Once we were ready to listen the girls didn’t have too much trouble convincing us they could be some use. After all, we were only fourteen years old and the truth was neither Patrick nor I knew how to drive, let alone had a license to do so. Where we grew up nobody learned how that early. Caroline had a car and she and Marlene could drive. If we ever wanted to hit the road they would come in handy. They had a whole lot of other information than no one our age could have known. How to do this and that and go here and there. It all started pouring out of both of them and straight over our heads. They got so excited they started jabbering away until it got boring. They only thing to do was stick them both back on the cocks until they calmed down. Marlene had a nice soft mouth, but even so, I wasn’t sure I wanted to subject my cock to the abuse day in day out. I came in her mouth just to be a nice guy, as foolish as that is.
When we were leaving the room who should we run into but John Thompson coming out of another room with a couple of girls of his own. Behind him in the room a couple of old guys were putting their pants on. When they saw Thompson, our girls got very quiet, and I didn’t blame them. Thompson was a mean son of a bitch.
“Well, well,” he said giving us the once over. “Aren’t you boys a little young for this?” His girls looked as if they were scanning the competition.
“Danny with you?” I asked. I knew that would piss him off. Although Danny had had a gang it was more like Tom Sawyer’s gang than a real one, sort of a play gang of choir boys. That didn’t mean they couldn’t hit, but you sure as hell wouldn’t find Danny or his brother at the Wonderland. They were going to end up going straight. Thompson was like the bad boy of their gang, and sure someday to be dropped as a lost cause even if he was their best fighter.
Maybe it had already happened, because I really pushed his button. A storm I had seen before crossed his brow and I was about to let loose when the storm suddenly vanished in a corrugated smile. I was so surprised that I didn’t even hit him. He would probably have dodged it anyway. I could see he was ready and he knew my moves. I most definitely would have gotten my ass kicked because Patrick would not have helped me against Thompson. It was an unwritten understanding we had with the Danny kids not to gang up on lone rangers. Of course Patrick would then beat the crap out of Thompson the minute I was out of the way.
“Bob, old buddy,” he said, “I see we’re in the same business. Aren’t you a little young for this?”He looked Marlene and Caroline up and down, appraising them. I really had no idea what he was talking about. Of course I know now, but in many ways I was still just a complete innocent, and as cool as my alter-ego, Mike was, he was almost as dumb as I. “You know competition is pretty keen in a small town like H__ . There’s not really that much room here for every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to set up shop.” He took his girls by their necks and slowly marched them down the hall to the elevator. His girls were pretty drunk and sloppy,from how they wobbled on their heels.
“What was that about?” I said when the elevator closed.
“He’s a pimp, you idiot,” Marlene said, leaning into me for protection. “Last week…I don’t want to think about it.” I guess I knew what a pimp was, sort of. I’d heard the word around the neighborhood. There was a dude everybody called “Casey” who was said to be a pimp. People said he hung out at the Algonquin, a hotel downtown that was either a moldy flea bag or ripe with old world charm, depending on your point of view. But the lobby, where Casey supposedly hung out was still classy with a lot of marble, dark wood, and brass. People talked about Casey with mingled disgust and admiration, but nobody had really said what Casey did. I hadn’t had enough interest to find out.
“He sells girls,” Marlene choked out. “Patricia Davis, who used to live on our floor turned up in his stable. I think he beat her up, but she was fucking up anyway, probably because her parents split.” In the next couple of minutes Patrick and I took the course in human trafficking for the compleat idiot. “And he thinks you guys are trying to horn in on his business.”
“I don’t think I want to do that,” Patrick said.
“You mean sell girls for money?”
“Or rent them, like Johnny is doing.”
“I couldn’t see it,” said Patrick.
“I couldn’t see it, either” I added. “But maybe we’re just fucked up.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, why can’t we do it?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t.”
“How much do you think we could get for them? Theoretically speaking.”
“These girls? Shit I don’t know. A lot.”
“What do you think, Marlene?”
“I don’t know,” she said in a very tiny voice. “I want to stay with you.”
“You know my fucking father is a salesman,” Patrick said. “It’s the shits. I mean he doesn’t sell girls. It’s cinder blocks and stuff, but it sucks. Whenever I’m in the store and he’s trying to sell something I want to puke.”
“Why?”
“How the fuck should I know why. Do I need a God damned reason to puke?”
“ I guess not.”
We left it at that and got in the elevator. Caroline’s car was in Shay’s lot and we all got in, Patrick in the front with Caroline and me in back with Marlene. She tried to snuggle up but I didn’t feel like it. I already knew that I didn’t like girls hanging on me. I put her in the corner and she stayed there, her eyes glued to my face.
It looked like Patrick and I were leaving home rather abruptly. We had been talking about doing something for some time, but hadn’t really come up with any plan. I mean what kind of plan could a couple of runaway kids come up with? We certainly couldn’t get jobs, and anyway, we knew we couldn’t keep them. We were both too hot headed. I had once had a boss for about a week. My dad had gotten me a job working in a shoe store. By the end of the week I had already clocked the manager, a pathetic little bird. I couldn’t stand his smile. And no one in his right mind would give Patrick a job. What a joke that would be.
This whole night pushed things forward rapidly. When we got to Caroline’s house I thought we were going to leave, but when we turned to go Caroline blocked the door.
“You can’t go.” she said.
“Why not?”
“John Thompson knows where I live. Didn’t you see his face?”
“She’s right,” Marlene chimed in. “He’s going to come after us.