The next morning Karl, Al, and I went to McDonough High at six. There were police on every corner and if you weren't a student or a parent you weren't allowed within two blocks. Police ran wands over every student as they entered the building. The closest we could get was three blocks away.
By the time the bell sounded, it seemed like everything was under control. Police remained at every door and on the four corners surrounding the school. We waited until ten and then drove to the bowling alley to check out their hangout. We parked in the empty bowling alley lot and walked around the corner. No one was there, but as we walked to the center of the area we could see something had been painted on the back wall of the bowling alley building.
The blood will spill down the warrior's mountain. Their Abercrombie and Fitch will be stained forever!
"What the hell does it mean?" Karl said. He squatted down and picked something up. "More shells."
"I'd feel a whole lot better if I knew where these punks were," I said.
"Yeah, I say they hit McDonough after lunch."
"And what do we do?"
"We wait, watch, and pray," Karl said. That was exactly what we did in the El Dorado, after we parked by McDonough. Al kept it interesting by farting a lot and Karl gave me long explanations on UFO's, Bigfoot, and the conspiracy that got Malcolm X killed. We talked about hydrogenated fat, Oreos, and the use of pesticides. We talked about social work, the military and whether or not the Yankees pitching would hold up. Al flipped over on his back, would eventually get restless, clear his intestines of gaseous build up, and flop over again. Elvis did Gospel and then the Elvis is Back album from when he returned from Germany. Nothing happened at lunch and at 1:37 p.m. Jamal spotted us as he walked to his car. I gave him a faint beep and he squinted in our direction. Once he realized it was us, he came over.
"They never came in," Jamal said.
"Everything normal in there?"
"If you call everybody being petrified, cops all over the place, lockers being searched, dogs, and metal detectors normal."
"Jamal, what's your gut tell you about these kids in black."
"I don't know, Duff. I've been doing this a long time. They're goofy white boys who banded together to do goofy white shit your people do-watch Star Trek, laugh at Seinfeld, play Dungeons and Dragons-that shit."
"Could they be killers?"
"I don't know, Duff. Hey, I read Psychology Today. They're angry, dis-en-franchised and their parents aren't around. Shit, describes most of the student body."
"What about the shit written in the bathroom?"
"Don't know. Creepy shit, but whether or not it was just stuff to get out of school or genuine warning I don't know."
"It said something about mountains, warriors and the Gap?"
"Abercrombie and Fitch. C'mon Duff, the cool white kids stopped goin' to the Gap."
"Hold it!" Karl startled us with the yell. Al sneezed and cleared his jowls from the outburst.
"What's up Karl?" I said.
"Mountain, warriors and a reference to rich clothing?"
"Yeah, so?" Jamal said.
"VHS's nickname is the Mountain Warriors. The kids all wear Abercrombie and Fitch," Karl said.
The three of us got real quiet. Al was sitting up.
"And the kids we're looking for ain't here," Karl said. I put the car in drive without saying goodbye to Jamal.