Sighing, I made my way over to the woman sitting behind the bulletproof glass, casually chatting on the phone. There was a hole cut out of the glass, framing this woman's head. Perplexed by the logic of this, I took my necklaces out of their homes and lay them in the metal divot that helped separate us from her. I could feel the sad eyes of the surrounding objects now taking notice I was indeed like their past owners. Their disappointed stares made me uncomfortable. I diverted my eyes upwards to watch the yellow Quick Pick ball bounce around the blue screen and pick this minutes lotto numbers. Silently it hopped "4-32-17-9...." and on and on it went, repeating every 34 seconds, until I had memorized the numbers. Just as the eighteen minute mark was up and a new round of numbers were about to be pegged, the door chimes rang again.
Before I could turn my head, a clammy heavy hand was on the back of my neck. It swiftly introduced the right side of my face to the plastic counter top. It smelled like nickels.
I heard the 'clack-clack' of metal against glass. " Hey you fat bitch. Hang up the phone and get me my money. You know what money too so don't even think nothin' about callin' the cops. They arrest yo' ass too." one more 'clack-clack' and the chair scraping across the floor. The nickel smell was starting to make me nauseous.
"Yo what are we gonna do about snowflake here?" Said a voice further away.
I didn't need eyes in the back of my head to feel his sweaty grin on my scalp. Grabbing the back of my flannel shirt he whirled me around and propped me up against the counter. I stared at the sweat stains on his shirt as he pushed something cold into my forehead.
His gun was silver, and surprisingly cold. His arm was only shaking because he didn't want to accidentally blow my head off. "Give me what you got." Hoover flagging my pockets, my ID dropped to the ground. He motioned for the other man to pick it up.
"Where in the fuck is Dover Plains?"
"That all you got bitch? The fuck you doin' in here?" I stared at him, bleary eyed.
"You a smart bitch. Not talkin'. I know you got somethin else. The fuck is it?"
He put the gun between my breasts. "Ill shoot you blue eyes, I aint got a problem killin' a white girl. Speak."
Your wish is my command.
"Go ahead then. Shoot me."
"Get a load of this bitch.You got some big ass balls on you, Blue. You sure you aint a dude?"
"Shoot me."
"The fuck? Girl I said gimmie what else you got. Now"
"I have nothing else. So go ahead and pull the trigger. I've got no home, no family, no money. I've got no friends, and there's no guy sitting around anywhere waiting for me. I've got nothing to care for, and no one who cares about me. I told you I have nothing else to give to you, or anyone, and I know I ain't worth a damn. So go ahead. Fucking shoot me."
I heard scuffling behind me and saw a wad of hundreds fall to the ground rubber banded to a ziplock bag full of weed. The man holding the gun to my chest stared at me.
"There's yo' money fool. Quit comin' around here during daytime hours, I told y'all that. Damn."
He tucked the gun into the elastic of the butt of his underwear and picked up the cash, eyes on me the whole time. " We was just tryin' to scare you into keepin yo' mouth shut, Snowflake." Spouted the other man as he flicked my yellowing ID back at me. It flopped off my neck and onto my Keds. The chimes sounded, and the door closed. I stared at it while the lottery "bing-ed" on the television.
I heard the thwap of a fingernail tapping glass. " Uh yeah, so, I aint got no money to pay you for these today.. so yeah uh, come back next week. The second one is silver, too, and we cant take that. Just gold and diamonds." Mechanically, I put the necklaces back into their boxes, bent over and picked up my ID.
I sat in my car and stared at the reflective center of my steering wheel until I got a migrane.
