James Ingelson, Muscle – The First Day

          James Ingelson pulled the long-black and armored sedan into a parking space in front of Franky’s tavern on Lake Street. He had collections to make and wanted to get them done before the weather broke for the worse.

He got out of the driver’s seat and took note of the number of girls who were already on the sidewalk trying to attract a patron. There was a steady flow of traffic on the strip at all times of day, cars pulling up at the curb to place orders for dope: cocaine, heroin or both…and other pharmaceutical grade chemicals if they should desire.

James knew the storm that was coming would be fierce because the air-pressure was bothering the broken drum in his cauliflowered ear, as it had been more days than not over the past few months.

Also, the heat was oppressive, but the humid air had begun to blow, and even though it was blowing hot, it was laced with cold streams, which told him that the storm-giants were on the march.

             James was not a small fellow, he stood six feet two inches, and at one time, before the Great War, he had been a ranked heavy-weight fighter, but that wasn’t why the tough guys on the street stepped out of his way when they saw him coming.

He and his brother Luke had been all up and down Lake Street, from Excelsior to the Marshall Avenue bridge for the past few months, earning a reputation among the local merchants, a reputation that put him and his brother on good standing with all the pimps and players on Lake; they were tough but fair, but it was his bosses reputation that preceded him, and the fear that it invoked, that caused the hooligans to step out of his way when they saw him coming, and James knew it.

His boss was the fearsome-giant, Karl Thorrson, who, in a very short time had wrested control of the city from one of its founders, a man every simply called the Colonel, though no-one knew how he had earned the rank. It was Karl Thorrson’s reputation that mattered more than anything else.

They were the new power, and after months of bloody gun work they had vanquished the old…or so James believed.

            He went into Franky’s and stepped up to the bar with a smile for a couple of hungry looking girls looking at him as if he might be able solve all their troubles for a day or two.

            James said “good morning” to them, and then, as if on cue they got up-off their stools, came over to him and started rubbing their perfumed bodies against him.

            There wasn’t much fabric between their skin and his, and he could feel every bit of them as they draped themselves around his broad shoulders, purring in his ear with their soft voices, expressing their marvel at how big his muscles were and blowing lightly on his neck.

            Just as one of them had begun to press her hand against the front of his trousers James heard some commotion from the back room before he saw Frankie coming out with an envelope in his hand and apologizing like a schoolboy for making James wait.

            He took the envelope and said, “No trouble Frankie. I’ll just take these two with me for the day, along with whatever they need to see them through…that’s all the tax I’ll charge you…this time.”

            Frankie looked at his girls while he struggled with a response; he didn’t believe he had the power to refuse. Even though it was not the way things were done, Frankie didn’t want to test it

            James had just been joking, he hadn’t meant for the guy to take him seriously, so he cracked a smile and slapped Frankie on the shoulder, though it occurred to him that he could have gotten away with it, and that was good to know, he thought.

The wheels had already begun to turn inside his head as he planned on taking advantage another time.

            “On second thought, ladies,” James said. “I’ll take a rain check.

“We’ll make it a double-date with me and my brother Luke.”

            “Yaa,” they chimed in unison, with a slight note of disappointment in their Swedish lilt. “When you come, around we will be waiting.”

            James took the envelope from Frankie and bid them all a good day, leaving the bar to continue his tour down Lake Street.

Buy Now on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Sid-Gateaux/e/B08334SCMW/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1?author-follow=B08334SCMW&&fbclid=IwAR06PNhV-WiaCEVRR9wxRfysASwqR4-vGyqdYy85awrgwh9pVCFG96HtlaQ

Genevieve La Salle, Nurse – The First Day

           Genevieve La Salle enjoyed her morning walk down Douglass Avenue.

She kept a small apartment in a three-story brownstone across the street from Lowry Park, with its natural spring and gentle stream that filled seven small pools before diverting back underground and continuing along its aquifer where it emptied into the Jewett’s Lake at the bottom of the hill.

 Genevieve walked three-blocks east to the bottleneck where Lyndale and Hennepin Avenues merged, and traffic was always heavy, crossing the six lanes of traffic, in front of the Methodist church with its tall—slender steeple, and its cross that looked more like a rising star than a symbol of Christ.

She turned north for two curving blocks, past the Five Ten on Groveland, past Saint Mark’s Episcopal with the Basilica of Saint Mary clearly in view; there she crossed Fifteenth Street and wound her way through Jewett’s Park.

This is the route Genevieve took to work. It was not the most direct path to the hospital where she worked, but she enjoyed the stroll, even on a muggy morning like this one.

She could walked down fifteenth, along the southside of the park, but she preferred to go over the bridge that crossed a narrow stretch of the lake, where she would stop to feed the ducks and goldfish crumbs of crust that she had trimmed from her morning slice of toast.

            Genevieve had left her apartment that morning feeling well-composed and pretty; she walked slowly so as not to overheat.

Her spotless white and freshly starched uniform crinkled as she went. Her white shoes were quiet on the pavement, her long dark curls were tightly coifed under her nurses cap, and her cape was flowing in the breeze behind her.

Genevieve wore the accoutrements of her office with pride.

            She walked past the shuffleboard and tennis courts, there were some young men playing at their games; she liked to see them shirtless and sweating in the sun.

Genevieve was always on the lookout for one particular fellow, who looked to be her age, though perhaps a little younger…he was tall and handsome, and always wore the same shabby suit that looked like it needed some mending.

            She would often see him sitting on a bench reading the paper, or perhaps writing in a notebook and smoking, which she did not like. He was fit and handsome, and he had an air of mystery about him that she found alluring.

            He looked intelligent and thoughtful, so that Genevieve didn’t mind his cigarettes, or that from time to time she saw him sipping from a flask.

            On occasion they said good morning to one another. He was always polite, and she was always demure, but she did not see him today, which made her sullen.

            Genevieve had been thinking about him the night before, she had dreamt about him, and because of this she had been thinking of him all morning, wondering what it would be like to dance with him, sit down to dinner or walk arm in arm.

Now, she felt the emptiness of disappointment that comes…not from losing something that you once had, but from not getting something you expected to have.

            Genevieve was still thinking about him, and palpably missing him, when she checked into the nurse’s station at Abott on the east of the park; she felt a hollow in her guts.

            Maybe I’ll see him this afternoon, she thought to herself as she began her rounds; now she was feeling hopeful again.

If I do see him this afternoon, Genevieve determined, I will be bold and ask him his name.

Buy Now on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Sid-Gateaux/e/B08334SCMW/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1?author-follow=B08334SCMW&&fbclid=IwAR06PNhV-WiaCEVRR9wxRfysASwqR4-vGyqdYy85awrgwh9pVCFG96HtlaQ