• Chapter one

    It’s cold and falling tears started to rest upon my head. I was getting wet. Then I rushed towards a local shop to get an umbrella. It was a fairly cheap one; somehow it had an appealing look. The handle was made from red-oak which meant that it was one of those umbrellas that would be useful when battling the beasts of the wind.
    The shop clerk took my money, like a child grasping a handful of sweets. He was tall and well built. But the way he was looking at me, I knew that he was not as tough on the inside as he is on the outside. Poor b*****d, I thought.
    So I stepped outside the shop and found my self wet again. As a result I immediately opened my umbrella with pride. And found myself being shadowed underneath the black colour of the umbrella.

    Suddenly the rain began to hit harder; making tiny holes on my umbrella. Because of that I quickened my phase. I was worrying that my umbrella would ‘die out’ like a cold fish. Then I saw an alley way that seemed dry. My phase was so fast that I had trouble changing my direction; I was not even able to look left and right as I was walking along the crossing.
    Ah, this is better. I pushed my back onto the red brick wall and folded my umbrella with a gentle grace; which is more than I can say about the weather. Whilst I was waiting for the harsh rain to stop, a young man in his older teens walked passed me. For some strange reason the boy stopped as he was about to pass me. It was as if he thought I was some kind of superstar. As soon as he stopped, he slowly looked at me and glared into my ancient eyes. As if I would be scared from a punk-look like that. I have seen the devil in my dreams…and I have looked at his eyes without turning away.
    To melt the tension I said, ‘How you doing?’ I tried to be convincing as I could. ‘The weather is bad today son,’ I could smell that he wanted to a fight; must be all that young blood he has. ‘Here, take my umbrella. I’ll buy myself another one, don’t worry.’ My arm reached out to offer him the umbrella. To my surprise he took the umbrella and said,
    ‘Thanks old-man.’ I did not like the ‘old-man’ thing, but at least he did not want to fight.
    However, my earlier thoughts served me better justice than the situation now.
    As I watched the boy carry my umbrella he griped the handle of the umbrella tight and thrust it towards me. I may be an old dog, but my reactions are far beyond old. Straightaway I leaped, like a water frog, and dodged his permissible strike. Got up and kept my fighting fists hidden; did not want him to get the impression I’m good…which I am really.
    ‘What is your problem mate?’ I naively asked, whilst letting my guard down.
    ‘My problem is you, you son-of-a-b***h.’ The boy’s tone was harsh and bitter, just like his appearance.
    ‘You sure you can take me on?’ My rhetorical question to him intimidated him to the heart of his bitter ivory bones.
    ‘I had enough of you,’ the boy seemed to ready to his attacking position. Not even I could have guessed what would happen next. Yeah right (!) ‘Let see if you can dodge this OLD-MAN.’
    This boy, as young as he may be, has no right to call me ‘old-man’ over and over again. I got pissed off.
    At that moment the boy vanished out of my visible sight. Suddenly I could hear a roar behind me. How the hell did he come behind me? That brat. The boy levered the umbrella violently towards my still-full-grown-hair. By instinct, I got out of away.
    In front of me, the tip of the umbrella pointed at me. Then I took hold of the umbrella and pulled that foul mouthed creature in. Bang, bang, bang. I gave him three finely handmade punches. All of which were directed to his empty skull. Boom, the boy fell on the floor like a dead fish. The boy lost his grip; I took my umbrella with a big smile woven on my fabricated face. And I stood there looking at him with a pitiful gaze. As hunched my back to give the boy a hand up, he popped out an Asian knife; the sort that you wave about to get the ‘knife’ out. Oh for ******** sake, why do I even bother?
    My heart began to run out of patience. I could feel my heart beat as wild as a drum. Thud, thud, thud.
    The boy pointed the knife at me as if he had already won. Little did he know that I can take him down; cannot be sure if I can come out alive without a cut though.
    ‘Now I’ll kill you…Argh.’
    I could see that the boy was in pain and could barely hold the knife. He came towards me with the knife so slowly that I managed to drop him on the floor with my Judo skills.
    ‘Damn…I lost to you, old-man,’ his voice seemed to be more welcoming, ‘ouch my head hurts. For an old-man, your punches are good…’ The boy fell asleep, in a deep like coma. As a result I could not wake him up. ‘Maybe I should leave him to rest.’ I personally did not want to look after some idiotic b*****d, but then a woman and child were coming my way. Damn it! If I leave him there, those two would think I killed him. Got to make something up.
    Then I opened my umbrella and hung it over the boy. ‘You have too much to drink…Steve,’ if I made up a name at least they’ll believe that I’m close to him, ‘Oh? You fell asleep again, that means I have to carry you home.’ As if I would carry the boy home.
    I took the boy’s weight and carried him on my broad, bony back. So this made the woman and child calmer. As a result, they continued to walk out of the alleyway.


    Chapter two

    The boy’s weight was ten times my own, which was a surprise. So I carried him on my back and went to the shop I bought the umbrella. The clerk was that was inside the shop was the same clerk that took my money for the umbrella.
    As I walked through the doors of the shop, my legs began to shake.
    ‘Please sir,’ the voice of the clerk sounded like a child’s, ‘let me take him from you.’
    To make sure that there was some evidence of my sympathy I said,
    ‘Why don’t you call the ambulance?’
    ‘That’s what I was going to do. You can read the situation pretty well.’ I could not tell whether he was being smug or he was genuinely being nice. In this world, you cannot tell apart a beast from a human because they all look and act so damn similar.
    Afterwards my eyes searched for a refreshing seat. There was a white plastic chair placed uncomfortably near the dark corner of the shop. So I sat there for a while in the hope that the rain outside and the pain in my legs would disappear. My body slouched on the chair. Before I knew it, my eyes had closed the curtains. Whilst I was asleep I dreamt of my wife and child. Running on the sunny fields of daisies. I ran towards them. When I was finally going to reach them, the store clerk woke me up.
    ‘Umm, sir,’ there was a sense of care and compassion in his voice, ‘it’s eight past midnight. You best be going home because I need to close my shop soon.’
    My eyes felt heavy and my throat dry, ‘First give me something to drink son. Water will do.’
    He took a bottle of water from his fridge. From the sound, I could tell that it was pretty full.
    ‘Here you go,’ his hand reached out to give me the water, ‘I hope you can heal quickly because -’
    ‘Yeah I know, you need to close your damn shop soon.’ I can only hope that my tone did not sound bitter. At the same time I took the bottle filled with water.
    The store clerk laughed, ‘You may be weak, but I see that you can still have a strong memory.’
    Without realised it, I unscrewed the bottle top and began to pour the water in my mouth. From this the store clerk continued to tidy his stock up. Suddenly I stopped. ‘Hey, I’m sorry lad but I don’t have any money with me at the moment,’ I was now trying to put up a sweet-old tone.
    ‘Its ok sir, you seem like you needed it.’ He smiled at me childishly.
    So I stood up and stretched my legs. Then I said ‘goodbye’ to the store clerk as I walked out of the shop.

    Chapter three

    Indeed it had been eight past midnight. It’s sure dark. Even the lampposts could not break through the dark mist of night. So I walk along the pavement. I never knew that what I was about to encounter would change my life forever.
    The air was warm and the atmosphere was silent, until I came across a dance club. As I had no money I went inside to look for a job. There was an instant array of noise, chatter, dancing and there even some youngsters sniffing cocaine. I pretended not to see them. But what I was really surprised at was that there was no ‘big bouncers’ outside the front entrance. Surely this place must be some kind of racket. I could care less, I needed the money desperately.
    One of the barmen noticed my unusual appearance. ‘Oi, boss we got a visitor.’ A visitor? Does he think I am some kind of mafia boss? If that was the case, I stood firm and straightened my 38 year old back. At the same time I noticed I had forgotten my umbrella, not the best thing to think of in this weird and undecided situation.
    The barman had attracted the attention of three punks. Starting on the left: He was so short that I mistook him for a 15 year old for a second. Then the middle guy looked like the youngster in his early 20’s, I had to fight against earlier on the day. However, the third guy was as tall as a giant and had a body like a mountain. They looked like the evolution of man.
    ‘From which family are you?’ said the middle guy. Family? I had one but they died a long time ago in a car crash. Why is this punk asking about my family?
    ‘They died a long time ago.’ my eyes narrowed with suspicion.
    ‘I see,’ said the third, big guy, ‘so you must be from the Francescatti family, am I correct?’ He was talking with so much conviction and authority that I dared not say I was from any other family.
    ‘Yes, what of it kind sir.’ My tone of voice was harsh and gangster-like.
    To my surprise the three welcomed me. Their faces spoke of trust and grief. Is there such a family? Did they found out I am lying? Christ on his throne…let’s hope I don’t get shot.
    ‘Come with us Mr…’
    ‘Vitali.’
    ‘Oh? Just like the violinist then.’ I had no idea of the big guy was talking about. But my gut told me that I had to nod my head. And so I did, gracefully.
    The big guy walked in front of me, the two others walked along side me thinking that in this way they are making me feel better.
    I did not know what was expecting me next. Death and sudden employment was the only two possibilities I could think of. What could possibly happen? If they find out I’m lying I will say that “I did not realise what I said good sirs.”

    Chapter four

    Eventually the three guys took me to their boss. When I was walking with them, my mind went blank, could not remember were I was walking. So there is no point in me trying to figure out an escape route. Luckily their boss was not available. The note on the door “Not here” could not make it clearer.
    Suddenly the men broke into despair, as if they knew what their boss was up to. I asked them,
    ‘What is the matter with you guys?’
    ‘Our boss has not been back in a week. This club is not the same without him.’ The middle guy gave me the impression that he was the boss’s son. Why would he think about his boss so dearly?
    The rest followed and said the same thing…just in a different way.
    Suddenly I was greeted by the idea of the men letting me work as a waiter. I knew that it would not turn out the way I wanted.
    ‘What? You as a waiter?’ said the first guy. ‘You can do much better things then that, like helping us with our family’. He gave me a wink; yeah, as if that makes me feel any better. So I painfully smiled at him and said politely,
    ‘You know what, you are right.’
    ‘Yeah, I’m glad that you are with an agreement with us,’ said the third guy, ‘tonight you may be lucky and make a ‘killing’, if you know what a mean Mr Vitali.’ Surely he did not mean…killing an actual person.
    There was so much intensity that I could not ignore the fact that they wanted me to help them with some sort of crime. Could I kill a person? Yes, that is, if it involves a huge some of money. Who cares anyway? If you can kill for money, then do it.
    At the time I was not sure if I could kill for money, but then another thought hit me hard on the head. Animals kill for survival, is it wrong for a human like me to kill in order to live?
    The three lead me back to where they found me. A faint iron-blood smell hanged onto my hairy nostril. At the present time I thought that I was stressed out, but the smell grew and grew until finally it was not bearable.
    All of a sudden I fainted, like wet bread. How embarrassing and troublesome. My eyes entered a stage of darkness. My ears shot deaf and my pulse distancing its self away from my senses. I was unconscious from that point onwards.



    Chapter five

    My eyes were still tired, but my ears clear. ‘So what weapons are we going to need for this job Vinnie?’ Suddenly I could hear a man talking to another with a cockney tone of voice. ‘We’ll need a lot of semi-automatics to finish this job as quickly as possible. Boss says that we are to get the goods before the cops arrive.’
    By that time my eyes were wide open, as if I was getting ready for the worst. I was expecting guns to shoot any time. Luckily there was no gun fire…as yet.
    At that moment I felt a strong force pulling me towards the face of the second guy. ‘What is the matter Mr Vitali?’ Maybe he was catching on to the fact that I was not who I was implying to be.
    ‘Drank too much, the shock of losing the family is unbearable,’ I stated boldly, ‘must be a hangover.’ I continued to stare at him.
    ‘Oh,’ he seemed relieved, ‘I thought you were a fake, my deepest apologies.’
    Afterwards I slowly realised that I was in a car with the three men. It seemed weird though. Why did they take me along with them?
    ‘This is going to be pretty though for you Vitali’, said the third guy whom drove the car, ‘Please stay here in the car, we’ll come back for you, ok?’ He turned around with fear arsing in his eyes.
    ‘If we come back alive that is,’ said the first guy.
    The car stopped, which made me hit my head hard on the leather seat. They began to psych themselves up. After a while, they decided to go out of the car. Coupled with thoughts of despair and stress, the guys went to get their weapons inside of the trunk. Then I saw them away, slowly they faded into the mists of the shadowed night.
    I found my self alone, wondering if those guys would come back alive with every limb still attached. Unconditionally my mind began to think of horrendous stuff.
    ‘They’ll come back, I’m bloody sure of it,’ I was beginning to shake violently.