Chapter 2: Night life

Charlie was relieved when Ms. Wong finally flipped the closed sign on the Ching Ching door. The last customers, that little Jew with his sweet, old grandmother had been especially annoying. He kept begging her for money to buy his "girlfriend" a present, but Charlie and the kid's grandmother could tell he didn't really have one. It had been a busy day, and Charlie smelled like he had been building the Great Wall all day. The restaurant didn't have a shower, so Charlie stripped down and went outside to take a hobo shower with the hose out back. He grabbed a bar of soap and scrubbed all over. Just as Charlie was about to rinse off and head back inside, a group of girls drove by and screamed at him, "Nice bod." He knew he was attractive, but he didn't let these mere girls faze him because he had a real woman waiting for him in Brooklyn.

Her name was Billie Jean, and she was his lover. She was beautiful and an inspiring model. After he finished drying off, Charlie picked up his tips and headed out to the only cool place in town, Oscar Alcazar's butcher shop. He had met Oscar a week earlier during a delivery, and they ended up having becoming good friends on account of they both loved nice cars and beautiful women. Charlie admired Oscar's illegal exhibitions, and often spent his free time chilling in the butchery.

Charlie approached the door, and knocked. Shortly after, a burly looking Jamaican opened the door and said, "Can I help you mon?"

Charlie replied the secret password, "I'd like a little New York Strip please."

"Well come on in then Mr. Slicks," he said.

Charlie walked down into the secret room in the back of the butcher shop through the meat freezer. The room smelled of cigar smoke, and a group of rough looking men sat around a table gambling Vegas-style. From behind him Charlie heard a rumbling voice, "Well, well, well, White China, how ya doin?"

Charlie spun around to give some dap to Oscar. "How you doing Oscar?"

"Good, Good." he replied. "Go ahead have a seat, need a beer?"

"Sorry Oscar, I can't stay for long, I actually came to ask you a favor," Charlie said. "I need a good connection for a gun, nothing fancy, I just need something that will kill someone."

"Whoa, Whoa!" Oscar shouted. "Whatcha need a gun for?"

Charlie simply replied, "My mission Oscar, I need it for my mission."

Oscar nodded. He was one of the few people he knew about Charlie's mission, and he respected him for it. Oscar pulled out his wallet which was bursting at the seams with 100 dollar bills. He fished a crisp bill out of the wallet along with a business card covered with strange symbols.

"This should cover the gun. Go to the pawn shop, mention my name, and give the man this card...He knows the drill and owes me a favor," Oscar said.

"Thanks Oscar, you've done more for me than my father ever did. And I hold you close to my heart because of it," Charlie said.

Oscar gave Charlie a hug (but a manly one at that), lifting him off the ground, and nearly crushing his lungs. Then told him good luck. With that Charlie left out the way he came. He stepped out the door of the shop and into the street. Something caught his eye, and he looked across the street only to meet eyes with the strange old man from earlier. He was standing in the middle of the road, just waving at Charlie. Charlie sprinted to where he saw the man standing, switchblade drawn, still covered with a little dried blood from his last subway brawl. But once Charlie reached the place where the old man had just been standing, he disappeared again.

Shaking off the feeling that he was going insane, Charlie flicked his switchblade back up and put it in his pocket. He felt light headed as he walked toward the pawn shop.