Lana swallowed hard as she served the men she was told to watch for drinks. Her heart raced, but her hands remained steady. Luckily, she could be stoic when need be. A wealth of information flowed from these men that she only hoped she could remember half of. For a moment she contemplating writing what she heard down, but it was a fleeting moment at that. Silly Lana doesn't know how to write. A frown pulled at the corner of her lips when she turned away to reach for a bottle. None saw, or felt it, save her. She kept her eyes low and her face apathetic publicly. With the life of what supposedly lived in her stomach on the line, she was being quite a good spy.
Charlton, as he was known, had a much more difficult job. With genuine consideration, he concluded trying to get inside of the houses instructed would be nothing short of suicide. He loved Lana, and who she carried, but he was hardly a man led alone a brave one. With hours of contemplation, a light bulb appeared in his head. The houses were wealthy, but still occupied the areas of busy streets and other public establishment of the borderline middle class.
Using some of the money he had been awarded as the first payment, Charlton went to the penny and dime shop. The old man who worked there had watched Charlton grow up, and knew him very well.
"Well hullo m'boy! You're looking mighty healthy if I do say so ma'self."
"Good day to you Grangle. I think I can part with a few pennies today in hopes to earn them back with what I buy."
"Going to be an entrepreneur-of-a-boy, are ya? Well what can I do ya for?"
"Well I think I'll start with a stool, a bag of rags, and a shoe polish... I don't know how shoe polish is sold. By the tin?"
"A shoe shiner! I never thought I'd see the day.
With a chuckle, old Grangle took Charlton around the otherwise unoccupied store. the young man left with a discounted green stool, a bag with about 20 rags, and 5 'tins' of shoe polish. Change still jingled in Charlton's pocket.
Setting up in front of the designated houses, Charlton had a good view of the comings and goings of the place. Hopefully he could get adequate information for this position to satisfy that ghost waif of a woman...and maybe he could make a few dimes while he was at it.
Only a few minutes went by before he had his first customer. Its times like this he's glad his father used to punish him by making him polish all the shoes in the house.