Hello, Old Friends

He just wanted donuts.

Melvin Scattergood worked as a Dental Hygienist. He made really good money. He could never get over what good money Dental Hygienists make. Mr. Scattergood had a past, though, and he had some bad habits from his past, habits that included donuts.

His donut shop was large and very white and sterile looking. Sort of like a hospital reception area except without the fake plants or the magazines. It had tables, too, a lot of space for tables and chairs. Instead of a glassed in reception window, it had a glassed in case of donuts. Dentists, generally, proscribe donuts, but Melvin has been known to indulge.

His past also included armed robbery, occassionally, paid assault & battery. He’d left all that behind years ago, including the little gang of chuckleheads he’d done the work with. Now he lived in the wimpiest suburb that a man over 6 feet has ever taken a leak in. It was how he wanted it. He was still a single man but at least he wasn’t in jail. He had no clue what happened to the guys he used to run with.

Well, until that morning. They still ran together, and apparently one of their stops was the donut shop. They all got up when he walked in and smiled and waved like their favorite POW uncle had surprised them at the county line. They all had coffee and long johns or whatnot in front of them. They all looked happy.

He felt like he had to go talk to them as they all had guns on under their Brooks Brothers windbreakers. He still knew how to spot the things.

He waved and walked over to them. They all started to chat. He tried not to ask whether or not they were still in the game but they still told him. He got the impression they didn’t do thug work anymore. Lighter stuff. Numbers, maybe or laundering. Low level. Smart Sammy, he betted, probably fenced a thing or two. It would be just like him.

God, Melvin thought, I don’t want to even be able to make guesses about this shit. I’m clean now.

Another of the guys, skinny Joseph, the one who had done the hotwiring for them, had a question for Melvin. Joseph looked so old. They all were the same age but Joseph looked like he’d done three consecutive life terms, you know? Then came out for a last donut. “Man, you disappeared on us. Just disappeared. Remember that last one?”

They must have thought it was funny or something, to bring it up. He noticed everyone smiling as if it had been a good baseball game. For that last one they had to beat the living shit out of a man and his two linebacker sized sons. They’d been told that it would only be the man but then his sons came out in the barber shop’s alley too and they started acting like linebackers. Melvin remembered pistolwhipping the redhead, the one he took to be the youngest, maybe 17, hitting him with the butt of his Browning about 6 times while Ugly Mike held the kid down. He remembered the look in the kid’s eyes like he wasn’t going to pass out no matter what. Melvin nodded at the question. He let them know, at least, that he remembered.

Ugly Mike had always led the group, and he just chuckled and nodded when he saw Melvin wasn’t going to say anything. “Having you here, huh, Mel? Just like old times, huh?” Melvin nodded some more. He smiled weakly.

Joseph asked him, “What are you up to now, Mel?”

“I’m a Dental Hygenist,” he said, he sighed slowly. He took a long breath and stopped looking anyone in the eyes. “That’s all. Work for a guy downtown. I clean teeth. Donuts, you know… donuts are as bad as I get.”