I Become a Dropper

I become what I most feared becoming.

Now that I am in charge of the loan business, I have an office. If you can call a back room behind a produce store an office. But then Little Jim's is no better and he is a Caporegime. It does in fact have a door and people knock before entering.   We are located on Elm Street across from The John J. Shillito Company. A department store in Cincinnati, Ohio. They have a seven story building with a basement and a sub-basement that covers a city block. In the basement they have a money room with a vault and armed guards. They are afraid someone will rob them.   We also have a seven story building, It covers about one sixteenth of a city block. We only have a basement. It has no vault only a boiler.   Jim likes to say that on the whole about the same amount of money passes through both businesses. Also his payroll is higher than theirs. This I do not doubt as I prepare the ''ice'' envelopes which I distribute. All the beat cops come by once a month for their's and also pick up the checks for City Hall. As I said though we have no vault. The money is bagged and stacked on the second floor. No one would be foolish enough to rob us.   We have various cash businesses around town. Vending machines, laundry-mats, fruitmarkets, etc. All of them report higher incomes than they actualy have. Each week they recieve a bag of money which is deposited in the bank. The clean money is sent to Cleveland after we take our vig.   As I sit here Jim comes in. He does not knock, no surprise there he never knocks.   ''Kid,'' he says, '' I need you to go to Chi town for me. Cleveland has a job that needs done.''   ''What kind of job is that?'' I ask fearing the answer.   ''They have a problem and need a dropper.''   ''I am not a dropper Jim.''   Screw was from the old days he used torpedo, but in Jim's age group it was dropper. Some people were starting to use hit man. It was the same what ever you called it.   ''Yeah you are kid, you proved that with Legs. It will be no problem. In and out in the same day.''   He dropped an envelope with expense money and a round trip ticket on my desk and walked out.   What to do now? This was different than Legs. I had a meet with the Lipscomb boys then and offered them gold or lead. They choose gold and I had no problem.   I did what I always did when I was stymied, off to see Screw.   ''No problem Ken. Call Freddie and find out what the set up is. They are not going to send a greenie in cold.''   He was right of course I should have known that.   Fred filled me in, he gave me a contact to call in Chicago and the next day I was off.   A cab met me at the airport and took me to a hotel. The next morning he picked me up. after we pulled away he said,''There is a package on the seat.'' I opened the box and it contained a revolver.   The cabbie said, ''When we get to the diner you go in. your target will be just inside eating breakfast. Pop him and come back to the cab take your time do not run. Everything is taken care of.''   I did as I was told and as we pulled away. He said, ''Leave the box on the seat.''   He took me to the airport and I flew home. Who would have thought it would be that easy. Sad to say it got easier as time went on. Amazing how routine things can become.

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Reviews

[emmajoy]

Hmmm, very short sentences.. is that deliberate? The flow wasn't quite as relaxed in this piece. However, I still want more.. the characters are clearly defined, there's a distinct touch of time too - like that very much. You have a style that reminds me of someone else.. maybe that's not a compliment cos you're you.. but, it's a comfortable, inviting style and it's luring me in to read more. Thank you... (should you have a comma after the name of theJ.J.S. company, there's no verb to the following sentence? Throw something at me for being cheeky!)

Thanks for sharing yet more fine writing. Will be back to read more another time.