Shadows of Death

Chapter 2 (Charlie Section 4)

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Charlie got out the door onto the street and before he closed the door with a serious tone he said to Christopher: "Please, next time don't treat me like that. I'd prefer a beating to public ridicule like that!"

Without waiting for an answer he closed the car door. He hoped that his last sentences would be effective. But in fact he wasn't sure because twice already he had given him this recommendation and Christopher forgot that every time. Charlie knew his fear of beating was the reason for Christopher's domination of him!

After the limousine drove away Charlie realized he was standing in an unknown and almost empty street. First he walked to the sidewalk and then looked around. The street was unknown to him and he didn't know in which area of the city he was. Without question Charlie knew that Tehran is a big city, and getting lost in this city was easy. After he was released from prison he tried to understand and learn about neighborhoods and areas of Tehran. Charlie never had enough time to spend his time in popular areas, and he knew the streets well. After Charlie was released from prison his mother Sarah bought a new flat in the center of the city. Charlie looked for a street sign. A few meters away he saw a blue sign and read:

"25 Alley, Iman Street."

Charlie was sure he had never heard the name of this street. He just knew that this was a secondary street, and there weren't really any other choices in this situation! He went to ask someone about subway station. If Charlie could find a subway station he could find the way back home, too. But he saw some people at a bus station across the street after he had only taken a few steps. Three men and two women were waiting for the bus, so Charlie headed over towards them. He greeted a bald man in a red coat: "Excuse me, where is the subway station around here?"

BA woman sitting behind that man whom Charlie guessed was probably his wife, quickly said: "There isn't any nearby subway station, you should wait for the bus. The bus will stop at the subway station."

With a sigh, he sat on one of the three empty chairs in the bus station. But as he sat on the chair he muttered a curse toward Christopher! He thought about today and found nothing had worked out for him. After Christopher came to the restaurant everything got worse for him. Charlie remembered he had promised Debra that he would end his friendship with Christopher after they got out of prison. It was no secret that Christopher hate Debra and Debra hated Christopher to! And Christopher's appearance in the restaurant would surely make Debra annoyed for the few next days. The last two times Christopher had appeared during their dates Charlie was forced to make a thousand oaths to Debra, telling her that Christopher did it against his wishes and that it wouldn't happen again.

But Charlie didn't know about Debra's reaction this time. And he didn't know how he could explain it to Debra. Although she know Christopher was behaving like an insane person, but something seemed to annoy her more. It was probably Charlie's fear and obedience towards Christopher. And this problem had made everything hard for Charlie.

He removes all of these bad thoughts from his mind and just hoped for her mother to talk with Debra. He didn't like to torture himself with these troubling thoughts, so he stopped himself and tried to relax for few minutes. He took a deep breath and took his cell phone out of his pocket. He looked at the clock. It showed a quarter to four.

The women who had answered Charlie looked at him and said: "You should be patient. Sometimes we wait half an hour for the bus."

Charlie hummed below his breath and said: "Great, what now?"

Thirty minutes waiting for a bus! It seemed everything was getting worse and worse. Surly with this delay, he knew when he came back home his mother would ask him a lot of question. Especially since he was released from prison this kind of controlling behavior came more and more.