19290115 21:20:43

19290115 21:20:43

FQ-S-4344

"Hi. Tell your friend that we're here to collect."
"Uh, sure, hold on."
Pulaski nodded politely and stepped back from the door to wait. Kedzie remained at his right and continued to stare into the corner of the house where the doorway met the protruding bay window, and stood at an angle to help keep himself concealed to the visibilty from the sidewalk out in front. The effort wasn't particularly necessary, as it was dark and cold, with nobody walking near and only a few cars infrequently driving past. They both heard a multitude of hurried footsteps rumble from within the house while they waited.
"Hm. Think that's a welcoming party for us?" Pulaski asked this with a hint of amusement.
"Would they be that stupid? They made no attempt to keep quiet."
"Eh, I wouldn't put it past these guys."
"Maybe it's different now that there's two of us here."
Pulaski silently nodded in agreement, then resumed studying the outside porch in boredom while they awaited a response. There were visible flakes of white paint that were peeled away from the window frames and were ready to fall off with the touch of a finger. The flag hostler that was hammered in at the side of the doorway shown an accumulation of rust around the nails which held it in place. A spider sat in the center of a web which was strung between the outer wall and the light fixture which hung over the side of the door. After a few minutes, the door finally cracked open again with the same person at the other end who had addressed them earlier.
"Uh he say that he only got twenty now, and that if you want it all you should come back after this Friday. Othawise I got the twenty for you."
Kedzie grinned after hearing this. Now he understood.
"OK, pal, look. That ain't a good answer. Now, we're comin in, whether you let us or not, so can we be gentlemen about this?" Pulaski let his right hand fall to his side and hover over the scabbard as he waited for an answer.
"Uh OK, all right."
The man walked away and went up one stair on the stairway immediately to the entrance's right to allow them in. The smell of growing marijuana plants struck them immediately as they entered the house, which caused Kedzie to cough with surprise a few times. Pulaski looked to his left and saw an undecorated and unfurnished room set a stark contrast to the kitchen table in the center of it, upon which a large pile of green leaves rested at one end and several white rolled joints sat next to it. He then proceeded to the kitchen, still having his hand hover over his right side.
"Greg!" Albert greeted him from the kitchen with a tone of congeniality. He remained seated at a table where a steaming pot of coffee sat upon a trivet, as well as a few beer bottles. Albert had one of them opened and next to him. "You didn't have to come in, didn't my friend tell you? You could have just taken that twenty now and come back later."
"Al, this is three weeks that you haven't paid full. I can see that you're still doing fine out there, so quit shitting me. You're already juiced out. I'm not being unreasonable, here."
Albert tapped his beer bottle upon the surface of the table three times, with enough force to make the tone echo beyond the small kitchen walls. Immediately after that, Kedzie heard the sound of carefully treaded footsteps approach from behind them both. He grinned again. They really were that stupid.
"Naw, see, I don't think you are so much, but I don't think you listenin to me. So if this is all you gonna do, you can just get the fuck outta my house and come back when you ready."
"And what if we don't?" Pulaski asked this without yet hearing the people approaching from behind.
Kedzie immediately kicked a leg backward and felt it make contact with a body behind him. He then turned around and swung a fist behind Pulaski's head and struck the man who was approaching behind him. The strike caused Pulaski to spin around, which gave Albert the opportunity to quickly stand up and grab the pot of coffee on the table and thrust the contents of it forward to land upon Pulaski's back and neck. Kedzie kept his focus on the two men and curled a hand around the necks of each of them and forcefully smashed their faces into each other. One man let something drop to the ground after the third strike, and another let something go after the fifth. Pulaski growled in pain and turned in time to see a beer bottle thrown at him by Albert, which glanced off of his torso and landed on the floor without breaking. Pulaski snapped his sword into action and grasped it with both hands, and held it at the ready to attack Albert. Before he could step forward to do so, though, Kedzie let one of the two men in his hands drop to the ground and used both hands to grapple the other man, then threw his body into the air past Pulaski and watched him land on the kitchen floor, then slide into the kitchen table and knock it over before it collided into Albert's legs. Kedzie deftly knelt down to pick up the fallen beer bottle while closing in on Albert, then smashed the glass bottle onto his forehead. Before the shards of glass hit the ground, Kezdie wrapped his hands around Albert's face and thrust it forward while raising his knee into the air. He kept his grasp of Albert's face while walking behind him before smashing his brow into the edge of the kitchen counter.
Albert was released and dropped limply to the ground. Kedzie reached into his pants pocket and found a wallet with more than ten twenty dollar bills inside. Kedzie took five of them and casually threw the wallet back to the ground.