Sid : the Devil's secretary

24. Rhapsody in June

24. Rhapsody in June

In the residential district of Styx, Sid came across a whitewashed villa with multiple fountains, pine trees and flowerbeds across the tiled front entrance leading up to a two story main building.

"umm... I'm looking for Andrea" Sid stood outside the gated residence overlooked by two heavily built bodyguards.

"you know him, beanpole?" one of the guards called.

"well, no, but-" Sid stuttered.

"but nothing pal. I suggest you hit the bricks" the other guard spoke.

"but Lucifer sent me here" Sid tried to reason.

"right and I'm the queen of Sheba. I ain't buying it" one of the guards flashed his right side pistol as a warning to the strange visitor.

"boys, who's this?" the man in the white suit echoed from the upper echelon of the villa from a balcony.

"just some penpusher from downtown" a guard turned back to the boss.

"are you Lucifer's kid?" the man walked down through the premises to greet the stranger.

"yeah. I was told you needed someone like me to take care of business" Sid retorted.

"Lucifer is a good man or whatever. Boys, let's not be too hasty on our guest here. Andrea Di Marco, what can I do you for?" the man in the white suit shook Sid's hand and led him through the estate into the villa. Beyond the open fire, pool table and mounted firearms on the wall was a large central desk centered on a round purple rug. Andrea took his seat and obliged his visitor to do the same.

"I suppose you have some job for me" Sid looked around, watched by sentries like vultures.

"true. Come inside, I'll fill in the blanks for you" Andrea spoke.

"nice digs you got here" Sid complimented the marvellous interior of the property.

"good manners, kid. I like that. Usually my guests don't talk about the house. They are even scared to breath around me" Andrea replied.

"I don't see why. You seem like a nice guy" Sid mentioned.

"I know I am. I've got a couple of things that I need someone of your expertise to do. first, my boys are dimwits with numbers, so I need some bills to be paid if you don't mind" Andrea kept his eyes firmly on his honored guest.

"not at all" Sid responded.

"Giorgio, bring them in" Andrea shouted to one of his subordinates who went out through the house to retrieve a stack of white cardboard boxes on a chair mover before standing it up next to Sid's chair.

"this is all tax work?" Sid checked out the stack of papers up and down.

"a man like me doesn't really have the time to deal with bills. You could say they tax my patience" Andrea giggled and pushed a calculator across the table to Sid. Andrea would leave Sid to his duties of swiping through numerous papers, crunching numbers and listing all the necessary payments the boss and his goons had to make in their spare time.