You Better Have My Money

Janus sat in the booth at the coffee shop and looked out the window as Iceberg pushed the woman around on the sidewalk.  Like Iceberg, Janus was a pimp.  But he wasn’t a violent a*****e.  He didn’t treat his prostitutes like that.

He dismissed the thought of intervening.  He knew that would lead to one of two outcomes.  Him shooting Iceberg, then having to explain that to the cops, or him being shot.  Neither of those were good options.  Janus reached up and closed the blinds.

He recognized the woman.  She went by Sassafras.  A nickname of course, like Janus or Iceberg.  Nobody uses their real name in this business.  And conversations in public are always in code.  In Lincoln Terrace, a rough neighborhood just off I-95 in Miami, sally is slang for a prostitute.  Pimps are referred to as cadillacs.

A few weeks later, Janus told Sassafras the same thing he’d told the others.  She sat across from him at the coffee shop.  Iceberg was not around.  “Sorry, but I never hire a sally away from Iceberg.  Nothing against you, but I did that once and it wasn’t worth the trouble.  She had to leave town.  Took him years to get over it.”

She said, “Do you know a good defense attorney?  I’m probably going to kill that son of a b***h.”

This was not the first time Janus had heard this kind of talk about Iceberg.  So far no one had acted on the threat.    

Something about her tone caught his attention, though.  Janus had grown up on the street.  He’d survived by reading people successfully.  Here your life may depend on knowing who is serious and who is bluffing.

Sassafras was looking him straight in the eye.  She didn’t blink.  Her voice was calm.  He thought, this chick would actually do it. 

    

Which would suit Janus just fine.  Iceberg was competition, and his behavior often brought the attention of law enforcement to his corner of Miami.  But he didn’t want a part of anything illegal.  Beyond what he was already doing.  

“You should probably leave before your boy shows up and sees us talking.”  Sassafras left.

But she’d made an impression on him.  She was still young and pretty enough to attract customers. She was tough and level headed.  As she walked out he thought, I could make some money off of one like that.

Making money was something Janus had become good at.  He’d branched out and had added loansharking to his repertoire.  The nervous twentysomething sitting across from him at the coffee shop, later that day, was behind on his payments.  

His name was Eddie.  He was trying to talk Janus into taking a bag full of high tech toys as collateral against his loan.  Eddie dumped the contents of the bag on the table.  Janus looked over the gear.  He didn’t recognize any of it.

Eddie said, “This is all state of the art.  It just went on sale and the set costs more than three grand.  How about you hold on to it until Friday when I get paid?  I promise I’ll get caught up on my payments then.”

Janus said, “You realize, if you don’t pay me Friday, I keep all this, and you still owe me the money.  I don’t know what this is.  I don’t have a use for it.”  He picked up the largest item.  “What’s this, you taking up scuba?”  The item resembled a diving mask.  Printed on the side was Gear VR III powered by Oculus.

Eddie laughed and said, “No, you are holding the future in your hands.  That is a virtual reality mask.  The ones already on the market use your smart phone for the display.  This is the next generation VR machine.  Everything is built in.”

Then Eddie rattled off a list of technical jargon Janus didn’t understand.  “XYZ axis head tracking, motion tracking, and eye tracking…four hundred frames per second dual stereoscopic 3D displays…virtual reality…augmented reality.”

“I didn’t understand a word you said.  Where did you learn about this stuff?”

“I don’t spend all my time losing money at the horse track.  I work for Oculus.  I helped design this.”

“I thought you had to be in a big room for virtual reality to work.”

“You watched too much Star Trek when you were a kid.  It’s 2017.  Everything is small now.”

Eddie pointed to the mask.  “Put that on.  I’ll power it up and you’ll see what I mean.  Unless you’re afraid of the future.”

Janus chuckled.  “Alright, I’ll try anything once.  What am I supposed to do?”

Reviews

[BBP]

Awesome job Serge. I like the grittiness of it and the way you threw in enough information on a few key characters to spark interest.

The dialogue was pretty much the real deal. It's always my favorite when it flows like it would in real life. You gave each character their own voice!

Great job.

[Serge Wlodarski]

Thanks, Bev. I appreciate the feedback.

[The Iron Horseman]

This is terrific, Serge! I love the street names for the characters, too!

[Serge Wlodarski]

Thanks! This is what happens when the worlds oldest profession meets the worlds newest toys.