The Many and the One

by Donald Wells

  After further explaining the situation to his parents, Jason goes to his room and spots the blinking light on his answering machine.

  Lindsay? Maybe she called while I was in the kitchen.

  He pushes the button expecting to hear the woman he loves, and instead, he hears Derek’s taunting voice.

  “Jason are you there? No? Fuck, I wanted to talk to you. Lindsay thinks you’re cheating Jason. I sent her pictures of you with another girl and she called me over here to help pay you back. I’m in her bed right now, and oh yeah, I’m also in Lindsay, and damn she feels good.”

  In the background of the tape, Lindsay can be heard faintly, moaning, telling Derek, “Stop pushing, let me sleep, oh God please stop, it hurts.”

  He’s hurting her. She’s begging him to stop and he’s hurting her.

  “Lindsay’s in a little pain, I guess she’s not used to a man-size cock anymore after being with you. Oh Jason this is one sweet ride. Number 29 is very fine.”

  Derek laughs wildly, the manic laughter of a cocaine high.

  Laughed while he raped her,

  “Listen to this Jason. The sound a real cock makes when it moves in and out, in and out, ooohh, that’s a good sound.”

  He put the phone down—there—so I could hear it.

  For nearly a minute the obscene sounds of rape can be heard, and in the background, barely audible, are Lindsay’s drugged pleas of protest.

  Derek speaks. “Here comes the grand finale. Oh mother mother mother ooooohhhhh!” There’s a pause, followed by, “I just dropped a gallon in her, why don’t you come and lick it up. You thought you could just take my girl away? Fuck you asshole, she’s mine!”

  Before Derek slams the phone down, Lindsay can be heard again, faintly.

  “Jason, Jason help me.”

  But Jason can’t help. It’s already far too late.

  Jason closes his eyes against the pain and when next he opens them, Death is looking out.

  * * *

  Paul and Simone are in Lindsay’s kitchen; they’re talking and drinking coffee.

  “I’m so glad Lindsay fell asleep, it’ll do her some good.” Simone says.

  “I think you should get her to a doctor tomorrow.” Paul says.

  “I’ll try.”

  “Baby,”

  “Yes?”

  “If it had happened to you I don’t know what I’d… I love you.”

  “I love you too Paul.”

  They stretch across the table to kiss and then stand and embrace.

  “I feel so bad for her.” Simone says. “I wish that—” The phone rings. “Paul grab that before it wakes Lindsay.”

  “Hello, Parker residence, oh hi, I—What? How long ago? Oh God, yes, right now, okay I’ll call you soon.”

  “Paul what’s wrong? Who was that?”

  “Jason’s father, he says Jason’s taken the car and he thinks he’s on his way to Derek’s. Wake Lindsay up, we’ve got to beat him up there before he gets into trouble.”

  * * *

  Paul’s knuckles are white.

  Racing up Hills Road in the dark is insane, and yet, farther up the narrow, winding road are the glowing red taillights of another car, and Paul isn’t even getting close to catching it. It must be Jason.

  “Paul, why would he come up here? He calmed down, I know it. I saw it in his eyes.”

  “I don’t know Lindsay, I’ve seen him angry, but I never saw him angry enough to kill.”

  “But that’s just it, he wasn’t angry, he, he was purposeful, and so sure that killing Derek was the only thing to do, the only possible response. Oh God I’m so scared.”

  “Paul,” Simone says. “Faster honey,”

  Paul doesn’t answer. He’s already pressed down harder on the accelerator. The car he believes is being driven by Jason has crested the hill and is out of sight. Time is running out.

  * * *

  McGee is in the Stern living room, across from the home’s main entrance, outside, thunder rumbles and lightning flashes in increasing frequency. He’s been watching television with Derek for hours, waiting, now he clicks off the TV with a sigh, as even his patience has limits.

  “Hey kid, when’s this trouble coming?”

  “Oh, sooner or later he’ll come.” Derek says.

  “It better be sooner, I’m getting bored.”

  “Mother pays you to do things like this McGee, so shut up, he’s coming.”

  “Yeah, well whoever he is better get here soon or—” From the circular driveway comes the screech of tires and the banging of a car door.

  Derek says, “He’s here.” while pushing the button on a burglar alarm control panel that will summon the police.

  “It’s about freakin’ time, hand me that bat now will you kid?”

  * * *

  Death has come to the Stern estate.

  Jason stands before the massive pieces of ornate glass that comprise the front doors of the home. Thunder deafens amid a blaze of lightning, as rain begins falling in a torrent. A chandelier brilliantly lights the entrance hall, and beyond the foyer, in the room adjacent, is Derek, a smirking Derek, taunting him to come on in.

  Stone planters flank the locked glass doors. The plants they hold are dormant now in winter, but they remain filled with soil. Jason bends down and muscles one of the heavy pots up and hurls it through the doors. There’s a massive clatter as an avalanche of glass and dirt cascade onto the black marble floor of the entryway. Jason steps through the wreckage and heads toward the threshold of the living room, toward Derek.

  * * *

  McGee is pressed flat against the right side of the doorway, waiting, with bat cocked.

  An instant before entering the room, Jason glimpses movement reflected on the blank TV screen.

  He bends, and enters the room low, while feeling the bat whoosh over his head. There’s a loud clunk as the bat slams into the molding of the doorway.

  McGee is shaken. He’d been braced to impact against the soft flesh of Jason’s face, not the unyielding oak of the doorway. His hands stinging, McGee drops the bat.

  Jason retrieves it and swings hard into McGee’s mid-section.

  The sandwich that took McGee twenty minutes to eat, now reappears in seconds.

  * * *

  Jason turns toward Derek, who is standing near the fireplace. Derek gawks at him, his mouth agape at the ease in which Jason took care of McGee. Jason’s not the first man to come up here in a rage, but he’s the only one to ever get pass McGee.

  “I am going to kill you.” Death tells Derek. Jason is now submerged. Standing here is Death, the ancient urge to kill: The Eradicator.

  “Why don’t you drop the bat chicken shit?” Derek taunts. “Or are you afraid to go one on one with me?”

  Death tosses the bat aside and approaches its prey.

  Derek grins at the discarded bat. “I’m gonna kick your ass squirt.” He feigns throwing a punch, then delivers a vicious kick into Jason’s side.

  Jason grunts from the pain and falls to the floor at Derek’s feet. He reaches out and grips Derek’s left ankle and then yanks, hard. Derek goes off-balance and falls, on the way down, the back of his head smacks against the edge of the mantelpiece and he lies on the floor, stunned.

  Jason straddles him and begins pummeling Derek with rights and lefts. The punches aren’t thrown in anger and they aren’t thrown in haste. Each blow is hard and on target, Derek’s face, the face that makes women swoon with lust, is fast becoming a bloody pulp.

  * * *

  Paul barrels his car into the Stern driveway and comes to a skidding halt.

  Simone gasps. “Oh my God, look at the front doors we’re too late.”

  Lindsay jumps out of the car and splashes her way toward the house.

  “No Jason don’t do it! Please don’t do it.”

  “Wait Lindsay!” Paul calls after her. “Let me go first.” But she’s nearly halfway to the door.

  * * *

  McGee pulls hi
mself up off the floor and onto his knees. He’s so nauseated that he is dizzy. He looks to his right and sees Jason beating an insensible Derek to death, blood spattering with each new punch.

  Jason stops striking Derek and simply stares at him, and then he bends down and clamps both hands around Derek’s throat.

  McGee murmurs, “Christ, he’s gonna strangle the kid to death.” He takes a gun out of an ankle holster and is about to squeeze the trigger, when Paul steps into the room and kicks him in the face. The gun drops to the floor, and so does McGee.

  Lindsay and Simone enter the room, following Paul, and all three now turn from the unconscious McGee and stare at Jason. Lindsay runs to him and falls down on her knees.

  Jason is unaware of anything except what he is doing. He is strangling the life out of Derek.

  “You raped her and thought you could live. What made you think I would let you live after hurting her?”

  It is the Death voice again. Lindsay feels a shiver run down her spine.

  Paul grabs Jason from behind and tries to force him off Derek. He succeeds only in dragging Jason and Derek across the floor, smearing a scarlet trail of blood upon the white carpet. Jason has a hold of Derek’s throat and he is not letting go.

  Lindsay looks at Derek’s face; the skin showing through the blood is tinged with purple.

  Derek flails about wildly now, but the weight of Jason’s body holds him to the floor and his attempts to break Jason’s grip are feeble.

  Lindsay grabs Jason’s left arm and feels it trembling from his efforts to crush Derek’s windpipe. She looks into Jason’s face. He is not there.

  “Jason let him go!”

  Death still strangles.

  “Jason you have to let him go, if you kill him they’ll lock you up for murder.”

  Death feels something give in Derek’s throat, and increases its pressure.

  “Jason I couldn’t stand it if they did that.”

  Still strangling,

  “Jason he’s not worth rotting in prison over, he’s not worth us losing each other over. Please let him go or they’ll take you away from me!”

  Death is very near.

  Lindsay leans closer now, and is almost whispering in Jason’s ear when next she speaks.

  “Boomer, don’t leave me Boomer I love you.”

  Death releases its grip and Jason looks out through Jason’s eyes.

  “Lindsay?” He says, confused. When asked, he’ll say the last thing he truly remembers is listening to Derek’s message.

  Derek lies on the floor gasping like a dying fish, while making a horrific sound every time he breathes, but he is breathing. He’s also one bloody battered mess.

  As Paul helps Jason up, Jason grunts in pain, as he grabs his side where Derek kicked him.

  “Honey are you all right? What hurts?” Lindsay asks.

  “I think I have a broken rib.”

  “Oh God, honey we have to get you to the hospital.”

  From the doorway comes a gruff voice. “Forget the hospital. You’re all going to jail.”

  The Ocean Beach Island Police have arrived.

  10

  Three police cars and an ambulance were dispatched after Derek hit the alarm. The Stern name and address tend to demand quick responses, and it would not be wise to under react to a summons from the richest person on the Island.

  Charlotte had been tending tomatoes in her greenhouse; she had not known anything was wrong, until Marta came out pleading for her to return to the house.

  Charlotte asks McGee what happened, as Marta lovingly nurses the cut that McGee received from Paul’s kick.

  McGee points to Jason, who is sitting handcuffed in a chair. “He happened! He happened the shit out of us.”

  Charlotte stares at Jason until it’s time to accompany Derek to the hospital. Her gaze is not unlike the Death look that had been in Jason’s eyes earlier.

  Chief of Police, Roy Hargrove, a thirty-six year veteran, arrives and sizes up the situation at once—a lover’s triangle gone wrong.

  “Yeah, looks like young Mr. Stern picked the wrong guy’s girl this time, and I’m not a damn bit surprised it’s a Reynolds. I swear these two families have been fighting each other since Cain and Abel. Shit, years ago I broke up a fight between their fathers, still, it’s a shame how some of these babes get two guys going at it.”

  Paul overhears this and responds. “Chief, Jason attacked Derek over Lindsay, that’s true, but it wasn’t unprovoked, Derek drugged and raped Lindsay earlier.”

  Hargrove chuckles, “Rape? Son, the Stern kid doesn’t need to take it, the girls are all tit over twat in love with his looks. At least they were until your friend rearranged them.”

  Paul gawks, stunned. If this Neanderthal’s running the show, then Jason is in big trouble.

  * * *

  Jason is to be arraigned in the morning, on the following charges:

  Trespassing, committing property damage, breaking and entering, two counts of assault and an attempt to commit murder. If found guilty of all charges, he would be behind bars for years,

  Jason’s rib is cracked, not broken, while Derek is not so well off. He has a concussion, three loose teeth, a broken nose, black eyes, and the appearance of his perfect face is going to remain a mystery until the swelling goes down.

  The near-fatal strangling has also left him unable to speak above a faint whisper, in a rasp akin to a death rattle—it very nearly was.

  * * *

  Jason’s parents join Lindsay, Simone and Paul in a waiting room at the police station.

  Marjorie shrieks at Lindsay. “This is your fault. All of it! Jason is going to prison because of you. You’ve ruined his life.” Then she breaks down and cries.

  Lindsay, taken aback, attempts to reply. “Mrs. Reynolds I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I…”

  Adam steps between the two women. “Maybe we should discuss this at a later time Lindsay, we’re all upset.” He then guides Marjorie away to a corner of the room.

  “Jason’s mom is distraught honey; she doesn’t mean what she said.”

  “Yes she does Simone, and she’s right, it’s all my fault. I drank myself stupid crying over those damn pictures and then I let Derek in. I didn’t have to let him in.”

  “Oh, honey don’t think like that. Lindsay you’re not to blame.”

  In a small voice Lindsay says. “It’s all my fault, all of it.”

  Chief Hargrove enters the room with a tall man, the man is about thirty-years-old with short dark hair and a trim moustache. The man wears a spotless, pressed uniform and shoes so well shined they appear new.

  The Chief speaks to Adam. “I’m afraid your boy’s in serious trouble.”

  The tall man looks around the room. “I’m Deputy Chief Rollins. The situation looks bad, but we’re still investigating and I would like to talk to all of you. Excuse us for a moment please.”

  Rollins pulls Hargrove aside. “What’s the story on the rape allegation in this case?”

  Hargrove rolls his eyes. “Listen Bob, I’m not about to accuse Charlotte Stern’s son of rape, not when I’m only a year away from retirement, you know how vindictive that bitch is.”

  Rollins stares at Hargrove in disbelief.

  Remarkable, he’s actually intimidated by the Stern woman.

  “Let me handle this one Chief? It’ll save you a headache.”

  Hargrove runs a pudgy hand through his thinning gray hair, as he thinks this over.

  “If you want this fuckfest Bob, take it, but screw it up and Charlotte Stern will have you out ticketing cars.”

  “I’ll do my best Chief.” Rollins says.

  Paul whispers, “Thank God.” upon learning that Rollins, and not Hargrove, is handling the case.

  * * *

  Jason spent the night in jail, while Derek spent it in the hospital. Derek’s head is so wrapped in bandages that he resembles a mummy.

  Jason’s arraignment is postponed and Rollins arranges a meeting of a
ll interested parties in the case. The meeting is held inside a third floor conference room at police headquarters.

  Derek and Charlotte arrive and find Jason, Lindsay, Simone and Paul all present. Lindsay and Jason’s parents are in attendance also, along with McGee.

  Rollins sits at the head of a long table with the sun streaming in behind him. In front of him are a tape recorder, a manila folder and a pen. Jason sits to Rollins’ left, with Lindsay on his left, beneath the table, he and Lindsay hold hands, the only remaining chairs are the ones opposite them.

  Charlotte points at Jason. “What is that man doing out of jail?”

  “I would first like to thank you all for coming here today,” Rollins says. “Particularly you Mr. Stern, I hope you feel better than you look.”

  “FuckthewayIlook,” Derek the Mummy answers, between his raspy voice and bandaged face he is unintelligible. He also has a severe case of “Red eye” as the near-fatal strangulation caused the capillaries in his eyes to rupture.

  “Yes… I see.” Rollins says. “To answer your question Mrs. Stern, Mr. Reynolds is in custody; he is in my custody. If you two would please sit down—thank you. Let me assure you that this is an informal meeting and no notes of any kind will be taken.”

  “Why is there a tape recorder if no record is to be taken?” Charlotte asks.

  “The recorder is here for the playing of a tape, if necessary.”

  “What tape?”

  “It is the recording of a rape in progress, one made to taunt young Mr. Reynolds here, and I would say it is what instigated him to his violent outburst.”

  Charlotte glares at Derek. “Play it.”

  “I would like to avoid that, your Mr. McGee heard it this morning and can vouch for its—explosiveness.”

  “Play it now. I want to hear it.” Charlotte says.

  Rollins sighs. “Very well, I apologize for any distress it causes you Miss Parker.”

  “You can play it on the radio if it’ll help Jason.” Lindsay says.

  Rollins presses the play button. As the tape rolls, Jason and Lindsay’s mothers cry, as their fathers give Derek a look not many people would feel comfortable getting without an armed police officer in the room. Simone weeps quietly as Paul takes her hand.

  Jason shows nothing, but Lindsay feels his grip tighten until it causes her pain. This is the first time Lindsay has heard the tape, she now understands why Jason went mad enough to kill.