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J. HenryWarren
Until Shore
A fictional novel by
J. Henry Warren
Copyright 1999 Warren
International, Inc.
Furlong, Pennsylvania
This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.
un·til (ùn-tîl¹) preposition
1. Up to the time of: She danced until dawn.
2. Before (a specified time): He can't leave until Thursday.
conjunction
1. Up to the time that: We walked until it got dark.
2. Before: You cannot leave until your work is finished.
3. To the point or extent that: I talked until I was hoarse.
shore (shôr, shor) noun
1. The land along the edge of an ocean, a sea, a lake, or a river; a coast.
2. Often shores . Land; country: far from our native shores.
3. Land as opposed to water: a sailor with an assignment on shore.
noun, attributive
Often used to modify another noun: shore dwellings; shore erosion.
[Middle English shore, from Old English scora.]
sure (sh¢r) adjective
sur·er, sur·est
1. Impossible to doubt or dispute; certain.
2. Not hesitating or wavering; firm: sure convictions.
3. Confident, as of something awaited or expected: sure of ultimate victory.
4. a. Bound to come about or happen; inevitable: sure defeat. b.
Having one's course directed; destined or bound: sure to succeed.
5. Certain not to miss or err; steady: a sure hand on the throttle.
6. a. Worthy of being trusted or depended on; reliable. b. Free from
or marked by freedom from doubt: sure of her friends.
7. Careful to do something: asked me to be sure to turn off the stove.
8. Obsolete. Free from harm or danger; safe.
adverb
Informal. Surely; certainly.
— idiom.
for sure Informal. Certainly; unquestionably: We'll win for
sure.
make sure To establish something without doubt; make certain: Make
sure he writes it down.
to be sure Indeed; certainly.
[Middle English, from Old French, safe, from Latin sêcúrus.
Send edits to: editoruntilshore@johnwarren.co
Argentina
......Argentina has excellent worldwide air connections, with
Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza, outside Buenos Aires, the main international airport.
A multitude of land and river crossing points connect Argentina with neighboring
Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile. Travel from Chile usually involves a hike
through the Andes, while overland travel to Bolivia can go through the border towns of La
Quiaca, Tarija, Pocitos/Yacuiba. Paraguay can be reached by bus and/or river launch, and
the most common crossing to Brazil is via Foz do Iguaçu or Uruguaiana. Uruguay is linked
to Argentina by road bridges, and ferries sail between Buenos Aires and Colonia in
Uruguay.
Getting Around
Three Argentine airlines attempt to make this big country appear smaller: Aerolíneas
Argentinas handles domestic as well as international routes, Austral covers domestic
routes only, and Líneas Aéreas del Estado serves mostly Patagonian destinations.
Long-distance buses are fast and comfortable; some even provide on-board meal services.
However, fares are expensive and fluctuate wildly.
The country's extensive rail network is unfortunately under threat due to the
devolution of funding to provincial authorities and the increasing presence of that
worldwide phenomenon, privatization....
Chapter Five
- RING-IN-THE-NOSE wouldn't take the gun out of Jennifer’s face and his firm
hairy grip on the 7-millimeter pistol was further evidence that he meant business. It
wasn't Jennifer Dannon's kind of business, but serious business nonetheless. She'd sooner
ignor him than smell him, but he seemed intent on robbing the convenience store, and who
was she to interfere.
- Jennifer was a hooker, a lady of the evening, and her evening was over. All she wanted
was a pack of smokes, and new water bottle, and a bed with no one in it. She had a pocket
full of money, and she wasn't going to share it this time with Billy. No matter that he
was grabbed and taken to jail this morning by the Atlantic City vice squad. His pimping
days would be interrupted for awhile The cops were forever trying to clean up a city that
didn't want to be cleaned. She didn't care about any of that. She'd soon be free. He'd
taken enough of her hard-earned money. Now it was her turn to live high on the hog.
- She looked at the man standing in front of the counter, and named the ass from a
distance. When she walked in the twenty-something character was standing at the register
with his hands in his pockets talking to someone she couldn't see. She'd called him
Ring-In-The-Nose before she even walked into the convenience store. She thought she'd seen
him before. He wasn't one of her Tricks, just some jerk who'd make comments from the
corner outside of a darkened office complex that always had limos and morons walking in
and out. It was near her regular corner of 5th and Atlantic, but she never got
any work from any of the assholes, who whistled at her.
- She wondered why the name just popped into her mind as she climbed from her car to get a
odds and ends for the next morning. It was late. Dark. Windy. And she was tired. It had
been a long day in the Casino's cashiers cage, and then a night of walking the streets
doing research. But she was learning the business. Her way.
- But it was the first name that came to her mind as she walked through the first set of
doors, and into the quiet store. The northeaster had been blowing apart the town for
almost twenty-four hours. Not many were on the streets. She first noticed the unkempt man
standing at the register flinching at every sound as she pulled onto the parking lot and
her lights flashed against the building before turning her car off. He was in front of the
counter and his hands where hidden inside his black leather jacket. He was bald. Probably
shaved, she thought.
- Jennifer said, to him, and chuckled to herself because of her autonomic response. She
wanted to say, Hey, RITN, what the hell is your problem? You look stupid with all those
rings in your nose! but she didn’t and walked toward him clueless as to what was
going on in the store. And before she could think of it again, he pulled his hand out of
his pocket and pushed a short black gun barrel into her face. She could smell the burned
gunpowder still fresh on the hole end of the pistol.
- RITN wouldn’t remove his eyes from her and he moved sideways toward the counter
looking around reaching over the register rattling the drawer. "Hey shithead, hurry
up!" he yelled as he stuffed a Twix bar into his mouth. Holding the gun to her face
he said "Who the fuck are you looking at?"
- Jennifer wore her hair straight and long, and tonight it was pulled into a ponytail. Her
black skirt was only a fraction of an inch lower than her crotch-less panties and her
stockings showed a long snag that disappeared into her high fake leather boots. She was
still showing her summer tan through the open silk blouse and tan leather jacket. She
wanted to run, but could tell he meant business.
- RITN stood next to the rack full of donut and pie boxes, and starred directly at her as
sweat rolled down his forehead. He liked what he saw. He could smell her, and she him. He
hadn't had a bath in weeks, she thought, and it looked as though his unbuttoned blue shirt
was filthy under the jacket. He was kind of cute. He was drenched from the rain outside,
and he looked more nervous than she felt. She'd seen it all, and some moron sticking up a
Seven-Eleven wasn't going to screw up her mind anymore that it already was. The loss of
her husband six months ago had forced her to drastic measures. He'd left her with a kid,
no money, too many bills, and debt to his past business partners, that thought she knew
where the money or the stuff was. She didn't have a clue. She didn't know what they were
talking about. Tommy never told her about his drug dealings. She never saw any money. They
were always broke then, and now that he was dead, she was in bigger trouble.
- RINT’s eyes were bloodshot and looked like the drugs were in high gear. "Where
is the money?" he asked again, quickly pointing with the gun toward the cash register
behind the counter.
- "It’s not mine... How the hell do I know?" Jennifer answered, not wanting
to agitate him anymore than he already was. She started inching slowly from the counter
toward the door.
- "Don’t move!" RITN yelled, looking directly at her.
- "No problem." Jennifer said, raising her hands slowly toward the ceiling. Her
car keys were in her right hand. She was hoping this wouldn’t be her last day alive.
"I don’t…" She started to say, but was cut off in mid sentence as he
smashed his hand on the counter, and began yelling at someone she couldn’t see.
Jennifer had her Thirty-third birthday the day before and was anxious to have another.
- "How about I leave. I didn't see nothing!"
- "Shut up!"
- "Man I'm tired, I just want some smokes. I don't give a shit what your up to."
- RITN pointed at her and then toward the cabinet with the cigarette packages all neatly
stacked and organized. "Help yourself." And he motioned for her to walk behind
the counter. Jennifer stopped short seeing a body on the floor behind low wall near the
ATM. "He ain't dead, he slipped."
- Jennifer grabbed a carton of Marlboros and threw two twenties on the counter top.
"Here, have fun." And she turned to leave as a young woman dressed like RITN and
just as grungy walked from the office carrying a doubled plastic bag bulging with money
from the safe.
- "Who the-fuck-is-this?"
- "Bunny - Just a slut. Don't worry."
- "You never worry 'bout shit. Why I keep you?" She pointed another gun at
Jennifer, and Jennifer stopped just short of the door.
- "You love me." Bunny said, as she looked back toward him.
- "Bullshit."
- "Get out!" The woman with bag made a fast move toward the door. And all three
of them burst through the two swinging doors in to the darkness.
- "Get her keys."
- "Why?" RITN asked.
- "Jimmy, we're taken' her car."
- "Fuck! That's my only ride!" Jennifer attempted, but RITN ripped the keys and
her purse from her hand as the other woman with chains and rings ran toward Jennifer's
car. Sirens screamed off in the night, and they seemed to be racing toward them to answer
the silent alarm that the storeowner or clerk must have activated on his way to the floor
with a bullet lodged in his shoulder blade.
- But Jennifer's complaints were muffled by the large hand that quickly drew her into the
backseat. Bunny and her bright short red hair hopped into the driver's seat. She spun the
wheels of the Chevy as it bound out of the parking lot heading south on Atlantic toward
the AC expressway at a speed endangering all of them. They would soon turn off onto Route
9 heading north away from the glitter and florescent lights and fools-gold. Bunny never
liked Atlantic City, but she made it her and Jimmy's home ever since they both got out of
prison.
- RITN had her pinned on the back seat.
Chapter Six
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