“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”

I smirked, he laughed. Jale was never the fortune cookie type of guy, but it amused him that verbal puzzles like this one were so easily wrapped up and baked in an oven and almost always parallel life itself. It amuses him even more when I forget to take out the fortune before eating the cookie.

“So, how’s life?” I inquired taking the glass of water and letting my lips dabble at its edge.

“Same old, same old, you know how it is.” Jale leaned back in his wooden chair tilting it onto its hind legs. Conversation continued, alternating from me to him and back again.

“You know you could fall.” I leaned on my elbow, with a smirk.

“I could, could being the key word.” His smirk volleyed back, and on came the sarcasm.

“True, but just don’t off on the waiter. He doesn’t speak English.”

“I would never!”

“Lying is bad.”

“So are cigarettes, but I don’t see you stopping anytime soon.”

“Touché” I replied with an ironic puff of my already lit cigarette. I now too leaned back in my chair, mimicking perfectly against Jale’s pose. The wooded chair creaked, my face cringed. He grinned and his eyes sparkled with that insulting twinkle only Jale possessed. Not hesitating I offered the box of cigs to Jale, a sad attempt at derailing his next comment.

“Gain some weight tubby?” He reached in with his thumb and index finger trapping a cig between the two, slid it out, and with a flick of the wrist sent it climbing into the air only to gravitate back down into the gaping jaws of Jale.

“Show off”

“And? Why not when you have a natural talent?” Came Jale’s words as the slid from his lips, over his cig at the hinges of his mouth, and into my ears in a half-muffled tone. “You show off all the time.”

“Doing your job is not showing off.” I replied coupled with a shrug from my shoulders. I have never been a finesse player. If I was on a football team, I’d probably be a lineman. No showboating like the quarterbacks or receivers, I just did my thing then went home.

“Eh, you’re no fun” He puffed again.

“Yeah, but for as long as you have know me, you know I don’t mix business with pleasure.” I blew the smoke from the cig out my nostrils dragon style. Little clouds of nicotine floated into the air, blurring my vision for a second. It’s been awhile since I smoked one. I used to smoke all the time, 100’s unfiltered. A man’s cigarette or some B.S. story that a vein popping, steroid abuser would use to convince that he is what a man should be. Jale was one of those guys, but I had gotten used to it by now.

“And you call yourself a man! I’m ashamed.” Jale loved being sarcastic.

“I prefer gentleman.”

“What’s this gentleman crap anyway?” The wooden chair dropped back on all fours with a clunk as Jale leaned in and prodded my shoulder with his index finger. “So, how’s the girlfriend?”

“What girlfriend?” My mouth spat back bewildered.

“You know, the little Latina chick you were with last time.” Jale’s shoulder prodding continued.

“What Latina chick?”

“The one with the big…” Jale took his hands and made an outward semi-circular movement over his chest.

“Lana?” Shame washed over me as I realized that it took a rude breast gesture like that to jog my memory.

“Yeah…” He leaned in more. “…so how is she?”

“I saw us that one time I went with her to lunch, and you assumed we were dating!” My hand raised with the mixed emotions of confusion and disgust. Confusion as to why he would even think that we were dating, and disgust in the fact that I knew that what he really wanted to know was whether or not she was a good lay. “First off, that was five or six years ago, second she was nothing more than a friend from bible study.”

“Bible study? You still go to bible study?” Jale paused, “Wait, you still go to church!?”

“Every Sunday.”

“Every Sunday?”

“Is there an echo out here? I said every Sunday.” I sipped from the glass of water, then took a puff of the cig exhaling out the exhaustion I was feeling from this conversation. This conversation was really going nowhere, but then again that’s what usually happens when you’re trying to catch up on lost time. You begin to ask question that really have no rhyme or reason to be asked, you remember things that you shouldn’t, you remember the little flaws in a person that made them annoy-

“Burrrp!” went Jale.

Annoying.

“Six years huh, it’s been awhile hasn’t it?”

“Yup.” I quickly responded succeeded by another puff of cig. Mine was almost done, his was barely half way. “So how are you dealing?”

“Dealing? With what?” Now it was his turn to be on the defensive side of this quizzical war. Jale took another puff of his cig and blew some smoke rings.

“With life in general.” What a lousy attempt at gathering information. Good thing I’m not a spy.

“You mean how am I dealing without Kristine.” He huffed a sigh. A sigh that seemed to way two tons by the way his lower lips was drooping. I nodded a reply, nothing really needed to be said.

“Well, it’s been alright. We had the funeral for her a couple months ago. At least she died peacefully in that hospital. Five years battling with leukemia and it finally got to her. It probably didn’t help that I was in jail at the time either. Even though I’m not the most religious person I prayed for her every night in that jail cell. There are probably divots where my knees were. I got out three months back, so I got to spend a little time with her before she passed.” Jale’s gaze moved from me, to the table, back to me, than to the sky. The restaurant was well-known for it’s glass roof that gave the effect of eating outside. He resumed his laid back position. “It’s a good day for sitting outside isn’t it.”

“It is.” I replied solemnly as we instantly gave a moment of silence.

“How long have we known each other?” Jale didn’t even look down at me.

“Well, 4th grade was in…and it’s the year…I’d say about thirty-six years.” I nodded in the affirmative with just a tint of uncertainty.

“That’s a long time. Marriages don’t even last that long anymore.” His voice was completely emotionless.

“Are you trying to ask me to marry you?” I paused, suppressing the chuckle. “I’m don’t know what happened to you in jail, but I don’t swing that way! Remember, Bible-thumper!”

Jale hissed at me. “Ha. Ha. Very funny, that’s not what I meant.”

“At least I haven’t lost my sense of humor.” I released the chuckle and morphed it into a laugh.

“That’s true.” Jale just grinned, he was not much of a laugher. He reference the fortune “That’s a lot of past between us.”

I took the last puff of my cig, snuffed it out in the ashtray, rose to my feet. “There is.”

Jale also rose, taking his last puff of his own cancer stick. Signaling the nearing end of

the conversation. “Tell me, you ever regret doing anything you ever did?”

“No.” I replied, my voice becoming monotone.

“Good. Neither do I.” Jale gave me one final grin as he picked up his fedora, placed it on his head, echoing himself. “Neither do I…”

The sound of the gun shattered the silence around them. The millions of pieces of silence mutating into the sounds of screams and trampling of feet as nearby witnesses cried out in fear. Jale’s body plummeted the short way to the ground. The thud echoing inside my ears. Fresh blood dyeing the grey of the cement to a crimson red. I holstered my Colt .45, not bothering to cover it up with my shirt again. Calmly retrieved my jacket from the maître’d, and walked out into the cold of autumn. I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and dialed. My call was answered.

“Target has been eliminated.” The young man on the other end praised me for completing my job and by taking him by surprise. I told him there was no surprise. Jale knew why I had called him so suddenly. The voice became confused at remark, then asked with amazement how I could be so cold, and Jale so stupid, to have a candid conversation. Killer and Victim. I simply replied:

“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”