This is a creative writing experiment, shamelessly stolen from the Chopin Manuscript: a serialized story where each author writes a different chapter. The members of this blog are each writing their own chapter, and we’re calling ours the “Cakepan Manuscript”.
You can start reading at Chapter One, which began with the premise: “An unemployed teacher, in a wine store, runs into a former student.” Each week we will post a new chapter until we reach the thrilling conclusion!
We hope you enjoy!
Chapter Five: Move It Or Lose It
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Ashlee knew better than to keep Victor Tomasso waiting so she quickly hit the answer button, all of her internal chaos becoming laser focused as she meekly said “Hello?”.
“Ash, it’s me Zach,” he said, sounding more than a little out of breath.
“What the hell are you doing with Victor’s phone. You scared the shit outta me!” she yelled, her laser focus now lost, the chaos returning with a vengeance.
“There’s no time for questions, baby. Keep that car runnin’ hot and I’ll be right out.”
“You better be, you’re about to say hello to about a half dozen of Benny Nyguen’s little friends, dumbass.”
Over the phone, she heard a loud crash and realized that Benny and his cohorts must have gone around the back. Sure enough, Zach came barrelling out the front door, dragging some guy with him. Zach pushed the guy toward the car, and just a few steps behind them came the Vietnamese mob causing Ashlee to begin cursing with renewed fervor, “What the fuck are you doing? let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.”
As they drew closer, she realized that “some guy” was that wacko art teacher from school, Dickhead Somethingorother. He had a big wet spot on his pants and apparently he didn’t realize that Zach’s gun wasn’t loaded since he was doing what he was told, which, at the moment was to get in the car and shut the hell up. Dietrich was roughly pushed into the backseat and the door slammed behind him. Zach wasn’t so lucky. Before he could get in the front seat, Benny and the rest of his boys caught up with him, a baseball bat to the back of a knee sending him straight to the sidewalk.
He screamed out, “Ash, get outta here,” as he went down. She punched the gas, tires squealing, and in the rearview mirror she saw familiar red and blue lights as two squad cars pulled up. The imminent gang beating appeared to draw their attention and she was able to slip away, despite her erratic driving.
She forgot all about Dietrich until he sat up in the backseat, causing her to swerve, almost hitting a fire hydrant. “Hey, Miss, can you just let me out right here? Pretty sure you don’t want to add kidnapping to the litany of charges you and Zach are facing at this point.”
“Wait, you recognized Zach?”
“Yeah, had him in my art class a while back… when I still had an art class that is. My apartment is near here, I can just walk, really I don’t want any more trouble.”
Numbed by the morning’s events, she acquiesced, dropping him at the next corner and speeding off. Dietrich quickly fished his keys from his pocket and made his way to his apartment. He needed a change of clothes and he still needed to find the right bottle of wine before Kelly showed up. While cleaning himself up and considering himself lucky to have only a few scratches and bruises, there came an insistent knock at the door.
About Tim Giron
Well done, Tim. I love the way you had Zach using Tomasso’s phone. Now I’ll have to wait a whole week to see who’s at the door.
Glad you liked it, Anne. It was fun watching things unfold as the four before me took their turns.
Tim – I love where you’ve taken the story. Putting Ashlee and Dietrich together and leaving Zach with the gang was an unexpected plot turn.
When we are all done, it will be interesting to hear from each writer to see where they *thought* it might go after they handed it off.