Oh, Hi, Nice to Meet You Too
A few of the other gang members pat me on the back. Most of them just snickering and mocking me, trying to figure out how long I'll last.
How long until I die.
Mark comes and sits beside me. "Don't worry. I think you'll be alright." He says.
"I don't know anyone!" I complain.
"Most of 'em will be dead by next Tuesday, but anyway....That one over there," he pointed to a large, buff man, he had tattoos running down his arm, "Is Jerro, he runs this joint, until someone gets pissed off, and bullets go flying. Anyway, he's Antonio, you, er, met him earlier."
"What about them?" I ask pointing to the two identical men, standing side by side against a pillar, talking to another boy.
"Those are Frank and Derris. Twins, but Derris is two minutes older. Franks as dumb as a post, but you didn't hear that from me. The boy they are talking to is Jack. Jack's brilliant, when you get to know him. Great fighter, great friend." Mark had a real sense of pride in his voice when he said this, one that told me he really looked up to him.
"How old is he?"
"He is 18. Just a man, as of yesterday, not that we track birthdays around here," Mark grinned, then pointed to another man, "Anyway, that's Reg. He keeps to himself a lot. Good fighter though, and real useful around these parts. He's saved my neck a few times. Those last two, over there, are Randy and Arnold. There new, only came just last week. Friends of Antonio, I think. Randy's okay, nothing special,though. He's just kind of a pawn to us,"
"A pawn?"
"You'll get the explanation when Jerro thinks you need it. It ain't my place to tell you. But Arnold, in my opinion, is stupider than 100 Franks, and he knows it too. I don't think he'll last too long."
It shocked me, really, how calmly they discussed death. To me, it was a constant fear, and now it was being paraded in front of me, like it was nothing of any importance. I wondered back at what Mark had said about the pawn, curious to know if I was something too.
The man called Jack walked up to me, "So you're Riley then. I have a friend named Riley, had a friend, anyway. Good luck, the girls don't last that long around here. Maybe except Jerro's girl. But she got herself shot last week. He's been right beat up over it. Oh, well. really, I hope you last." Jack looked at me for a second, and I expected that there was more than one meaning in his words.
But, it was a little bit anticlimactic. It's just basically knowing who the people are. She doesn't get to actually meet anyone other than Jack, doesn't get to talk to them. Not really anything else going on. True, that is a big part of a story--knowing the characters--but I would have liked a little more action. It was just weird, because I'm used to the, "Okay let's go do stuff!" side of Riley.