descent to the pavement. He died quietly without a struggle. I carefully cleaned the ice pick with lighter fluid, lit it and left it in his heart. When I felt no remaining pulse, I stepped into the dark alleyway and casually turned right. With a relaxed, easy feeling glowing within, I returned to my car.
I drove to Love Field, pulled into the parking lot, took the ticket and went to the lobby, discarding the ticket in the first trash bin I passed. I talked up the teen-aged boy manning the Pizza Hut shop and casually flirted with him as I bought a beer and a slice of pizza, just another stranger waiting for a plane to arrive or depart. The difference is that I am a vigilant and expert stranger who has a dated and timed parking stub from my earlier trip through the parking lot, a pizza receipt from a kid who will remember me, and a baggage claim employee who will definitely recall my loud gripes. Phil is with Bucky at the game and can prove it. Should the question of my whereabouts ever come up, I have the time verifying evidence of my presence at the airport.
The End
A Moonlit Fright
As with most small towns in many states, the preferred spot for residents to meet was either the local general store or a favored eating establishment. Jericho, Texas was no different in that respect. However, the lack of an old-time General store left the citizens with only one option: Grubby's Grilled Grub. It was noted for its smoked brisket prepared by its founder Jackson 'Grubby' Grubbs. It was also noted for the rumors, humors, and gossip of Grubby as he leaned on the counter and directed the traffic around his order-taker and server, Loren Aylin. Loren, a fixture at Grubby's for the last twelve years was the butt of many cruel jokes by the young crowd because of his severe limp and his manner of speech--mostly slurring sounds that came with hitches as he tried to form the words to reply to the customers. Loren had been critically injured as a five year-old. His parents and he were returning from a Christmas day visit to his maternal grandparents when the weather turned wintery. Ice had formed on the highways and bridges making the drive hazardous.
On the overpass that crossed the Katy railroad tracks, the bridge was especially thick with ice caused by a clogged drain. The car entered the unseen ice on a downhill slant and suddenly turned sideways, out of control. It hit the abutment, bounced against the railing and fell onto the tracks some fifty feet below. Loren's mother and father were killed on impact but Loren, asleep in the back seat, survived the crash but was left with a crushed left leg and a severe head injury. He was hospitalized for a period of six months before being released to his grandparents for continued rehabilitation. Through rehabilitation, he learned to walk with the limp but never regained his ability to speak normally.
Grubbs had been the neighbors of Manfred and Greta Aylin and valued their friendship with more emotion than he ever displayed. After the accident, Loren had been taken to Kroy, Texas to live with his maternal grandparents. When Loren reached the age of majority, he returned to Jericho because his parents had loved the town and its people, especially Grubbs. Grubbs immediately hired Loren. His ties were deeper than he would admit to anyone. He knew Loren would have a struggle finding suitable employment to support himself. Once hired, Grubbs took him under his wing and dedicated himself to teaching him everything about the business. When Grubbs sensed that Loren had learned the job well enough, Loren became invaluable to him as he assumed more and more of the duties in the operation of the restaurant. He was a loyal, hard working man now and Grubbs depended heavily on Loren to keep the restaurant orderly, clean, and functioning smoothly.
Grubbs leaned heavily on the young people who tormented Loren with their wise cracks and cruel treatment. Three young men as well as their girlfriends were barred from entering the establishment because of pranks they had foisted on Loren. They could be served at the drive-thru but couldn't come inside to eat. All three resented the treatment but reluctantly followed the penalty Grubbs had placed on them. A local high school science teacher, Vernon Bulan, one of the few city residents who had befriended Loren, had warned Grubbs that those teenagers were troublesome before they graduated from Jericho High two years previous. He had said that they caused evacuation of the science lab more than once with their tricks of mixing volatile chemicals without permission.
In addition to the young people, there were several adults under the eye of Grubbs that he felt were mistreating Loren but none of the pranks were severe enough for Grubs to act in any way against them. But he kept close watch if their names came up when Loren spoke of being harassed.
Monday afternoon Grubbs noticed Loren sitting in the kitchen peeling potatoes, head down and crying as he worked. Grubbs pulled a chair beside Loren took a potato and stared peeling. In a few minutes, he casually asked, "Loren, these aren't onions, so why are you crying over peeled potatoes?"
Loren thought it was funny that Grubbs thought he was crying from the potato peeling and he giggled in his slurring way as he muttered, "Someone pulled another trick on me, Jack. It hurt my feelings."
"Oh, gee, buddy. I'm sorry about that. What did they do this time?"
"They had a girl call me yesterday after church and ask me to a picnic at Luna Lake. I drove out there to the Gazebo and saw her sitting at the table with a picnic basket. After I stumbled up the steps to where she sat I realized it was a scarecrow in girl's clothes. The basket was filled with horse poop and had a knife, fork, and a note that said 'Grubby's Grilled Horse Shit--Help Yourself."
Grubbs was inflamed by what he heard. He was red in the face and was squeezing the potato he held so hard that he had to trash it he had mangled it so harshly. He put his arm on Loren's back and with restraint, calmly asked, "Did you keep the note, Loren?"
"No, Jack. I left it in the basket. I didn't pick it up. Should I have?"
"We might have been able to figure out who wrote it but that's okay. I wouldn't have wanted to touch it either. If anything like this happens again, let me know sooner will you?"
He turned his teary face to Grubbs and with difficulty answered, "I sure will, Jack. I sure will."
Grubbs continued to stew as he and Loren finished the tub full of potatoes to boil for the masher as they readied the kitchen for the dinner hour. Grubbs left Loren at eleven to close for the night. Loren checked the kitchen from one end to the other and found all in order. He activated the alarms, locked the front door and went around back to his car. He started the engine, back out and drove to the front of the restaurant, turned right on the Highway and stopped at the light. While he was stopped, the man in the car next to him was signaling him and pointing at the back of his car. Loren pulled in at the corner drugstore, got out and before he managed to limp to the back of the car, a loud explosion erupted from the right rear. Loren jumped back hit the curb and fell over striking his head on the fireplug.
Two customers coming from the drugstore ran to his aid and the woman held his head while the man went for the pharmacist for help. The pharmacist grabbed a First Aid kit and ran to where Loren was now sitting up holding his bleeding head. They asked what happened and Loren told them of the driver who had signaled and then the explosion. The customer went to the rear of Loren's car and noticed hanging rubber strips. He used his pocket knife to pry the binding loose and brought the residue to where Loren sat. The pharmacist looked at it closely and said, "That's a Punching Balloon. We sell those as does almost every convenience store. They're much thicker than a regular balloon and kids can use them as a punching bag. Someone bound it to the tailpipe and the exhaust blew it up to where it exploded."
Loren added, "The man in the car that signaled must have seen it full before it blew up."
The customer nodded and addressed Loren, "Even as dark as it is it would have easily been seen being bright yellow. It was someone playing a prank on you."
The pharmacist cut the last piece of adhesive and asked, "Do you feel strange, have any dizziness, or nausea? You could have a slight concussion from the blow to your head. Stay up a little later tonight, Loren. Make certain that you don't have vision problems, dizzi
ness or nausea. If you have any of those symptoms, get to the hospital clinic as soon as you can. Change the bandage tomorrow evening after you shower."
The pharmacist helped Loren to his feet and made him walk around while being observed. His walk was good even with his leg problem, so the pharmacist felt that he could continue his trip home alone. Loren thanked him and the customers for their help and slowly drove home feeling none of the symptoms described by the pharmacist. He stayed up until two when he felt safe to sleep.
Grubbs was in the kitchen when Loren showed for the work day. He saw the bandage, poured two cups of coffee and had Loren sit with him and tell him exactly what had happened. Grubbs was enraged but held it in to keep from upsetting Loren even more than his manner and voice indicated that he felt. Grubbs told him that if he wanted to take the day off and rest it would be okay, but Loren insisted he was fine and wanted to stay. He told Grubbs that if he felt worse later on that he would leave and Grubbs was okay with that offer.
After the doors were open for business and things were going well, Grubbs left to do some banking and a few errands. The main errand he had in mind was to check the stores and determine if
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