It was ten o'clock and the moonlight cascaded through the painted glass windows as I looked out into the church from the altar. My teeth were grinding against a toothpick stuck between my molars, it had been three days since I had a cigarette and I was really starting to feel it. I scratched the back of my neck and muttered low under my breath as I turned and walked into the office.
-It's time to go to the mainland for supplies.
I walked past the office and under the stairs in the back where there laid two large crates. My personal belongings. I lifted the lid to one of them and shuffled through the contents till I found a small, black tin box and opened. I took out about two thousand dollars in small, used bills. My life savings from a life past stuck inside a box along with everything else.
My life amounted to a box.
I'll end up in a box one day when it's finally over.
I shake the thought out of my head and turn as I shove the cash into my pocket, still chewing on the toothpick between my teeth when I stop dead in my tracks.
Choi stands in the doorway, her eyes to the ground, her hands clasped in front of her, looking as beautiful as I remembered her.
Fuck.
-Hey Jon, I was looking for you. I ummm.
She's stumbling over her words, I'm still shocked and my jaw gapes open and the toothpick falls from it onto the floor.
-I wanted to, to, thank you. Ya' know?
She looks up and her eyes meet mine. I'm a deer caught in the headlights.
-For going back to the mainland, for getting the thugs that took me..
She trails off and I snap out of it.
I try to regain some semblance of composure, to that I have to stop looking at her. I turn back to the crate and start digging, just barely mumbling over my shoulder.
-Someone hurt you, so I hurt them back. No one does that to a Righteous while I still draw breath, kiddo.
I cringe and call myself an idiot in my head, my pet name for her, kiddo.
I look over my shoulder at her and watch one of her kitten ears twitch. She's looking at the floor. There is something else she wants to say, but she can't seem to get it out.
I sigh and get up, looking back at her, God she's beautiful.
-What is it Choi? You have something else on your mind, I can tell.
-They'll be more of them, they'll be back. You don't know my mother like I do..
She trails off again. I can see a tear forming in the corner of her eye, she's remembering, she's dreading going back. I turn again to the crate and dig some more. I take out a few boxes. Numbers and names of guns on each, confiscated arms from when I was a cop, tools of the trade now. I open one and it's a sawed off double barrel twelve gauge. I crack the chamber and stare down the empty barrels as I speak nonchalantly.
-Well someone has to go back to mom and tell her you're staying then.
I snap it up and closed with a quick flick of the wrist and look back to her.
-I figure I'm going to the mainland anyway for smokes, maybe I'll pop in on mom and introduce myself.
Flickr
