Monsters - Chapter 10 – Mexican Hat Dance – Part 1 of 2

Monsters

By Karen Singer

Chapter 10 – Mexican Hat Dance – Part 1 of 2

The difficulty factor of carrying around three large bags of adult diapers was enormous.  Especially dressed the way he was.  The part that worried him, was that she had made him buy diapers in each of the adult baby stores he had gone into.  Until this trip, it had been months now since she had made him wear diapers.  But he knew from experience that she sometimes went through phases of making him do one thing for a while, then changing it up just when he was starting to get used to it.  He prayed this wasn’t going to be one of those phases.  He hated wearing and having to use the diapers like an infant.  He hated even more the stupid silly little girl outfits she made him wear with them.

Ralphie got out of the cab at the hotel.  He allowed himself to have his picture taken with another middle-aged woman…why was it always the middle-aged ones that made such a fuss over him…and headed inside.  He rode up on the elevator with a lot of other people, people who he guessed ranged from being disturbed by him to people who were amused.  He just prayed that none of them could smell his wet diaper.  He also prayed that Miss Brandy would let him change it – soon!

Once off the elevator, he had to go all the way to the far end of the hallway to get to the room.  He pulled his room key out of his small purse to get into the room…and his cellphone rang – Brandy’s ring!  He dared not answer it quickly.  “Hello Miss Brandy?”

“Ralphie!” Brandy’s voice returned.  “Where are you?”

“I just now got back to the room,” he replied.

“Good!  How was your shopping trip?”

“Not fun!”

“Very good!  Have you eaten yet?”

“No, Miss Brandy.  I was just going to order…”

“Forget your plans.  There’s a Chinese restaurant I want you to go to.  I’ll text you the address.  When you get there, order lunch, you’re probably going to have a bit of a wait since they said it would take a few hours.”

“A few hours, for lunch?”

“No, for something else.  We just ate there.  They’re expecting you.  Don’t you dare leave before they give you something we asked for.”

“What am I supposed to do if it takes so long?”

“Eat.  Drink.  I don’t care.  Just don’t leave without it.  Then go it straight back to the room.  You can change your diaper when you get back.  We’ll see you there later.”

“Miss Brandy.  Can I please change this diaper first, before I go?  It’s very wet.”

“No!  Now get to it!  We’ll see you later.”

Another errand for Miss Brandy.  The last thing he needed just then, especially dressed the way he was.  He was particularly distressed because he couldn’t change his wet diaper.  He went into the room and dropped the bags of diapers on his bed, then went straight back out again to find a taxi.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

The taxi let them out in front of a Mexican restaurant on the outskirts of town.  Brandy again lowered her mask before they headed inside.

“Nobody waiting outside with guns,” Carol noted.

“Not yet.  I have no doubt someone inside will have a gun handy though.”

“No doubt,” Carol muttered.

They opened the door.  The receptionist took one look at them, especially the mask Brandy was wearing and gasped.  A man quickly intervened before she could say or do anything and told her in Spanish that the two women were expected.  He faced Carol and Brandy.  “Are you the two that Morrow told us about?”

“That’s us?  Isn’t Morrow here?” Brandy asked.

“He called a few minutes ago to say he couldn’t make it, but he asks that you phone him later to let him know how your discussion went.”

“We’ll consider it,” Brandy told him.

“This way then,” the man replied.

“You know,” Brandy said as they were led toward the back of the restaurant, if we had known he would want to meet us in a restaurant, we could have had lunch here.”

“Yeah.  We didn’t know.  But having Chinese again gave me a chance to ask for my gear to be sent up and to get them to compile an updated report.”

“True.”

They were led to a large table at the back of the restaurant where several men were sitting around it.  “Miguel Lozano?” Brandy asked, looking around the table. 

“That is me,” an elderly man replied.  His Spanish accent was unmistakable.  “And you must be the two that Morrow said was coming over.”

“That’s us,” Carol told him.

“Why the mask?” he asked Brandy.

“It’s easier for me if fewer people know what I look like.”

“Like…superman,” Lozano replied with a chuckle.

“Superman doesn’t wear a mask,” Brandy corrected him.

“I keep telling her she looks like Batgirl,” Carol told him.

Lozano and a few of the others laughed.  “No matter,” Lozano replied.  “Mr. Morrow seems to think that you can help us.  Personally, I don’t see it.”

“Do you need help?” Brandy asked.  “Do you want help?  According to what we’ve learned, you’ve lost more men in the last month than anyone else.  And that’s on top of the fact that your organization is smaller than any of the others.  Someone is trying to wipe you out of this city first because you’re the smallest.  So I’ll ask again, do you want our help?”

Lozano looked angry.  “Where do you get your information?”

“Here and there,” Carol replied.

“We’re just trying to ask questions about how the killings happened, that’s all,” Brandy told him.  “If you don’t like it, just say so and we’ll leave.”

“Just ask questions about it?” Lozano said.  “What are you, the police?”

“Huh!” Brandy grunted.  “The furthest thing from it, believe me.”

Miguel stared at her for a moment.  “I have heard a few things about both of you…through the grapevine.  I’ve heard that you both are very accomplished assassins.  He nodded toward Carol.  The things I’ve heard about you, are nothing but fantasies.  I wouldn’t believe them if you rested your hand on my mother’s sacred bible and swore they were true.”  He looked over at Brandy.  “Some of what I’ve heard about you though, I know to be true.”  He grunted a laugh.  Branding Romo’s men with Besinski’s brand was one of the best things I’ve heard in years.”

“Yeah,” Carol replied.  “Omar got a big laugh out of it too.”

“I’m sure he did.  But that doesn’t mean I need either of you poking your noses into my business.”

Brandy shrugged.  “No problem.  We’ll leave.  And when they send their hired mercenary troops around to wipe out all the rest of you, we’ll have one less organization in town to worry about.  Ready Dee?”

“Ready Ret,” Carol replied.  The two of them turned and walked out.

“Where the hell are we going to find a taxi out here?” Brandy complained.

“We really need those bikes,” Carol replied.

“Yeah.  For sure.  It was a good idea.”

The two of them started walking towards town.

“That got us a lot of nowhere,” Carol said, referring to the meeting with Lozano.

“You got any better ideas?” Brandy asked.

“Nope.  Going to them sounded like a good idea to me too.  They’ve lost the most men.  But I’m guessing that old Miguel in there is another one of those stupid proud Mexicans who doesn’t like women telling him what to do.”

“I hate that kind,” Brandy replied.  “I’d like to just take them all and rip their balls right off.  Then fix them so they’re stuck in cheap dresses and doing nothing but menial women’s work for the rest of their stupid lives.  Let him live the life of some of those women and see how he thinks then.”

“You know, I can arrange exactly that,” Carols told her.

“Huh!  If only that were true!”

“It is.  Trust me.  That’s what my mother does.”

“Your mother?  What do you mean?”

“Have you ever heard of Janice Stokley?”

“No.  Who’s that?”

“She’s one of the most wanted women in the world.”

“Right after you, I’m guessing.”

“No.  I probably fall after her.”

“Wow.  She must be good.  I’ve seen what you can do.  And quite frankly, you scare me to death.”

“Thanks.  I feel the same way about you.”

Brandy stopped them and looked into her eyes.  “There’s lots of things we seem to feel the same way about each other.”

“Yeah.  Weird.”

“But nice too.”

“For sure.”

“So, who’s Janice Stokley?” Brandy asked as they started walking again.

“My mother.”

“Your mother?  After watching you just a little, I’d love to see her in action.  She taught you well.”

“She taught me a lot, but none of what you’ve seen comes from her.  What she does is totally different.”

“Different?”

“Brandy, I consider myself to be a monster.  I actually get a kick out of thinking of myself that way.  But my mother is the most…incredible monster of all.  She’s a mind control expert, and when she starts on you, she can gain so much control over your entire brain that you have no choice but to do whatever she wants for the rest of your life.  And with the way she works, there’s no way for anyone to fight against it.  None!  Others have tried to copy her method, but nobody yet has been able to manage it.  It’s absolutely uncanny what she does.  Almost like magic.  Like she’s got this brain control superpower.”

“Huh!” Brandy grunted.  “Between you and me…and I guess this mask, and now what your mother does, maybe Morrow as right, we do sound like a comic book.”

“Trust me.  I know it’s hard to believe.  You’ve really got to see it to understand it.  But it’s true.  Believe me.”

“I still want to meet her.”

“I still want you to meet her too.”

“Ladies!” a man’s voice called from behind them. 

They turned and saw one of the men from the restaurant hurrying towards them.

“Mr. Lozano would like to talk with you again.”

Carol shook her head.  “He waited long enough to decide that.  We’d be gone if we could have found a cab.”

“Or if we had better transportation,” Brandy agreed.  “Let’s go.  We came to talk to him.  Let’s see if this time we can make some progress.”