Comminication Skills

I Have So Much I Want to Say to You

Deeks and I returned to our room after our little meeting with Jaqoblynn and Anahi, whispering about the plan we’d come up with. We wanted to take down the entire operation, using the men inside the gang. If the four of us could casually discuss the gang with the members, we could possibly get enough people to rebel against it. It’s like of you take apart the very bottom layer of blocks in Jenga, the whole thing comes down. It would work. I could feel it.

            “Where do we start?” Deeks whispered into my ear.

I giggled like a school girl and whispered back, “With the oldest members, maybe?”

He nodded and laughed. “The newer ones might not understand really what goes on on the inside.”

            I bit my lip and looked up at him. I tried to ignore my nerves, but someone knew who we are. If we talked to the wrong person, they would label us as traitors. We had to tread lightly, and be very careful about how we worded our questions.

            He squeezed my hand. It actually made me feel a little bit better. We got in the elevator and headed down to the lunch room. “I’m gonna go talk to the people in the kitchen,” I whispered. He grinned and nodded.

            I skipped away into the kitchen. There were three muscular guys laughing about something in there. “Hi!” I said cheerfully, hopping up onto a counter and grabbing an apple from a fruit basket.

            They all three stopped and stared. A few jaws dropped. Then finally they composed themselves and smiled a little. “Hi, um…” One of the men trailed off.

            “Jeanette. You can call me Jenna,” I told him. “And you guys are…”

            “Roscoe,” one man said.

            “Alejandro.”

            “Max.”

            “It’s nice to meet you guys! So, tell me about how things work around here,” I suggested with a smile, biting into my apple.

            They looked at each other suspiciously for a moment, and then Max shrugged. “We’re a family. We do everything together. It’s great,” he said. I thought he looked a little uneasy, so I pressed on.

            I lowered my voice and widened my eyes. “Do you ever… I dunno… Wonder about what really goes on?” I asked, my voice almost a whisper.

            All three men tensed up and crossed their arms defensively. “We share everything. Nothing goes on that we don’t know about,” Roscoe said, his voice cold and hard.

            I raised both my arms a little, spreading one of my palms and holding my apple with the other. “Well, sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like I was questioning this place. I’m sure it’s wonderful. It’s just… Do you ever worry about the inner workings of this place, like the people high above you?”

            “Roscoe! Alejandro! Get over here!” a deep voice yelled.

            Roscoe and Alejandro fled the room quickly. Max took a few steps closer to me. “Can I trust you?” he whispered.

            I nodded solemnly, widening my eyes and biting into my apple. “Sometimes I think that the things that happen around here aren’t entirely legit. I mean, I know that we’re a gang and the things we do are mostly illegal, but I think it’s even worse than that. I heard rumors of a dirty bomb,” he murmured, so softly I had to lean forward.