US tour I -- Las Vegas

T​here was no mistaking the city I had landed. As I exited the airplane and entered the brightly lit arrival lounge, around 8 pm yesterday, the unusual sight of rows of slot machines greeted me. It was much later that I saw the Welcome to Las Vegas board blinking high above my eye level. I was in the entertainment capital of the world on an official assignment.

The ubiquitous slot machines.

The place most tourists come to is not the city of Las Vegas, it's the 6.8-km-long Las Vegas Strip, where most hotels and entertainment centres are located. The Strip falls in two towns of Paradise and Winchester. I was in Caesars Palace hotel, one of the tallest and big ones in the area.

Late February, the weather was chilly. At night, the temperature dipped up to minus five, in day time in climbed to around 10 degree centigrade. Thanks to good sunshine, it wasn't biting cold. The city lights up in the night. It's an amazing experience to walk along The Strip and gaze at colourfully illuminated skyscrapers. Most people on the street are tourists.

Huge high-rise amusement and shopping centres 

There are plenty of shopping complexes and restaurants. There are many hotels as well, and you don't have to pay anything to get into them. You can just walk around inside, may be try your luck at the machines, or dine at the eateries, or empty your purse at the shops.

The Strip is all glitter at night

This is might be the only city where it's legal to walk around with liquor. So, no compulsion to sit in the bar and drink. The most acclaimed attractions are the fountains in front of Bellagio, the Sirens of TI at Treasure Island and the Volcano at the Mirage, all within a few minutes of each other. There are plenty more, big and small.

The Gondolas at The Venetian complex.

There are umpteen adult entertainment hubs as well, like nightclubs and nude strip clubs. In the so-called Sin City, prostitution, ironically, is illegal. That's in the city of Las Vegas which is in county Clarke. Didn't quite understand why in a place where there is so much freedom for indulgence, so much as to get the moniker Sin City, there is such a ban. But many other counties of Nevada state have legalized it.

• US tour II -- Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam
• US tour III -- Detroit

“The Devil came to me once, I think, like a Lyon”: the Bideford witches of 1680-2

Sources under discussion

I return to an old project for this blog: to write something about as many witchcraft-related pamphlets as possible. In this post I will look at three pamphlets on the Bideford witches of 1682. The Bideford case is fairly well known, as it was almost certainly the last group hanging of convicted witches in England. There are various sites on the internet about the events, many of them perfunctory. This is an attempt to make sense of the main printed materials:

 1. A True and impartial relation of the informations against three witches, viz., Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards, who were indicted, arraigned and convicted at the assizes holden for the county of Devon, at the castle of Exon, Aug. 14, 1682 with their several confessions, taken before Thomas Gist, Mayor, and John Davie, alderman, of Biddiford, in the said county, where they were inhabitants : as also, their speeches, confessions and behaviour at the time and place of execution on the twenty fifth of the said month (the account runs to forty pages, 1682)

2. The tryal, condemnation, and execution of three witches viz. Temperace [sic] Floyd, Mary Floyd, and Susanna Edwards. Who were arraigned at Exeter on the 18th. of August, 1682. And being prov'd guilty of witch-craft, were condemn'd to be hang'd, which was accordingly executed in the view of many spectators, whose strange and much to be lamented impudence, is never to be forgotten. Also, how they confessed what mischiefs they had done, by the assistance of the devil, who lay with the above-named Temperence Floyd nine nights together. Also, how they squeezed one Hannah Thomas to death in their arms; how they also caused several ships to be cast away, causing a boy to fall from the top of a main-mast into the sea. With many wonderful things, worth your reading (six pages, 1682)

3. The life and conversation of Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd; and Susanna Edwards three eminent witches (eight pages, 1687)

There is also a street ballad which has survived, though its straightforward moralising about the case adds no new insight or information. This had the heading Witchcraft discovered and punished. Or, The tryals and condemnation of three notorious witches, who were tryed [at] the last assizes, holden at the castle of Exeter, in the county of Devon: where they received sentance for death, for bewitching several persons, destroying ships at sea, and cattel by land, &c. To the tune of, Doctor Faustus: or, Fortune my foe.

The chief source is the longest pamphlet. The second 1682 pamphlet, which doesn’t even get the names right, might be taken to be freely invented by someone who had read the first and longer account, but it still has some convincing additional information. Five years later the subject was returned to – again, the anonymous author supplies convincing details, either from his own invention, or from some informant, about the demeanour of the convicted women at their execution.

Intellectual context

Witchcraft cases simmered on in the last two decades of the 17^th century. The author recommends his pamphlet as remarkable “in regard we have had no Conviction or Execution of any Witches for many years past”. That Joseph Glanvill was keeping the issue alive isn’t impossible: Saducismus triumphatus, or, Full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions in two parts was going through multiple editions in the 1680’s. Reports of Swedish witch Sabbaths at ‘Blockula’ kept it all going, and Scotland contributed its share. Then, of course in the early 1690’s, a blast of anxiety reached England from New England thanks to Cotton Mather’s hyperventilating tales of Salem.

Glanvill’s book, though it is described as “Dr. More’s learned Discourse” (Henry More had contributed material to the book about the recent Swedish panic) gets mentioned at the start of the largest pamphlet, which has the usual gambit of saying, in effect, ‘if you doubt the existence of witchcraft, the proof of its reality is to be found in these authorities’. Inevitably, first comes the bland and grand directive, “Study the sacred writ”, then the reader is invited to consider that there’s a parliamentary statute against witchcraft, and then to consult a brief bibliography: King James, Matthew Hales the judge, and Saducismus Triumphatus.

On the scaffold

The author warns his reader that if “any other” accounts do “creep abroad”, they will be “lame and imperfect”, whilst his is the “onely True, Authentick, and Exact Account”. Even so, the account is pitchforked together without any reflection: brusque summaries of the evidence given by the various accusers and their supportive witnesses against the three women in turn, and then “The Substance of the Last words and Confessions of Susanna Edwards, Temperance Lloyd, and Mary Trembles, at the time and place of their Execution; as fully as could be taken in a Case liable to so much noise and confusion, as is usual on such Occasions”. The interlocutors of the three women on the gallows amid the bedlam ‘usual on such occasions’ were the town clerk, John Hill, and the Sheriff.

Beneath the nooses prepared for them, the three women are faced by all the charges that have been made against them, and for which they have been found guilty: having carnal relations with the devil, suckling their familiar spirits, and a wide range of murderous malefice. All these charges, which they have had found against them, they deny flatly. Yet somehow they also give a muddled assent to their guilt: Mary Trembles half concedes “The Devil came to me once, I think, like a Lyon”. Temperance Lloyd, under the intense pressure of hoping at least to find mercy for her soul, tries to express her sense of what her conscience tells her to confess to: the devil, she explains, coerced her into some kind of malign action: “I did hurt a Woman sore against my Conscience: he carried me up to her door, which was open: The Woman’s name was Mrs. Grace Thomas.”

Up on the scaffold, amid the baying hubbub, the town clerk Mr Hill persists with the usual asinities of the demonologists: “Temperance, How did you come in to hurt Mrs. Grace Thomas? did you pass through the Key-hole of the Door, or was the Door open?” The door was simply open, Temperance affirms, either patiently or with some truculence. How the women got through doors seems to have been important to the case and perhaps to the guilty verdict.

Susanna Edwards came to these piteous extremes through poverty, but her final request was poignantly apt, and seems to show that she had been a pious women: those round the gallows “sung part of the 40 Psalm, at the desire of Susanna Edwards”. This psalm would have been asked for by her because of these verses:
¹¹ Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. ¹² For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. ¹³ Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. ¹⁴ Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. ¹⁵ Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. ¹⁶ Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. ¹⁷ But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
It may be right to assume that the congregational singing stopped short of these fine biblical reproaches to those saying “Aha!” around the gallows.

The Usual Suspects

The Bideford case developed as English witchcraft tended to, fitting very well to the ‘charity refused’ model. The three women were old (Temperance Lloyd being the oldest) and very poor. Susanna and Temperance are widows, Mary a ‘Single woman’. Their small importunities were continuous. They keep turning up at the door (“the said Susanna would oftentimes repair unto this Informants Husband’s house upon frivolous or no occasions at all”), or you ran into them in the street. Susanna confesses in the end that she first met the devil when out (like Elizabeth Sawyer in Edmonton) gathering sticks. A gentleman approaches, and she gathers herself to ask him for a ‘piece of money’, dropping her usual curtsy. But he is the devil, who asks her if she is poor, and this she absolutely confirms.

Through the whole account, one keeps meeting the word ‘door’: it gives a sense of doors being shut in faces, puzzlement in official questions about how such people ever got into the houses of shopkeepers to torment family members, an idea of respectable households under siege by the devil in the shape of a ‘Braget’ (does this mean ‘honey-coloured’?) cat or a magpie, the devil’s human accomplices either passing through keyholes, or entering invisibly, or themselves in feline form. In the 1687 pamphlet there may be a hint that it was remembered that whether a door (to the house of Thomas Eastchurch) was open or shut had been significant in the trial. A witness seems to have asserted that one of the accused had got through a locked door, and this proved that she had diabolical powers. One accused woman cried out “that is false, for the door was open, which tacitly implied that she was then an Actor” (p.7). A denial of having passed through a locked door rebounded as an admission that she had gone into the house to do something nefarious.
Exactly as the historians have the general picture of accusations, Temperance Lloyd had been suspected of witchcraft before, and had been put on trial once, twelve years before, and at that time acquitted, and then strongly suspected once more in 1679, even to the extent of being searched for supernumerary teats, though the case against her was not pursued.

With these unfortunate women obtruding themselves on people’s notice, and regular refusal to them of charity, a trigger like this was always going to happen:
“She (Mary Trembles) this Examinant did go about the Town of Biddifordto beg some Bread, and in her walk she did meet with the said Susanna Edwards, who asked of this Examinant where she had been. Unto whom this Examinant answered, That she had been about the Town, and had begged some Meat, but could get none. Whereupon this Examinant, together with the said Susanna Edwards, did go to the said John Barnes’s house, in hope that there they should have some Meat. But the said John Barnes not being within his house, they could get no Meat or Bread, being denied by the said Grace Barnes and her Servant, who would not give them any Meat.”

The request for a small gift is repeated, and gets the same refusal – it is then reported that a curse was uttered:
“And afterwards on the same day the said Susanna Edwards did bid this Examinant to go to the said John Barnes his house again for a Farthings worth of Tobacco. Whereupon this said Examinant did go, but could not have any; whereof this Examinant did acquaint the said Susanna Edwards, who then said that it should be better for her the said Grace if that she had let this said Examinant to have had some Tobacco.”

A doctor speaks

Meanwhile, it seems as though the uselessness of 17^th century medical practices contributed to the problem. The local doctor, Doctor Beare“did repair unto this Informant. And upon view of her Body he did say, that it was past his skill to ease her of her said Pains; for he told her that she was Bewitch’d.”

This type of diagnosis gives you authority to find the person who is sending such preternatural torments, and as you have refused charity to the local poor women, they easily become the witches who are tormenting you. On the scaffold, as Temperance Lloyd tries to get across that the devil coerced her into harming Grace Thomas against her own conscience, the town clerk persists in trying to get her to confess to every premature, accidental, or suspicious death in the last few years. Those children died of small pox, she says, and no, she “never hurt any Ship, Bark, or Boat in my life”.

A visit to the Indignitas clinic?
But there is another side to all this fitting up of the most resented people in the parish as chief suspects. The women apparently had, prior to their last limited confessions on the scaffold, confessed to a whole range of diabolic activities. Temperance Lloyd in particular seems to have been suicidal, and if the author of the 1687 pamphlet has the Judge at the trial recognize as much of all three:
“At the Assizes being brought upon their Tryal, they all three pleaded guilty: Thereupon the Judge ordered the Gaoler to Secure the Prisoners, but in his charge to the Jury, “gave his Opinion that these three poor Women (as he supposed) were weary of their Lives, and that he thought it proper for them to be carried to the parish from whence they came, and that the parish should be charged with their maintenance; for that he thought oppressing Poverty had constrained them to wish for Death. Whereupon several neighbours, who had been great Sufferers by their diabolical practices, moved that if these Witches went home in peace, none of them could promise themselves a minute’s security, either of their Persons or Estates.”

That’s quite a moment. The Judge speaks up for Christian charity to the old, the parish rallies to see them hanged. Those who fancied themselves harmed by the three women lead the community, and backing them up are their corroborative witnesses, whose testimonies had been collected in pre-trial examinations. These people testified to various informal but demonologically florid confessions by the condemned. It’s a nightmare: every other person seems to be a reader of Sprenger and Kramer.

Popular demonological knowledge

“(Grace Thomas) upon the first day of this instant July, as soon as the aforesaid Temperance Lloyd was apprehended and put in the Prison of Biddiford, she this Informant immediately felt her pricking and sticking pains to cease and abate.”

Dorcas Coleman, given over as incurable by the facile Dr Beare, can see the spectral presence of Susanna Edwards around the bedroom where she lies suffering: “she this Informant would point with her Finger at what place in the Chamber the said Susanna Edwards would stand, and where she would go.” Elizabeth Eastchurch sees marks of pricking in one of the knees of her afflicted sister, Grace Thomas: “Whereupon this Informant afterwards, upon the same 2d day of July, did demand of the said Temperance Lloyd whether she had any Wax or Clay in the form of a Picture whereby she had pricked and tormented the said Grace Thomas?” Anne Wakely, tending on the preternaturally afflicted Grace Thomas, saw “something in the shape of a Magpie to come at the Chamber-window where the said Grace Thomasdid lodge. Upon which this Informant did demand of the said Temperance Lloyd whether she did know of any Bird to come and flutter at the said Window.”

The good people of Bideford are determined to have proof that image magic has been practiced in their community against them. The day after their testimonies have been officially gathered, they return to the matter, “because we were dissatisfied in some particulars concerning a piece of Leather which the said Temperance had confessed of unto the said Elizabeth Eastchurch, in such manner as is mentioned in the said Elizabeth Eastchurch’s Examination, and we conceiving that there might be some inchantment used in or about the said Leather.” With the agreement of the Lord Mayor, they haul Temperance Lloyd off to the parish church for interrogation by the rector, Michael Ogilby. It’s the usual type of thing, featuring questions that are based on an assumption of guilt: “where the said Temperancewas demanded by the said Mr. Ogilby how long since the Devil did tempt her to do evil.”

As would be the case at Salem, the legal proceedings are led astray by obvious impostures by accusers who have a firm notion of what they might do to secure conviction. Anthony Jones drew attention to Susanna Edwards’ involuntary bodily movements: “observing her the said Susanna to gripe and twinkle her Hands upon her own Body, said unto her, Thou Devil, thou art now tormenting some person or other. Whereupon the said Susanna was displeased with him, and said, Well enough, I will fit thee”. I think the words attributed to Susanna can be taken to be made up to fit the story. Jones has planted an idea, and later he will act out its proof:  “she the said Susannaturned about and looked upon this Informant, and forthwith with this Informant was taken in a very said condition as he was coming up the Stairs of the said Town-hall before the Mayor and Justices; insomuch that he cried out, Wife, I am now bewitched by this Devil Susanna Edwards.”

In response to all this, the women seem to have been acquiescent, almost ideal witnesses against themselves, readily responding to suggestions put to them with a willing compliance. It’s hard to see what is going on. Were the women just too old and confused to cope? (Temperance, the oldest, is said to be seventy in the 1687 pamphlet, the broadsheet ballad inflates this to eighty.) Was a long-harboured desire to strike back at their uncharitable neighbours gratified by a discovery that somehow, by some means mysterious to them, they had achieved exactly that? Were they indeed ‘weary of their lives’, and acquiescent because an end to their miserable existences was in sight?

The accused women have a general idea of what they should say. Once Temperance is being questioned, and confessing, the son of her victim from twelve years previously cannot understand her ready confession now, against her strong and then credited denials. Temperance knows that she is supposed to be party to a time-limited pact: “This Informant demanded of her the said Temperance, why she had not confessed so much when she was in Prison last time? She answered, that her time was not expired; For the Devil had given her greater power, and a longer time.”

Acquiescence and denial

Of course, there are moments when there is a mismatch between what the accusers want the women to say, and the stories they deliver. It is most obvious when it comes to their relations with Satan. They denied on the gallows things they had reportedly confessed to before, either before witnesses, or in their pre-trial examinations:

H. Had he any of thy bloud?

Mary. No.

H. Did he come to make use of thy Body in a carnal manner?

Mary. Never in my life.

….

H. Temperance Lloyd, Have you made any Contract with the Devil?

Temp. No.

H. Had he ever any carnal knowledge of thee?

Temp. No, never.

These denials can be compared to earlier examinations. (Mary Trembles): “after that she had made this Bargain with the said Susanna Edwards, that the Devil in the shape of a Lyon (as she conceived) did come to this Examinant, and lay with her, and had carnal knowledge of her Body. And that after the Devil had had knowledge of her Body, that he did suck her in her Secret parts, and that his sucking was so hard, which caused her to cry out for the pain thereof”.
“She (Joan Jones) did hear the said Susanna Edwards to confess, that she was suckt in her Breast several times by the Devil in the shape of a Boy lying by her in her Bed; and that it was very cold unto her. And further saith, that after she was suckt by him, the said Boy or Devil had the carnal knowledge of her Body Four several times.”

One has to wonder if Susanna wasn’t trying to make a confession that sounded impossible, putting out an invitation for someone to say, ‘this is absurd: a devil in the form of a boy, but still capable of having carnal knowledge of her?’ She repeated her de-sexualising formula at her pre-trial examination: “there was something in the shape of a little Boy, which she thinks to be the Devil, came into her house and did lie with her, and that he did suck her at her breast” – her demon-lover as baby. In a dim way, she is trying to forestall the salacity of the 1682 pamphlet:“She confessed also that the Devil lay Carnally with her for Nine Nights together, and that she had Paps about her an Inch long, which the Devil us’d to suck to Provoke her to Letchery”. This is alleged about Temperance Lloyd, but illustrates the tendency to impute demoniality.

An interesting moment is captured, where we see Temperance Lloyd starting to do her best with confessional material which is being suggested to her. She is bodily searched by Anne Wakely, who discovers “in her Secret Parts two Teats hanging nigh together like unto a piece of Flesh that a Child had suckt. And that each of the said Teats was about an Inch in length. Upon which this Informant did demand of her the said Temperance whether she had been suckt at that place by the black Man? (meaning the Devil).”
What Anne Wakely meant as an alias for the devil, Temperance obediently makes literal. She takes the prompt  - though even as she does so, she is perhaps trying to forestall the next imputation, for she miniaturizes the black man: “Being demanded of what stature the said black Man was, saith, that he was about the length of her Arm: And that his Eyes were very big; and that he hopt or leapt in the way before her, and afterwards did suck her again as she was lying down; and that his sucking was with a great pain unto her, and afterwards vanish’d clear away out of her sight.”
~ their bodily relationship she specifies as painful. It also took place out in the street, the very place where she had first met this devil. It is as if Temperance Lloyd was trying to make impossible and unthinkable the grotesque idea she is simultaneously acceding to:
“she also confessed, that about twelve of the clock of that same night the black Man did suck her in the Street in her Secret parts, she kneeling down to him. That he had blackish Clothes, and was about the length of her Arm. That he had broad Eyes, and a Mouth like a Toad, and afterwards vanisht clear away out of her sight.”

Very late in the pamphlet what Temperance Lloyd actually met in the street in Bideford becomes more clear: it was a black bullock. But as all living things can be the presence of the devil, a bullock was enough. The devil will appear as ‘braget cat’, or a magpie, anything can be made suspicious.

Temperance Lloyd made one final gesture that was remembered. It seems to be hinted at in the title of the 1682 short pamphlet: being prov’d guilty of witch-craft, were condemn'd to be hang’d, which was accordingly executed in the view of many spectators, whose strange and much to be lamented impudence, is never to be forgotten. 

This unspecified ‘impudence’ (one might relish the ambiguous syntax, but it was the impudence of the convicted women) is explained in the 1687 version: “As to the manner of their Deportment going to the place of Execution. It is certainly affirmed the Old Witch Temperance Floyd,went all the way Eating, and was seemingly unconcerned; but Mary Floydwas very obstinate, and would not go, but lay down, insomuch that they forc’d to tye her upon a Horse-back, for she was very loath to receive her deserved Doom.”

There were two types of ‘impudence’ here: Mary Trembles making a scene, Temperance Lloyd being impudently phlegmatic. It was quite usual for the condemned to halt outside a tavern, and be given ale (a good tongue-loosener for the last confession). But to be so unconcerned as to be able to eat, not to be dry-mouthed with horror! That was not acceptable. Seen as “the woman that has debaucht the other two”, Temperance was last to be hanged. She was, perhaps, ready to go, and appeared too composed, too willing to die. Did the witnesses sense that they were the abettors of her judicial suicide? There may also be in this general ‘impudence’ a memory that the choice of Psalm 40 by Susanna Edwards was just too apt, a hit at them.

I find, then, plausible some of the description of the demeanour of the women at their execution in the two short pamphlets. It is the kind of thing that might be remembered and reported. But most of what they allege looks like free invention. The short 1682 pamphlet garbles the names, and seems to invent and edifying tale of “Mr. Hann a Minister in those parts … these Hellish Agents intended mischief and misery to the person of Mr. Hann:but the Over-ruling Power prevented them”.

Both this short pamphlet and the 1687 one come up with the same final ‘proof’ of guilt: “being asked at their Tryal to say the Lords Prayer, they answered, that they could not, except it were backward” (1682 short pamphlet), “and [the minister] desired them to say the Lords prayer, of which the last could not repeat one word, but Temperance Floyd said all, with these alterations; when she should have said Lead us not into Temptation, she said Lead us into Temptation, and instead of Deliver us from evil, said deliver us to evil; and protested that she could say no otherwise” (1687).

Belatedness and mutual disdain

The Bideford case, in conclusion, has about it an air of belatedness. The townspeople are just too knowing, working for and getting the outcome they want, while the accused women accept the role that's imposed upon them, for their own private reasons. If this is the last English group hanging - some claim Temperance Lloyd was the last English victim of all, the fatal phase of the English witchcraft scare ended at that Exeter gallows with contempt on both sides: a community killing impoverished elderly women who had made nuisances of themselves, and the victims projecting a disdain that made its mark

Sample Sunday ~ The Four Purposes of Oil

Hey Lovelies!
Sorry that I haven't posted one of these in awhile, especially since I couldn't with working on Walking a Thin Line, since it is a second book I feel like posting a sample would be a major spoiler for the first book. So today I'm going to post a sample from The Four Purposes of Oil! I'm getting attached to the characters already so I hope you enjoy this Romantic Fiction ~ New Adult book. Heads up though, I will be changing this book to 3rd person instead of first. I will tell you though I will be learning more about cars so it will get a little fuller with details. Again this is just eh skeleton of the first chapter and I hope you enjoy :)

**I'm tossing and turning over if it should be in 3rd or 1st person that's why it changes sorry!!**

Chapter one

Noah

The speakers were shot, more static then music was really blaring out, but with the constant sounds of the machines it was hard to hear the music anyway. The sounds of the engines and tools roar as they fixed the inner workings of a car all were tranquil peace. There was nothing greater then working on a car. The warm air drifting into the garage and as a young man wiped his forehead with his forearm not caring that there was probably new smudge of grease on his face.

“Noah, did you figure out what’s wrong with the Wyant’s car?” a voice called out from the office, the door was open with a small fan blowing.

Glancing up the young man, Noah saw his boss Stan holding a box with the lo mein hanging over parts of the box. His t-shirt was half tucked into his jeans and baseball cap on his head; he was in his early thirties.

“Yeah I got it, it’ll take another couple of minutes if we’ve a piece that needs to be replaced,” Noah responded wiping his hands on his own t-shirt.

Stan’s face stretch into a half smile, “That’s my guy, I knew I kept you around for a reason.”

Noah raised an eyebrow and smirked, “Yeah so you don’t have to do the work.”

“I thought it was so he could look at our fine asses,” another voice shouted across the garage, Justin.

“I swear if your head inflates anymore Justin you won’t be able to fit through those doors,” Stan shot back pointing over to the garage door with his fork.

Justin grinned, his blond hair was held back by a bandana. He twirled a wrenched in his hand.

“Stop thinking you’re a pretty boy and finish that carbonator,” Stan rolled his eyes before going into the office.

“I swear it’s on a daily bases I feel bad for your poor mother,” Noah muttered heading out back with the supplies.

“My mom or my girl?” Justin asked for clarification.

Noah grabbed the part that he needed and headed back to the car he was working on.

“Both I guess, possibly more for your mom because your girl could leave if she wanted to.”

“Hey she got a taste of Justin, and now she doesn’t want to leave,” Justin chuckled, but he was peering into the hood of the car he was working on to see what Justin was doing.

“Oh so you’re drugging the poor girl,” I responded back moving parts around.

“Ha! Nothing, but with my charm.”

I shook my head. I had met Karen and he was a lucky guy.

“My butt you have charm.”

“Will you two Chatty Cathy’s put a sock in it or do I have to bring out the tea set for this ordeal?” Stan yelled out.

My body ached as I got home late that night, I always worked longer then what the hours said at GARAGE NAME. Trudging my feet across the tile floor of my apartment I opened the fridge to find something to eat. The light from the fridge lit up the small apartment, and it was pretty close to empty. There was a carton of orange juice, a box of baking soda, and something in a Styrofoam box. Narrowing my eyes I picked it up not remembering when the last time I brought something home was. There was a buffalo chicken wrap with some curly fries. How was it possible I brought home food from Angelia’s Diner? I usually ate the entire thing when I was there. Looking at the top of the box I smiled at the sticky note on there.

Miss you Idiot!

Remember to eat, noticed no food!

What’s wrong with you?

Remy

The best friend a guy could have. She must have dropped it off today since she was using my laundry room. Glancing over at the top of oven to see what time it was, a little after eleven. She probably would still be awake. Putting the food onto the small tray then into the toast my stomach growled as if it finally realized it was hungry. Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket using my short nails that were still dark from the grease from work I searched for her name. Pushing her Remy on the contact list I heard it ringing.

“Hey you’re alive! Or are you still in the garage?” Remy responded.

I chuckled, “Nah I’m home sorry for being a little MIA lately. Thanks for the food by the way.”

Remy laughed a little, “It’s the least I could do is give you food, I mean you work so much you need food. You use to be organized and on top of things.”

Glancing around my place that was just the opposite of what Remy just described.

“I’m never home, I pretty much live at the garage.”

“Yeah I noticed I went to your place and a couple of your neighbors asked if I was a new tenet.”

Turning the lights on in the place I peeked into the toaster and took out my food.

“I think I’m at your place more then you are,” Remy continued as I took a bite out of the food, best thing ever.

“Oh my God I think I love you,” I mumbled with food still in my mouth.

Remy broke out fully laughing.

“Well I know how you love their buffalo chicken wrap.”

“It’s food for the Gods,” I spoke with food still my mouth and I leaned back against my counter tops.

“So I’ve decided you and I need to go out,” Remy randomly blurted out.

I raised an eyebrow and stopped chewing.

“What are you talking about?”

“God way to make hanging out with your friend sound like a chore.”

I sighed rolling my eyes now waiting for the punch line.

“Sorry.”

“I haven’t seen you in what weeks?”

I narrowed my eyes trying to back track in time in an attempt to remember the last time I had seen my friend, or anyone who I didn’t work with.

“I’ll take your pause as a sign that I’m correct if not longer. So I know for a fact that the garage closes at eight so on Friday I will be kidnapping you at nine and we’re going out. You’ll be showered, shaven, and wearing something that does not have grease on it before we go to Murphy’s.”

“Why do I have to get so dolled up?”

“Showering is getting dolled up? If that’s a case you and I need to have a discussion about hygiene.”

“I’ll be clean, don’t get your panties all in a twist.”

I grabbed a couple fries and shoved them into my mouth.

“Sorry for wanting to hang out with my friend?”

“You should be, how dare you,” my voice was even before eating a couple more fries.

Crunchy fries were the best.

“So you want to meet there or do you want to car pool?”

“I’ll drive it sounds like you need a drink,” I offered.

“I work with kindergarteners all day, you do that and see if you need a drink.”

I chuckled.

“What happened to, ‘I want to have eight kids’?”

“Hey when they are my own kids I can do what I want!” Remy’s voice was borderline shriek.

“That’s a comfort.”

“Oh shove off.”

“What a friend, no wonder we haven’t hung out in awhile,” I joked with her.

“You’re a pain.”

“Woah, wait a minute,” Justin’s voice came from behind me in as I was inside the office. “You know it’s time to check out right at a normal rate?”

“No I didn’t notice that, I thought the moon and sun switched roles,” I muttered standing back up and took my car keys off of the hanger on the wall.

“Justin leave him alone this means I can actually close at the right time,” Stan responded locking the door behind us.

“So what’s up?” Justin asked as we headed to our cars.

His car was next to my baby.

“Remy said we needed to hang out so she is kidnapping me,” I replied opening my car door and standing out still looking over at him as he fiddled with his car.

“She’s still working on you isn’t she?” Justin glanced over me with serious eyes.

“I’m kind of hoping if I keep playing obvious the girl will give up,” I groaned running my fingers through my short hair.

Justin chuckled, “Yeah? How’s that working for you?”

I rolled my eyes and paused.

“That good huh?”

“Life isn’t a romantic comedy, you don’t always end up with your friend that you’ve known for years.”

“I know those damn movies are making our lives hard.”

“Just treat your girl for a night out every once in awhile and she’ll stop throwing these movies in your face.”

Justin raised an eyebrow at me, “Whose side you on?”

Laughing I replied, “Didn’t know I had to pick sides, but her cooking is better then yours.”

Justin smiled, “It is she’s cooking dinner tonight.”

“Pick up flowers for her or something maybe she’ll go easy on you tonight,” I suggested inching a little into my car so I wouldn’t have to face the wrath of Remy tonight myself.

Justin shrugged, “I should, so see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Sitting in I slammed my door and headed home. Once I parked in the lot behind the apartments I waved to one of my neighbors while grabbing the mail. The neighbor squinted and awkwardly waved back. I guess Remy wasn’t joking about my neighbors not knowing who I was. I jumped the stairs taking a couple at a time and unlocked my door. Dropping the junk mail onto my counter with my keys top since I didn’t have a table I started to yank my shirt over my head as I walked to the bathroom. Turning the shower on and waited for the water to heat up. While waiting I decided to brush my teeth and check the facial hair situation, got to love the few moments of being able to multitask.

Once I was showered and dressed for the evening I grabbed my keys once again and headed towards Remy’s place. She was renting a place till the condo she was buying was done being built. Texting her to let her know that I was there I bopped my head around a little to the music. Finally she came strolling out of her place. I had to give it to her, she walked in heels like a well trained model. Remy tossed her hair over her shoulders as she made her way over, in jeans and a off the shoulder shirt. She got into the car and turned to look at me grinning.

“See you clean up well when you actually leave the garage!”

I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah whatever,” I muttered pulling out of her complex.

“Oh don’t be such a sour puss or this night is going to suck,” Remy responded as she fiddled with my radio stations.

Shaking my head I finally pulled into Murphy’s place where most of the spots were taken and people were crossing the parking lot laughing. When we got out of the car the live country music roared causing the two of us to smile. Remy grabbed my hand and pulled me across the parking lot and into the restaurant. The whole middle was wooden floors in front of the stage where the live music was held so that people could dance. Off to the side was the bar and around the perimeter were tables for everyone to sit at. I prefer the seats near the bar so I had a nice view of the poor guys who got dragged across the floor.

“I can’t wait to get a drink,” Remy was bouncing in her seat as she grabbed the menu even though I knew she that whole menu by heart.

“Good to know that you need to drink to be out with me,” I spoke dryly smirking at her.

“I didn’t know I had to threaten my friend to hang out with me,” She responded not taking her eyes off of the menu.

I rolled my eyes as one of the waitresses came by, she was friendly with Remy as she took out drink orders then left.

“See so far, all is good right?” Remy asked smiling at me as she leaned on her elbows on the table.

“Yeah, yeah, I never had any doubt about that, I’m just busy,” I replied with a shrug.

“And I sit around eating Oreos all day?”

“Well you deal with five year olds,” I smirked.

Remy slapped my arm from across the table as I laughed.

“You’re rotten! I know your daddy raised you with more manners!”

Chuckling, “Yeah he did, but you know I got his humor.”

Remy rolled her eyes down to her drink stirring it a little, “What are the odds of me getting you on the dance floor?”

I snorted, “Not on your life is that happening.”

I started to pat around my pockets for not only my release, but also my escape. Finally I pulled out my box of cigarettes and Zippo lighter. Remy’s face scrunched.

“Ugh, I don’t get you and that nasty habit,” Remy spat.

I shrugged, “I don’t smoke near you and never have so chillax. I’ll be right back.”

Once I was outside I opened the cartage and cursed under my breath. There was an IOU from Justin. What kind of guy takes a man’s last cigarette?

I made my way to the side of the road and waited till there was slow enough traffic for me to cross the pharmacy. The beep greeted me and I made my way over to the only cashier on duty. This woman with short black hair carrying a small bag up as well. I waved her to go in front of me.

“They couldn’t take this back there?” The cashier questioned with a raised brow and mid chew of the gum.

She shook her head, “He said they were closing and to go here.”

The cashier popped her gum then finished the young woman’s transaction. She bent her head over her small plastic bag as she fished for her wallet once again to put her money away, but she stepped aside so that I could pay.

“Hey Dawn, the usual,” I spoke taking out my own wallet as the cashier took out a pack of cigarettes for me.

The young woman walked out of the store. I paid for my pack and walked outside breaking the seal. Once outside the girl was still there searching through her bag frantically. A curse was uttered under her breath before she started to glance around on the ground.

“Do you need help?”

She glimpsed up before biting her bottom lip, “I think I dropped my keys somewhere I can’t find them in my purse.”

“Is there anything on the keychain?”

She raised an eyebrow at me.

“I want to know what I’m looking for.”

She nodded, “There’s a flat monkey on it, and they are to my Nissan.”

Nodding my head I helped her search the ground for something shiny. Pacing the sidewalk to two of us searched in the dim parking lot lights. Finally something twinkled near the bushes alongside of the pavement. Bending over my hand grazed the woman’s, she retreated her hand. Picking up the pieces of metal I straightened back up to look at her. Handing over her keys once again her eyes did not meet up with mine.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks,” she brushed some of her short hair behind her ear after she took the keys from me. “Well thank you again I’m going to go now.”

“Okay, by the way-” before I could introduce myself the woman hopped off towards her car leaving me behind not sure what really happened. She was really in a rush.

“I swear you make us all look bad,” Justin called from behind my back as I was hunched over a hood.

“Morning to you too,” I replied straightening up and cracking my neck.

“Do you live here? I swear I saw you leave yesterday,” Justin continued before taking a big gulp of his coffee.

“I left, hung out with Remy, came home slept, then came here. You can call Remy if you don’t believe me, but if you wake her up I’m not taking responsibility for your death,” I replied hunching over once again working on a couple of things so my voice came out short.

“Fair enough, so I took your advice and brought home something for Karen. She’s been wanting a puppy-“

“Woah,” I backed away from the car I was working on. “I said flowers not a living creature.”

“I didn’t get her a real puppy, I’m not ready for that commitment, sharing an animal together. No I got her a stuff animal dog of the one she mentioned she wanted once. This way it shows I’m listening to her, but that we’re not ready to have a dog yet, especially since her place doesn’t allow dogs.”

Nodding my head I pointed the wrench at him, “I change my mind, that’s a nice touch.”

Justin with a wave of his hand bowed.

“So how was getting out last night,” Justin questioned again walking over to the wall of tools.

“Good, but that reminds me,” I chucked a hand rag at him. “When were you planning on telling me that you took my last cigarette?”

“Sorry Karen has been trying to get me to quit so I haven’t bought any and I really needed one.”

“Wow really,” I spoke quietly. “Good for you though, guess I should go hide the pack I got last night then.”

Justin just nodded his head as his hands jittered about.

“When I was getting a pack last night I met this strange woman. She was in such a rush to get out and lost her keys. I had to help her find them then once I did she like disappeared into the night.”

“What’s weird about that?” Justin called out as he wheeled himself under a car that was left before he showed up. “What thought she was good looking and didn’t get her name?”

“She didn’t have bad legs, but just a gut feeling.”

“You’re over thinking things.”