Hello all! Sorry for the delay! Writing was definitely put on a back burner for me for quite a while but suddenly I've had lots of inspiration and been writing more recently. So here are a couple more chapters and I may have a few more done soon. I'm not positive now how far I will take this fic but I'm going to just roll with it and see where it takes us. Thanks to all who have read and reviewed! You support helps a lot! -Moki
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Once outside his building, Freddy took note of the car that would be following him on this meeting. Careful not to show any outward signs of recognition, he quickly crossed the street and opened the back door to Eddie's car. Holdoway had told him he was going to be followed and he knew that they'd recognize him as soon as he walked out of his door. No signal was needed and as soon as Eddie pulled away, the backup followed.
"Okay boys, this is Mr Orange." Eddie said to everyone in the car as soon as Freddy got in. Freddy nodded a greeting to the car at large and Eddie drove off.
Freddy recognized the man in the front seat with Eddie as the same "Mr. White" he'd met the other night at the bar with Joe. The other man sitting in the backseat with him was unfamiliar but nodded back briefly at Freddy and seemed friendly enough.
Apparently Freddy had arrived in the middle of something. For as soon as they were on their way, the man next to him spoke to Mr. White as if continuing a conversation.
"Hey, I know what I'm talking about, black women ain't the same as white women" he said.
"There's a slight difference" White replied sarcastically
"Very funny. You know what I mean. What a white bitch will put up with, a black bitch won't put up with for a minute, man. They got a line, and if you cross it, they fuck you up" The guy in back said.
"I gotta go along with Pink on that one. I've seen it happen" Eddie said in agreement from the frontseat.
Pink? Freddy thought to himself. Then it occurred to him that if he was "Orange" and there was a "White" and now a "Pink" then Joe must have given them all colors as code names. Nice trick, he admitted.
"Okay, Mr. Expert. If this is such a truism, how come every nigger I know treats his woman like a piece of shit?" White asked Pink.
"I'll make you a bet that those same damn niggers who were showin' their ass in public, when their bitches get'em home man, they chill the fuck out" Pink replied authoritatively.
"Not these guys" White replied with confidence.
"Yeah, those guys too" Pink answered.
"Let me tell you guys a story. In one of Daddy's clubs there was this black cocktail waitress named Elois" Eddie said from the driver's seat and the other two shut up.
"Elois?" Mr. White asked, amused.
"Yeah, Elois. E and Lois. We called her Lady E" Eddie replied.
"Where was she from, Compton?" Mr. White asked and seeming to find this extremely funny, started cracking up.
"No she was from Ladora Heights" Eddie replied, not really understanding why White was cracking up.
"Oh Ladora Heights. That's the black Beverly Hills" Pink said from the backseat, laughing now himself.
Freddy had sat quietly throughout the entire conversation. At first he'd felt a little nervous around these guys and wasn't sure how to behave. But the more he observed them the more comfortable he became. These guys were just shootin' the shit like guys do and it put Freddy at ease. Everyone in the car was laughing at this point and Freddy found that he was smiling along with the rest.
"No, it's not the black Beverly Hills, it's the black Palos Verdes" Eddie replied to Pink, sending White went into hysterics again for no apparent reason.
"Anyway" Eddie continued "Lady E, I mean she was a man eater-upper. Un-fuckin'-believable. Every guy that ever, EVER laid his eyes on her had to jack off to her at least once" He said and everyone laughed again.
"You know who she looked like?" he asked. "She looked like Christie Love. Remember that TV show Get Christie Love? She was a black female cop"
Freddy found himself looking up suddenly at the word "cop" and gave s slight smile that went unnoticed by the rest of the guys.
"Yeah, yeah" Pink chimed in.
She always used to say…" Eddie continued.
"You're under arrest sugar!" Pink finished with Eddie, obviously having seen the show.
"What was the name of the chick that played Christie Love" Pink asked.
"Pam Grier" Eddie replied.
Finally having something to contribute, Freddy spoke up from the backseat.
"No, it wasn't Pam Grier, Pam Grier was the other one. Pam Grier did the film. Christie Love was like a Pam Grier TV show, without Pam Grier" he replied.
"So who was Christie Love?" Pink asked Freddy
"How the fuck should I know?" Freddy replied, shrugging.
"Great, now I'm totally fucking tortured" Pink said, exasperated.
"Whoever it was, it doesn't matter. She looked exactly like Elois" Eddie interjected from the front seat, obviously tired of having his story cut off.
As Freddy thought about it more he realized he might know the actress's name.
"Anne Francis" he said in response to Pink's question finally.
"No" White said "That was Honey West"
"Anne Francis is white" Pink told Freddy with an amused look.
"Shut up, alright! I'm tryin' to tell a story here, she looked exactly like Elois" Eddie said, jumping back into the conversation. He sounded so much like a scolding father that Freddy couldn't help but to laugh. Looking over he saw Pink cracking up as well and the two of them just looked at each other, busting up like little boys in the backseat.
"Anyway" Eddie continued. "I come into the club one night and there's Carlos. The bartender, he's a wetback, he's a friend of mine" Eddie said and again everyone lost it. Calling a "friend" a racial slur like "wetback" seemed funny to everyone, including Eddie, who chuckled along with the rest.
"And I says to him" Eddie again tried to continue his story "Carlos, where's Lady E tonight? Now apparently Lady E was married to a real piece of dog shit. I mean, a real fuckin' animal. He used to do things to her…."
"Do things? Do things like what? What would he do? Did he beat her up or something?" Freddy asked curiously.
"I don't know what he did. He just did things, alright?" Eddie said, annoyed.
"Alright" Freddy answered quietly. He was beginning think he should have kept his mouth shut.
"So anyway one night she plays it real cool. She waits for this bag of shit to get drunk. He falls asleep on the fucking couch, she sneaks up on him, she puts some Wacko Glue on his dick and glues his dick to his belly" Eddie said laughing.
Everyone in the car groaned at that thought and all responded to Eddie's claims.
"No, man!" Pink said, amazed.
"Oh, Jesus Christ" White said in disgust.
"You can do some crazy stuff with it" Freddy said, admirably.
"I'm serious, I'm serious man. They had to call the paramedics to cut the prick loose. Literally" Eddie continued, really enjoying the reaction he was getting from the rest of the guys.
"Was he all pissed off?" White asked and then cracked up at the unintentional joke he'd made.
"Well how would you feel if every time you had to take a piss you had to do a fucking hand stand?" Eddie asked and the entire car lost it. Everyone laughed so hard they thought their sides were going to bust. For the rest of the ride they then exchanged stories about the most outrageous things they'd heard done to other guys' junk.
"….so then the drunk asshole drops the lighter right in his crotch" Pink was saying as Eddie pulled into the parking lot of a small warehouse. Everyone groaned and continued to laugh as they all piled out of the car.
As Freddy got out he looked around briefly before following the others inside. He noted that there were three other cars in the lot already so it looked like they were the last to arrive. He saw no sign of the cops following him but he really didn't expect nor want to see them either. They knew better than that. Once inside the warehouse he saw Joe standing in front of a chalkboard with some outlines already done of the store where the job was to be done and the streets around it. Chairs were set out in front of the board and with Joe standing in front of it, looked like an old fashioned schoolroom.
Three of the chairs were already filled, two in the front row and one in the back. In the front row sat two dark haired men. The first was wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and what appeared to be a permanent smirk on his face, smiling at the guys walking in late. While both seemed to be tall, the second man was bigger. He looked on seriously as Freddy and his group walked in the door, his eyes never leaving them. The man sitting in the back row was much older than the rest of them and Freddy wondered for a moment what Joe was thinking. He had thought that White would end up being the oldest and therefore more experienced out of the whole crew but seeing this new guy proved that theory incorrect. Freddy then figured that Joe probably had known this guy for a while and was probably putting him on this job because of that. Still, it was odd sitting down next to a man who looked almost old enough to be his grandfather.
Feeling like they were late to class, Freddy and his group quickly took seats in front of Joe. They all had been giggling a little still over Pink's story but the look on Joe's face shut them all up. Freddy and Mr. Pink took the two empty chairs in the back while Eddie and White took seats in the front row.
Joe waited for them all to settle before speaking.
"So you guys like to tell jokes and kid around, huh? Joe said without introduction. "Giggling like a bunch of young broads in a schoolyard"
"Well let me tell a joke" Joe continued "Five guys sittin' in a bullpen in San Quentin. Wondering how the fuck they got there. What'd we do wrong? What should we have done? What didn't we do? It's your fault, my fault, his fault. All that bullshit. Finally someone comes up with the idea: 'wait a minute, while we were planning this caper all we did was sit around and tell fucking jokes'. Got the message? Joe asked the group at large. Not really expecting an answer, he continued.
"Fellas I don't mean to holler at ya" he continued in a quieter tone. "Now, when this caper's over, and I'm sure it's gonna be a successful one, hell we'll go down to the Hawaiian Islands and I'll roar and laugh at all of you. You'll find me a different character down there. Right now it's a matter of business" he said seriously.
"With the exception of Eddie and myself, who you already know, we're going to be using aliases in this job. Under no circumstances do I want ANY one of ya to refer to each other by your Christian name. And I don't want any talk about yourself personally. That includes where you've been, your wife's name, where you might have done time, or a bank maybe you robbed in St Petersburg" he said, looking at each of them in turn to be sure they were getting the message.
"All I want you guys to talk about if you have to, is what you're gonna do. That should do it" he finished.
"Here are your names" And pointing at each in turn he called them out.
"Mr. Brown" he pointed at the smirking man in the Hawaiian shirt.
"Mr. White" he pointed at the man Freddy already knew as Mr. White.
"Mr. Blonde" he pointed at the big, serious guy.
"Mr. Blue" he pointed at the older man seated to Freddy's left.
"Mr. Orange" he pointed at Freddy.
"And Mr. Pink" he pointed finally at the man Freddy already knew as Pink.
"Why am I Mr. Pink?" Mr. Pink asked the question he'd obviously wanted an answer to for a while.
"Because you're a faggot, alright?" Joe responded and all the guys laughed.
"Why can't we pick our own colors?" Mr. Pink asked, not wanting to drop the subject just yet. Freddy wished he would shut the hell up but he couldn't really blame the guy. He'd thought that "Orange" was a stupid name but now he was really grateful it hadn't been worse.
"No way, no way" Joe said annoyed. "Tried it once and it doesn't work. You get four guys all fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black and they don't know each other so nobody wants to back down" shaking his head he continued.
"No way, I pick" Joe said pointing to himself forcefully. "You're Mr. Pink. Be thankful you're not Mr. Yellow" he added.
"Yeah but Mr. Brown, that's too close to Mr. Shit" Mr. Brown protested from the front row.
"Mr. Pink sounds like Mr. Pussy" Pink responded. "How about if I'm Mr. Purple? Yeah that sounds good to me, I'll be Mr. Purple" Pink said as if that would end it.
Freddy could see that Joe was starting to get a little fed up with this game.
"You're not Mr. Purple" he said to Pink. "Some guy on some other job is Mr. Purple. You're Mr. PINK!" he repeated, angrily.
"Who cares what your name is?" White asked Mr. Pink over his shoulder, trying to shut him up.
"Yeah that's easy for you to say, you're Mr. White you have a cool sounding name" Pink replied. "Alright if it's no big deal to be Mr. Pink you wanna trade?" he asked White.
"Hey" Joe said, really getting pissed now "Nobody's trading with anybody. This ain't a goddamn fucking city council meeting you know"
"Now listen up, Mr. Pink" he continued. "There's two ways you can go on this job. My way or the highway"
"Now what's it gonna be Mr. Pink?" he asked, staring at Pink angrily.
Realizing that his battle was lost and probably thinking he should let it go, Pink finally conceded.
"Jesus Christ Joe, fuckin' forget about it. It's beneath me, you know? I'm Mr. Pink. Let's move on" he said shrugging.
"I'll move on when I feel like it. You all got the goddamn message?" he said to everyone, looking at them all again.
"I'm so goddamn mad hollering at you guys I can hardly talk. Let's go to work" and with that he turned to the blackboard and started going over the plans for the heist.
Joe gave them descriptions of the store and the employees that would be working that day, including the manager. He went through the time frame of how long they would be in and out and how soon he expected them back at the rendezvous. He then assigned each of them to a particular job on the heist and instructed them that no one was to change positions under any circumstances. He'd chosen who was going to do what very carefully and didn't want his planned messed with at all.
Freddy wasn't surprised when he was given duty to guard the door. It was definitely a "newbie" position but still an important one. He knew that probably the rest of the guys figured that this must be his first big job because of it but he didn't really care. After all it was his first "big job". They didn't need to know anything more than that.
After about an hour of going over the plan and answering the questions that came up, Joe let them go. Eddie immediately went to speak to his father and the guys broke up into groups, talking for a little while before leaving.
Freddy decided to take advantage of the extra time and went to the blackboard to study it a little more. This sort of thing wasn't foreign to him. He'd been a part of a few operations on the force that had required similar preparation. Still though he wanted to make sure that he got all the information right so took out a small notepad and pen and started making notes. He was just writing down the name of the streets around the store when he heard a voice suddenly behind him.
"You know if Joe catches you doing that, he'll probably shoot you"
Freddy was caught completely off guard and gave such a start that he dropped both pen and notebook. The voice broke up in laughter and as Freddy retrieved the fallen book, he looked up to find Mr. White standing over him. Still laughing, Mr. White bent down and picked up Freddy's pen, handing it to him.
"Sorry kid. I didn't mean to scare you like that" he said, smiling kindly.
"No problem, guess I'm a little too jumpy, huh?" Freddy responded, chuckling at himself.
"It's just that Joe doesn't like anyone to write anything down about his jobs. So if you wanna remember something you're just gonna have to keep it up here" White said, tapping his own head with a forefinger meaningfully. Then seeing Freddy's dismay, he continued.
"Listen kid if you want I can help you go over it. Once you go over it a couple times you'll remember everything really easily" he said and Freddy was struck by how similar he sounded to Holdoway, giving advice on memorizing that damn story.
"Uh, yeah that would be great, thanks" Freddy said uncertainly. He hadn't expected anyone to help him out on this so he was taken a little off guard.
"Tell you what, how 'bout I pick you up at your place tomorrow at around 12:00 and we'll do a little recon to check the place out, okay?" White asked.
"Yeah sure, 12:00 works for me" Freddy said, still surprised.
"Alright guys, everyone who came in my car, let's go" Eddie said suddenly from the door. Pink had been talking to Brown in the back and now headed for the door along with Freddy and White.