Chapter Thirty-Four

Here’s the next Chapter of Lost and Found.

As I was putting the finishing touches on this Chapter, I felt I should remind all of you of when this is actually happening. This was in 1944. Many of the situations you’ll read about today could not happen in our modern world. However, they did happen in 1944. It was, in many ways and somewhat sadly, a different world then.

My writing procrastination has risen its ugly head again. Maybe it’s the weather or all the springtime projects monopolizing my thoughts. I’m also building a greenhouse which I’m really excited about.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the reading. Let me know what you think.

Be well — be in peace,

Ron Rink
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A good fifteen or twenty minutes later Billy raised his head, looked over at the backs of the stores, then signaled me to get up and follow him. He moved quickly across the alley until he was standing with his back pressed against one of the stores. Then, as quietly as I have ever seen him move, he crept along the backs of the buildings until he stopped next to the back door of one of the stores halfway down the block. I crept along behind him. I noticed how he was watching where he put his feet so he wouldn’t step on something that could make noise. I did the same. He put his finger to his lips again so I knew to be still. We stood there listening, barely breathing, as we kept looking up and down the alley. I couldn’t hear or see anything. It was dead quiet.

Billy moved slowly along the wall until he was next to the back window. He carefully looked into the window and then came back by the door. He reached into the back of his pants and pulled out one of the longest, largest screwdrivers I had ever seen. It must have been at least a foot long and the tip looked like it was designed for screw heads the size of quarters. He slipped the tip of the screwdriver into the wood next to the door handle and carefully moved some of the wood from around the latch. He wasn’t removing the wood; he was just sort of squeezing it back away from the metal part of the latch. He barely made a sound as he pushed away at the wood until I could see the latch becoming exposed. The wood was hardly damaged at all — he just kept working the screwdriver blade further along the metal part of the latch. Then he pushed the screwdriver alongside the place where the end of the latch went into the frame of the door. He grabbed the door handle with his left hand and pulled on it as he levered the screwdriver against the latch. The door came open without a sound.

Billy looked carefully up and down the alley behind the stores. I followed his eyes but didn’t see a thing. It was completely dark and quiet. He stepped inside the door and signaled me to wait. We stood without moving a muscle for a minute or two. Then Billy motioned for me to step inside, and after making sure that we could open the door from the inside, he closed the door quietly behind me.

Again, we waited. I noticed that as we stood there my eyes slowly began to adjust to the increased darkness at the back of the store and I could begin to make out the counters and shelves from the light coming in through the windows in the front. When a car would drive by, the headlights would light up the front area for just a split second, and then it would get dark again. There must have been a streetlight close by because the front window never did get completely dark.

I could feel my knees knocking together. It felt as though I couldn’t move an inch without falling flat on my face. It wasn’t warm out at all, but sweat was pouring down my face and burning my eyes. My shirt was sticking to my body. I felt like I had to go to the bathroom both ways. At first I was puzzled by the rushing, pounding noise in my ears, but then I realized it was the sound of my own heart thumping away at a mile-a-minute.

Billy pointed to a counter along the right side of the store and signaled for me to follow him. We hunkered down low so we would be below the top of the counter as we slipped out from between the aisle shelves and crept towards the backside of the counter. Once we squatted down low behind the counter, he pointed up to the wall behind the counter where there were several shelves full of cigarette cartons. He held up six fingers, pointed again, and nodded his head as a signal for me to get the cigarettes off the shelf. They were up above the top of the counter so I would have to stand up to get them. I kept looking out at the front windows to see if anyone was walking by. I was also wondering whether it would be possible for the driver of a passing car to see me if I stood up.

Billy pointed and nodded again, this time with a look of “hurry-up” on his face. I took another look up at the shelves and decided that if I used both hands I could get three cartons in each hand with one grab. Straight up from where I was crouched was a stack of Lucky Strikes and a stack of Camels—the Lucky Strikes would be my right-hand grab, and the Camels my left. I took one further quick look out the front windows, lined up my targets, stood and reached out to grab the cigarette cartons.

My hands were not anywhere near as large as I imagined they were and they were shaking as if they weren’t attached to my arms. All six cartons of cigarettes went tumbling out of my hands and onto the floor next to Billy. He looked like he wanted to kill me as he motioned for me to pick them up and stuff them into my shirt. I tried, but I was so shaky that I couldn’t get them all to fit. Billy took two of the cartons and put them inside his shirt.

We quietly crept out from behind the counter and headed for the back door. Billy opened the door just a crack and peeked out in one direction. Then he slowly stuck his head out the door, looked in the other direction, and then signaled me to follow him. He shut the door behind us and checked to be sure it latched and was locked. He stopped and pushed at the wood around the latch with the screwdriver blade. After a minute or so, the door looked as though it hadn’t been damaged. Finally, we sidled along the backs of the stores quickly, quietly, staying in the dark shadow as we worked our way back to the same group of bushes where we had hid in originally.

We waited again in the bushes until we were sure there was no activity around us and my heart started to slow back down to normal. Then we headed back into the alley behind the houses and made our way back to his house without either one of us saying a word.

Once we were in his backyard again, Billy took the two cartons of cigarettes out of his shirt and gave them to me. He leaned close to me and whispered in my ear, “Take these home and find some place to hide them where no one will find them. Keep them hidden until after you’ve had your two fights. I’ll let you know when.”

He poked me in my upper arm as he walked away toward his back door, climbed the stairs, opened the door and slipped inside. I figured out how to get all six cartons inside my shirt so they wouldn’t fall out, climbed on my bike and headed for home. I decided to ride only in alleys as my mind raced with thoughts about — What would I do if my parents got home before I did? — Where was I going to hide the cigarettes before they showed up? — What if the cops spotted me now? — Was Billy mad at me for dropping the cigarettes? I was sure I had never been so frightened before in my life, despite some of the things I had already experienced.

I did make it home without anyone seeing me and before my parents returned. I decided how one of the boxes in the garage I guessed hadn’t been opened by anyone in a long time would be where I would hide the cigarettes. I didn’t know what time it was but I knew I had to hurry. I opened the side garage door, spotted the box within my reach on the back wall shelf. When I went to open the box I could see it was covered with a heavy layer of dust. The box was half filled with what looked like old clothes or rags. I slipped the cartons out of my shirt and slid them under the clothes, closed the box, and went into the house.

I got undressed and had just crawled into bed when I heard my parent’s car pull into the driveway. I fell asleep staring at the ceiling and thinking about how I still had to have two fights with State Fair Dukes gang members.
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