Turning around I started back in the direction of the hotel feeling like a total failure for not being able to keep up with Brian and A.J. on their way to meet up with the mysterious Devin.
Kicking at a rock on the ground I wondered what would happen if the two of them didn’t get back to the hotel in time for us to leave for the next venue? What if they got in over their heads with this Devin guy and got beaten up or kidnapped or worse? What would I tell everybody…”Oh they left early this morning to meet up with some guy to give him the jewels that they stole. I’m sure they’ll be along shortly.”
Whatever, Kevin would probably pitch me out of the van on my head for not interrupting his little love festival with the German girl the night before to let him know what A.J. and Brian were up to sooner.
“So are we going to go and get some breakfast now or what?” Blinking I looked behind me at the Donkey Kong girl who was walking close on my heels her long curly hair bouncing all around her shoulders like a bunch of miniature Slinky's.
“I’m surprised you’re not six hundred pounds with an appetite like that.” I sneered over my shoulder waving my hand at her like she was a pesky fly. “Why don’t you just go and get your stupid breakfast by yourself I have more important things to do.”
“Like what, follow around those guys wearing the wigs?” Stopping short I spun around bumping into her.
“What do you know about those guys in the wigs?”
“I know that they went down that street.” She turned and pointed to a street with a little flower shop on the corner.
“Are you sure?” I asked grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her making her curls go wild.
“Yes I’m sure. I watched them turn down that street when you stopped to drool over the food in the window.” Pushing her to the side I crossed the street running by the flower shop and down the alley in the direction she had pointed out to me.
“Hey wait for me.” She called out running after me, grabbing for the back of my football jersey.
* * *
Coming down to the end of the narrow street I looked left while she looked right.
“So where to now?” I asked trying to catch my breath.
“I say right.” She pointed right but looked left.
“How come you’re looking left if you think they went right?” Chewing on my lip I knew I had to make a decision and I had to make one fast.
“What difference does it make which way I’m looking?”
“It doesn’t.”
“Well obviously it does.”
“Okay let’s flip a coin.”
“Do you want to find them or not?” She said rolling her big blue eyes at me almost making me forget what I was doing in the first place.
“Yes.”
“Then follow me.” Turning to her left she took off running.
“Hey you said they went right how come we’re going left?”
“I changed my mind!”
We must have run around the maze of streets for thirty minutes and I was just about to give up when I spotted a pair of beat up Adidas and a pair of clunky hiking boots sitting on the stoop outside of a shop with a door painted bright red.
“Wait.” Slinging out an arm I stopped Donkey Kong girl before crouching down low and pointing to the shoes. “Those are Brian and A.J.’s shoes.” I whispered.
“Okay.” She nodded crouching beside me a few of her wayward curls tickling my nose.
"I’m going in for a closer look. You stay here.” I felt like freaking James Bond saving the world and protecting the ladies from harm.
“Promise we’ll go get breakfast after this though okay.” She whispered her stomach growling loudly as I pulled away and crawled towards the stoop.
* * *
The closer I got to the door the more my heart thumped around in my chest and I briefly wondered if it was possible to have a heart attack at fifteen? I’m sure Kevin would know the stats on that since he seemed to think he knew the stats on everything.
“Yes they’re all there.” At the sound of Brian’s voice I stopped dead in my tracks.
“You wouldn’t try to scam me would you boys?” Looking up I realized that the voices were coming from an open window above the door.
“No Devin we would never try and scam you. We have nothing but the utmost respect for you.” The voice was unmistakably Brian’s right down to the use of the word ‘utmost’ which always made me snicker and I didn’t know why.
“Give me the bags.” There was a moment of silence during which I couldn’t decide whether to get the hell out of there or stick around for more-then Devin began to speak again.
“They’re magnificent.” I had to strain to hear the words spoken barely above a whisper in a tone of pure desire. “You boys have done well. Are you prepared for me to reward you with another job?”
I held my breath and closed my eyes willing them to say no. Praying that they would find their conscience’s and tell the guy to go to hell, but not before grabbing a handful of jewels as a keepsake before storming through the bright red door…..Say no….…..Say no…Say no……..Say………
“Yes.” A.J. replied.
“Yes.” Brian replied.
Shit, I exhaled opening my eyes.
Suddenly there was no more talking but I could hear a lot of movement inside of the shop and I wasn’t sure what they were doing or if they were coming to the door. So turning on my hands and knees I quickly began to crawl away stopping just long enough to steal both pairs of shoes from the stoop before signaling Donkey Kong girl to follow me as we both took off running down the alley.
“Here hold these.” I passed back the pair of Adidas to her like a baton in a relay race turning left at the cross street. “Which way is the way out of here?” I hissed turning around to face her while jogging backwards.
“Keep going the way you’re going.” She said her cheeks flushed pink as I turned back around and we continued to run.
“Okay now turn.” She shouted as we both turned a corner almost slamming into a woman carrying a basket of fresh flowers.
“Sorry.” I called out as the woman waved her fist at me tossing some broken stems into the street after us.
“I know a short cut.” Donkey Kong yelled to me and I turned just in time to see her climbing up an iron ladder that hung from the site of one of the buildings.
“Hey where are you going?” I walked quickly to the bottom of the ladder looking to my left and right to see if we were being followed.
“Up here, hurry.” She motioned fumbling around before dropping one of Brian’s shoes.
“Ow!” I shouted as the shoe connected with my forehead before bouncing to the ground. “You totally did that on purpose.”
“I did not.” I could tell she was trying to stifle a giggle.
“You did too and it freaking hurt!” Bending down I grabbed the shoe and pulled myself up onto the bottom rung of the ladder just as she dropped the other shoe.
“My eye!” Grabbing for my eye I stumbled backwards off of the ladder falling flat on my ass, shoes scattered all around me.
“Ooooh I’m sorry!” She winced down at me from up above, well at least it looked like she was wincing she could have been laughing it was hard to tell after getting pegged in the eye with the shoe.
Gathering up the shoes I stood up and got back on the ladder making sure to give it a few good rattles to scare her as we continued to climb.
Once to the top she ran forward to the side of the building leaning out over the edge as I came up behind her both of us looking down at the crowded street.
“Do you see them?” I asked our shoulders bumping as we both tried to catch our breath.
“No, I don’t see them anywhere.” Turning around she sat down pushing her wild curls out of her face as I sat beside her dropping the shoes into my lap.
“Who the hell are those guys?”
“Just some old friends of mine.” I said making sure to put emphasis on the word ‘old’. There was an awkward moment of silence as she sighed.
“Well don’t you want to ask me why I was following them?” I nudged her shoe with the toe of my shoe.
“Not really. I figure when you want me to know you’ll tell me. So what do we do now?” She asked holding a hand over her growling stomach.
“Well,” shrugging I really wasn’t sure what to do now? “I guess we wait until the coast is clear and then go and get you some breakfast.”
“Really?” She smiled at me throwing her arms up in the air. “Hooray I’m totally starving!”
“Hmmm really…. I never would have guessed.”
* * *
We waited on the roof for another twenty minutes shooting rock paper scissors. She chose rock everytime and I kept falling for it until my hand was red from her hitting my measly pair of scissors. As we turned to walk back to the ladder she came up with the brilliant idea of tossing the shoes off of the roof into the Market Square which totally cracked me up. So we each took a sneaker and a boot winging them into the street and laughing as kids came running out to grab them yelling thanks to the sky like God had just rained shoes down on them from up above.
Once we were back down on the ground we decided to go and get some food. She knew a great little sandwich shop where they carved up incredible piles of strangely named meats layering them on the buns until the sandwich was five inches thick. Taking the plates we walked to a tilting table in the corner by the window and sat down.
“You know I don’t even know your name?” She tore into her sandwich managing to look ladylike even as she spilled some mustard down the front of her pale pink blouse.
“It’s Dirk.” I replied going with the standard name that I gave when I was out and about. I had considered changing my name to Dirk when we signed up with Lou figuring it would be cool to just have one name like Madonna or Cher for the fans to identify me with. When I told the guys they laughed for like twenty minutes straight before changing it to “Dork” a name that unfortunately had stuck long after the name “Dirk” had been dismissed.
“Your name isn’t Dirk.” She said grabbing for one of my pickles on my plate.
“Is so.”
“No it isn’t.”
“How do you know that’s not my name?”
“Okay fine,” she set down her sandwich grabbing for a napkin to wipe her messy hands with. “If your name is Dirk then my name is Ruby Tuesday.”
“Okay fine you’re right my name isn’t Dirk, it’s Nick.” I said slapping at her hand as she tried to steal my other pickle. “So what about you what’s your real name.”
“Eva.” She said flashing me a smile that made my stomach do flip-flops.