by Thom Whalen
* * *
Tuesday night was date night with Katie. The last time we’d gone out, she’d talked about getting a motel room but she hadn’t mentioned that again and I was afraid that if I brought it up, she might say that she’d changed her mind.
Instead, I took her to see a movie called Billy Jack. It pretended to profess non-violence as an ideal but every problem in the movie was solved by violence. The audience was left with no choice but to cheer when Billy Jack beat up one villain after another, finally killing the son of the town plutocrat.
It was not a good movie for Katie. It featured one sexual assault with a knife, one violent rape, and one statutory rape.
It wasn’t a good movie for me, either.
If Billy Jack had been with Katie in the Road Snake clubhouse, he would have beat up the Road Snakes with his fancy karate instead of cowering on a dirty old sofa while they almost raped her.
I never felt like less of a hero than when I walked out of that movie.
I couldn’t understand why Katie clung so tightly to my arm.
As she climbed onto my bike behind me, she whispered in my ear, “Billy Paul was no Billy Jack.”
That was undoubtedly true, but I couldn’t figure out why she would make that comparison. All they had in common was the similarity in their names.
“In what way?” I asked.
“He was more like Bernard in the movie and Randal is more like Billy Jack. Bernard raped Jean and Billy Paul raped Gwen. Billy Jack killed Bernard for it and Randal killed Billy Paul.”
I hadn’t seen that parallel. Still didn’t. “Randal didn’t kill Billy Paul.”
She hugged me tight. “Maybe not, but everyone thinks that he did.”
“I don’t.”
She put her head on my back. “I know. You’re a real friend.”
“Do you think he killed Billy?”
“Billy needed killing. I don’t know if Randal did it or not. But I wouldn’t blame him if he did. Billy’s murder was justice, pure and simple.”
I gunned the engine and released the clutch. The bike shot away from the curb and Katie hugged me tighter than ever. I could feel her breasts pressing against my back and it took my breath away.
I didn’t know where to go, so I drove out to Smoke Pond. Not to Makeout Hill like usual, but to the campground side.
There was no need to buy a pass because we weren’t staying the night.
I rode slowly around the park. There were a few tents but I couldn’t tell if they were occupied or not. Maybe my bike was waking up campers or maybe they were all in town, trying to figure out what the citizens of Wemsley did on a Tuesday night.
I stopped at one of the many unoccupied sites. This might be the height of tourist season, but Smoke Pond was mostly empty even at the best of times. I killed the engine.
“Do you ever think about where Billy was camping when he was killed?” I asked.
“No. Do you?”
“Sometimes. It was one of these sites. Might even have been this very one.”
“I wouldn’t want to camp here, then. It might be haunted. I wouldn’t want to meet Billy Paul’s ghost.”
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Maybe. Do you?”
“No.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“I won’t know that I’m wrong until I see one.”
“I wouldn’t want to see one,” she said. “Billy was scary enough when he was alive. I almost freaked out when he yelled at Gwen and dumped her tray.”
“Don’t worry about his ghost,” I said. “I guarantee that you’ll never see it.”
“You can’t guarantee something like that. You don’t know.”
“Besides, what could a ghost do to you?” I asked.
“Scare me. Maybe do other things.”
“Like what?”
“Like what he did to The Doll.”
I was confused. “What do you mean? What did Billy’s ghost do to The Doll?”
“Not his ghost, silly. Him. When he was alive.”
“What?” I felt like I was thick. There was something that was obvious to Katie that I wasn’t getting at all.
“You know. He… He forced himself on her.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you hear what Buck was saying to the other Road Snakes?”
“Something about a promise to The Doll?” I was beginning to see what she was getting at.
“Right. He made them back off from me because they’d promised The Doll that they wouldn’t do to a woman what was done to her.”
That wasn’t quite right, but it was close. I was beginning to remember what Buck had said. That they had made a promise to The Doll and that it was up to each of them to decide what their promise meant. Meaning whether it applied to Katie or not. Then Candy had distracted them by offering herself in Katie’s place. Maybe Candy thought that that was included in her promise to The Doll.
But was it Billy Paul who’d hurt The Doll or someone else?
Who else? It was Billy who was hiding from the Snakes.
“So, let me get this straight. You think that Billy was hanging around the Road Snakes and he got The Doll alone and raped her and the Snakes found out and promised The Doll that they would never let that happen again.”
“Don’t you think so?”
I thought about it for a minute. “I do. I think that’s exactly what happened.”
“Only they didn’t just promise The Doll that it wouldn’t happen again. They also promised her justice. They promised that they’d get Billy Paul. Beat him up or–”
“Or kill him.”
“He needed killing. If Randal didn’t do it, then the Road Snakes did.”
Billy’s murder wasn’t about drugs or money at all. It was about honor. The Road Snakes view of honor was a little twisted, but it was stronger than most men’s. I was sure of that.
The world made sense for the first time since the summer began.
I twisted my neck around and kissed Katie. “You’re brilliant,” I said. “Absolutely brilliant.”
“Why don’t we ride around to Makeout Hill and we’ll shine together under the stars for a while, then?”
That’s exactly what we did. I felt like I was glowing white-hot when I was in her arms. It wasn’t going all the way like she said that she’d do in some motel room in Watertown, but I couldn’t imagine that feeling any better.
I was young, then, and still had a lot to learn about men and women.
