A while back I had seen some dead people. Kelley shot a guy in the back of the head as the scumbag was about to rape a little girl. The term “blown his head off” is so overused that it’s meaningless until you’re standing in front of someone when it happens. There was blood all over, and the image of what was a breathing human being now was right there for you to contemplate, shattered and oozing life. For whatever reason, I remember the smell.
There was a smell of gunfire and there was the almost metallic smell of blood, and there was something else-what I perceived was the smell of death.
I was going in and out of the present while I looked down at the dead cop and the video of the other death I saw played in my head. The corner of the top of his head and the eye on that side of his face was gone while the other eye remained closed. A wave of the smell reached me and I puked without having a chance to bend over.
The yakking brought me back into the present as only barfing can do, but I knew I was going to be battling nightmares and what I called “daymares” all over again. I didn’t feel real and I had no idea how much time had elapsed. Al was sitting at my feet, at attention, sensing something untoward and important was happening. His nostrils never stopped moving even while the rest of him remained still.
I started to breathe heavily and I could hear my heart beating when a voice shook me back to the moment.
“Help me… help…” The voice came from the field, and it was close.
Al ran twenty feet ahead and stopped, his tail straight out.
I followed and came across another uniformed cop bleeding hard from the chest. He was a light-skinned black guy with a weightlifter’s build, and his uniform was soaked with blood. A deep scarlet hole to the left side of his chest seeped blood like a sump pump.
“Oh God…,” I heard myself say. I didn’t have any idea what to do, so I ripped off my T-shirt and placed it over the wound. The cop sucked in a few painful breaths, but otherwise he was barely breathing.
“Call… call…” He pointed to his radio.
I pushed the yellow button on the side and said “hello” several times until some sort of dispatcher responded. I don’t know what I said, but he said something about ambulances and not to go any place.
I kept my T-shirt in place and my head drifted away. I think I threw up a few more times and I know I was shivering, but everything that was happening was blurry. Then there was some activity and I remembered seeing Kelley’s face and the look on it. Then a detached voice said, “They’re all dead.”
The next morning I came to in the spare bedroom in Rudy’s house. Al was sleeping next to me and I awoke feeling half drunk. Rudy poked his head in the doorway; he was wearing a ratty robe that probably used to be white. He was sipping coffee.
“Valium, kid. Trust me, you needed it,” he said.
I tried to talk and it didn’t make much sense to me, but Rudy handed me a cup of coffee. Al sat up and just looked at me. He didn’t fuss or bark, which was weird enough on its own.
“You remember much from last night?” Rudy asked.
“I remember dead cops… one still alive, lots of blood. What the hell happened?” I said.
“They were ambushed. All four are dead. You blacked out and went into shock when the cop you were helping died.”
“How’d I get here?”
“Kelley brought you around eight.”
“What time is it now?”
“Four.”
“Who did it?”
“They have no idea.”
The coffee was helping and so was the conversation. I didn’t feel like things were real.
“What’s it mean to go into shock?” I asked.
“Your body shuts off when it’s had too much either physical or psychological shit happen too fast. It can be dangerous but you’re fine… physically, anyway.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Kid, take it easy for a while. Read some books, rent some Elvis movies, walk the dog…”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yeah, I know. Like there’s a chance in hell of that happening,” Rudy said.
By nine that night the Valium was out of my system, so I decided to add some Schlitz to it. I didn’t feel like sitting around the Blue by myself getting weirder by the minute. I headed to AJ’s, and Elvis and “One Broken Heart for Sale” on the way helped-Elvis always helped.
I was heading in the front door when I heard Billy’s voice.
“Sir!” he said, wheeling his bike out from behind the side of the cookie factory. I could see the spokes of the bike but I couldn’t see Billy.
“Billy?”
“Here, sir.” He pulled his ninja mask down to show his face. I thought to myself that life couldn’t get much weirder.
“What’s going on?”
“Are you okay, sir?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I heard about your night, sir.”
“How did you hear about my night?”
“I have a police scanner, sir.”
“Yeah, well, I’m okay. Shouldn’t you be home?”
“Sir, I wanted to check on you, sir.”
“Billy, you don’t need to check on me. Go on home.”
“Sir, yes sir,” Billy said and then peddled away.
Well, it was good to know I had a ninja guardian angel/stalker looking out for me.
The boys were in and at it. Tonight they were absorbed in the Kennedy assassination.
“The mafia was up there in the suppository,” Rocco said.
“I think you mean ‘depository.’ The Texas School Book Depository,” Jerry Number Two said.
“What the hell was that, anyway?” Jerry Number One asked.
“That’s where they kept the books for kids in school,” TC said.
“But it was November and the kids were in school. Why did Texas have so many extra books?” Rocco asked.
“I don’t know, but that’s where Lee Wilkes Booth shot him,” TC said.
“You mean Lee Harvey,” Jerry Number One said.
“Lee Harvey? That’s the guy who does the radio news and says ‘Lee Harvey… Good day!’” Rocco said.
“That guy shot Kennedy? When did that come out?” TC asked.
Kelley was drinking and looking straight ahead, oblivious to everything else.
“Sorry, Kell.” It was all I could think of.
“Jackson’s wife is pregnant with their second. They have a three-year-old,” he said.
“Do they have any idea who?”
“No, none. It’s gotten very strange. They tried talking to you and you gave them what you knew in between passing out. You okay?”
“Yeah-it brought back some of the shit from last time.”
“Don’t mess with that shit, Duff.”
“I know.”
We sat in silence through two more beers each. Finally, Kelley broke it.
“I know this goes against everything I ever say to you, but if you come up with something, make sure you let me know,” he said.