The Brave, page 3
Wave after wave of violent shaking went through Rafael’s body.
“You’ll still have one eye…”
As he closed his eyes, in that bright light Rafael saw the face of the fat man with the bulging eyes, smiling.
“While one of the guys is holding up what he’s cut off for the audience to see, the other will unstrap one of your arms. You won’t have much fight in you at this point, kid. You might still try to get out of the chair, I dunno. He’ll go get a real sharp knife and cut your stomach out, you see what I mean?” Gently, the uncle drew and line in a half circle just under Rafael’s rib cage. “And drop it in your lap. Maybe he’ll dig some of your guts out with his hands. Your free hand probably will fight him, be down there in the mess of your own guts, too.”
Eyes closed, Rafael was hearing the fat man’s voice as if from far away. Behind the man’s voice he heard the dance music from the radio.
“The other one will come up behind you with the club and smash open your skull. It will all be over for you then, Rafael. He’s real good at it. Don’t worry. I’ve seen him do it before. Very quick. One blow and your head’s a broken mess, brains all over yourself. I’ve never seen him fail. You won’t feel a thing.”
For a moment Rafael sat in the square wooden chair, eyes closed, breathing slowly, deeply through his nose, the waves of shaking passing over his body.
“You okay, kid?”
Suddenly Rafael knew that the fat uncle had had pleasure from describing all this to him, that this had been part of it. He had earned some of the money already.
“Yeah.”
Rafael felt the man’s fat hand on his sweaty shoulder, then on the back of his neck. He opened his eyes.
“Come on. Stand up.”
Bracing Rafael with his hand at the back of Rafael’s neck, the uncle helped Rafael to his feet.
“So what do you think, kid?”
Rafael’s legs, knees were rubbery. He stretched one arm to the back of the chair and braced himself.
“I think,” Rafael said: “Thirty thousand dollars.”
The uncle laughed. “Jeez, you’re a tough guy! You drive a hard bargain all right. What a tough guy! You’ll do. Okay. I give. Thirty thousand dollars it is.” He shook Rafael’s hand. “We gotta deal.”
d
“LARRY, COME in here.”
While the nephew stood in the office doorway, inside the office Rafael put on his clothes and the uncle poured vodka into the two used cups and talked.
“I’ve never seen a braver one than this one, Larry. One brave Indian hombre, I tell you. Tough as they come…”
Leaning against the door jam, Larry watched Rafael dress and said nothing.
“Drove a hell of a hard bargain, too. We have to give this kid thirty thousand dollars. Would you believe that?”
Larry said nothing.
“It will make a great movie, though.” The uncle swallowed the vodka in one of the cups and poured himself another. “One of the greatest. Be seen all over the world, won’t it, kid? Just like I told you. It will be seen all over the world, won’t it, Larry?”
Larry said nothing.
The uncle handed the other cup of vodka over the desk to Rafael. “Think of that. A kid from Morgantown in a movie seen all over the world.”
Rafael threw the drink down his throat.
“Don’t worry about Larry.” The uncle put the top back on the bottle. “He’s a dopehead.”
Rafael put on his shirt.
“Now this is what I want you to do, Larry: take good care of this boy. We’ve got a contract, now, and it has to work just right. You know how I am about my contracts, Larry. Once I give my word, that’s it. I want you to take this boy and open a bank account for him. You ever open a bank account, Rafael?”
“No.”
“Larry will help you.” When the fat uncle sat behind the desk the chair wheezed. He put his hands behind his head. Rafael saw the armpits of the man’s white shirt were soaked. “Let’s see now, what are we gonna do?” He looked at Rafael. “I mean, when do you want to do it, kid?”
“Today’s Monday,” Rafael said. “Friday?”
“Wednesday,” the uncle said.
“I got a family.”
“We can be set up by Wednesday.”
Rafael shrugged. “I want to do things with my family.”
“Sure. You want to get blind drunk,” the uncle said.
“Maybe that too.”
“Uh?”
“Maybe.”
“Guess you have that right. Under the circumstances. Thursday. That will give you time to get drunk and set things up for your family.”
“Thursday…” Rafael squinted at the high ceiling. “Okay.”
“Be here ten o’clock in the morning.”
“Eleven,” Rafael said. “Don’t want to take the early bus.”
“Why not?”
“People on that bus have jobs.”
The uncle laughed. “You have a job, Rafael.”
Rafael grinned. “Yeah. Well.”
“Okay. We’ll make it eleven o’clock Thursday. Okay? Is eleven o’clock Thursday okay for you, Rafael?”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re the brave guy here doin’ this thing and we want to make everything as nice as possible for you, you know what I mean?”
“Appreciate it,” Rafael said.
“Okay. Eleven o’clock Thursday it is.” The uncle lowered his arms onto his desk. “Now, Larry, take Rafael here to the barbershop, you know, the one over on Thirteenth, get him a haircut, not too short, we want him to look like an Indian boy here. Larry, I didn’t tell you my great idea. We’re gonna make Rafael here look even more like an Indian, put him in a breech cloth, arm bands, leg bands, a little war paint on his cheekbones, the whole bit. I think I’ll call this film ‘The Brave’ or ‘How Brave’ or somethin’ like that. How do you like that idea?”
Larry said nothing.
“So I don’t want his hair short, you know what I mean? But I want it neat, you know what I mean? so he looks like a respectable, handsome Indian, not a young street bum.” The uncle grinned at Rafael. “You get a handsome Indian and you get one real handsome boy. Yes, sir. Walkin’ in here you made this our lucky day, Rafael. Right, Larry?”
Rafael smiled.
“Clean him up. Then take him to the bank. You know which bank I mean. The bank we use ourselves. The First Bank of Commerce. We know we can trust that bank. Open an account for him. A checking account. In his name. What are we gonna give him up front? Two hundred and fifty dollars?”
On the piece of paper on the desk, the uncle wrote $250.
“Three hundred,” Rafael said.
“Oh, yeah.” The uncle crossed out the $250 and wrote $300. “Three hundred. In order to open a bank account, Rafael, you have to put some money into the bank. How much of the three hundred you want to put in the bank?”
Rafael considered. “How much do I have to put in the bank to open an account?”
“Why don’t you put fifty dollars in the bank, Rafael?” The uncle wrote $50 on the piece of paper on his desk. “That will give you $250 to take home with you, do what you want until Thursday morning.” The uncle wrote $250 on the piece of paper.
“Okay.”
“Be sure you give the checkbook to Rafael, Larry. It’s to be in his name, see? Send him home with it. To his family. And he gets the two hundred and fifty dollars in cash. Fifty dollars in the bank.”
Rafael asked, “What’s the rest of it?”
“The rest of what?”
“The rest of the money? How does that happen?”
“Yeah,” the uncle said. “First thing I do after you do your job Thursday is that I will personally go down to that bank myself and deposit the rest of the money for your family. Twenty nine thousand, seven hundred dollars.” The uncle wrote $29, 700. 00 on the piece of paper.
Rafael’s throat tightened. “How will I know…?”
“You don’t trust me, kid?” The uncle’s face flushed. “How else we supposed to do it? You tell me that!”
“I don’t know,” Rafael said.
“We put thirty thousand dollars in the bank, think we’d ever see you again? You’d grab your family and run like hell.” Rafael said nothing. “Nobody’s ever ripped me off, boy.”
Red-faced, Rafael said quietly, “I wouldn’t rip you off.”
The uncle grinned at Larry. “Well, I would. At least, I’d try. Tell me the truth, Rafael: that’s what you were thinkin’, weren’t you?”
“No, sir.”
“Try to get the thirty thousand dollars off me and grab your family and run.”
“No, sir.”
“That’s called theft, Rafael. Robbery. You tryin’ to rob me?”
“No, sir, I’m not.”
“I wouldn’t think so. Not a good, brave kid like you.” The uncle smiled again. “You got any other idea how we can do it, Rafael?”
Rafael thought a moment. “No, sir.”
“Because if you have, tell me right now and we’ll discuss it.”
“I haven’t.”
“You ever been paid in your life, Rafael, before you did a job?”
“No, sir.”
“You ever even gotten an advance of money like I’m offerin’ you before you did a job?”
“No.”
The uncle loudly asked, “Then how in Christ’s name you expect to be fully paid before doin’ this job? Answer me that!”
Rafael said, “I don’t know. I just want to make sure my family gets the money. My wife…”
“You don’t trust me, Rafael?”
“Sure.”
“Jeez, everybody trusts me. Don’t they, Larry?” He glared at his nephew.
Larry said, “Sure.”
“See? Larry works with me. He knows everybody trusts me. Shit, boy, I’m a business man. My word is as good as gold. It has to be. You think I could stay in this business long as I have if people didn’t trust me?”
Rafael said nothing.
“We got a contract!” The uncle hit the paper on his desk with the back of his hand. “You think a contract means nothin’, Rafael?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I’ll tell you. A businessman does not oblige his contracts, he can be put in jail!” The uncle fixed Rafael in the eye. “In jail, Rafael.”
Rafael said, “I see.”
“For example,” again the uncle put the back of his fingers on the piece of paper on his desk, “you sign this contract, accept the three hundred dollars, go off and get drunk, never come back, you know what we’re gonna do?”
Rafael did not ask.
“We’re gonna come look for you. We’ll go out to Morgantown. If we can’t find you, we’ll show our contract to the law. One of your relatives, your wife, one of your brothers, your father, maybe, will have to give us the three hundred dollars back.”
Rafael considered the sheer impossibility of that.
“Or go to jail,” the uncle said. “For theft. For robbery.” He pointed his finger at Rafael. “For your robbery.”
Rafael swallowed through his tightened throat.
“You want that to happen, Rafael?”
Rafael shook his head.
Smiling again, the uncle said, “See, that’s how it works. Never mind, kid. I know you haven’t got much experience in business. I’m not insulted. You’re a brave, tough kid, and you’ve made a hard bargain here, you sure have, but Larry and I know you haven’t much experience in business. Never mind. Forget about it.”
Rafael sighed.
Quietly, the uncle repeated, “After you do your job Thursday personally I will go down to that bank myself and deposit the rest of the money for your family.” Again he wrote on the piece of paper, $29, 700. 00. “That’s a lot of money.”
“Okay.”
“Think how happy your wife will be. You just keep that in mind. That’s why you came in here, isn’t it? Isn’t it, Rafael?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” The uncle looked at Larry. “It’s a done deal.”
Rafael asked, “Where’s the contract?”
“This is the contract.” The uncle held up the piece of paper. “What do think I been writin’?”
On the piece of paper was written, Rafael, $250, crossed out, $300, $50, $250, and $29, 700. 00 twice.
The uncle studied it. “Standard. You ready to sign it, Rafael?” He put the paper flat on the desk and turned it around, facing Rafael. He tried to hand Rafael the pen.
Hands on the edge of the desk, leaning over the piece of paper, Rafael thought a moment. He said, “Put in about Thursday. Eleven o’clock Thursday.”
The uncle laughed and turned the paper back toward himself. “Jeez, Larry! This kid doesn’t miss a trick! I forgot to put in about Thursday eleven o’clock. Okay!” He wrote Thursday 11:AM on the paper and turned it back toward Rafael. “You were right not to sign it without that in it, kid.”
Rafael took the pen. Slowly, carefully he wrote, Rael.
Taking the paper, looking at it, the uncle said, “That’s fine. That’s just right, Rafael.”
“Now you sign it,” Rafael said.
“Sure. Of course. That’s how contracts work. We both sign it. Mutual obligation.” On the piece of paper the uncle wrote, Morocco. He showed it to Rafael. “There we are. All signed, sealed and delivered.”
“Sealed?” Rafael asked.
“Just an expression. Forget the envelope.” The uncle folded the piece of paper and handed it to Rafael. “You gonna leave this for your wife to find?”
Rafael stood with the folded contract in his hands. “I guess so.”
“That and the checkbook from the bank Larry fixes up for you”
“Yeah.”
“Then, you see, if that money isn’t in the bank, your relatives can come after me.” The uncle’s eyes glinted into Rafael’s.
Rafael said, “Damn’ right.”
Sitting back in his chair, the uncle put his hands behind his head again. “You’re not gonna tell your wife, anyone, about this, are ya, kid? I mean, before?”
Rafael stared at the wall over the uncle’s head.
Softly, the uncle said, “It would ruin your last days together. You can see that.”
Rafael said, “Yes.”
“Sure, they’d see how brave you are and all, and be grateful plenty to you, but, you know, kid, they’d just be sad, too, and troubled. You want to enjoy your last days together with your family, don’t you, in Morgantown?”
“Yes.”
“Sure. You don’t want a bunch of tears, everybody cryin’. Just leave the contract, the checkbook some place your wife can find it. Somebody will figure out what it all means and go get the money. Your father, maybe, or your brother that owns the truck.”
“Yeah,” Rafael said.
“That’s the best way.” The uncle stood up and put his arm across the desk to shake hands with Rafael. “You’re a brave tough, smart kid, Rafael. You’ll do fine. I have no doubts about that.”
Rafael put his hand in the uncle’s. The uncle held firm.
“Listen, Rafael. Thursday, eleven o’clock, you come here, we’ll have a few drinks together. Get your courage up, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I mean, you show up here too drunk, we’ll just have to wait, and work you over, and that takes time and time costs money. You know what I mean? I mean, everybody will be here, the cameraman, the other two guys… See what I mean?”
With his hand still held by the uncle, Rafael said, “Yes.”
“I understand you wantin’ a drink and all. I’ll give you drinks. When you get here. As much as you want. You hear what I’m sayin’?”
“Yes.”
“What I mean, Rafael, is that if you show up too drunk and not lookin’ good and we have to take the time to straighten you out, that costs money, and what we’ll do is just take that money away from the twenty nine thousand, seven hundred dollars I expect to put in the bank for you. Your family will get less. You do understand that?”
Rafael said, “Yes.”
The uncle gave Rafael’s hand one firm shake and dropped it. “Take this rich kid to the bank, Larry,” he said.
Larry said, “I need the money.”
“Oh, yeah.” The uncle took out his wallet and counted out six fifty dollar bills and handed them to his nephew.
Larry took the money. He said, “Haircut.” The uncle handed Larry another ten.
e
“CHEE! NOT in here!”
Immediately Rafael opened the door of Curly’s Barbershop on Thirteenth Street the short, white-coated, mustached barber came forward with the palm of his hand up to stop him.
“No, you don’t! Not in here, I said!”
He looked over Rafael’s shoulder at Larry.
Rafael had stopped in the doorway.
His hand in the small of Rafael’s back, Larry pushed him forward a few steps.
The barber backed up.
Larry closed the door.
“No!” the barber’s face reddened. “I don’t want him in here!”
“That’s tough,” Larry said. “You’re gonna cut his hair.”
“Never!” The barber closed his eyes and lowered his face.
Larry stepped around Rafael, and stood close to the barber. He looked down at the bald spot on the top of the barber’s bent head. “Don’t give me any your shit, okay?”
The barber’s head snapped up. “You get him out of my barbershop, or I’m callin’ the cops.”
Larry smiled. “You happen to know a Mister Tony Fallon?”
The barber’s eyes searched Larry’s.
Larry said, “Mister Tony Fallon wouldn’t like to hear you threw me out of your barbershop.”
Hands on his waist, the barber looked at Rafael, at his hair. “This is impossible. I can’t do it.”
Larry picked up a magazine and sat in a chair. “You’ll do it.”
“I won’t touch him until he washes his hair. His whole head.”
Larry said, “Don’t bother me.”
“I won’t wash his hair.”
Larry concentrated on the magazine.
The barber sighed. He said to Rafael, “Chee. There’s a sink back here. You know how to use a sink, boy?”
