Felony Jones

Vignettes & Catastrophe's Part 1 (Saturday Afternoon)

     "Excuse me...are these the apples that are on sale?" Felony hated grocery shopping, she hated even stepping into a grocery store, especially on a Saturday afternoon when it looked like all of Los Angeles had converged on the same store. She hated daily mundane tasks that had no interesting detours or outcomes, and she generally hated mingling with the public for any reason.

"No—the Golden Delicious are on sale." The clerk said as he quickly stacked bunches of bananas on top of a display table. "Oh okay, the sign's a little confusing." Felony replied, snapping a plastic bag off the roll. She hated Golden Delicious apples; she didn't trust any apple that wasn't red. "Can I help you find anything else?" the clerk asked with a bit of a tone. "Yeah, you can help me find my dignity, that pack of Jackals over by the oranges are a brutal bunch..." The clerk ignored the comment and walked away with his push-cart. Felony bagged her apples and made her way toward the dairy section to pick up a gallon of Acidophilus milk for Toshiro. When she turned the first corner, she saw Charlie Fortis approaching her at a pretty good clip. She instantly felt her body tense up, not knowing what his intentions were. She quickly tried to read his face, but it was too late, he was already on her. The only thing she could do now was keep the shopping cart between them and hope he wouldn't do anything foolish in the middle of the store. "I need to talk to you!" he said, in a loud, demanding whisper.

"What's going on with you, Mr. Fortis?"

"I need to tell you some things, but not here." Felony was intrigued, but still a bit startled. He continued, "my life is in danger—I think yours might be too." He kept looking around nervously as he talked. The word squirrely, was flashing in her head as she watched him twitch.

"Well, I'm kind of in the middle of something at the moment, and as far as my life goes, I assume every time I walk out the door, it's in danger. I basically operate on that assumption, so it's not really news to me." She was rather surprised by her own non-reaction, reaction to his excitable behavior, but the facts were the facts. "By the way, how did you know I was here?"

"I followed you after you left Mrs. Parel's house."

"So, you're stalking me?!...and how do you know the Parel's?"

"Do you really think I'm that stupid? I knew Jim, and I know he was watching us, and I know he was the one who picked up Michael's things...I know a lot of things Miss Jones, and it's time you understand what's going on." Charlie took a deep breath, then continued, "I've outlived my usefulness...you have no idea who you're up against."

"With all due respect, Charlie, I think it's you, and the people you associate yourself with, who don't understand who they're up against."

"Whatever, I want to give you something—something you need to see to believe, then you'll understand how Michael—Charlie abruptly stopped talking and turned his attention to something in the distance behind Felony. "I'll get a hold of you later, okay?" He said, quickly backing away and disappearing into an aisle. Felony looked behind her. She didn't see anybody suspicious lurking around. "Jesus..." she muttered as she continued on to the dairy section.

After Felony left the grocery store and made a quick stop to pick up her dry cleaning, she was finally on her way home to relax a little. As soon as she walked into the kitchen and set the groceries down on the table, Toshiro came in from the backyard and told her she had a message from David. "He wants you to meet him at this address at nine o'clock. He says it has to do with the men."

Felony looked confused. "The men?"

"Yes, the men. He says he won't be available to talk before that time because he will be out with his fiancé, but he will meet you there." Toshiro handed her the message. "His fiancé huh, okay—well then I guess I'll meet him there...thanks Toshiro." As she looked at the message, her face twisted a bit when she read the address. "The Fashion District?!"

Toshiro began poking around in the bags until he found his milk, taking it out and putting it in the refrigerator. "Jeff has already had his dinner, would you like something to eat?" Toshiro asked. "No thanks, I'm going to take a nap, I'll grab a snack later."