Luke Ingelson, Muscle – The First Day

            Luke Ingelson sat behind the big desk in the office at the casino on Big Island.

It was not his desk; it belonged to his employer, Karl Thorrson, but he had stayed in the city for the day, so Luke was occupying it for the moment, and he was enjoying the feeling of being in charge, even though the night was slow.

            It was raining hard and the ferry driver wouldn’t leave the docks in Excelsior to bring new gamblers over to the park on account of it. Those who were already at the casino could not leave, which was good for business Luke thought, but not as good as new faces with full pockets and fresh hopes.

Thorrson’s main man, Ivan “The Wolf,” had just left the island. He took a small craft intending to shake things loose and force the ferry driver’s hand; business was business and a casino needed gamblers, and it wasn’t up to the boat driver to say how many could come across or when.

The Wolf had a reputation, he probably wouldn’t have to say a word to the man, with just one look from the silver haired menace the gears would turn and the traffic would begin to flow again.

The poor sap of a boat driver was nice enough, Luke thought, but he would probably get replaced in short order, and then…disappear…the Wolf didn’t tolerate a man who wouldn’t obey an order, and Karl Thorrson allowed him to manage personnel with little to no input from him.

Luke stared out the big-bay-windows into the dark-night and thought about the future; the war for St. Anthony was just about over, his boss had won, and he was still alive…along with his brother James.

They had risked a great deal for Karl Thorrson over the past few months; they had done their share of the dirty work, and now he was hoping they would be rewarded, they had dropped a lot of bodies and survived

Luke was hoping for more than cash, though cash was always welcome, he wanted positions of authority for him and his brother, he wanted to run one of the operations that Thorrson now controlled.

Maybe I‘m sitting on top of it right now, he thought, the Casino and the Amusement Park, and there was talk of a hotel at the port of Excelsior; there was more than enough to go around.

Luke considered taking one of the boss’s cigars from the box on his desk, he began to reach for it but then decided against it. The one-eyed giant he worked for was keenly observant, and he didn’t want to answer any questions about a missing stogie, no matter how much he wanted to light one of those fine cigars at that very moment.

He poured himself a whiskey instead, put his feet up on the desk and sipped slowly from the tumbler.

Luke and his brother James had gotten where they were by tenacity and loyalty, and by showing that they could keep their heads about them in a fight, he wasn’t going to risk what he had proven over a little temptation. He had made a place for himself on easy street…not that there wasn’t more work to do, he thought, but the war was over, and when they gathered all the pieces there would be plenty to distribute.

Just then the short band radio gave an alarm.

Through the static of the storm he heard the Ferry driver announce his departure from the docks. On a clear day the trip would only take about ten minutes; it would take longer with the storm.

Luke was glad when he heard his voice, not merely because it meant that the wheels of commerce would continue to turn, but he was also glad that The Wolf had not killed him on the spot. 

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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.

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