Jake sat on the swing with thoughts swirling in his mind. The swing was swaying back and forth as Jake relaxed. His posture and thoughts softened with each swing. He thought of his next step which was to find Andy. A plan had formed in his mind which was pretty much the same as before. Before he could complete his thoughts and start searching for Andy his chain of thoughts was broken by a loud cackle followed by more loud laughing.
A group of men entered the playground shouting and laughing loudly. The group found it hard to walk in a straight line. All of them had bottles wrapped in brown paper bags in their hands. Taking a swig from them here and there. This rowdy group of men was talking and laughing with each other until they noticed Jake.
They were tipsy on their feet as they started to approach Jake. The leader of the group at the forefront was a lot drunker as he was being helped by two others. The leader stepped out of the group and asked Jake.
"Well well, who do we have here? What are you doing here at this time of the night?" He burped. "All alone at this time of night? Who are you supposed to be mister?"
The boss talked to Jake and asked him a question but he was ignored. He was not really in the mood to entertain a bunch of drunks who were clearly trying to harass him. He had just resolved himself to not give up and to find his family. He was not about to let them sour his mood so he ignored the question. Hoping they would go away in a moment or two.
"You see we are part of the night watch around this neighborhood. This means that this whole area falls under our jurisdiction. We are always on the lookout for dubious people that might harm the residents of this area. As we were looking for suspicious people around here we saw you." The boss observed Jake from head to toe. "Something tells me that you are really suspicious and need to be checked out."
The men who were standing behind the leader started sniggering when they heard their boss speak. They were obviously not part of the night watch and were only messing with him. Jake was annoyed by their drunken rant and just wanted to be left alone. So with a cheery smile on his face, he replied to them.
"Is that so? Night Watch huh? Well, you guys are performing an important duty that is the cornerstone of this community and I thank you for your service. As for the other thing no, I am not someone suspicious. In fact, I live around here in the area and I came out here for some fresh air. You can continue your patrol and look for other suspicious people. You guys seem quite busy so I will not hold you here. Thank you and take care." He waved at them as if he wanted them to leave.
There was no need for this situation to escalate any further. They were drunk and were trying to mess with him, which is why Jake tried his best to be courteous and reply in a manner that they would just walk away and ignore him. As these situations usually go and especially for Jake he knew this was going to escalate one way or another.
"You live here? Where do you live? I have never seen you before in this neighborhood and you are not suspicious? You, a grown man, are sitting alone in a children's playground in the middle of the night. If you are not suspicious then who is? Me? Is a public servant wandering through the night to protect the innocent of this neighborhood? (hehe) What do you say boys is he suspicious or not?"
"Yes, he is."
"Yes"
"Of course, he is."
"SUSPICIOUS!"
"Hey, boss! ask him to pay the suspicious fine to prove his innocence if he really is not suspicious. That is the only way to prove his innocence."
"Suspicious fine? When did we get that?"
"You know boss," The lackey winks at his boss, "the suspicious fine. Remember?"
"Oh yes, the suspicious fine. I just remembered it now. You see to prove that you are not suspicious you have to pay the suspicious fine which is every bit of money you have on yourself right now. You heard him, now you gotta pay the fine if you want to prove your innocence or leave in one piece at least."
Jake had enough of this nonsense. He tried not to create a scene and was civil with them but as he had predicted before the situation escalated. He was trying really hard to remember where Andy's house was and these fruit flies were buzzing in his ears nonstop.
"I am really not in the mood for this right now and especially not today. I will not hold it against you because you are drunk right now but that is the only leeway I can give. So fuck off alright, before I make you."
These flies had buzzed in his ears long enough and now it was time to swat them down.
"Did you just tell me to fuck off? He did tell me to fuck off right? Didn't he boys?"
"He sure did boss. We all heard him loud and clear."
"You hear these men? You said fuck off so now you have to pay the fuck off fine, I hope you are ready for this fine. The fuck off fine entails this."
He took a few steps closer to him and tried to slap him as he demanded the fuck off fine. When he wound his hand back to slap Jake his hand got stuck in a place like someone was holding on to it. He thought that one of his boys was messing with him and held his hand back. He tried to tell them off.
"Oye quit playing around and let me go. You just said he should pay the fine and now when I am trying to collect this fine you are stopping me? Let me go you rascals."
"What are you playing at boss we have done no such thing. Just hit him already or are you too drunk to do it? Should I do it for you boss? Looks like boss drank too much and fell asleep in the middle haha."
The others giggled and laughed at the boss while Jake simply sat in his place. The boss got a little confused when he looked back and saw that no one was really holding onto him and only his hand was stuck in place for some reason. He looked around for a moment, perplexed, not sure what was happening until he looked forward toward Jake. When his eyes met Jake's a sudden jolt went through his body and he sobered up in an instant.
"You..!?"
He was about to speak up and shout at Jake when his whole body went completely stiff. He tried to but he could not move even a single muscle in his body. That was when a sudden realization hits him that the one responsible for doing this to him is Jake, the man they were trying to extort.
'It's him! It's this mother fucker that got me stuck. Get him, everyone. Kill this bastard.'
He tried to speak up and call for his goons to help him but he could not do it. No matter how much he tried to call out to them but he could not make a single syllable worth of sound. All the goons could hear were a few grumbling noises.
Jake finally had enough of them when he realized that he could not resolve this situation peacefully anymore. He then stood up and slowly walked towards the statue, which was the boss. The stiff-man standing in his place was sweating bullets not knowing what was about to happen to him. Jake looked the man up and down and then cast a glance toward the group.
"What kind of a guard are you if you cannot even properly collect a fine from someone? What are you going to do if a bad man shows up and you can't do a thing? Now I am not necessarily a bad man but still, you should know how to collect fines properly right? Here let me show you how to do it so the next time when you have to do it you are able to do it properly and keep, our streets clean, and people protected."
"What is this shithead on about? Well, the boss is not saying anything so let's just humor this douchebag." The group did nothing when Jake started talking all of a sudden and started listening to him.
"Now to collect a fine from somebody you have to know what the fine is. This fine for example entails a slap, right? Let me show you how to slap someone. To slap someone first you wind your arm back and make some distance between your hand and the cheek you are about to hit. Now the distance can be vertical or horizontal cause everyone has their own style of slapping the shit out of someone. The vertical or horizontal stance depends on the people. It is different for different people as they prefer whichever motion it is that suits them. For me personally, it has to be vertical. I have tried the horizontal style as well but vertical feels more natural to me.
Our hand is already wound back vertically and the next step is applying force to it. You apply force on your arm and bring it down on their face. One important thing to remember here is not to be tense in the shoulder or you will not be able to generate a good amount of force. Keep your shoulder and hand loose because it is a fluid motion, like a whip. As your hand rips out through the air maintain your aim and make sure that you stick the landing otherwise it is embarrassing for both of you."
Just as Jake finished explaining to them how to slap the shit out of someone he gave them a very practical lesson by slapping the boss in front of him. As Jake's hand touched the face of the boss and loud noise escaped from his hand the boss dived to the ground as if his life depended on it.
A loud noise reverberated throughout the empty playground breaking through their chatter and noise. Their ears perked up as they saw their boss lying in front of Jake's feet. They waited for a moment to see if their boss was doing it for some fun again but he lay there flat-out cold. There was not even a twitch of muscle let alone any movement in his body.
"Boss? Yo Boss! get up and stop playing around. What the fuck did you do? What did you do to him? You son of a bitch come here."
The second in command living up to his rank and loyalty runs up to Jake to avenge his boss. He reaches his boss's cold body and attacks Jake only to get jammed up like his boss and stare at Jake in fear.
"Hey bro what are you doing? Stop standing there like a duck and hit him. Finish him, man."
Although the goons in their passion were trying to encourage the second in command to take action unbeknownst to them the second in command was trying his best to hit him but he was stuck. He was simply standing in front of Jake presenting his cheeks on a silver platter for Jake to enjoy.
Jake then repeated the same motion and presented them with another practical lesson and slapped him. Like before the second in command fell on top of the boss and passed out.
"You son of a bitch!"
"Shh! Stop shouting like that. Can you not see that they are sleeping? You will wake them up."