CHAPTER1
Exchange
The phone rang.Since Andy was closest to it, he answered.
“Wonderland Amusement.Yeah.Hold on.Rhyne, it’s for you.”
Rhyne closed the cash drawer and took the receiver from his co-worker.“This is Rhyne.”
“Hey, dude.I can’t make it over to pick up the bags tonight before Norris gets off work.Can you?”
“What about Welsh?”
“I haven’t called him,” Nash admitted.“I called you ‘cause I knew you closed at ten.”
Rhyne glanced at the wall clock.9:47.Technically, they had thirteen minutes to go.
“Yeah, I guess I can.”
“Thanks.The empties are sitting in the container by the door.”
“How many units am I picking up?”
“Norris said he had nine ready to go.I’ll call him back and let him know you’ll be there about ten-thirtyish or so.”
“Awright.And his shifts ends at ten?”
“Yeah.Gotta go.”Nash hung up before Rhyne could respond, which was well and good.After all the years they’d been roommates, their conversations were mostly brief and to the point now.No wasted words.Just an economy of language.Any further explanations or comments could wait until later this evening once everyone was home.
Shortly before ten, Rhyne and Andy chased the last of the teenagers out of the building and locked the front doors.
“Hey, listen.I gotta run an errand for my brother and the store closes at eleven.Mind if I leave early tonight?I’ll take the full shift including clean-up tomorrow for you,” he asked the other man.
Andy gave him a wave.“I got it.Go.Do what ‘cha gotta do.”
Giving the man a lopsided grin, Rhyne threw in a, “Thanks,” and hurried for the back stockroom where he’d parked his bike and let himself out the rear door.
It was a ten-minute straight shot to the tiny three-bedroom house where he and the others lived.It wasn’t much, but it had been home for quite a while.Maybe too long.Rhyne made a mental note to himself to bring up the issue with the guys tonight.
When he reached the house, he used the garage door opener to let himself in.A door led from there into the kitchen where the insulated backpack was propped against the wall.Grabbing it, Rhyne opened it and counted out nine empties, dropping the rest on the floor.That done, he closed it, drew it over his arms, and buckled it around his waist before leaving.
The summer was over.Fall promised to descend with its cooler temperatures any moment now.The best time to bike was in the evenings, when he could go without the sunglasses and just take in the smells, the sights, and the sounds of the changing season.
From the house to the hospital was a good twenty-minute trip, give or take having to wait at a red light.Fortunately, traffic was light this time of night.Rhyne leaned into the pedaling.The exercise felt good after having to be on his feet all afternoon.He hit just one red light, and used that time to slip a bill out of his wallet, fold it, and stuff it into his left shirt pocket.
“Gotta pay the delivery fee.”
Norris was waiting at the service entrance when he rolled off the street and up the ramp.No deliveries were made this late at night, which made it safe to do the exchange.
Coming to a stop just beyond the range of the security camera, Rhyne quickly undid the backpack, swung it around in front of him, and unzipped it.He withdrew the plastic sack containing the used blood bags and handed it over to the lab tech.Likewise, the young man handed him another sack containing more blood bags, except these still contained trace amounts of the fluid they’d held.
Taking the sack, Rhyne reached into his shirt pocket, extracted the folded single bill, and slipped it to the man who quickly shoved it into his pants pocket.
“Thanks a bunch,” Rhyne remarked as he placed the fresh sack into the backpack and zipped it shut.
“No.Thankyou.” Norris gave the guy a steady look.Knowing what the man was doing, Rhyne returned the stare.As he suspected, the lab tech studied Rhyne’s eyes.After a couple of seconds, Norris dropped his gaze.“I gotta go.”The man caved, too afraid to comment, but Rhyne knew what the guy was thinking or wanted to ask.
One day, he’ll get up the courage to ask what we do with the leftover blood in these used bags.
