'Round Midnight

Sam Stone

I made it to the bottom where the slide ladder was, stood on it then slid down. I climbed down as far as I could and had to hang with my hands on the bottom rung then released. I fell right into the strangers arms. Shots went out towards us. He ran down the alley a ways then hid behind the rubbish cans – with my shoes! I fired shots back hitting one of the gunmen in the hip. I grabbed my handbag and then ran to get out of the shooter's distance.

"Wait. Wait, that's not how I remember it."

"Hush up. I'm almost at the good part."

"I never ran away with your shoes! I was just holding on to them, to keep you from falling on them."

"He ran away with my shoes."

"Continue this nonsense so we can go please."

I was out of the gunman's reach. All that he could do was shout obscenities at me while he whined over the shot he took in the arm in the hallway. Then he shouted my name.

"Sam Stone...you're on my list!"

It was then that he believed me.

"You really are Sam Stone?"

"The one and only, you gonna stand there coddling my shoes and get an autograph or what?"

"Oh. Here you go Ms. Stone."

"Who in the hell are you and what did you do?

He paced the alley rubbing his short dark wavy hair.

"I ain't did nothing – you gotta believe me."

"All this talk of me having to do stuff for you doesn't fly with me, especially when I don't even know your name."

"Right, name's Anthony...Anthony Thompson but folks round here call me Tony."

"What does De Blasio's boys want with you? Huh? They don 't just go after anyone – you're marked."

I looked him up and down while putting my shoes back on. Walked a circle around him and decided to split.

"Wait, aren't you going to help me."

"I don't want any part of you Tony, its best you leave town and lay low for a while. Change your name and your attitude – it's the best thing you can do for yourself."

"They know your name too Sam! What are you gonna do?

"I can take care of myself."

Sure I could. It wasn't my first rodeo nor would it be my last. At one point in time I had the Capone family after me for drawing light on his racketeering. The press had a field day. It's not every day a man gets to be his own P.R. and I don't doubt that he ate up the attention – but like every good fella in the city, things were meant to be silent and I was the noise maker. One of the many reason I stopped working with the P.D. – you want the right one watching your back when the soup gets thick, you know?

"Um hm! That's truth and I had the best P.I. on the case."

"First of all, you still didn't believe I was the P.I. you were looking for, you kept insisting that I was standing in for a husband I didn't have. And then when it was pointed out to you that I was in fact who I said I was – you accused me of misrepresenting myself falsely by using the name Sam."

"Because your name is Samantha! Sam and Samantha are two totally different names."

"No, they aren't- one is a derivative of the other. You get it don't'cha?"

"Just tell the story will ya..."

We made it to Chuckie O's with little to no incident, meaning, he talked the whole way there. I had to hush him up so I could think. I needed an answer too tall wouldn't have and it had to come from someone just as close as he was.