Chapter 2 2

Stepping into such a six by eight room was new for Jared.  The bank officer noticed.  “Will that be all, Sir?”

Jared nodded.  “Yes.  Thank you.”

The man nodded back, and closed the door leaving Jared alone with the small metal slide-out safety deposit box atop the nondescript table.  This must be what it’s like in jail.  He sat down and glanced once again about the room.  He didn’t know why suddenly he was feeling giddy.  Only a couple of hours ago he was seething with anger.  Now, the possible irony of opening the box—maybe full of diamonds?

Lifting the lid, he discovered another container.  This one, the size of a jewelry box, was hand painted and bore the images of birds in flight, the bottom edge showing the wing of one slicing through the water.  He took out the small box and lifted its lid.  Staring back at him cradled in a velvet lining was a large ring of safety deposit keys.  Underneath was a piece of paper that revealed a world map with cities marked with corresponding numbers of the bank keys.  Beneath that, another paper with the words, “Rewards come in odd ways sometimes—Sam, Dad, Mr. Brenner—your choice.”  One last layer in the box offered an envelope with several thousand dollars.  The outside of the envelope read, “This will get you to where you need to go first.  Use it wisely.”

***

Jared slapped a manila envelope down on Gcina’s desk and then placed the painted box on top.  “Is this supposed to be the beginning of the ‘affairs’ I might need help with?”

Gcina shrugged, his eyes not leaving the box.  “May I?”

Jared nodded. “How’re you going to handle me if you don’t know what needs handling?”

Gcina, ignoring the sarcasm in Jared’s voice, opened the box and lifted out the ring.  “The keys,” he said in a hush.

“Uh huh.” Jared rolled his eyes and watched. Gcina’s chest expanded with an intake of breath he seemed reluctant to exhale.  “Is there something more I need to know, counselor?”

***

"Five minutes later, I was out of there."

"That's it, Jared?" asked Lilong, an attractive young Eurasian, her teacup remaining suspended midway from the coffee table to her mouth.

"That's it.  What a birthday weekend, eh?  And I was having such a calm and peaceful drowning."

Lilong sipped, and replacing the cup to the table, said, "Yes...about those extended pool immersions.  Don't you think you spend a little too much time down there?"

"You don't see me putting my fist through any walls lately, do you?"

Lilong lifted a lit cigarette from the ashtray and nodded.  "True."

"You've got a pack-a-day habit to calm with, even if it’s gonna kill you, and I've got mine."

"Which won't kill you," Lilong said, smiling.  "As long as you've got Spot around to save you."

"Yes.  He's the one male I can depend on."

"And I'm the one female you can depend on.  How long you think I'm going to have to keep spot and Genghis separated?"

Jared rose from the couch of Lilong's Santa Monica bungalow and walked to the window overlooking the small patio and backyard area.  "Good question.  Gcina said he suspects every vault is going to direct me to another.  'Sam's way of doing things.' he said.  He turned back to Lilong and studied her face.  "You think I'm pissed when I should be grateful, right?"

"Well," she said, "you do have a tendency to let your emotions beat shit out of you.  Yeah.  Grateful until proved otherwise might be a good way to go."

Jared sat back down.  "I can be such a dick sometimes.  Sorry to dump this on you."

"Hey, what's a punching bag for."

"No, really.  I'm sorry for unloading on you, but I guess finding out my dad was choosing to rise from the dead wasn't...well, I wasn't prepared for it."

"Resurrections usually don't announce themselves ahead of time," she said.

"Yeah, but why now?"  Jared rose again.  "Gotta go.  Spot!  Where are you?"

Lilong stood and looked about with a knowing glint in her eye.  "Most likely cowering in the shower stall.  You know how he is for the first few hours of any visit."  She stepped to the hallway and made a perfectly believable mewing sound.  "Genghis.  C'mon girl.  Let's put you in the bedroom so Jared and Spot can get it on.  C'mon."  She reached up to the top of her antique grandfather clock and lifted Genghis down, her paws splayed toward the bathroom and hissing like a basket of cobras.  "Damn, girl.  He's the same dog you...forget it."  She held her in her arms, administering the scratch-under-the-chin routine, bringing Genghis’ is purrs to full volume. 

As she walked back to the living room, Jared entered the bathroom.  Spot was curled up in the bathtub, the usual abandoned look on his face.  "Ah, c'mon, Spot.  Don't give me that look."  He lifted his head, eyes darting from Jared to the doorway, as if proclaiming, easy for you to say.

"You know I'm not enjoying this.  You're my bro, bro.  But, hey, after I get back, gonna get you the biggest steak you've ever seen and I promise to pick up some more of those hip bones at the butcher, okay?"

Spot rose, jumped from the tub, and stood by Jared, craning his neck around the door opening.  "Genghis is gone."  Jared kneeled down and gave the dog a hug.  "Love ya, Spot.  Love ya a lot."  He patted him on the head and Spot followed him back into the living room, just as Lilong pulled the sliding door closed with Genghis leering at her and Spot from the outside.  "She'll cool down at dinner time," said Lilong.  She put her arms around Jared and squeezed.  "You behave yourself now, ya hear?  Don't want to have to rescue you ever again."

Jared grinned.  “You remember that, eh?  Little chance of that ever happening again.  I’m off clubs and bouncers for a while, unless I’ve got you on my arm.”  He laughed.  “Judo mama, man’s best friend.”

***

As he crossed the last noisy cattle grid before the city limits, Jared cradled his cell phone and focused on the sign: Welcome to Leadore, Idaho-population-90.  “Renting a sub-compact at the Idaho Falls Airport, together with the gas, is costing more than the Southwest flight from LA.”

“What the hell was that,” said Gcina?”

“Just the rumble of Podunk, Gcina,” Jared replied into the phone.  “Look, I gave my agent your number, so…of course we have agents.  House sitting is show business, didn’t you know?”

“Sure,” said Gcina.  If you’re lucky.  Helps if the owner has some “biz” pull and he can get one of your feet through a door, though.  Right?” 

“Yeah, well, sure beats hell out of selling vacuum cleaners.  Listen, if she calls with a new job, just tell her I’ll be back ASAP and to keep you posted, ‘cause chances are this cell phone is going to have a hard time where this map is taking me.  Hey, gotta go.”

All he could think of over the next few miles was Spot, and the look of awe, c’mon he’d given him as Jared hustled him into the 84 Chevy and drove the five miles to Lilong’s.  Jaried prized and respected his sexy five foot seven loyal, caring, and exotic animal-loving friend.  It wasn’t that Spot didn’t appreciate Lilong’s attention, but her penchant for taking in strays of late rendered the house under revolt by a junkyard cat lovingly called Genghis.  Even after three sleep-overs, the term Jared used for these little sojourns when his house-sitting jobs wouldn’t allow dogs on premises, Spot found it difficult to look forward to Genghis’s kind of welcome.  But, Lilong’s gracious embrace and tousle of the dog’s coat was something altogether different.  Even Spot tilted his head and lifted an ear to this statuesque Croatian/Korean with raven black hair any black lab would envy.  Leaving Spot behind wasn’t the norm for Jared, but neither was running off to Idaho. He was going to miss him.

He pulled up to what looked to be the only gas station and store in town.  Its sign swung on two short strands of chain.  AMY’S  GOODS – YOU NEED IT, WE GOT IT.  Three boys in bib overalls had their dirty rags all over the windshield before the motor was off. 

“What cha need, mister?  We can get you anything you need.  What cha need?”

“Well,” he said as he opened the door, “I need to get me a six pack first, and you boys don’t seem quite old enough…”

“Says who?” shouted the oldest of the three, looking to be thirteen or fourteen, tops.

Putting on some rural accentuation, Jared said, “Hey, fellas, tell you what.  Forty dollars of gas would be nice, while I get my licker wet, okay?”

Jared couldn’t believe he was working with a Podunk vernacular before he even confronted a legitimate citizen of Leadore, Idaho.  He shuffled across the dirt and pushed through the screen door.

“Mornin’ Mister,” said the woman of eighty.  Weighing in at a bare sixty or seventy pounds, she wasted little time getting right to the point.  “What can we do to lessen that load in your wallet?”

Jared had to grin.  “At least the town has a sense of humor.” 

“Ain’t no humor ‘bout it, Mister.  ‘Less you buy somethin’, this conversation’s over.”

The three boys peered over the windowsill as Jared fingered a fifty-dollar bill from his wallet and said, “Forty on the gas, and a six pack of Becks… Ma’am.”

She glanced at his fifty, then his eyes.  “What’s that?”

“Ah…fifty dollars.”

She shook her head.  “Jesus.  I look like, a retard?  Know a fifty when I see one.  The ‘Becks’?  Never heard of it.”

“Beer, Ma’am. It’s a…”

“Got Bud and Bud Light.”

“Bud?”

“Boy, Mister.  This little tit-a-tat’s goin’ nowhere.”  She glanced over her shoulder into a small side room where a black and white TV hissed its transmission noise.  “I got the Scene waitin’ for me and Barbara’s about to ream a new one for that Time’s reviewer guy who bashed her book, so you best…”

“Bud’s fine.  Just fine.”

Pocketing the tender, she quickly popped the cooler door and swung out a six-pack of Bud, her attention now fixed on the TV screen.

The three boys, still at the windowsill, looked at each other, bewildered.  “Becks?” said one of them.  “Why would he want anything but Bud?”

Jarod smiled graciously. “By the way, could you direct me to the Mountain Summit Bank?

The old woman, still transfixed on the TV screen, waved her hand to shush.  “Closed down last year,” she whispered.  “Moved fifty mile north…Salmon, if’n you want that bank.  Now, could I just…”

“Fifty miles?”

She shot him a glance that could scare the fiz out of the Buds.

Jared nodded his appreciation.  “Fifty miles it is.  Absolutely, Ma’am.  Uh, any change on that purchase?”

She gave him another look.

Jared cordially headed for the door.  “No matter.  Just checkin’ ‘fore I make a deposit…you know…penny saved, is a…”

Outside, the boys were rubbing the shine off the glass of his rental.  “Get that bird crap off or we ain’t gittin’ nothin’, hear?” whispered the oldest boy.  The youngest spit on the glass, rubbed harder and before he could make the smear any messier, Jared was opening the driver’s door. 

“Tell you what, boys, I got a buck that says you did just fine.  Doesn’t need another minute’s attention.  Okay?”

“Two,” said the oldest.

Jared handed the dollar to him.  “One,” as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

The youngest stood with his rag, alienated by the older boys and appearing about to cry. 

Jared motioned for him and he stepped to the car.  He handed him an extra dollar.  “You get an A for effort, okay?”  He turned to the other two boys as they moved to snatch it away from him.  “I’m gonna be back this way in a couple of days, so if you boys want any more employment...”

They stopped short, smiled.  The oldest bowed.  “You’re the man, man.  What cha need?”

“Well, for that advance you just got…”  He opened up his map and spotted his route to Salmon.  “Just one question.  What’s the drive time to Salmon?”

The oldest squinted and said nothing.

“That was an advance, ol’ buddy.  Now if you want…”

The oldest eyed the car.  “With this Fiesta, hour and a half.  Down the street.  Make a left.”

“Paved road?”

“That’s two questions.  You left Route twenty-eight behind you.  Twenty-nine all the way...paved.  You got yurself a two-for-one, Mister.  You owe me.”

“I owe you.”  Jared smiled and pulled away.

The older boy yelled after him, “Stay in touch, hear?”

Jared eyed the boys in the rear-view mirror and grinned.  ‘Stay in touch?’  Too much television.