I’m Fixin’ To Play Dead (Part 42)
When I woke up in that fine bed in my room at Sissy’s house I could hear the sound of she and Louise’s melodious voices coming from down the hallway. Looking over at the bedside clock I saw it was almost four o’clock in the afternoon and I couldn’t believe I had slept all day.
I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and felt the rich carpet on my bare feet. A feeling of excitement was sweeping over me, almost as intense as when I had walked away from the plane crash which had initiated my plan of playing dead. I was back in business. If the fake ID thing worked out, like Louise had said, I was back in business and could go and come where and how I pleased. And I had my money back. Or did I?
Remembering back, I had only felt inside of the old suitcase when I was shivering in that cold and damp ditch. It had felt like the stacks of money was there, but I hadn’t actually seen it or counted it to see how much was left after Leon gambled all night.
I dived across the bed and drug it up onto it with me. Sitting on my feet I released the latches and grasped the lid. Just before I lifted it, I had a horrifying feeling of finding it full of old newspaper clippings rather than stacks of cash. I closed my eyes and jerked it open. When I opened them I breathed a great sigh of relief as my eyes feasted on row after row of stacks of 50-dollar bills. It looked like most of my $600,000 was still intact.
“You gonna sleep all day?”
I just about jumped off the bed in shock. It was Sissy and she hadn’t bothered to knock. The door had just opened and there she was as I sat on the bed clad in only a T-shirt and boxer shorts. I slammed the lid of the old suitcase closed, turned and replied, “Uh—no, I’m awake.”
Sissy giggled and said, “Why don’t you get up and get a shower? Louise and I will be in the kitchen.”
I lingered long in the shower, contemplating my position and my options. I desperately wanted the fake ID documents, and wondered if Louise’s promise would hold up.
When I arrived in the kitchen, over coffee, the ladies informed me they were fixing to go grocery shopping and wanted to know what I wanted for dinner. After I said it didn’t really matter Sissy said, “No, it’s what you want. We’re cooking dinner for you because you saved my sister’s tail, because you’re our hero.”
While the girls were gone I located the washer and dryer in the garage and restored my wardrobe to a presentable state. Later on we dined on barbecued ribs, baked beans, baked potatoes and cole slaw, all washed down with a cold Mexican beverage.
Later on, after we had cleared the kitchen, Sissy taped a blue background onto the fridge, had me stand in front of it while she snapped some close-up pictures of me.
After she finished with the pictures she took a pen and paper and began to write. “Louise said you would be a person named Ralph Cooper. Brown eyes, about one-hundred and ninety pounds and six feet tall—close enough?
What they’ll do is dig up your dead friend’s social security number and use it. It will work for years, as long as you don’t get into any major trouble with the law. And we’ll use my address on the driver’s license.”
After I agreed with everything she continued, “This is going to cost you a grand. Is that a problem?”
“That’s all right,” I told her, “I’ve got plenty of money.”
“That’s another problem,” she said, “you can’t just go around carrying all that money Louise said you had. You done been robbed twice. We need to go to a bank and put it in a safety deposit box.”
Louise came back into the kitchen at this point and informed Sissy that it was getting late and time for her to head for work.
A little while later Sissy returned from her room all dolled up, and almost took my breath away with her beauty. She touched me on my cheek with her finger tips and said, “Time for me to go to work, Sonny Boy, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Stunned and stupefied, I watched her gather up her things and disappear from the room. I heard the door leading into the garage close behind her. A moment later the soft hum of the Lexus’ engine reached me; afterwards I heard the rumbling sound of the garage door as it opened and closed while I sat there wondering where she was fixing to go.