After a day's patrol and business ins n outs, Nara was riding her trusty motorcycle through the night down Willamette Boulevard. Her bike's radio was just loud enough for her to hear the distorted guitar riffs, the beating drum, and clashes of the hi-hat. She had sent Julien with a small group across the Saint John Bridge to look over a concert. She was worried as always but it was for the best. Only sister gangs of the Black Vipers were allowed to sell on this turf now.

She spotted a familiar looking hairdo at the street light's halo edge and so she slowed her bike to see how was exiting. In this lighting, she didn't recognize the building she had stopped in front of. Not till she saw the figure turn their head to look at her. She knew those silvery blue eyes. "Hey, kid! it's you!" She heard him rattle the chains he held in his hands and pulled on them twice before nodding. She walked her bike closer to the side of the street he was on.

Joe stepped into the street lamp's light and smiled to her, his hands barely fiddling with the zipper on his leather jacket as he pulled it closed. It was a well-practiced maneuver from the looks of it. "I didn't know you were a permanent fixture in town. I thought you were just passing by and needed some help with the bikes." He slipped his hands into his jean's pockets, she could see a bit of grease on his cheek that he had missed while trying to clean up at the shop.

"We noticed your area could use a few more snakes to keep the rats at bay." Nara shrugged. It was true based on what she saw. There was a lot of spray tagging over their gang's signs and some of them she recognized as long-standing rivals. She didn't want anything happening to the King Cobras. They weren't aggressive like her gang, they were defensive.

"I appreciate that. It is a dangerous world especially with those new drugs out there. They're keeping some of our groups from getting sales. I would never do drug-running myself it's pretty risky...they're brave for doing it to provide for their families." Joe pointed to a cooler on the floor with the tip of his shoe rather than pulling a hand out of a pocket. "You want to have a few drinks with me at the park now that you're here? I wanted to get to know you a little better." Even at night, she could see he was trying.

He seemed like a good kid and it wasn't like she didn't know how to defend herself. She knew how and she had the weapons to do it. But she had a strong feeling that he wouldn't hurt her. "You got me. I did say it was a bit of a second or third date kind of thing didn't I?" She shook her head but decided that the second date was good enough. Not that being a customer counted as a date. "I'll give you a break and answer it."

"Yea but not standing out here, girl! Why don't cha follow my car down over that way." This time Joe pulled his left hand out of his pocket and pointed down a nearby street. "We would be at Columbia Park in a few. I think I've even got some chip bags in my car's trunk. We can sit down at the tables there and talk. There are no kids out at night so it'll just be us and a few joggers." He bent over and picked up the small red cooler by the handle. Nara calculated that if they were cans, maybe six fit in there. But if it were bottles then maybe at maximum four. It wasn't very big and he picked it up effortlessly. She looked at him once over, he looked like he could drink all four of those bottles himself.

She shook her head, a smile tugging on the corners of her mouth, and waited for Joe to step into his car. He wanted to lead the way and she didn't know the names of places yet. But she had seen that park nearby on her self-guided tour around town. The sound of his car was a bit soothing. It was different from the fast and aggressive buzz of the motorbikes. The Barracuda could be quiet but also thunderous at its owner's choice.

She took the time to really examine the sounds of his vehicle, the shapes of the rear lights, the silhouette of it on the road ahead. She never knew when she would need to know a particular vehicle. Before she knew it, she had followed the car into the park's lot. She stationed her bike next to his car and waited for the trunk to open to see if he did indeed have bags of chips in there or something else. Her eyes landed on a blue and yellow bag, "You call pretzels...chips?"

"I've got some chili cheese chips and even some all dressed ones! Not just the pretzels." He came around to the trunk and took the pretzels from the trunk. Then he took a bottle of water from a nearly empty 24 pack. "Get a bottle if you want."

Nara took a water bottle and slipped it into her jacket's inner pocket. It wasn't a deep pocket but it was wide enough to fit a bottle so long as she didn't start running. "I hope the drinks in that cooler are cold, kid."

Joe shrugged, "Don't worry about it, babe. We have a small fridge with an ice maker at the shop. They're plenty cool, chill, n icy fresh." He made a quiet chuff of a laugh through his nose and began to walk onto the grass towards a nearby table with seats. He looked over his shoulder at her and moved a shoulder forwards in what she understood as a 'come on''.

Nara rolled her eyes and pulled the trunk of the car closed. She hurried to his side for a few steps, "You asked me why I had joined the Black Vipers right?" She sat down at the bench, setting her water bottle and her chosen bag of all dressed potato chips onto the checkered top table."Its because they, the Black Vipers, are my logical family."

"Logical family?" Joe put the cooler down on the table to the side to keep the middle for their current snackings n drinkings. He tossed the pretzels onto the table and tugged on his jeans before sitting down. He crossed his arms on the table while leaning forwards. "Explain that to me?"

"Logical family not a biological one. My earliest memories are of an orphanage and I spent a handful of years there." She opened her bag of chips and ate a couple. "I was adopted once and then came back to the orphanage due to some problems that arose." She opened the cooler to pull out a beer and was pleasantly surprised when Joe reached over to pop off the cap with a bottle opener from his key chain. "I was adopted again by a different couple and they just so happened to be Black Vipers. The gang became like family to me and I decided to join them. The other gang members and I share a lot of the same views. We believe in the same goals. That is why they are my logical family."

Joe frowned, "Nara..."

"Its nothing bad, Joe. Don't worry about it. The orphanage wasn't bad and the problems my first adopters were out of their hands." She looked on as he popped off the cap from his own bottle of beer. They both watched it fly into the darkness.

He looked at her and bit at his lower lip, "Hah, oops. Normally I don't like leaving caps all over the place but I'm pretty sure that one's disappeared."

"What about you? Why did you decide to join a gang? You had a Mumsie and Dadsie to take care of you, didn't you? You look like you've only just started working. Had I not seen you in the shop, I would have thought you still had baby hands." She liked to poke fun at him.

"Mumsie n Dadsie? My father was abusive towards my mom. He would come from work and take his frustration out on her and when she wasn't there on me. So I guess I became a bit of a momma's boy. She really loved me and did what she could to keep me happy." Joe traced one of the checkered squares on the table with the bottom edge of his bottle. He took a sip from it, "My mother worked a secret job. She told us she worked an office job but the reality was that she worked at Dark Paradise, a strip club. I was invited by some friends and I saw her...I didn't know it was her! But when I realized I felt disgusted in myself. How could I have looked at my own mother that way...felt that way.."

Nara rested her head on her palm as she listened, trying to crunch on her chips as nonintrusive as possible. She thought he had simply chosen to be rebellious but it wasn't quite the case here. She offered him some of her chips, he took a few and continued.

"I ran home after I saw her, put my things into my backpack, and ran away from home. I couldn't bear being next to her and it wasn't because of her. It was because of me because I was fucked in the head. I was afraid that I would look at her the same way again. I never told her why I ran away and we did talk over the phone eventually."

"Hey..." She leaned forward, placing her hands over his. "It's not your fault. It could happen to anyone." She smiled, "You're not fucked in the head because of that. You didn't know and you feel bad about it which means you didn't enjoy it."

"I guess...either way I can't go back now to see her again. She was killed by a client on a drug high a few years back." He breathed in deeply and sighed. His beer was half empty now and he chugged the rest of it down. "I missed the feeling of a family and joined the King Cobras. Part of their initiation was to get a tattoo of a cobra somewhere on your body. While I don't exactly regret getting a massive snake ink, I sometimes wish I had gotten it somewhere less visible." He rubbed his right upper arm.

"I thought it looked good on your arm, Kid. Rich black on your skin? That makes it bold!" "Not to mention that your work's got you looking lean n fit." She could see his trying to look morose but the muscles on his jaw showed her that he was trying to hide a smile. "You like compliments don't you?"

He tossed a pretzel at her and popped his collar up but she could see the blush on his pale skin. "Joe..call me Joe." He stuffed around 7 pretzel sticks into his mouth.

"Alright kid, I'll call you Joe. But only if you open another bottle for me these all dressed chips make me thirsty." She playfully punched his shoulder and held out her second bottle cap first towards him. They enjoyed the night, talking about the town and Joe's recommendations for places she should visit sometime. It ranged from bars to restaurants and interesting monuments around the city. Before she knew it Joe had gotten quiet and his head was drooping. " Joey, It is getting late and we've run out of drinks and I think you have work tomorrow don't you? I'll follow you home so I know you got there safe. You look like you're about to fall asleep at any moment."

Joe rubbed his face with both hands, "Ah, right. I'll see you some other time. You know where I work." He took their trash and stuffed it into the cooler. His feet dragged a bit as he walked back towards his car. The whole drive had Nara worried but she was happy that he drove slow and when she watched him step into his small home, she knew her jobs for the day were done.

She turned the corner and rode away looking into one of her rearview mirrors to see his home disappear into the inky darkness. "What an idiot."