Lucky Linda (short story I wrote)
Posted by Jowlstar on Jul 17, 2008
Lucky Linda
by J.D.R.
The track smelled good and his luck was hotter than his wife. Jared
has been placing bets with a bookie and watching the races at the
track. Getting reckless in his betting Jared finally hit the big bet
on a horse named Lucky Linda. He bet $350,000 on this horse because
his bookie Vince told him it was a sure win.
"And they’re off," the announcer’s voice boomed.
Jared could only watch as Lucky Linda took to the outside, which is a
prime spot on the track. Lucky Linda was doing great, maintaining
second place for a while and then the horses were approaching the
final stretch.
"Stupid horse! Can’t you friggen learn how to go faster; faster
please! Go faster!" Jared said as Lucky Linda began to lose speed.
"The horses are coming down the last stretch of the race and its
Surlee’s Temple followed closely by Brunce Bowler. Katie’s Gonna Win
in third, followed by Madonna’s Losing, and finally Lucky Linda in
last place," said the announcer.
"Please, oh please, win, you stupid horse."
The announcer was about to tell everyone the winners when Jared put
his head in
his hands. If he lost the $350,000 bet not only would he be bankrupt,
but he wouldn’t have enough money to cover the entire bet.
"And the winners are Brunce Bowler, Surlee’s Temple, and Katie’s
Gonna win. Followed closely by Madonna’s Losing and Lucky Linda."
Jared heard a ringing coming from his khakis; his cell phone he
thought. He stood up, answered it, heard a whisper on the other
line.
"Jared, we’re going to collect." Vince whispered.
"Sure, I’m just going to be at my house tonight." Jared said.
"Okay, my boys will be out to your house to pick up the $350,000
tonight. Oh and by the way if you try and screw with us we’ll be
paying your lovely wife a visit she won’t forget."
Silence.
His heart racing 1000 miles a minute, he walked over to the tents
where his wife was entertaining a few charming men.
"Sugar, we need to talk," Jared said.
"Can’t you see I’m busy with these bachelors?" Linda replied turning
away and continuing her conversation.
"It’s very important"
He finally had to grab her by the arm, and take her away from the
other men. They walked over to the lavatory area, where they were
alone.
"I just blew $350,000, which we don’t have."
"What the hell are you talking about!" she said as she began to mutter several
derogatory comments under her breath.
"Its not so bad, my bookie is only going to take everything we own
and then probably break my legs since I know we don’t even have
$350,000."
"Not so bad? You’re being stupider than you look right now, quit
being a pompous moron. This is a time to think about us both, you got
us into this. Now you’re going to get us out of this."
"We might be able to escape from my bookie if we get home and pack
really quick."
"So be it."
The ride to their house seemed like an eternity; they exchanged
glances of disgust and began to try and talk to each other but it
wasn’t working for either of them. They finally got to their house,
popped the gate open and rushed in.
"Sugar, grab the clothes while I pack the rest of the stuff." Jared said
"All right, but make sure you grab my jewelry its extremely valuable
to me" Linda said.
Linda headed upstairs to the laundry room and began packing their
clothes. Linda heard a noise behind her, turned to look, and was
frightened by what she saw.
"Don’t say a word," Vince said.
She didn’t move her lips at all as Vince pressed his clothes against
her’s holding her tight.
"You’re going to go downstairs and bring me Jared right now, understand me?"
"Yes," she said, moving her head frantically up and down .
"I’m going to wait here in this laundry room, but if you screw with
me I’ll make sure you eat lead."
Linda headed downstairs to look for Jared; quickly finding him in his
office. He was picking up a gun when she made a motion for him to
follow.
"Sugar, what is it?" Jared said.
"Just follow me," Linda said as she started pointing upstairs.
"All right."
Jared followed Linda upstairs and they both stopped at the laundry
room door. Linda was a pale color and wasn’t moving.
"Sugar, what’s the matter?" Jared said as he entered the laundry room.
"I’m the matter," Vince said as he leapt out from behind the dryer.
"Vince?" Jared said as he looked at the man tackling him.
"That’s me. You thought you were going to skip out of town and not
pay me my money?"
"Well, no, I didn’t."
"Then why were you packing?"
"We’re going on a vacation; we were here waiting to pay you the money
but you hadn’t shown up yet."
"Really, I don’t believe you at all. Boys come in here," Vince said
as he yelled towards the door.
"We’re here boss," the boys replied.
"All right stand there and wait. If our friend Jared here doesn’t
have $350,000
we’re going to rip Linda limb from limb right in front of him, understand?"
"Right, boss."
Linda was more terrified than Jared had ever seen her. He tried to
keep her happy as he knew that she’d probably not be alive much
longer. Jared put his head in his arms once again and tried to block
out what was going on.
"Jared, where’s your safe?" Vince asked.
"Downstairs to the left; behind the picture of me,"
"Thanks for the information. Now, go get me the money. Remember we
have your wife."
"I’ll be back as soon as I can"
Jared walked downstairs once more and headed towards his safe which
held about $1,000 in cash. Jared had formed a plan to put a grand
with a bunch of bricks in a bag and then try and con that over on
them. He ran outside and grabbed the bricks, and proceeded to quickly
attach them to the bills. He shoved all the bricks into a bag and
headed back upstairs.
"I’ve got all $350,000 for you," Jared said as he shoved the bag towards Vince.
"Thanks," Vince said as he began to look into the bag. "Do you think
I’m an idiot? These are bricks with money attached to them." he said
as he motioned for his henchmen to shoot Jared.
The two henchmen shot at Jared, one missed horribly and the other
bullet grazed his right arm. Jared let out a screeching howl of pain,
and Linda began to cry.
"Don’t kill him," Linda said.
"We’re not going to kill him yet," Vince said as he approached Linda
and withdrew his knife.
"What are you going to do," she asked.
"We’re going to cut your limbs off one by one and let your husband watch."
At hearing that statement her husband managed to get up and run at
all of them, Linda managed to get out of their grasp and run down the
hall. She was heading down the stairs when they opened fire,
terrified she didn’t realize that there was stuff in her walkway. She
tripped on a broom and went head first down the stairs, Jared began to
hyperventilate uncontrollably. The two henchmen and Vince stood there
in amazement, as Jared darted down the stairs to see his wife.
"She’s dead." Jared said.
Jared’s eyes transfixed on his wife’s body, he lost a part of him.
He knew he’d never be the same.
"Now you are too," Vince said.
Vince had pulled out his gun, and was firing at Jared who had not
taken too much time to stay for chit chat. Jared dodged several
bullets as he ran out of the house, luckily neither Vince nor his
henchmen were good shots. He hopped into his car and was heading for
a motel when he began to think of what just happened.
"They killed her," he said as he began to talk to himself. "Those
bastards killed her and they can pin this on me. What can I do?
First I need some money. Wait I had started a life policy a long time
ago on her. That’s the ticket, I’ll go collect the change from her
life policy in around five days."
*****
Five days past with just Jared in his motel room, he continued
talking to himself, and to a knife which he had named Linda. He found
that to be his only source of entertainment during those five long
days. Finally the time came to talk to the insurance company, he had
to go get some nicer clothing first. So he stopped by an outfitting
store, where he decided to grab a pair of nice dress pants with a blue
dress shirt. He went on his way to the insurance office and walked
on in.
"Hello I’m Jared Stevens," he said.
"Hello Jared, what can we do for you?" the insurance agent said.
"Well, my wife died recently, and I’m here to collect the life
insurance check."
"I’m sorry for your loss, if you’ll sign a few papers we can get the
ball rolling."
"Signing papers won’t be a problem. Please hand them here."
Jared seemed eager to leave the place as he signed all the papers, he
kept looking at the clock. It read 2:20 P.M.
"Can we hurry this up, I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes."
"Sure we’re just getting the final arrangements taken care of, sir
you’ll be getting a check in the mail in about a week."
"Check? Mail? What?"
"Yes, we don’t carry that kind of cash here at our insurance
agencies, so you’re going to have to get a check from our corporate
office sometime this week."
"All right I guess, thanks for getting it rolling."
Jared left the insurance agency with a sense of anger in him. He
would finally
return to his house he thought. So he drove all the way down I-97,
and into the lot where his house stood.
"Home sweet home," he said to himself.
A couple of men advanced from behind the bushes, and took Jared by surprise.
"We’ve been waiting in your house for several days," Vince said.
"Why are you here, you already killed her," Jared said.
"You’re best friend Billy Snider was bought off by us and has a photo
convicting you of killing your wife," Vince said.
"My best friend, why?" Jared said.
"Every man has their price,"
"You’re not going to get away with this."
"I believe we already have, now you have till noon tomorrow to get my
money, and if you don’t, we’re going to kill you."
Vince and his henchmen left, and Jared stood there in amazement.
Jared was being betrayed by his best friend.
Jared began to hear a voice inside his head, "Linda is that you?" he
said as he pulled out his knife which he thought was his wife.
"Linda, you’ll never leave me," he said to the knife "You’re love is
enough to stay with me for a lifetime, right?" he said.
The knife just shined back at him, and that was enough for him.
"What is that Linda, you want me to kill Billy? But I couldn’t
possibly do such a thing, you say he deserves it? All right lets go
get Billy!"
Jared drove very fast down the highway, and reached Billy’s office.
He didn’t even care to knock at the door, he just knocked it off its
hinges.
"Jared, I’m glad you’re here," Billy said.
The man drew closer towards Billy, and closer; Billy could feel
Jared’s breath on his shoulder.
"Where are the pictures of my wife’s murder," Jared demanded.
"Well I’ve got some interesting news for you; I’ve found the murderer."
"Oh that’s interesting, very interesting."
Jared began to slide his hand into one of his trench coat pockets;
feeling around he finally found his knife which he referred to as
Linda.
"The picture shows only one person," Billy said as he cleared his
breath to tell his best friend the bad news.
"Who was it? Come on let the god damn information out!"
"The picture shows you pushed her down the stairs."
Jared began to yell, "Linda’s coming, Linda’s got an agenda to do!
Linda wants you!" Jared ran at Billy, and Linda pierced Billy’s body
quicker than his mouth could say help.
"You’ve been a great friend until now, but Linda says you must die."
With Billy’s last remaining strength he let out an ear shattering
screech, and reached for his phone. Linda wouldn’t have that, Linda
with one simple slash took off Billy’s hand.
Noises encroached his mind as Linda took over once more.
"What’s that Linda, Linda you want me to kill Vince? But I couldn’t
do that Linda, yes he’s been a bad person, alright I’ll kill him."
Jared grabbed his trusty knife and rushed into his car leaving his
best friend in a puddle of blood. The ride to where his bookie was
seemed to go quickly, once he was there he pulled out Linda and began
to look to her for guidance.
"You want me to go upstairs and get them," Jared said.
The knife didn’t utter a word and just stared at him, he waited
intently for Linda to give him a way to go. Linda still didn’t say
anything to him, he was very frustrated at this point when suddenly
Vince and his cronies walked up.
"Do you got our money?" Vince said.
"Well about that, I don’t think I’m going to give it to you," Jared said.
"You’re what?"
"Not going to give it to you," he repeated with a slight irritation
in his voice.
"I’ve lost my patience with you."
"As have I, you’ve destroyed my life and are now trying to take
what’s left of it away."
"I’m going to count to three, you understand me?"
"Count away, I’m not going to give you any god damn money!"
"One, two," he said as he paused to try and give Jared one final
chance to pay up.
"Why did you stop counting?"
"Three," he said as his voice ripped through the air, he shot a look
at his cronies.
Jared had reached his hand in his pocket again for Linda.
"Linda, doesn’t like this."
"Linda’s dead you idiot," Vince said as he began to give the cronies orders.
Jared received an order from Linda; to kill them. Jared began to
make growling noises as he looked intently at Vince.
"Guys, get ready to shoot on my command" Vince said as he aimed his
gun right at Jared.
"You’re done for," Jared said, shining Linda in their faces.
The fight lasted two minutes, Vince and his henchmen didn’t move an
inch but Jared did. Jared thrust the knife towards them and with
cries in the night they hit the pavement all that remained was Jared
and Linda, together at last with nothing to stand in their way.