THE TIMING, JOE PARENTE [ereader ebook .txt] 📗

just haven’t had a lot of time to think about it. What type of food do you like?” She was getting warm. “I mean if you would like to meet after work sometime, I guess that I could.”

Wow! That’s the best news that has happened to me yet. Feeling over-whelmed, I suddenly did not know what to say.

“Brad?”

“Yes-yes. We could have a nice dinner out and we could get to know each other.” I sounded like a school kid on his first date.

“Tell me more about yourself Brad. I have some time right now to learn a little about you.” She was looking with the most wonderful eyes.

We talked and laughed together for a while. Things were going very well. My joking personality was causing her to laugh. I finally felt very comfortable with her, and I could tell that the same was happening to her.
She talked about a boyfriend she had in college. She had dated him for a full year. Things got serious and eventually they married.

That is when her trust in men fell to the bottom rung. They were married for a total of a year and a half. The trust she had for him eroded severely when infidelity took hold. They ended up in a divorce in which her father bailed her out with a quick settlement. She did not expound on that and I did not ask. I felt better about the background explanation from me, since we had both gone through some tough times. This girl really interested me.

I glanced at the clock, it was almost noon and I was going to be late. “Is that the right time? If it is, I am in trouble. I would much rather talk with you but I have to go.”

“Ok, call me here at the office, bye Brad.”

I hated to leave, just when things were going my way. “I’m sorry I have to go, I promise to call you.” I left in a run.

Pushing open the door of the office building, I was able to catch the cab that Frank was in. “Sorry Frank, made it as soon as I could.”

Frank looked pissed, “Jesus Brad, remember me asking you not to be late?” He was pointing his finger. “Don’t ever be late with any thing the company has you do. You will be in trouble. You’d be playing with fire if this had been a sanctioned appointment. Let’s go get a cup of coffee around the corner.” He slapped me on the shoulder treating me like a teacher scolding a young schoolboy.

I started apologetically, “sorry Frank, it couldn’t be helped. Listen, Old Man Rhorem called and he is in town, he wants to meet at 1:o’clock today. Do I have enough time to get to the hotel?”

“I don’t know Brad it’s going to be tight. What the hell does he want to see you about?” Frank sounded anxious.

“It’s about the contract that I had gotten from the last sale.”

“You didn’t screw that up did you?” His eyes opened in disbelief.

“It was a small thing Frank. It was a forgotten initial on a paragraph.” I tried to make the excuse.

Frank was being very adamant. “Don’t you know by now that there are no small things with this outfit? One has to be very careful to follow all the rules. We are not going to have time for that coffee, we better get back so that you don’t miss him.” We drove back to the hotel. “Now if we get there early you need to wait in the cab until the exact time.” Frank turned to the cabby. “Let me off two blocks before we get to the Walton Hotel.” Frank turns to me. “I don’t want anyone to see me.”

The cab arrived early. “Now remember, wait until it’s time.” Frank got out well ahead of our arrival.

Suddenly, realization set in, I forgot my briefcase with the paper work, contract and all information that needs to be turned in to Rhorem. Shit-Shit-Shit! I leaned over to the cabby. “Can you get me back to the place where you picked me up?” Sweat broke out on my forehead. “I forgot something at Baetacom. You will have to get me back here at 1:PM sharp. Can you do it?”

The cab driver scratched his head at the same time looked at his trip- timer clock on the dash. “Man, you aksin a lot, maybe we can, maybe we don’t. Gonna cost ya extra twenty, but I give ‘er hell.

“Rush, please.” The sweat was building.
The drive was hellish, but it looked like the driver made it. On the return trip, however, traffic got in our way and if I was lucky, I would only be about ten minutes late. ”Thanks, I think that this will be fine.” I handed him forty bucks and opened the door of the taxi.


THE TIMING Joe Parente


Chapter 5


A piano hit me. At least it felt like it. As soon as stepping out of the cab, The sky, the road, the surroundings, all black. The shock hit once more; I felt sick. “Not this again, please not this!” My hand had left the taxi door handle and when I tried to re-establish a grip, it was gone. The cab, the driver, my briefcase, all gone!

When the cab driver stopped, he was right in front of the hotel. I could not see any thing now. Slowly my eyes became accustomed to the dark. I could feel the irises’ of my eyeballs open wide. It felt as though they were as large as manhole covers trying to gather as much light as possible. It was too much for my brain to comprehend.

Stumbling on something, I must have hit my head. The sharp pain above the eyebrow brought me to my senses. I could feel warm sticky fluid dripping down my cheek. Reaching up, I touched it with my finger and I tasted blood.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the word ‘Cigars’ spelled out in neon window sign. It gave an eerie reflection. I had seen that same sign earlier. I thought that the first time that this happened was the result of a horrible hangover. I knew that this time was different. I had not been drinking. Focusing on the sign it seemed to move away as if it were involved in a constant vanishing point getting further and further away. Since it was the only source of light, I started to walk after it. I picked up my pace and soon started into a run. Fear had me running in the dark, but I still was not able to catch up with it. The image did not completely disappear. Its radiance was bouncing a reflection off a narrow passageway. With that minute amount of glow, I realized that the reflection was from the walls of an alley. I must have wandered into it as I was following the red neon’s eerie glow.

Not knowing much about New York, one thing was sure, the place not to be in this city was a dark alley.

Alphonso had been a cab driver in New York for three years, and he had seen many weirdoes, especially around the Time Square area. One would think that in the heart of this section of the city, loaded with sightseers, businessmen, and pedestrians of all types that the possibility of something strange would happen.

With the diverse numbers of ethnicity, this was expected but what happened during this shiny bright day was one for the books.
‘Alfo’, as his friends at the Taxi Company had called him, came from a family riddled with drugs and mayhem. Fatherless for most of his life ‘Alfo’ pulled himself out of the gutter and worked odd jobs until he was old enough to get a drivers license.

He had heard about the taxi-driver opening from one of the buddies at the corner market. He applied and got the drivers position. About a year after he started with the cab company, they filed for chapter thirteen.

The company was saved temporarily by a firm out of California. The company cut back a lot of help and re-arranged new routes to enable the taxi firm to stay in business. Alphonso did well with the new Management Company, until he was laid off. The owners of the cab company were forced to sell or go completely out of business. The new owners re-hired him with the promise of more hours and a chance of a percentage if he could increase business.
‘Alfo’ was thrilled about the program because since the new company had taken over, business had sharply increased. It was easy for him to make an extra hundred a month.

‘Alfo’ liked his job because he made good money and he was able to meet different types of people. He had overheard the conversation between Brad and the person that hired him to wait in front of Baetacom. After the drop off of the other guy, a couple of blocks from The Walton Hotel, he earned a great tip for rushing Brad back to the original pick up spot and the return trip to the hotel.

As Alphonso was looking into his rear view mirror, he noticed his fare writing some sort of report, probably from his last meeting. Upon Brad’s instructions, he stopped his taxi right in front of The Walton. His passenger got out of the cab. Alphonso noticed quickly that his passenger had left his briefcase in the back seat. As he kept his eye on his rider he yelled after him: “Hey mister you for”--, Brad had disappeared! He uttered to himself “What the! He was right here--, well I’ll be damned, he was right here!”

Alphonso looked at his right hand and realized that he was still holding his passenger’s briefcase. “Well I’ll be damned!” His only thought was to get the case back to the owner. The only place that he could think of was the hotel. Double-parked, he ran into the lobby and left the briefcase with the registration desk. “Some guy named Brad left this case in my cab and I’m sure dat he be headed here. He looked like he was in a big ass hurry. I can’t find him, so here,” he left the briefcase.

The clerk said, “thank you we do have a Brad Warner. I’ll be sure he gets this.” The clerk took the briefcase.

Sweat was pouring down my face. It was so quiet that the only sound came from a highly pitched faint buzz that came from my brain. Darkness prevailed. There was no movement except from the strangely hazy glow from the distant red neon. It was getting smaller. It was diminishing in size! Was it vanishing, or was it simply moving away deeper