The Contractor - Part 4a - by Nova

We walked, well, he did, I kind of followed.

"So...where we going?"

"To our new emporium."

I thought about that. I had no clue what he meant.  So I told him. He looked at me, and said, "Lost without Google I suppose. Our new store."

"Okay. What's it like?"

"You'll see."

"Not big on talking" I thought. Not a problem. I could do that too. We walked for about ten minutes.  We were past the cathedral and the area was getting a little sketchy. I was also getting bored of not talking.  People got to talk ya know. "So how about them 'Skins?" He didn't slow down. For a kind of fat middle aged guy he sure could walk fast. "Fuck 'em. I'm a Cowboys fan."  Okay, that was good because I didn't know anything about them.   Instead I looked around as I was going to have to remember how to get back here by myself probably. 

Rowhouses with stores and restaurants stuck inside them, Rowhouses that were boarded up. Rowhouses that looked like they should be boarded up but instead had iron bars on the windows instead of boards.  Black people, lots and lots of them.  I never had been back this way before and I was really hoping we would stop soon because I really didn't want to go much deeper into this area. Having a black guy with me probably helped but he didn't look like he was up to kicking in any ass. I consoled myself with the knowledge I could outrun him and he could deal with the homicidal brothers.

We were paralleling a major street, New York Avenue, I would have thought it was Martin Luther King Avenue instead.  Whatever, it sure wasn't Chinatown.  He stopped in front of a rowhouse with a small front yard, in it was a small sign that said, "Revolution Communications."   We continued up the stairs, he produced a couple of keys to open the locks, and we were there.