Running Numbers: The Canal Locks

Lowell, Massachusetts. 1958.

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Business is good. The boy brings money to his mother every week. His mother doesn’t ask questions.

It is particularly cold this morning as the boy walks to work. He tucks his head down further in his coat and scans the ground for black ice. He is concentrating so hard on the ground that at first he doesn’t notice the five police cars that are parked outside the shop. He looks up and sees a group of police standing near the back of the store. They are looking down at the canal.

The boy knows immediately, his boss is dead.

He walks past the store and continues along the canal. A half-mile away the boy pulls the revolver that his boss gave him from his coat pocket. He casually tosses the gun into the canal as if it were a stone.

The boy’s boss has been found at the bottom of the canal, 30 feet down, wedged between the canal locks.

The police rule it a suicide.

MOVIE LINE OF THE DAY:

"They whacked him. They fucking whacked him. I can't fucking believe it." -Goodfellas

Running Numbers

Lowell, Massachusetts. 1958.

The eight year old boy looks around the store. Coffee, Milk, Bread, and Cigarettes. That’s what this store has to sell. Coffee, Milk, Bread, and Cigarettes. Only it’s not for sale. This store never sells anything. This is where the boy works now.

A couple of months from now, the boy’s mother will stop by the store to see where her son works. Her son has several jobs to help support the family. She brings coffee, milk, bread, and cigarettes to the cash register. The store owner has no idea what to charge her. This store never sells anything. He charges her 10 cents for the lot. The boy’s mother shops there for the next several months. It’s a steal.

Here’s the bag you’ll carry, the store owner tells the boy. These are the places you’ll go. This is how the operation works.

He hands the boy a revolver.

“If anyone ever tries to take this bag from you,” the store owner says, “shoot them. Don’t worry about killing them. Just make sure you hit them, so that we know who they are.”

“Then what?” the boy asks.

“Then we’ll kill them,” the store owner says, “and their entire family.”


In case someone doesn't know what Running Numbers is:
http://ask.yahoo.com/20040105.html

MOVIE LINE OF THE DAY:
"Charlie...where's my cheesecake?" -Carlito's Way