Chapter 3
Omar walked about the green felt table in the humidity of Johnny's bar. The dark only illuminated by the light above the table and near the counter. Omar was smoking a cigarette and fiddling with his pool stick as his opponent hit a combo eliminating two more billiard balls, taking them off the table. The guy smiled, looking up as he prepared for another shot. “Hmmm, Omar maybe I could take this one?”
Omar scoffed at him, taking a puff of his cigarette and downing a shot of whiskey, rolling it between his teeth and swallowing. He set the empty glass on the table next to him. “Yeah, whatever.”
His opponent hit another billiard into a corner pocket, then another in a side and missed his third, saying, “Shit!” afterwards, pounding the butt of the stick on the dirty carpeted floor.
Omar smiled and chalked his stick, “Now,” he laughed, “now, I get you.” As he leaned over the table, lining up the tip of his stick to the cue, “Now, I kick your ass.” Omar said as he hit one in, then another, then another and missed his fourth.
They were playing eight ball. The only balls left on the pool table were Omar's thirteen and the nine, while his opponent only had the seven. His opponent smiled, pointing to the corner pocket, "Seven, corner pocket." As Omar’s opponent hit the ball in, Omar poured another shot for himself and quickly downed it. Unfortunately, by that time Omar had become very drunk, the liquor affecting his game. However, he did not seem to think it did. His opponent eying Omar take another drink, then moved around the table, as one of his friends finished his game and came over to watch the finish of Omar's. Omar's opponent pointed. “Eight ball in the corner pocket.”
Omar nodded as his opponent hit the ball into the pocket. “Shit!”
His opponent and his friend fist pounded each other. He then held out his hand. “Okay, Omar cough up the money.”
Omar pulled some cash out of his pocket. He counted it and handed what he had to the guy, slapping it into his hand. “Here!”
The guy looked at it and counted the crumpled bills, it was about twenty in change. “Hey, Omar, what the hell is this? You owe me a hundred!”
The front doors to the pool hall opened and Kevin came in, he was still a bit bloody from a few days ago. Omar glanced quickly at Kevin and then at his opponent. “I ain't got it!”
His opponent and his friend crowded in on Omar. “What do you mean, don't have it?”
Omar pushed his opponent back. “Get out of my face!” The two guys seeing this grabbed at Omar's collar. “Get off me!” Omar yelled, pulling the cue stick and hitting the winner over the shoulder splitting the stick in two. Down he went slumping over, holding his neck and shoulder. The winner's friend then knocked Omar down, as a crowed including Kevin rushed over. Omar jumped up and knocked over his friend, as the crowed pushed in, Omar staggering up, pulling out a pistol. “Listen, back off!” He cocked the gun. “Listen, back the fuck off or you have a slug in your head!”
Kevin needing a real fix, not very aware of the seriousness of the situation broke through the slowly dissolving crowd. “Omar!”
Omar looked at him astonishingly, clutching the pistol. “What!”
Kevin fell to his knees. “I need something, just to tide me over!”
Omar with sweat pouring down his face, blood on his lip, shaking with rage. “You, asshole! I told you I will kill you, you mother fucker!”
Kevin cried out. “Please!”
Everyone in the pool hall could hear the police sirens, the police were on their way. Omar took the butt of his gun and hit the back of Kevin’s head, the impact making cracking sound, “Damn you!” quickly hitting him again in his face, as Kevin fell over, holding his head.
Someone grabbed Omar from behind, Omar turning to assault him, the guy shaking him vigorously. “Go, Omar! We got to get the hell out of here, PoPo is coming!”
Joseph leaned over, sitting near one of the clothing shops in Greenburg’s midtown mall while he talked to his girlfriend Trisha on his cell phone. “Yeah, I should be up in a few days. I mean, I got to get out of here.”
Trisha was packing at her house, holding her home phone up to one ear using her shoulder as support. “Well, we could sign a lease next semester, not this one but the next?”
Joe nodded, but frowned at the same time as others in the mall ambled by him. “I know, but let me get this one semester done first. I got to get out of this town and for good.”
Trisha whispered something to her mom and then quickly returned to phone with Joe. “Yeah, but don't you dream of making it big and then coming back home and building something, helping everyone who could not make it?”
Joseph leaned his neck back, cracking it. “I need to make it first, Trish. These people here want nothing but the mall and players. They have no vision.”
Trisha packed a shirt or two in a box, eying her laptop. “Yeah, well you’re at the mall too, dear.”
Joe puckered his lips and then as he was about to counter her logic, he got another call, it beeped and he looked at the screen of his cell phone. It was unknown, but local. “Hey, Trish, I have another call, I got to go.”
Trisha nodded. “Could be the doctor?”
“Maybe.”
“Okay.”
Joe looked at the phone again, “Got to go, Trisha,” he said then switched to the second phone call, placing the phone to his ear again. “Hello?”
“This is Dr. Dhawan, I need you to come to the hospital. I have your mother’s tests back. I need to review them with you and your mom.”
Joe slumped over holding the phone in one hand and his head in another. “Okay, I will be over.”
Joe pulled his Buick into the parking lot of the hospital, motioning for Danny to get out of the car. “Get out, Danny.”
Danny opened the door, looking over at Joseph. “Joe Joe, are you coming?”
Joe turned the car off and opened his driver side door. “Yes, I am coming. Go, Danny.”
“Okay, Joe Joe,” Danny said with a weak, but comforting smile.
Dr. Dhawan now had Mama Cruse up on the second floor of the hospital, sharing a room with another elderly woman who was watching television. A curtain separated Mama Cruse from the other patient just as before in the emergency room. The doctor took Joe aside, outside the room into the corridor while Danny sat with their Mama, keeping her company. Joe though forlornly about how they never could afford television or phone service for their family members the few times they had been hospitalized. They were just too poor for such niceties. The doctor held Mama Cruse chart in one hand. "I ran some tests, urinalyses, liver enzyme. Your mother came back with an elevated white blood count and blood in her urine."
Joseph nodded. "Okay, so then when can she come home?”
“Well, right now we have her on antibiotics and intravenous fluids, but we also took a MRI of her abdominal region and we found several masses.”
Joe's throat tightened. “And?”
“Well, we believe they are cancerous. We will have to do a biopsy.”
Joe's heart sank as he leaned back on the wall behind him. “Are you sure they’re not benign?”
The Doctor shook his head. “I don't believe they are because the primary lesion has broken through the wall of the right ureter and there are secondary masses in her right kidney, her liver and her lungs. A biopsy of the primary lesion will tell us more.”
“Oh, my God...” Joe whispered to himself, “What can you do?”
“Well, we can take the kidney and the ureter on that side and resect the liver, take the effected lobe out, then run her through chemo. However, she also takes several psychotropic’s and without that kidney and part of her liver we will at the minimum have to adjust her dosages downward and watch for toxicity. The fact that the cancer has obstructed her right kidney maybe one reason she has been so mentally unstable lately."
Joe let out a burst of anger, “She is always unstable!” then in a lower tone
and remorseful, “What are her chances?”
“Well, not that good, the biopsy will tell us how virulent the mass is, its composition. A genetic assay can indicate what our best route of treatment. I would, though, advise you and your family to take it day by day.”
Jake slid open one of the glass back doors to his brick patio while carrying two margaritas. Donna leaned back, pushing her jet black hair to the side. Seeing Jake, she arched her back on one of the reclining deck chairs which were arrayed next to his in-ground pool. Jake watched her in her red bikini. He knew what she was but did not care, at least not unless it affected him in a bad way. With that thought in his mind, he smiled to her and handed her a drink. “Here you go, my dear.”
She took the drink and pushed the chair up, taking a sip from its straw. “Thanks, doll.”
He sat down next to her, both of them tanning in the late-summer sun. He thought about closing the pool. Donna thought about what she could say regarding Omar. She looked out over their shadowy blue reflections shimmering along the pool water. It seemed they were all living fake cellophane lives. What was real to her anymore, did it matter? Why did it seem to her that she sold her soul for a few copper pennies? Jake flashed an image in his mind of both of them having sex in the pool. To Jake it was not about making love, but just sex. To him it was always about winning the next race, the next win, big or small. He elevated his deck chair, looking passed the pool to his manicured back lawn. “It’s so nice out, Donna.”
Donna pushed her own thoughts away. “Sure is, dear.”
Jake looked into the pool water and then at her. “Hey Donna, want to take a dip, the water is warm today?”
Donna sipped her drink awkwardly, “Maybe in a minute,” then thinking again about her friends, “Hey, Jake...”
Jake disappointed and showing it. “Yeah?”
She was about to say something when the phone began to ring from inside his large and well-appointed house. Jake still annoyed frowned and got up. “I have to get the phone.”
In a moment he was back with the phone in his hand arguing with whomever was on the phone. “Yeah, I know…I know we have to get that part of the budget voted on. I know...I know...he has been a bastard....yeah, okay, Randy has been a bastard. I know...okay, bye...” Jake hung up the phone with a press of a button, sat down next to Donna again and then placed the phone on his lap. “Okay, where were we?”
Donna shrugged a bit. “Who was that?”
Jake puffed exasperated. “That was Steve about Randy, Randy is on the city council and he has been a pain in my ass, lately.”
Donna nodded, “Oh,” sipping on her drink, then after a minute, “I need to talk to you about something important, Jake.”
Jake still annoyed and blurting out, “What?”
Now Donna getting a bit angular about her relationship with him, but concealing her hurt except for the sharp tone in her voice. “I want to talk about Susan and Omar.”
Jake placed his Margareta on a table next to them both and stood up. He walked into his home and came out with a beer, sitting down and opening it up. “What about Omar? That crack-head, what's he want besides money?”
Donna placed her drink down turning to him. “It's not always about money. You always think that, Jake.”
Jake now quite angry. “He is nothing but a two-bit drug dealer.”
Donna smiled a toothy cold grin. She had it and took it, now she gave it. “He is your two-bit dealer. How do you think you got that hole in your fucking nose, J?”
“You're a bitch, you know that?”
Donna got up. “Listen, he needs some cash to keep going.”
Jake leaned back swallowing down his beer, “Well, we all do and he ain't getting shit from me.”
Donna walked over to the pool, her back to him. “Well, I will tell him to hold your junk until I get what I want from you. Next time you might get someone who will rat your ass out to PoPo.”
Jake now enraged stood up smashing the bottle on the patio. “I'll break his fucking legs!”
Donna turned to him as he grabbed her, slapping him, then scratching his face with her long nails. “Don't touch me, don't you touch me!”
Jake held his face, a bit of blood now tracing down to his jaw, “Donna!”
Donna took her keys from one of the tables, “I am out of here!” walked off the patio, down the stone path to the driveway and got into her car. She shivered as she locked the doors of her car and then quickly drove away.
Joseph turned to Danny as a couple of nurses finished prepping Mama Cruse for surgery. Danny was beside himself, somewhat hysterical. They were in pre-op, a curtain separating the three of them, the nurses and another patient also waiting for an operating room bed. Joe grabbed Danny, looking up to him with his expansive frame. Although Danny had the power of an ox, he seemed weak as a newborn. It was all too much for Danny and almost too much for Joe. Joseph had to keep his head, if he did not who would in that family of his? Joe took Danny’s shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. “Keep it together, Danny. Mama is just going in to get a few things done and she will be out in an hour or two.”
Danny looked over at Mama Cruse, who was resting, but awake watching them both from the bed, her covers pulled up to keep her warm, “Mama?”
Mama Cruse looked warmly at Danny and then at Joe. “Mama loves you both very much.”
Joe knew it, unfortunately though when she was off her medication she always said hurtful words that went and cut deep. “I know, Mama.”
Danny smiled, “I love you too, Mama,” then turning to Joe wiping his eyes, somewhat whispering, “But, Joe, they're taking out cancer.”
Joseph grabbed both Danny's hand and Mama Cruse's hand, Mama Cruse smiling. “I know Danny, don't worry too much. Try to think about it like a tune-up for Mama.”
Mama Cruse nodded. “Yes, Danny think about it that way.”
Danny smiled weakly with big expansive eyes toward Joe. “Like what you did with your Buick, Joe Joe?”
Joseph nodded as the surgeon came out to them with scrubs on, “Like that Danny.”
The surgeon walked over to them as a nurse and two surgical techs followed. “Okay, were ready to go, folks.”
Danny turned away cowering from the nurses. Joe grabbed Danny pulling him up as he slumped. He was a heavy burden as Joe lifted him up.
The club beats were loud, the crowd pulsating with the reverberations of bass flickering through the floor and the people themselves. The strobes lights danced around the room, driving the heat of the dancers around them, pulling at those who were content enough to sit at the bar or watch the moving skin from the tables. The Crash club was wild that night, some heading over from Townley, or the local Fishkill area. They went to party, to chase the tiger, get their piece, get drunk or get screwed. Of course, there were the select few who wanted just to soak up the sweat, dance or watch those who did. Trisha was at the bar sipping on a Mojito, next to Tonya, who was drinking a beer. Tonya turned to Trisha and above the beats. “You know I see a lot of potential in David.” Trisha nodded, not inclined to comment on what Tonya had said. Tonya looked over to David who was sitting in a plush corner booth with a few of his friends. “I mean he could be a great business manager. He already is, but I think he could run the world.”
Joe had told Trisha about Kevin and she felt maybe should could find out more, perhaps she could help Kevin and her boyfriend in the process. “Hey, what's been going on with David and Omar?”
Tonya looked a bit suspiciously at Trisha but gave a crooked smile, turning about and leaning back somewhat on the barstool. “You know Omar is always up David’s craw. He is an ass half the time, smoking up what he is supposed to sell and gambling what he is supposed to hand off to David. Omar and his damn primo's, what the hell, man. David is getting pressure from above because of Omar.”
Trisha nodded, “Yeah.”
“His people's owe him and he just lets it slide.”
Trisha finished up her drink, looked over to David and then to Joseph, who was at a table with Kevin, which she thought was unusual considering what was going on with Kevin and Omar. Joe was talking with Kevin, both with a whiskey sour. “David?”
Kevin hesitantly sipping his whiskey. “Let’s go Joe, I don't want to be beat again.”
Joe looked over to Omar who was moving through the crowd. “Look, I didn't know they would be here tonight. I just wanted to get out and about. I thought you could use some time away from your apartment, have a drink. Maybe I should take you to a rehab instead, I don't know.”
Kevin shook his head no, now whispering to Joe. “Listen, Joe your mom just had surgery and everything we should go.”
Joe looked down at his drink. “Yeah, she is home resting, Danny is watching her. There is nothing I can do right now.”
Kevin drank the whole whiskey, gulping it down, wiping his face with his sleeve. “Right, I know. Listen can we go, it’s not your skin.”
Joe nodded, “Okay, alright.”
“Like now, please.”
Joseph shook his head, finishing his drink. “Okay!”
Tonya got up, “No, Omar.” and motioned for Trisha to go with her, “Come on; let me show you to David.”
Trisha and Tonya made their way through the heat and sweat, through the dancing and the pounding noise around them. They moved through to the booth that held David and now Donna, who had made her way seemingly at the same time from out of nowhere to sit beside David. Donna looked up from her martini, brushing her long black hair back. “Well hello, Tonya.”
Tonya nodded, “Yeah,” then barrel eying David, “David this is Trisha, one of my friends.”
David eased back. “Hey.”
Trisha looked at him and Donna slyly. “Hello, David and who is this?”
As Donna went to speak, Tonya intercepted and sat down next to David. Donna now sat on one side of David while Tonya sat on the other. “That is Donna.”
Donna smiled bitterly, looking up at Trisha laughing lightly, but scorned, “Yes, hello, I am Donna.” holding out her hand.
Trisha shook her hand as Omar came over to join the group. “Nice to meet you.”
David lifted his drink to Omar. “Omar.”
Omar stooped down with his drink, his eyes so blood shot red that their color was apparent even in the dimly lit club. He lisped to Trisha. “Hey.”
He seemed very drunk. David grinned to him. “Why are you here?”
Omar tripped back a bit. “Well, I…hey, to party.”
David frowned, “Yeah,” turning to Tonya, “Hey, baby,” giving her a squeeze and kissing her on the cheek.
Tonya still was not buying it. She pulled away some from David's advances, noticing Kevin. “Omar, your boy is over there.”
Omar fell into the bench. “Who?”
“I don't know, over there,” Tonya pointing, “There, Kevin I think.”
Omar looked over through the crowd not quite seeing what she was seeing. “Where?”
Tonya pointed again. “There, fool! Man, you must have been a crack baby!”
Omar smiled, grinning standing up sloppily, peering over the crowed. “Oh, yeah…I see.”
David reached over Tonya grabbing Omar's shirt. “Sit, down.”
Omar now getting angry. “I am going to beat that mother-”
David moved over, crowding Tonya in the process, grabbing Omar’s collar and forcing him into the bench. “Sit down!”
Omar drinking again leaning back, half asleep, Tonya now angry herself. “Get out, Donna,” Donna letting Tonya out of the booth, “I am out of here, don't worry.” Tonya walking away, disappearing in the crowd of pressed flesh.
Trisha quickly excused herself, moved through the crowd and then worked her way over to Joseph and Kevin. Joe and Kevin stood up ready to make a hasty exit. Trisha grabbed Joe. “Joe, you got to go.”
Joe looking stressed. “I know that, Trisha.”
All three of them quickly left the club and got into Joseph's Buick. Joseph turned the key. “Okay, people let’s get the hell out of here.”
Back in the club Omar finally managed to pull himself away from David. “What the fuck, David!”
David gave Omar the finger. “Listen boy, you’re my bitch and you know it! Sit down and calm down before I get to you later.”
Omar stumbled up from the bench and swigged down the rest of his drink, turning to David, staggering a bit. “Listen, without me you got shit!”
David stood up, pulling on his black jacket, grabbing Omar. “I am going to kill you!”
Donna quickly grasping at David. “No, baby! Please!”
David pushed Donna back, Omar punching David in the face, missing his jaw instead sinking his knuckles into his right cheek, teeth and bone. David staggered back for a second seizing Omar’s neck, the crowed scattering a bit, but not much around them while Omar struggled. David took his heavy right fist hitting Omar directly in his jaw, the force of impact cracking teeth, sending Omar back and down to the floor.
Donna grabbed David again. “Let it go, David, please!”
Tonya hearing the commotion rushing through the club to them, shaking David. “What are you doing, David!”
David wiping a bit of blood from his lip. “Don't you ever fucking touch me again!”
Omar staggered up, spitting teeth and blood, wiping his face with his sleeve, “I got your back. I got it, okay, David.” Omar spitting on the dance floor, “My bad.” slowly stumbling away, disappearing through the crowd, out of the club, into his car and driving away into the night.
Joseph and Danny were home watching television, while Mama Cruse was in her back bedroom resting. Joe was clicking through the channels until he found a baseball game. Danny pointed. “Joe Joe, wait, it’s the Red Socks!”
Joe nodded sipping a cup of hot coffee. It seemed funny to others sometimes, such as when they got a visitor, why they usually had a pot of coffee on in the middle of the day. Joe smiled a bit. It seemed to him that was one of the few things they all shared. They were their own happy coffee clutch, at times. “Yeah, okay we will watch it. The Yanks aren't on anyway.”
Danny was lying on the couch drinking coffee and munching on donuts. “Sounds good, Joe Joe.”
Joe looked out one of the big plastic windows of the old trailer. His mind began to wander. He thought about his past, how he had so little. He wondered how his grandparents wrecked his parent's future and then Danny's and his. It seemed to him that way too much was passed down from generation to generation. I did my best, he thought to himself. I don't know if it is enough, but I did my best. Joseph wanted more, but all he had it seemed was an empire of dust. Joe picked at the arm of the chair. Maybe, that was one of the major problems surrounding his life, that it all seemed this or that, sand or mirrors, but what was actual and real he was not quite sure. Joseph remembered how when Danny was much younger they used to play outside their old apartment, which was next to the highway. Back then, it was almost as if anything was possible; if your imagination could think it, it became real, a new world to play in and be the master. Now, Joe did not want to be the master of anything. He did not want to be king, just an average guy with an average life, which was way more than he had now. Maybe, Joe thought, seeing is believing and why couldn't seeing be just as real as the fantasy worlds they created years ago. Those worlds were created by the strength of the imagination and maybe, likewise he could do the same in the real world. How much effort do we give to fantasy? Why couldn't that same amount of effort be put to reality? That thought gave him hope and he in turn grabbed it for a moment, not wanting to let it go. Maybe, God would not let him go. He did not want to fall.
Then someone came to the door of the trailer, hollow metallic knocks were heard from the outside in. Joseph peered around the trailers white curtains to barely see the silhouette of a woman. Danny stopped eating donuts for a minute and looked up. “Joe Joe, som
eone is at the door.” the returned to his sugar fest.
Joe dismissing Danny sarcastic, “I know Danny, thanks,” getting up and opening the door. There standing in from of him was the woman they had met a few weeks earlier at Groos Tavern. He wondered. “Hello, Donna, how did you find us?”
Danny looked up from his box of donuts and waved gleefully at her from the couch. “Hi Donna, Hi, Hi! Hi!”
Donna waved at Danny with a big smile. “Hi, Danny bear!”
Danny giggled a bit to himself, blushing a bit and then burying his face in his coffee.
Joseph gave her a suspicious look. “What do you want?”
Donna went to take a step further in and succeeded in doing so. “Well, I wanted to see if your brother wanted to go out sometime.”
Danny looked up again and nodded, speaking out quite loudly. “Sure do, Donna! Sure do! What you think, Joe Joe! I sure would!”
Mama Cruse could be heard from the back bedroom, yelling from her bed. “Who is at the door?”
Joe yelled back to Mama Cruse, “No one Mama!” then to Donna, “Look, I don't know how you found us, but I was supposed to call you and forgot. But now we have our hands full. I am going off to college in just a week or so and Danny is going to be busy.”
Donna gave a crooked smile, brushing her hair back. “Well, I know. I found you guys by asking the bartender at Groos your last names and if you might be listed in the phone book. He said most likely. Then I happened to find your address in the phone book and here I am.”
Joe thought it very odd that a woman as attractive as Donna would want to hook up with someone such as Danny. It wasn't that Danny was a bad man it is just that he was a bit slow, too innocent and too naive for most women. Danny did date once in a while, but the most successful dates were always with women who were similar to him, the more similar the better the dates went. Joe felt a cold chill down his back. She was a very attractive woman. He though at another time he would have liked to be in a relationship with Donna but her going after Danny was just somewhat unusual. Joe felt the protective father like part of his personality come out for his brother directed toward Donna. “Look, he is celibate. Danny has no sex drive.”
Donna looked toward Danny now confused. “Huh?”
Joe hesitated looking back at his brother. “Right, Danny?”
Danny looked up from admiring the last donut in the box. “What's celibate, Joe Joe?”
Donna poked a finger at Joseph. “See!”
Joe began pushing Donna out the door. “He lost them in a car accident.”
Donna rubbed her head confused. “What?”
Joe completed moving her out onto the porch. “Terrible, we mourned for months.”
Danny yelled out the door. “Bye, Donna!”
Donna yelled back to him as the door closed on her. “Bye, Danny bear!”
Joe locked the door behind him, turned around to Danny and leaned back. “Don't say a word Danny, not one word.”
Danny nodded. “Okay, Joe Joe.”
Mama Cruse again yelled from the back bedroom. “I want my lunch, Joe Joe!”
Joseph bit his finger. “Yes, Ma, coming!”
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