Power Jack Leone awoke from his booze-induced slumber but didn't open his eyes. Last night had been rough. Real rough. He didn't want to think about it just yet, though. What had even happened? He mashed his eyelids together, trying to concentrate. Memories of yesterday's fun started oozing in. What was that smell? He turned to his left and smiled as his first glimpse of the day was the dead prostitute in bed with him. He lit a cigarette and slipped out of the covers. "Dammit!” He muttered in a groggy voice. The corner of the nightstand had hit him in a sensitive spot on his right thigh. He did the same thing last night, too. Pitch black then. Couldn't see a thing. When would the power return? "Jack, you in there?" Sal's voice was followed by three quick taps on his bedroom door. "Yeah, just a minute," he responded. Jack quickly put on a stained and tattered sweater as Sal walked in the room. "Jesus, Jack, what the hell happened to your leg?" He stared at the purple, fist-sized bruise on his thigh. Jack was used to pain. He’d been shot three times already, so he often felt invulnerable to anything, which could make him a little cocky. "That? Hit it against that table last night," he replied, sliding on a pair of old Levi's, ashes from his cigarette powdering the floor by his feet. Ever since a private company had monopolized the power industry down in the valley, there were outages almost every other week. It looked like It'd be out for at least another few days before those slugs from West Private Power could repair those lines. Until then, everything was shrouded in complete darkness after nightfall. Crime had increased, but for Jack, it just made his job all the easier. Sal looked over at the bed, "Had some fun last night, I see, eh, Jack?" Jack grinned a little and shook his head. "No, it was another hired hit. The mayor wanted me to whack her for sleeping with some secretary.” Sal pulled up the covers, then immediately cringed and drew back, leaving exposed the bloody mess that remained of a woman in her early twenties. He covered his face to keep from gagging. "Mayor Thomas?" "Yup." "S**t! What are we gonna do with the body?" Jack contemplated this for a moment. "Same thing I always do, buddy. Here, help me wrap her up. I know a place nearby." *** As their small, rusty automotive clattered down the dirt road towards the city, Jack and Sal talked about what they would do with the money from the hit. "We could always invest." "No, Sal, you idiot. We'd lose it faster than we got it. Remember what happened a decade or so ago. We don't want another market crash. I don't trust that high-tech crap. Why do you think the family was able to rise to power? People needed us when there wat’nt any money. We don’t want to head down that road again. Not after all we’ve done." "Guess not, maybe you're right," Sal peeked out his passenger-side window, squinting through the wind and looking at the road ahead, "Hey, we're clear." "Good." Jack slammed on the brakes just as the only other car that shared their early-morning commute passed out of vision. Sal jumped out through the back and picked up the body that was wrapped in sheets from the trailer. He tossed it down to Jack, who was just coming around from the driver's seat. Jack recoiled a bit from the impact of the catch. He was always a rather strong guy, but lately his addictions had rendered him pretty useless. "Get the shovel, Casey." "Ok, ok." With the misshaped luggage slumped over his shoulder, Jack followed Sal through the woods until they found a suitable area beneath a tree with convenient, sprawling roots. In less than thirty minutes, the body was completely concealed. Sal tapped the fresh earth with his shovel and spread some loose leaves on it. "Think anyone will find it?" "You worry too much, kid. Nobody would dare report it, with the Boss terrorizing the whole town and everything." "Yeah, Jack, I guess you're right. But I don't know...with what happened to Johnny last month." "That was a fluke, Sal. It won't happen again. The cops are too f***in' scared to do anything about it. We got them shivering in their boots!" Sal looked down, almost hypnotized by the spot where the body was hidden. He was too much of a chicken. He bawled his eyes out the first time he made a kill. "So the mayor..." "That's right. Everyone in this damn city is crooked. Mayor, sheriff, even the governor. He strolled right into the Boss's house and requested it himself. Didn't think twice that he was killin' his own wife." "I know you don't like to talk about your 'clients'..." "Nah, it's ok." "So what’ll the headlines read?" "No, clue. Bobby'll take care of that, though. That ain't our job." "Sorry, man. Hey...let's get out of here. I don't like it." "We gotta collect our payment first." "Directly from the mayor?" "Who else?" *** "I told you not to meet me here! Do you know what this can do to my career?" Mayor Thomas lit a kerosene lantern and set it on a small table. Even though it was still daylight, his room only had one window, and the blackout was still in effect. He was habitually ill-tempered, and this was no exception. "Calm down, you p***k! We're just here for our payment. That's all." "Ok, ok, hold on a second!" Sweating profusely, the mayor pulled out a brown suitcase from beneath his polished bureau and began stuffing rolls of cash into it. "Holy s**t, Thomas. I didn't know mayors pulled in such a salary." Mayor Thomas gave Jack a menacing stare and started twiddling his thumbs. "It's umm....from a deal we made with the old power plant. I sold it to a private company, and in return, we back them legally. You wouldn't understand. Just take your money. I don't want to hear from you or your 'family' any more. I just needed this one job. I had to do it! No one else would! And you better not tell anyone else about this, either." He handed Jack the suitcase. "Who's this, huh?" He glared suspiciously at Sal, who was smoking in the corner, admiring the Mayor's office. Sal didn't want to start anything, so he walked over to the window and opened the old-fashioned wooden blinds and stared down at the road outside. "Casey Salieri? No, we can trust him, he's my best friend." Jack lifted himself right onto the mayor's desk, moving aside some papers, and lay back against his hands with his feet up. "But tell us more about the plant. Surely your critics don't what's going on. Isn't this the ninth major power outage since January? I had to use a freakin' candle to find my keys last night. Almost blew the whole plan. It's the '50's! Power should be cheap and reliable! West Private Power can't do jack about this. They're completely unqualified from what I hear." "Screw the power! This private-owned company will bring in three times the profits. And I got even more coming in under the table! In the long run, who cares if a few lights go out?" Jack eyed Thomas smugly, "I think it'd be wise to let the Boss have some profits from this company of yours." The mayor actually chuckled at this daring and naive suggestion. "Ha! You actually think your dad can do anything about this? At the drop of a hat, I can have my people print things that will ruin you thugs! When....oh!" The sudden flash of the pistol holstered at Jack's side put the old man into a quick silence. Sometimes it took a little force. "Are you sure we can't arrange something?" asked jack, re-buttoning his brown leather jacket to conceal the weapon. Nervously, "Have your Boss call me on Friday." “I knew we could come to an understanding. Let’s go, Sal.” *** "What did he say?" "You're gonna be very proud, my boy," said Boss Leone, closing the door through which the Mayor had just left. "He's sharing some of his company profits, then?" Boss smiled, "You underestimate me, Jack. He's giving us the company." Jack's jaw dropped at this news, "What!? How did you manage that?" "Please, give me some freakin' credit. I don't control twelve Wisconsin regimes just because I look good." "Blackmail? I didn't know we worked that way." "How'd you get him to meet with me then? Jack dropped his head, and stared at the floor. He remained silent for a few seconds, then shrugged. Boss continued, "Doesn't matter, boy. This company will be well worth it. It'll boost the family revenue by 25%. We may even go legit if we can modernize that junk heap." Jack followed the Boss back into his main office, closing the door behind him. The room was brightly illuminated since the blackout had been fixed the day before. He frowned, "Still, won't the people get suspicious with people like us running things?" "Of course we won't tell them the truth. Just use fancy words and have a good slogan and these sheep will follow your every word!" *** The Leone Power Association opened with incredible approval from the masses. The Boss was right. Even though it was all lies, everything seemed better than it was with their predecessor. As long as there weren't blackouts, nobody cared what or who they had to pay. Jack made his way through the ceremony's reception to find his father. Boss Leone was laughing and joking with another politician Jack didn't recognize. Sighting his son, Boss shook hands and said goodbye and then embraced Jack. "How's it going, boy?! Haven’t seen you in a week! I was getting worried." "Sorry, pops, I was working on some more jobs for McCain." "Shhh...don't talk about things like that here! Gonna get us in trouble! Come with me into the bathroom." Entering the putrid men's room, Boss immediately changed faces. "That poor little f*****t Richard! Just last March he was trying to get me prosecuted for that little business we did in Madison. Now he's kissing my a** because he thinks he can get some money from our new business!" "Looks like it's going pretty well. 'Publicly-owned power.' Let's the Average Joe feel important. Like they can actually affect how we work. What a load of crock!" "Heh heh, I know, I know. I told you these people will fall for it. And the best thing is, I just doubled the monthly rates for our standard power plan. I told them we need it for equipment and trucks! Trucks, Jack! Do you believe it? Those p*****s were lining up to sign the bill!" Jack frowned again, "So what are you really going to do with the money?" "House in the hills? Anything you want, boy! I have you to thank for this." Jack hadn't really thought about the opportunities this company could bring. To tell the truth, he was actually rather apathetic about the whole mess. He would much rather be staking out a squealer's house or planting a bomb in someone's car. But business is business, after all. *** "Electricity! The most important invention in human history!" The class wasn't at all thrilled with Mr. Brown's enthusiastic introductory speech about the next chapter of their social studies text. Although West Shelby Middle School had won the 2003 academic rank of 5 and was a blue-ribbon academy, the distribution of intelligence wasn't, of course, consistent. "...the collaborative efforts of all the regional power plants in our area help provide us with a virtually unlimited supply of energy! It lets us use things like lamps, radios, even your computer! What company do you kids use? West State? Leone P.A.? Madison Central? All of those are great, and have been giving us inexpensive power for the last fifty years or so! In fact, last month, I spent only about three hundred dollars to heat and power everything in my house!" "My grandma told me power was only twenty-five cents per day when she was young," someone said from the back of the classroom. The teacher paced around the desks and then made his way to the dry-erase board, "Well, it probably has to do with inflation. Things generally cost more now days. And there's more expenses that the companies have to take into consideration like wages, tools, and trucks, for instance. But overall, it's great deal, and very convenient.”
Copyright © 2005 Bruce Kennington |