Soul Hostage (16 page)

     I couldn’t help myself and let out kind of a victory whoop, “Yeah!  We’re outta here!” 

     My passengers did not share my excitement and only reacted with confused expressions.  However, their lack of enthusiasm did not dampen my own. 

     “Okay, Louis, which way?”  I asked with lingering energy.

     “Well, Thomas, I think it would be best if you take a left.”  His answer came back with such cheerfulness that I wondered if he was being sarcastic.  However, his face in the rearview mirror showed only the picture of sincerity.  

     Joey was unconcerned about anything other than his own hunger. “I sure hope yer right about the store, Lou.  I’m starvin’!”

     “You hear that, Thomas?”  Stoaffer eyed me with a big shit-eating grin and said, “We’ve got a starving man here.  We need to get the patient to a grocery store stat!”  A huge bellow of laughter jumped out of the old man in the backseat.

     After a short pause, Joey joined in with a laugh.  I glanced over at him to find him staring at me like some puppy begging for treat and couldn’t help but laugh as well. We continued laughing as we went down the dark highway a couple of miles and saw the bright lights of a supermarket. The powerful glow of the store was made even more striking by the deep, inky darkness that surrounded the place.

     Joey’s voice took on the quavering, pompous tone of one of those television evangelists as he said, “Oh, I see the light!  We are saved!  We have been dee-livered from the wilderness!  Thank you, Jesus!”

     The car again erupted with a roar.  This time, I got caught up in the laughter, a wave which surrounds you and pulls you along with it.

     The old Chevy squealed a little as it bounced over the bump of the driveway into the store’s parking lot.  The bright colorful neon of the sign and the brightly lit area surrounding the store immediately reminded me of one of those Las Vegas wedding chapels.  The only difference was instead of promising “wedded bliss” and “eternal harmony” the huge green and red sign in front of the SmartPrice Super Store promised the joy of knowing this was
where every shopper saves
.

     As would be expected at almost eleven o’clock on a Wednesday night, the parking lot was empty.  The only signs of life outside the store came from a group of teenagers huddled in a shadowy far corner of the parking lot. 

     Getting out of the car, I caught sight of some movement among the teens. From somewhere in the cluster a voice popped out to say, “Brian, it’s your turn to ask.”  Just like he was spit out, a short, thin figure popped forward from the group and moved slowly toward us. 

     I closed the car door and watched as the teenager walked from the shadows. 

     “Hey, mister, can you buy us some beer?  We have money and everything.”  His eyes went down as soon as he finished his plea. 

      Before I could respond, Joey jumped forward and said, “Sure, kid.  Where’s yer money?”

     The boy brushed his thin blond hair out of his eyes and tentatively handed Joey a small wad of bills.      

     Joey took the money with a grin and said, “Okay, kid, be right back with some brew fer you ‘n yer friends!”  He spun and quickly walked toward the store. 

     I looked at the timid teenager for a moment and then at the quickly exiting Joey and then at Louis who smiled back. 

     “I guess somebody’s hungry.” The old man said before turning to follow Joey.

     A moment later, I followed both of them into the store.

Chapter 9

     Inside the store, everything had kind of a too bright, fuzzy glare to it. After a bit, my eyes adjusted.  My vision improved a little, but the sense of things being too bright remained. Muzak flowed through the air of the grocery store. I listened to the sound. Like so many works transformed to the generic, heartless Muzak form, it becomes unrecognizable. Despite, the tune’s lack of personality, it made me smile. I stood just inside the doorway of the SmartPrice Super Store with this stupid ass grin on my face until Stoaffer’s voice slapped me back to reality. 

     “Thomas!  Over here!”  Louis stood in front of a carousel display of brightly-colored stuffed animals waving his arms trying to get my attention. The solemn expression plastered on his face was counteracted by the ten-inch purple gorilla with tiny red hat that peeked over his shoulder.  I couldn’t completely stifle my guffaw, and the expression on Stoaffer’s face grew even more somber.   As I walked toward him, I did my best to avoid eye contact and instead looked at the purple gorilla, the green and orange box of Fruity Pops breakfast cereal on the shelf to my left, the huge, pale woman with thin yellow hair in a blue, red, and yellow flower-print muumuu pushing the shopping cart down the aisle to the right, and whatever else I could find.  

     When I was only a few feet from him, I had no choice but to meet at Stoaffer’s gaze.  I found an expression not of anger, seriousness, or irritation.  It was simply cold.  “This way,” he said and turned down the aisle. 

     The aisle ended in the middle of the store’s bakery section.  I soon spotted Joey laughing and scurrying around the displays of fresh-baked cookie and cakes. He already had an open bag of cookies in his hand.  The saying about a kid in a candy store had nothing on this small-time hood in a bakery.  He looked over and said, “All of this stuff looks so fuckin’ good!  I don’t know whadda I want!” He pulled a few cookies out of the bag and stuffed them into his mouth. In all the time I had known Joey, I had never seen him so happy, and I had never heard him make the kind of sound that came out of him then.  It was kind of a combination of laugh and howl. 

     Stoaffer let out a pretty good laugh himself as he stepped closer to Joey and put his hand on his shoulder.  In a very fatherly voice, he said, “Well, Joey, take your time. The store seems to offer plenty of delicious items from which to choose.”

     Joey smiled at me and asked, “Thomas, have you ever seen so much good stuff?” He pulled open a clear plastic container of cupcakes and grabbed one.

     Again, I found myself forgetting the strangeness of the situation and getting lost in the emotions of the moment.  I had to laugh with Joey at the genuine joy he felt at the abundance of tempting treats.  “No, Joey, I have never seen so much delicious-looking food!”

     With Joey’s infectious delight, we had not realized we were being watched.  To my right was a group of three or four on-lookers.  The fat lady in the muumuu was among them.  Plus, a couple of teenage girls wearing black t-shirts and too much makeup.  Next to the girls was a young guy with bright red hair and freckles holding a broom wearing a dark blue apron with white lettering that read, "Welcome to SmartPrice, where every price is a smart price!" 

     Suddenly, a loud deep voice boomed from behind them, “Matthew!  Is standing around part of your  job?” 

     The red head turned toward the voice. Judging from the sound of the speaker, I was expecting to see some tall, buffed figure of authority.  Instead, I saw a short, pudgy, fifty-ish man in a bright red vest signifying his high ranking among the store’s employees. The overhead lights gleamed off his shiny bald head.   Caught off guard by the speaker’s actual appearance, I began laughing.

     The sound of my laughter drew all eyes to me for just a moment before shifting to Joey who continued stuffing food into his mouth.

     “Gentlemen!”  Mr. Red Vest stepped forward to the three of us.  “I must ask you to pay for what you have eaten and leave the store!”  As if to reinforce his power and the seriousness of his words, he put his hands on his hips and stomped his feet to the floor.  The sound of his feet slapping the floor got everyone’s attention but did not produce the result he wanted.  

     Joey caught sight of Mr. Red Vest and stopped chewing.  His mouth hung open.  Everything seemed to stand still for a long moment.  The lack of movement magnified what happened next and seemed to put everything in slow motion. Suddenly,  Joey’s previously still mouth exploded with a roar of laughter which sent a spray of cookie and cupcake and some stuff that was unrecognizable all over Mr. Red Vest.  The little bald guy did not move for a second seemingly in amazement at being the recipient of a food shower.  Chunks of cookies and bits of cupcake clung to his face and vest. One of the teenage girls to my right giggled.  The sound seemed to slap Mr. Red Vest out his shock, and he started to tremble a little.  Maybe, vibrate is a better description.  His face began to change colors.  At first, it tinged with a pinkish color.  The pink grew into a dark red which spread over his bald head. The guy’s head continued to ripen, and the red deepened into an almost purple color.  It suddenly struck me that his head acted like one of those old rings which change colors to show the mood of the wearer.  The notion forced a loud snicker from me.  The sound set off a wave of laughter from those around me.  I turned to see even the huge, pale woman in a blue, red, and yellow flower-print muumuu was shaking her head and laughing. 

     Everything continued like this for several seconds before Mr. Red Vest shouted, “Leave my store now, or I will call the police!”  The mention of police knocked the wind out of me.

     His commandment silenced the laughter and caused Stoaffer to walk over to the bald man.  He looked at his cookie-dotted red vest and reddish-purple face and calmly said, “Mr. Perry, I think we should all calm down for a minute.” 

     I wondered for a second how Louis knew the guy’s name before noticing that
Richard Perry, Assistant Manager
was embroidered in white script on the right pocket of the vest. 

     Perry regarded at Louis with an expression of seething disgust.  I half-expected the little guy to launch himself at the old man, but Stoaffer kept speaking in his calm, comforting voice. 

     “We intend to pay for everything opened by my young friend.”  As he was speaking, Louis moved closer to Perry and actually placed his hand on the shoulder of Smart-Price’s assistant manager and stared straight into his eyes before continuing, “I apologize for the impulsiveness of youth.  We were all young once, right?”  Louis chuckled. While the assistant manager did not join him in expressing amusement, the purpleness of his face had faded to pink. 

     Stoaffer kept his eyes fixed on those of the bald man as he said, “As assistant manager here at SmartPrice, you sure cannot have people coming in and disrupting things and eating food in the store.”

     “No, I sure cannot have people coming in and disrup-ting things and eating food in the store.” Perry replied and nodded.

     “Well, I know my friend Joey here is truly sorry for any trouble he has caused.  Right, Joey?”  Louis motioned for him to respond.  A smile crossed my lips at the idea of Joey apologizing.  I waited for the coming explosion from my hot-tempered friend. 

     Even from a few feet away, the rage burning in his eyes was unmistakable.  An image of the assistant store manager sprawled on the tile floor twitching in a widening pool of his own blood popped into my head.  I assumed it would only be a matter of seconds before the picture in my head became reality at my feet.

     Joey stood still as he appeared to be considering how to react to Stoaffer and the request for an apology. 

     Stoaffer repeated, “Right, Joey?” 

     Joey’s head shot up to glare at Stoaffer.  It was a look of pure hatred, and the image of two bodies sprawled on the floor popped into my mind.  I was trying to decide how to defuse the situation when Joey’s scowl loosened into a grin.  He shuffled over to stand next to Louis grinning all the way.

     In a tone which left no doubt as to the total absence of sincerity anywhere in his words, he said, “He’s right, Richard … Dick.  I … uh … hope you don’t mind me calling you Dick.”  He continued without waiting for or wanting a response.  “I wanna to tell you how sorry I am for causing any trouble.  I guess I got carried away.  Have you ever gotten carried away, Dick?”  Joey glanced at the blank stare on the face of the assistant manager.  “No, I guess not. Anyway, I was really hungry and saw all this killer lookin’ stuff and couldn’t wait. So I’m really fuckin’ sorry.”  The last line was delivered as a clear challenge to anyone who was not satisfied by his apology. 

     As soon as Joey finished, Stoaffer again stared into Perry’s eyes and said, “Mr. Perry, you can certainly accept the young man’s apology and allow us to continue shopping.”

     Almost before Stoaffer had finished, Perry was nodding and replying, “I can certainly accept the young man’s apology and allow you to continue shopping.” 

     Louis began gathering up the containers Joey had opened and putting them in a red shopping cart which had appeared from somewhere.  As if in a final act of defiance, Joey grabbed a cookie from one of the containers Stoaffer was about to collect from the display table.  With a grin toward me, he stuffed the cookie into his mouth. 

     Clearly not amused, Stoaffer scowled at Joey and then at me and said, “You seem to have forgotten we are here for a reason.” 

     “Sorry, Lou, I didn’t mean nothing. I was hungry and had to eat.  No problem though, ‘cuz Dick said we can keep shoppin’.  No harm, no foul.”  Joey did his best to seem completely sincere in his second apology within a matter of minutes.

     The only response from Louis was to continue watching with a stern look on his face. Then as I watched him, a sort of loosening of his face became noticeable.  The veins on his forehead disappeared, and his mouth curled up a little.  The arms folded across his chest relaxed.  A chuckle and then a more pronounced laugh broke out of him. Stoaffer shook his head and said, “No matter how I try, I cannot stay mad at you. We should have followed the wise advice about not shopping when hungry.” He looked at the cookie crumbs still clinging to Joey’s chin and shirt and laughed again.  “Well, I’m sure Mr. Perry has much more important things to do than supervise us so let’s finish our shopping.”