the adventures of yeti - 2. prisoner

by bofa xesjum

part two of ?

to begin at the beginning, click here

the brown house with the number 34 and the dangerous dog sign appeared out of the fog. a few raindrops began to fall. yeti pushed the doorbell. no sound came from within. waited. the door was opened. landlord appears. mean look, even meaner than bus driver, looks like bus drivers twin. yeti explains wants room for night, asks price. “how much are you willing to pay?” landlord asks. yeti thinks. “one dollar.” “let’s see it.” yeti carefully takes dollar from pocket, careful not to take whole roll of bills out. landlord smiles, takes one dollar bill. “you get no bread with one meat ball,” says the landlord. “excuse me?” but landlord is starting down hall, and yeti follows. the room was a cell, with a cot. nothing else, no chair, no sink, nothing. a small window, not barred , but too small to crawl out of. there is a single handcuff attached to the cot, and the landlord pointed to it. he wanted to chain yeti to the cot! “i don’t think so,” yeti protested. “need to keep you from bothering the other sleepers,” the landlord said. “can’t you just lock the door?’ yeti asks, but thinks, do i really want that? “not good enough. you could bang on the door or the walls.” “um - what if i want to take a piss?” “take one now if you want, down the hall.” yeti hesitates. “take it or leave it,” says the landlord. “if i leave it, do i get my dollar back?” yeti asks. “sure. i’m not trying to cheat anybody here.” yeti doesn’t know what to do. some rain beats on the little window. “o k, i will take it.” * yeti wakes up. hand still cuffed to bed. other hand now cuffed also, to other side of the bed! can’t move, can’t turn over! still dark. still raining, harder. how much time has passed? wants to go back home! forget paris! forget san francisco! can this be a dream? please, please be a dream! * yeti wakes again. still cuffed on both hands to bed, but gray light through window. still raining, but lightly. door opens behind yeti. twists head, sees landlord and zombi. they are carrying long box, like a coffin. landlord unlocks yeti’s hands. then landlord and zombi pick cot up from frame and turn it over and dump yeti into the box! zombi puts lid with air holes on top of box. yeti feels box being carried out of house. feels cold and fog and rain through air holes. box placed on hard surface. a truck? zombi feels other boxes, wth other captives, stacked up all around. engine starts. truck moves out. now what? but anything better than chained facedown to cot. maybe, yeti thinks. the truck is going to san francisco or paris. or at least to shanghai or london or rio de janiero. 3. now what?