Yet somehow he always made time to come to the school and pickup Toby. That was impressive to me.
I cleaned up the classroom and finished putting everything away. Then I grabbed my bag, turned out the light, and headed home. I wasn’t in any hurry to get home to my empty single story house, but it had been a long day, and the house was mine at least.
Well, it was mine, but I had no idea for how much longer. I groaned softly as I put the car in drive and sped off away from the school.
I had gone almost an entire day without worrying about the money I owed and the wicked people that I owed it to. It almost brought me to tears every time I thought about it. I was desperate and I needed the cash for legitimate reasons. When I couldn’t get the money from the bank, I turned to a loan shark. It was the worst mistake of my life.
Wiping away my tears I turned onto Berch Street. It was so stupid. What was I thinking? No matter how desperate I was, I never should have accepted help from a source like that. I had reservations. I should have listened to myself, but I had no way of knowing exactly how much trouble I was about to land myself in.
The man I borrowed money from wasn’t just a loan shark; his brother was a key enforcer for the East Side Mafia. I’d only heard vague stories about them, but I could tell that their reputation was not without merit. I was in some serious stuff and I saw no end in sight.
The only plausible way would be to sell the school to someone. It was the only valuable thing that I owned outright. I’d spent my savings on it and I’d gotten a great deal. But I couldn’t do it. I swore to myself that if there was another way on earth I would find it.
But after months of searching I’d come up empty handed. And I was running out of time.
I couldn’t believe I’d lasted this far.
My house looked vacant and dark. I pulled up into my driveway and sat there waiting for several minutes. I had been doing that a lot lately, ever since I had the dream.
I’d been having some horrible nightmares lately. A few weeks before I’d dreamt that when I came home from the school someone was waiting for me with a gun hiding behind my bedroom door. I woke up screaming, leaping out of bed and landing so hard on the hardwood floor that I almost twisted my ankle. So, since then I was frightened, almost to a paranoid level, every time I entered my house. I was just so tired of being scared. I sometimes wished they would just get me already and it would be over. Then at least I’d have some peace.
I walked into my house cautiously and quickly turned on the kitchen light. My cat, Chester greeted me at the doorway with a few friendly meows and nuzzling against my legs. He was a sweet cat. I’d had him about five years.
I shushed him while I surveyed the rest of the scene quickly.
Seeing the coast was clear, I moved to the living room, then the hallway, the bathroom, and finally the bedrooms. All the while flipping on the lights and checking the closets, behind the doors, and under the beds.
After I made sure the coast was clear I checked the windows to make sure they were locked and then I locked and bolted both the front door and the back door.
Finally, I grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down on the couch to relax for a moment. Every day was the same routine. I was so sick of the mundane repetition of it all. Wasn’t life supposed to be exciting and full of mystery? Well, this was not the type of mystery I had in mind and it had been so long since I’d done anything resembling fun that I almost didn’t remember what the word meant anymore.
I sipped the soda and fought back the overwhelming urge to break out into tears. It was stupid. Why was I so scared? I kept telling myself I should have just gone to the cops and ended it all when this crap began.
But I knew the reason why. The Mafia was too big, too powerful, and too connected. It was impossible to know what cops were on the take and being paid off, there was no way of knowing how big of an organization they were and how quickly they could get to my family and friends, and it was not easy admitting that I’d borrowed money from such an organization, even if I plead ignorance, which I was not entirely sure made it legal.