The Legend of Eddie and Lola

“O shit, O shit,” said Lola.

Lola turned away from the scene in the liquor store. She stared straight ahead, her hands tightly gripping the wheel of the car. She was shaking, and she continuously cursed to herself under her breath. She revved the engine a few times and continued her mantra, “O shit, O shit, O shit”. And then she heard the gun go off. “O my god fucking shit.”

She forced her eyes back to the liquor store in time to see Eddie loping towards the car, the six-pack of Hamm’s in one hand and a bottle of something in the other. He climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door. Lola stared at Eddie as if seeing him for the first time in her life. “O my god, Eddie, what did you do?!?“

“We better get going,” Eddie said.

“Eddie, what did you do?!?”

“I had to,” Eddie said matter-of-factly. “He called me a crazy redneck bastard. He tried to take my gun.”

“O my god fucking shit.”

“We better get going,” Eddie said.




Eddie and Lola drove. Or, Lola drove and Eddie sat in the passenger seat drinking from the bottle he had taken from the liquor store. It was a bottle of Captain Morgan’s spiced rum. Eddie had always wanted to buy a bottle of Captain Morgan’s for as long as he could remember. The drawing of the pirate on the label had always intrigued him. It seemed to be the kind of thing a dangerous man like himself should be drinking. From time to time he offered Lola the bottle. Each time she swore at him before grabbing the bottle from his hands and taking a slug.

Neither Eddie nor Lola had much of an idea where exactly they were going, or what they would do when they got there. This part of the plan had never really been fleshed out. Eddie had decided they should head towards a border of some kind. He didn’t know much about the law, but he was fairly sure things would be better for them once they were across a border. He couldn’t tell Lola in which direction the closest border lay, but if they drove long enough they were sure to cross one sooner or later.

After a few hours of driving it became apparent that they might well run out of gas with no border in sight. They were passing through a small town, not even a town, really, more like a glorified truck stop. There were a few restaurants and a Comfort 8 motel. They decided to stop at the Comfort 8 for a bit of rest and a chance to figure out what to do next. Eddie parked the car where it couldn’t be seen from the freeway. Lola waited in the car while Eddie went to get them a room. The man in the lobby looked at Eddie strangely as he pulled the little bundles of money from his pocket and placed them on the counter. Eddie pretended not to notice.

Once in the room Eddie emptied the contents of his jacket onto a small table. He put the money in piles of twenties, tens, fives and ones. There were rolls of coins as well, which he did his best to sort. Lola paced about the room, talking and cursing to herself. She carried the Captain Morgan’s in one hand, taking a drink from time to time. She eventually paused and stared absently at Eddie as he rummaged through the money on the table. “How much…?” she eventually asked.

Eddie looked up from the table. “Huh?”

“How much did you get,” Lola asked.

Eddie looked at Lola, then down at the piles in front of him, and then back up at Lola. There’s at least four hundred dollars here…not counting the coins and stuff..”

Lola stared at Eddie in a way that began to make him feel uncomfortable. He took a long drink from a can of Hamm’s and looked back down at the table.

“What about the safe?” Lola asked.

Eddie reluctantly looked up at her. “The safe?”

“The safe…how much money was in the safe?”

“You didn’t tell me anything about a safe,” Eddie said.

“You…you shot Freddy for four hundred goddam dollars?”