I’m fixing to play dead (Part 13)
I’m fixing to play dead (Part 13).
I told Leon that he was right, and that if he would keep the old truck up to a speed of at least 60 miles per hour, I would tell him everything I had promised. I didn’t know anything else to do except that, because I needed him to get my stash of cash from my house in Atlanta, without being seen, so I began: “It’s like this, Leon. I’m in the process of disappearing.
“I’ve had this plan for a long time, but somehow I just never got around to doing it. Now, something has happened which kind of—well, kind of helped me along you might say. What happened to me yesterday before you found me in that—-”
“Disappearing from what?” Leon interrupted.
“From my former life, from everything. I want to go someplace where no one knows me, start all over again and be somebody other than who I am. The trouble is, I’m not sure how to do it, but it seems I am getting a pretty good start.”
“Why in the world would you want to do something like that?” Leon asked. Then he continued, “You ain’t got the law looking for you, have you?”
“No, there isn’t any one representing the law looking for me,” I told him. Although, I figured that there might be later if anyone figured out the giant fraud I was in the initial stages of committing, but I consoled myself with the thought that I could always claim to be suffering from amnesia, which shouldn’t be difficult to believe from the lone survivor of a horrendous jet plane crash.
I continued, “The reason I want to disappear and start my life over is because I’ve lost the two things in life that meant anything to me.”
“The only thing I know you lost is your wallet,” Leon piped up.
“I didn’t lose that. I threw it away.”
“Why would you want to do a crazy thing like that?” Leon asked.
“I’ll get to that. What I’m talking about that I lost is a wife and my business.”
“I can understand losing a wife,” Leon said. “I’ve lost a couple of them along the way, but I don’t know nothing about business. I’m sorry to hear yours is gone.”
“Oh, it’s not gone. It still exists and I still ran it up until day before yesterday.”
“What kind of business you talking about?” Leon inquired.
“It’s an express delivery service of fruit and vegetables called Veg-X. I was raised by an uncle who made his living with a little produce stand beside the road. Sometimes people would ask for things we didn’t have. Once we got them I would deliver directly to their homes.
“That was when I was in high school. When I graduated I began to deliver full time. Next I put in a telephone, began distributing flyers, and it wasn’t long before I had to hire another driver.”
“Sounds like you had yourself a good thing going,” Leon said.
“I was just getting started. Because of the demand I had to expand. In a few years we had an office and a distribution center on the south side of Atlanta, right across from the State Farmer’s Market. Pretty soon I had a fleet of 15 vans an 800 phone number and a website that we updated on a daily basis.”
“Doggone, Sonny Boy, sounds like you were in high cotton. What happened?”
“My wife fell out of love with me, said I worked too much. then she left me and moved to a high-rent area north of downtown. She said there was nothing but rednecks and trash on the south side of town, that crap flows down hill from the north side, and that was where she was going to live.
“Not too long after that the Government Office of Circumlocution descended upon my business informing me that I didn’t have a permit for this and that and that we were violating this regulation and not in compliance with this rule and that rule and on and on.
“So you see, Leon, since my wife and my business, the two things I valued most in life have left me, I’m going to leave life and be somebody else.”
Suddenly, I became aware that we were approaching the outskirts of Atlanta, when Leon said, “The road up ahead looks like a pile of spaghetti! You need to be fixing to tell me which way to go!”
I guided Leon through the heavy traffic and the snarled expressways until we were headed south on I-75, well south of downtown. I pointed out the next exit to him and told him to exit there and drive to the Red Roof Inn.
“When we get there go in and use your Visa card to rent us a room with two double beds.”
“What happens after that?” Leon asked.
“We’ll hang out until after midnight, and then we’ll be fixing to get down to business!”