It was never supposed to go this far; she was just trying to help her great grandson get to college. Grammy Martha was ninety-three years old; she was given custody of her now seventeen-year-old great grandson when his parents passed away in a motorcycle accident. She was the only family he had left in the state of California; the rest of his family further east in New York City. Grammy Martha decided to call him Douglas instead of his birth name: Tom. He was a very nice boy as a small child and was very fond of and good at school. She had always done her very best to give him everything he needed. Aside from her age she could still get around places, sometimes she did not even take the escalator at the mall. She worked at a Victoria’s Secret because it made her feel young to converse with the much younger generations that shopped there. It was a decent job and it paid well for a while, but Douglas was getting much older now and she wanted him to continue his education after his completion of high school. It was going to be expensive and the more she thought about it the more she realized that her current job was not going to support Douglas’s college education.
One night Douglas was out with some of his friends and Grammy Martha was at home. She lay there on her favorite recliner watching a new show that one of her coworkers recommended called “Breaking Bad.” After a few episodes she was hooked and for the next few weeks it was all she wanted to do after coming home from work. Douglas would insist on her going out of the house and maybe playing some bingo with her friends or something, but she just wouldn’t listen. Little did Douglas knew that his Grammy Martha was getting ideas, and soon she would become something that no one would suspect a ninety-three-year-old woman to be.
The more Grammy Martha watched “Breaking Bad”, the more she wanted to try her own ideas. She knew that getting a new job was no longer an option because of her age and she had to find a way to make easy money before Douglas’s graduation. Of course she wasn’t going to make Crystal meth in her basement or anything like that and besides she didn’t know how or anyone who could. She suspected that if she went up to a chemistry teacher at Douglas’ high school they would immediately rat her out and Douglas would have to be taken away.
She wouldn’t give up that easily on her plan and she decided to do the next big thing besides making Crystal meth: selling it. It wouldn’t be hard to find a gang nearby considering they lived in one of the most gang populated cities in the United States: Los Angeles. Her mind was set and she decided to head out to look for some gangs the next day. There was a whole smorgasbord of gangs to choose from, but she knew that she couldn’t just join any gang; she had to join ‘the gang.’
As the day went on she realized that looking for a gang was actually harder than she expected it to be. She stepped into every sketchy little alley that she saw, but nothing. Just as she was about to give up for the day and go home, as she stepped out of one of the alleys, she saw a group of bikers that were stopped at a red light. Walking as fast as she could she stepped in front of the leader and asked him for help. Quickly she tried to explain her situation but the biker could not hear her. The light turned green and the biker made a hand motion for her to get out of his path. Seeing as she would not get out of the way he turned off the Harley and stepped of his the bike. He didn’t even bother to pull it over to the side of the road he just left it there. As soon as he stepped off the bike so did the rest of his gang mirroring the way he had stepped off the bike. Furiously with gritting teeth and throwing up his arms he said, “what do you want grandma?”
The rest of his gang of cretans laughed in unison. Grammy Martha knew that she had to do something to show that she wasn’t as weak as she looked. She lifted her left arm and reached as far back as she could and in a blink of an eye the cane came whistling down with tremendous force striking the biker in his testicles. Boom, down he went like a sack of flour that had been dropped from a six foot man’s shoulders. He lay there on the ground desperately trying to bring some air into his empty lungs. The rest of the gang made a charge for Grammy Martha, but to their surprise the leader made a waving motion to them, signaling to stop. Now that he had some air back in his lungs he managed to stutter out some words, “what do you want lady?”
“I just wanted to ask you some questions,” Grammy replied.
“What do you want to know?” said the biker putting a hand on his knee trying to get back to his feet.
Grammy Martha took a deep breath and began telling him about her problem.
“I just want to give him a chance to become somebody in this world,” she said, with the cheesiest old lady voice she could make.
The biker looked at the ground and stared for a second at a soda can and said, “I know of a gang that would probably be willing to get you in, but they are very dangerous, you have to be able to keep up and not hesitate to do anything.”
“It does not worry me. I just need to make the money as soon as possible, and I am willing to do anything to prove that I am good enough to be in their gang”.
Scratching his head and still slightly bent over because of the pain he said, “Alright I will tell you where you can find them. Head to a bar called ‘El Toro Loco’; it’s the bar that the gang meets up in.”
***
By now it was getting too dark so she decided to go home and rest, she had quite a day and she knew that she was going to need the energy for tomorrow.
She got up and made herself some mint tea, reaching for the sugar she thought of the crazy things she might have to do that day. Douglas was still sleeping but she knew that he had to get up for work soon so she quickly made her way out the door and was on her way to ‘El Toro Loco’. As she arrived there was a feeling in the air and it smelled like dumpster. There was a large man at the door that immediately stopped her.
“What are you doing here?”
“I want to be in your gang.”
“Haha you gotta be kidding me! You must be like one hundred years old.”
“Just let me try, I really need the money.”
“Being in a gang isn’t just about the money, it’s about being part of a family.”
“Hmm, I never thought about it like that.”
“Well yeah it’s not just about making money, you have to have our backs and we have to have yours.”
“Well then let me show you that I can be part of this gang.”
“Ok fine.” He went inside and came out with the whole gang.
“Usually we do a really harsh initiation, but considering your age it would probably kill you”.
“Ok well then what do you want me to do?”
“To be in our gang you need to go hijack a car and bring it back to us without getting caught.”
“I will bring it back here by five o’clock.”
She set out to find a car; she didn’t just want to hijack any car so she looked for the best one.” As she was trying to get into the car she heard a voice behind her say “freeze”.
She stopped what she was doing and stood as still as possible.
“Put your hands behind your head and back away from the car slowly.”
“Please officer, I can’t go to jail.”
“Don’t try to run away or I will shoot”.
She thought of what would happen to Douglas if she was to be taken to jail. The more she thought about it the more she wanted to run.
“Back up slowly towards me.”
She just stood still and looked at the ground, “Come towards me now,” The cop said getting inpatient.
In a blink of an eye the cop saw her start to make a run for it. Before he knew it his ears were ringing and the barrel of his pistol was smoking. He couldn’t believe what had just happened and all he could do was stare at the body on the ground. He bent over and puked. Wiping his mouth and trying to catch his breath, he called for backup.