BULLET-CITY

Part-17

     "Bout time you showed up," said Vince.

     Laura was breathing heavily as she ran up beside him.

     "Just choosing the lesser of two evils. And by lesser I mean just a smidgen," replied Laura, gesturing with her index finger and thumb.

     They finally arrived at what once might have been a suitable place for a human being to sleep. The Green Meadows Motel was old. It had two stories of rooms with a walkway balcony that reached around the upper stories. There was a small pool that looked like many rodents and birds had both lived and died in it.

     Laura clasped her hands together, "Oh boy, I hope it doesn't get any better than this. If it does I just won't be able to contain my excitement."

     "Well, excuuuuuse me Duchess, but this place is what is going to save our butts for the time being." Vince made a face and wrinkled his nose as they passed by the pool.

     "Laura, my name is Laura!"

     Vince jumped back and put his hands in the air.  "okay...no problem. Laura."

     As they walked towards the main office they could hear a woman fighting with her boyfriend. From what Vince could gather, "the kid really was his baby."

     The door to the main office creaked open. The news could be heard coming from a tiny black and white TV mounted in the upper left-hand corner of the tiny office. Laura coughed as a puff of green cigar smoke surrounded them. Vince widened his eyes and blinked hard a few times in an attempt to focus on what was in front of him. Aside from the cigar smell, the place smelt like B.O. and one too many burnt microwave dinners.

     There was a large hairy man wearing a stained white tank top and a comb-over snoring behind an old wooden desk. The man had a large brown cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. Despite the man being two feet away, Vince rang the broken service bell for kicks. When the man didn't answer, Vince leaned over the desk and waved his hand in front of his face. The attempt was in vain, the man only snored louder. Vince noticed one of the man's eyes peaking at him through a semi-closed eyelid. Vince turned to Laura and spoke in a loud voice.

     "Well, I guess we better get going, Ol' Bear Mitts doesn't seem to be waking up. At least we've found the source of that putrid stench."

     The man immediately jumped to his feet and grabbed the back of Vince's vest. He was surprisingly fast for a man of his stature. He let out some sort of unintelligible growl as he blew green smoke into Vince's face.

     "Aha! I knew you were awake! You were holding out on us," said Vince, his feet dangling in the air.

     Vince let out a cough, and slowly slipped from the man's hairy bear mitt and faced him. Escaping out of the meaty clutches of a giant was like second nature to Vince, he had had plenty of practice duking it out at the BCPD with Diego.

     "We'd like a single room, my good man."

     Without breaking eye contact with the man, Vince reached his hand towards Laura signaling for the cash. Laura made a face at him and rolled her eyes as she reluctantly handed him $35 in cash. Vince took the cash and smacked it on the table.

     "The price just went up," said the man gruffly.

     "Don't try to con me now, Biff," replied Vince, pointing to a wooden price board on the wall behind the man that read $35 a night.

     "Supply and demand, $75," replied the man frankly.

     Laura growled.

     "Just give him the money and leave him alone," she said.