It took a little while for Amos to feel normal again and confident that Giorgio was not going anywhere. After much complaining they had finally rolled the big man up into a sitting position where he slumped against a table leg with his hands tied behind his back. Alanah had gone into the kitchen to calm down the two boys whom she had heard urgently whispering to each other from the dining room.
When Amos felt like he could leave the big chef unattended he came back to meet them. The taller boy looked to be about nine years old, he had a solemn long face and very serious eyes. The younger boy could have been seven, his features were more childlike and innocent and his eyes looked both frightened but hopeful at the same time. The older boy was named Robin and he was able to speak a bit of English but very softly and haltingly. Amir was his younger brother, and he remained silent and watchful.
The sooner we are out of here the better but then Amos realized that he still needed to unlock the restraints around the boys’ ankles. “Do you know where the key is?” he asked Alanah. “He keeps most things of his in the office” she said gesturing to what looked to be a closet door off of the side of the kitchen. “Keep an eye on him please” said Amos as he moved into the office space.
The room stunk of sweat, smoke and grease. There was also the harsh, acrid scent of industrial cleaning products in the air but when they had been last used was a mystery to Amos. The little room was a filthy pigsty.
Good thing you are not planning on staying, now find that key, Amos looked around for the most likely spot for valuables. The corner held a mop bucket, and some brooms leaned against the wall, the shelf up top held what looked to be a variety of cleaning products. A stack of cheap toilet rolls went along the wall and then there was just the doorway and the desk that was left in the room if you looked past the old newspapers and other refuse left haphazardly on the floor.
The desk had to be it; he stepped in front of the desk and checked the two drawers that were unlocked. Nothing but junk, various pens and pencils and lots of different papers that must have been just slightly more important than the mounds of paper Amos pushed around on the surface of the desk. The bottom drawer had a small padlock and latch on it that held it tightly closed.
“Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world.” His dad had said this a few times in front of Amos and then had finally shown him what he had meant one day on a walk when he moved a rather large fallen log with just a long branch and a rock. Amos went into the kitchen to find his lever and after several long minutes he went back into the office carrying a big frying pan with a long handle.
This sight did not fill Alanah with confidence and as Amos disappeared from view, she briefly started to imagine shooting the chains off of Robin and Amir but it did not take her long to realize that this was a not very smart option.
Once he had fitted the handle of the frying pan through the end of the padlock, he positioned it so that the large flat-bottomed pan was held suspended out in the air. Given the overall lack of cleanliness in the dank restaurant kitchen Amos elected to cover the pan bottom with a newspaper before sitting down firmly on it.
He had to bounce up and down three times, each time yielding a satisfying splintering, cracking sound until the pan clattered to the floor. The long handle combined with his weight bouncing up and down had applied enough force to wrench the latch hasp from the drawer, screws and splinters still attached to the defeated mechanism.
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Amos had not clattered to the floor himself, instead he had almost sprained his arm trying to brace his fall on the greasy floor. He stood up gingerly, wiped his hands on the desktop and pulled the drawer open. This must be his safe Amos thought as he pulled the drawer out and onto the desk. Inside the drawer were bundles of bills as well as rolls of quarters, dimes and nickels, a ring of keys and a small revolver, a snub-nosed type that was almost half the size of the one he carried. Leaving the change, Amos took everything else and walked back into the dining room.
“Alanah, can you come here please?” he called out. “We need to get caught up with payroll.” Amos was surprised that he was trying to joke, his head was still pounding and they all needed to get out of here. It was really no time for laughs but when Alanah looked up at him with a questioning look, he couldn’t help but smile. It was a small thing, it relieved a little bit of the tension that had been suffocating him for the past few hours, and he felt better for it.
“Can you take these keys please and try to unlock the boys? Once that is done there are some back wages and overtime wages that must be paid right away.” Alanah took the keys from him with slightly arched eyebrows and then shook her head as she walked into the kitchen. In just a few minutes she returned with the two boys creeping after her, their eyes darting and wide with fear. Amos waved them over to the table he was standing at and holding up his hands he announced, “it is time to reconcile, it is time to make all of this right.”
“Alanah, I understand you have worked here for two months but you often are not given your wages or any wages at all?” “That’s how it goes here” Alanah looked at Giorgio slumped against the table as she said this. Amos clapped his hands together and then spoke in a louder voice than he normally would use. “Unacceptable, this will not do, and we will need to make it right.” “I calculate…hold on…let me see…two months wages, plus interest, plus overtime plus a bonus…hmmnnn…that comes to …about $3,000 exactly.”
He held out two handfuls of bills to Alanah. “Take it, take it please and know that management deeply apologizes for the inconvenience, and we do hope that you will consider remaining with our team…” “No way, I quit” Alanah actually gave a small laugh while she said this and for Amos it was a lovely sound even as brief as it was. “Well, here is another $250.00 for severance then” and Amos handed some more bills to Alanah.
“Now you two, please come forward” Amos turned to face the two smaller boys who were huddled together behind a table keeping a solemn watch on Giorgio. “He is not going anywhere and today is your last day here, so we need to calculate your wages.” “Let’s see, it’s unclear when you started so we will say two weeks then and you were certainly working lots of overtime, in fact it appears you did not even leave the kitchen.”
Amos took a deep breath and went on “I am afraid we barely have enough here to compensate you properly, I think there is $1,800 dollars here, that will have to do.” “Alanah, can you take their wages for now?” “Gladly” was her response along with the hint of another small smile.
Amos turned to Giorgio who was still half sprawled out on the floor. “We’re leaving now.” “We will leave the door unlocked and I will tell the grocer down the street to come get you, if he likes you maybe he will come. If he doesn’t, well, I don’t really care.” As the two boys and Alanah moved toward the front door Amos paused and looked at Giorgio. “I will come back, someday soon, to make sure that no one else is ever trapped here.” “When I do, I will be armed and ready to deal with you.”
“You’re just a thief” Giorgio spat at Amos “you will get caught and you will pay for what you have done to me.” His words stung Amos, and his face flushed red. Amos swallowed and gave Giorgio a hard look. “No, no I am not, that’s why I came here, because I am not like you or every other miserable thief out there.” Then he turned and followed Alanah and the boys out the door and onto the street.
The three of them stood there on the sidewalk in the warm spring afternoon watching him, the two boys blinking, unaccustomed to the bright sunlight. Alanah cocked her head slightly to the side as if she was waiting for something. Amos realized what it was just before she said it. “What’s next?”
