When Desperation Meets Opportunity Chapter 14 — A #NaNoWriMo 2015 Story

Chapter 14 — Maggie

Today is the day. It will be the best time to try and get something important from Xang.

I’ve had to wait a few days for Xang to get back from his trip. In the meantime, I’ve been going over the last few weeks in my head of all that I know about him. His habits and daily routines. When he might be vulnerable or leave something uncovered. In most cases, there just isn’t much of an opportunity to get to him without risking myself getting caught, or worse.

But, I took a closer look at the three days that he goes to the gym. On Mondays and Fridays, he goes home from work first, then goes to the gym. In these cases, he brings his gym bag, but nothing else. However, on Wednesdays, when he goes to the gym, he goes straight from work. This is my opening. If he carries the badge with him during the day, he’ll have it with his stuff in the locker room. Of his entire day to day schedule, this appears to be the best possible opportunity.

So, that brings us to today. Lance wanted this done by the end of the week, and I’m not in a position to make demands from him. Brayden is still doing fine, but I just want him back. Every day that Brayden is away from me is another day we move further apart. I’m starting to become concerned of how different he might be when I get him back. Will he still love me? Will he miss getting everything he wants? I’m hoping against all hope that Lance keeps his word and gives me my son back when all is said and done. I’ll never get my mother back. I’ll never get back to the point that I hadn’t witnessed murder and death all around me. All I can cling to is being united with my son once again.

Waking up the morning hasn’t been a challenge since Brayden was taken, mainly because you would have to be asleep in order to need to wake up. As crazy as this seems, I never feel tired, even if I have only been getting an hour or two of sleep on a good night. One day this will catch up to me, but when all that waits for you in your dreams are nightmares, rest won’t come.

I decide that today, given the importance of what I’m going to do, I mine as well look pretty. Since Xang won’t be going to work for another hour, I have some time to doll myself up. Without much of a social agenda, work, or baby boy, appearances have taken a back seat. But, right now, I want to look pretty. A shower is first up on the list. I’ve been sleeping in my clothes every night, so I have a few more pieces to take off than my usual sleeping attire. After taking my outfit off, I head into the bathroom and just look in the mirror.

Greasy, straggly hair droops on either side of my head, down to my shoulders. My makeup-less face looking as pale as ever. Maybe if I stared at myself I could see the girl I used to be. Never a ten, but I always thought of myself as a firm 7. It seems like it has been since the time Brayden has been gone since I’ve looked in the mirror. For the first time, I realize just how little I’ve been eating. My stomach is barely protruding anymore, something I’ve always had. My thighs are even starting to form a slight gap. I’m actually a little horrified at what I’m becoming. Some of these things might be beauty benchmarks for other girls, but this just isn’t me. It isn’t healthy. But, without Brayden, I don’t see much point in caring about it right now. Get Brayden back, then worry about fixing me.

In a moment that would make anyone in California jealous, I decide to take a nice, long shower. In fact, the only reason I leave at all is because the hot water was turning cold. It felt a little bit like a renewal, a baptism of sorts. I need all my strength to keep on this journey, and it felt like energy and encouragement was washing over me. I’m doing this all for your Brayden. I’m going to get you back.

After my shower, I put on a fresh set of clothes. Then, I take another ten minutes to give my face the attention to detail it has deserved for weeks. After finishing, I think I finally recognize the person starting back at me in the mirror. Time to head out.

I feel like I know Xang better than anyone I’ve ever known. After all, if you follow someone around for a month straight, you’d know them pretty well too. For instance, I did mention his typical grocery fare. But, I’ve also noticed that a couple of times a week, there is a small, round container in the bottom of his bag that isn’t normally there. He appears to have a slight addiction to chewing tobacco. That probably isn’t terribly important, but based on the amount he buys a container, which isn’t often, I can guess his co-workers don’t know bout it. He can’t possibly have friends. I never see him on the phone, and he never goes out. Maybe I could be his friend. Maybe that is the mission after this?

The day unfolds the same as many before it. Xang leaves his house and drives directly to his office out in the middle of nowhere. Not many people work here — maybe a dozen or so. I do my best to stay awake in the car. Every hour or so, I’ll get out and take a walk to get some fresh air. To try and avoid some suspicion, in case anyone is watching, I will also drive around the block every few hours and hang out somewhere else for a while. Once I had Xang’s schedule down, it didn’t feel like much of a risk to leave the workplace unattended for an hour.

After another seemingly long day, 4:00pm hits and, like clockwork, Xang emerges. Now that I have a firm grip on his next move, I give myself a wider berth behind him. We drive into town, and I drive past his car in the parking lot to the local grocery store. It is weird that he purchases a hot rotisserie chicken on a day he is going to be at the gym for an hour before he can eat it. Oh well, to each their own. From my parking spot, I can’t really see him, so I just stare at the exit of the lot and wait until his car appears, then follow him. Today, it takes longer than usual, but his car emerges from the vehicle holding ground to leave and make his way to the gym.

I begin to feel a sense of nervousness, as well as excitement. They really are the same emotion, just interpreted differently. That isn’t all that important, and I don’t care much for details at the moment. I’m going to feel both of the and that is that.

When I get to the gym, I drive past his car, and I see that he is still in there. This time, he is on the phone. Looks like I’ll have to wait a little longer.

I find a parking spot and think through my plan of action as I keep an eye on the entrance for Mr. Xi to find his way inside. Two possible situations could happen here. First, he could leave the badge in his car when he goes inside the gym. This could either be a good or a bad thing. If he leaves his car unlocked, this is a fairly simple grab and go. I’d prefer that, because the alternative is either the car is locked, and I have to somehow find a way inside without alerting anyone. That is the bad side. In that case, I’d hope for door number two.

In the second situation, Xang brings the badge with him into the gym. My best guess is he would have it in the bag other than his gym bag. This also comes with a set of caveats. If he locks a locker space inside the locker room (it just occurred to me how imaginative humans are at naming things), then that leaves a very tight set of circumstances for getting the bag. I’d have to hope that when he finished his run, he will take his bags out of the locker and then take his shower. Even if today is the best day to do this, I still need a lot of breaks to make it work.

Xang is on the move now and headed inside the gym. I decide to give him a five minute head start, and then follow in after. But first, I better check his car. I get out of mine, and take the short walk down the lot to his vehicle, and peek in the windows. No duffle bag (I could clearly see that he had that). No work bag. He must have both of them with him. Good. I was hoping I would not have to break into a car today. Now that my short scouting mission is over, and the first situation didn’t happen, it is time to play out situation number two. I head to the front entrance of the gym.

Since I don’t have a gym membership, I’ll have to pay for a one day pass. Not a huge deal — I have all of this money that I don’t feel like spending. After all of this is over, I might just donate it all the charity and go back to trying to eek out a living on ten bucks an hour. It would be more honorable than what I’m doing. I never really understood the phrase ‘money can’t buy you happiness’ until all of this went down.

Once inside, the attendant greets me. He is a young, overly excited guy who seems to be in love with working out. Or, at least the idea that other people are working out while he has to man the desk.

“Welcome to The Neighborhood Fitness Center! I’m Kyle, how are you?” The glee is practically flying off his face. No, that is just the saliva. Poor guy has a slight lisp.

“I’m okay” I try to say in the most polite tone possible. Human interaction has been at a minimum recently, so it is like re-learning how to speak again. It wasn’t the most genuine tone, but I think it got the job done.

“What are you in for today? Some walking? Maybe trying out some of the equipment? I haven’t seen you around here. Would you like to hear about our membership offerings?” This guy likes to ask a lot of questions. I try to review them all in my head, but then I realize that is pointless. I just need to get in.

“I am not really sure what I am into yet. Basically, I just need to check stuff out. Could I just buy a one day pass?”

“Oh, absolutely. We also would be more than happy to give you a tour. Would you be interested? We have a lot of offerings here that are super cool, but most don’t ask about.”

“No thanks. Just the pass. I need to take things on my own. No offense.” The young man looks a bit downtrodden after I turn down his offer. I wasn’t planning it to sound like a rebuke, but he seemed to take it that way.

“Ok…okay. That is fine. Please, come back and ask anything. We’ll be happy to answer any questions get you set up with a membership!” He tries to finish strong and excited, but like with everything else in my life, I sucked the joy out of his. Maybe I’m giving myself too much credit, but he was extremely excited when I walked in, and now he isn’t even smiling. I better try and at least leave on a happy note.

“You know what…” I have to quick look at his name tag “Maddox, I will definitely come back and take you up on that tour sometime. I just don’t have the time tonight, that’s all.” His smile returns. Mission accomplished.

“Sounds good! The one day pass will be twenty dollars.” I remove a twenty from my purse and hand it to him. He then opens up a drawer from behind his counter, and hands me a laminated business card size piece of paper that says ‘ONE DAY PASS’ with a signature and today’s date on it. He points to the left. “All of our exercise equipment and indoor track are to the left here. Be polite and remember to clean off the equipment after you use it. We have plenty of solution and clothes available near each station. Have a healthy day!” With that, my exchange is over and I head on into the hallway that connects the indoor track and basketball courts to the locker rooms and fitness rooms.

If there was a good place to sit or stand that wasn’t completely awkward, I’d love to see it. However, besides for the doors to the different areas, there isn’t a whole lot happening in these hallways. Not a ton of color. Very few posters. Just white, and fairly narrow. The best I can do is hangout near the windows of the basketball court and watch a pick up game with some high schools. Shirts vs skins. Is it bad that, when I see the ones with nice abs, I can’t help but wonder how soon they’ll be fathering a child? Ugh, why do I have to be so jaded?

Every few moments, I glance over my shoulder at the locker room. A few random guys enter and leave, but it looks like my man Xang is still hanging out on the treadmill. While I’m standing there, I begin to think through my plan. It occurs to me that, as a female, it will probably be more than a little weird to go in the men’s locker room. It isn’t something that I’d like to do more than once. That leaves me with a couple of crappy options. Option one is that I go in and scout out his locker now, and try and get in. That would require me to enter and snoop around in the middle of a place with a bunch of naked guys. Mostly naked old guys. Kill me now.

Option two would be a different flavor of that. Instead, I follow Xang into the locker room, and keep an eye on where he goes. When he takes his shower (which I am really hoping he does, otherwise this whole plan isn’t going to work) then I can snatch the badge then. Once again, that would require me to spend much more time in that sweaty, dank place than I’d like to. Plus, the longer I am inside, the more attention I am likely to draw towards myself, making my task that much more difficult.

That brings me to option three. I have all of this money, why not use it? I could just hand some random dude $100 to go and scope the place out for me. The money doesn’t mean much to me anyway, but it certainly could make a teenagers day. This option seems the most attractive of all. Yes, that was also an attempt at a pun.

I’ve been here for almost a half an hour, so time is running out. The next guy that walks out of this gym is getting the Benjamin. An intense pick up game ends on a thrilling three point shot, and the boys disperse to hydrate. A short, African American boy is the first to walk by me.

“Hey” I saw, in a weirdly seductive voice. Not quite what I was going for. After all, I am 22, and this kid is probably 16. This could be seen a lot differently depending on who is watching.

“Yo.” He says back. “What’s up?” He is breathing heavily. Not a surprise, he played pretty intense defense.

“How would you like to make a hundred dollars?” I ask, and show him a one hundred dollar bill. His eyes light up. I’m not sure what is going through his head, but my guess it isn’t anything like the actual task is that I have in mind.

“Are you effin serious? I’m in. What do you need girl?” He looks exhausted and thirsty, but surprisingly energized for earning some money.

“Something simple. A guy is here who I need to get something from. He has a couple of bags in the locker room. I just need you to go in and find out which locker the bags are in. You’ll also need to try opening the locker to see if he locked it or not. Deal?” I stare at the boy intently, hoping to use some of my feminine charm to get him to agree.

He replies in disbelief. “That’s it? That is all you want me to do?”

“Yup. That’s it. Before you go in, I can describe to you the bags as well.” And with that, he nods his head in agreement. “Alright, so he has two bags. The first is a typical duffle bag, and that is black. The other is a green messenger bag. Both should be there. Find me the locker with those two bags, and give me the exact location when you get out, and I’ll give you the hundred. No questions asked.” The boy still seems skeptical, but heads on into the locker room. He takes his time walking in there, stopping to get a drink. Even though Xang should still be on the treadmill for another 15 minutes, I’m nervous that he’ll come back early and catch the boy snooping around his locker. That would be a worst case scenario, for sure.

A couple of minutes pass, and the boy emerges. “Where’s my money?” He is straight and to the point, I’ll give him that. Not much for manners. Or following directions.

“Hey now. I showed it to you. You know I’ve got it. But I need the details from you first. Did you find the bags? Where are they?”

“Yeah, yeah. They in there. There are lockers all around the edge, with three rows of lockers in the middle. The locker you are looking for is 51 in the middle row. Tried to open it, but it is locked. I’ve got a friend who can — ” I cut him off.

“That’s all. Thank you. Here you go.” I hand the boy the cash, and the stunned disbelief on his face is worth the price of admission alone. Stetford isn’t the richest town in the world, so it wouldn’t be surprising that the one hundred dollars I gifted that kid is the first bill of that amount he has ever seen. That’ my good deed for the day.

There we have it. He has a locker. The bag is here. I’m so close to completing this task, and getting one step closer to Brayden. Now, I wait for Xang to finish. It shouldn’t be much longer now.

I hear the door open from the entry way, and some talking. A voice sounds really familiar. No, it can’t be. I turn around, and sure enough, there is Rodger, with a friend, headed to the locker room. He is busy in his conversation, so he doesn’t even notice me. My blood boils as all of my emotion comes to the surface. Somehow he is responsible for what has happened. I am sure of it.

He disappears into the locker room, so I storm in after him. Fortunately, there aren’t any visible men when I first walk in. Thank God. I’m not too fond of what the young guys look like. Not entirely sure I need to see an old one. I walk around the perimeter, and find Rodger in the middle of the back row of lockers. My anger consumes me, and I charge at him, slamming him into his locker, catching him by surprise. He isn’t much taller than me, so I’m not nearly as worried as I should be about what he might do to me. Instead, he picks himself up, and shakes it off.

“Woah! Maggie. What the hell? Haven’t seen you for weeks. This is one way to greet somebody. Not sure I would have gone that route. Are you okay?” I can’t believe he even asked me that. I’m ready to charge again, but I’m only a foot or so away, so I couldn’t get too much of a head of steam.

“Are you kidding me right now? You, the person who has ruined my life. And you have the audacity to ask me if I’m okay?” I catch myself seething, so I quickly lick my lips and try and slow my breathing. I’m mad, but I should retain at least a little humanity.

He looks confused. Like, genuinely confused. Have I been wrong all along. “Hold up there, Maggie. I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Ruined your life? How? What happened after you bailed me out?” Now I have to figure out what to explain to him. Better start with the most important.

“Well, let’s just say your phone number turned up as the originating call from a very bad man. Remember when I said someone told me to bail you out? The same guy is” — I have to choke back tears as I realize I am about to say this out loud — “holding my son. He has Brayden. And he is forcing me to do things for him. He was calling from your phone!” My voice trembling, louder than it should be for the size of the room.

Rodger, apparently calm after hearing that, replies. “I am so sorry to hear that. I’m as surprised as you, though. I don’t even have a home ph…” he trails off, as a thought appears to enter his mind. “What a second. About a month and a half ago, some guys from the cable company stopped by to install a new router. But now that I think of it, I didn’t have an appointment, and they didn’t seem like other maintenance people I’ve had at the house. They were very, well I guess they were secretive. Didn’t want me watching them work.”

I take my eyes around the room, searching for a vision or idea that would help me see if he was telling the truth or not. I decide to press on.

“Even if that is the case, why you? Why did he choose you?”

“I don’t know! God, he has been using my apartment to call people. Ugh. I can’t believe this.” He looks a bit panicked now. Now I want to believe he is telling the truth. But, he still has more to answer for.

“So, let’s say I believe you. What are you doing here? I’ve been trying to talk to you for a month, but you are never home. When we talked the night I bailed you out, you said you were struggling to make ends meet, yet now you can afford a gym membership?” That last comment was probably unfair. People have a right to spend their money on whatever they wish. Perhaps that is an essential need for him. Some of us have other essential needs, like caring for our children. Some of us have failed miserably.

Clearly, this entire situation is getting to him. His voice cracks and wavers as he responds. “Well, umm, my boss was actually pretty cool about the whole situation. He believe me, and I got to keep my job. He also decided that I’d met my performance goals early, so I got a two dollar an hour pay raise. That helps pay for this.” He is so forthcoming. Either he is a brilliant liar or a down to earth guy who is just trying to be honest and help me out. “And I’m really sorry about not being around. I actually have been staying at Kevin’s place. You know, the guy who ended up getting me arrested. Anyways, we worked it out. He had to go out of town on a business trip to somewhere in Asia for a month. A lot of deals and stuff to work on. In any case, I’m house sitting for him. He has a nice place. Better than my rat hole.”

In that moment, no matter what might be the truth, I decide to let my anger go with him. I might be giving up too easy, but there is only one person to stay angry at — Lance Jacobs. He deserves all of the anger I have to give. Rodger is quick to forgive and helpful. Sure, I only know the guy from bailing him out at a jail, and the last few minutes here. But still, my gut says, right now, to trust him.

“Okay. Okay. I believe you. At least I want to do. I’m just so scared and afraid, and I want my son back!” I wipe my eyes. Then remember that I had a job to do. “Actually, that is why I was here. I’m supposed to take something from someone here. It could help me get my son back.” I turn around, and search the middle row of lockers for number 51. There is 53, 52, and….it is open. And, it is empty. Did the boy lie to me? “Oh my God, where is it?”

I frantically begin to look in every locker, rushing past men who scramble to put on a towel. Nothing anywhere. Rodger is following me, trying to make sense of what I am doing.

“Maggie, what is wrong? What is going on?”

I slump down on a bench. Emptiness fills me. Once again, I feel complete despair and hopelessness. Will I ever get to see my son again?

“The man I was supposed to take something from. He was here. While I was so caught up in talking to you, he must have come in and left. Now he’s gone, and so might be my last chance to get my son back.”

I would love to cry and let it out, but there isn’t anything there. My wells are empty. Rodger sits down next to me.

“You helped me. Let me help you. What do we need to do?”