ANCHORS AWEIGH - CHAPTER THREE

THE CROWD LIKED TO SEE ME LOOSE !

 

Cheri took very good care of me; and gave me some herbal compounds in a tea which tasted awful. The day before the next fight I was feeling much better thanks to Cheri.

I finally got to feeling good enough to ask her what happened at the bar and why I missed my ship. She mostly just looked at me without answering directly but said she would tell me later if I was still interested.

When I asked where my money went and all my papers for I needed them if I ever expected to get out of this country.  Out of the blue she said, “Haliim has them and if you ever expect to get them back you must obey him.”

I had to ask if she was in the same situation and she just nodded yes.

I asked did she know where he kept the papers and she nodded yes again.  Not wanting to get her into trouble I stopped right there.

You never know when someone will overhear your conversation and I figured that was the reason she only nodded her head.

The day of the next fight she had me exercise some for I was stiff from all the lying around.  At time for the fight the same three thugs came and got me and walked me to the arena.

With all of the shouting and booing I felt small in the ring.  To my surprise the opponent was a man about my size. He looked hard and wiry and I suspected he was a winning opponent.  I didn’t expect them to put anyone in the ring that I would have a chance with.

Fifteen minutes later I was beat up almost as bad as the monster man had done. One difference was I protected my rib cage and didn’t let the punches and kicks get to them.

The three thugs once again carried me home and Cheri had a warm bath waiting for me.  She gently massaged the places that weren’t too sore to touch and I was soon ready for bed.

The next day I got up around noon and told Cheri I did better last night.

Then I asked her if she thought I would ever win a match and she said, “No, not ever.”

I asked why and she said, “You may not know it but all of the men you will fight are professionals and they could kill you. They have instructions not to hurt you too bad so you can fight every week. The crowd likes to see you, a white man get whipped.”

I said, “I think some people bet on me.”

She said, “They bet on things like whether you will lose a tooth, or get a broken nose and things like that. They know you are going to lose.”

I said, “Wow that is depressing.”

I continued to get more information about Haliim and where his money and my papers were.

She described the grounds and the guard station. Then I asked where the three thugs stayed and she said, “Usually with Haliim.”

We went for a walk by his property and everything was as she described it. Now all I needed was to get in his house and get my stuff.

I noticed that there were several out buildings around Haliim’s house.

Cheri told me that sometimes he would keep new girls there.  She said, “I was there for a while but he figured I could be making him some money and put me to work at the bar.”

She said she wasn’t one of the prostitutes for he was saving her for himself when he got tired of some of the girls he now used.

It was time for my weekly beating and I my fighting wasn’t improved, but I was getting able to take it better and recouped much faster.

The night after my last fight I told Cheri we were leaving and needed to get some money and our papers.

She argued that we were going to get killed but I told her I had a plan that would work.

It was about nine at night when we slipped by the front gates and together we set three of the several out buildings on fire.

 

All the guards including the thugs went to fight the fires. It was of no use because it was spreading fast because of the type of materials they were made of.

Cheri and I quickly made our way into Haliim’s house and into the room where all of his money and the people’s papers were. As we entered the room he was standing by his treasure and I picked up a heavy piece of wood and I brought it down hard on his skull. He collapsed and didn’t move.

There were some embroidered bags near the cabinet where the goods were kept and we first filled them with money. Then we found our paperwork and as we started to leave he stirred a little so I hit him harder than I did the first time. I set fire to the main building and the flames quickly swirled around us as we ran out of the building.

 

As we left I saw Haliim lying there and for a moment thought about trying to get him out of the burning building but then remembered the beating I received at his command and the others he had enslaved and the one last though; he will have us killed if we were caught.

Since then, I haven’t had a second thought about leaving him to perish with all his goods and then there were all the girls who were freed by his demise.

There was a bus we boarded going to the next country (I have omitted the names of places for sometimes you can give out too much information and it comes back to haunt you) and by morning we were at the border where we had to get off the bus and be processed.

They looked at our papers which had a hundred dollar bill in each and without saying anything more said enjoy your stay in our country and be sure to spend some money to help the economy. We nodded and boarded the bus again and were on our way.

When we arrived in the major city in this country and we went to a nice hotel after buying some new clothes. We were tired and had room service bring us a meal. I took a shower and then turned it over to Cheri.

As I watched her shower it was the first time I had a desire for her. She was in there a long time and by the time she came out the moment had passed.

We needed to plan out the next day. The first step was to call my brother and get some advice from him. After I went through my situation and told him about Cheri he laid out a plan for us to follow.

One of the main things was to get our money out of the country for some border agent might find it and take it from us.

Following my brother AL’s plan I went and got some stationary and business cards made up. They had the import and export business addresses and phone numbers on them. Then I went to one of the major banks that a branch near my home and opened an account in the company’s name.

Meanwhile Al opened an account in the branch of the bank I was dealing with. After depositing our money we could draw on the account anytime we wanted.

I kept a few thousand for I didn’t know who I would have to bribe next. We went to our embassy and applied for a visa for Cheri. She was an employee but they still wanted to hassle us.

After some time the officer in charge let us know he expressed an interest in a certain charity. I said I might be willing to donate a thousand dollars to the charity but first I had to get the Visa business settled.

As he was looking over the paper work I counted out a thousand dollars and held it in my hand. He took his seal, stamped the visa as he took the money and we were on our way to the airport.

To be Continued