Randy and Mike waited in their broken down Ford Torino at the edge of town for more than two hours. Randy broke the tranquility of the moment by opening the door to relieve himself on the side of a nearby building. When he returned, Mike changed the radio station back to the classic rock station. Randy agreed with the decision. The new radio station in town was playing too much of what they both called "fairy music."
"What do you think they'll have on the truck today?"
It was mostly for purposes of small talk that Randy asked the question. Neither of them knew the answer outside of the knowledge that the truck generally did not have as wide a selection as they wished it would. Beggars had a hard time arguing that they should be able to be more choosy. This was a new world order. For years Mike and Randy had been able to freely purchase alcohol from convenience stores, supermarkets and liquor outlets. Now the shape of things was changing and waiting for the truck was a regular part of the order of their lives. General Ordinance Number Seventy-five had led to a new type of Prohibition in the country. Years of legal wrangling that tied alcohol use to physical abuse, especially of women and children, had forced all to obtain "pass cards" in order to purchase alcoholic beverages. There were ways around the system, such as having a friend with a pass card buy liquor for you, but the penalties for doing so were very stiff. Up to three years in prison could be your penalty for using a pass card to buy alcohol for an abusive, non-pass card carrying person.
"Where you wanna drink tonight?"
Mike knew of a strip club on the other side of town where they looked the other way while you drank from a personal flask or poured a little something extra into your glass of soda. He also knew a girl who worked there. She thought men who drank illegally and bought booze from the truck were heroic figures and she liked being slapped around and shared by two men. Mike planned to surprise Randy with that news as he knew it would really float Randy's boat. There was nothing quite like getting a good buzz on and slapping a stripper around. Nothing else got the blood pumping quite as hard and made you feel more like a man. The obedient and sober new breed of man you found around the suburban world of the lawfully minded were much more likely to spend a quiet evening making pot holders with the wife than getting into some good old-fashioned stripper slapping. Randy and Mike had made a pact a long time ago. They would never allow themselves to become "wimps" and they would kill the other if he ever showed signs of wimpy behavior. It was righteous.
"Here comes the truck. Give me a cigarette."
Leo the truck driver stopped alongside Mike's car and jumped down onto the muddy ground. Grunting a greeting and flaunting his muscular arms in a sleeveless t-shirt, he walked around to the back of the truck and opened the gates of nirvana. There were cases of beer today as well as a very wide selection of whiskeys, rums and tequilas. Mike and Randy were very pleased.
"Got some sweet bitches today, hundred bucks if you want to fuck one of them."
Leo did not always have bitches, but when he did Mike and Randy jumped at the opportunity. Behind the wall of booze were three women in a cage made of bamboo. Leo generally bought his women from a Chinaman downtown who lured women into his establishment with opium and then punished them for their curiosity. Mike and Randy never forgot the wisdom of the Chinaman the day they went to see him to try to buy bitches direct. "I know not why whores come to me for the opium. They need to be home or on street fucking. I teach them with my way." The words of the Chinaman had taught Mike and Randy so much about how women needed to be corralled and educated. Society had given them too many ideas about equality and rights and it took a lot of hard work to break them of those ideas.
Randy and Mike bought two bottles of whiskey, one bottle of tequila and a case of Domestic Pride Beer. Then they looked over Leo's livestock and decided that they would take turns with the long-haired brunette who had large, full breasts. She was more expensive than the others and she screamed more, so Randy and Mike were fairly certain that Leo hadn't finished deprogramming her. It was good to get the wild ones. Something about the domesticated bitches made them less fun to play with, but if you were going to keep one in the home she needed to be domesticated. It sucked when one went off and broke your stuff and tried to stab you or cut off your genitals. Randy and Mike were afraid of these things, so they paid Leo and the Chinaman to have their needs temporarily satiated. It was much easier that way and who needed a woman around all the time, anyway?
"Pleasure doing business with you boys, as always."
Randy and Mike thanked Leo and drove the Ford Torino down to the ravine where they popped open a couple of beers. They had a pair of binoculars they kept in the car and used them to stare through the windows of the hospital across the street. It wasn't a regular hospital, it was some kind of extended stay recovery center for abused women. Those details were not important to Randy and Mike. What was important was that sometimes you could see them taking showers through the windows or changing their clothes. They never expected anyone to be looking in from the ravine side of the hospital. One day, Randy and Mike would go up to the hospital. These women looked bored and the boys figured they might like to party with a couple of studs like them. It was just a matter of working up the courage.
Mike handed Randy the tequila.