Junkyard Blues

Chapter Forty-one

169 C Chapter Forty-one id he explain everything to you? Your friend Eric, did he explain everything to you?” the man had asked with his soft perfect voice when Jude was installed in the room. Jude was in the room, sitting on the only couch in the hotel room, his beating heart finally calming down and the paranoia drifting away. The man before him was one of those honest looking people, a perfect face, a perfect smile and that look that make you chastise yourself for having had any flickers of paranoia. “Hmmm? Did he?” the man asked again walking over to a small table by the bedside where Jude could see a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Yes,” Jude nodded, I think so. What else was there to explain apart from the fact that the man was going to help him? You think so, padre? What else? Jude looked at the luxurious hotel room, and that tiny voice inside asked the question again; what was the man doing in this hotel? What’s that to you? The man was wealthy, he could see that, stupidly rich like Eric (But that does not explain why he’s in this hotel does it? And why he wanted you to meet him here, does it? Shut up!). But the man could be someone out of town, someone who was just around for a couple of days. Yes, just somebody in transit, he wanted to believe that. Why are you asking all that? What difference does it make? It was just the paranoia trying to creep back into his heart, that stupid paranoia that had no place in his life now. He was here and that was what mattered. He was here and the man was just going to help him open some doors for him and open that big door to his future. That was all… The man poured wine into a glass, but Jude was not looking at him; he was still looking around the room, the well made double bed, the carpet on the floor that was thick and blood red in color with some exotic art work on it that evoked images of Arabia and magical lamps and flying carpets. Everything about the room was exotic in Jude’s eyes, exotic and perfect. The hotel room was surely expensive, he thought to himself, very expensive. Well, the man was rich enough to afford it without a sweat. And probably one day “D 170 when he too would have gone back to school and would have had a real job that paid he would afford to stay in such a place without a sweat. It was an idea that made Jude to suddenly feel happy, happy and lucky to have known somebody like Eric. It was God’s plan for him, and he was grateful to God. “You’re Jude, right?” the man said handing him the glass of wine. “Thank you,” Jude said. “So, did he explain everything to you?” the man whose name Jude remembered as Bruno asked again. He was standing before Jude and Jude could get the full whiff of that sweet smelling perfume, a perfume that he knew was surely expensive just as everything about the man. The man was wearing a pair of well tailored trousers and a fashionable looking shirt over it. But his feet were bare though he had asked Jude to keep his shoes, smiling his perfect and polite smile, “These people have cleaners. Don’t worry yourself about taking off your shoes. The money I pay them for the room is enough.” “He said you could help me,” Jude said and tasted the wine. He did not actually feel like drinking the wine or anything, but it would’ve been impolite to refuse the man’s wine, a man who was going to do him a favor. “He said that?” the man smiled and sat on the arm of the couch beside Jude. For no reason at all, Jude started feeling uncomfortable and nervous again. That cold hand of paranoia started to squeeze his brain again. He wanted to stand up and walk away from the man, “Very kind of Eric,” the man said with his perfect smile still on his lips, “He can be a very naïve fellow at times, don’t you think so?” Jude nodded, “Yes.” “That’s all he told you.” Jude nodded. What was all this about? “Well, he doesn’t always...