I'M OLDER BUT NO ONE CALLS ME MA BARKER.
She weighs 210 pounds but she's no empty suit.
All characters are adults.
Tyrone stared into the flashlight beam. Jackie Bajavez lifted her blonde head off the pillow to look, too.
"Hey nigger? Ever hear of 'the man'?" Jackie recognized the familiar voice.
"Uh huh," the black man replied and stared at the light.
"Go away! Jack!" Jackie demanded.
"Well, I'm 'the man'," Jack Bajavez replied as he shot the man in the chest. The woman in the bed, Jack's wife, screamed.
The black man was in bed with Jack's wife at a cheapo motel. I was in the room next door and heard the whole confrontation. Jack then said, "I can't stop you from fucking niggers, but I can stop niggers from fucking you when you do it under my nose."
The wife's name was Jackie. She usta work as a cashier at my store. She and Jack got married right before I fired both of them. I had no idea Jack was a killer. I always thought Jackie was a whore.
Bajavez is Spanish and literally translates as 'low time.' But it means you're outta time.
This is the tale of how an older wife like me went from retail store manager to gangster empty-suit and became the whore of a killer half her age. Me, Leslie Duncan.
Three years ago I ruled Jack, my life was sweet with plenty of prosperity, influence, and friends. But now I work for Jack, keep his belly full, and his balls empty. It can't last, but I got a lesbian daughter who might help me keep him around ifr he can ever sleep with her.
Three years ago Jack and I worked for Trans Pacific Partners, a globalized empire that devoured commerce and industry everywhere, and even controlled many governments. My husband and I were store managers here, and Jack was a thirty-something flunky-monkey in the sports department of my store before I fired him to trim costs, then they fired me for the same reason. We lost everything, lived on our savings, and my husband got sick. At my age, 60, comparable positions and pay don't exist.
My life became half of a small duplex and a used mini-van, and then I got a letter from a headhunter asking me to call for a consult. I made an appointment and kept it.
The location was a dump, in a room at a motel used by crack addict whores of the ghetto. My contact was an old woman who weighed probably three hundred pounds and chain smoked. I almost left before getting out of my car. Her name was Audrey.
"You're Leslie Duncan, right?" She asked.
The cigarette smoke was annoying. "Can you put out the cigarette?" I complained.
"No. You won't be here long," she replied as she exhaled a cloud of blue smoke from her mouth and nose. Then she cut to the chase. "I want someone free to travel across the street or across the country on short notice. All the travel will be by car, and you'll be the driver."
I nodded.
"We furnish the car and gas."
I nodded.
"There isn't really a job title. So you can call yourself whatever you want. But your job is to drive a car or truck from point A to point B, on time, and make hotel bookings. Can you do that?"
I nodded. "What's the nature of the company?"
"None of your business," she replied. She then scribbled a large number onto scratch paper, handed it to me and added, "Plus thirty days of paid time off and health insurance for two. Any questions?"
"Any retirement benefits?" I wondered.
"No, but you could earn bonuses. Want the job?"
I looked at the pay offer. It was more than I made at China Mart. A lot more. "Yes," I replied.
She handed me a form for direct pay deposit, then said, "We'll mail your insurance cards to you."
"When do I start?" I wondered.
"Now, but don't call us, we'll call you. I'd keep a bag packed. One more thing, your expenses are covered from the time we call you. Put casual clothes and a suit in the bag."
I filled out more forms and left for KFC and the pharmacy before going home.
At home, Jake, my husband, acted underwhelmed and crabbed about me not getting a company car. A few days later we got our insurance cards in the mail, and I got paid soon afterwards though I had done nothing so far.
Jack and I collided after I got a call for a job. The caller alerted me to expect a visitor and follow directions exactly. A few hours later I got a knock at the door from a kid who handed me an envelope and the keys to a ten year old Chevy Cavalier. The kid then walked away, got inside a waiting taxi, and left.
In the envelope I found three, fifty dollar bills and typed instructions.
In a nutshell they wanted me to get a room at the Flamingo Motel at the corner of Grand Central Avenue and Jeffords Street. Then wait inside the room till six o'clock the next morning, and go home. I ate supper at the Golden Corral before checking in, and brought along bottled water.
Nothing much happened till after sunset. Around nine o'clock I heard a car pull up outside, then a car door open and close. There was a knock on the door, next room over, and I heard the door shut. A while later I heard noises that I thought was a headboard tapping against a wall. Later loud talking, screaming, and gun fire.
I looked through the front window and saw Jack Bajavez walking away. Soon Jackie came out, got in her car, and left. She was wearing tight white pants and a green sequined halter top and spike-heeled silver sandals. Her hair stuck out at odd angles and her nails were bright blue and she wore too much makeup the way whores do when they think it's sexy. She wasn't a pretty woman.
The cops eventually came, questioned me, but I told them nothing. I didn't want the problem. Much later I fell asleep, awoke about six o'clock, and left, then stopped for breakfast at a Denny/s.
During breakfast I obsessed about Jackie's black lover, and I fantasized about the men around me.
Jake, the man I married 10 years ago, has no interest in sex. We never had much sex. Even when we met he was a once-a-week kind of guy. I've always been a twice-a-day kind of girl. But our work kept us apart a lot, we made money but the sex was never as often as I liked, but I held out hope for better times that never came.
As a rule I got laid once every two or three months and only after I begged for it, but we got along great and had lotsa money. Jake's my 3rd marriage and I'm his first. Sex seems like a silly thing to complain about when everything else in your relationship is good. Still I thought about sex all the time, and after China Mart let us go Jake got too sick for sex.
I imagined sex with Jake, sex with the guy in front of me in line, sex with the guy beside me in traffic, maybe the meter reader. "Got time for coffee, tea, and me?" Thank you Jesus for sex toys.