Lost Souls - A Short Story

The past two weeks had not gone well for Ralph. As he had been incessantly, he sat behind his desk in his office going over the moments leading up to the present. His wife left him merely hours after he received a devastating performance evaluation at work. The woman he had worked so hard to be with was gone, and he was being closely monitored by his superiors. It was Wednesday, and his next evaluation was Friday afternoon. He hadn't touched any work this entire time. 

It was 3:15 pm. The day is officially wasted again. He grabbed his portfolio bag - which had not been opened - and walked out of his office and took the back staircase to the parking garage to avoid being seen by anyone. 

As he left the garage he pulled into the empty streets and lowered all four windows in his car to let the summertime humidity engulf him. No way he was going to go back to his house at that time. After his wife left he cancelled the cable, turned off the air conditioning, and started unplugging all non-essential appliances and virtually every piece of electronic equipment. He wanted to make sure that empty house was as unappealing as possible to be in since it brought him so much grief. 

He even unplugged the refrigerator. This forced him to finish his beers before they got warm so he could pass out and not be subject to his broken heart and spirit while he tried in vain to sleep. He had done this every night for two weeks. 

Not tonight. He wasn't even planning on going home. Ralph needed to be one person in a large crowd. There was an NBA playoff game on later, so he could sit in a crowded sports bar and observe the masses as he drowned his sorrows yet again. 

As he drove into the mid afternoon sunlight and began to sweat from the toxic July heat, he popped a disc into his cd player and turned up the moody, emotive progressive rock song and began to fantasize he was living in a spaghetti Western film and had to rush to get to the train station before high noon. 

***

Jane strolled through the tiny market completely unaware of her own movements. She was in the same daze she had been for a couple years now. The afternoon was wide open for her. The boss at the small graphic design firm she worked at didn't want the employees to have to suffer through the heat since the air conditioning system was on the fritz again - and no way they wanted to push all the computers to their limits by operating them in such adverse conditions. She didn't even notice the heat as she sauntered between the aisles. 

After she paid for her groceries she stopped at a nearby magazine stand and quickly checked to see the covers of the current events issues. A Vanity Fair caught her eye. They always did. Beautiful layout and design. The content was always top notch. She handed the cashier some cash and slipped the magazine into one the bags she already had. She headed towards her studio apartment down the block in another state of ambivalence. 

She got a text message along the way letting her know that a bunch of her fellow staffers were going to a happy hour in a little bit and would probably stay out all night, since it didn't look like they'd work again this week. They'd have to work Saturday and Sunday since the repairmen couldn't make it to their offices until Friday. She only skimmed it before deleting it. 

Jane rearranged her cupboards as she put away her market items and poured herself a glass of water from the filtered pitcher she kept on the counter. She walked over to her work station and shuffled through some of her designs and sighed. They were good - but uninspired. One was for a restaurant menu, the other was for a tiny record label. Whenever she brought her work home from the office she realized how smalltime it was. It wasn't quite what she remembered fantasizing about when she finishing up her undergraduate degree. 

She took a seat on her overstuffed armchair and glanced through her magazine. Only a couple more hours till she would join her boyfriend, Johnny, and she could remember there was still some blood bumping in her veins. 

***

Ralph was on his fifth Dos Equis before any type of a crowd started to form at the sports bar he was at. He was glad he left work early to secure a spot on the patio to overlook the street. The playoffs and the heat brought out skimpy clothes for the women and macho behavior for the men. Lots of intrigue out there. It was very much out of reach for Ralph, and he took pity on those poor fools who thought their entire life would be as good as watching their team win and taking their lover home with them. 

What he feared would happen did. The bar became so crowded he had no unobstructed view of the game, and the waiter couldn't make his way out to Ralph very frequently to get him another beer. He didn't see a spot at the bar either, so he decided to cut his losses and saunter a couple doors down to another bar that didn't have a dozen flat screen TVs - just a large, clunky one with a fuzzy picture. It was still the playoffs whether or not it was in HD, and they had plenty of booze. 

Ralph was pretty drunk but his system had hardened itself over the course of the past two weeks and he was functioning on hops and barley and very little food quite well. He walked into the new bar and paused as the frigid air conditioning shocked his senses. His body seemed to reject it and he sensed more perspiration tricking down his forehead. He ordered a sandwich along with the beer this time and settled in at the long, mostly empty bar. 

As the game approached halftime he ordered another beer. When it arrived he sipped it as if it was the first beer he'd ever had in his life. He pretended it was as refreshing as he imagined one would be if he had been sitting on a plush Caribbean resort overlooking a beautiful beach. As he let his mind roam, he heard the barstool next to him being moved backwards. The screech as it moved across the floor slightly startled him. He looked to his right, and a gorgeous twenty-something sat down beside him. 

"Hi, I'm Jane." 

***

Johnny caressed Sophie's hair as they rolled together in bed. Their passion was winding down. After it all, they laid side by side and Sophie reached for a cigarette. "No smoking - Jane will know if she comes over later," Johnny admonished her as he stood up to walk towards his dresser. He slipped on a white button down shirt and pants and tended to his flowing hair and made sure he fit the latin-lover look to a T. Sophie sighed but didn't care all that much. This was her cue. She slipped her underwear on and gathered her jeans and tank from the chair and got dressed. She left without a word. 

Johnny sprayed some cologne on, grabbed his money clip, and headed out the door. 

***

Jane and Ralph remained sitting next to each other and exchanged a few words here and there. Ralph, in his state of intoxication, found her presence extremely pleasing. He was drunk enough not to be too intimidated by her youth and beauty, and not to a point where he was belligerent or made an inappropriate advance. Besides, he thought, she'd only had three Coronas. She seemed like she could party. Before he could even contemplate a move there would have to be a shot involved. Rum maybe. 

He was also not intoxicated enough to think she saw anything in him at this point other than perhaps a conversationalist. They had discussed the game, the city, the heat, and what side of the city they preferred. They were both East side loyalists. 

"So, how old are you, Ralph?" Jane, for the first time, turned to face him for an extended moment. She smiled as she licked the piece of lime quickly before she inserted it into her new Corona. 

"Would 'mid-thirties' satisfy you?" 

***

Johnny opened the door to Jane's apartment. He had to feel the wall for the light switch. When he finally flicked the switch he was slightly caught off guard by how bright they were. He walked over to the kitchen and opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of tequila and took a quick sip from the bottle and replaced it. He went over to her work station and opened up the bookcase to the left of the desk and reached down to the bottom shelf and removed a cigar box. 

***

Ralph and Jane took a stroll down the street - away from the bar scene. Jane had her arm around his waist. He was conscious of the fact he had a slight stagger. He sensed she was holding onto him mainly for balance - not necessarily out of lust or desire. Temporary good fortune was possibly headed his way it seemed. "I'll get us a cab," Ralph craned his neck to check the streets for any yellow car.  "Where should we go? My place? I don't have the air conditioning on."

"Lets just walk a little further. We should cross though, I don't want to go up that hill. We can head to the shore." 

It took about ten minutes to get to the nearest park that had a view of the lake. Along the way Ralph and Jane had stopped a couple times to kiss and now she was gently rubbing his chest as they plopped down near the edge of the twenty foot decline leading to the beach. 

Jane rolled to her side to kiss him. 

***

Johnny parked his car at a meter just down the street from the crowded nightlife scene where the game had clearly ended and the home team won. Small celebrations were overflowing to the streets. He ignored them as he crossed the street and walked in the opposite direction. He entered darkness, leaving the lights and laughter in the background. 

A new text arrived and it vibrated his phone in his pocket. He looked at the screen. It read: "1st bench. 2 the right." 

He entered the main pathway of the park with his phone still out and he used its screen like a flashlight. Right where she said it would be. First bench on the path, on the ground to the right. He picked up the wallet and opened it up quickly out of curiosity. He could tell there was a couple hundred in twenties at a quick glance. He shines the digital light over the license. He laughed quickly to himself. "Ralph. Poor guy." 

Johnny progressed up the path and took out the rag soaked in chloroform. 

***

Ralph was on top now. He didn't even hear Johnny approach. His mind was spinning at that point and he didn't even fully appreciate that he was making out and probably going to go all the way with a random, hot girl. When the rag went over his face he was oblivious. 

***

Jane and Johnny were naked in Jane's bed. He eventually got up and went into the kitchen and got a coffee can from one of the cupboards. Ralph's wallet was sitting on the counter and he took the cash and quickly separated it by bills and bound them nicely and added them to the existing wads of nicely organized cash stacks in the coffee can. 

"How much are we at now?" Jane asked. 

"I did a job last night and got a couple hundred off that. With 'Ralph' we hit the mark, babe. We're at a hundred grand." 

"I thought so. Time get out of town. We can start our new life," Jane slipped a robe on and walked to the windowsill and smiled ever so slightly as a humid nighttime breeze came across her face. Johnny embraced her from behind and started to whisper in her ear. She turned more towards him and between whispers he would gently kiss her.  

His cell phone vibrated loudly against the wood of the nightstand across the room. He gave her a pat on the bottom as he turned to walk over to get the phone. It was a new text. He slipped his pants back on and started to button his white shirt. Slightly annoyed, she looked at him, now with her back to the window. 

"This will be a quick job, Jane. Don't worry. I'll be back tonight. Another easy one."

"None of them are easy. I thought you were through with those guys, anyway." 

"I'll be back before morning. Trust me." 

"You're all the same."

"Who's all the same?"

"Men. You're all just boys. You never quit."

"I'll quit in the morning. We live for the night, remember. Something happens to us when it's dark. We are alive." He walks towards Jane. They kiss. 

"You're going to get killed if you're not careful." He was walking to the front door.  

"Go find yourself a 'Ralph,' then," He smirks at her as he opens the door. "Love you."

He closed the door before she could respond. She wouldn't have reciprocated anyway. 

***

Ralph sat at his desk. He was dressed up real nice. Full suit and tie. Everything matched. He hadn't bothered to come into work on Thursday. He was too embarrassed and hung over. Waking up to a cop poking at you in a public park will do that to a grown man. It was Friday. There was a knock on his door. One of the administrative assistants poked her head into his door. "Ralph - Mr. Brown wants to see you before you take lunch." She was gone with that. 

"Fired before lunch. That's polite. Let the man have the afternoon to contemplate the rest of his future," he thought to himself with a sarcastic chuckle. He turned to his computer screen and logged onto the city news site. A headline about a gun fight downtown intrigued him. He read the first paragraph. Something about an East side man of Spanish descent getting gunned down after he tried to hold someone up. The idiot picked an undercover cop to shakedown. They suspected this guy of numerous other targeted pick-pocket instances. He fit several artist-renderings for recent victims. 

He closed the internet browser and grabbed his messenger bag. He looked at it. Then tossed it into the garbage by his door. He walked into his boss's office to get fired. He made a mental note to close the windows in his house and turn on the air conditioner when he got home. 

***

On Saturday morning Jane sat at her work station at the design studio. The air conditioning was fixed. Nothing was really different for her. She had cried a little when she heard about Johnny. She was, to be honest, a little relieved she still had the capacity to have her heartstrings tugged at a little. She wasn't dead to the world like she thought she was. Not yet. 

***

Scott. 

P.S. Inspired by "Incident on 57th Street" by Bruce Springsteen - including the names Johnny and Jane. Live performance here. Lyrics here.