Sorry to say so, but this is the final Steffie story for the year. Thanks, Dan, for metaphorically goosing me into action. It’s felt good to crank out stories again.
Steffie At The Auto Shop
Ah, Steffie thought as she approached the auto shop. Another Dutch door. But, unlike any door she had ever seen, this one seemed to have its bottom half fixed in place by pipes, one going in and one split coming out. When she got closer, she saw the outgoing split was labeled Fire Department Connection. The irony of the partially smoked cigarette resting atop it did not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
But she wasn’t here to contemplate an unintended (probably) public art installation; she was here to stop an assassin. Same old same old. She smoothed the hair of her short red wig and adjusted her face mask. Fortunately, this store still mandated masks, making it more difficult for her to be recognized.
Her sources had assured her El Tigre was lying low in this shop and that he had no idea he had been made. She believed the first part of their information, but had learned to distrust any claim that she would have an easy time of any assignment.
The apparently abandoned door was right next to the shop’s entrance; a perfect spot for an ambush. She stepped away from the pipe-ridden door and reached out to open the shop’s clear one.
The exit door, at a 45-degree angle from the entrance, opened and Steffie knew she had missed El Tigre lurking behind the jawbreaker dispenser.
He threw something long and thin around her head and pulled the ends apart, tightening it around her neck.
Fortunately, Steffie made it a point to always be prepared. It wasn’t a Boy Scout knife she drew, though; it was a folding karambit she always kept up her sleeve. She kept one up each sleeve, actually. That gave her one to cut the thing El Tigre was trying to throttle her with, and one to rip El Tigre a new one. Several new ones.
By the time the next auto shop customer tried to leave and found the exit blocked by a corpse, Steffie had shed her coat, her wig, her sunglasses, and her mask, and was in her car on the way to the highway.
She would have to have an impromptu – and, preferably, private — meeting with that source of hers.
Thursday doors is under the direction of Dan Antion, photographer extraordinaire and critter daddy. Visit his site, enjoy his wonderful photographs, follow his directions, and enter a world of doors.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Someone is given bad intel.
MA
Dan Antion
May 27, 2021 at 8:56amI would not want to be the person giving Steffie bad information. I’m guessing that won’t happen again.
Thank you so much for bringing Steffie to the writing challenge. Door-inspired Steffie stories are magical. I really appreciate your support of the challenge.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend.
Marian Allen
May 27, 2021 at 9:58amThanks again for doing the challenge. You have a good weekend, too. I’m going to see Charlie’s brothers and sisters for the first time in over a year, for the first time since he passed. We’re all dreading it and looking forward to it. <3
Dan Antion
May 27, 2021 at 12:25pmI hope that goes well. I must be hard, but I’m sure you will find love there.
Janis @ RetirementallyChallenged.com
May 27, 2021 at 2:26pmI’m sorry to read that Steffie will be taking a little vacation, but I was happy to meet her.
Marian Allen
May 27, 2021 at 2:49pmDo a search for her on my blog, and you’ll find the prior Steffie stories. I’m glad you were happy to meet her. That’s always safer. She appears at irregular points every May (this is the first year I had her appear only on Thursdays) and Holly appears every Sunday in May.
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
May 27, 2021 at 2:27pmSteffie is awfully good at her job. Are you thinking of fleshing her out?
Marian Allen
May 27, 2021 at 2:50pmI like her to be mysterious. And non-angsty yet not quite psychopathic.
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
May 27, 2021 at 3:02pmThen you can’t follow her too closely. I get it.
pmlaberge
May 28, 2021 at 4:24amI swear it was not me. I trusted my source. As for the reason Steffie is taking a vacation, well, I had 4 bad refs from that source, that put 4 agents in danger. The other 3 agents were mad, but willing to forgive. So, “Enter Steffie”. She is taking a cruise vacation with that informant. I suspect the Hawaiian Volcano gods will soon have a fatty meal. Mind you, there are other volcanoes around the world…. Steffie at first wanted to boil him in Yellowstone. But that might not be fast enough. (And would be bad for the ecology.)
You see: Steffie accomplishes her tasks like I do my shopping.
“In. DO. Out.”
And that, Steffie dear, is why you get all the nasty assignments. You are just too good at it! Of course Steffie’s “Watson” biographer, might note something happen on vacation…. You nevvvver know. And what if steffie ran into someone on the boat, that needed a good long swim? Ah, again, we nevvvver know. Life and Karma have the bad habit of putting bad people in Steffie’s way. As she once explained to me: “Well, you know, stuff happens, sometimes.” Or, in Steffie’s case…. OFTEN!!!!
LIke Holly, Steffie is pure and innocent. But “stuff happens, sometimes.” Or, in Holly’s case… OFTEN!!!
Marian Allen
May 28, 2021 at 8:04amSteffie doesn’t blame you, Pete. If she did, you wouldn’t be commenting, would you? Yes, Steffie is efficently quick, or quickly efficient. As little wasted time as possible. She could kill with one shot, but she always double-taps because she’s an old-fashioned girl and believes in tradition.
pmlaberge
May 28, 2021 at 12:54pmWell, at least, I need not fear checking the mail, today! I remember the time Steffie….. LOTS of confetti!