Three

Again, I found myself in a dingy apartment, on a smelly couch, in a dark room. This time, though, I had company.

“Is he married?” Miriam asked me softly as we waited.

“I don't know,” I responded honestly. “Do you always need them to be married?”

Miriam went silent then. I was immediately sorry for what felt like a deliberate dig at her character. I had been preparing Miriam for a few weeks now and this was to be her first tag-along. I was hoping it would be an easy one, for her sake.

After what seemed like ages of discomfort between us, the doorknob rattled, a key sliding loudly into the lock. I stood, prepared for the worst, and hoped Miriam had enough sense to stay out of the way.

A silhouette appeared in the doorway. It immediately reached to flick on the light and, immediately still, went deer-in-headlights. I quickly pushed the door shut and bolted it, eliminating a run. The guy dropped his keys as he put his arms in the air. “Don’t hurt me!” He begged, and I shook my head, extending a hand to him.

“We just have business,” I assured him, unwilling to take my eyes off him to check on Miriam.

“We’re here about your loan. Mr. Thomas?” When he didn't answer, I continued. “I’m Collin. This is Miriam,” I gestured to her, finally looking her direction for a moment. She was fine, calculated. Standing, but nonconfrontationally.

“Hello,” she offered gingerly, moving to take her place next to me. “I remember you.”

Immediately, I saw the man’s defenses fall at Miriam’s approach. “Y-yes,” he stammered, beginning to regain himself. “The loan, of course.”

“We were just wondering if you had received our final notice,” she asked, almost flirtatiously, before I could get a word in.

“Yes,” the man admitted eagerly. I was dumbfounded. No one ever willingly admitted to receiving the notice. “Yes, I'm so sorry for not phoning.” He was speaking only to her now, seemingly oblivious to my presence.

“Well,” she began, taking a step towards the man. I leaned back against the door. What was she up to? “There’s the nasty matter of payment.”

The man moved away from us, disappearing into his hallway. I started to follow but Miriam quickly put her hand to my chest without looking at me. “Wait,” she insisted gently, and sure enough, the man reemerged.

“I’m sorry,” he insisted again, now presenting a bank bag and his red notice. “I actually just got some inheritance finalized. Can I pay you in cash?”

“Of course,” Miriam answered sweetly, following the man to his kitchen countertop where he proceeded to count out the cash to her. “That’s it!” She finally proclaimed, and I watched as she touched the client’s wrist for a bit longer than she should. “Please keep us in mind for any of your future financial needs.”

“Of-of course,” he had lost himself again, but now in her.

“Are you ready?” She asked me, smiling, as she turned to face the door and me.

I opened the door in response, holding it open for her and closing it behind us. She was a natural.

“Not all of them are like that,” I insisted as we exited the building into the street.

“Okay,” she answered simply, unfazed.

“Henry will be mad there wasn't a harvest.”

Miriam stopped then, turning to me with an incredulous look. “Do you harvest when they can pay you?”

“No,” I responded immediately, continuing my pace without her. “But it doesn’t mean Henry won’t be mad.”

Indeed, Henry was disappointed when Miriam dropped the cash on his desk. You could practically see him ticking off the Glow in his head. “How was she?” He finally asked me, seemingly refusing to look directly at his assistant.

“He was tripping over himself to pay her,” I responded, flopping into my usual chair. “And I have a feeling we are going to have a repeat with him.”

“Wonderful,” Henry admitted, eyeing Miriam now. “Good job.”

“Thank you,” she managed, barely containing her excitement. “Do you want me to run it by the bank on my way to the restaurant?” She asked, eyeing her watch.

“What, are we keeping you?” I prodded. This job was going to take a lot of her time. Time she currently spent in her active social life.

“I just have a date,” she defended, and Henry sighed.

“You have paperwork,” he rolled his eyes, undoubtedly used to me being available nearly all the time.

“Oh,” she responded, seemingly embarrassed. “Right, sorry. I'll cancel.”

“Wouldn’t want to keep you,” I responded sarcastically as I got up from the chair. “I’ll be in my office,” I told Henry, ignoring Miriam as I left the room, turning into the first office on the left in the hallway. I flicked the light on and closed the heavy door behind me.

My large window revealed the night sky, making it seem much later than the actual 10 pm. I relaxed into my desk chair. My laptop booted upon opening and I was immediately greeted with my spreadsheet of loans, collections, and final notices. I opened a new word document and began typing up my report.

Only a few sentences in though, I found myself dialing my house from my desk. The phone rang several times before an unfamiliar voice answered.

“Hi, this is Collin. I’m just calling to check on Sophie. I won’t be coming by tonight.”

It panged me to say, but Henry would want a harvest before I went home. I would have to hit another debt, even with Sophie doing worse by the day. She wouldn’t notice my absence; her lucidity left her the last night we carried out a transfer. Her days were now spent crying and pleading for the return of a past she never had, mourning a love she never felt.

The nurse was kind but chatty. She briefed me on the difficulties with Sophie that day, resulting in her being sedated to sleep. I found myself rubbing my eyes by the end of the conversation, more stressed that before I had called.

Almost immediately after hanging up with the carer, my door opened and Miriam entered, leaning back against the door as she closed it. “Do you hate me?” She asked simply, no tone of guilt or sadness in her voice.

I rolled my eyes, returning my attention to my report. “Why would I hate you?”

“You’ve been making comments all week. Do you just not want to work with me?”

“I just don’t think you have your priorities in order,” I growled at her, exhausted with her checking her watch, staying out all hours, and arriving to work refreshed and excited when I felt perpetually exhausted.

She took a deep breath before approaching my desk and sitting straight-backed in the chair across from me. “Do you feel my going out negatively impacts my work performance?” Her tone was so careful, it almost didn’t sound like a bait.

“I’ve said what I had to say,” I replied simply, continuing to avoid looking at her.

“Do you never go out?”

“Not with married men, every night,” I found myself instigating again.

“You wouldn't need to,” she quipped, her tone finally matching what she must have felt. “You harvest nearly daily for work. I don’t. I have to harvest at night. Nearly every night, if I want to look like I do.”

I felt guilty then. I understood what she was but had taken for granted that Glow wasn’t something I had to scout for anymore. Every week, Henry gave me a list of names and addresses and it all just sort of happened. It was nothing like it used to be, where I would have to trick unsuspecting women into giving me precious years of their life to sustain myself. But even then, I hadn’t had to do so daily. I didn’t care about changing my appearance, as Miriam apparently had. I just used Glow for sustenance and healing. But still--what made her so vain?

“Then maybe you don’t need to look like that,” I responded simply, frustrated at our conversation. I didn’t need this now.

“Maybe I shouldn’t,” she snapped back at me, standing. I looked up to see her eyes watering through her anger. “But you never seem to have an issue with it when your dick’s in my mouth.” She turned on her heel then and stormed out, the door closing heavily behind her.

I rolled my eyes. It was incredibly wasteful to use Glow for cosmetic alterations. That’s exactly why I held such a stable job--Henry needed regular, significant Glow supplies for his treatments to be successful.

I supposed I was lucky to not mind my own appearance. None of this vanity dictating my every move, like Henry and Miriam. I didn’t have to date skeevy men to harvest from them guilt free, or attach to a machine every day to keep from aging. All-in-all, I had it okay.

I just missed Sophie. I wanted to go home and vent and rest, but I knew she, my Sophie, wouldn’t be there. My friend, who would ensure dinner was on the table no matter what hour I came home; who would sacrifice sleep to let me vent about the day’s frustrations; who drew me baths, made me drinks, and kept my cigarettes stocked above the fridge, even though she hated them. She stood by me through secrecy and deceit, until finally, decades after we met, when she struggled with her aging appearance when mine didn’t, did I tell her the truth of who I was. And then, she didn’t pry. She didn’t ask why or when or how. She lived on my every word and when I told her who I was, she accepted it as fact, despite it going against everything she knew in her world to be true.

And when I began to lose Sophie, I had Lilly, always reliable when I needed an emotionless conversation. Lilly never got caught up in tone or slights like Miriam. She was never vain or control-driven like Henry. She was relaxed, deliberate, and powerful with or without the validation of others, and I admired her for it.

Now who did I have? Henry? Miriam? The nurses that think I am their patient’s grandchild? I had gotten too sucked into emotional relationships. I was better off before, when I stayed in the shadows until I was summoned. I had just forgotten. The grass is always greener.

A ping from my computer brought my attention back to reality. An e-mail at this time of night? I opened my minimized browser to see the bolded message at the top of the list. It was from Miriam—Attached: Thomas Paperwork. And sure enough:

Henry,

Please find attached the paperwork on J. Thomas, debt paid. I’ve cc’d Collin for his records.

-Miriam

And attached was indeed a fully-fleshed report of Thomas’s debt and repayment history, including a log of the events that had unfolded less than an hour ago, with his new status at the bottom: Approved to Borrow.

My stomach knotted a bit, my write up of the report thin and unfinished. I closed the document, closing the laptop shortly after. I needed to get back out there. There were more debts to collect and no one to collect them but me.


The moon was high when I reached the small, slightly dilapidated duplex where my next mark resided. I knocked on the screen door three times in succession, expecting quite a bit of noise to rouse the occupant at this hour. Instead, lights came on in the second half of the duplex, the door to which was just next to that on which I knocked.

“Who is it?” a voice asked, seemingly unaware of the hour. Before I could respond, the door opened slightly, kept closed only by a chain. I had broken many of those in my time with Henry. A tall but young-looking girl’s face appeared in the crack of the door.

“I’m looking for a Mr. Urchin,” I told the girl willingly. “Does he live here?” I gestured to the door in front of which I stood.

“No,” the girl shook her head, closing her door quickly only to reopen it without the chain. “He lived here. That one’s always been empty.”

Lived. Great. “Do you know where I can find him?” I stepped over the gap between the two stoops, now on the opposite side of the screen from the girl.

“He died,” she confessed, little emotion in her voice. “But he was my dad. Maybe I can help you.” She opened the screen door for me and I stepped inside, sizing up the meager possessions in the otherwise clean living room.

“How old are you?” I asked without looking at her. Instead, I eyed a cabinet with a lock in the corner.

“Sixteen,” she answered curtly, undoubtedly watching me.

“Is your mom home?”

“There’s no one else,” she admitted, a slight hesitation in her voice. “It was just me and my dad. Now it’s just me.”

I turned to face her now, hoping she was wrong. Debts defaulted to the next of kin, whomever they may be. “No one? Not a grandparent? An older sibling? An uncle?”

She shook her head again, obviously growing uncomfortable. “It was only ever the two of us.” She crossed her arms now, backing toward a rocking chair and then sitting. “Why, what has he done?”

“May I sit?” I gestured toward the couch, taking a seat only when she nodded. “It’s just that he’s defaulted on a debt. I guess now we know why,” I managed a chuckle before realizing the matter probably wasn’t funny to the debtor’s surviving daughter. I stopped myself and we sat in silence before the girl finally spoke.

“You never would have gotten it. He never paid anyone back.” She shook her head, relaxing a bit with me now seated. “I’m sorry but I don’t have any money. He gambled our last penny before they killed him for it.”

“I’m sorry,” I finally managed, embarrassed I hadn’t said so sooner.

“I’m not,” she admitted a bit callously. She gestured to the room, which I now realized was absent of even a TV. “He never did anything but take from me. He doesn’t get to do that anymore.”

And now I would be doing the same. My gut clenched for the first time during a scouting. Our issue wasn’t with this girl.

“What does he owe you?” she finally asked.

When I broke the number to her, she paled, her jaw clenched. She had clearly seen none of the money. “Or 30 years.”

“30 years? What does that mean?” she asked, her head cocking slightly to the side. “Like jail?”

“No,” I insisted without an explanation to give. “Just…look, are you sure there’s no one else? I’d be more than happy to take it up with them.”

“There’s no one,” she shrugged again and I believed her. It had to be her.

I got up without speaking, immediately moving through the house, rifling through doors and cabinets.

“Hey!” she demanded, following me. “There’s no money,” she insisted, stopping me as I entered her bedroom, barren save for a mattress on the floor and a phone charger plugged into the wall. “You’ve got to believe me.”

I looked her in the eyes now, guilt tugging heavily at my heart. “I do,” I told her. But what was I supposed to do now?

“So what do I do?” she finally asked, seemingly realizing that this wasn’t going to just go away.

My mind raced as I tried to think of a loophole that didn’t exist. Henry’s contracts were bulletproof. Debts shift to the next of kin. “Don’t let strangers into your home,” I insisted, pulling from her room as I made my way to the front door. “And don’t make debts you can’t repay.” I didn’t look back at the girl as I left, shutting the screen door loudly behind me. I needed to get this pushed under the rug as soon as I could.

“I don't know,” I responded honestly. “Do you always need them to be married?” ----Lol, don’t know why, but lol all the same!!!11!!

A silhouette appeared in the doorway. It immediately reached to flick on the light and, immediately still, went deer-in-headlights.----The phrasing here is like my flavest thing ever!
“Don’t hurt me!” He begged, and I shook my head, extending a hand to him.----Collin’s badass-ness is really engaging for me.

---Again the casualness of the situation! I love that! “We’re just here to make you old and shit, but it’s okay, be cool, Dood.

She was a natural.----Oh fuck yeah she is. Goddamn Miriam, do you want my money too? I’ll give it to you.

“Not all of them are like that,” I insisted as we exited the building into the street.

“Okay,” she answered simply, unfazed. --- She fucking knows what she just did, and so do you Collin. Don’t be naïve.

“He was tripping over himself to pay her,” -----He put it in words beautifully.


The nurse was kind but chatty. She briefed me on the difficulties with Sophie that day, resulting in her being sedated to sleep. I found myself rubbing my eyes by the end of the conversation, more stressed that before I had called.----Everything in this paragraph is an homage to how awesome your writing is. You can be so exact with so little words. You can express with so few words. You ARE AWESOME!

She took a deep breath before approaching my desk and sitting straight-backed in the chair across from me. “Do you feel my going out negatively impacts my work performance?” Her tone was so careful, it almost didn’t sound like a bait.----She’s so fucking clever. I love her.

“Maybe I shouldn’t,” she snapped back at me, standing. I looked up to see her eyes watering through her anger. “But you never seem to have an issue with it when your dick’s in my mouth.” She turned on her heel then and stormed out, the door closing heavily behind her. ----OHHH shiit nigga! She just said exactly what I wanted her too. Why do I love her? Because she’s perfectly sexual and clever! LOVE!


I turned to face her now, hoping she was wrong. Debts defaulted to the next of kin, whomever they may be. “No one? Not a grandparent? An older sibling? An uncle?”----Don’t pretend like you don’t want it Collin.

“May I sit?” I gestured toward the couch, taking a seat only when she nodded. “It’s just that he’s defaulted on a debt. I guess now we know why,” I managed a chuckle before realizing the matter probably wasn’t funny to the debtor’s surviving daughter. I stopped myself and we sat in silence before the girl finally spoke.----Lol, yeah maybe not so funny. But I love this little part. It’s quirky, and stands alone in that way.


I looked her in the eyes now, guilt tugging heavily at my heart. “I do,” I told her. ---The impact of this dialogue is enormous. I felt a whole shit ton of dread in my chest even though I knew he was about to say that. I felt it. I fucking felt it!

----How the eff could you stop writing right here! I was feeling bad for not commenting because my eyes were literally flying down the page. Goddamn, what the fuck!? This is getting so good. I have fallen in love with this story already. I really, really want the next chapter, even if it’s just a bit on your phone or whatever. If you plan to, do continue with this. I can’t describe how that scene at the end made me feel, but it was so heavy! I was physically burdened by his realizations. Wow. Just wow. I need more of this. I need more of this like Henry needs glow. And surprisingly, I like Mariam. And I would also like to know more about who Lilly is. And I NEED to know more about Collin!!!!11!! And can I just add how fucking flawless and realistic your dialogue is. Goddamn GF. MORE PLEASE!!!!11!!