Chapter 8
Sherry
Charlie was acting weird when I asked him for a ride to the city. I had a feeling that he was hiding something and I knew that I was going to find out what it was. He never had been able to keep much from me, even when he tried really hard to. Charlie wasn’t a good liar and I knew something was up with the way he was acting. Mom worried about him getting into drugs or something like that, but I knew better. Charlie never had liked drugs when we were younger and he almost lost his lid when he caught me smoking pot at 16. He just got so mad that I knew it wasn’t drugs. I am not sure what it is that has him acting this way, but it has to be good.
I rode up to Chicago with them and I was put in the back seat. It was not too bad because I was still tired and I wanted to take a nap on the way, but it was hard to when the two guys in the front seat kept talking. Candy, the girl they had picked up on the way was nice enough, but she didn’t seem to be the kind of girl that either one of them should be hanging out with. She kept trying to talk to me and it was quick to realize that we had absolutely nothing in common.
She asked about a job that they had given her and I had to wonder what kind of job she was doing for them. She really didn’t look like the type of woman to be in any respectable business, but I knew better than to judge. I did notice that she was really hands on with Rex and I can’t say that I liked it all that much. He wasn’t mine and I didn’t think about him in that way, but I knew Rex for a long time and I couldn’t help thinking that he could do better. Candy was pretty, but she wasn’t very smart.
“So Candy, what do you do for a living?”
She smiled at me, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. It looked like she was posing for a magazine or something and I met my brother’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“She is going to be a hostess for us.”
“Oh, I see. So what kind of place do you need a hostess for? Maybe you could give me a job bro? Help a sister out. It is not what I am looking for, but I need to get make some money.”
“No! Absolutely not!”
The answer was boomed from the front seat and I had to wonder what made him react like that. Candy seemed upset that he had yelled and she was bothered by my brother’s shortness. She put her manicured hand on my knee. “Don’t worry about it Sherry. I am sure there are plenty of jobs in Chicago for you. You don’t seem like the type anyways.”
My brother turned the music up so loud that I wasn’t able to ask her what that meant. Charlie was definitely keeping something from me and I was going to find out what it was.
***
As soon as we got into town, we went to drop Candy off at an apartment building. There looked to be four apartments in the place and Charlie walked in like he was the landlord. There were a couple more women that reminded me of Candy that came to the door, but I waited in the car. I wasn’t to know their business and even though I was dying to know, I figured I would find out another time. The place kind of gave me the creeps a little bit.
“What is my brother doing in there?”
Rex just shrugged his shoulders and looked towards the door my brother had gone into.
“He is just checking on some things, that’s all.”
“What are you two hiding from me?”
Rex didn’t answer and finally he turned around and had a very serious look on his face. “Your brother wants to keep you out of it for a reason. You should have a little more faith in him. He just wants you to be okay Sherry and not get roped into anything.”
“It’s drugs, isn’t it?” It was the last thing that made sense to me. It was the last thing in a line of reasons that I had ruled out. It had to be for something. He wouldn’t act this way for nothing. I had to know what it was that made them both act this way and be so secretive.
Rex smiled and then shook his head. “No, it isn’t drugs. We are smarter than that.”
“Well is it something illegal?”
Again he shook his head that it wasn’t, but he wasn’t offering anything up, either. There was a long silence in between us while I waited for Charlie to come back out. I was going to figure it out whether they told me something or not. I always got what I wanted and at the moment I wanted to know what in the world was going on.
I was mum the rest of the way back to their place and like before, I couldn’t find anything suspicious. I finally lay down on the guest bed that they had downstairs and tried not to worry too much about it. All would reveal itself in time.
“Sherry?”
I heard my name and jumped when Rex materialized at the door.
“Yeah?”
“We have to go out for a little while. Just stay around here, order some pizza, whatever you like. We will be back in a little bit.”
It was midnight, but it seemed to be a normal occurrence. I wasn’t going to ask him what they were doing out this late at night. I wasn’t supposed to know and at the moment I was too tired to care. Whatever it was, I was going to figure it all out tomorrow when I had a little more sleep under my belt.
“You guys have a good night. I think I am just going to get some sleep. The drive up here is long.”
He smiled at me and shut the door. One minute he was looking at me as if he wanted me for dinner, yet the very next he was looking at me like a younger sister. I preferred the previous to the latter. I wanted him to see me as more than my brother’s sister. I wanted him to see me as the woman that had yearned for him for years.
But it seemed that he was as oblivious as he ever was before.