Press play for some mood music
She woke up that day on a mission. And meaner than usual.
She was looking to snake her way across the country and meet up with Hawthorne, a fellow swindler who had the fix on some new scam in California. Wind energy. That's what they were calling it. She didn't get it but truthfully didn't care. The outfit needed a shape in a drape and she fit the bill just fine.
She looked in the mirror and applied her makeup. She was sexy, sure, but certainly could have been prettier. Didn't matter though. Those cookies of hers worked just fine.
She was instructed by Hawthorne via Western Union to arrive as a ghost. So out came her purse, burning everything with her name on it in a tiny waste pail. No traces. In fact, Hawthorne once said that if you doused your fingers with hot candle wax nightly, eventually the pigment in your fingertips would be useless.
She lit a kick stick and slipped into a lime green pair of twin trees and strutted out of her apartment. She knew she wouldn't be back. In fact, she thought twice about burning down the whole kit and caboodle.
She flicked off her her light switch, kicked the cat out of the way and left.
* * *
Four days later, she was pinched just a hair within the city limits in Minneapolis. It seems the rubber checks she used to pay for her flophouse wasn't exactly jiving with the owner. When the fuzz knocked on her door, she almost halfway expected them. They, however, didn't expect the nudity.
"What took you so long?" she asked them, putting on her dress.
At the station, her fingerprints were a splotchy mess. That 'ol hot wax trick came through.
"We need your name," The booking officer said. She just snarled.
He lowered the clipboard. "What's your name, Missy?"
She spat in his face and that snarl turned into a smile. The cop tossed her back in the holding cell. "We'll just have to give you a name..."
"I got a name," she said. "It's Donna... Donna Lethal. Like it?"
As she waited to see the judge, she still thought about that mission she was on. La-La Land was still very much in her cards and wind energy was going to be her business. A prison escape was just a minor setback.
Being a fugitive was fun, Donna thought. It kept her on her toes.
California awaits.
Music: "Twilight" by Daniel A. Stafford. It can be downloaded HERE.
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Buttoned (or unbuttoned) down and truckin' Hepkitty Donna L.'s gone make a name for herself you can see that in the cards. All spades and blades and windmills spinnin' like music outta Dizzy's bent horn. S'all in the wind anyhow, right? California Dream strikes again. Grifters, drifters and all time shifters watch yo backs. Things are about to get Lethal in LaLaLand.
ReplyDeleteWhaddya know, AJ... You just wrote the tease for the back of the novel ;)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I love the music at the beginning of your stories, I think you are very good at setting the mood without them. You have a great rhythm and flow to your work that works well for the genre.
ReplyDeleteAj Hayes: amazing tease.
It'll keep her on her toes until it puts her on the block. Some dame.
ReplyDeleteShe's trouble. Lol. Watch out boys.
ReplyDelete:D
Only until she's caught again! LOL Really liked her voice.
ReplyDeleteThat's some broad! She knows what she wants, and she's gonna get it. I could just see her body language in this piece, the mood was perfect and the mood music a bonus!
ReplyDeleteLoved this line "She lit a kick stick and slipped into a lime green pair of twin trees and strutted out of her apartment."
I could hear the clack of her much too high heels as she swayed those hips and pursed those lips!
Wonderful stuff, "a shape with a drape". I think this possibly might be my very favourite of all yours I've read
ReplyDeleteMarc Nash
Well she is a sassy little vixen isn't she? Great writing..More, I have to know how it all ends...
ReplyDeleteAwesome name, and great to see a badass broad stalking the Internet.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely done. The music is perfect, too. Your word choice was magnificent.
ReplyDeleteThat Donna is one kickass broad! I want to be like her!
ReplyDeleteI can't even say why, but this is one of my all time favorites of yours. I love her.
ReplyDeleteDonna L is definately a broad I'd like to hear more about. Nice one, Anthony.
ReplyDeleteVery Nice. You have a great way of setting the tone of the story and carrying it through start to finish. Also like the way you manage to bring the characters to life in only that short of a story. Well written... could certainly read a deeper story with Miss Lethal as the main... maybe an autobiography chronicling her "misadventures"?
ReplyDeleteActually, her real name is Carol Andrews, the mugshot, that is. You can find here at http://www.flickr.com/photos/leastwanted/
ReplyDeleteMy friend photoshopped my name in there for a post at the Hair Hall of Fame and it went viral. Carol got busted in Minneapolis.
PS. Here's Carol: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leastwanted/5065895333/sizes/l/in/set-470761/
ReplyDeleteA moody, noir-ish turn. Fun!
ReplyDeleteI hasten to add that the "real" Donna Lethal has a book coming out. It should be a hoot!