Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Baltimore Drive-by, Part IX: Cheers!

Nix Kauffman is on the run after robbing Seamus Blake and Fetch McCarver at gunpoint. So why is he buying McCarver drinks?

(Read all of "The Baltimore Drive-by" so far here. And remember: This is fiction. Almost none of it really happened.)
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Blake had gone to look for cigarettes. This took him out of the picture for at least an hour. He was hopeless when it came to finding smokes in America, and he'd never find any place open this time of night. And Kleinman — well, let's just say Kleinman was in no position right about now to tell McCarver or anyone else what she knew. And Kleinman knew everything.

McCarver gulped half his beer and said, "It was Blake's idea."

"Easy, Fetch. You don't even know what I'm asking."

"I mean, don't get me wrong: I like a good scam. But Blake thought it up, Blake bought the gun, Blake ripped off the bike."

"That was Scott Phillips," I said.

"But how did you— "

I put down my glass of Magner's. "Philly is my town, remember? And what would Blake do if he found out the girl got her money back after you guys ripped her off?"

Fetch got a funny look on his face, and his jaw went slack. He looked out over my shoulder like I wasn't there. He squinted. Then a fat smile creased his face. "Hey!" he said. "It's Kleinman!"

© Peter Rozovsky 2009

8 comments:

Declan Burke said...

Blake never did find those damned cigarettes. Never got further than the first corner. When they told him smoking kills, he never thought it'd be a smoking barrel ...

John McFetridge said...

Kleinman really does know everything...

Peter Rozovsky said...

Smoking Kills. A good title. Has it been used?

In an upcoming segment, Blake finds his cigarettes, but another character shoots them out of his hand with a .45 (I may have to revise the caliber down -- of the gun) to make him pay attention. "Mad fucker!" says Blake. "That's why they call it a smoking gun."

Peter Rozovsky said...

John, in a future segment, I could have the Weinman doppelganger confront her fictional counterpart, only to have the real (that is to say, fictional) Weinman walk in on them.

Nah, that's too meta for my blood.

John McFetridge said...

Never too meta!

Meta-meta fiction - it's the next step.

Peter Rozovsky said...

I hear Will Rogers never meta man he ... Oh, never mind.

Damn, you must have had a productive writing day.

John McFetridge said...

Yes, a good day.

I'm really looking forward to the next part of this. Do you have any idea where it's going, or are you just winging it?

Peter Rozovsky said...

About 90 percent winging it. One of the next few segments will be the last (for a while) whose main purpose will be to introduce some new charactrers. After that, the hard work starts. I have at least one climactic moment in mind, so the thing has some direction.