Blindsided 23

The journey to the bar where he was to meet Jimmy was not a fun one for young Robbie. On the street, people stared as the scantily clad man minced on by while trying to keep his footing. On the bus, he tripped twice! Once when getting on and once when alighting. Both times a group of teenage girls giggled and made nasty comments about the bimbonised man. By the time he got to the meeting spot, he was so exhausted Jimmy had to help him over to the sofa where the two men now sat.

“So… Uhm… how are you doing?” Jimmy asked Robbie, who sat in a trance-like state to his left.

“Great,” Robbie sarcastically replied. “Couldn’t be bether.”

Sucking in air through gritted teeth, Jimmy smiled. “That bad, huh? Well, if you want to talk about it, I’m here. Sometimes it helps to get these things off your chest.”

“I’d kill to get two parthicular thingth off my thetht,” Robbie scoffed. “Know any good thurgeonth?”

“What?” Jimmy asked, looking confused.

“Oh, never mind,” Replied a frustrated Robbie while shaking his head and pouting. “Ith you really want to help. You can give mwe my thonic now.”

“Sure,” Jimmy said before reaching into his pocket to reveal a vial. “Here you go.”

“Really!” Robbie excitedly exclaimed as he extended his long-nailed hand. “What’th to thtop me from taking thith and leaving?”

“If that’s what you want to do. I won’t stop you,” Jimmy replied while shrugging his shoulders. “I did my part in coming here. What you do is up to you. If you don’t want to listen to my message, there’s not much I can do about it, right? But what happens tomorrow? Won’t you need more of this stuff?”

With a shake of his head, Robbie plucked the vial from Jimmy’s hand and downed it in one. “Fine,” he announced once done. “What ith thith meththage you have for me?”

“Oh, yeah. The message.” Jimmy said as he retrieved his phone. “I’ve got it written here. Hang on. Ah, yeah. Here we go. Ruby is to go into James Hemingworths hotel room tomorrow without being seen. Once inside, Ruby is to replace all the apples in the bowl in the centre of the room.”

When he finished reading, Jimmy looked over to see Robbie staring at him with a bewildered look on his face. “Replathe the appleth?” The fat-lipped man announced. “Replathe them with what? And how am I thuppothed to go into hith room without anyone theeing me?”

“With these,” Jimmy said while reaching behind his back. Robbie watched as he produced a plastic bag with what looked like apples inside. “Here,” Jimmy added as he passed the bag over to Robbie. “Put them in your handbag and remember to take them to work tomorrow.”

Feeling the contents of the bag only confused Robbie further. “They’re appleth. Thhe wantth me to replathe appleth with appleth! What the hell ith wrong with that crazy bitth? thith ith madnethth!” he shrieked as he dropped the bag onto his mini-skirted lap and threw his bare arms in the air.

“Hey, I know as much as you,” Jimmy announced while his eyes darted around the room. “I just want my Rover back, ok? That dog’s like a son to me. So please, just put them in your bag and stop making a scene.”

Seeing that his little outburst had caused a few heads to turn in their direction, Robbie cringed with embarrassment. “Ok, I’m thorry,” he said as he reached around to unclip the top of his handbag before placing the apples inside. “If you knew the day I’d had. No, make that week! in fact, my whole life righth now ith like one nether ending nithtmare. Thometimeth I think about jumping in front of a buth and jutht ending it.”

“Hey, don’t talk like that!” Jimmy forcefully said. “I know things seem pretty bad right now, but you’ll get through this. You’re a young attractive woman with her whole life ahead of her.”

“Athractith,” Robbie scoffed as he brought a long pink nail up to poke at his puffy, swollen bottom lip. “Look at what the bitth did to me. You find thith athractith?”

“Well… they don't look that bad. And if you suck on...” Jimmy said before Robbie cut him off.

“Thtop, pleathe,” Robbie yelled out before crossing his arms across his augmented chest and looking away in disgust.

(See image 32)

“What's wrong?” A surprised-looking Jimmy announced as he lifted his arms with the palms facing up. “I was just saying that if you suck on an ice cube the swelling might go down a little. That’s what my old boxing coach would say after I'd taken a right hook to the kisser.”

“I… Uhm… thorry.” Robbie said, looking back at the larger man embarrassed. “I thought you were going to thay thomething elthe.”

“What did you think I was going to say?” Jimmy asked while scratching his head.

“Oh, never mind,” Robbie quickly replied while going red in the face. “Anyway, you never anthwered my earlier queththion. How am I thuppothed to get into the man’th room without being theen?”

For a moment, Jimmy went quiet, occasionally humming out loud as he thought. “Well, it beats me,” he finally said, shrugging his shoulders. “But you work there, right? Just swipe a keycard and put on a disguise or something. It can’t be that difficult, right?”