Two People Who Hate Each Other Have To Cooperate [FICTOID]

The Adirondacks is a helluva place for a final showdown, but there they were:  The old school mafioso in a pinstripe suit, the far left radical in scruffy fatigues.   

Each would kill then other in the blink of an eye…

...only nobody blinked.

“I got a proposition for you,” said the mobster.

“No!” shouted the radical.  “Death to -- “

“ -- the fascist insect that preys on the lives of the people,” said the mobster.  “Yeah, yeah, I got that.  Yada-yada-yada, blah-blah-blah.  Now, do you want to hear what I’ve got to say, or do you want to piss your life away?”

“I’m listening,” the old radical said sullenly.

“Good.  Your job is going to be to get brooms -- “

“Oh, I will!” said the radical.

“ -- under the supervision of my crew.”

“Never!”

The mobster suddenly stepped up close, grabbing the radical’s belt buckle and yanking him in tight.  “Listen, poindexter, we are up to our ass in alligators.  If we don’t dig our way out of this quagmire, all your lofty ideals will fail.”

“What about you?” the radical demanded haughtily.

The mobster looked at his big, gaudy pinky ring.  If they survived their predicament, he intended to repeatedly smack the radical in the face with in in the aftermath.  “Yeah, what about me?  I’m as dead as you’ll be -- a fat lot of good that’ll do me, huh?”

A moment’s silence, then:  “So what do you propose.”

Good, thought the mobster.  He’s not too stupid to see the kernel of hope in my statements.  “If we want out we better start cooperating.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I say we kidnap the landlord’s daughter and demand our freedom and a ransom over the radio.”

“Good,” said the radical.  “I like it.”

“So glad it meets with your approval,” said the mobster under his breath.

© Buzz Dixon