Flo hesitated for a moment and decided to follow Arthur's orders.

She untied her bib and put it at the front desk, telling her boss that she was quitting. The owner of the café was also Mexican, and Flo's sudden resignation annoyed him a little, and he argued with Flo at the front desk. Flo still had a week's salary at his place that had not been settled, and the boss, seeing that she was not doing it, did not want to give her this salary, and told her to get out of the way immediately. Flo disagreed, of course, and now every dollar was important to her, and she got into an argument with her boss.

Seeing this, Arthur walked to the front desk, took out the revolver from his pocket, put it on the table with a "snap", and said word by word: "Pay her the salary, and she will follow me away." The boss's face changed and he immediately stopped talking, but he looked at Arthur's appearance and found that this guy seemed to be Italian, and a bit like Chinese, and immediately became confident, pointing at Arthur and saying: "I have paid protection money to Bamund!" Don't you want to make trouble here, I won't give her a penny, she'll just walk away casually......"

Before the boss could finish speaking, Arthur had already jumped into the front desk with a flat plate, holding a revolver in his hand, and slammed the handle at the boss's cheek. The boss screamed, his cheekbones were broken, blood flowed, and he fell to the ground with a thud, bringing down several beer bottles and a coffee pot. Arthur kicked him in the ass a few more times, kicking him to the point where he screamed.

Arthur is still very careful with his hands, and the hits are all places that will hurt but will not be fatal. He grabbed the boss by the collar again, grabbed him, put a gun to his stomach, and said word by word in the same tone as before: "Pay her the salary, and she will follow me away." ”

The hero doesn't suffer the loss in front of him, and the boss knows that he has encountered hard stubble. Even if he paid protection money to the gang, the gang only promised not to harass him, not to protect him. None of the police in the United States is obliged to protect citizens, only to uphold the law, not to mention gang organizations? It's not a charitable organization.

The boss staggered to his feet, opened the cash drawer on the cash register, pulled out a few bills and handed them to Arthur. Arthur took the bill and gave it to Flo and asked her, "Count it, is there any less?" Flo nodded, and found that there was another twenty dollars, and she gave Arthur back. Arthur pasted the extra twenty dollars in the boss's face and said, "I won't want you any more, I'll only take what I deserve." ”

After saying that, Arthur let go of the boss's collar and looked up at the store, the customers were all looking cautiously in this direction, Arthur's eyes swept over, and they all lowered their heads. Don't say that Chinese watch more visitors, the same is true of Lao Mei. A tall, strong man with a gun, why do you stand out.

With a "jingle bell", Arthur left Cafe 55 with Flo. The boss poked his head out of the backstage, blood pouring down his cheekbones, looking quite terrifying. In fact, it's completely fine to hit here, it will only hurt and not hurt your life. But anger still filled his head, and he picked up the phone at the front desk and called his protégé.

"Bamond, I'm in a bit of trouble, someone is making trouble in my shop! Come here, I'll give you so much money every month, I need you to come over! ”

……

Flo followed Arthur out of the coffee shop, and she followed Arthur closely, the tall young man giving him a strong sense of security. As a single mother, there is no man in the family except for an unsuccessful younger brother and a son who has not grown up. Most of the time, Flo endured humiliation and suffered grievances from all sides, and in the world of the poor, dignity is always the first to be abandoned.

Arthur walked so fast that Flo had to speed up his pace to follow Arthur, and she looked back at Cafe 55 and said to Arthur worriedly, "This shop is covered by Barmond, I think they're going to come looking for trouble." ”

Arthur didn't speak, but looked at Flo, who was of Mexican descent with honey-colored skin, big eyes, a big mouth, and chestnut hair combed back in a bunch. She is less than thirty or forty, with a rich body, and she is far from being a stunner, but she is indeed very beautiful.

Flo felt Arthur's gaze and was a little uncomfortable, but she still followed closely and showed Arthur the way. Her family lives in an apartment building in Jackson Heights, and the two crossed a light rail line to a somewhat shabby apartment complex. Jackson Heights is the slum of Queens, and the slums are divided into the ordinary poor and the poorest of the poor, and they are bounded by the light rail line, and the Flo family lives in the poorest group.

Sewage accumulates on the roadside, brick-red and lead-gray buildings are densely lined up, and a mess of pipes and wires pass over the head. The huge green garbage bin emitted a foul stench, and Arthur saw a homeless man lying on the side of the road, holding the cigarette butts he had picked up, picking them one by one, leaving those that could still be smoked and preserved. Passers-by were in a hurry, and there were also a few idle people who gathered together to cast unkind glances, most of them Mexican faces.

In fact, in terms of income alone, Flo used to work as a maid in Tony's house, and the salary was not small, plus she had a part-time job, so she could live in a better place alone. But she has to support two children to send them to school, an unemployed mother, and a younger brother who often fools around, so she has to live in this kind of place. She used to go to Tony's every week to work, eat and live there, and the children were left in the care of her mother, and she came back to see the children on her days off.

In the Long Island area, Jackson Heights and Oyster Bay are two worlds, and that's America.

When the two came to the apartment building, the apartment corridor was still dark in broad daylight, and the glass on the windows was broken, and they were pasted with newspapers and oilcloths to block the wind and rain, but also the sunlight. Sewage and garbage can be seen everywhere on the ground, and there is a stinking smell. When I came to Flo's house, the ground was much cleaner, and there was a fresh smell of disinfectant water, which showed that Flo was a person who loved cleanliness.

Flo pulled out the key and opened the door, and from inside came an old woman's voice, speaking in Spanish, which Arthur did not understand. Flo replied, then said to Arthur, "It's my mother, I'm coming back a little early." Then he led Arthur through the door. It's a small one-bedroom apartment, and when you enter the door, you can see a little boy and a little girl sitting cross-legged in front of the TV watching cartoons. When they saw their mother come back, they all stepped forward to hug Flo. An old Mexican lady came out of the kitchen and saw Arthur with a wary look in her eyes.

Flo said a few words to the old lady, and the old lady's face immediately softened, and she enthusiastically stepped forward and pulled Arthur into the house, which made Arthur a little embarrassed. He wasn't here as a guest, but as a gang member to "confirm" Flo's family and make sure she didn't tell the story of that night, or her family's lives would be threatened.

The old lady didn't know this, but when she heard her daughter say that Arthur was the nephew of her employer, Tony, she came to visit, so she muttered Spanish and brought out a tortilla to entertain Arthur. Flo translated on the side: "My mother said, thank you for the work your uncle, she was sad after hearing that she could no longer work there, she said that the family needs someone to work. ”

"I'm here to give you a job. My Bertony is going to move somewhere else, and the house will be vacated and sold, so you don't have to go to Oyster Bay. Arthur said, looking at Flo's son and daughter, who were about the same age as the little girl, "You have two children, you should know how to take care of children under the age of 10?" ”

Flo snorted, her husband had abandoned her years ago, and she had gone to work alone in Phoenix, and later met a friend who was a maid and came to New York with her. After saving a little income, her mother from her hometown came to New York with her two children to settle down, and now she needs a job. She has no professional skills, but she is a good hand at housekeeping and taking care of children.

Arthur now has to find out where the little girl came from, and another thing is to find a reliable person to take care of her life. She lived with Russell for a few days, and it was said that Russell was about to be tortured and went crazy, and he would not take children at all. Flo is a good choice, she is timid and cautious, and she does not talk nonsense. Now that she has seen her family again, then she is a "friend" of the "godfather".

Arthur gave Flo an address and told her to go there at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, and Russell would tell her the specifics of the job. As for the salary, it is still the same as working as a maid at Tony's house, but the hours are shorter, the work is less, and she can go home every day to spend time with her own children.

Flo and her mother were so grateful to Dade that the old lady even hugged Flo and cried, because it was so hard for them, poor Mexicans, to find a good job here.

Arthur felt that he had almost done enough and was about to leave, he wanted to go back to St. James's Cathedral to see the old priest with a withered face who had suddenly disappeared.

"Knock knock!" Arthur was about to get up when there was a sudden knock on the door, Flo looked at the cat's eye, opened the door, and a young man with a short beard rushed in, his appearance and Flo were carved out of the same mold.

"Carlos, you're so frizzy again!" Flo blamed her brother Carlos.

Carlos saw Arthur sitting in the living room, and hurriedly said to Flo: "Sister, did someone call the boss of No. 55 just now?" You quit your job at the store? ”

Seeing Flo nodding, Carlos looked anxious, stamped his feet to Arthur, pointed to his nose and said, "Is it you?" Isn't it you? Have a finger in the pie! Who are you? Who made you nosy? Do you know how my sister got this job? You have offended someone, but you want me and my sister to help you bear it! ”

Arthur just looked at him coldly, Flo hurriedly stepped forward and pulled Carlos away, this guy is really crazy to dare to talk to Arthur like this.

"Sister, do you know that Balmond has come to the door and found me, and he is about to bring someone over! What to do? This kid can slip, what are you going to do? Mom, what about the children? Balmond will beat me to death! Carlos said that there was a crying voice, and the big man with a beard cried when he encountered something.

Flo was much calmer than him, mainly because she saw Arthur sitting there eating tortillas, and she had no intention of leaving, so she felt confident. She patted her brother's face, wiped away a few of his ridiculous tears, and said, "Calm Carlos, calm down, with Arthur here, he will take care of it." ”

Carlos looked at Arthur, who was eating his tortillas without saying a word, exuding a calming power.

"Old Mom, this tortilla is so delicious." Arthur complimented, and the old lady's face showed a smile, without the slightest look of anxiety.

She is well-informed, so she will not be as unproductive as her son.