Life Insurance

It started with fear, then acceptance, like watching a bird hit the window and fall down to the Earth.

That's how Jimmy the Cook went out. Headlights through his back window, and before he could blink, it was all over. Poor kid just got seen talking to the wrong guy at the wrong time, probably didn't even know what he did wrong. But that's life, I guess.

The streetlights reflected off of the diner's messily painted walls in a tiresome hue. The wall's bright colors were washed out in the process of reflecting. The measly color splashed onto the pavement with a sense of hesitation. I'd taken the keys out of the ignition minutes ago, but my hands hadn't left the wheel. You never know what's meeting you at a dropoff. Could be quick and easy, could be a shootout with double-crossing suits from across town. In the faint reflection of the windshield, I saw a face of scars and wrinkles, its expression unrecognizable.

Enough. Time to move.

My fingers clenched around the keys in my pocket, I entered the restaurant and scanned around inconspicuously. The place was free of customers except for the one man I was looking for. Couched between a bright red leather booth and a table with a pot of coffee was a pale, skinny man with slick blonde hair and a full, but yellow smile; he looked just like I imagined he would. The type of guy who'd take out a life insurance policy on you before shoving you off a bridge.

Rico, the old German behind the counter, knew me from dozens of late-night meetings and empty coffee cups. "Staying a while, Vic?"

"Not today, Rico." And with that, he turned away, always keeping an ear to the unfamiliar man I was meeting with. My client smiled wider, uglier, and stood up to shake my hand.

"Great to finally meet you!" He spoke like a banker, extending the ends of his sentences and accentuating some words to make himself seem important. I reached into my left pocket to slide a little black book onto the table. I gave him a knowing glance, then turned to leave again. "What?" His gleeful, conniving tone hadn't changed. "No, no, sit! You're my guest tonight." I didn't look back at him. Didn't want to.

"That wasn't the deal."

"Sit. I'll make it worth your while, Vic." I winced, but I wasn't facing him. "Are you surprised I know your name, Vic? Don't worry about it, I'm just a people person." I turned around to look the slimy prick in the face.

"I was instructed to drop the book and leave. Already got paid, already did my job, so I'm leaving."

"Enough money for you and Darcy?" My eyes widened, my brow raised in anger at the invocation of my wife's name.

"How the hell do you know my wife's name, you repulsive little fuck?" I swore under my breath as to not make a scene in Rico's diner.

"Woah, why the hostility, bud?" I hated it when people called me that, but somehow I felt he knew that. "I told you, I'm a people person. Simmer down. Sit. Let's talk eh... Christmas bonuses." I had a reputation to uphold for keeping my cool, and Rico was watching, so I sat. Right on time, Rico slid over with a pot of coffee and a mug.

"Cream today, Vic?" Family code. If I said yes, Rico would load the shotgun under the counter.

"Not today, Rico." My eyes were steeled on the stranger.

"Right." He filled my cup, refilled the stranger's, then left us. He hadn't stopped showing me his crooked teeth since I walked in.

"I assume you didn't read the book, then." My eyes narrowed in response. "Good, good... a man who follows orders. Must be wondering why they sent you for such a simple job." The truth is, I wasn't. My reputation for doing the job and not asking questions was just my mindset now, after all these years.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to see something." Breaking his gaze from me for the first time, the man turned to a suitcase beside him, unlatching and opening the browned leather valise in one swift movement. He suddenly revealed more cash than I'd ever seen in my life.

I said nothing, but my mind betrayed me and flooded with dreams and fantasies of what one could do with that type of money. Two years' worth of jobs, in one box.

"Everything's just too expensive these days, isn't it Vic?" The snake's cadence had changed, and he spoke now like he was trying to lull me to sleep. "Marriage, mortgage payments, new car for the wife... putting the kids through college." My fists clenched again before I caught myself and relaxed. "That's twenty thousand dollars, and I want you to have it. I think we both know your... employer... doesn't pay you enough for the work you do." I couldn't say he was wrong. This line of work isn't what it used to be, especially with the government cracking down the way they are. It's not all bullets and roses when low-level guys can't keep up with cost of living.

"No. Already got paid for this dropoff." I stood up, knowing I wasn't strong enough to stay without cracking.

He responded sharply, almost sounding excited that I mentioned getting paid. "And what's a job pay these days? Half a month's rent?" I was a statue now, my mind racing with the idea of escaping with Darcy. Smoke on the Water, a rock tune that came out earlier in the year, played faintly from the radio on the counter. Rico was pretending to stare at the window and search for customers, but I knew he was listening.

Though he spoke quietly, the stranger's voice was piercing and hit me now like an aching static. "You deserve better. You know it as well as I do." I heard the suitcase latch and close, my eyes still glued to the radio.

"What's your catch?" My voice was more desperate than I wanted it to be, but it was too late to change anything.

"No catch." Victoriously, the man put his hat on and slid the suitcase onto the table, shaking my untouched coffee with the sheer weight of the cash. "Twenty thousand dollars." My breathing stopped for a few seconds before resuming. "It's yours if you want it. Or it's Rico's. Or whoever comes into this diner and decides to take it from the table. That's all."

His glaring, venomous eyes were now too proud to look down on someone like me, and he began to make his way toward the door. Rico broke his stoicism and left the room for the back.

"Oh, and Vic?" The stranger made one last aside, speaking over his shoulder as if it were a king speaking to a minstrel. "All the best to you and Darcy with the pregnancy."

I wanted to strangle him, to run to my car for my Colt and remove this filth from the planet, but my body wouldn't move. Thoroughly entertained and satisfied, the stranger finally allowed the inhuman, toothy smirk to leave his face and walked out of the diner.

Alone. Just me, and a suitcase with twenty thousand dollars. We could pack up, get to some oasis on the other side of the ocean, practically be ghosts by 1973. Darcy never asked what I did at my job, but I knew it hurt her to think about it. A man can only hurt the people he loves so much before he hurts himself.

My pupils stung from staring so long at the radio, now coaxing out a recording of Tiny Dancer.

There was a catch. There has to be. There's always a catch in this world.

But it didn't matter. My hands were on the case, and my feet were already making their way back to the car.

The cold air was abrasive on my skin, screaming at me to drop the case and stop being a fool. I broke into a run, then a sprint, fearful of what I've done but unable to cease my ironclad grip on the case.

The car door slammed and the locks clicked into place. I pressed the case against my chest and closed my eyes, stealing my breath away for the crime I'd committed. Money doesn't come from anywhere, especially in a sum as large as twenty thousand. I wouldn't be safe after making such a stupid decision. Darcy wouldn't be safe. Little Vic wouldn't be safe.

No, no, no. I cleared my head, took a breath, and shoved the key into the ignition. Hands back on the wheel, I stared out into the cold darkness around, bracing for the life ahead. All I needed to do was get my family out, get somewhere that no one can find us, and we can finally be happy and free. It's a chance I'd have to take now, and I'd lived through worse.

The streets were clear of anyone as if the strange man had never existed. The lights at Rico's flashed off at last, and the world was silent. If only for a moment, it seemed like my crimes were forgiven, my time had finally come.

Suddenly, headlights were shining through the back window. I felt a stirring in my heart that I had never felt before.

Fear, then acceptance, like watching a bird hit the window and fall down to the Earth.