Chapter 8

Francine

A Wonderful Kind of Day

Y'hei sh'lama raba min sh'maya

v'chayim aleinu v'al kol yis'ra'eil v'im'ru

Amein

I hadn't killed anyone yet.

The words I had echoed off the temple walls preceded a silence that I rarely knew in my local temple. Grey stones bounced the words around until they left out of the high open window to mingle with the sounds of the garden beyond.

Even the sounds of the cars picking up and dropping off young scholars, and old rabbis had vanished after my prayer.

"so you're resorting to hiding in your temple huh?" suddenly the silence made sense to me. Nobody would want to be around molly McDonald.

"You fucking dreck!" I flipped around so fast, my prayer Schall almost fell off. "What are you doing, cunt? I was praying!"

"Oh I'm sorry, I thought there was a war on. But if you want to keep running from it then that's fine. I'll just fight the fucking war by myself."

I moved the right side of my prayer Schall away from my hip, revealing the gun behind it.

"We don't go to war unless I say so."

"So you're just gonna let what he did stand?"

"Of course not."

"Then what are you gonna do about it?"

"That's not your business until I make it so."

She stood sideways at me, flashing a golden desert eagle. "Whatever you do, you better get it done quick."

Suddenly, I realized that I was before God and put mine away behind the prayer Schall. "Or what? What exactly happens if I don't?"

"We won't work for somebody that can't pay us."

It was bad enough we had guns in the Temple, but there was an evil presence with us. "Wait this is just about the money?"

"Business is business. Slink fucked up, he got shot. That's it. The important thing is getting product for your customers. You can't let Arthur steal it from you and live."

I sat on the Temple steps as she reached the front of the building. Molly took a seat next to me. "I still can't believe he had it in him. I mean he killed Slink. He was one of our best guys. I always thought it was Buster I had to watch out for, but that four-eyed fuck got the better of me."

"That's why he's dangerous. If there's still a fight left to have, he won't fight straight up. He'll come at you sideways, hit you where you least expect it, how you least expect it."

I stared right at her. "Do you think we can win?"

She couldn't even answer me with her eyes, but I could see it in her frown. "I don't know. With the Hammer on his side, I just don't know."

"But he's just one man."

Molly snickered at me for a moment and pointed toward our ride. After a long ride, we approached my new palacial estate. There were cars filling up my new house's driveway. Some of them belonged to family, some of themto my employees. When I walked into my house, I saw so many faces I didn't recognize. I knew my parents had dozens of family members coming over from Israe, and all over the states, and I knew that Molly had brought over Tough Customers from across the country, but I didn't think there would be over 100 people in my house when I got home.

"Hey honey. I see you brought some of your friends." The fear in my fathers voice chilled my blood.

I thought to myself, "Is this what I am? A monster whose parents are even afraid of her?"

"You okay, honey?"

"Yeah Dad...yeah. I'm fine." His wide happy smile sunk before he left to play the head of the household.

I whispered into Molly's ear. "Bring all your men into the playroom. Tell the adults we're having a 'tea party.'"

I could tell which ones she was going to pick out of the crowd. I knew the moment I saw how they looked at my dad. My family members would greet him with a smile as wide as his and a firm handshake. Molly's men...well they did the exact same thing. You would never know as an onlooker which ones were which.

Here's some advice: when you're looking to pick the monsters out of a crowd, look at the honest ones. Honest people have the most to hide, because all of us are full of shit. Those of us who are truly good have demons and secrets that were poor at hiding from others. The monsters, well, they know just how full of shit to be, just enough to fool us.

Molly shepparded everyone I knew she would into my room.

"I entered the room, calm, authoritative, in control. "alright. You are the toughest customers I have. I'm putting a bounty on Arthur's head. Let the hammer know that we will double arthurs offer to him. Put it out to everyone who owns a gun. Bring me Arthur's fucking balls on a platter, and you get 10,000."

They stared at me blankly, waiting for me to shove them off. When I did, Molly lingered. "that'll get them working harder. Do you know where you're gonna get the product from?"

"I don't know, but this is why I saved half of everything.i have enough for the reward, and enough toi buy another few kilos from Ramone."

"and what if Ramone hears about what happened?"

I shut my door as party goers started to linger in the hall. " what does it matter to him?"

"he's making an investment in us. If he doesn't think we can keep buying his packages, he's gonna sell them to someone else, someone who can keep buying them, someone who can keep making him money Francine."

Before she could continue, my father burst open the door, carrying a parade of guests. " and here's her playroo..."

The moment he saw me, he stopped in his tracks. "oh. Sorry hun." The guests behind him stepped back.

"its okay dad." I gestured Molly to the door. "were done here." She knew just how to leave, excusing herself politely through the cluster of cousins and aunts. I wished I knew how to project the way she did, or the way my men did. My own family members left as soon as possible, leaving my father by himself with me, stinking of fear.

"business?"

"yeah dad."

He didn't so much close the door as much as touch the end of it to the frame. "can I sit?" He pointed toward a chair by my computer desk.

"of course. Go ahead."

He sat on the edge of the seat, swinging with only his toes on the floor. "so how are you?"

"I don't know. Fine." I grabbed one of the toys I'd never played with, hoping he would trail off, and leave."

"I... I just want to make sure you're... Francine?"

"yes dad?"

"can you look at me?"

I couldn't. "I..." I started looking for a new sweater in the dresser at the edge of the room.

"Francine. It's not your fault."

I couldn't find one. I had to find something to put over it to cover the tears that were soaking it. "what!?"

When I turned around, he shot back up, and backed away from me.

I stumbled to the floor.

He stepped forward, too afraid to touch my shoulder. "binky was insane. Anybody could've set him off. you didn't do anything wrong."

"I shouldn't have told you. You don't need to justify it to me. I'm a monster."

"no. Your my angel Francine."

"I'm no better than Muffy. She's a coke addict. She tries to hide it, but she knows that she's a piece of shit."

"What does she have to do with you honey." He finally grabbed the courage to touch my shoulder.

"I don't want to hide it anymore. I want to give it up."

"but you can baby. We have this house paid off. I can go back to my job and we can live just as nice as you wanted for us.."

"I can't!"

He pulled his hand back. the look in his eyes only made it worse. Soon he was just a blur beyond the tears. I couldn't say anything more, but how could I. I couldn't tell him I got slink killed. I couldn't tell him that more people had to die.

He picked my head off and looked at me. "you can always get out honey. Trust me, I grew up rough. I wore the gold chains and drove the nice cars, but it wasn't worth it. If its not worth it for you now than get out.

Before I could get any more tears out, a drunken idiot stumbled into the room.

"oh sorry." It was Arthur's dad. For one mad moment, I thought Arthur was coming in behind him. I wiped the tears away, and readied myself, but nobody followed. I expected the vacant eyes of a drunk to stare through me before he left, but he looked right at me, like he had noticed something, but he spoke only gibberish as he left, and I turned back to my father.

"poor bastard." He said as he sat back up on the chair, no longer looking at me . "Ed Crosswire is his only business now, but his catering is pretty much just something they bring in for fun. Ed invited me to a party once and we played a drinking game where the first person to spit out whatever we were trying had to take a drink. I think he's getting divorced too. I guess I want to give him a little money for when he ends up living above a YMCA.

"dad."

"yes honey?"

"get out."

He concealed a tear, and stepped sideways out of the door before he closed it.

I sat, fidgeting with the toy. I thought of Muffy the last time we'd hung out. Her attitude was beyond the fakeness she displayed once she had gotten her hands on my product. Arthur probably addicted her, but it wasn't like she needed the help. Everything about her was fake, from head to toe, all of it, and only to impress others. I was thankful that at least I made my lies, and crafted my schemes for the right reasons. I counted in my head how much I needed to make to support my family.

I decided on three million dollars. Nine packages needed to be sold.

"I did not put you in this position for nine packages Francine." The voice was deep, and thick with a Russian accent.

Freezing cold air touched my shoulder. I turned around, and found binky hunched over me.

"I saw your last visit to Sue Ellen. Impressive. You were able to confess your sins at the end."

"hi. binky I … how did you know what I was thinking?"

He stood back up, and gestured for me to do the same. "The elderly have much to tell us darling, even the foolish ones have great wisdom in them."

I had learned early that asking what binky meant when he said things like that was a bad idea. "Well, anyway, what are you here for?"

"I am here to tell you that Arthur must be stopped."

"Well thank you binky. I already sent a dozen men after him. There's a bounty on his head."

"Hah" he laughed with some of the first raw unpracticed emotion id seen of him since the attack on Sue Ellen. "Do you really think that pigshit you sent after him will get passed George the hammer?"

"If they can't do it, then why the fuck don't you? You put me in this situation. You connected me with the cartel, you showed me how to set up the networks. Why can't you fix this?"

"Because you must do it yourself Francine."

"Why? Why is this on me? I didn't ask for this."

"You give yourself too little credit darling. You created me." He put the hole in his cheek into the light. "it was masterful. you got control of the tough customers. It was disappointing that you could not find a connection for the cocaine, but even still, you know how to manipulate people well enough."

"and how the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"By continuing to be who you are Francine. It is rare that someone in this world is capable of what you are."

"I don't want the violence anymore. I had it all. Just one attack. Just a few cuts of the xacto, and I had it all. Now they all look at me like I'm a monster. I can't do it again. My own family can already barely look at me..."

He took out a gun, and slammed it on the computer table. I fell silent. " You are raw Francine. You are unmolded. To hone yourself, you must kill Arthur. You must kill the hammer yourself. No cronies, but you with the gun in your hand.."

I turned my back on him, my hand on the doorknob. "what happens if I refuse?"

He whispered, "Or the Elwood of my dreams will cease to be."

I turned around. The warmth had returned to the room, and the window was open.

He had left the gun on the table, half buried in the wood from the force of his slamming.

I picked it up. What could I do? I had wronged binky. I couldn't risk sparking his wrath.

I called for Molly. It was time to put on a ball at Lakewood Elementary.