And It will be glad to not have me taunting It for what must feel like aeons to It in the In-Between.
It looks even uglier when It hears me scream as I leave:
“...This is not a fairy tale... And, if you insist on living as a monkey, you won’t be able to ignore the evidence of your own senses.”
Juno staggered out the doors of the thrift store, wondering what was happening with David’s plan, when she thought she spotted three of Paul’s goons in the crowd down the street. She was still shaken from her run in with Richard, and she thought, maybe, she was just seeing things. But at the same time, she didn’t know what was going on. If David’s plan hadn’t gone well, they’d be coming for her. To take her. To kill her. To fix her ass for good. To, most likely, do much worse. And that was enough to turn a possible sighting into a confirmed threat.
She bent a little at the knees, hunching her back slightly. Making herself small, staying in the middle of the pedestrian traffic as she crept to the right of the thrift store’s front door. As soon as she managed to get far enough away, throwing another look over her shoulder, she ducked into the alley and scurried behind the first dumpster on the left. She crouched there, after pulling her dress up to her knees so it wouldn’t tear, and waited. Letting her breath out slowly and evenly, trying not to move. Trying to make as little sound as possible.
A moment later, she heard footsteps coming toward her fast.
Before she could think to run, she felt a sack slip over her head, making her blind. She felt her arms being pulled back and behind her, bound harshly. She started to kick, but her ankles were tied together immediately after.
The sound of a vehicle pulling to a screeching stop drowned out her voice as she started to scream. As she felt herself being lifted off the ground, she felt gloved hands smothering her. She heard the sound of steel hinges creaking. She felt her body being lifted and thrown backward and down. She felt her shoulders and ass slam onto cold metal and the back of her head bashed against it hard as she reflexively jerked.
Then everything went dark.
Richard held the tape recorder in front of David’s face and waved it around, showing it to Paul. “You brought your balls out today, Davey. The big brass ones. But you didn’t think this through too good, did you?”
“Seriously?” Paul rubbed his forehead. “A tape recorder? What happened, Davey? Did the cops say no to wiring you up, and you figured, what, you’d see if you could do it on your own? I don’t understand. This is idiocy.”
David grunted as Richard yanked his head upright by the hair. “Who’s the idiot, Paulie? You really think it’s me? You let Ricky here beat his girls half to death in public. Most of the neighbourhood’s too scared to do anything about it, but not everyone is. Even if you do own most of the cops in this precinct. I know if I caught Ricky on his own, pimp-slapping some poor young girl around in the middle of the street, I’d bash his fuckin’ head in with a brick.”
“Enough,” Paul barked. “You talk tough now, Davey. But when word gets around about what you did and what happened to you—”
“The way you run this joke of an operation...” David interrupted. “This? If it happens today or it happens tomorrow, this is an inevitability. And you’re not thinking things through too well either, Paulie. Listen to yourself. What difference does it make? Tape or no tape? You were going to kill me anyway, right? The tape recorder really doesn’t matter. Not the way things worked out.”
“That’s true,” Richard said. “But, still...” His fist connected with David’s nose, drawing a fresh stream of blood. “It makes me want to reconsider my offer.” He let go of David’s hair and let him fall forward onto the floor, pawing at his battered face. “I don’t think I’m going to let you or Junie off all that easy. Not knowing what I know now.”
“You were letting us off easy?” David spat matted hair out of his mouth. “Gosh, thanks Uncle Ricky.”
“You can keep running that mouth,” Richard said, “but that’s only going to make things worse. I mean, you can die or you can fuckin’ die. Quick. Easy. Long. Hard. It doesn’t make a difference to me. In the end, I just care about the end. But, for you, it makes all the difference in the world. Though you might not think it, I was trying to be a nice guy, despite your constant lip. I was giving you the quick and easy way out. And what really pisses me off, you know? What really pisses me off is now I’ve got to think of even more fucked up shit to do to your waste of a junkie ass and that bag of crabs you used to call a girlfriend.”
“My uncle’s going to kill you when he finds out about this, Ricky.” David continued to unzip his jacket. “You’re dead if you lay one finger on Junie. He’ll definitely leave you wanting if you keep on talking about her the way you do. It’ll all be over soon enough, anyway. So you may as well just shut the fuck up and shoot me. Shoot Paulie and all the fuckin’ Spics. And don’t forget to shoot—”
“They’re Guatemalan.” Richard looked back at the goons who giggled some more as he shook his head with dismay. “Have some respect for their culture. And knock it off with the ‘uncle’ shit. You’ve done that threat to death. I don’t think there is any ‘uncle’. No one’s ever seen him coming, that’s for sure. No one’s ever seen him going. He’s so conveniently never around, so you’ll have to speak for him. Always taking care of business at night, in the shadows. You know what I think? I think your ‘uncle’ is just you throwing fits on mixed medications. It’s funny how his name disappeared from your vocabulary as soon as you started kicking. Look me in the eyes and tell me I’m wrong.”
David stared at the floor and shook his head. “My uncle isn’t me on a cocktail... Forget it. You wouldn’t understand. But you’ll know him when you see him. And you will see him. I can guarantee you that. Like I said, it’ll all be over with soon enough, you half-retarded—”
“What I thought,” Richard snapped back. “And what do you mean, ‘it’ll all be over soon enough’? You think I don’t know that?”
“No. I don’t think you do.” David finished unzipping his jacket and dropped it to the floor, pulling up his shirt, exposing the wire taped to his belly. “So go ahead and shoot me. It’s been so long now, I get the feeling no one’s really listening. But you never know. If they are, you may never get this chance again, you big, dumb, ugly fuck. Just remember what I said about Junie. If I’m dead or I’m alive, if you keep treating her badly, my uncle’s going to come for you.”
Richard looked back at Paul and his goons, chewing on his lower lip. Really grinding into it. His head shaking back and forth. “You delusional piss-ant. ‘Uncle Matthew’, right?” David gritted his teeth. “Your ‘uncle’ doesn’t exist and he isn’t going to help you get out of this fix you put yourself in. You’re not scaring anyone with your insane blathering. You’re just buying time.”
“What?” David asked. “That’s crazy. How could I possibly buy time? Is it for sale? You really are that fucking stupid, aren’t you?”
“I said watch your mouth you little piece of fucking—” Richard stopped, looking David straight in the eyes, and chuckled. “You’re a real wise-ass. You know what? You’re right. Fuck it. I am going to shoot. Just you though. And then I’m dumping your body right out in front of the thrift store. So everyone knows what happens when they fuck with us. And Junie will know, when she sees, that I’m putting her ass back to work, whether she likes it or not and straight away. Back on the dope and back on her... back. Working, I mean. Because she’s a useless—”
“Why would you employ the services of someone you consider useless?” David asked.
“You know what I mean. Don’t try to make it sound like I’m not... That’s not what I said. I mean, that’s not what I meant, you stupid little—”
“Piece of fuckin...? I get it. You really should start rehearsing your snappy comebacks. You don’t think very well on your feet.” Richard kicked him in the stomach and cocked his gun. “Even if the cops don’t save me, I hope this wire’s live just so t
hey can play it back for laughs now and again. It’s too bad they don’t have video so they could see how you pissed yourself.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Richard asked as he felt at his dry crotch.
“I didn’t think you could possibly be any dumber, Ricky.” David dropped his head to look down. The light from the windows reflected off the concrete in the growing darkness of the room. The blood dripping from his nose smacked loudly as it hit the floor. Drop after drop, deafening, as he waited for the really big noise. The one that would turn day into night forever. The one that no one else could stop. “Thank you, uncle.”
Then he heard the doors breaking in on all sides. And shouting. Lots of shouting. Lots of name calling. Lots of demands. Not much in the way of intelligent responses. At least, he thanked his God, no weapons were being fired. Paul wasn’t even close to being a shot-caller in the Family. No one who managed their neighbourhood ever had been. But, to his credit, he’d had the foresight to put his goons through sensitivity training with regard to assaulting policemen.
He looked up, as he saw armed police officers crowding the area. Paul and Richard were being cuffed, along with the goons. The officers were roughing them up a bit. Something he’d never seen, because that sort of thing never happened.
As the swarm of police thinned out and everyone was being marched from the room, he pulled down his shirt and caught Richard’s eye. Richard was staring at him hard. His stare was telling him that this whole thing. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. His stare was telling him, no matter where he thought he could run, he’d be found. That the promises made. What he’d do to him and to Juno. Those promises would be kept. Not now, but eventually. He could be sure of that.
Then another officer David would never be able to identify, because nothing below-board had ever happened, directed Richard’s eyes forward with a savage punch to the jaw.
The air was still as the last of the goons were hauled out. The sound of engines being fired up outside the warehouse followed shortly thereafter, and cars drove away.
Detective Franklin Bowe strolled in from the back door. “Got something for you, Davey.” Franklin grinned as he waved off the remaining officers in the background.
As the officers exited and the sunshine made the room just a little bit brighter, Juno bumped into Franklin and spun around. Her ankles and wrists were sloppily tied with rope, and her head was covered by a black plastic garbage bag, with slits cut in it. Holes the crew that secured her had made. Not to hurt her. Not to help her see. Just to make sure she made it to the drop-off point without suffocating. As she tried to find her bearings, she tripped, fell and hit the cold hard floor with a crunch. She cried out, but something underneath the garbage bag was muffling her voice.
Franklin pointed to her. “You going to help the lady out, or what, Davey? Didn’t she used to be your woman? Word on the street is she dropped you like a good habit. Maybe you want to leave her behind now.”
David picked himself up and hurried over to Juno’s side as she squirmed on the floor. He untied her ankles first, then her wrists, and then he helped her tear the garbage bag off her head and remove the perforated cloth sack beneath it.
“She might be a little fucked up,” Franklin noted. “We bagged her half a block from the three Guatemalans Ricky sent to beat her senseless and drag her ass back here. We had to keep it quiet. You understand.”
As soon as the sack came off her head, the look of horror on Juno’s face turned to relief, but the tears and mucus kept running. She grabbed onto David with everything she had. Shaking. Terrified. Franklin wasn’t lying. The police had taken her, but they hadn’t taken the time to identify themselves. Until this exact moment, she hadn’t been sure if she was going to live or die when that bag came off her head. She sobbed heavily, her body retching as David held her and tried to console her by rubbing her back. Getting blood, and dirt from the floor, all over her white dress. Although she didn’t care much about the condition of her clothing at that point.
David looked at Franklin. “For a while there, I didn’t think you were going to show, Franky. Anyway, I didn’t die, so what happens now?”
Franklin glanced back over at David and Juno, a pitying look on his face. Twiddling with the tape recorder he’d pried from Richard’s fist. Rewinding it and hitting ‘play’ over and over again. Making sure it worked. “You know. We take the bad guys in. Run up the charges—”
“That’s not what I meant,” David interrupted, feeling Juno squeezing him tighter.
“The muscle,” Franklin continued, unfazed, “maybe they never get out. They do the longest stretches though. Guaranteed. They’re expendable. Ricky and Paulie? Out as soon as we’re done with all the fingerprints and paperwork and bullshit. Their lawyers won’t let us keep them without a fight, so we won’t even try. They’re not flight risks. They always beat the charges or cut a deal before anything gets back to court. The usual. So in about twenty-six hours, probably half that, they’re back on the streets.”
“I meant what about us?” David asked. Juno began to regain her composure, using the sleeves of her best dress to wipe the fluids from her face, and the blood from David’s.
Juno chewed on the left shoulder of David’s shirt, frustration and helplessness coating her every word. “I told you the cops weren’t going to help me, Davey. I told you this was going to happen, you stupid fuck.” Her eyes looked pitying, but deeply, horribly sad. “Ricky and Paulie. They’re going to come and do worse than kill me now. And you can’t protect me on your own, you spineless bastard. I told you they owned you.” She looked at the floor again. “My life wasn’t so bad, was it? You really do hate me, don’t you?”
Franklin chuckled. “This is adorable. She dumps you and you still eat shit.” Juno turned her head to look back at him. Hate in her eyes. Pure loathing. Franklin mocked concern. “Whoa. She’s a tiger, huh, Davey? Maybe she’ll take care of Ricky and Paulie for you. Maybe you don’t need me anymore.”
Franklin walked over to David, gave him a hand up and pulled the wire from his belly. “Thank you for your invaluable service,” he said. Doing his best imitation of a cop who played by the rules, had his priorities straight and actually gave a shit about the people whose civil rights he trampled on daily. “This case is a wrap.” He shut the wire down. Then he whispered, looking around the room for potential witnesses, “We’re going to be doing this a little hinky, if you know what I mean. Not strictly legal. But legal enough. You’ll disappear. You’ll live long, happy lives, assuming you can stand each other.” He gave Juno a hard gaze. “They’ll never find you.”
“Yeah? Okay.” David waited for Franklin to continue.
“All right.” Franklin turned around and walked back toward the rear exit. “You kids have less than thirteen hours. I wasn’t bullshitting you about that. So get the fuck out of here, go back to your apartment, and be ready to leave in five. That’s seven tonight. Understand? That’s everything you want to take with you, by seven. Anything you leave behind. You’ll never be able to get it back without giving yourselves up and, I’d imagine, getting dead in the process. Clear?”
David and Juno nodded and moved toward the front door slowly. David’s arm draped itself over Juno’s shoulders as they walked away. Like they were in love. For whatever the world knew, they may have been, once.
The last thing Franklin saw as he turned around to leave the building, was the two of them holding each other. The junkie thief and the junkie whore. If ever a pair deserved each other, it was them. And if there was ever a pair he’d pay to find dead on the streets, they fit that bill too.
Juno and David were all packed and ready to go within an hour of making it back to their apartment. They didn’t have much to take with them except for clothes that needed cleaning desperately, three half-empty packs of cigarettes and toiletries. The possessions most folks might have, and cling to as if their lives depended on them, had already been either destroyed or traded off to feed their
former habit.
As soon as they’d gotten in the door, they’d begun searching for things to take with them. Not speaking a word to each other. Frantically going through the heaps of garbage stacked in every crack and crevice of the tiny apartment they’d been calling home for longer than either of them cared to remember. When they finished, there was nothing left in the house worth keeping.
Everything they valued fit into one little vinyl suitcase.
Juno sat on the soiled mattress next to the window in the living room and motioned for David to come join her. He was still searching, like they might have priceless jewellery laying around. Or other valuable keepsakes. But they’d shot all those into their veins ages ago. When she managed to get his attention, he came over to sit by her side and let her chew on his shirt.
“Am I going to be okay, Davey?” she asked.
“We’re going to be fine.” He ran his hands through her hair. Noticing how beautiful she looked without sweat and dirt clogging her every pore. Remembering how beautiful she had still remained, even covered in filth. “Didn’t I tell you we could get lucky?”
She looked at him, a pained smile coming over her face. “I don’t know how this is going to work out, now that we’re not together anymore but...” She swallowed hard. “I should have trusted you. I do believe in you. I do. I never doubted you, Davey. I’m so sorry. I am.”
“For what? I was worried too.”
“I ran into Ricky at the thrift store. Before you met today.” She gripped David’s arm and hid her face. “He cornered me in the thrift store and I got so scared I—”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No,” she whimpered. “But he threatened to. He scared me half to death. Just like he scares you. I didn’t know what to do, so I—”
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