Bad Decisions by Dale Patrick Smrekar

Bad Decisions by Dale Patrick Smrekar

4 a.m.

“How’d you like to make fifteen hundred dollars?” The hairy transvestite said, while entering an otherwise empty Las Vegas convention hotel elevator. “My name is Joseph,” he said, extending a hand to his fellow traveler.

His fellow traveler moved from the center of the elevator to a corner and cleared his throat. This was Vegas. Things like this happen in Vegas.

“You’re probably uncomfortable, worried someone is going to enter and think we’re together, right?”

The guy nodded.

“Look, honey we could make this easier. You can meet me on the fourth floor of the garage, and we can talk about my offer. Hmm… what do you say?” He opened his little black purse and flashed a wad of cash, then placed it back in his purse. Lots of hundred-dollar bills said hello.

“It does… doesn’t involve anything sexual, does it?” the guy replied

“No silly,” he said. A smile fluttered across his lips. “There’s nothing sexual you could do well enough that’d earn you that kind of money. Believe me, I know about those things.”

“Okay. I have to ask, why?”

“Why what?” the hairy transvestite asked dryly.

“Why me?”

“It’s a long story and we can’t finish it here. Are you in or not. Fifteen hundred dollars? Fourth floor garage in fifteen minutes. Nothing sexual. Oh, by the way, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Alex… it’s… it’s Alex,” the guy stuttered.

“Nice name sweetheart, see you in fifteen. Now, where did we say we’d meet?”

“Garage, fourth floor.”

“See you there.”

Ding, went the elevator.

That smile fluttered once more across his effeminate lips as he exited, leaving Alex alone to debate his options. What made this all the stranger was it was four a.m. Alex was on his way down to the blackjack tables to see if his luck had changed. Yesterday was a bad day. His ten-thousand-dollar bankroll had reverse metamorphized into eight hundred and five dollars. He knew the exact amount. He’s been counting it for the last hour in his room. Eight o five, eight o five, eight o five. It never changed. His almost tapped out credit cards didn’t change the equation. Now a thin little male transvestite promised partial salvation.

What the hell am I doing, he thought, as the elevator doors closed. It was him and the walls and maybe a security camera. He couldn’t tell. He began looking at what looked like a security camera lens and started talking to it. “I’ve been clean for five years, camera guys. Haven’t gambled once.” He said, flailing his arms about, then resumed, “I could have paid off a lot of bills with the ten thousand dollars I came here with. Lost most of it last night. Thank you, Vegas….” He paused, looked around the empty elevator and whispered to himself, “Fuck, I need that money.”

The security guy didn’t hear Alex’s confession. The camera didn’t have audio capabilities and security wasn’t paying attention to his elevator camera screen. Alex was taking to the walls.

Alex reached to push the elevator door button, but before he could push the button the elevator opened. “Fourteenth floor,” an older guy said, snuggling up to the much younger woman at his side. Alex unconsciously reacted and punched the up button, riding the elevator upwards with the couple.

The older man was smashed and pawing all over his much younger female companion. He wore a rumpled suit, tie askew, and buckle belt undone. She wore a tube top blouse, slacks, and heels. By the eighth floor that tube top was around her waist. She was half naked and staring at Alex while her older male friend went to work on her girls. She didn’t care that Alex watched.

Ding!

They hustled out of the elevator. Maybe to a room, or maybe they would just do it in the hallway.

“Vegas,” Alex said, shaking his head. He pressed the ground floor button and headed down to meet the transvestite in the garage.

Joseph wasn’t exactly a traditional transvestite. He openly crossed into both lanes. A mop head of black hair and three-day trimmed growth of a beard accented his strange androgenous look. His pale white skin made it obvious he and the sun were not friends. He stood maybe five eight, thin as a rail, with no curves, boobs or hips displayed.  His thick black curly body hair started midway on his neck and proceeded down into the cleft of his little black dress. His rail thin arms were thickly covered, as were his legs. Except for his massive case of woolly mammoth, he would have been a gender guessing game. A nice set of ivory tusks would have completed the look.  

Of course, he could have also done without the nineteen-forties fishnet seamed panty hose. His thick, black as night hair covering his skinny, boney legs, sprang outward from the confines of that nylon hose, making it look like he was smuggling young porcupines out of someone’s room. All this was stationed below his dainty little black formal dress. The sort that fit that old saying of some duchess of long ago, ‘When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place.’ Still, it didn’t look right on Joseph. Nothing else probably would either. Which made his current wardrobe choice appropriate for what? Prostitution? Alex’s body shivered considering his services.

 “God, who’d wanna hit that hairy ass?” he whispered to himself. But it had been obvious from the wad of money Joseph fanned, some people did.

 Nevertheless, Alex needed that stake money. The fifteen-hundred-dollar offer made him curious, and Joseph seemed to be a pleasant fellow. He rationalized in his mind like the classic gambling addict he was, I can turn that fifteen hundred into thousands and get the fuck out of here.

Stepping off the fourth-floor garage elevator, he found himself alone. Not a soul stirred. Crickets at 4:15 a.m. in the morning. Damn, I’m being set up for a robbery by the little bastard.

Alex hurriedly pressed the elevator button to recall the elevator and nervously looked around. The other elevator door opened and out Joseph stepped with a pretty little Black girl. She was maybe five feet, slim, absent the rounded Black girl ass, adorned with those fake spider eyelashes wearing white slacks and a white blouse. A little taller, she might have been a Vagas showgirl, but she was likely a table dealer or bartender.

“This is Mary, my partner,” Joseph announced.

She looked quite normal, maybe too much makeup, but normal. His curiosity was raging. He had to ask, “How’d you two get together?”

“Our mothers were best friends.” Jospeh responded.

Okay, blame it on your mothers, Alex thought. “So, what’s the fifteen-hundred-dollar story and why me?”

“Why me?” Joseph responded. “Isn’t it obvious, darling?”

“No.”

“You’re on a casino elevator at 4 a.m. The only lone wolves on elevators at that time in the morning in Vegas are prostitutes, house detectives or gambling addicts. I mean, you’re not attractive enough to be a prostitute. So average, you’re almost unpleasant. Look at you… golf shirt, Haggar slacks, old tennis shoes, and a faux leather belt that’s seen too many belt buckles. I’d get a new belt if were you, the fake leather is wearing off. Tacky… you scream gambling addict. I’ve spent years in Vegas, darling. I know one when I see one.”

“Okay, you got me. What’s the fifteen-hundred-dollar story and what do I have to do for the money?”

“Oh, ready to work are we? I like that. Come, the car is parked in the corner of the garage.”

“Car?”

“I’ll explain when we get there,” he said and swished away.

As they walked ahead, Alex checked both characters for any sign of bulges in the wrong places. A sure sign of a weapon. No bulges.

Arriving in the garage’s corner, Joseph pointed at a huge, finned vehicle. A fifty-nine green convertible Caddy. Its top was down, revealing white as white full bench seats. Alex ran his hand over the corner of the front seat. “Nice. Yours?”

“My brother’s car. Sweet, isn’t it?”

“And he lets you use it?”

“Sure.”

“How do I earn the fifteen hundred dollars?”

“Drive us somewhere and bring the car back after you drop us off.”

“Hmm, couldn’t you get an Uber or Lyft ride?”

“I’m banned from both services.”

“Can I ask why?”

Mary just silently extended a hand with a smile, and like Vanna White, motioned for Alex to view the entirety of Joseph. Her hand floated up and down multiple times. He was out of vowels but understood the answer. Mary remained a silent observer throughout the entire conversation.

“That’s all. Just drive you two somewhere?”

“Just drive us somewhere, honey. Then drop us off somewhere else and drive it back to this garage. Park it on this floor, please. My brother likes his car to remain parked on this floor. It’ll take maybe three hours. Five hundred dollars an hour. I’m sure you’ll agree that’s a fair price for your services. Now I get more per hour, but you don’t have to do what I do for the money.”

Yuck, he thought. “Keys?”

“You’d like to start it up?”

“Yeah.”

Jospeh tossed him the keys, and he got in and started the sweet ride. It roared to life, then sat purring.

“Nothing illegal, right?”

“YOU… you won’t be doing anything illegal, darling. Just driving.”

Alex looked over at Mary. She rolled her eye and turned away from Alex, surveying the empty garage. She seemed quite disinterested in the whole transaction.

“When? Cause I’ve got to get back to the tables.”

“Later today. I’ll find you.”

“I don’t think so. Look, no offense, but I don’t need you saddling up next to me at a blackjack table. It’s a bad look… you know, with that look.”

“I’ll have you know this look generates big money.” He opened his purse once more and showed Alex his wad of cash.

“I’m sure it does, but I prefer this deal to go down with some discretion. To protect my reputation.”

“Reputation? Good God, you’re probably damn near busted, or you wouldn’t be here talking to me right now. Can I spot them?” Joseph said to Mary. She frowned. She needed other entertainment.

“Look, You’re a male prostitute.”

“Escort, dear,” he responded. “Escort… well prostitute I guess if you want to get dirty about it. I’m at the tables all the time. They like my money. And as far as we escorts and prostitutes go, the hotel is full of them. We have a mutually beneficial relationship. They’re the flowers, and we’re the bees; pollinating all over the place. Buzz, buzz, buzz.”

Alex frowned. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

“All right… Mary here will come get you.” Mary frowned.

“Oh Mary, don’t be such a sad puss. The man is afraid I’ll crimp his style. Not that he has any style except a gambling addict, but we’ll play along.” She frowned once more.      

Alex exited the Caddy and walked back with them to the elevator. As they neared the elevator, a well-dressed woman, wearing an expensive dress, Ferragamo purse and stiletto pumps, exited the elevator. She had that Vogue cover look.  “Hi Joseph,” she said.

They stood and talked for a minute and then she walked away to her car.

“Dealer in the whale room, where the millionaires play. Does a little escorting on the side. The whales pay extremely well.”

“Is everyone in the business?” Alex asked, as they entered the elevator that Mary had held open.

“This town is situational. People love money. People just like you. You just prostituted yourself for fifteen hundred dollars.”

“But there’s no sex involved.”

“Not yet.” He licked his red lipstick enhanced lips for effect and laughed.

Alex recoiled at the thought.

Once the elevator reached the ground floor, Mary and Joseph walked off, leaving Alex heading for the blackjack tables.

Six hours had passed since the meeting. Alex hit a hot streak. His bankroll had swelled, standing at thirty-five hundred dollars, thanks to a string a string of twenty-one hands. So many, two security guys paid a visit to the dealer. They bookended the poor old lady dealer for maybe twenty minutes. Then satisfied Alex wasn’t card counting, motioned for a new dealer and left. Leaving Alex a little jacked up and full of testosterone. He looked up at the ceiling cameras and waved. Gambling is sometimes like porn. Guys sometimes get a hard-on if the babe or the cards are hot. They can also get stupid and call attention to themselves. Which Alex did by waving at the security camera. He was now on the security screen labeled stupid, but the cards kept coming. He was now unsure if he needed Joseph’s fifteen hundred dollars. Ten minutes later they changed dealer again, and the cards stopped coming. The house started crushing him.

In the distance, Joseph floated toward Alex, wearing another little black dress. He looked like Moses parting a sea of gamblers. Everyone turned as he passed, most stepped back and pointed, some grimaced, and, of course, some looked like they had just spied a twelve-ounce fillet mignon. Tastes vary. Alex shook his head no. He kept coming. In response, he gathered up his chips and threw a twenty-dollar chip at the dealer. He wasn’t sure why. He hadn’t given him a winning hand since he started dealing.

“Gotta get lunch,” he said and fled the blackjack table.

As he turned, he bumped into Mary. Alex hardly recognized her in her gossamer thin flower print dress. “Mary?” She said nothing, just pulled at his shirt sleeve and guided him away from the gambling tables.

“I need to cash out,” he said. She led him over to the cashier. The fifteen-hundred-dollar project was not debatable. The cashier counted out sixteen hundred dollars. Joseph soon arrived.

“Hi Alex. Glad you could join us.”

“Did I have a choice?”

“No, you didn’t, sweetheart. If you hadn’t gotten up, I was going to stop by your table and remind you that you still owed me two thousand dollars for last night. I would have said it loudly too,” he said with that coy little smile.

Mary still said nothing.

“Does she talk?” Alex asked.

“Mary is on a word diet. Her grandmother told her people only have so many words in them and then they die. She’s dieting for a longer life.” Alex stared at Mary. She ignored him.

“Come, we’re meeting someone at one. You need to change clothes. I can’t be seen with someone glamorizing the dead-beat gambling addict look. Got a fresh change of clothes for you hanging in a friend’s room.

“Friend’s room?”

“Yeah, a steady customer. He comes out for the shows, a little gambling and a bit of me. Let’s me stay in his gorgeous suite. Anyway, I’m gossiping. Let’s get going.”

Soon Alex stood dressed like the Village People cowboy. Leather boots, leather pants, red western shirt, vest, hat and a bandanna. He took the vest back off. It was a little much.

“Ohh… you’re ruining the look. Put that back on,” Joseph demanded.

“Not my style.”

“I’ll have you know it’s trending. Ain’t that right Mary?”

She nodded her approval.

Alex stood his ground and shook his head no.

“Another five hundred if you wear the vest,” Joseph said.

Alex put the vest back on. He’d become a Vegas prostitute.

“No sex, right?”

“Only if you want it,” Jospeh replied with a smile.

Alex was now up to two thousand imaginary dollars. “Hey, I don’t go for promises and what if something goes wrong? I need an advance.”

“An advance? You’ll get to keep those nice clothes you’re wearing and the two thousand dollars. Those duds cost me a pretty penny.”

“I need a thousand up front.”

Mary reached into her little bejeweled purse and pulled out a wad of cash, counted off a thousand dollars and handed it to him.

“There,” he said. “Can we continue?”

Alex nodded in agreement. Thirty minutes later, he was driving the green convertible Caddy, top down, right down the heart of the Vegas strip. Joseph sat in the back, while Mary sat next to Alex. Alex stared at her but said nothing and kept driving. She rested her left hand on his thigh. Occasionally she drummed her fingers in response to some tune probably playing in her head. The billowing wind tossed her long brown hair into the side of his face. She smelled of honeysuckle. She never looked over at him. No smile. Just stared out the front window, while her fingers continued to drum upon his thigh.

Twenty miles out of town, Joseph said, “We’re gonna stop at a gas station up ahead and wait. We’re a little early. We’ll need to put the top back up while we sit there, and you’ll need to run the air conditioning. If we sit with the top down and no air conditioning, we’ll boil like frogs. One minute you’ll feel fine, the next your sweet meat will be all cooked up,” he giggled.

At the gas station, Mary went inside to use the restroom and came out of the store with a large bottle of water. She took a couple of sips but offered nothing to Alex or Joseph. The bottle remained upright between her legs, and they waited.

Jospeh pulled out his cell phone. “Bad service, didn’t count on that. Anyone else got service?” No one did. He put it back in his shirt pocket. “We’ll wait another fifteen minutes, then go. I’m sure they’ll be there.”

“Who we meeting?”

“The less you know, the better,” he replied.

Finally, Jospeh said, “Let’s go. A mile down the road, you need to take a left down a dirt road to a ranch. I’ll let you know where to turn.”

In minutes the three sat in front of an old, rundown ranch house. Paint peeling, some of the nearby fencing had fallen. An unusable solitary chair sat on the porch. The seat had disintegrated. Behind the house stood a barn which had seen better days. In some sections, the roof had fallen in. Only one front door remained hanging on the barn’s door frame. The ranch hadn’t been active in some time. An open late-model Jeep sat on the side of the house, invisible until you had driven up to the front of the house.

“What’s going down?” Alex asked.

“A deal,” Joseph said. “We’re making a little transaction.”

“I didn’t sign up as some drug mule.”

“What did you expect you were doing? Driving us to a petting zoo? You are so naïve, Alex. No wonder you suck at gambling.”

“Do I have to go in?”

Mary continued sitting next to Alex, never altering the drumming of her fingers upon his thigh. “You need to come in,” she said, speaking for the first time. She turned and looked back at Joseph. “We can’t have him sitting out here getting cold feet.”

“You’re right. Our little bird might fly away.” Joseph replied. “You’re coming with us, Alex. When you’re in there, keep your mouth shut. Play the strong, silent cowboy role. Speak only if spoken to. Understand?” Alex nodded his compliance.

After a knock and a moment of nothing, two Hispanic men met them at the door. “Who’s the gaudy cowboy, Joseph?” the skinny one said.

“He’s, our driver. Mary brought him along.”

“Is he carrying?” the larger of the two men asked.

“You said come unarmed. We left our weapons in the car,” Mary said. “What is this dump, Luis?”

The larger man responded, “My family’s place. Back in the sixties, the people upstream diverted the water and left them high and dry. No water for livestock. No one would buy it, so they moved and left it to deteriorate.”

“Sorry,” Alex responded. That got him a sharp elbow jab in the ribs from Mary.

“He’s freelancing,” Mary said. “He’s supposed to stay the fuck quiet.” I now understood why Mary didn’t talk much, language and anger issues.

Joseph responded, “Excuse me for a second, everyone.” He then grabbed Alex around the back of the neck and led him away from the group and whispered in his ear, “Alex dear, if you open your mouth one more time, we’ll have to make you part of this exchange. Believe me, you don’t want to be part of the deal. These are not nice men.”

With that, he led Alex back to the group. Alex smiled a weak-ass smile as he rejoined the group.

“So, Miquel, we don’t want to take up a bunch of your time, where’s our options?” Mary asked.

Miguel pointed to the top of a dining room table, visible in the next room. “Come on back, we’ve got a nice selection. A little bit of everything. Coke, crack, hydro, shrooms, opioids, a little heroin, and great grass, it’ll kick your ass. Even some tabs of LSD. But no fentanyl laced stuff, that stuff kills. We don’t want to be back in the pen for murder. We don’t know your tastes or what you deal in, but we’ll give you a first-timers special. We’d like you to come back.”

“It’s for a couple of whale clients,” Mary responded.

“Whales? You feeding this stuff to fish?” Miguel asked.

“Whales are mammals, not fish,” Mary said. “You live in Vegas, and you don’t know what the term whale mean?” Miquel shook his head no.

“It’s a super-rich gambler. They might spend a mill or more in one setting. Arab sheiks, CEOs, kids with daddy’s money, lots of Asian foreigners.”

“We’re new in town.” Luis said. “Just got out of the pen about a year ago. We stay away from the strip. Most of our business is with the locals.”

“Here fishy fishy,” Joseph said, only to be met with a hard stare from Mary.

Maybe Mary was the boss, Alex thought.

“Let’s look,” Mary said. It was all nicely labeled and priced. After a minute she said, “We’ll take that, this stuff, a couple of tabs of LSD, that’s always good for fun, and a little coke, some H, and the shrooms. They’re good shrooms?”

“Yeah, we hit ‘em earlier this week.” Miquel said.

“What’s the bill?” Mary asked.

Miquel added it up and showed her the price tag. “Whoa, a little too steep,” Mary said. “How about that first timer’s special?”

“That’s it,” Miquel said. “Take it or leave it. We got expenses too.”

“I got enough in my purse for some of it.” She turned to Alex. “Fork over that thousand I gave you earlier.”

Alex handed it back without saying a word. His options were zero.

“That’ll cover a bit more. We’ll come back for the rest tomorrow.”

Miquel bagged up the drugs. As he did, Joseph pushed Alex without provocation. “Look asshole, you’re holding out on us.” He continued driving him backwards toward the door. “You wave that sweet ass around, get pounded by that Chinese whale and don’t cough up the rest. That guy pays well. Well, maybe you don’t get what I get when he pounds my equipment but I know it’s not just a thousand.” At that point, Joseph slapped Alex across the face.

“Hey, hey, take your beef outside,” Miquel said. “I hate you gay fuckers, airing your dirty laundry, getting your panties all bound up. Stop the shit in our house or…”

Just before the slap, Alex watched Mary scoop up some additional drugs into her bag. It was all a distraction. Fuck, I’m gonna get killed here, Alex thought after Joseph’s hard slap.

“I’m gonna go sit in the car,” Alex announced.

“I’m coming with you, asshole.” Joseph said.

“Me too,” Mary added, and tossing the wad of bills on the table. Everyone hustled out of the ranch house.

“Floor it,” Mary said. We were gone in seconds, heading down that dusty road, but away from the highway. They hoped the dealers didn’t notice the change in direction.

Within minutes Miquel and Luis realized most of the high-priced coke and heroin was missing. “Five grand, the bitch scooped up at least five grand of drugs from us,” Miquel said. “There’s a price to pay for that.” The chase was on.

Down the road the Caddy’s suspension wasn’t taking the dusty, hard packed, bumpy road well. Things were clanging, clunking. A pothole almost loosened everyone’s fillings.

“Hey, take it easy, man. This is my brother’s ride. Keep it all in one piece.” Joseph hollered out from the back seat. Something bounced into the engine compartment, rattled about for a moment and exited. It spun in the middle of the road behind the roaring Caddy.

Mary resumed her quiet nature but now sat in the far passenger seat. Every so often she looked backwards to see if they were being followed. A paved road lay ahead. In the background a plume of dust showed those Hispanic guys were not that far behind. Alex took a hard left and floored it, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one oh five. They were flying, fleeing down the paved road, driving like hell.

Alex was back to working for an imaginary two thousand dollars. “This is all a bad decision,” Alex mumbled. Neither Jospeh nor Mary responded. They were engrossed in watching the road behind them. In the distance they could make out a Jeep turning onto the paved road. The Jeep began gaining somehow.

“Why the hell did you steal the drugs?” Alex yelled at Mary as he drove down the paved road.

She said nothing, just glanced backwards toward the gaining jeep. For some reason the Caddy started slowing down. The speedometer read ninety, but the temperature gauge read too hot. Steam sprayed out from under the hood.

Jospeh hollered, “Fuck, what are you doing to my brother’s car?”

“It’s overheating,” Alex screamed. Three minutes later the first clunk sounded. Then black smoke tailed the Caddy. The jeep was nearly upon them. The temp gauge redlined. Another clunk, a hard chug and they were gliding to a stop, maybe fifteen or so miles down the paved road.

They watched Luis and Miquel exit the jeep holding matching chrome pistols. For some reason Mary started tearing off her clothes. In seconds she was naked and got out to meet the two men at the side of the car. “We need a lift,” she said.   

“We’re all gonna die,” Alex moaned as he watched Mary try to make a new deal.

“Get out everyone and get on your knees.” Luis ordered. At that point the three had no weapons, except maybe Mary’s body. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right caliber. They ignored her.

“Man, you people crazy,” Miquel said, pointing his guns toward their heads.

Mary squeezed her body up against Luis only to be pushed away. “Get on your knees, bitch” Luis said.

“The ground’s hot,” she whined.

“So is hell,” Luis replied.

“What Mary offers is nice,” Luis said as he waved his gun in their faces. “But it’s time for some advice. We appreciate that nice piece of ass, Mary. That’s appealing. But did you think you could get away with stealing?”

She shook her head and began crying.

“You know what’s funny?”

“No,” Mary replied through her tears.

“You ran for no reason. You dropped your Visa card back at the ranch. Miquel ran it on his square. Five grand. We’re all even. Here’s your card back.” She grabbed it out of his hands.

 “Now say goodbye,” Luis said, pointing his weapon at her nose.

Mary shrieked. Jospeh whined, while Alex pleaded for his life. “I’m just the fucking driver. I had no idea what these two were up to. Let me go.”

Luis answered with a smile and lowered his revolver. “Okay, get off your knees everyone. We don’t have to kill you; the desert will do that. We just wanted to teach you a lesson before you die. You’re very stupid people.

“Please take me back,” Mary said. “I’ll make you two very happy. Please?”

“Me too,” said Joseph, “if you’re into what I offer.” Alex said nothing. He had nothing to offer.

“Not interested,” said Luis, who then broke into rhyme.

“It’s a shame your car died here, all quiet and gone,

At a hundred and ten, you won’t last long.

Now pretty, pretty people please don’t cry

Just sit back. Bloat up, you’re all gonna die.”

 “Die… Die… Die…

Lius smiled and bowed. “Not bad huh, Miquel.”

“Luis likes to do spoken word at the local clubs,” Miquel explained. “I never know when he’s gonna start riffing.” He leaped into the Jeep with Luis and squealed away.

For the next few hours Mary screamed at Joseph and Alex, then walked off naked into the desert clinging to the only water left among them. Joseph just sat with his back up against a spineless cactus, while Alex tried to hide from the sun in the Caddy. The dark green convertible top offered the only shelter from the sun. Four hours later he was sweating bullets and regretting another bad decision, then he began drifting in and out of consciousness. People were dying.

Three months later, an iced margarita pitcher sat nearby unaffected by the cool seventy-degree breeze. A beachside cabana kept the sun at bay. A far cry from the one hundred and ten degrees of a Vegas desert. Bare lips whisked away the salt granules while sipping from the tall, lettered glass which read Grand Wailea, Maui.  It had been an interesting summer. A few days after the Caddy’s demise, a sole survivor had doubled back and made a new deal with Luis and Miquel. A much better deal – for all their drugs and money. Nearly a quarter of a million worth of product and cash. Luis and Miquel’s sun-bleached bones would broil in the desert for another two years before that nice Arizona family’s dog would find them.

 A smile graced the survivor’s face. “What did you think, I’d let a hot desert and a couple of lowlife criminals take my sweet ass out? Shame on you. I’m a survivor,” Joseph said.

Joseph uncrossed his fur covered legs and took another sip of his marguerita.  His helpful cabana boy, pointed at his Speedo like trunks.

“Oh, excuse me.” He placed his drink down and pulled and yanked at his tiny trunks, putting them back in position. “My trunks don’t always cover all my stuff. I have to look respectable, you know. This is a real nice place.”

Jospeh smiled and looked around before continuing.  I’d love to set up shop here one day. There’s a lot of filthy rich people here. In fact, one nice lady just gave me her room card and invited me up to her room in an hour. I told her I was on vacation. But she said she didn’t care what I charged. So now I’m going up to her room. He flashed about the room card, giggled, then continued. “I’m just so damn irresistible and hung. Ask my cabana boy, Jorge.”

His embarrassed cabin boy looked away.

“In two more weeks, I’ll be going back to Vegas to look for my next big adventure. Hey, maybe if you play your cards right like Jorge here, you’ll be in it. But just don’t try to screw me over in no drug deal, cause I’m a survivor.”

Jorge just smiled.

* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright Dale Patrick Smrekar 2026

Image Source: Dey from Fictom.com