After she left the cafe she walked through the city's backstreets

Finally she came across a road scattered with homeless people

She walked by sizing them all up

Most of them had track marks and looked as if they were either dying or on the craziest psychotic break of their lives

After several minutes she sees a tall thin black man walking towards her down the road

He looks normal enough

He's walking a straight line

As she gets closer she can see he has clear eyes and appears to be sober

Hey man

Can you tell me where I can take a shit round here

The man smiles

Ahh is the bathroom broken again at the corner store?

That bastard ammahd started locking up the bathrooms and forcing a purchase before use last week at the shelf

Stupid fuckin name if you ask me

He raises his eyebrow at her

You're not from around here are you

She smirks

That obvious?

Nah man I'm just passing through

I left Cali about 6 months ago and I finally made it here

I don't stay in one place too long

He chuckled

That's good

Keep moving

Society is going to shun you either way

It's best not to give them a chance to get too close

Ya know

Just keep moving forward and don't get attached

She nodded

Exactly

C'mon I'll show you where you can go

He motioned for her to turn around

She looked at him

How'd you end up out here anyway man

He throws his head back

HA

It's a funny story

About four years ago maybe five

It's hard to keep track of time out here

I was working this desk job

I sat at a computer all day running numbers

I kept track of all the finances for my company

There wasn't one smug prick that could claim a mojito as a business expense without me knowing

Every penny

Every deal

Was my business

Then one day I find a link to an account

This client of ours was sending money to a suspicious account before sending money to my employers

It wasn't too weird

It was more of a gut feeling

So I dig a little and come to find out that account was receiving payments and making them to the employers and clients

It was part of a money laundering process

Since I'm the man in charge of finances I needed to know what to tell the IRS

I wasn't going to betray my company

But I suppose when I started asking questions they didn't know that

I couldn't believe I missed it

I suppose I wasn't supposed to find out

I started getting followed by men in black SUVs

Things started getting weird

One day my boss says that they're downsizing and splitting the company up

I'm getting cut

I go to my desk and start downloading all the files to a USB stick

I take pictures of all the paperwork that I thought was important

A man came to escort me out and caught me taking pictures

He broke my phone and grabbed me and drug me out to the street

Another man went into my office and I could hear him smashing my computer

By time I got to the parking lot I see my car was smashed

So I took the bus home

I get home and my wife of 15 years is packing her things and starts punching me

I tried to calm her down but she just throws a stack of pictures at me and leaves

They were pictures of my meetings with female clients at resorts and restaurants

I keep going through them

Then there's pictures of a man that looks like me with these same women at the same locations wearing the same clothes and they're kissing

Then there's pictures inside of hotel rooms with theses clients having sex with this man that looks like me

There's no clear shot of his face but it's convincing

I had to question myself for a moment

I thought I was crazy

My entire life came crashing down in one day

It wasn't until a week later when my ex employers had sold my house from under me and had police escort me out

I didn't even know they owned the house

At that time I didn't know they owned the bank where I got a loan for my car and a mortgage on my house

They falsified eviction papers

And by time I put it together I realized that all those meetings over the past couple years were all part of the set up

I lost my wife car my home my job my life

But I had the USB stick

I tried to sell it to a competitor to ruin the company

Needless to say it backfired

He paused

Oh I'm sorry

I'm just going on and on

Well long story short

I can't get a job

I can't get a loan

People wouldn't even lend me a stick of gum now

My entire reputation is ruined

It's like life put me on a blacklist

She looked so sorry for him

C'mon let's get you some clothes

What?

Yeah

I'm going to dress you up

Then we're going to get a hotel room

And I'm going to help you

He chuckles

Is this a trick?

No.

Well how do you expect this to work?

I'll explain later.

Right now we're going to change your appearance

Then we're going to the hotel off of 17th Street

You're going to take the cash I give you and get a room for a week.

I'll just be using it for one night with you

Your new name is Thomas Jones

They won't need an ID if you pay them extra

Try to avoid looking directly at cameras

I'll find you a job out of state

He looks skeptical

You'd do all that for ME

without hesitation

Yes

He raises his eyebrow

She says

We're all just trying to get by

He laughs

How do you know I won't rob you

She looks dead serious

You won't

He says

Ok

So

What exactly do you need me to do?

She smiles