2. I Second That Emotion

3. Bad Moon Rising

4. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

5. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing

6. Wouldn’t It Be Nice

*I Heard it Through the Grapevine, there was a *Bad Moon Rising real soon. My contact down at the wharves, Lefty, had never turned me wrong yet. Course, he had once taken a wrong turn, which is why he was now called Lefty..but that’s not important right now.

Ever since I got away from that broad and the Butler, it seemed like my cases were getting better and better. By that, I mean more dough in my pocket. Or maybe it was that I had changed my name to be more tough, ya know what I mean. I called myself Jack Spade now.

Anyway, *You Can’t Always Get What You Want, but at least 1 outta 3 cases were good enough to be worthy of the Spade family. There really *Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, baby.

So there I was sittin’ on the wharf, cold, damp and gettin’ kinda grumpy when the big black car arrived. Lefty had been right, so far.

Well whadda ya know? Who steps outta that car but the very same broad who was all set to plug me. She sure looked different from the show girl I last saw her as.

‘*Wouldn’t It Be Nice if she was up to no good,’ I thought as I watched from the phone booth. I had taken the bulb out so she couldn’t see me there.

When she opened that case and I saw all that cold, hard cash, I dropped the dime anyway. No way she’d be there this time of night, alone, and still have honorable intentions.

I followed her at a discreet distance to the warehouse. She passed the cash bag to some swarthy lookin’ stevedore, big enough I wasn’t gonna tangle with him. He handed her back a very small leather bag in exchange. I had a feeling I knew what was in a pouch that small.

I waited till she got back to her car. Just like a dame, she just had to open the pouch and look at what she had.

“Beautiful,” she cooed as the diamonds spilled into her white gloved hand.

“*I Second That Emotion, baby,” I said as I ****** my .38 special in her ear. No way I was takin’ chances with this dame again.

She was good, but I remembered two things. She was a good actress and she was colder than the fish layin’ on ice in that warehouse. But see, I had learned a thing or two since, and I had her singin’ like a canary. Maybe I gave her the idea that I was willing to deal, and maybe I would have once. But she had tried real hard to kill me. Ain’t gonna happen twice, ya know what I mean?

By the time the Lieutenant got there, I had it all wrapped up for him. The whole plan, how they smuggled the diamonds inside those fish, where they came from, who headed the operation and where she was taking them once she paid the men off.

I told the Lieutenant, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine, a Bad Moon Rising. You Can’t Always Get What You Want, but There Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing. Wouldn’t It Be Nice if they all were this easy, two birds, one stone?”

The Lieutenant eyed me as he chewed on his cigar. He had stopped biting through them when he saw me now, but he wouldn’t admit he had started to kinda like me. He then looked over at the boat, the “Bad Moon,’ she was called.

All he said was, “I Second That Emotion, Spade. Come by tomorrow and get your reward. You can add it to your fee that I am sure you are still gonna collect.”

I just winked at him, tipped my hat and walked off to find Lefty. I was gonna buy him a drink, maybe two. It had been a good night, even if it had been a cold. I figured I was gonna call this one, “The Big Chill,” on account of all the ice involved.

OK so not really a story but there you go

“I second that emotion, but what exactly does any of this change? The goals here are the same and the plan remains unaltered. Unfortunately, if he recognizes us, he’s going to have to be erased.”

“All I know is this job is becoming infinitely more complicated. I heard it through the grapevine that the vault is only half as full as we thought on top of everything else. I’m not sure if it’s all worth it.”

“Well, Ben. Let me put it to you this way. You’ve come this far and you know everything. You know the bank. You know what type of vault it has. You know each and every one of us involved and you even know the meeting place where we all are going to divvy up. If you back out now, you become a serious liability, and there is only one way to deal with a liability. Do you get my drift?”

A sigh wafted through the pay phone. You just didn’t have conversations like these on cell phones.

“I get you Steve. I just have serious reservations about this job. I mean we both know Davis really well. He’s sure to recognize us!”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if every situation was ideal, but, simply put, you can’t always get what you want. This is not x box. This is not playstation. We’re not in “Grand theft auto III” here. Those games ain’t nothing like the real thing. You’re about to be living the real thing. Davis may indeed recognize us. Hell…Davis might join us. But we’ll deal with all that when the time comes.”

Another sigh. If there was a national sighing bee, Ben Rogers would win every time.

“Alright Steve. I see a bad moon rising over this one, but in for a penny in for a pound. Meet you there in a half hour.”

They hung up.

Steve Langley picked up his duffle bag and walked into an alley.

So what if the bank picked up Sargent Davis in his off time as a security guard? It wasn’t like Langley was in love with the man any way. If something tragic happened to Davis, he wouldn’t cry a solitary tear.

Giving one last glance to make sure he was unobserved, officer Steve Langley, ten solid years on the force, reached into the duffle bag and pulled out the ski mask. He checked his service revolver to make sure it was loaded and pulled the ski mask over his head.

To serve and protect. When it came to his own interests, that was Steve Langley’s motto. To serve and protect……

“Wouldn’t it be nice to fall in love?” Jessica asked her best friend, Sarah. Sarah replied, “Yes, sister, I second that emotion. Problem is, all the guys we have been meeting lately are all such phonies.” Jessica agreed, “You’re right. I hate it when guys tell us lies, just to get what they want — ain’t nothing like the real thing”

“You can’t always get what you want,” Sarah said. Sometimes you just have to settle for what you can get.” Jessica answered, “I’m not that desperate. I heard it through the grapevine that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Let’s learn how to cook!”

“Nah! We’d just get fat doing that,” Sarah said matter-of-factly. “We need to hang out where the guys are. Let’s go to the firing range, and learn to shoot guns.” Jessica replied, excitedly, “Yeah! Then, if guys don’t treat us right, we can shoot them!”

Sarah laughed, “No, I just meant we should go where the guys go so we can meet them.” Jessica exclaimed, “OK. Maybe we could just scare them a little, and they would treat us with respect. No more lies!”

We leave Sarah and Jessica happily looking through the Yellow Pages for Firing Ranges. They were singing “Bad Moon Rising.”

2. I Second That Emotion

3. Bad Moon Rising

4. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

5. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing

6. Wouldn’t It Be Nice

Marcia stood silhouetted against the glimmering sapphire of the evening sky. Her crimson cloak billowed in the rising breeze, swirling in loops and eddies around her naked body, as her amber hair swooped around her thrown-back head. 6. Wouldn’t It Be Nice, she thought, if Charles were here to share this with us? A small voice purred in her mind: “2. I Second That Emotion, but as you well know, Mistress, 4. You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Marcia chuckled, glancing over at the charcoal shadow that was her slinky familiar, Astaroth, twining through the shrubs surrounding her ritual circle. His emerald eyes sparkled with humor as he glanced her way in return. Suddenly, he stiffened, turned, sniffed the horizon. “Someone comes, Mistress — they come to seize your power!”

Gasping, Marcia followed the cat’s focused gaze, seeing nothing. “How can you tell, sweet one? How do you KNOW this?” she whispered, desperately.

“The very plants do speak to me, Mistress. 1. I Heard It Through The Grapevine that winds its way over the far meadows and down to this lonesome hollow.”

Marcia glanced doubtfully over the hilltop, straining her eyes in the darkness. Suddenly, she froze in terror. “It is all well and good to hear the plants speak, little one, but it 5. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, is it? Listen, I hear the baying of the hounds rising with the wind! Tis true, they come, they come seeking me! Where, oh where is the moon? I need the moon to gather my power unto me!”

Far down the other side of the hill, the villagers stalked with their hounds, their torches, hurrying to beat moonrise, knowing of the power it would bring their tormentors, the witches and warlocks. Once, long ago, they welcomed the harvest moons as they rose, using their brilliant light for joyous celebrations. But now, tortured by the evils of witchcraft, this harvest moon became simply one more 3. Bad Moon Rising.

He glanced outside the window and saw the full moon grabbing hold of the night sky..a silvery thief..a bad moon rising..a…

Mr. Fallon’s gravelly voice interrupted his reverie.

“Wouldn’t it be nice, if things actually went my way? I know they say you can’t always get what you want..but I deserve to get everything I want. Isn’t that right Anton?”

Anton kept his eyes lowered as he looked at William Fallon, the most dangerous crime boss the city had ever known..and his employer.

“Um..yes Mr. Fallon. I second that emotion. Uh..umm you should get everything you want..Um..uh..”

Anton pulled the briefcase that was between his feet onto his lap. He glanced at the ring on his finger. Pure gold. Ain’t nothing like the real thing..he thought with a slight grin. He was living the high life..

The limo slowly drove throught the dark night.

“Um yeah look what I got.” Anton opened the suitcase and handed it over to his boss. The briefcase full of stacks of 50s and 100s seemed to please him.

“Why that’s great Anton. It’s all here?”

“Yep, a quarter mill. Just like you asked them for.”

“Fabulous!” Mr. Fallon slightly nodded towards the driver, and Anton noticed they suddenly turned off the main road onto a desereted side street.

“Um..boss where we goin? This isn’t the way!”

Mr Fallon slowly looked at him. “I heard it through the grapevine that you got sticky fingers Anton, that you like to help yourself to the pot.”

Anton felt all his body heat suddenly leave him in one fell swoop. The stolen 2 grand in his coat pocket feeling like hot lead on his icy skin.

“What boss? Who?..um who would say such a..a thing?

“Doesn’t matter who. What matters if they were right. We’ll find out one way or another tonight..won’t we Anton?”

The Limo slowly came to a stop infront of an abandoned warehouse and Anton knew he had nowhere to run.

So much for the high life.