Now They Call Me Gunner

by Thom Whalen

  * * *

  I never looked so cool in my life, riding down the highway on my big Harley, hot girlfriend clinging to my back, she wearing the helmet, me in my Ray-Ban aviator shades.

  I never felt less like a math geek. I liked it.

  The sun was nearing the zenith when we got to Oak Falls. I slowed down and pointed at the Kenny Mill sign. “The clubhouse is in there.” I spoke loud to be heard over the growl of the engine as we cruised past.

  “I can’t see it,” she said.

  “It’s back behind the trees.”

  “I want to see it.”

  “We’d have to drive right up to it.”

  “So? You said there wouldn’t be anyone there.

  That I had. “Probably not,” I said. “Probably not.”

  “So. Let’s go.”

  I pulled a U-turn and pointed the bike back toward Kenny Mill.

  We could hear the dogs barking in wild abandon as we rolled down the dirt driveway.

  “You didn’t tell me about dogs.” She sounded worried.

  “They’re in a cage.”

  “Good.” She hugged me tight.

  I hoped that no one had decided to let them roam today.

  When we emerged from the trees, the place looked deserted. I stopped the bike. “That’s the clubhouse, there.” I pointed to the garage. “I don’t think anyone lives in the house. There’s the ruin of an old mill in the back by the river. That’s why they call it Kenny Mill.”

  “There’s a river?”

  “Small river. Really just a large stream.”

  “I want to see.”

  “You can’t see it from here. We’d have to walk back there.”

  She jumped off the bike. “Let’s go look.”

  “Whoa! We’re not stopping here. You just wanted to drive by the clubhouse. We’ve got to go.”

  “We’ve got to see the mill. Come on.” She began walking toward the gap between the garage and the house. The dogs worked themselves into a frenzy, jumping against the chain link sides of their cage and barking and growling like rabid beasts.

  I killed the engine and hurried to catch up with her. “One quick look and then we have to get out of here.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” She looked at the dogs. “Noisy, aren’t they?”

  “Yeah. They bark all the time.”

  “Poor things.”

  Those poor things looked like they wanted to tear our limbs off and devour the pieces.

  “I wish we’d brought a bag lunch,” she said when she saw the ruined foundation of the mill. “This would be a great spot for a picnic.”

  “There’s a Dairy Queen in Oak Falls,” I said. “Let’s go there, now.”

  “I want to look around a little, first.”

  “I’m hungry now.”

  “We didn’t ride all the way out here just to turn around again.”

  Yes, we did, I thought but didn’t voice the words. That was exactly the plan. I looked around. I didn’t see anything untoward.

  “I bet there’s fish in there.” She was peering into the water. “If we had a fishing pole, we could catch something for lunch.”

  “Let’s go to that Dairy Queen. Maybe they have a fish burger.”

  “I’d rather have a banana split.”

  “It’s a deal. I’ll get you a banana split.”

  But she was wandering around the ruin, not listening to my generous offer. “This is really old,” she said. “It was a flour mill. The millstone’s still here.” She pointed to a big piece of round granite in the middle of the ruin. “At least, the bottom half. It was probably too heavy for anyone to want to move it.”

  She spent a long time poking around the ruin, talking about the old days when people had to take their grain to a local mill in a wagon.

  I never guessed that she was interested in history.

  “We’ve got to go,” I said at last. “Now.” And I started walking back to the bike.

  She followed.

  Too late.

  When we rounded the dog pen, I saw Friendly, the giant man, leaning against my saddle. Between the barking dogs and the rushing water, I hadn’t heard the sound of his chopper arriving. Two choppers next to mine. I wondered who had come on the other one.

  The clubhouse door was open – not the big double doors for cars but the small single door for people. Wasp poked his head out. “Hi, kids,” he called out and stepped toward us. “You going to introduce us to your friend, Gunner?”

  I turned to her. “Katie, this is Wasp and Friendly.” I turned back to them. “This is Katie.”

  “I’m ever so pleased to meet you, Katie.” Wasp grabbed her hand, bowed over it, and planted a kiss on the back in a parody of a gallant knight. “It was good of our friend, Gunner, here, to bring you up for the party.”

  “I didn’t know you were having a party,” I said.

  “Neither did we,” he replied. He was talking to me, but he was looking at Katie. “But when you have guests, it’s only polite to throw a party for them. Come on in and have a brew.” He gestured extravagantly to the door of the clubhouse.

  Katie looked at me uncertainly. She had lost her carefree attitude.

  “We’d like to,” I said, “but we’ve got to get back to Wemsley.” I turned toward my bike.

  Friendly was still leaning against the saddle, making no move to step aside.

  There was no way that I was going to move him if he didn’t want to be moved.

  “I’m sure that you can spare a few minutes for a brew. I mean, after Friendly and me drove all the way out here just to be good hosts. It wouldn’t be polite to run off right away, would it?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t think that you’d be around. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

  “No bother,” he said. “We like to party. Jimbo happens to be staying in the big house for a couple of days and was kind of surprised to hear you come up the driveway.” He nodded toward the house.

  I hadn’t noticed Jimbo standing quietly on the porch. He nodded back to Wasp and came down the front stairs.

  Three against one. I wouldn’t have liked my odds against any one of these men. Three was hopeless.

  “Where’s your buddy, Randal?” Wasp asked. “He going to join us?”

  There was no right answer to that question. If I said he was, then Wasp would insist that we had to stay and wait for him. If I said that he wasn’t, then Wasp would know that I was all alone.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “He knows we’re up here but he didn’t say if he was going to meet us or not.”

  Wasp smiled broadly. “I got it. So I guess you better come in for a few minutes and we’ll see if he shows up.” He stepped aside to clear our route into the clubhouse.

  Jimbo stood behind Katie. I heard my bike creak when Friendly took his weight off it and came up behind me.

  I glanced around. All three men were looking at Katie.

  “Come on, little girl,” Wasp said and offered his arm to her.

  She didn’t take it right away, so he used his other hand to pick up hers and lay it on his arm.

  “Is there something wrong?” he asked her.

  “No,” she said. Her voice was quavering a little.

  “Good. Come on.” He led her into the clubhouse.

  Jimbo followed her and Friendly stepped around me to follow him.

  They didn’t care about me. There was no one between me and my bike. Nothing to stop me from mounting up and riding away. Alone.

  Katie glanced back at me with wide eyes as she disappeared into the shadows.

  I hurried after them. I could well be rushing to my death, but there was no way that I was leaving her with the Road Snakes, unprotected. That would be inconceivable.