My My Little Prince

by Rod Lacy Rod Lacy

  Pierre shook his head and said, “No, not really. I have only seen this hotel.”

  Frank grinned, “Hey, I have an idea. Do you know how to ride a motorcycle?”

  “Sure, been on ‘em all my life, why?”

  “Forget the car. I bet I can talk a couple of the motor-conchos to let us take their cycle for a couple hours for a few pesos.”

  “What’s a ‘moto-honcho’?” Pierre asked. It made him nervous not to know what he was getting into.

  “Ha!” Frank hooted. “Moto CONcho, not Honcho! That’s what they call all the motorcycle taxis here. I bet I could slip anyone of them a few pesos and they’d take a night off … with pay!”

  “Yeah Frank, that would be fun, let’s do it.” Pierre was suddenly into it.

  They walked for just a minute and came to the main drag. They found themselves in front of the Pizza Coco Restaurant. There were at least half a dozen moto-concho drivers across the street. They were all whistling at them; all trying to be the first to get their attention. They walked on across the street and approached the drivers They were all crying out for attention in earnest now.

  Frank’s Spanish was okay and he explained what they wanted. When he finished he said, “So, how much to use your bike for a couple hours?”

  The first told them four thousand pesos and Pierre jumped on it. “Perfect,” he exclaimed and pulled out some bills. Frank started to protest that it was too much but Pierre waved him off. “Aw, let ‘em make a little cash, they’re all so damn poor!”

  The next guy told Frank that he couldn’t rent his bike, but that he would take him where he needed to go. Pierre spoke up and told the concho driver no.

  They proceeded to the next guy and passed because his headlight emitted only a dim glow.

  Within a minute though they found what they were looking for and had struck their deals.

  “Ok, mount up,” Frank told Pierre and pulled on his helmet.

  Frank hopped on. He was just drunk enough to be feeling a bit reckless. He yelled, “Ye Haw, let’s cruise.”

  Pierre gently pulled out, getting used to the bike’s mannerisms. “Yes, this is fun.” He yelled back “Let’s go up the mountain where we can overlook entire city.”

  “Very cool,” Pierre responded and he popped open the throttle and lurched ahead.

  They headed directly south and in less than twenty minutes they are grinding up the side of a steep winding road going almost directly up the mountain. What the little 125cc bikes lacked in power, they made up for in determination. After several minutes, Pierre pulled over at a small spot where they could see the lights of the city sparkling before them in 180 degrees.

  Pierre walked over to the guard railing and looked down the sheer cliff. He shook his head at Frank and said, “Sure would hate to fall here. No one would find you ever and it sure would be a terrible way to die.”

  Frank peeked and then stepped back. “Ya got that right, buddy. He stepped over to some trees that were lining the gorge and started to take a leak. He kept a sly eye on Pierre and when he was looking over the cliff he stooped and picked up good size rock. He walked up slowly behind Pierre, holding the rock tightly in his right hand, just behind him like a bouquet of flowers.

  Pierre had his foot on the guard rail and was leaning forward looking at the lights below. As Frank neared he raised the rock preparing to hit Pierre on the back of his head.

  Suddenly, Pierre pushed backward ferociously off on the guard rail. His body slammed into Frank taking him completely by surprise. He fell flat back on his ass and the rock rolled away.

  He immediately tried to get back up but Pierre had turned as Frank was falling. He swung the moto-concho’s helmet in a wide arc. All Frank saw was a flash of shiny blue plastic as it crashed across his temple.

  Pierre laughed and walked over and grabbed Frank’s rock. He hefted it in his hand. “Not bad there ol’ Frankie-boy,” and he lifted it and smashed it into the still dazed man. He heard the cheek bone, fracturing in his entire face.

  “Still alive?” Pierre dragged Frank by his ankles to the edge of the cliff and said aloud, “I love the sound of smashing bones,” and he gave Frank one more vicious thwack with the rock, this time directly smashing his occipital bone.

  He was proud of his new-found medical knowledge and he told himself, “that was fun; not sure why I love that so much. It must be a sociopath thing. I will have to ask some of my new friends why I love that so. I will add it my list of things to do”.

  He picked Frank up into a sitting position being careful not to get any blood on his clothes. He leaned him over the rail and steadied him with his knee. Without leaning out too much he smashed Frank once again in the back of his skull. “Ah yes, this is music to my ears. I was needing that.” He leaned over the unconscious Frank, “That was just for fun bud … and thanks for it.”

  He gently pushed Frank over a gap in the rail and waved good bye as he watched his body tumble down the cliff. He smiled as it hit a particularly large boulder and was catapulted out further. He watched until the bouncing off the rocks stopped and thought about how badly the body was torn into pieces.

  He breathed a sigh of satisfaction and then walked over to Frank’s bike and hit the start button. He walked it over to the gap in the railing and pulled in the clutch. He put it into first gear. Revving the engine he popped the clutch and the bike spurted over the side in a nice swan dive.

  The ride home was brisk and relaxing. He truly loved the twinkling lights below. “I guess it is time for me to go to Florida and find some more fun. That should only take a month or so to arrange everything with the good Dr. Garcia.” He frowned for a second working out the logistics; then smiled brightly. “Ah life, it is so very fleeting!”

  45

  “What the hell is he doing? It has been three days and I haven’t heard from him. I knew that idiot would screw this up.” He was pouring another Johnny Walker when the phone rang.

  “Hello?” He dropped his glass. “Oh, no, everything is fine.”

  The voice on the other end said, “I hear from friends in the Caribbean that you had a loose end and that it got worse.”

  “No, everything is fine, I assure you, I have it all under control.” David felt a drop of cold sweat run down his spine.

  “That is not what I hear.” The rumor I hear; and you know I have ears everywhere, is that you have had a loose end there for months - or longer … not good! I think we need to have a talk … face to face.”

  David heard a click and the phone was dead. He mumbled to himself, “Damn, he blew it and the organization knows. Shit I have to leave. Damn it – damn it – dam it! It’s all over for me if I stay here. Damn you Marilyn! I should have just killed you and your lover myself.”

  46

  “Mom wants to come by today.”

  Sherine looked at Michelle and screamed, “What? Are you freaking nuts? She is the reason I … ”Sherine picked up a pair of scissors and threatened to cut Michelle’s hair for even talking to her. Michelle reached back and slapped Sherine. She grabbed the scissors and pushed Sherine against the counter and told her she better get a grip.

  Sherine stood up and told Michelle to get out of her way, “I’m going for the Oxycontin; if you even try to get in my way I’ll kill you!”

  Michelle backed up and watched Sherine as she left the room looking for the Oxycontin. Michelle had hid them. She heard Sherine tearing apart the room in a fit of furious rage.

  About twenty minutes later, Michelle heard Evon pull up out front and in just a couple minutes the door bell rang.

  Evon stepped into the foyer when Michelle opened the door. Without preamble she asked, “Michelle, where is Sherine?”

  “Hi to you too Mom!” She turned and walked into the small living room with Evon on her heels. “Sherine is more nuts than ever now since Joe divorced her. She is in her room destroying it in a rage. You better be careful with her now.” Michelle slouched down into the cheap sofa. “She wants
to kill any man that walks, and if you thought she was bad before, you ain’t seen nothing! Now I think she might actually kill the first man that looks at her. And she is blaming most of it on you!”

  Evon looked at Michelle and said, “You girls are really in it now.”

  “What do you mean ‘in it’?” Michelle asked. She tucked her feet under her making more room for Evon.

  Evon sat down beside her and said “Come on Michelle, Sherine is nuts and always has been. We both know that; but now she might be dangerously nuts. What should we do? And you are almost as bad. Which room is she in?”

  Michelle pointed to the first bedroom door. Evon got up quickly and stormed toward the door without saying anything. She slammed it open to see Sherine standing on the bed laughing and jumping like any five-year old would do while also sucking on a vodka bottle.

  Evon walked up to the bed and yelled, “Get down, now!” “Ok Mom in just one second, ok?”

  Instantly, Sherine turned and with all of her strength and raised her leg and slammed Evon on the side of her face. She followed the kick with a slam of the bottle also across her temporal region. In a split second Evon flew across the room bouncing off the sagging dresser. She slumped to the floor unconscious.

  Sherine screamed out like a rabid wolf; spittle flying, “I did it. Yup, I did it. And she thought I never would.... Showed her” She sang in the same sing-song voice, “I did it. I did it. I fi-nall-y did it.” She laughed and whooped and continued singing, “ain’t going to school no more, ain’t going to school no more.”

  Breathing heavily, she stopped and yelled to Michelle, “Hey Michelle, I think Mom has a headache. What do you think?” She started laughing uncontrollably collapsing onto the bed shortly. In a daze she wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth.

  Michelle ran in and saw Evon on the floor. She looked at Sherine on the bed and grabbed her cell and called 911. They picked up Sherine that afternoon.

  47

  “Dr. Garcia, Dr. Garcia, please report to the administration office; Dr. Garcia, please report to the administration office” was heard throughout the hospital over the PA. Dr. Garcia ignored it.

  He stopped as he walked down the hallway of the West Wing. This was where the new patients were observed and evaluated. As he walked by Room W18, he stopped and asked a nearby orderly, “Excuse me orderly, who is in that room?”

  The orderly had almost walked past Dr. Garcia, but he stopped and turned back. He pulled two ear buds out of his ears and said, “Dr. Garcia, I apologize, I did not hear you at first. You said W18?” At Garcia’s nod he said, He looked at the door for a moment like that would give him the answer. “Yes, W18, that is Sherine Hughes. She arrived yesterday. Not sure what her history is, but she arrived in a restraining jacket.” He leaned in conspiratorially, “she was singing ‘ain’t going to school no more no more ain’t going to school no more no more’. It was weird because the tune is ‘ain’t coming back no more’.”

  “Yes, yes, I remember the tune. But what is her history?” Garcia walked over to the door and he looked through the small observation window. He said to himself, “Wow, she is a beauty!” He turned back to the orderly and asked, “again, I will ask, why is she here?”

  The orderly was leafing through a stack of papers fastened haphazardly to a clipboard. There was an ‘Eat, Sleep, Skate’ decal stuck on the back. “Ah, here it is; … oh, my, it seems she tried to kill her mother.” He read on a moment and said, “and there is some verbiage in her preliminary report that basically says that she hates men. I quote, ‘she is a danger to herself and to society, particularly men.’” He looked back up at Garcia and shook his head, “apparently she hates.”

  Garcia looked at the orderly and said, “Her? She looks too beautiful to hurt anyone. Ah, looks deceive don’t they? She may be a handful; be sure she takes her meds. Please tell the nurses to be careful with her, at least until we get to know her. You do know that Dr. Pierre will be working this wing, right? Once he arrives?”

  “Oh yes sir,” the orderly replied. ”We were briefed.”

  “Good, be sure that Dr. Pierre gets to evaluate her and if he feels comfortable with her let the office know that she is to be assigned to him. His specialty is patients with a history of suicide attempts or homicide.”

  “Ok, sure will.” The orderly shoved the clipboard under his arm and headed back the direction he was going. He replaced his ear buds as he walked.

  Dr. Garcia heard his name being paged again over the PA. Garcia turned and said to himself, “this place is nuts tonight. I wish Pierre would hurry up and get here, I need some company. It has been a while since I have had sex. It is a good thing I like men, ‘cause that new girls sure is hot and I could get into trouble with her. I love being king here with all the pawns on drugs and under my control. Life is good.”

  Garcia arrived at the administration office. The administrator in charge of credentialing waved Garcia over and quietly mentioned, “Dr. Garcia. I do not know what to do about Dr. Pierre’s papers. They are all really unorganized. Although they look ok as far as I can see, they are a mess and I cannot be responsible for him if something happens.”

  Garcia looked confused and told the administrator to get the papers organized because he was expecting Pierre to arrive soon. “OK, I will do my best. I just wanted to call it to your attention. As I said, I cannot be held responsible … ”

  “OK-ok-ok; just let me know if you need something more. I’m sure when he gets here we can get it straightened out.”

  Garcia walked away. As he got out of ear shot, the administrator mumbled to herself, “I bet Pierre is one of Garcia’s boyfriends. He is such a disgusting fat old man.”

  At that point Garcia turned and stared at the administrator. He gave her a hard look and said, “and put a rush on them.”

  “Yes sir, right away sir” She was embarrassed, thinking he’d somehow heard her.

  Garcia walked away, “That lady has got to go!”

  As Garcia turned the corner in the West Wing that splits off from the main hallway the same orderly walked toward him. Garcia stopped him and asked, “About that girl in W18?”

  “What about her sir?” He had a puzzled look on his face as he dropped his ear buds yet one more time.

  “Is she compliant or is she a fighter?”

  “Not sure yet, sir, but she loves her drugs. She smiles and mumbles to herself that she ‘ain’t going to school no more’, singing that same tune over and over again, with the wrong words. She is pretty nice it seems. However, I read in the notes that she almost killed her mother while she was high on coke, Oxy and booze.” He looked at the chart again. Says here that just a few weeks ago she was in the hospital. She suffered a beating that resulted in head injuries that put her there for over a week. Perhaps she had a relapse.”

  Garcia looked at the orderly, and tilted his head in curiosity. He said, “She will need special care; as I mentioned before, be sure Pierre is assigned to her.”

  “I know sir, … I mean, I will sir. When is he arriving?”

  Garcia, answered, “Not entirely sure, anytime now.” Garcia walked away wondering about his new patient.

  49

  “Sherine, Sherine, Sherine … Do you hear me?” Dr. Pierre and Dr. Garcia looked at each other and each gave a sympathetic shrug. “Sherine,” Dr. Pierre tried again. Sherine looked at Dr. Pierre with a blank stare. After a few more tries all she could manage were a few incoherent mumbles. She slipped back into her own world and her constant refrain “ain’t going to school no more, no more”.

  “I told you she is unreachable,” Garcia told Dr. Pierre. He stood directly behind Pierre, the ever ready clipboard in hand.

  Pierre turned and told Garcia to relax, “It will take quite some time, Dr. However, she will respond. They all do at some time.”

  Garcia shook his head and said, “Well, time is one thing you have plenty of so you can have all the time you need. She is ours for the next twen
ty years or so and probably more. Dr. Garcia gave Pierre a reassuring pat on his shoulder. He let his hand linger just a tad longer than necessary, and then he turned on his heel and walked out of the room. The door sounded a solid click when it closed.”

  Pierre looked at Sherine and thought to himself, “she really looks good.” He stared at her, looking and looking. “Amazing to see you here, just amazing. Oh... we had some good times together” he says almost out-loud, “remember as a loving family. You did feel the love didn’t you baby? Too bad your mom had to worry about minor details like who got in my way and small details like bank loans. I guess all good things must end. I was almost comfortable there. I had hoped you would not have been one of my loose ends, but as I have said before, shit happens.”

  Pierre looked around to be sure the door was closed and that no one was watching. He softly put his hands around her neck to “get the feel” and then he lifted her blouse and kissed her pert breasts. He said in a soft tone, “My, my little princess, I will see you tomorrow my little princess.”