Dream of: 01 December 1991 (2) "Loan Sharks"
While sitting in the upstairs living room of the Gay Street House, I thought I heard a noise downstairs. I walked down the back stairs and found two men standing in my father's office. Well-dressed (probably in their late 30s), they told me they were waiting for my father. I didn't know where my father was and I didn't know when he would return. It was Wednesday and he had already been gone for several days.
I returned upstairs, somewhat disconcerted by the presence of the men, especially since I didn't know how they had entered the House. After waiting a short while, I again walked back downstairs – the men were still there, but this time they weren't quite as friendly. One pulled a gun, told me to turn around and both men marched me back upstairs with the gun pointed at my back. I quickly learned that the men were owed some money by my father, and that they had decided to kidnap me until they had received their money from him. I mentioned that I had never been "hitchhiked" before; but I realized I had used the wrong word, and I said I meant I had never been "kidnapped" before. I also mentioned I could feel a tingling at the bottom of my spine where the gun was pointed. One man said he knew what I meant; I concluded a similar type of thing had happened before to him.
We sat down in the upstairs room and talked. They seemed civilized; I thought they were only concerned about getting back the money they had loaned. After I asked them, they told me my father owed them $10,000. I told them he must surely have the money because I thought he was doing a lot of business right now. I didn't even know why my father had needed to borrow money. Maybe he wasn't as well off as I had thought.
I recalled I had recently been playing a game on the internet called "CEO." Sometimes in the game, borrowing money from a loan shark became necessary. Now I saw what such borrowings were like in real life.
I asked the two men what the interest rate was on their loan and they said it was 100% per year. I thought about asking them their names, but I didn't; surely they wouldn't tell me.
Since they were only interested in the money, I thought perhaps I could just give them some. I might come up with a couple thousand. When I brought up the subject, the man who seemed in charge showed interest. I told them I owed my father some money anyway; I could deduct any money I gave them from my debt to my father. Actually I no longer owed my father any money, but I did still owe a bank for a student loan which my father had cosigned for. When I pulled out my billfold, however, I didn't have as much money as I had calculated; and obviously they weren't going to take a check.
As I extracted the money from my billfold, a small marijuana roach tumbled onto the table. No one else noticed the roach and I didn't bring it to their attention – this wouldn't be a good time to get stoned since I probably would become nervous. I began counting the money into different stacks of hundreds, twenties and ones. When I had finished I only had about $600. I thought perhaps I could withdraw an additional $200 or $400 from a money machine. When I told the fellow across from me how much I had, he seemed less interested. I worried that maybe now they would simply steal my money from me – but I didn't think so. They seemed genuinely interested in only retrieving what they were owed.
A new man and two women walked into the room – obviously part of the gang. The new man was a burly fellow with a thick accent; he spoke to the man in charge and the two left the room, after the man in charge told the remaining fellow (whom he called "Gene") to sit next to me on the couch. After Gene had sat next to me, he said the new fellow was from Scotland.
I continued thinking how I could get out of this predicament. Perhaps my mother or my sister had some money which they could give me. I also thought of the legality of what was taking place. Obviously loaning money as these men had done was against the law. Should such loans be illegal? These men weren't doing any more than the government would do if it were owed money.
I was in danger, and I might even be killed – but I tried not to worry. My father had probably told these men he had a son who was a lawyer. I might say I wasn't a lawyer, but a legal assistant; then they might think I didn't know the laws about what they were doing.
Gene mentioned the roach on the table; he said the Scotsman had said something about it. Apparently they thought that the roach was my father's and that it had come out of a garbage can which had been emptied onto the table (some garbage was lying on the table).
I looked at one of the two women. She had long brown hair and a nondescript face. What kind of woman would be involved in this kind of thing?
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