PRL Serials

***

Just put the guns down and go home. Violette says exasperated. 

Just tell me where the safe is and I’ll let you both walk away from this alive. Freda is not her normal self, the high stakes she finds herself in have her adrenaline pumping. 

Freda, this ain’t like you… Esther tries.

Don’t! Stop! Freda screams. Don’t tell me who I am. I’m tried of people telling me how to live my life.

I thought we were friends. Violette says chuckling, hoping to lighten the mood. 

You stole my aunt’s safe. Give it back. 

Your family didn’t even care it existed! 

We didn’t know! Freda yells. Tell me where it is now. Freda aims the guns more pointedly and steps closer to her hostages. 

There is a sudden commotion a ways down the street from the position where the women stand in their face off in front of the abandoned building. 

Freda! They all hear a loud yell that rumbles the night like a growl. 

I’m down here Pete! Freda never takes her eyes from Esther and Violette. 

Pete approaches, noticeably struggling to breathe. When he is next to Freda, he rests an arm on her shoulder and doubles over trying to catch his breath. 

Oh my god. Pete exclaims. Why were you running through that skinny ass alley? He yells it at Esther and Violette. Gus is stuck in there. 

You were the one chasing us? Violette says with a laugh watching Pete struggle. We did it to lose you, duh. 

We can come back for Gus, but these two are gonna take us to the safe. Freda says. 

No we’re not Freda. Violette says defiantly. 

Violette, maybe we should just… Esther starts but Violette won’t hear it. 

She wanted us to have that money and you know it. 

If that was true, it would have been in the will. But it wasn’t and that money belongs to my family.  

What do you even need it for? Violette asks. You’re rich already. 

I’m not rich! Freda yells. Money is a very touchy subject for her and her nerves are piqued by the presence of her brother. When she learned about the safe, the first thing she thought was that it should be enough to get her brother off her back forever about selling the building that she managed. She didn’t actually want the contents of the safe and agreed to help her brother and cousin secure it when her brother agreed that he’d never bring up selling the building again if they got the money. 

You’re gonna have to shoot us Freda. Violette says. We’re not telling you anything. But I can’t believe you would do this. You should be pointing that gun at your useless ass brother. 

Shoot Esther, that’ll make her talk. Pete suggests, standing behind his sister. 

Esther and Violette look one another in the eyes and hold hands. 

5.

There is no end to the work Esther and Violette find themselves doing at the print shop. Violette normally controls the roller and ink and she gets lost in the repetitive motions of inking the sponges, arranging the fabric, then rolling the ink up and back before hanging the shirt to dry. Esther organizes and folds the shirts that are already dried for shipping and display. 

The day that the shop’s owner, a woman named Doris, died, Esther and Violette were completing an order for a local theater troupe that performed in a small building off Cherry Rd. The troupe was performing an original production by a local playwright that required an obscene amount of uniforms that Esther and Violette labored to finish in time. They had both been working since 7am and it was approaching 2pm when Doris finally made it to the shop that day. She looked confused and disoriented. She stumbled to her office and Esther and Violette followed her, concerned for the woman. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.” Doris said with a sigh. “I just woke up light headed today. Feel like the world is spinning.” 

“Ms. Doris, I told you about taking your medicine.” Esther said annoyed. She cared about Ms. Doris and worried about her the way she worried about her own mother before she died. It made Esther sad that for all the money Ms. Doris had, she had few to no people in the world who she trusted and truly enjoyed being around. Ms. Doris had plenty of family who could fuss over her and make sure she took her medicine to control her anemia, but she didn’t like them much and she didn’t want to burden anyone. In the time that Esther and Violette had worked at her shop, they became the closest family that Doris knew despite her actual children and it was obvious that they, or Esther at least, cared more for her than her family. 

“Don’t worry yourself over me Esther.” Doris said as she collected herself and sipped water. 

“You should go home.” Esther said despite the silent reservations of Violette who knew that they would have to deliver the uniforms later if she left. 

“You are too sweet, Esther.” Doris said smiling. She really was the closest thing Doris ever had to a daughter. “You can learn something from this one.” Doris said to Violette. Violette was like Doris’s rebellious daughter, the two were always bickering.  

“You all go finish up and I’ll head home.” Doris explained and Esther smiled and nodded. “Don’t for forget you have to the order over to the theater when you’re done.” She said and Violette cursed under her breath as she and Esther went back to work.

Doris watched her two loyal employees who had served her best over all the years she had been employing inhabitants of the town. And as they went back to work, it dawned on the old woman that she had the ability to change the lives of the two young women forever. She pulled out a sheet of paper and began to pen a letter to her employees in which she divulged the details of the safes appearance, it’s location, contents, and combination to open. She left the letter where Esther and Violette would find it later, hoping they would read it when their work was done and she could discuss it with then the following day. But there would not be a following day for Doris. 

Esther and Violette did find the letter after completing the theater troupe order and they were giddy when they came to work the following day hoping to discuss the letter with Doris. But they were greeted by her son Gus who told them the tragic news of her death. When they asked about her possessions, Gus told them about the storage facility that would hold all of her things while the house was being sold. Violette convinced Esther to break into the storage that very day, and the two were bribing a customer of the storage facility to let them in the gate, and snipping the lock that held Doris’s belongings before sunset. And because they were in a hurry, and afraid to open the safe right away, they hid it in a part of town that Violette like to wander for its quiet desolation, that she had discovered when she was looking for a good place to take artsy photographs that could comment on the changing state of the American economy and the American worker. After stashing it, they made plans to open it and to get out of town forever. But they had forgotten Ms. Doris letter at her shop, which Freda found the day after her aunt’s death, when she was wandering the shop and remembering the aunt who had inspired her to have her own business and to never let it go. And when she told her brother about it, it was his idea to stalk the two women as discreetly as possible until they know the location of the safe.

***

Put them guns down. The voice of a man shocks the four in the standoff and they all, look around to find the source. Trevor approaches with a gun of his own that is smaller than Freda’s. Trevor’s friend Jerry is close behind him with no gun, but a knife that he holds out in front of him.

Trevor, go home! Freda is annoyed to see the man, the last thing she wants is another pair complicating this experience.

Why are you even here? He must have heard me on the phone. Pete apologizes to his sister. Give me one of the guns, we can shoot all of them.

Freda curses to herself and she feels sweat making the guns slick in her hands. She doesn’t want to kill anyone. All she hoped to gain from this caper was to finally have her brother off her back, but now that could only happen if she were willing to kill two woman that she had known fairly, who she had called friends. Before she can answer her brother, Esther and Violette manage to go back inside the mill that they had emerged from and they close the door behind them, leaving Freda on the street with her brother who is growling a Trevor and his his friend. Pete grabs a gun from Freda and shoots at Trevor and Jerry. He kills Jerry and seriously wounds Trevor.

Let’s go after them! Pete yells at Freda.

Freda is shocked to see the man that she had know since her youth, Trevor, who had loved her and annoyed her for years, bleeding on the ground and begging for his life.

Stop wasting time! You promised me! Pete yells.

Why is this so important to you? Freda asks. You would kill people for it?

It’s a lot of money…

Maybe it’s too much. Freda says, pointing her gun at her brother. Let’s just walk away. Let them have it.

Pete shakes his head slowly. I just can’t do that sister. That’s my family’s future.

You got money problems don’t you?

Everybody in this world, no matter how much they always have, is looking for ways to make more money than they have. You understand that. 

So you’re not gonna walk away?

Pete shakes his head.

Inside the abandoned mill, Esther and Violette have found another exit, and as they pound the old door off of its hinges, they hear a fury of shots outside and wonder if anyone will come for them. No one does. 

When the door is off the hinges, Violette says to Esther, I’m gonna find a car some where. I’ll meet you at the safe.

But I don’t know where it is, remember? 

Yes you do. I put it in that place from my pictures you like so much.

Esther remembered that place. It was the mill where her mother had worked before she died and Esther thought that it looked magical in the mid afternoon when light shown through the window and illuminated the swirling dust. Esther liked to imagine her mother there when she was young and providing for Esther on her own.

Go there, I’ll be along with a car as soon as I find one. And then we say goodbye to this place forever.

The two hug. And smile for the first time in a while.