RFT: Motel Views

The red tip of the cigarette glowed. It seemed as if the Sound Bar Motel in Clayton, Delaware could be lit by the cigarette all by itself. The woman behind the flaming stick puckered her lips after she took another drag. She knocked some ashes in the tray.

“I told you wasn’t nobody going to be out here,” Derica Brougham observed.

“They’ll be here,” Rondo Gippert replied.

The car was not running on the Summer night. A light mist pervaded the area and made the scene seem eerie.

“I bet you thought they would be on time. Didn’t you? I mean you put so much trust in people. We’re dealing with dealers. What did you expect?”

Gippert steadied his nerves by taking the cigarette from Dorica’s hand.

“What the hell, man! Get your own square,” she sucked her teeth and swore.

“They’ll be here any minute now,” he explained.

“There’s only a few more hours until this place fills up again and eyes begin to roam over the premises. I ain’t for that walk,” Dorica pointed out.

“That’s why we’re going to wait patiently,” Gippert tried to assuage Dorica. “We’ll wait here until the sun rises if we must.”

A beeper sounded in the glove compartment.

“Can you pass me that?” Gippert asked.

Dorica obliged. She sucked her teeth, and rolled her eyes, and twisted her neck.

“See! That’s them right there wanting me to call them. Let me go to the payphone,” Gippert said, a sense of excitement and mild trepidation creeped into his voice.

He reached the payphone. He tapped the buttons like he was typing out an extremely brief manuscript.

“Hey, it’s time.” That was all he heard. He dropped the phone onto the receiver. After this short address, Gippert walked back to the car. His mind throttled into high gear. Dorica had dozed off.

“D! D!” He shook her until she roused from her slumber.

“What? Goddamn!” She whispered and yawned.

“Look, they're on their way. All we have to do now is just wait a few more minutes. They’ll make the drop and we’ll get paid. It’s as simple as that. There’s nothing to worry about. I swear. We’re in a good place right now and we’re going to be enabled to do whatever we want when this money comes in. I promise you.”

Dorica sucked her teeth. “Whatever. I’ll know it when I see it. How about that?”

A breeze passed through but the windows were rolled up in the vehicle. No air conditioning and just AM radio held their attention. A preacher read from the Book of Proverbs.

“….6:22….when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee…..”

Dorica turned off the radio.

“I was counting on you to do that. I’ve been waiting for the right time to do it myself.” Dorica smirked.

“Hold on. I think I see a car,” he announced. A vehicle crept up to the parking lot like a panther seeking its prey.

It rode up beside Dorica and Gippert. A man sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle as well. The driver had tinted windows only on his side of the car. The passenger got out. He carried a duffel bag, slightly opened bearing hundred dollar bills. Gippert made a motion to get out of the vehicle. The man with the bag signalled that that action was unnecessary. Gippert rolled down the window.

“Hey it’s in the back. Let me pop the trunk,” Gippert implored.

Inside the trunk were ten kilograms of cocaine, five kilograms of heroin, and nine pounds of mescaline all taped tight. The man took the drugs and walked to the car he just exited. He retrieved an Uzi with a silencer and returned to where Dorica and Gippert sat in the car. He opened fire with the tool of death and then got back in his car. The driver sped away.