The Friend-Finder Ch. 01

ALL CHARACTERS ARE ADULTS

First episode of a new series.

Clinton State Prison put Alice Newell on the bus, with a hundred bucks, a cheap new outfit, a few referrals, and sent her to Bay City after the state parole board approved her release from imprisonment for drug trafficking. Sentenced to twenty years when she was thirty and a crack whore working the street, she did ten years of it and walked out with a GED diploma and a fat ass.

At 190 pounds Alice was too stout and solid to dominate but she had no objection to new unspoiled girls keeping her sane, plenty of them shared her cell until they were ready for the wider world of the general population. Many used the trip to the prison to apply their make-up for the best effect after their arrival. Those who didn't were usually too old, too ugly, or too damaged for cosmetics anyway. The matrons always sent Alice the tastiest morsels from the new chicks, and she acquired a taste for tender chicken after a gentle woman seduced her the dreary Christmas Eve her first year.

The bus was full of strange creatures dressed in strange costumes so she sat beside a guy who looked like a younger edition of Farmer Alfalfa. His clothes were clean, his body well groomed, and his teeth looked good. He looked like a tall Johnny Depp, if Depp was a farmer. He looked like he could be dangerous but wasn't in the mood.

She asked, "Do you mind if I sit here?" He shook his head and returned to reading.

She waited a while then asked, "Going to Bay City?" He turned his head to look at her corn blue eyes and mane of auburn curls.

"Yep," he replied and closed his book.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a pest," she said.

"I ain't complainin'," he replied. "My name is Elbert McElroy."

"Glad to meet you, my name is Alice Newell," she smiled.

"You just get outta the pen?" Elbert asked.

"How'd you know?" Alice felt suddenly exposed and embarrassed, like if she was caught peeing, by a stranger.

"We picked you up at Clinton, and you're dressed pretty much like all the girls dress when they come outta there," he said.

"I had no idea I was so obvious!" She replied.

"You're not, cept to those who know what they're seeing," he explained.

She saw his wedding ring. "You married?" She asked.

"No," he answered.

"Why do you wear a ring for?" Alice asked.

"The ring discourages the wrong sort of women from bothering me," Elbert replied.

"And who's the right sort of woman?" Alice was curious and a little annoyed.

Elbert lowered his book and looked at her, "Agnes," he said.

"Who's Agnes?" Alice wondered.

"My mother," he told her.

"You live with your mom?" Alice asked.

"Nope, Agnes stays up the road in MacClenny, at the state hospital," he said. "I take the bus up to see her when I can."

"I hate riding buses," Alice said.

"Me, too," Elbert replied.

"Why doncha get a car?" Alice said.

"I got a car," Elbert answered.

"Why doncha drive it, then?" She asked.

"Cause the bus is a great way to pick up women from the prison," he revealed.

"Have much luck?" Alice asked.

"It's like this, if a woman is on this bus it ain't likely she's got much waiting for her at Bay City, and the hundred bucks they give her lasts about one day. Plus you can get to know someone in the 3 hour ride to Bay City, that is, know if they creep you out," he explained. "I connect ever once in a while."

"They gimme a number to call, to a church shelter I can stay at," she let Elbert know she had options.

Elbert pulled a fresh pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and opened them. "Want one?" He offered.

Alice looked at Elbert, looked at the cigarettes, and took one, "Thanks."

"Ain't had one in a while, I bet," he said, and lit her smoke.

"Ain't had lotsa things in a while," she thought about it as she took a drag from the Marlboro and exhaled. "Thanks," she said.

At Bay City they left the bus and parted company. Sally found a pay phone and called the shelter whose number was out of service. Elbert walked down the street and got his car out of the parking garage. He saw Alice standing outside the bus station by the curb, she didn't recognize his Cadillac. She didn't know one Cadillac from another, but it looked expensive.

He stopped. "You gonna be okay?" He asked after lowering the window.

Alice walked across the street to the car. "The number is out of service."

"I figgered as much, can I take you anywhere?" He offered.

"Some place clean and cheap," she suggested.

"Get in," he said, and unlocked her door.

Elbert stopped 6 places, for her to check out, but all of them wanted more money than she had. After the last prospect failed Elbert said, "Look, it's getting late, so how's about we eat, and you can shower at my place, and bunk on the couch for the night?"

"I don't think so," she snarled.

"Then you can wait for me in the car, or you can head on down the highway after I park, or you can be gracious and join me for dinner, or you can...I don't give a shit," he laid out the menu for her.

"And later?" She asked.

"Same choices, dear; you won't get far on what you got tucked in your bra. A night on my sofa will save you fifty-sixty bucks," he reminded her as he pulled the Caddy off the highway to park in front of Nigga Jeff's Barbecue, a popular black restaurant. They waited though there was no crowd, and the food took forever to escape from the kitchen, but it tasted great and Jeff didn't back up to take Elbert's money.

"What's Jeff's problem with you?" Alice asked.

"I put a cap in his fat black ass when he chumped a friend of mine. So I went to his place and put a cap in him, in front of all his friends," Elbert said.

"What did he do?" She asked.

"Gave her syphilis," he replied.

"Wow!" She replied.

"Wow wasn't her response after her old man got it," he said. "She had jungle fever, and I arranged a date with Jeff. So what Jeffy did was piss in the punch bowl."

"So you operate a whore house? I thought you picked women up for you," Alice thought out loud.

"No, I'm what you'd call a friend finder," he said as he turned off the main drag to park behind an old brick building that looked like an old school. "C'mon," he said, and led her inside the building.

It looked like shit outside but was rehabbed and remodeled inside. He took her to his apartment on the ground floor. It was a classroom sixty years ago. Now it was partitioned into a bedroom with bath, and a large living room plus a kitchen. "Wait here," he said, and went into the bedroom, returning with a robe he tossed to her, and pillow, plus blankets he tossed atop the sofa.

"One blanket is enough," she protested.

"They're for me," he said. "You sleep in the bedroom."

"I can't do that!" She said.

"Well, it's your unlucky day, and you'll hafta put up with the abuse while you're here, so cheer up and put on a happy face. After you bathe toss your clothes in the washer, it's in the kitchen. You'll find my mom's girly stuff in the bathroom cabinet."

"Okay, I appreciate your hospitality, thank you!" Alice whispered, then went to the bedroom and sat on the bed after she closed and locked the door. She looked around. The window drapes were open, she closed them then went in the bathroom. The tub was an expensive cast-iron model on legs, probably made in the 1920s and restored. The walls were lined with mirrors. The vanity was made from solid wood, was topped with marble, and lined the walls beneath the glass. She turned the water on in the tub, then went to the bedroom to look in mom's cabinet for goodies. The cabinet was filled with all the girly stuff plus several risqué nighties and sex toys.

CONTINUED NEXT EPISODE