Nightmares in the Northwest

Partners in Crime

Meanwhile, Aaron and Maria were talking at a table in the diner, after they closed for the night.

"Aaron, I want to tell you about something." Maria told Aaron.

"What is it?" Aaron wanted to know what Maria had in mind.

"How about we sell this diner and open a movie theater here in Mistdale?" Maria proposed. Aaron sighed.

"Come on Aaron, don't you like the movies?" Maria asked.

"Well, growing up in the hood, there wasn't a movie theater for miles till the downtown sector of the city, and I was too broke to afford a TV, so I just had to watch shows by taking ecstasy pills." Aaron answered.

"Life may have been hard for you, but you're not in the hood anymore, you're in Mistdale!" Maria got a notice on her phone. She answered it.

"Aaron, it seems like one of your Challenger friends wants to buy the diner." Maria reminded Aaron, noticing that his profile pic showed him in an orange hat with a blue C and an orange button down shirt. She showed him his picture.

"That's my homie, Mr. Hank Lewis." Aaron recalled the good and not so good times he had with Hank.

November 4, 2012

Aaron and Hank were at Hank's house on a dreary street in Beacon Hill. It was a pale green house with a rotten wood fence in front of it, and grass that was drowned in the rain. There were weed plants that were growing in the ground. Hank was outside with a shovel, planting some marijuana seeds. Aaron tilled his orange hat with a blue S for Seattle to wave to Hank.

"'Sup, Hank?" Aaron greeted Hank. "Plantin' some trees?"

"Yea, dat's right." Hank replied. "About guns, I'm tired of buying them in underground gun shops. We need some real firepower."

"Where can we get that?" Aaron asked.

"The army." Hank answered.

"Whoa, hold up there." Aaron began to question Hank's methods. "You aren't totally thinking about picking a fight with the military."

"There's this dude I know who's a veteran and lives in White Center near a mural with rainbow shit on it, and he's packin' some heavy ammo."

"So, we rob him?" Aaron asked.

"Damn right, but only while he's sleeping." Hank answered. "We will steal four crates of guns and ammo then place them in the lock up I have on Beacon Street."

"For sure, I'm down with that, homie!" Aaron put on his navy blue baclava and waited for the sun to set so they could begin robbing the veteran.

When the sun set, Aaron and Hank pulled up to the house by the mural and began their weapons heist. Starting out, Aaron stepped on a twig, making a crack sound.

"Shhhh!" Hank warned. "He's sleeping, so we must be quiet! No talk, no noise, no nothing, so shut that hole and let's steal the crates." Aaron did not say another word as he went inside. He found three crates just lying there in a dark room with olive green walls, silver stars hung on the wall, war medals framed and hanging near a bookshelf with books about warfare, including a book written by the Desert Fox himself, Erwin Rommel. There was a huge American flag hanging on a wall, as well as a variant of the American flag with the American eagle holding a circle with 76 inscribed in a circle replacing the 50 stars on an opposite wall. The sound of the veteran snoring could be heard by Aaron, because the vet was a heavy snorer. The smell of burnt cigarettes flew in the room, because the vet apparently liked to smoke. Aaron picked up a crate and took baby steps to be as silent as possible. After that, he loaded the crate in the back of Hank's pickup truck. Aaron went in to get another one. He repeated the same process, taking those baby steps and placed the crate in the truck. He repeated the process again, placing the last crate in the truck. He went back into the room, wondering where the last crate was. Aaron went to the bookshelf and pulled a book back, opening the bookshelf and revealing a secret room. Aaron snuck into the secret room, and it was disturbing for him. There was a big black flag that had the SS logo on it hanging on the wall, as well as Nazi artifacts and weapons on the shelves. The horrors that this sleeping man had a disturbing connection to the evilest empire in history disturbed Aaron. The fourth crate of guns was sitting there next to him. Aaron thought twice about getting it. He picked it up but got a text from Hank.

Get the last crate and go. The text read. Hank sent another text.

Stop fooling around and get the crate! The second text read. Hank had lost all his patience, so he charged into the room.

"For God's sake, Aaron, just get the damn crate!" Hank rudely yelled, accidentally waking the veteran up.

"What the hell's going on here!" The old man in the green and white striped pajamas yelled. "I will have you know I served Korea, and I was a Major. I was almost a Colonel until some North Korean asshole shot me in the leg, so I had to go to the damn hospital and got pulled from the war, but that's all-ancient history, and it ain't got shit to do with what you two hoodlums are doing stealing my war supplies and going through my secret room!"

"We want to know why there's all that Nazi shit in your secret room!" Hank asked.

"My brother served the Second World War, and he was involved with raiding Munich, and stole all of that shit, but when he went on to serve in the Korean War, he was gunned down by those damn North Koreans, who you are starting to remind me of!"

"Change of plans, we're taking the crate and running for it!" Hank suggested.

"Not if I shoot you first, for my name isn't Major Ernest Brookwood for nothing!" Ernest started to have war flashbacks. "Oh yea, and I just discovered that my old South Korean allies made this thing called Gangnam Style, you should totally check it out!"

"No time!" Aaron and Hank ran with the crate and loaded it on the truck. They got inside, quickly buckling their seatbelts.

"Step on it!" Hank yelled. Aaron hit the gas and drove away. He drove the truck out of White Center onto Beacon Street, and then came across an aqua compound with garage doors. Hank was about to remind Aaron of the lock up.

"That's our lock-up right there." Aaron slowly backed the truck into the lock-up until the rear hit the wall. Hank and Aaron exited the truck and locked the garage door.

"He'll never find our loot there." Aaron said to Hank, proud that Major Brookwood was off his tail.

"Damn right he won't, because the lock up is monitored with video surveillance I can access from my home." Hank replied. "Come to my place and we will have some Coronas together." Hank and Aaron walked back home across the street, fist bumping each other and smiling.

Present Day

"Yea, I remember him!" Aaron realized that the buyer was his old gangbanging pal. "I remember pulling all the stops with him." Maria closed her phone and put it away.

"He will be here on the 31st of October, so we can't wait to meet him." Maria announced.

"But that's Halloween!" Aaron replied.

"And?" Maria questioned, considering her fascination with edibles and weed, she was not trusted to give out candy to kids.

"No problem." Aaron shook Maria's hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Maria replied. They went to make plans for the construction of the movie theater.