Harry Kidman

by Stanimir Mirov

  “Okay.”

  It was already passing 5:00 pm when Shelley’s station wagon stopped in front of Odonal’s house. The car entered the garage. Mike, with fast movements, threw the drone and his backpack in the trunk and got into the car. James and Harry were also inside.

  “Go ahead,” Odonal excitedly said. Apparently, he was attracted to these types of things.

  Their car stopped in the parking lot about 200 meters from The Hammer. They knew which one was his apartment thanks to Tess. Mike pulled out his father’s professional camera with a huge lens and took some pictures. Then he pulled out a military binocular and looked out the window.

  “He is inside. We’ll have to wait. In the meantime, I have an idea,” he snapped his fingers.

  He got the drone from the trunk and let it go. Then he re-entered the car and they all looked outside. The machine came as close as possible to the apartment window, so they clearly saw what was happening inside. The rapper was sprawled on the couch, smoking from a bong and playing something on the TV.

  “He can stay there until tomorrow. Call Tess and tell her to call him and ask him out.”

  Harry dialed the phone, “Hello, remember what you said today? I want you to call Johnny and tell him to come by your house.”

  After no more than five minutes, the dealer went out. James took position in front of the building, while Harry and Mike went inside with the backpack. Odonal pulled his lock picks out and unlocked the door in less than a minute. Kidman looked at him amazed, “You’re a fucking agent 007.”

  They entered the apartment and quickly placed some microphones and wireless cameras. Suddenly, Kidman’s phone rang. It was James.

  “Get out, Elvis is back in the building…”

  While the intruders thought about what to do, the door opened. Harry threw himself face-first on the floor behind the sofa, while Mike entered the cupboard under the sink.

  “I forgot to lock again, what a fucking idiot?” The Hammer spoke to himself. “Ah, there is the package,” the dealer took something from the table and went out again.

  The young man timidly lifted his head over the couch. After seeing that there was no one in the room, he yelled, “Where the heck are you, Mike?”

  “In the cupboard under the sink, but I’m stuck...”

  “OMG,” Harry opened the cabinet and helped his friend come out. “Place the gadgets and let's go.”

  It probably took about ten minutes for the "spy", as they would call Mike from now on, to put all his equipment of microphones and cameras. Even the toilet had sound and picture, despite the opposition from Dirty. Microphones were connected to the receiver and cameras to their laptop. Then they went out.

  “Everything is ready. There is no need to stay. Some of the devices have a memory and will record for 48 hours. After that, we will review everything. But we will always have sound and picture, if necessary.”

  Everybody in the car continued to look at him with open mouths.

  “WTF, were you recruited by the CIA in 11th grade or what?”

  “No, but I’m thinking of opening a detective agency one day, so I’m trying to learn now. This is a good workout for me.”

  The group shook heads approvingly.

  “You have watched too much Veronica Mars.”

  “Even the movie…”

  Shelley started the car and drove off, leaving everybody in their homes. Finally, she parked in front of the garage of her house. Both Harry and herself stayed in the car for a while. The young man turned on the radio and "Savage Garden - To the moon and back" was playing in the background.

  “Today was an exciting day,” Shelly broke the silence. “Don’t you think so?”

  “Definitely! I only regret that my thoughts were interrupted again. As if the universe is trying to prevent me from telling or doing something…”

  “I don’t see anything stopping you now, Harry.”

  The girl looked at him now irrepressible, and Kidman calmly watched her. Their eyes, for a second time today, were watching each other. The song echoed in the background when the young man suddenly gently placed his hand over hers and just as he was about to do something, his phone received probably over ten messages, several Facebook notices and subsequent phone calls from James.

  “Harry, crazy Nell strikes back, hahaha,” the voice from the phone laughed.

  Dirty leaned back alarmed, looking at the ceiling of the car.

  “What happened now?”

  “Check Facebook, and you will see.”

  Shell, however, was ahead of him and was playing some video from Harry’s birthday.

  “Amm, this is not good. I don’t remember that part,” he muttered.

  On the short video, Kidman went to the bar, took the microphone for the karaoke and start rapping "N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton", and he was good... Somewhere in the middle of the song, the whole crowd went crazy and sang along with him. After the end, the sisters Nat and Pat started kissing him brutally right there on the bar, then hugged him and led him somewhere, apparently influenced by the euphoria from earlier.

  The video ended and the black-haired girl got out of the car. Kidman opened the door and quickly caught up with her.

  “I know I sing badly, but you can’t be angry with me for past mistakes?”

  “Harry, your mistakes don’t end,” Shelley slammed the door in front of his face.

  “Fuck!” he yelled and then smiled. “I’m really good at singing.”

  Chapter IX

  The One Thing You Always Wanted To Do

  The next day, he arrived at school in Mike’s Dodge, because Shelley had gone without him. While entering into the school corridor, he began to give high fives, handshakes, pats on the shoulder, the crowd was endless, and the cheers were loud. Dirty, already accustomed to them, didn’t refuse. Lines like, "Harry, when will you release an album?" were something normal now. Overall, except that Nell made him even more famous than ever, it could not harm him with anything else. Such thoughts ran through his head as he made his way to the room. Only, this time too, he was wrong. Suddenly, a familiar figure emerged at the end of the crowd. It was the father of Pat and Nat. He stood with his arms folded and was looking dangerous. The principal was behind him, looking even meaner, making a sign with his finger towards Kidman to follow them.

  “You are fucked!” Mike patted him on the shoulder and departed. “Good luck!”

  “Mr. Kidman, come with me.”

  The young man followed them. He sat in a leather chair in the office of the principal and prepared. The father started screaming, wanting for him to be expelled.

  “Mr. Kidman, do you have something to say in your defense?”

  Harry rubbed his nose, “I can’t understand one thing. What is common between school and those events? What happened wasn’t in school time and it was outside this building. Not to mention that there were another 120 students. You are telling me that if I give you embarrassing videos about them, they will all be expelled?”

  “I’m afraid that Mr. Kidman is right. In theory, he didn’t break any school rules.”

  “We are not finished, scum,” the father gritted his teeth and went out, slamming the door.

  The principal smiled and gave Harry a fist bump. The student also gave him a fist bump back.

  “Harry, you’re the man. You know you have no problems with me. We are members of the same guild after all.”

  A little-known fact was that Kidman was keenly interested in antiquities and archeology, and almost no one knew that the principal was also into this stuff. Harry had supplied him with some things from his father’s collection over the years, and for that, Mr. Smith was in his debt. Also, they were both members of the same history club, which they called "The Guild."

  Dirty winked at him, “You are cool, Smith. I hope I’ll see you at the next meeting on Saturday. I have a lot of interesting information about Egyptian goddesses in ancient Thrace.”

  “Sounds interesting. I’ll be
there, of course.”

  Harry entered class a little late. The teacher had just thought about opening his mouth and shouting when the young man haughtily handed him a note from the principal, which excused him for being late. He went quite calmly through the rows alongside his classmates and sat on the chair. These recent events shot him straight to the top of glory, but the problems lined one after another. The Hammer was still looking for him, the twins' father had threatened him, Nell promised revenge, not to mention that it was almost time for colleges acceptance. Things did not work out with Shelley for some reason. He watched her back for about ten minutes, pondering over the events that happened during the past two weeks. In his ears sounded a quiet, lovely song as background -"Gavin DeGraw - I Do not Want to Be" and only made him feel even more in love. His look went on Tess for a second. He had been crazy about her for so much time, yet he only needed an hour to change his feelings. Not that there was no attraction, he just no longer cared.

  “I need to solve my problems one by one. There is no time to waste,” he thought.

  Psyched by the song in his ears, he suddenly rose up from his chair. With all his seriousness, he went to the other row and stood by Shelley, waiting for the girl to look at him. Gently ran his fingers through her hair, tilted his head and kissed her as passionately as possible. The room roared with cheers and applause.

  “Mr. Kidman, please sit down, or I will have to send you back to the principal’s office.”

  Harry smiled and went back to his place. He looked to his neighbor again, burning from desire to see her reaction. The girl rested her left hand on the mouth thoughtfully and slightly flushed by the surprise, a surprise that she had fantasized dozens of times in the past. Now that it happened, however, it was a thousand times cooler. She turned to him, and a sincere smile appeared on her face. The same appeared on the young man’s face after he saw her reaction.

  The next ten minutes were the longest for them, frantically waiting to hear the bell. They were eager to see what would happen when suddenly they heard a familiar sound. All the students rose up and left the room. Only then Kidman got up and walked to Shelley.

  “If you haven’t understood yet, you’re the girl I spoke about.”

  “As always, everyone understood Harry,” she laughed.

  The teenager reached out towards her and pulled her from the waist to himself. This time, they kissed properly without anyone interrupting them. Mike showed on the door. Seeing them, he stopped and whispered to another student.

  “So it’s true, you are not lying. I’ve been trying to get them together since forever,” he laughed and walked through the corridors, not wanting to impose on them.

  The young couple had to catch up.

  At launch, holding hands, they entered the cafeteria and sat at some table, speaking like were in love, when Tess came again.

  “You will not get away. Revenge will be sweet. The Hammer will find you soon, and you’re finished.”

  Harry Kidman, known as Dirty, looked at the girl with the most cold-blooded, languid, yet cool look. He smacked his mouth, as if he had between his teeth french fries, and pointedly turned towards Shelly, waving to Tess to go away without saying a word, like she was a complete rag. It was social suicide for her because Harry was literally the king at the moment and there was no one to take away his throne. He was so proud that for the yearbook interview, he spoke in a typical way, “In one way or another, I’ll be remembered! Hall of Fame can now be renamed in the Hall of Harry!”

  Shelley, overseeing the whole scene, although she was a good person, was happy. Finally, she was the center of attention of the man of her dreams.

  Mike and James joined the table.

  “Are we going to act on The Hammer matter? I see that things are getting worse,” started the spy. “We have to take the cameras to review the records. If there isn’t anything interesting, we’ll have to watch him on the spot and follow him.”

  “We’ll check them after school. This time, James will drive. Shell, it’s too dangerous for you. Johnny already knows you from the club, and if he sees you in the car in front of his place, he might do something,” Harry spoke before the girl could open her mouth.

  She gritted her teeth, “Okay, but I want to be there when the cops handcuff him.”

  “We’ll figure something out, that’s why we have cameras,” Mike smiled.

  “Are you planning something?”

  “No, just his arrest can play out on the site of the school. This will bury Tess and all the snobs around her once and for all. It’s our time to rule this school, be it for only a few more months.”

  Kidman approvingly shook his head, lowering his lip slightly ahead.

  “Wow, didn’t know that you held such feelings in you. I’m proud of you,” the entire table burst into laughter.

  Chapter X

  Weed

  The afternoon came quickly, and the spies parked the car near The Hammer’s apartment. Mikе took the laptop, checked the cameras and looked around the house.

  “All clear. Wait for me here, I will be fast. If there is something, call me.”

  The spy unlocked the door with his lock pick again, entered and took the cameras, but he suddenly felt some pain in the stomach. In the meantime, Kidman and James were vigilantly watching out for unsavory characters for over ten minutes, when they decided to review the cameras because they were a little worried. They suddenly stopped at the camera in the bathroom and saw their friend relieving himself. Their eyes widened, surprised.

  “Hah, he is such an agent. With such equanimity, he is ready to be Ethan Hunt.”

  “He is like, Jack Reacher. Call him on the phone so that we can see his reaction.”

  James didn’t even finish before Mike spoke into the camera, “You can’t surprise me, I bugged the car a long time ago.”

  “Buhahahahah,” both of his friends laughed.

  “Move faster, or you might get caught literally without pants. We have to look at many hours of recordings.”

  “Change the camera, you do not want to see what will follow,” their friend continued grinning in the toilet.

  Kidman slapped his forehead, “You’re crazy!”

  It was not long before Mike appeared in the car. They downloaded the records and began to scroll. Generally, at all times, except for a few phone calls, The Hammer was either sleeping, eating, watching movies or playing Xbox 1.

  “It was better to search his apartment instead of watching one hour of bullshit,” said Odonal.

  “You may not be scared when you enter foreign houses, but that doesn’t mean that it’s okay for the rest of us too. Not everybody has your equanimity, Mike. We’ll have to wait and follow him after he is out. I do not see another way.”

  “As you wish, but my way could have been faster.”

  It was getting dark outside when Johnny’s car stopped in front of the building, and he got out of the driver’s seat. The Hammer returned to his apartment and went directly to take a shower. Mike took advantage, unlocked his car and slid a listening device inside. His friends kept watching him and continued to wonder how it was possible.

  Then, as always, The Hammer sat on the couch and ordered a pizza which arrived after about 30 minutes. The group watched him through the cameras with interest, when his phone rang.

  “Hi, are you calling for sweets?” after a pause, he continued. “Okay, wait for me in front, I will come by with my car in a bit.”

  Johnny put on his leather jacket and left. He started the car, played his CD, volumed up the song "W.S.A.P - I wanna be somebody" and drove off.

  James and Mike looked at Kidman.

  “Wasn’t he a rapper?”

  Harry raised his hands in perplexity and gave Mike a sign to follow The Hammer. The Spy drove slowly to avoid being seen. There was no way of losing the car because he had not only put a listening device inside, but a GPS too. The dealer’s car stopped in front of some house, and he hurried inside. He came back pretty
quickly and took off again.

  “He probably keeps his goods here, I’m sure,” Mike’s eyes narrowed. “We have to check whose house this is...”

  “No need, I already know,” Kidman pointed at the porch, where an old woman was waving to The Hammer. “It’s most likely his grandmother’s, and he certainly keeps his drugs in her garage. Classic. Let’s see where he goes.”

  Fifteen minutes later, he stopped at another house. All three pursuers took binoculars and watched carefully. Johnny pulled out a bag with at least 100 grams of marijuana inside and handed it over to the stranger.

  “Hmm, he might grow his own weed and sell it self-syndicated!” said James.

  “Who doesn’t? But if we give the address, the cops will imprison his grandmother, not him.”

  “No need to be there. We will call him, I’ll order two kilograms of his sweets and send him to a meeting with the cops. With so much grass in his car, they should put him away for quite some time. And the weed from his garage, we can take it in and sell it for some bucks.”

  James and Kidman looked at him already seriously concerned.

  “Okay, I’m just kidding about the last part.”

  “Man, you’re ready for the CIA.”

  “Wait, wait,” Kidman interrupted, “you are on the right track. I have a hellish plan. We will collect the entire grass from his grandmother while she is gone during the day. After we place it in Johnny’s apartment, we make an anonymous call to the police, saying that we are the neighbors and his apartment smells of marijuana.”

  “OMG, I’m taking you to the CIA too,” Mike rejoiced, while James looked a little reserved.

  “What if someone sees us when we enter?”

  “Calm down, I will unlock the door of the old lady in twenty seconds. Don’t worry. We fill the bags and disappear. The other option is to do it now in the dark.”

  “While she is watching TV? Sounds great.”

  “If we go to jail for this, I won’t forgive you for the rest of your lives.”