Have you ever wished to close your eyes and wake up in the past? I have at the point it was brought about it seemed foolish but now it's important. And the worst mistake i've ever made. Sure i've made mistakes, but this time i wish i had made a different choice. Deep down i knew if i could, i wouldn't. You probably don't know what the hell im talking about. All explain with all the gory details.
First let's start with who i am,that might come in handy later, my handle Forsythe Pendleton Jones III, but everyone seems to call me jughead. I was weaned on tv re-runs of bogart movies,after graduating last in my class at riverdale's college of criminology. I became a private dick. You know those sleazy guys that housewifes hire to get snapshots of their husbands cheating. The poor saps that really think life can be like those romantic movies. This time it was.
Even the way it started should have told me i was in for it, with some tacky well-dressed drunk hiring me in a smoky bar to find his runaway daughter. He payed me five thousand clams in advanced and supplied me with a picture of a dame who had more curves than a west coast highway.
Daddy's little girl had been nursing a degree in greendale the troops that had taken the beach away from the sun. and after hearing about her from almost every american soldier on the island i taced the doll to a small long forgotten island in the eastern caribbean.
And that's what brought me here to pops, a small bar tucked into the corner of the island. It was and interesting place to say the least with even more interesting people , the owner veronica had seen more of the underside of life than behind the scenes of a major motion picture.
Here every face had a past, every nerve strung so t a string orchestra, peaches at the moment before the conductor's baton sung down at that last was here i found my run away.
Veronica sat there annoyed watching the door "betty you're late!"
Just then my girl Betty walked in. "i was detained." she shot the shorter girl an equally annoyed look.
"Detained?" she rose a black eyebrow.
"By the St. Vincent police, they've been questioning me for hours."
"I'm surprised you even showed up, i thought you'd be mourning."
"And i thought you might be."
"Well then we're both wrong .by the way, you were in such a hurry to leave with jason last night you forgot you eating,now shall we our customers a wait"
"Let them wait" the girl stripped off her coat and gloves left in a rather revealing dress.
Betty Wonderly at least that's the name she was going by when i found her, her real name was betty cooper, can't say i blame her for changing it. Something tells me her name isn't the only thing that changed since Daddy last saw her. But even if she was ready to run back home to Riverdale, the cops wouldn't let her, the mysterious death of the bar's owner- a man who went through women like congress goes through tax relief, taking away all that's good and leaving a trail of heartbreak. Now i had to get close to her and fast, she was in deeper than she even knew.
"Madam Blossom?"
The dark haired dame turned around. "Politer people have called me that, it's veronica. What can i do for you"
"A day of work. I'm an american fellow down on his luck just need a few more greenbacks to get back home."
"What makes you think i can use a stranger in my place?" she crossed her arms and jetted out her hips giving me a once over.
"Well the owner just died i figured a few faces would decided they wouldn't have to show."
She thought her dark eyes brightening as she laughed. "Your a smart guy, true but what are you running from? What makes you worth the risk?"
"I don't run away from anything so no risk."
"Let me explain something ah-"
"Jughead." her eyes narrowed
"mr. jug-head" she spat out my name. She led me to a young couple a pale girl with dark hair and a equally pale man with piercing eyes. "Her such an innocent face. You'd never guess as a teenager she carved up her parents with a electric knife the night before thanksgiving and served them to her relatives. She would have gotten away with it to, but her father's golden tooth got mixed into the stuffing. And him he had nineteen different life insurance policies in nineteen different states. But they went bankrupt, next time try nineteen different companies."
"Never going to their place for dinner" i couldn't help but mutter.
"See jughead everybody here has secrets until they come to pops. Well i like you you can take drinks." she handed me a notepad.
A redheaded man intercepted her. " is that wise ronnie?"
"Oh archie you amuse me, i'm still manager here." she walked off the redhead following her trail to the kitchen.
I turned to find a african woman looking up at me "is it true when you say that you never run away from anything?" she seemed slightly interested.
"Yeah i'm like the stupid sheepdog we had when i was growing up, one day he decided to chase the neighbor's car unfortunately it was the day they moved to alaska."
"Well, i love a man with conviction." she eyed me.
Betty came up behind her "most of the men here have been convicted, that explains why you've made love to so many of them, valerie"
"At least i just love to love not to make money." she sassed i saw betty move to slap her, acted fast as i grabbed her hand right before it hit her cheek.
I saw a large burly man enter the room,leather jacket and a scar on the left side of his face. "Valerie baby i think we hit pay dirt." he notices me giving me an intense evil eye "who are you?"
Betty stepped in smiling like a fool. "Someone new your girlfriend has taken a liking to,reggie. Oh this is reggie, he's a three time offender wanted in jamaica, barbados, and the bahamas for gun smuggling, manslaughter and being a public nuisance. Reggie meet jughead, a total stranger ronnie put on for the night and someone your voodoo queen has the evil eye for i'll leave you three." she got off to leave. I saw reggie pull a knife.
"Going without a goodbye kiss?" i pulled her in for a sloppy desperate kiss to hear valerie stomp off and reggie call after her.
When i let Betty go she slapped me "what's the matter you got me into the mess, might as well get me out of it."
"Your a smart guy jughead, smart guys aren't my type?" i watched her hips sway was she walke of. Then hears a deep chuckle and a slow applause. "Very good now i must ask is your talent for getting of trouble extend beyond domestic troubles.
"Perhaps mr.-"
"Keller. Kevin Keller. A dealer in the black market i can get you anything at a price." he was a good looking man taking long drags of a cigarette flashing a wicked smile.
"What is it you can't get for yourself." i shook his hand something 'about him made me uneasy.
He sighed "insightful as well. You're a man of surprises, and to answer you question my freedom. Have you noticed that everyone here has stepped out of a 1940's movie, everything is so gray. I may fit in here but i want to leave here."
"Fits in with mr. Blossoms murder."
"Jason was supplying me with a passport and passage on one of his ships . I am a man with no identity, a fugitive with a new face, a doctor friend of jason's. If only he used anesthesia." kevin shook his dark hair shuttering.
"Trouble with the law?"
"If only if only it were that simple, but i'm being watched and you are a stranger to the island. I have a key to blossoms office i have the key to make it easier for you, it's behind the kitchen."
"Why can't you do it yourself?"
"The walls have eyes my friend the walls have eyes." he slipped back into the shadows. Though i'd be lying if i said i hadn't thought of it but my mind was on one thing the pretty blonde i was sent here for Betty 'Wonderly'.
Author's note so this was a play i did last year i changed bits and pieces, but generally it is the same i put the characters where i thought they fit, but bughead is my ship so i thought it would be fun. The play was murder at cafe noir. It just made me think of this show for some reason.