Two Hundred Dollars

I ever told you about Jim? Snake eyes? Uncomfortable aura? Pack a day smoker but some of the whitest you’d ever seen? Didn’t mean to be nor did he want to be, but he was, quite the intimidating figure, which was interesting since he was only 5’5″. There was something about that guy. Something underneath him, bubbling, boiling, seething, like lava. Just waiting for enough pressure for him to erupt.

Me and him were friends. Pretty good friends. We’d talk for hours about life and people and society and politics. We’d talk about and books and a lot of Dungeons & Dragons. He never talked down to me, he was generous with his cigarettes, and was a real nice guy to me, I could never ever feel quite comfortable around him.

It was that volcano thing.

Well, when I joined the theatre company, I lost contact with all of my friends. My whole life was about theatre, cross-country traveling, creating Art, discovering things hidden inside of me and around people. My new family, the Grains of Rice Theatre Company, were the only people I consistently surrounded myself with. Occasionally I would talk to Corn just to see how things were. But I knew my time with the Valley was coming to a close.

“He did what?!?!?” I asked.

“He put Bill in the hospital.” Corn said. “Your cousin Bill.”

“What the fuck?!?!?” I was shocked. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I wasn’t surprised.

“Yeah, dude. Bill got beat the heck up. By Jim.” Corn said. In the background of his phone, I could hear him tapping away at his keyboard. “Oh shit!”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Motherfucking fucking shit fucking goblin raiders fucking shit fucking are attacking me!” Corn yelled.

He was playing a new computer game called Forever Adventures. A MMORPG. He said it was like Dungeons & Dragons but with no DM.

“No, man. What happened between Bill and Jim?” I asked.

“Shit!” Corn said. “Hold on Xavier!”

For the next fifteen minutes all I heard was the furious slamming of fingers on keyboard and a string of unintelligible curse words coming from Corn’s, most likely, foaming mouth.

“Fuuuuuuck!!!!!” Bellowed Corn. “I’m dead…”

“So…” I began, “What happened between Jim and Bill.”

Corn sighed. Upset. Distraught. Defeated. “Fucking hell, man. This game is tough…”

“Corn. Bro. Dude. Man.” I said, irritated. “What happened between Bill and Jim?”

“Oh. Oh yeah. That’s right.” Corn said. “Sorry. I got distracted.”

“That’s cool. Tell me what happened.”

“Okay, so Bill asked Jim if he could borrow $200, right? He said he would pay Jim back in a week. That was three months ago.” Corn began.

“What’d he need the money for?” I asked. “Doesn’t he have a job?”

“I know, right?” Corn agreed. “No one knows why he needed the money.”

Bill was my cousin. My second cousin. We grew up together. My dad and his dad were close friends. But Bill and me, we didn’t really talk to each other. Not until we ended up in the same community college, Coldwater College, in the Valley.

That’s where I met Jim. That’s where Bill met Jim. That’s where Corn and Apple and Oliver and Long and Jack and the three Christines and Mai Anh Mai and Caesar and Uno and Jerpon and The Bruno and Boo Ya and a whole thousand other people met each other. It was a place where groups of high school graduates congregated with other high school graduates and perpetuated high school antics, but within a semi-college atmosphere. In essence, it was high school with cigarettes.

But that’s where me and Bill started hanging out because all these other people started hanging out with each other. Going to the beach, parties, clubs, amusement parks, and all that jazz. I didn’t have a car so Bill would be the one to pick me up and take me there.

He was a big guy. Not tall, but buff. Buff as shit. He worked out every day and ate the right foods. His muscles had muscles. No joke. Baggy shirts were tight on him. He was a buff ass motherfucker.

During those ‘college’ days, I had a strong affection for this one girl named, Janet. Long curly hair, big watery eyes, voluptuous lips, and was very intelligent. In comparison to all the other girls around, for me, she stood heavens above the rest. I liked her. And everybody knew it. Even Bill.

That didn’t stop Bill from fucking her though. And he never told me about it. I had to figure it out from what other people were whispering about.

I felt betrayed. By my own blood! Of course, I understood me and Janet weren’t in a relationship with each other, and I understood she was free to do what or who ever she wanted to do, but when it came to Bill, when it came to friends, when it came to family, there were just some things a person shouldn’t do.

So I stopped talking to him. And my family called me an asshole for ignoring him. Which widened the gap between me and the rest of them. Which made it easier for me to run away with the theatre company.

“Three months?” I asked. “Did he give a reason why?”

“Nope. He just avoided Jim. Every time Jim walked into the cafeteria, Bill would get up and leave. Every time in the parking lot, when Jim would walk through, Bill would get in his car and drive away.”

“Did Jim call him?”

“Yep. He’d call him and Bill was never home. Jim would even drive to your aunt’s house to see if he was there. Your aunt always said he wasn’t.”

“Damn, dude…”

“Eventually, Jim got sick of it and found out Bill was playing softball at Grant High School.”

At that point, my mind was exploding with a million random thoughts of what Jim, an angry Jim, a pissed off Jim, a Jim I’d never wanted to see, could’ve done to my cousin.

“So what happened?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

“Well, I was there playing softball with all of them. Boo Ya, two of the three Christines, three of the seven Mikes, Nickki, Jack, Frankie, Big Ernie, Little Ernie, Civic Joe, White Boy John, and some other people I didn’t know. We were batting the balls around a little, getting ready to play, when all of a sudden, across the field, on the other side of the gate, we see three dudes.”

“Oh man…”

“I know, right?” Corn said, excited at telling this story and that someone was interested in his telling of it. “Well, we all see them. We stop what we’re doing and see what they’re gonna do, because all they’re doing is standing there watching us. Man, they looked scary. You could see cigarette smoke floating around them. They looked like bounty hunters and stuff! Like they were sent by a king to capture a stolen heirloom! Like they were the legendary three witch-hunters that prophecy foretold would rescue the lands of…”

“Corn.”

“Right. So they start climbing the fence. Still smoking! Then they start walking towards us. Slow. Taking their time. Not even talking to each other. Just staring at all of us.”

“Jeez…”

“Yeah. Ya know, the weird thing was, there was like twenty of us and only three of them. But we were the ones that felt uneasy. It was weird, Xavier. Really freakin’ weird. Magical powers, it was like they had! Like they were kung-fu masters who unlocked the hidden power of Tao…”

“Corn.”

“Right. As they get closer, we could make out who they were. Or at least the one in the middle. The shortest one out of them all. But the one who was the scariest. It was Jim.”

“Who were they other two guys?”

“I dunno. But they were all tatted up and had scars. I think one of them had an eyepatch?”

“Okay, Corn. So what happened?”

“Right! So when we found out it was Jim, Bill starts freaking out! He starts mumbling to himself, stuttering, looking around, with these big worried eyes. He starts sweating. He didn’t know what to do. And it was funny, man. Everyone knew why Jim was there. So the closer those three came, the farther the rest of us distanced ourselves from Bill.”

“Oh man.” I giggled to myself.

“Jim walks straight up to Bill, who kind of looks like he’s crying a little. Jim says, ‘Where’s my money.’ Bill says, ‘I got it right here, Jim! Right here! Don’t worry! I got it!’ Jim says, ‘Then go get it.’ Calm as shit, man! Scary the way he said it. Calm but like boiling at the same time. Ya know?”

That was Jim. About to erupt. Volcano.

“Bill went to his stuff on the bench, fumbled around with his wallet, took out $200, and with his trembling hand, gave it to Jim. ‘Here you go Jim.’ stuttered Bill. Jim looked at him. He looked at the money. He looked at Bill. And his eyes turned to fire. ‘You had the money all this time?’ Jim seethed. Bill couldn’t say anything. Be, literally fell to his knees. Like he was begging.”

“Jesus Christ, man. That’s intense.”

“Yeah man. That’s not even the half of it, though!”

“Man…”

“Jim turned around. He started walking away. Bill looked a little relieved. But those two guys that were with Jim walked up to Bill. Jim just kept on walking. Towards the fence. Bill was trying to call to Jim. For some sort of help or something. Bill tried calling us to help him. But no one, not a single person, out of all twenty or so of us, moved. We were all paralyzed. I know I was. Those two guys proceeded to kick the shit out of Bill.”

“Oh my God…”

“Yeah. And while those tow guys were fucking up Bill, Jim just walked away. He didn’t even look back. And you know what the crazy thing was?”

“There’s something crazier than all this?”

“Yeah. Before Jim left, he dropped the $200 on the ground. On purpose.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I think it had nothing to do with the money. It was about more than that. Honor stuff.”

I understood that. I understood that about Jim. He was an old soul trapped in a society where his way of living didn’t fit.

“Man. How’s Bill?” I asked.

“Doing better. Just a couple of broken ribs.” Corn said. “Some crazy stuff’s been happening while you’ve been traveling, huh, Xavier?”

“Sounds like it.”

I guess I found out what would’ve happened when Jim blew up.

And this was the guy I was going to ask for a job.