Turning Point (Jasper FB)

Subject: Turning Point (Jasper FB) Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:07 pm

Sometimes the job can get away from you, even before you realize it is happening. Simple events can take drastic turns in a matter of seconds and those seconds could forever be known as the changing point in your life. The scene for my particular moment was set in the kitchen of a neighborhood bakery, a small mom and pop joint. While mom and pop weren’t who my business was with, their bakery was the accepted collateral in the deal. I remember feeling sorry for the older couple; their only son had offered his inheritance, the bakery his father had built from nothing to give his wife and infant son a better life, as collateral to Jinto in exchange for the money and favor he thought would be the foundation of his rise to the top. Of course nothing the son invested in had panned out the way he thought it should have, a scenario all too common among those who want to get filthy rich without working for it. The son had struggled to pay his own debt payments for a couple years now, but eventually he laid the burden of payment off onto his parents. My weekly collection visits no longer took place at the son’s apartment; now I was walking into an upstanding business and shaking down his old man for the debt an ungrateful son had created. The bakery stop was by far my least favorite, I liked the older couple, they were good people. Their son was scum and didn’t deserve all his father had built for him. I couldn’t believe that he would see his father’s legacy as a burden rather than the gift it truly was. That business had fed and clothed the son all through his childhood and now he seemed to not care in the least that it would have to take on the hardship of paying off his debts. Every week when I stepped inside, finding myself surrounded by the aroma of fresh baked bread, I could see the deep set lines carved into the faces of his parents; lines carved from years of pain and worry. Could their own son see what he had done to them? I doubted that he’d ever taken a moment to really see them in years. It is too easy for children to take their parents for granted, especially those whose parents have given them so much. Again I routinely found my heart aching for those my job demanded I collect from. Most mornings when I would stop in, the woman would hand me one of the mini loaves just out of the oven after her husband would slide the plain white envelope across the counter. Ok so it was just a simple loaf of bread that didn’t cost more than a buck or two, but it was still an act of kindness that she had no reason to offer me. I was only there to take their hard earned money for no other reason than their son is an asshole, yet this poor heartbroken mother still made sure I didn’t walk away without something to fill my stomach. Each time it was almost enough to send me running back home to the only family I have left and sobbing like the twelve year old boy I was when I lost my parents. My mother may not have died that day, but I lost her all the same. Never again did she look at me with those eyes full of maternal love, never again did she hand me a loaf of bread with a smile, never again would she reach over and ruffle my hair. I made sure that the bakery visits were always on Friday morning, so I would have the weekend to regain my composure before returning to the less emotional collections.
640 words, 1 JC, to be continued...

Subject: Re: Turning Point (Jasper FB) Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:31 am

Since the bakery was reserved for Friday collections, I hadn’t expected to hear that it was the source of the problem on that crisp Tuesday night when Kai interrupted my evening with Trinity. Since Trin only got two nights a week off, I tried to spend those two exclusively with her. The random girls I dated never seemed to have a problem with me reserving Sunday and Tuesday nights as ‘Trinity time’. Work was a different story, they didn’t care what night it was, if they needed me they would call and I would go. Trin was more understanding than she needed to be; I knew she wasn’t comfortable with my career choice, but she knew I didn’t have many other options. Usually she would just get quiet and stay out of my way after the call came in, but this night was different. I finally saw the spark of resentment light up her eyes when Kai looked at her like she was nothing more than this week’s arm candy. I knew that would rile her up, she hated it when people assumed she was my girl and not my sister, but usually she would fake it and laugh it off with a toss of her hair saying something like, ‘Heh, like he’d ever land a classy dame like me.’ She didn’t laugh off Kai’s interruption or his dismissal, but thankfully, she didn’t lash out at him either. She got that tone, you know the tone, the one women use with the important men in their lives; the one that lets us know they are unhappy and is accompanied by a swift shot to the heart. Kai made some remark about how our boss, Jinto, feels about mixing broads with business. Trinity waited a beat for me to defend her but of course I stood there like a retarded mute so she announced her exit. Not before sending that familiar knife into my heart though. I stopped her before she could stomp herself home, and probably ruin the cute little shoes she had been so excited about only hours before. I knew if I let her ruin them I would be the one replacing the damn things. Making the formal introductions and sort of apologizing for Kai’s rudeness, I then allowed her to leave, once I was sure the emotional explosion had been successfully contained. Once Trin was gone, Kai resumed his filling me in on the problem. The baker’s son had called Jinto and requested a negotiation. Evidently he thought the initial loan wasn’t enough to balance with his collateral so he wanted more money. More money would raise his payments, the payments he wasn’t even making. I asked Kai if the parents were going to be in on the meeting, because they were the ones paying the debt and the ones in danger of losing everything. Kai shrugged, he didn’t know nor did he care. Guys like Kai remind me that I am in no way one of them, that I am certainly an odd man in my line of work. The ‘Shaker with a Heart’ as Jinto liked to tease me.
524 wc

Subject: Re: Turning Point (Jasper FB) Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:32 am

We arrived at the bakery in no time; it was only a few blocks away. The place was dark; having closed hours ago, but the door was unlocked so we let ourselves in. Kai called out with a grunt of greeting, I was too busy taking in the darkened storefront, waiting for some sign of ambush or trap. The kitchen door swung open and let the bright fluorescent light spill out over the tiled floor. The son and another young man were waiting for us through that door. Kai led the way, he was the talker, the negotiator if you will and I was the backup. I let him handle the business as long as I could. The son was asking to double his debt, which would in turn double the payments his parents would have to pay. I was livid, I couldn’t believe he had the balls to stand there and act like the money meant nothing. I wanted nothing more than to draw my blade and copy that self satisfied smirk right across his throat. I didn’t do that of course, business was business and Jinto liked to it when fools tried to double down on debts. It put more money in his pockets. If Jinto offered interest rates comparable to a bank or lending agency, the son’s debt would already have been paid off, but Jinto was no bank, he was a businessman and he liked to make money no matter the cost. Kai let the smug fucker talk for way too long; let him go on and on about some new scheme he’d heard about that would give him his big break. How many other times had I heard these fools talk that trash? Too many. Here I was, barely twenty-two and already I felt the weariness of a middle aged man stuck in a dead end job. Thank goodness my job wasn’t a dead end; I just had to stick it out for Jinto a little while longer, then I would take the next step up in the business. As I listened to the son ramble on about all this money he’s going to be making, something within me snapped. His mother’s face swam through my mind, her wrinkled arthritic fingers handing me a loaf of bread she’d kneaded and baked. I couldn’t take any more of his bullshit. “Can your parents afford to cover your ass this time?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I’d crossed the line. The smug bastard only shrugged and looked to his buddy with a cocky grin. “Who knows? If they can’t, your boss gets to try his hand at the baking business.” The buddy laughed with him then and before I knew what I was doing, my blade was out and heading for the worthless pile of flesh and bones standing before me. “Jazz, no!” I heard Kai’s outburst but nothing could stop my sword now. I smiled as the tip of my blade sank in to the side of his lousy gut but my momentum was halted abruptly and my ears were staring to ring. The buddy had pulled a gun, not only pulled it but fired. I couldn’t feel the shot yet, too much adrenaline pumping; but I could hear the ringing in my ears from the echo in this highly acoustic room. Kai had drawn his own weapon and was staring to fire back but the buddy was too quick for him. I watched my associate take two to the chest and one to the neck before hitting the linoleum floor. His eyes were still open and his face had frozen in shock. Another round hit me in the stomach, this one I felt immediately as well as the first two that had hit my shoulder and chest. As I fell back onto the cold, hard floor, I watched the buddy grab the son and run out through the front of the bakery. When the door swung wide I caught a glimpse of my sister crouched beneath the counter.
680 wc, 1 JC

Subject: Re: Turning Point (Jasper FB) Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:20 am

I don’t know if I felt more relieved or pissed off to see that she had followed me. I wanted to know how many other times had she tried it. How many horrible things had she seen me do all for the sake of this job? I didn’t ask her, I couldn’t. When she came in and knelt beside me, her small delicate hands trying to block the blood pumping from my wounds, all I could do was be grateful she was with me. She asked if she should call for an ambulance but I refused that; I couldn’t be taken to a legitimate hospital after what had happened here. Instead I told her to call Jinto, he would handle it. I held on to my awareness until I was sure she had reached him; once I heard her talking to him I knew I was free to let the pain and blood loss take over. That’s when the kitchen, and Trinity, became more like a dream but only for a while. I remember seeing her grab clean rags and start wiping down stuff. At first I didn’t know why, couldn’t understand what would make her clean at a time like this, but eventually the realization of fingerprints and blood came to me. Jinto was already taking care of things; he’d been the one to tell her what to do. While she was still busy erasing our presence from the bakery I let the darkness slip in and cocoon me from everything else that went on that night.

The next few days are still a surreal blur in my memory. Trin and Jinto have helped me with some of the pieces but I don’t think everything will ever reveal itself to me, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Waking up in a stark white room surrounded by beeping machines on all sides was disconcerting but it was better than not waking up at all. Trinity was there, slumped in an obviously uncomfortable chair with her legs curled beneath her. The harsh lighting of the room made her skin appear sallow and unhealthy; somehow I knew it wasn’t just the lighting, she’d stayed here since I’d arrived. I didn’t want to wake her so I tried to shift my body into a more comfortable position. I wasn’t expecting the sudden flash of pain that lanced through my chest. The hiss that escaped my clenched jaw was enough noise to have my sister stirring. “Jazz?” There was a hopeful tone in her voice as she sat up and rubbed at her bleary eyes. Forgetting about the pain, I felt a smile spread over my face just before I tested my dormant voice. “Yeah.” I croaked out and ended with a scratchy clearing of my throat. Attempting it again, I nodded my head slowly. “Yeah, Trin, I’m alive. What happened?” Trinity jumped from the chair and rushed to the tiny spot of my bedside that wasn’t taken over by machines and tubes. Taking my hand in hers she scanned my body with tear filled eyes. “You almost died, that’s what happened. Some guy shot you three times, one punctured your lung and another played pinball with your internal organs.” I was afraid of that, no wonder there was so much pain. “Where are we?” I knew this couldn’t be a legit hospital, Jinto wouldn’t risk sending me there, but it had the distinct smell of some sort of medical establishment. Trin eyed the door before leaning down and dropping her voice to a whisper. “It’s some kind of experimental lab or something. There are doctors and scientists everywhere around here. They said the only way they could save you was by using some cutting edge technology stuff.” I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of this so far, especially not once I saw Trin chewing at her bottom lip. That was her easiest tell, the one she did when there was something she didn’t know how to say. “Spit it out Trin. What happened?” One heavy sigh and a couple lip bites later, my sister finally spilled the beans. “They tried to patch you up by normal means but it was too bad, there was just too much damage done. You died on the table a couple times, they said once more and they weren’t sure bringing you back would work. I signed the papers, Jazz, I let them do it. Please think about what you would have done in my place. I couldn’t watch you die when there was another option I hadn’t tried yet.” This story was sounding worse and worse with each passing breath, but I had to hear her out. I would have done whatever it took to keep her alive had she been the one teetering on the edge, so I could sympathize with her dilemma. “What did they do, Trin? I won’t get upset, I just need to know.” I tried not to let the thoughts crowd my mind; the worries about functionality and living a normal life wouldn’t help me right now, not until I knew what had been done. Finally Trinity spoke again, and what she said would haunt me for years to come. “They replaced what they couldn’t save. Called them cyber-something implants. They’re supposed to make you stronger, better, more powerful than before. It all sounded so good when they told me it would save your life. I didn’t understand what exactly was involved. The implants have changed you, I mean you still look the same, but they told me there would be strange things that you would be able to do. Jinto seemed excited about it, he’s been coming by everyday asking how ‘our cyborg’ is doing. Can you believe that? You almost die helping his business thrive and he gets all happy and calls you a cyborg, like you’re some dude from Star Trek or some other futuristic space show. I hate him, Jazz, I really do.” Cyber-something implants? They turned me into some kind of machine. How is that even possible? It was too much to take in at once, not to mention the malevolence for my boss sprinkled on top. “So I’m part man, part machine now? Am I some fucked up experiment that’s going to self destruct in ten years or what?” I was steadily beginning to lose it here. I had to still be asleep, this could not be happening. I’m only twenty-two, how can a percentage of my body already be metal? Oh god, the pain was getting worse, where the hell was a nurse with a syringe full of drugs when I need her? Trinity began to cry by now; she’d held the tears back as long as she could. “I’m sorry, Jazz; I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to lose you; I couldn’t stand the thought.” It didn’t matter now. What had been done was already done and I couldn’t change it. I would have to live with it from here on out. As my sister called in the nurse, asking for pain medication for me, I hoped that I would find a silver lining to this very dark cloud at some point. It wouldn’t happen today, but possibly someday.
1210 wc, Possession Quest

Subject: Re: Turning Point (Jasper FB) Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:53 am

Updated.

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