Chapter 8.
The walk back home gave him plenty of time to think about the stuff brewing in his life. On more than one occasion, he stuck his hand into his rear pocket where he'd put the picture to reassure himself that it was still there. Thinking of the picture reminded him of the dagger which he'd hidden behind a washer in the apartment laundry room. "I'd better get it out of there before someone finds it," he thought to himself.
He thought about the $140.00 he still had in his wallet and considered using it to buy a cell phone and pay for the initial service charges, but decided he'd better talk to his Mom about it first since it was her money, not his. He turned the corner and was on the final stretch of his walk home. He walked slowly down a deserted sidewalk hearing someone's radio music escaping from one of the apartment buildings he passed. The mixed smells of dinners being prepared filled the air reminding him he was hungry. He unrolled the packet of information and looked through the pictures of successful models portrayed there. He imagined his own picture one day being included there. Then the picture in his back pocket popped back into his mind. He wondered what kind of stuff he'd have to do for that promised $500.00, where the photo shoot would be, what kind of people would be there. Such thoughts and wonderings rolled through his mind as he approached the foot of the steps to his apartment building.
The afternoon sun held in the clear blue sky was sinking towards the horizon in the late afternoon when Justin got back home. As he approached the steps of his apartment building, he saw Officer Blake chatting with one of the other residence of the building. Old Mister Phelps, the balding grey haired, wrinkled old man leaned against the rail holding it with one hand while supporting the remainder of his weight on the plain wooden cane held in his other hand. Officer Blake stood before Phelps with is arms crossed near his waist. Officer Blake nodded to Justin as he opened the building door. They continued their conversation as Justin entered the building.
He headed for the laundry room. As he approached the sound of washers and dryers running gave evidence that someone might be in there. He stepped into the room and looked around. There were 12 washers and 12 dryers. 6 dryers lined opposite walls with 6 washers facing them in the middle of the room. Towards the back of the room was a door that allowed access to the utilities and maintenance room. Next to it was a deep sink that dripped in a constant beat that couldn't be heard over the running washers and dryers. Good, no one was there. Justin hurried to the end of the washers near the utilities door, crouched down next to the end washers and reached between the 2 washers below the right one where he felt the dagger. Having hold of it, he slowly stood up and looked around again to make sure no one was there. Being satisfied he was alone, he pulled up his left pants leg enough to reveal his dark blue sock. He carefully put the dagger inside his sock so the point was touching the inside sole of his shoe. He pulled up his sock as far as he could to conceal the remainder of the dagger, then returned his pant leg to its normal position. He stood up and sort of shook his leg to straighten the pants leg. Once he was confident it was not noticeable, he headed out of the laundry room and up the steps toward his apartment.
"Mom, I'm home." Justin called out as he opened the apartment door.
"I'm in here," Cindy's voice was coming from his room.
He looked around the living room area to find that Cindy had really been busy picking up and cleaning up the mess the intruders had made. There were a couple of garbage bags next to the door filled with broken things needing to be taken down to the trash dumpsters. You couldn't tell from the looks of it, that hours before the place had been a mess. The only things noticeable were the missing lamps and chairs that had been broken.
He entered his room to find Cindy putting clothes on hangers and returning them to the closet. There was still some disarray to his room. His mattress wasn't against the wall, but wasn't properly placed on his bed either, The sheets and blankets to his bed were piled on Tommy's bed. Some of Tommy's stuff still laid scattered on the floor. Tommy's framed high school picture was repositioned on the chest of drawers where it had been. The cracked glass still held in the frame crossed the black and white picture's face.
"I can finish up this stuff in here," he said as he picked up a shirt and began to return it to the closet. "You must be tired after cleaning up the living room." He paused a moment looking at his Mom who also paused, looked back at him and smiled weakly.
"They broke some of Tommy's trophies. I don't think they can be fixed." she said sadly.
"That sucks."
"Oh, how did your interview go?" Cindy's eyes brightened up a bit and she smile more broadly.
Justin picked up another shirt, put it on a hanger then placed it back into the closet, "It went pretty well. I mean, I got a potential photo shoot tomorrow, but I really need to get a phone so they can call me for other jobs." He picked up another shirt and busied himself with that while continuing, "I was wondering if I could use some of the money you earned on making those aprons to buy a cell phone and pay for the service?" He stopped and looked at Cindy.
"Oh, I'd almost forgot about that money with all this going on."
"Yeah, well, Molly gave me $140.00 to give to you." He pulled the wallet out of his pocket and produced the stack of 20 dollar bills.
"That Molly! She's such a sweet heart." She took the money and counted it.
"I know you need that money for other stuff, but Bill, the guy who interviewed me, told me that he could get me a photo shoot right away that will pay at least $500.00, but in order to do that, I need to call them and make arrangements with them, and I need to call the modeling agency right away to give them my new phone number." He paused, "So, I can pay you back tomorrow and give you part of that $500.00 to use for rent or whatever you want."
"$500.00? That's a lot of money." She stopped what she was doing and sat on the edge of Tommy's bed.
"Yeah, I know it is." He smiled, "And that's only the beginning. But I will need to pay for some head shots and other pictures the agency will use to get me more jobs." He sat next to Cindy on the bed, "I have an appointment for next week for them to take those pictures. I'll have to pay $100.00 deposit for the pictures at the time of that appointment."
"I guess it costs money to make money." She was holding the money in her hands on her lap. After a moment of thinking she continued, "Okay, this is an investment in your future." She handed him the money, "Go get that phone."
"Bill said I should get the phone as soon as possible, so if you don't mind, I'll go do that right now." He took the money and returned it to his wallet.
Cindy got up and busied herself with cleaning up Justin's room. "Sure, go ahead. I need to get this mess cleaned up. You being gone will let me focus on this and get it done."
"You don't need to do this, I can finish this up tonight when I get home." He took hold of her fore arm as she reached for another piece of clothing.
"Honey, I want to do this. What else can I do? The TV is broken and so is the radio, I might as well keep busy and get this mess cleaned up." She turned to him, "Go on, its getting late."
"You're the best Mom." He kissed her on the cheek then gave her a hug, "I love you."
She held him in that caress for a moment, then said, "I love you too, now get out of here and let me get back to work."
Justin turned around to go, then felt the dagger at his ankle. With Cindy there in his room, he couldn't hide it there so he left his room and went to the bathroom, closed the door and unzipped his pants to take a leak before he left. As he stood there relieving himself he considered where he might hide the dagger. He knew Cindy didn't often open the lower drawer of the sink cabinet, so after shaking off the last drop of piss from his dick, he flushed the toilet, then returned his dick to his underwear, he zipped up and then pulled the dagger out from his sock. The bottom drawer was filled with old face cloths and face towels that hadn't been use in quite some time, so he put the dagger under the pile of towels and closed the drawer.
"See ya in a bit." Justin called to his Mom as he left the apartment.
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