"The Eternal Night" drabbles by Christopher
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 11
The Eternal Night #11
"I like him," Roxie said as she turned the radio up.
I turned it back down, "Ah, he'll have a hit or two and then disappear. In a couple of years no one will even remember his name."
"I don't know," she said, "I hear they're talking about bringing him to Hollywood and turning him into a movie star."
I shook my head, "The shape the movie business is in that doesn't surprise me one bit."
"Speaking of the movie business, that's what I brought you out here for, Jake. Take the next left."
We turned down a deserted street...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 10
The Eternal Night #10
I nodded, "Yep. I bought the Existential Cafe two years ago, in '54, just to give myself some place to go every day. But it's since become a hangout for some scroungy looking young people that listen to jazz and recite poetry and are generally as annoying as all hell."
Roxie laughed, "They're not that bad."
"You won't be saying that in six months."
"Am I going to be around in six months?" she asked curiously.
"Hope so," I said, smiling at her.
She turned on the radio. A new singer named Elvis Presley was singing about a "Heartbreak Hotel."
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 9
The Eternal Night #9
"Yeah," I said. "I tore down the shingle with my name on it. My money was doing the work, so I went on vacations, adventures, anything I could do to replace the adrenaline rush that the detective game used to give me."
"Why didn't you just stay a detective if you missed the rush?" Roxie asked.
"Well, there's a difference between enjoying adrenaline and enjoying being a punching bag and a moving target for every asshole with a fist in one hand and a gun in the other that thinks you're a lead repository."
"So you gave it all up?"
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 8
The Eternal Night #8
I shook my head, "Nope. I killed the guy who killed him. Anyway, she went back east to live with her parents but she told me to keep the money."
Roxie looked shocked, "She told you to keep 250 thousand dollars?"
I nodded, "Some people don't care about money."
Roxie laughed, "Those people are called mentally insane!"
"Anyway," I continued, "I kept working for another year or so. But I invested my money and eventually got to where my money was working for me instead of the other way around."
"And that's when you quit being a detective?" Roxie asked...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 7
The Eternal Night #7
I continued driving.
"I had a client at the beginning of this decade. She had lost her memory, but she was carrying 250 grand and came to me to find out who she was. I put the money in the bank and set about trying to discover her identity."
"Did you?" Roxie asked.
"Yeah. She was the girlfriend of a Vegas mobster named Vic Stane. The money was his. Long story short, he wound up dead and her memory returned, but she wasn't the same. She remembered she really loved him."
"He wound up dead? Lemme guess: you killed him."
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 6
The Eternal Night #6
"Jake, why don't you finally tell me about yourself? How did you come by your wealth?" Roxie asked.
I didn't want to get into that, but she'd been asking me and I'd been putting it off.
"It's a long story, Rox."
"Well," she said, "condense it."
I sighed. "I used to be a private detective."
She laughed, "Are you serious? You must have been a very successful one judging by your lifestyle."
I shook my head, "I didn't get rich from that."
"So, how did you get rich?"
I pulled up to a stop sign and looked in both directions...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 5
The Eternal Night #5
"Jake," Roxie said as we got in my aqua colored 1955 Ford Thunderbird I'd bought new the previous year, "can you take me somewhere?"
"Yeah," I said as I cranked the car, "I'm taking you home and then I'm going to take advantage of you!"
She grinned, "No, I have something I want to show you."
I looked over at her, "And you have something I want to see!"
"Please, Jake. Will you take me to Culver City?"
"Culver City? What the hell for?"
"Like I said I have something I want to show you."
I turned toward Culver City...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 4
The Eternal Night #4
We strolled around, played a few more games and then went to the pier. We watched the stars come out to play, then started back to my car. We were both pretty tired. I'd spent all day at the Existential Cafe trying to sort the inventory out with Mongo, my sole employee. Bottles of booze kept going missing from the stockroom, and I knew Mongo wasn't doing it. I was going to have to put some of my dormant detective skills to good use to find the miscreant.
I sometimes pondered how I went from private detective to cafe owner...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 3
The Eternal Night #3
Her name was Roxanne Harrison, a six foot tall blonde Hollywood talent agent with legs that went all the way up to her ears and an impressive bust that looked like a Swiss mountain range. It made me want to yodel.
I'd only met her a couple of months before but we'd been inseparable since then. She was practically living with me up in the Hollywood Hills. She had three actors and one actress in her stable, and I would often find her on the phone with a producer or a director trying to drum up work for her clients...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 2
The Eternal Night #2
"It's a piece of crap," I said, looking down at a little boy who'd obviously been waiting a long time to get his hands on that rifle. His mother didn't look too chipper either. She gave me a disapproving gaze that I interpreted as “You're too old to be out at Huntington Beach making an utter fool of yourself.” But the only sound she made was an irritated grunt.
I stepped back and told the kid, "Watch out, son. That gun's got a mean recoil."
Roxie laughed as we walked off hand in hand with her freshly acquired kewpie doll...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 1
The Eternal Night #1
I stood there staring down the barrel. There were multiple targets, all in motion. Sweat was dripping off my forehead and into my eyes. But I was being counted on to complete this mission. And I wasn't about to fall short.
I steadied myself and pulled the trigger. The first target dropped. I continued until all the targets were down. Every last duck.
"Very good, mister, you won the lady a kewpie doll!" the man said as he reached behind himself and got an ugly little doll off the shelf and handed it to my companion.
"Oh, Jake, it's lovely!"
