Dockingboys

Chapter Twenty One

The four men met up at Peter's Cafe. Xavier and Mack told Pitts the news, how they lost Declan at the gala, how they were attacked by a young man with a machine gun, and how they plan to visit Jawa, the criminal informer. Pitts and Derrick, the gun seller, showed them their guns and their backup plan in case everything goes wrong.

Then they went to see Jawa.

Jawa's home was definitely a little small and hard to get to. It was a small house near the construction site of the massive East Docks, and his house was located on a long pier, half-submerged under water and built with steel and wood. The eastern part of Oakton actually consisted of multiple beaches and resorts, as the sunny weather allowed for various fun activities and recreation. There was a large porch at the door, and a second floor built on top had a tiny garden on the roof. Facing out towards the Jaito Sea, Jawa's home had a small picnic table, and next to the pier was a motorboat as well as a small shed. Next to the motorboat was a large yacht, where a few young teenage girls were laughing and joking.

"Back in the old days, when you owned a house like this, you'd think you were the richest man in the whole world," Pitts whispered to Xavier.

"He is telling the truth, I tell ya," Derrick said. "When I was just a boy, our house looked ten times smaller than this one. And this one's already pretty small.

They decided the young people at Jawa's home wouldn't be so intimidated and shocked if they saw Mack, the youngest criminal in their group in his early thirties, instead of the forty-one-year-old Xavier or the older men like Pitts and Derrick. The three older criminals stayed with the truck parked near the entrance to the pier, while Mack would go up and do the talking.

As he walked down the pier towards Jawa's house, Mack checked his small velvet pouch for perhaps the fifth time that morning. With the combined money they'd pickpocketed at the Emerald Elite before the ensuing chaos, they'd managed to get around twenty gold coins and seventy silver coins, which was definitely an amazing feat. As Mack knocked on the wooden door, a young teenage girl dressed in a bikini top and shorts looked at him and called to someone inside the room, and a teenage boy about nineteen with short brown hair came up to the door, his hand held out, a sign obviously meaning he wouldn't talk to anyone unless they had money. Mack fished out ten gold coins from the pouch and watched as Jawa smiled, pocketed the money, and sidestepped to allow Mack inside.

The main room of Jawa's house definitely looked comfy. There was a large carpet in the middle of the room, and two long couches were placed next to it, facing a television. To their left, there was a small kitchen and counter, with windows everywhere along the walls. A glass door was placed instead of a wall at the back of the room, and a short pathway led to a small dock where the yacht was located, as well as the motorboat. Jawa called for the girl who'd answered the door to go back to the yacht, where the other girls waved at the newcomer.

Mack sat down on a chair next to the counter as Jawa headed for the kitchen, looking for supplies to make a smoothie. He smiled.

"Having fun with the girls, I see?" Mack said. Jawa laughed.

"Hey, they just keep flocking over. I've already been asked by three different girls to be my girlfriend in the past week, and three of the ones on the yacht right now already have a room either inside the yacht or in my house. Some of them are like sisters to me."

"Yeah, and let me guess, they're all fighting over each other for you?" Mack said jokingly. Jawa shrugged.

"You could call it that. Before you came, they were hosting a little contest, trying to see who could do the best jump into the water- the water's very clear over here. Once, we all jumped into the water at the same time, and I ended up accidentally kissing one of them, but she just laughed and tried to pull me in for another one," Jawa explained, mixing two oranges and a peach to make a smoothie.