“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Yes, very, but I don’t have any money,” I confessed.
“Don’t worry, I got this one,” he said with a smile.
We went to the drive through and ordered hamburgers and sodas. As soon as we got to his place, he locked up his gun. We immediately tore into the food, which we finished in about ten minutes at most.
“Nice place you have here,” I said, trying to be polite. I lied. The place was drab at best. It was obvious that he didn’t spend much time at home.
He stood before me and gave me the once over.
“We need to get you new clothes in the morning and new shoes. We’ll work on everything else later,” he said. I felt like a pet that he found and was trying to domesticate.
“Now, what’s your name?” he asked again.
“Tranquility,” I said.
“We both know that isn’t you name. I’m tired of playing games with you,” he said angrily.
“Why can’t you accept that’s my name?”
“Because I won’t accept a lie,” he replied.
“Where do you go to school?” he asked as he took a bottle of soda from the refrigerator.
“I dropped out of school.”
“I kind of figured that,” he said.
“Then why did you ask?” I retorted sarcastically.
I guess that was the button I shouldn’t have pushed. Angrily, he slammed the soda bottle down on the table.
“Look, ‘Tranquility’ or whatever the hell you call yourself, I’ve taken all the shit I’m going to take from you. Do you understand?”
“Listen, ‘detective’ or whatever rank they gave you down at the “cop shop”, I haven’t given you any shit. If you don’t like my answers then don’t ask the questions!”
There was a silence in the room. It was that eerie calm before the storm. A big storm was coming and it was heading straight toward my ass.
He closed his eyes and rubbed them as he winced. I swallowed hard as my heart began beating rapidly. I knew that I was in trouble.
“I think I better go now,” I said meekly.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said calmly.
I stood up.
“SIT THE FUCK DOWN WHILE YOU CAN!” he ordered.
“What do you mean by ‘while you can’?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he said with a sinister grin.
I clutched my hands and looked down at the oval glass coffee table as he took a chair from the kitchen and placed in the center of the room.
“Uh oh,” I thought to myself.
He sat on the chair and looked at me. His eyes were cold-merciless.
“Take those fuckin’ rags off and get over here- right now!” he said in a calm voice.