As he walks into the room, dimly lit by the fire, all he can do is think about what had happened.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You don’t even know what happened yet.
(Flashback) In the pub on 14th street, The Stool it’s called, Lorenzo walked in with the guy at the pub, always served the drinks.
“Can I get some scotch? I’m kind of in a hurry,” Lorenzo said as he sat down on the squeaky stool next to the bartender.
“Can I ask where you’re going?” Larry questioned while he took out the scotch.
“I have a flight to catch in about one hour and thirty-five point two five four minutes, to be exact,” Lorenzo answered as he did the math in his head without even looking at his phone.
“I see you’re one of them smart kids, to be exact,” the bartender mimicked.
Lorenzo rolled his eyes, clenched the nails into the palms, and turned his head to the clock to check the time. His flight departs at 6:15, but it was only 3:15. Lorenzo was relieved because it takes about an hour to get to the airport. He thought he only had a couple of minutes before the take off on an incredible journey.
“Sorry Larry, I didn’t see the time correctly, it looks like I have about three hours until my departure,” Lorenzo said as the bartender stopped spilling all of the scotch on the floor.
Lorenzo looked at a table with four people sitting at it playing cards and decided to make some friends. Lorenzo slowly walked to the table as one of the lights flickered every four or five seconds.
As he approached the table, Larry said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you ‘Mr. To Be Exact.’”
Larry and Lorenzo always played around with each other, but this time, he thought that Larry had a point. One of the men looked like he had been in a gang for sixty years selling some drugs, until he noticed that it was a gang and they were called the Diablos.
Lorenzo thought in his head, “Why would they be in London? Is there a huge drug trade?”
The other three looked like they were in his posse. Lorenzo surveyed that they worked out a lot with their very muscular bodies under the tank tops. It seemed as if they were way over two-hundred pounds. One of them banged on the table and said something in gibberish. Lorenzo thought it was just the card game, but maybe they were arguing about something else. He thought that the language was Spanish, but he wasn’t very sure. He never learned a word in Spanish besides “Hola” and “Como Estas.” Lorenzo knew that hola meant hi, but he never learned what the other one meant.
He noticed that one of his friends named Leo walked into the bar.
“Hey! How’s it going?” Lorenzo spoke as he hugged him.
“Not bad so far, but this place looks really sketchy to me. All of the lights are flickering,” Leo said.
Lorenzo noticed that the gang was leaving the bar and they were going to their car.
“Leo, I’m sorry, but I have to go to work right now,” Lorenzo said as he felt guilt coursing through his veins.
“Bye Lorenzo, have a great day,” Leo conveyed while he slowly walked over to Larry.
The only reason Lorenzo “had” to go was because he wanted to follow that shady gang to see what they were up to. Their car looked like the most beat up thing ever seen on the planet Earth. The windows had duct tape on them to shut the cracks with some on the windshield as well. The front was all crumply and rough. Also, as one of them opened the door, he heard of what sounded like a dog whistle as they walked into the car made out of crimes. Lorenzo got in his Rolls Royce, which was his company’s paid car. He turned on the car and stepped on the gas.
Lorenzo began to worry about the dim trail that was leading him to his doom. The dark night sky made it an even scarier path to follow, but Lorenzo was determined to uncover the secrets behind this “posse.” For Lorenzo’s observant traits, he finally noticed that they were on the way to the airport. Lorenzo felt a little less terrified, but more nervous because his job might take longer than expected this time.
Lorenzo watched the car while it parked in parking area D. He parked in the same lot, but a little farther so it wasn’t too suspicious.
As the posse got their tickets, Lorenzo spotted that the tickets had “TSA Pre” written on the top-right hand corner. They were going from London and all the way to California. With no doubt, Lorenzo decided to get a ticket for the same flight, following them even further down the road to a dead end.
He got the feeling of nausea due to how nervous he became as the posse sat right next to him on the train. He noticed that their clothing was very rugged, but the only thing that wasn’t rugged on their outfit were the thousands of gold chains around their necks. Lorenzo thought from the clothing that they didn’t get many customers, but after he saw the gold chains, he strongly suspected that they were really rich. This gang was wanted all around the world because they sell their drugs globally to different rich people. They talked quietly in Spanish to each other for the whole ride.
The train finally arrived to a gate and the posse immediately got out of the train, along with half of the passengers. The gang instantaneously disappeared like a cloud of smoke into the fog of people.
Lorenzo decided to go to the gate and wait for them there, but all of a sudden, he noticed that he was very hungry.
No wonder, he hasn’t had a bite since this morning. Almighty McDonalds was right around the corner. “Big Mac, large fries and a Coke,” orders Lorenzo.
As he finished his meal, lonely, with the feeling of being miserably tired, he spotted the gang again. Lorenzo followed them with a dull haste that coursed through his blood. All of them arrived to the gate, except for Lorenzo. He wanted to get boarded on the plane last to avoid getting noticed by the posse.
The loud voice on the intercom announced their flight’s boarding. Lorenzo waited until the last minute, showed his boarding pass to the lady with a sour face, and proceeded through the gate.
He was finally on the plane. Even though Lorenzo had a dim haste in his veins, it all bogged down to a treacherous nervousness. He didn’t even notice this before, but the bartender, Larry, was on that flight as well. What a surprise! While he sunk deeper into the seat, Lorenzo tried not to make eye contact with Larry so he didn’t get the posse’s attention.
We were positioned in a square, with Lorenzo on the bottom right, Larry on the top right and the gang taking up bottom left and top right seats on the plane.
Lorenzo was very anxious until he plugged his headphones in to watch a movie.
Twenty minutes later, he was knocked out in a light sleep, but still cautious for any movement of the gang members and Larry.
Lorenzo woke up two hours later and noticed that one of the flight attendants was in his aisle.
“Do you want a complimentary drink, sir?” asked the attendant.
“Is that even a question?” he thought. “Drinks are what every man needs!”
Three drinks and 2 hours later, he fell asleep again, until one of the gang members stood out of his seat.
“Bathroom break?” guessed Lorenzo. Big mistake! The guy instead pulled the pistol out of his huge duffel bag.
“Everyone stay in your seats and put your hands behind your head!” the chief yelled as the passenger’s heads dipped below the seat in front of them.
Lorenzo has been training for his whole life of being a detective for this moment, but he just froze, too paralyzed to even whisper a word from his mouth. As Larry stood up, the gunman pointed the pistol at his head. The whole airplane fell silent, like an abandoned neighborhood where you can only hear the wind whistling.
Lorenzo only had one thought in his head, “What a brave man London is losing.”
One nano-second after this thought came up, a shiny golden bullet went, as fast as light, right through the bartender’s skull. At the same moment, many memories bleared through Lorenzo’s mind, which reminded him of nice talks and good laughs with Larry.
Lorenzo unfroze from his stature and immediately, with haste, kept moving up, seat by seat, until he came face to back with the leader. Promptly, the detective went for the choke hold on him, but his “employees” had his back. As Lorenzo choked the boss, the rest of the gangsters instantly came to the rescue. Both, the choker and the captain, fell to the aisle in a flash.
“What’s your name?!” Lorenzo asked with a very intimidating tone.
“The Boss.”
The Boss kicked him with an exemplary amount of force towards the front, grabbed the parachute from the bathroom and dove out of the plane to start freediving. With no hesitation, Lorenzo snagged another parachute, which remained on the bathroom floor, and jumped right out of the plane. The last thing the detective heard were the screams of panicking passengers. He never skydived before, and two seconds later, instantaneously passed out. All Lorenzo could see was the darkness of this crime.
In what seemed like two seconds later, Lorenzo realized that he was about 500 feet from the ground and immediately pulled the drogue of his parachute. He harshly descended to the ground thirty seconds later. After touchdown, his mind went blank for a second. Lorenzo couldn’t feel his arms or legs. He landed at what seemed like a beach with a small amount of palm trees surrounding the white sand full of sticks and stones. The numbness digging into his legs made it almost impossible to walk. Luckily, about two minutes later, the feeling in his legs came back and he could finally walk.
The past ten minutes, Lorenzo almost forgot he was a detective on a case, rather he was just a lost human holding onto his precious life. He had the most befuddled look printed onto his face.
“What is now?” Lorenzo thought approaching the nearby town in hopes to find a place to stay.
Five minutes later, he became really cold, and made an effort to move faster. He just remembered that he left his bags and all of his money on the plane. He spotted a couple of hotels that looked pretty fancy, which were not an option. Lorenzo switched to his last resort, begging. He found a nice wealthy area where he could get some money. Lorenzo caught a glimpse of a hat on the ground and quickly decided to pick it up. He tattered his clothes behind a dumpster so he wouldn’t be mistaken for a faker. While looking in the dumpster, Lorenzo found a lot of cardboard, full trash bags, wrappers and burgers from Burger King. He got a bit hungry, but decided not to eat the leftovers. Lorenzo kept on looking and looking into the dumpster to possibly find something useful for his journey to his unpredictable faith.
After about 7 minutes, Lorenzo decided to give up and keep on exploring closer to the road. Until he saw a golden limo. With his keen vision, he observed that the limo contained different paint jobs on both of the sides of the limo. One of them was a flame on the drivers’ door and another had the word “Gangster” on the passenger’s side. Lorenzo remarked that the person in the passenger seat was throwing out cash from the window. He had dark skin and rainbow colored hair that was a little frizzy. He was playing his rap music that must have been heard all around the city. Lorenzo felt the bass of the music, which almost made his heart sink into his stomach. This guy might be Lorenzo’s only stairway to the crime scene.
Lorenzo tried to put all of his effort into creating the best beggar voice while saying, “Excuse me sir. Mind lending me a little cash?”
The individual didn’t even hear a single word from Lorenzo, he just mindlessly threw hundred dollar bills right on Lorenzo’s aching feet. The beggar swiftly gripped the money with all of his strength, instantly put it in the hat and ran with the rest of the energy he still had to spare.
Lorenzo arrived at the hotel called “The Infinite Luxury”. He already started to get back into the groove of his life at home, but stopped himself from getting too comfortable at the chairs near the counter.
“Hello sir! Are you trying to check out a room?” the lady at the counter said as Lorenzo was about to fade into a deep sleep. “Hello?” she kept on saying as Lorenzo ignored her.
Many words and no responses later, he slowly rolled up from the chair and felt well rested. Lorenzo finally looked at the lady at the counter. She was obviously very annoyed.
“Are you ok?” Lorenzo asked.
“No!” the lady said as she looked even more bothered.
“Long day?” Lorenzo asked while the lady’s face turned tomato red.
“Yes!”
Her face managed to get even more irritated. He asked for a room and paid for a day to get some rest and debrief what happened. The woman gripped the key that stayed in her hand until Lorenzo had to forcefully take it from her.
For the first time in what seemed like a year, he finally felt somewhat safe, but it was only in his brain. As he walked into the room, dimly lit by the fire, all he could do was to think about what had happened. He began to describe in his journal all the events from the minute he walked into the bar until now.
(Present day) In frustration, he throws his journal on the bed. The gang gets away with the bounty glued onto their heads, and there is nothing he can do. Lorenzo turns on the television to watch the news channel in hopes to get any piece of information related to his pursuit. Although he knows that he is in New Jersey, he has only one clue about where the gang might be. Most likely, they are still in the United States of America, but where exactly? They are probably gone by now and have ten yachts by selling all their devilish products. Lorenzo isn’t giving up yet. Now that he has all of the strength in the world, he puts on his clothes that haven’t been washed in ten years. Before he leaves the place along with his dark memories, he counts the amount of money that the curly haired guy threw at him. He has five-thousand two hundred dollars left, thanks to the guy from the limo.
Lorenzo finally leaves the room with all of his belongings. He tries to say bye to the same lady at the counter, but her face is still grumpy. He aims himself at the door to escape as fast as possible.
Lorenzo crosses five streets and finally finds a restaurant that looks a little classy. It’s called The Booth. He goes in and sits at a booth by himself. He wants to order himself two of the Bacon-Bit cheeseburgers.
“Hello sir! May I take your order?” the waitress says very cheerfully.
Despite the fact that Lorenzo is a bit chubby and his metabolism has slowed down since after college, he still orders it with confidence in his voice, “May I have the two of the Bacon-Bit Cheeseburgers please?”
The waitress looks at him with a confused expression. “Are you sure you want two of those cheeseburgers? They are a pound each!”
“It’s ok. I haven’t eaten for a day and I want this meal to last as long as possible,” Lorenzo says and nervously smiles back despite the fact that he didn’t even read the description on the menu.
Thirty minutes later, the waitress arrives with burgers and fries. As Lorenzo gazes at the colossal burger on the plate, he can hardly comprehend the size of the beef patty combined with a generous amount of cheese. In spite of this juicy meat right in front of Lorenzo’s mouth, he clutches the burger with his hands and starts munching on it as unmannered as possible.
Two burgers and three milkshakes later, Lorenzo becomes a bit queasy once the bill comes onto the scene. He doesn’t even want to lay eyes on the person that is carrying it over to him. She slowly puts the check on the table with the pen on top of it while Lorenzo starts sweating as he has no desire to look at it. He opens to what seems like the doorway to hell and immediately wants to hurl. The bill is one-hundred and ten dollars. Even with Lorenzo’s money that he can spare, the check is a lot to pay at a restaurant. Lorenzo leaves one-hundred fifteen dollars with a small tip for the waitress.
He walks out of the restaurant with an extra ten pounds he gains just from that meal. While he is cruising the sidewalks of New Jersey, he can barely breath, thanks to his stomach that is full to the brim. Not to forget, he has an extra mission laying in his hands. He sneaks into the closest bar on the way to see if the news channel is on. It is, and looks like a parachute landed somewhere in downtown New Jersey. That means that they’re close. He remembers that the gang wants to go to California to probably sell their illegal products to their customers. It’s time for Lorenzo to make his way to the airport, so he rushes outside to catch a cab.
Luckily, rush hour is gone, and he arrives at the airport thirty minutes later. He pays the driver ten bucks and hurries out of the car. Lorenzo enters through the revolving doors with astonishment.
“This airport is huge!” he thinks. He goes through TSA without any problems. Lorenzo thought that the guards would give him an unpleasant look for only carrying money. While riding the escalator up, Lorenzo spots the gates and tries to find the one that boards to California. He walks and walks until he pinpoints the California gate at the end of the hall. He immediately goes to the kiosks to get a ticket for the flight. He does all of the paperwork needed for a ticket, pays, and the ticket instantly pops out of the little ticket hole. Lorenzo grasps the ticket and walks towards the gate. The voice on the intercom states that his flight is boarding in fifteen minutes, so Lorenzo feels really lucky to make it on time.
The airplane is boarding now and Lorenzo has nothing to worry about, so he tries to get in the first wave of people. In no time, he makes it to the seat, 36A, right by the window. Although his seat doesn’t have a pillow, he still decides to sleep his way through the flight, but this time in a calm manner. Without Lorenzo noticing, the flight finally lands and the people start flooding out of the plane. He eventually wakes up while only a few passengers remain. He quickly gets up from his seat and storms out. Breathing in the dry California City air, he moves on through the airport.
Lorenzo, stepping outside through the exit doors, notices a fog of pollution covering the whole city like a dirty blanket. It smells like gas and smoke with a hint of cow poop. He wants to go to Hollywood right now because he suspects the gang might go there to sell their drugs. He can’t believe how many rich people there are in California. Every couple cars, he spots very nice sports cars, whether it is a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. He calls for an Uber to drive him to Hollywood.
“Where do you want to go today, sir?” asks the driver.
“Can you take me to Hollywood?” Lorenzo replies back.
“I sure can,” the driver says cheerfully. “It’s going to be about an hour and a half before we get there.”
“Ok,” Lorenzo conveys.
For the whole ride, Lorenzo looks out of the window with a sudden nervousness to get to Hollywood. What if he doesn’t even find the posse there, or if he does, what’s next? On a busy afternoon like this one, with traffic throughout the city, Lorenzo is running a little behind the schedule. He ultimately arrives to Hollywood with awe, next to a house with five floors and a pool in the backyard. He pays the driver fifty bucks for a long ride and kindly says goodbye to the favorable man. Lorenzo walks through the huge neighbourhood with an assortment of nice cars parked on the side of the road.
“No wonder there is a lot of crime in California,” he thinks to himself.
He is wandering and wandering through this lovely neighbourhood. No birds chirp in the afternoon wind, but the flowers are quite gorgeous in California. All of a sudden, an old car parked in front of a huge house drags his attention. The detective himself wants to go inspect the house through the windows. He knows it is illegal, but does it anyways. As he looks through the cleanest window ever to be seen, he spots five men sitting on the couch in the living room. They all look very buff with their sleeveless t-shirts on. Then, he recognizes one of those guys from somewhere. It’s The Boss! All Lorenzo wants to do is celebrate for finding out his location, but he has to keep quiet in order to be undetected. He sights a ladder in the backyard that can be used to get in from the top floor. He sneaks to the backyard and grabs the ladder. Lorenzo moves it to the left side of the house where there is one window at the top floor. Conveniently, the window is open. He puts the ladder up-right, quickly climbs up and anxiously slides inside.
As Lorenzo sneaks through the halls filled with all sorts of artifacts on shelves and counters, he thinks, “This guy must be really rich.”
“No squeaky noise please,” he begs, walking downstairs and waiting for someone to appear out of nowhere anytime. He finally reaches the first floor, where the gang and the owner of the house are.
“So, are you going to pay us or not, Landon?!” The boss furiously yells as Landon loses his stance.
He gains his posture and replies with a French accent, “Sometime this month, sir.”
“There is no this month. It’s either now or you die!”
“But I don’t have that huge amount of money!”
“I guess it’s bye bye for you, Mr. Dumont!” The Boss pulls out the same pistol that killed Larry on the airplane.
“Stop!” Lorenzo shrieks. Everyone turns around to look at him.
“Hey! You are the same guy that was on the plane with me! Get him!” The Boss roars. Lorenzo quickly runs up the stairs to avoid getting shot. The posse comes right after him while The Boss stays down with Landon Dumont. Lorenzo runs into a huge bedroom and hides in a wardrobe closet. Seconds later, the chasers fly into the room as Lorenzo jumps out and knocks two of them down. The third one walks through the door with a wooden plank and the nail attached to the side. He hits Lorenzo with the side that has the nail right into his thigh. Lorenzo falls instantly and starts bleeding everywhere on the carpet. As the nail comes out of Lorenzo’s leg, he feels the urge to give up, but recaptures his ground and throws his famous uppercut right to the third gangsters’ jaw. Several teeth fly out of his mouth as Lorenzo comes back downstairs to go for The Boss. The torture scene is still on, picturing Landon with a rope tied around him and duct tape shutting his mouth. The Boss is pointing a gun right at his head with the finger on the trigger.
“What are you going to do now, pretty boy? Come at me and see what happens!” The Boss taunts with excitement, “It’s only a matter of time before I shoot him.”
“If you are going to kill him, you have to get through me first!” yells Lorenzo with a cloud of anger storming above his head.
“Sounds good then!” The Boss answers as he points the gun towards Lorenzo’s head. “Before you meet your maker, I’ll give you a countdown for it.”
“Do it, pretty boy!” Lorenzo fights back.
The Boss’ face turns red as he counts, “Three! Two!” Lorenzo closes his eyes, “One!” Bang! He thinks he is dead, but he only hears a big body fall to the ground. He opens his eyes and sees a familiar figure in the doorway.
“Larry!” Lorenzo yells as tears run through his face. “I can’t believe you are still alive!”
“All it took was a couple of doctors on the plane, a hospital when we landed in California and lots of stitches on my ugly face,” Larry replies and gives Lorenzo a big hug.
Noticing a badge in Larry’s hand, Lorenzo asks with astonishment, “Are you part of the FBI? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m sorry Lorenzo, but we never expose ourselves to the public.” As the friends talk and talk, several police officers walk inside the mansion and arrest Landon, The Boss and the other goons upstairs. While the FBI finishes the work in what looks like the abandoned haunted house at the end of the street, Lorenzo and Larry rush to the airport to catch the night flight to London, where they can finally let the good times roll. They arrive at the airport with the urge to talk about all the good times they have together.
“The only tickets left for this flight are first class seats. Would you like them?” the lady at the sales window asks.
“Why not?!” shouted both detectives at the same time. Their flight boards at 10:45 and departs at 11:30, so they have about three hours to kill. They pass through TSA by cutting to the front of the line and show the guards their badges.
“How about coffee?” Larry desperately tries to smile, but the stitches make it painfully impossible.
“Well, the best coffee you serve me is at The Stool, but honestly, anything will do right now,” Lorenzo agrees. They haven’t finished their coffee yet, but with only five minutes left before boarding, they start moving towards the gate. They board on the plane, this time, not worried about getting noticed by anyone. They finally got in their seats in the row twenty-seven. Now, that Lorenzo has all the time in the world, he wants to talk about how cool it is to become an FBI agent, his childhood dream. Obviously, Larry can’t say much about his job, but he might spill some fascinating details once in a while. Not today though. They both exhaustedly fall asleep soon after take off and wake up right before the plane lands in London.
The next morning, Lorenzo notices that this is the first sunny day in London in a long time, or maybe it’s the first time he ever paid attention to it. He puts on a red shirt, a pair of jeans and his Adidas shoes and goes to the bar. Larry and Leo are both there, joking and laughing like nothing happened.
“Coffee as usual please,” orders Lorenzo, getting comfortable on the stool closest to the bartender.
“Yes sir!” Larry looks at him with the glimpse only Lorenzo can understand.
