Free Daddy Cool by Donald Goines Page B

For a second, he thought he might have to ask one of the women to come in and help him take off the harness that held his knives.

    But with the strength of desperation, he struggled with the catch until he was able to take it off himself. Sweat rolled off his forehead from the incredible pain that racked his body from the struggle to remove the weapons. He let out a sigh of relief.
    "Are you all right?" Sally called out.
    "Yes," he managed to reply. Picking up his shirt he carried it over his arm as he opened the door. One backward glance assured him that the knives hidden under the bathtub couldn't be seen from the doorway.
    Both women stared at him closely as he came out. He walked over to the closet to remove one of the suitcases, but it hurt too bad for him to bend over.
    "Please," he pleaded, as he kicked at the suitcase that he wanted.
    Sally saw what he wanted, picked up the suitcase for him, and carried it over to the bed.
    "Open it, please," he asked, standing beside the bed between the women.
    With a shake of her head, Sally quickly obeyed his request. For a second, Daddy Cool hesitated to reveal so much money to the women, but he knew he didn't have any other choice. As soon as she opened the buckles, he flipped back the lid. Most of his money was hidden under some white shirts, so all he had to do was slip his hand under the clothes and remove one of the bundles.
    The small bundle of money he pulled out still was wrapped in the white money wrapper. The sum on the wrapper read five hundred dollars. The top bills were brand new one-hundred-dollar bills. He flipped the top bills back and extracted a twenty-dollar bill.
    Taking it loose from the rest, he held it out to Doris, then removed another twenty-dollar bill and gave it to Sally. Both women tried not to accept the money, but Daddy Cool could tell they wanted it. He wouldn't listen to their denials; he just pushed the money into their hands.

    "Listen," he stated, "I need help, and the best way to get it is to pay for it. I know both of you have something else to do, but if I pay you for your trouble, maybe it won't be too difficult for you to put off whatever you were going to do."
    Before they could say anything, he added, "Once we get to the hospital, you can go your own way, but if ya should stay with me, I'll give both of you another twenty when we leave. How does that sound?" He saw the greed in their eyes as he mentioned money.
    "Well," Doris began, "whatever I had to do, I sure as hell wasn't going to make forty dollars at it, so I got the time now."
    Sally seemed to be ashamed. She stared down at the floor. "It seems funny to accept money for helping somebody, but my kids can sure use the cash."
    "Well then, it's settled, huh?" Daddy Cool managed a slight smile as each of the women moved to one side of him to help.
    Daddy Cool reflected on the merits of money as Doris drove swiftly to the nearest hospital. Since giving the women the money, he couldn't help but notice the change in them. Money made people function better, or so it seemed. Though he had their help without paying them, they seemed even more helpful after he gave them money.
    He knew he had taken a chance letting them see his money, but since one of them had on a nurse's uniform, he didn't think he had too much to fear from them. They were just hardworking black women. Even if the thought of robbing him had passed through their minds, they were not of the caliber of robbers. It was something he could sense.
    At the hospital, the two women waited patiently while doctors bandaged up Daddy Cool's ribs. He walked out slowly and informed the women that he had two broken ribs. On the ride back to his hotel, he had them stop so he could buy them both a dinner, ordering his to be taken out.
    With the hot food in his lap and his ribs wrapped up, he realized that the situation he had fallen into could have turned out a whole lot worse if it hadn't been for the help of the two black women.

    He felt a