Chapter 1

 

     Jodi grabbed the last item from the conveyor belt and ran the barcode across the scanner.  “Will there be anything else?” she asked politely.

      “That’s it,” the customer replied.

     Jodi finished running up the sale and started closing down her register as the customer grabbed her bags and left the supermarket.  She carried her money drawer into the backroom and set it on the table.  Her best friend, Lisa, was already there, counting the money from her drawer. 

     Lisa looked up briefly from counting the twenty-dollar bills in her hands and saw that it was Jodi, then she went right back to counting the money.  “Got anything going on today?” Lisa asked as she finished with the twenties.

      “Same as always,” Jodi replied as she started counting the money in her drawer.

      “Want to come to my place?  We can watch a movie on TV, and later we can get a pizza.”

     Jodi stopped counting and seriously considered it.  “Maybe,” she said.  “Let me take care of my drawer.”

     Both women went back to counting and accounting for all the money they had in front of them.

      “Damn!” Lisa finally swore when she checked her total.  “A dollar over!”

      “At least it’s not under,” Jodi replied.

     Fifteen minutes later, their shift over with, both women left the Baltimore Safeway supermarket.  Instead of heading toward the bus stop, Jodi got into Lisa’s battered old car and the two of them headed for her apartment. 

      “Are you hungry yet?” Lisa asked.  “It’s only three thirty.”

      “No.  I ate plenty at lunch.”

      “Then we’ll see what’s on TV and order pizza later.  Val should be home by then too.”

      “Fine with me,” Jodi replied.  More often than not, the only meal Jodi ate every day was at lunchtime.  Her employee discount let her eat at the supermarket for a lot less than it would cost her anywhere else, but her primary reason was simply convenience.  In the last few years, she had simply gotten used to eating only once a day.  That was part of her normal.  A normal that she knew very well was unlike anyone else…probably on the planet.  Spending a few hours with Lisa was almost like a rare treat for her.  It was a few hours when she peeked her head briefly up out of the darkness she lived in and caught a brief glimpse of what the rest of the world looked like.

     The TV movie was sappy, but since Jodi didn’t have a TV, she didn’t really care.  Lisa’s apartment mate, Valerie, came home near the end of it and the three of them split the cost of the pizza.  Pizza, or any other food other than lunch, was something else for her stomach that she usually denied herself.  It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford to eat anything else, other than a decent lunch, she just didn’t bother, telling herself she didn’t have time.

     The real treat for her was to spend some time with the only person in the world that she considered to be a good friend, Lisa.  Lisa knew more about her than anyone else.  And not once had Lisa ever criticized her about the way she lived or the things that she had to deal with.  Chief among them, was her absolute rage.

     It was growing dark when Jodi left Lisa and Valerie’s apartment.  “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you home?” Lisa offered.

      “No.  I’m fine.”

     Lisa was tempted to tell her to be careful, but she knew Jodi better than that.  “See you tomorrow,” she said instead.

      “See ya,” Jodi replied.

     As she headed for the bus stop, Jodi’s mind noted the darkening skies.  It would take her nearly half an hour to get to her apartment.  As bad as the location where Lisa’s apartment was, hers was in an even worse place.  But she didn’t have an apartment mate.  She was lucky to have the West Baltimore place she had to live in.  Better still, nobody ever complained about any noise she made, which she considered to be almost nothing.

     She reached the bus stop and waited for the bus.  There was nobody else waiting yet.  Would it happen here?  But the bus finally arrived, and she climbed into it.  She sat watching the dirty and dilapidated parts of the city going by her.  She saw nobody getting robbed, or beaten, or murdered, even though that was something she longed to see.

     The bus finally let her off a few blocks from where she lived.  Too short a walk.  Would it happen?  She walked to the end of the block, then turned and went two blocks over, then turned onto her street.  She was bordered by rows of old buildings.  All of them turned into cheap tenement apartments.  Would it happen?

     The noise of a motorcycle caught her attention.  She saw it coming up the street a block ahead of her.  She saw it pull to the curb and stop.  She hated motorcycle riders, bikers, more than anyone else in the world.  Her mind did nothing but imagine all the things she’d like to do to the guy riding it.  When she walked past him, it took all her willpower to not say or do anything to the guy who was still sitting on his bike, staring into his stupid cellphone.  Oh, the things she like to do to him.

     Those thoughts were still occupying her mind a block later when it happened.  The first time ever.  A man stepped down from the steps of one of the buildings and pointed a gun straight at her face.  Finally!  She was so overjoyed she took a few moments just to stare at him and savor the moment.

      “Give me that purse!” the man demanded.

     She laughed with delight and pulled on the strap that she had hung over her head and shoulder.  “This purse?”

      “You got another one?”  He reached out to grab for the strap, intending on pulling it off over her head.

     She was just a millisecond from reacting, when another voice stopped her.

      “Hey!  What are you doing?  Get the hell away from her.”

     She was confused.  What was going on?

     The would-be robber looked up at the guy heading for him.  He had a gun in his hand, but instead of using it, he backed up, turned, and ran.

     Damn it!  Jodi was furious.  The first time anyone had ever tried to mug her, and now someone had ruined it.  Damn it!  She turned around and saw the guy from the motorcycle running in her direction.  Now she had even more reason to hate motorcycle riders.  She automatically noted his large size and the way he moved.  Confident.  Even under his leather jacket she could see he was well-muscled.  But it was the way he moved that she noticed the most.  This was a person who knew how to fight.

      “You okay?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

      “Damn you to hell!” she screamed in his face.

      “Huh?”  The man took a step back, confused by the rage he now saw in this woman.

      “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I wanted to be mugged?”

      “You what?”

      “Did you ever stop to think that maybe I didn’t want any help?  Did it ever occur to you that maybe I didn’t need any help…especially from the likes of you!”

      “Me?  What the hell?”

      “Damn you!” she yelled at him again.

      “Look,” he said as he raised his hands in the air.  “I was just trying to help.”

      “Damn you!” she screamed again.  “What the hell are you doing here anyway?  I don’t recognize you.”

      “Do you live around here?” he asked, noting that despite her small skinny body and too short brown hair, she was still somewhat attractive.

      “Why should you want to know?”

      “I’m looking for someone.”

      “Looking for someone?  You found someone.  Me!”

      “No…I mean…I’m trying to find someone else.”

      “Who?”

      “His name is Mike Valdez.  The information I have for him is hard to read.  I can’t tell if it was number eighty-eight on this street or eighty-six.  Do you know him?”

      “Hell no.  Never heard of him.  Why?”

      “My brother was murdered,” he told her.  “Mike was evidently one of his friends.”

      “Your brother was murdered?  Where does he live?”

      “Just outside the city.”

      “But his friend lives here?”

      “From what I found.”

      “And nobody else could tell you anything?”

      “Not yet.”

      “How about the police?”

      “They told me he was murdered.  Shot.”

      “And they gave you this guy’s name?  This Mike something?”

      “No.  I found it in with some of my brother’s stuff.  What’s with the twenty questions?  You said you didn’t know him.”

      “Maybe I’m just interested.”

      “The same way you were interested in getting mugged?”

     She stared at him.  “Damn you.  I didn’t need saving.  I can take care of myself.”

      “Sure you can,” he replied, noting again her bad, too short haircut and how skinny she appeared.  “Next time, maybe you should be a little more grateful.”

     He barely saw her move before his head exploded and he flew five feet backwards to the sidewalk.  He was so stunned he had to lay there and hold his aching head for a few minutes trying to clear his brain.  His chin felt like it had been broken.  He had to work his mouth a few times and feel around to be sure it really wasn’t.  What had happened?  In his life, he had never been hit like that.  He was ex-army.  Not only that, but he had been Delta Force.  The very best of the best, and still he had never been hit like that.

     Who the hell was she?

     Jodi never looked back.  The quick kick she had given him hadn’t been planned, it had just happened.  She had lost control.  But it was without a doubt the most satisfying kick she had ever thrown.  She doubted she had killed him, although he was a biker.  Killing him would have made her feel a lot better.  But the kick hadn’t been anything lethal.  Although it could have been.  She briefly looked back to see him moving and holding his jaw.  Damn it, he was still alive.  Oh well, at least she had the satisfaction of kicking someone.  Unfortunately, when he had interrupted the mugging, she had lost her first real opportunity to legitimately kill someone.  Maybe she should have killed that biker.  That’s what she really wanted to do now.  Once again, a biker had spoiled a piece of her life.

     Inside her one-room apartment, she shed her sweater as well as her shoes, socks, shirt and pants.  There was no furniture at all in her apartment except for a small ancient table in the kitchen area and two old chairs to go with it.  One of those chairs, she only used to throw stuff on.  She had an old mattress thrown on the floor against one of the walls, but other than that and the table and chairs, her tiny apartment was pretty much empty…except for the one and only other thing she wanted.  The thing that occupied her the most every single day – the ancient heavy bag hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room.

     Wearing nothing but a bra and her panties, she inspected the bag.  Grabbing a roll of duct tape, she taped up the latest places where she had broken it open.  When she was done, she punched the bag…once.  Her mind remembered the lost opportunity of almost getting mugged a little while ago.  But more than that, she remembered that biker guy who had spoiled her fun.  She hated bikers, and just then, she hated him the most.  With her mind picturing his face on the heavy bag in front of her, she attacked that bag with a fury even she rarely knew, throwing all her hatred and rage into it.  For the rest of the evening, she went back and forth between working out against the bag and doing many other martial arts exercises.  Getting her exercise, but more importantly, channeling all the anger and rage that coursed through her all day long into something where she wouldn’t hurt anyone.  Getting as much of the rage out of her as she could.  Until finally, much, much later, she laid down on her simple mattress, pulled an old blanket over top of her body and her head, and fell into an exhausted sleep.