Free Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) by Stephen Andrew Salamon Page A

came to his feet feeling the wooden ground of a
Chicago landmark.
    As soon as Darell and Jose jumped out of the
train as well, they saw a sign entitled, “Union Station.” It was
too perfect once again, the plan went along great, causing Damen to
have a cautious look on his face; it was too good to be true.
That’s when he fixed his eyes on security guards, approaching them
with great speed. At that same time, the train that they came on,
began to move, slowly but surely, and lingered its heavy body past
the boys. They were trapped. Knowing that the security guards saw
them exiting a train, illegally, allowed Jose Rodrigo’s, Darell
O’Conner’s, and Damen Schultz’s minds to be filled with anxiety.
They were in a new setting, a new place that they’ve never seen or
been to before, so this was the last thing they needed, being
arrested.
    “Excuse me, young men, but would you please
come with us?” one of the guards said. He grabbed onto Darell’s arm
with force. Darell knew that it wasn’t a question, even though it
was placed in question form. The way the guard said his words,
through his pudgy mouth, it sounded like an order, but with some
civilized tone to its build.
    “What’s the problem, sir?” asked Damen. He
took the guard’s hand and released it from Darell’s arm. Mr.
Schultz was angry, he knew the officer had no right to touch
Darell, especially grab him with such force to his grasp.
    The guard noticed some Southern accent,
enunciation in Damen’s speech, not very much, but just enough to
make the guard know he wasn’t from the big city. “Well ... the
problem is that you all came on the mail train. Now, if my memory
serves me correctly, I would say you boys traveled illegally on
it,” the guard replied, mocking Damen’s faint accent with his own
speech. Another guard grabbed onto Damen’s arm, laughing at the way
his buddy made fun of Damen’s speech.
    Damen Schultz pointed to the mail train,
already far from them, and explained, “Well, the reason for that
was ... because my friend is very ill.” He paused for a little,
trying to think of what else he could add to this lie. “Um, you
see, we come from a very, very, very poor family, and my friend
needs a, a, um, a, a kidney transplant. Yeah, well, since he
couldn’t afford a regular train ticket, we had to take this
instead.” A smile came to his face. Damen thought that his lie was
well told and smoothly explained. Figuring they bought it, he
noticed the guard releasing his grip a little bit from his arm.
    The guard began grinning, and reflected a
smile onto Damen’s face. Damen didn’t know if it was a smile of the
guard catching him in a lie, or a grin that meant he was going to
let them go, even though they knew he was lying; after all, the
guard was still holding onto his arm.
    Finally, the grin grew on the guard’s face,
and that’s when he asked in an evil tone, “Oh yeah? Well, since he
couldn’t afford a train ticket, how the hell is he going to afford
a kidney operation?” Damen became speechless, staring at Jose and
Darell, trying to figure out how to add onto this lie, this
fictional explanation; his mind became overwhelmed, flustered with
nervousness.
    “Well ... I really don’t want to tell you
that,” replied Damen. He looked around the train station, staring
at its grand shape, a trying to contemplate the situation. He
analyzed his lie, his explanation, and tried to think up of a plan,
an answer for the guard. But nothing came to his thoughts, mind, he
was speechless, mute to the answer. So, he turned to Darell, in a
frantic motion, and said, “I think Darell should explain that
part.” Darell stared at Damen with confusion; he didn’t want to
explain the ending to his friend’s lie.
    “Me?” questioned Darell, slowly beginning to
smile at the guards. Damen nodded his head slightly, trying
desperately to tell Darell to play it off like they really did
travel on the train for that reason. Darell caught