The Waiting Room
~ Chapter Forty-Four
Sparrow's Promise
As
he shook hands with Sparrow, Mort held the coin up to the light,
sending a golden beam into the dark corners of the Room.
“An
accord.” Sparrow confirmed, his handshake firm and unrelenting, his
eye keen on the coin. He did not want to appear too eager and kept
his free hand to his side, waiting for the writer to relinquish that
what he so cherished.
Mort made a half-ass attempt at humor.
“Flip you for it,” he said as he tossed the coin high
into the air, up into the rafters.
The pirate watched in
horror as out of nowhere the monkey flew from one beam to the next,
grabbing the floating coin in mid-air and once again disappearing
into the shadows.
The primate screeched a victory howl from
its hiding spot then grew quiet.
Alice the fairy trembled behind
a large volume of French history.
“Oh s--t!” Mort blurted
as he realized what had happened. From the corner of his eye he could
see Jack looking to the spot where the monkey had disappeared, then
ever so slowly, the pirate brought his gaze down and to his left, to
glare at Mort.
“Ye lost me coin.” Sparrow’s words
dripped with hatred. “Ye lost me friggin’ coin.”
Despite
the pounding in his chest, Mort felt all the blood drain from his
face. All he had gained against Sparrow he had lost with just one
flip of the coin. Rainey wasn’t sure who he wanted Shooter to take
his shovel to first…the monkey or himself.
“I believe, me
dear man, that makes the accord null and void.” Mort saw the anger
raging in Sparrow’s black eyes. “I believe that means you owe
me.”
“The accord said nothing about owing anybody
anything.” The writer waved up towards the rafters and made his way
around the desk. He fell into his chair, grabbing the slinky and
began to nervously jostle it from one hand to the other. “It was a
mistake. Just a stupid, freaking mistake. Could happen to anybody.”
“But it didn’t happen to just anybody, now did it lad?”
Sparrow leaned across the desk towards Mort to make his point. “It
happened to you, and you and I had an accord.”
Mort put both
elbows on the desk, dropping the toy and opening both hands to make
his point.
“Yes. We had an accord. But now the terms of
that so-called accord have been terminated due to this unfortunate
event. Terminated. Ended. Fini. That means there is no further
obligation to the verbal contract. I do not owe you anything,
Sparrow.”
Mort leaned back in his chair, rocking gently
with an air of self-gratification. He owed this grungy pirate
nothing.
“I stand corrected, sir.” Sparrow agreed much to
Rainey’s surprised satisfaction.
“You are right. You do not
owe me a thing.”
Mort’s smile disappeared as the pirate
leaned across the desk even further and whispered; “It is I
who owe you Mr. Rainey…and when I owe someone something, I deliver
the goods. So just be ready, lad. For I promise ye, I will deliver.”
Then Mort watched as Sparrow straightened himself, placed a
calm hand on the handle of his pistol and slowly turned from him,
walking with unhurried steps to the bar.
Mort decided he
needed a drink and pulled the whiskey bottle from his bottom drawer.
This day was not going to end soon enough for Mort.