CHAPTER 11
The old saying Curiosity killed the cat couldn't be any more true to life. Screw Tooth Bill wasn't the type to get all stir crazy after being out of work for just one week. Although he had very little in life he was very far from being pegged as a couch potato Democrat. He had other hobbies aside from driving that slimy gross garbage truck. Fly fishing was one of them but he also enjoyed collecting all the wires from all the antiquated computers people often threw away in the garbage. Printers definitely got thrown away quite a bit and because copper was at an all time high Bill had always done okay making a little bit of extra cash on the side. Most of the copper wires he would sell to the electric company that would subsequently yield him a softer electric bill each month. How else do ya think the name Screw Tooth Bill had been coined over the years? Too much splicing of wires between the teeth.
Bill gallivanted the mall no different then he would on any other day. He still had to satisfy that "itch" but he wasn't going to buy into the whole silly game and become just another pawn of Dirty Bird's gay little reindeer games. The only reason he was here today at RiverLake mall was to satisfy his curiosity. He wasn't stupid enough to believe that Dirty Bird would have a vested interest in a 62 year old garbage man. The whole idea was simply ludicrous.
A life like mannequin in the doorway of a Victoria Secrets appeared to pop out in front of him slowing down his steps quite a bit. Although the temptation was there, he was never foolish enough to be caught and judged by prissy little teenage girls seeing him hold up a pair of silky panties and twirling it with his thumb. But the plastic woman was so scantly clothed no matter how he looked at it it would interfere with his gait quite a bit. The blackberry in his right pocket began chirping it's usual race car sounds and Bill knew he had an incoming call. The number was unrecognizable and the area code was one he had never seen before.
He pushed the send button. "Hello?"
A friendly man's voice he did not recognize barked into the phone. "She fooled me too Bill. Wish they really made them like that in real life."
Bill hadn't been taken aback like this since his teenage years. Using the word "creeped out" would be an understatement.
Who was watching him? And how?
"Do I know you?"
Dirty Bird chuckled into the phone but not all creepy like. "No Bill but I was hoping that you'd might like too. You know how us old retired birds can be like sometimes. Are you able to sit down and talk for a minute?"
Bill felt a bit relieved by the sound of Bob's voice not sounding like a crooked demented serial killer but more of a friendlier tone of an online campus recruiter pretending to be your friend while secretly hoping for a sale. Everybody wants something Bill thought to himself. Surely there was something Dirty Bird was looking for other than just another friendship if he truly was a millionaire. Pyramid Scheme maybe?
He scoured the mall with his eyes at the speed of a light tower hoping to find someone staring at him while on their cellphone.
The only eyes he felt on him came from the security camera up above him.
"Where uh...where did you want to meet up?"
"I'll tell ya what. Got a couple pennies on you?"
"Along with some kmart special lint....yes I suppose I have some pennies why?"
"I'd like to meet you over by the wishing fountain."