Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Quagmire: Day 1

Word Count: 6,013

Summary of Events:
Jesse was on his way home from the Tribune office and saw a man who looked suspicious; hoping it was another story, he followed the man, who disappeared into a house. He waited outside and was attacked by a disgruntled civilian who was tired of loiterers and ended up running into a gangster who gave him some $2,500+ and a bottle of now-illegal liquor which he was somewhat forced to take home and hide. After being woken in the night by his youngest sister — who regularly came to him when their mother's restless sleeping bothered her —and having to fall back to sleep, Jesse got up at his usual hour and looked at the items he'd been given the day before . . .

Excerpt of the Day:
"Thinking about the fact that the design was supposed to make it difficult for forgers to copy prompted Jesse to wonder if these were even genuine bills.
Gangsters would deal in fake money too, just as much as they dealt in genuine liquor, but he wasn't sure how he would know.
He'd never seen a real hundred dollar bill before; and he was sure he couldn't just walk into a bank and ask them if he could see a hundred dollar bill.
Something made him feel like he was holding a genuine bill in his hand, though. Not that he was fully certain, but he felt like, being as the man had seemed to think he was a gangster, that he would've been handed genuine money.
He startled at the sound of a moan and looked first at Georgia, who hadn't moved, and then at the boys' bed. They looked to be tossing, and being as he had the window open he was sure it wouldn't be long before they were complaining about the cold.
Jesse quickly slid the bill he'd pulled out back in with the rest and closed the drawer as silently as he could. He had no idea what to do with what he'd been given, although he knew Ma would kill him if she found out that he had liquor in his desk.
The only liquor that Ma was fine with was the Communion wine. Otherwise she was on the side of the WCTU — the group that was largely responsible for the Prohibition that had been in effect for all of two months.
And if she found out about the money Ma would surely think it'd come from his work and that he'd been hiding it from the family for selfish purposes, which would lead her to take it from him and probably spend it all.
Being as he didn't know whether the gangster wanted the money back or not he was afraid to spend any of it — besides, people who knew him better than Ma would wonder where in the world he was suddenly getting hundreds from.
Jesse wished that he would be able to see the gangster — as a man who was that suspicious and handing out liquor could be nothing but a gangster — again and rectify the mistake, but he didn't know where or when he'd be able able to do that.
Crushing out the end of his cigarette in the ashtray, Jesse gathered all of the cards together to shuffle them for another round.
But there was also what the gangster had said: same time next week. The gangster was going to meet him — at the same place, he assumed — in a week's time. Hopefully then he'd be able to clear up the mistake and get the gangster to listen to him long enough to explain that he wasn't Mooner. He was Jesse.
Or, if they wanted to go a nicknames basis, he was Hawkeye."

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