The Boy and the Bookstore

Chapter 4 - Two Rings - Mr. Samuel Thomas

Sam had attended the state university in California that Charlie was currently attending. He had actually done quite well in his studies. He had gotten as far as finishing his associates degree before getting kicked out of school for what was labeled as plagiarizing and delusions of granger. The simple fact was he was writing papers for stupid lazy kids and he got caught. The ironic part of it all was that Sam was caught plagiarizing a work he himself had written for someone else. But with Sam, already making enemies with his personality and discontent with the educational system, the school board already had enough to kick him out of school and did not look back. Sam already disappointed with the money he had spent on a college education took it as a blessing in disguise. Nobody wanted him there and he didn’t want to be there. The people that Sam did seem to make a great connection with were the security guards, the maintenance workers, the cafeteria workers, and the nurses. They were all the people, in his mind, that went unappreciated for what they did. Sam had friends but not good enough friends that wouldn’t forget about him by senior year and he knew it.

After a brief stint back home a maintenance worker, Andy, had cleared up space in his garage that Sam lived in for a while. Sam helped Andy with projects on a regular basis at the school and helped on the side projects as well. Sam, being better with money, did Andy’s taxes and also budgeted his monthly expenses. He learned a lot from Andy over the time they spent together. They would often finish their days sitting in Andy’s backyard drinking a beer, listening to the wind, and talking about life stories. Sam had grown close to Andy and had lived with him for around eight months when Andy had gotten sick. Andy started forgetting things, getting headaches, and his vision had gotten worse. When he finally found his way to a hospital they found a tumor in his brain. It was inoperable. They had only given him a few months to live. Andy sold his house and decided he was going to go live with his brother and do some traveling. Andy didn’t leave a will. Instead he split up the money he had from selling his house between his brother and Sam. He did all of this before his death to avoid any estate taxes. That was just how Andy was. He always knew how to do things without involving “the Man.” It was something Sam had learned from him. Andy would send envelopes of cash to Sam weekly that he knew was enough to pay for any housing and food that Sam might need for the entire month. But the last thing that Andy did for Sam was find him the living space above the bookstore on campus. Andy had worked his way up to the head guy on campus maintenance and had keys to everything. He managed to slip by that the space above the bookstore was nothing but a dusty attic and when a new president of the campus came on that was what he knew it as and wrote it off as nothing. Andy had passed away by the time Sam had figured out and solved the problem of utility expenses with the lady having an affair with a graduate student.

Sam knew he couldn’t live off of the money Andy had left him and didn’t do what most kids in their early twenties would have done. He invested money in his future. And by investing I mean he found a way to obtain the proper documents for creating another identity. Driver’s license, social security, and birth certificate were what he found a way to obtain. The means were not exactly legal and would easily be deemed fake in a federal investigation but Sam needed a cover in case he worked his way into a bad situation. He had met a few people in the area through Andy and decided to put into movement a few scams he had in mind. His new name, Marcus Moreno, was what he went by with people he didn’t know or didn’t trust. It was a new character to play and a way to protect himself. He also had bought himself a used Chevy El Camino and fixed it up at a shady body shop Andy had showed him. Marcus had a few scams that would pay off from time to time. His current scam was at a strip club. He had visited there often in the past to make a new friend of the bouncer. After he had befriended him the plan was easy to execute. The bouncer would send him a text anytime there was a bachelor party being thrown in the strip club, both of them knowing that bachelor parties get out of hand easily at a strip club. Marcus would approach the bouncer at the door and slip him a twenty to get in, which the bouncer would slip back to him once he left. Each conversation would go like this.