "I'll walk you out I just have to use the bathroom". James goes into the bathroom. Beth quickly puts the cash into her purse dropping one of the hundred dollar bills on the floor. She closes her purse and stands by the door. James comes out of the bathroom. "It's getting late I better hurry". "Okay let me walk you out". They both go outside. "Hey, before you go I think you forgot something to give me". Beth nervously stops walking. James walks up to her. He puts his hands on her shoulder. He kisses her on the lips. "I'll see you later". "Bye James". Beth walks away as James watches her leave. Then he goes back in the apartment. He takes off of the framed paintings out of the kitchen and puts them in the closet in his bedroom. He walks back into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator to see what's in it. He looks over and just notices the cash is gone. He sees the hundred dollar bill on the floor and picks it up. He kneels down on the floor and looks under the table but doesn't find anymore. He gets up and punches the wall. He picks up his cell phone and calls  Beth's contact number a few times but never gets an answer. Later in the afternoon he goes over Stevie's and meets Danny in the backyard near the pool. "Hey have you seen that girl Beth around"? "No, I thought she was with you". "She was but when she left I think she could've took the money you gave me yesterday". "Come inside we have to talk to Stevie". They go inside and sit on the couch in the living room. Stevie comes in putting a cigarette out in an ash tray on the coffee table. "Stevie we got some bad news; James says he thinks that girl Beth stole the money we gave him yesterday"? "Why is that my problem"? James stands up. "I just want to know if you can find her"! "Come on sit down James". James sits back down. Danny looks at him. "I'm sorry that it happened James but the job we have for you today is worth a lot more than what you did yesterday". "Okay, so what is it"? "There's this doctor we work with and he experiments with our product and today he's going to need more samples but what we need you to do is meet him with a package of fifty pounds and after he pays you we'll split thirty percent of the money with you". Stevie throws a set of keys on James' lap. "You're scheduled to meet him in a half hour so you better get going". "Follow me I'll show you the car you'll be taking". They go out front up to a Mercedes Benz. James gets in the driver's seat. Danny puts the package into the trunk and shuts it. James drives downtown up to a coffee shop. He sees a man sitting up front through the window. He looks at the picture that was given to him. The man he sees matches the picture of the doctor that he has. He looks at him for another minute and drives off. He pulls over into an alley. He takes the package out of the trunk and throws it into a dumpster. He walks away abandoning the car saying to himself "What a bunch of scumbags". He walks to the closest bar and drinks there for a few hours. He takes a taxi back to his apartment. When he gets inside everything is scattered and torn apart with glass all over the floor, urine stains on the wall, and ripped holes in the furniture. James runs into he bedroom seeing it also in the same condition. He goes into his closet seeing all the clothes that were thrown out of it. He takes out the luggage with the paintings in it. They were the same as before. James takes a deep breathe out of relieve. James goes into the living room and sits on the floor. He cries slowly with heavy tears. A few months go by and in a struggle to find work James gets an eviction notice to the apartment. To make some fast money James sells his paintings to a local restaurant. On his way out of the restaurant he sees a newspaper and picks it up. The headline reads "Undercover Agent Posing As A Pharmacist Leads To Narcotic Bust". James looks down seeing a picture of the 'doctor' wearing a badge and being awarded. Below that he sees two more pictures of Danny and Stevie's mug shots. Later that Day Danny walks on the beach looking up at the seagulls flying. When he gets home to the apartment he paints a mural on his wall of himself in the clouds with seagulls drifting away from people down below. James studies and receives his G.E.D in the mail. The following year he takes courses for liberal arts