Blue Belt

Chapter 10

                                                                   X.        

        As chance would have it, my next two work shifts were working with Sam.  He was starting to become as good of friend as I had down here.  I felt like I was comfortable talking with him about a lot of things.  When he was asking the reasons that I ended up at OKI I even referred to the "accident".  Without getting into a lot of details I told him a friend had died and it had been a rough year and half.  I found out that Sam had a lot of respect for martial arts as well.  He wanted me to meet his friend Jorge, who had taken karate on the side at another school in town, and who also supposedly had some inside information on Bobby for me.  Even though I had just recently made a rule for myself that I would not focus on Bobby, and be none worse the wear for doing so, I was still curious about what this Jorge had to say about him.

            Sam, Jorge, and I ended up hanging out down at the skateboard park somewhat close to the pier.  Jorge was a very short little guy, two years younger than us, who had an ability with the board on wheels.  Jorge grew up in Tijuana and moved here around three years ago when his father passed away.  He had long black hair and an earring in his left ear.  He was very eager to meet me and seemed impressed that he could hang around someone that was a student at OKI.  We even got to meet a couple of his boarding friends before the three of us headed over to a small Greek fast food place near the pier.

            "So Bobby giving you some trouble?"  Jorge said to me.

            "A little."  I responded.  "You know him?"  I asked.

            "Yah."  Jorge responded with a big smile on his face.  "It's that I know other guys who work for guy that Bobby work for."  I was not sure what he was saying here, but I knew after thinking about it for a second that he was not referring to Mr. Benson.  As it turns out Jorge was implying that Bobby "works" as part of a gang of people that actually work for a drug dealer who Jorge said he knew but would not reveal his name.  After listening to Jorge I now was understanding exactly why Sam thought I should keep my distance.  I told them both how I had heard Bobby talk of racing cars for money and knew he had some involvement with gangs.

            "That's hardly anything compared to drug money man."  Jorge had replied to my story.

            I guess I just had a picture of what Benson's shop should be like, but it did not seem like it was actually like that with Bobby in the mix.  Sam reminded me though that Bobby is confident and does well with big sales for Benson.  With Benson liking Bobby he certainly was not going anywhere.

            "I told you man, those guys are close."  Sam responded after I expressed my ideas to he and Jorge regarding Bobby's presence at the surf shop.  "I think they have some things in common in terms of their background."

            "What do you mean?"  I asked in a slightly irritated tone of voice.

            "Shit.  I don't mean like the gang stuff.  I'm talking the way they had to make things work for themselves.  Like in terms of having to find money the hard way."  Sam said.

            As we finished eating and kept talking, I had told Jorge about my encounter with Derek and some of the things I found from my visit with Brett.  Jorge and Sam, but mostly Jorge, were absolutely fascinated.

            "We've gotta go over there.  Gimme a peak."  He said.

            "Wait.  What do you mean go over there?"  I asked, giving Jorge, and then Sam, a very strange look.