Olongapo Earp (Tequila Vikings Book 2)

by J. E. Park

  When I got to my feet, the Marine was pounding on the door to Tala’s apartment, demanding to be let in. I ran to the trash cans, finding a couple of empty beer bottles that Dixie tossed out, then dashed to the foot of the steps. The first one I threw at the Marine missed. It sailed over his head, cleared the property, and exploded onto the street on the other side of the wall. The second one hit him in the elbow. He did not seem hurt by it at all, but it turned his attention back to me. “You got a death wish, you pansy?”

  I laughed. “That supposed to scare me? You think I’m intimidated by pussies who get their rocks off by terrorizing little girls? You’re not impressing me.”

  The Marine turned red and charged down the steps, leaping at me from on high in an attempt to take me to the dirt. He jumped a little early, and I had plenty of time to step out of the way. The jarhead hit the ground hard and, seizing the opportunity, I kicked him in the gut as hard as I could. It had little effect. My second kick had even less. That one I aimed at the Marine’s jaw, hoping to put him down. Instead, I missed the mark and watched helplessly as my loafer flew off my foot and launched high into the air. It sailed out of our yard, over the back wall, and into the jungle, never to be seen again. I’m pretty sure the monkeys got it.

  While I was watching my footwear fly away, the Marine jumped up and nailed me in the temple, dropping me to the deck before I could block it. I think I blacked out for a moment. When I got around to lifting my head again, the jarhead was already back upstairs, trying to break Tala’s door down.

  At that point, I was starting to wish that my roommates were home. Tony would have been useless in a fight, but I doubted he would do any worse than I was. Dixie was the man I could have used right then, but he was cruising Magsaysay looking for a new playmate. He did not get home until just before curfew, and there was no way I could hold the Marine off that long. It was up to me to get my ass kicked all by myself.

  Tala’s ex was pounding on the girls’ door so loud that he never heard me sneak up from behind. Knowing I was over-matched, I was not concerned with fighting fair. I cranked back with everything I had and planted my fist right at the base of the Marine’s skull. The blow hit him hard enough to send his face bouncing off of the door jamb, drawing blood across the bridge of his nose.

  Enraged, the goon planted his shoulder into my gut in return. He lifted me right off of my feet and charged across the hall, slamming me up against the door of my apartment. While pinning me there, he got in two hard blows against my sides, one for each kidney, and let me fall to the floor. The leatherneck then planted a kick to my stomach hard enough to make me nearly puke. He was gearing up to hit me again, but being as drunk as he was, he lurched off-balance. This allowed me to jam one of my feet against the inside of his knee.

  The cretin’s leg bent in an unnatural direction, and I heard something pop as he howled in agony. The Marine immediately went down and rolled over onto his side to nurse the wounded joint. I seized the momentum, jumping onto his back and attempting to put him into another chokehold. Then, in a dazzling array of wrestling moves that would have impressed me had I not been on the receiving end of them, he switched our positions. I found myself face down on the ground and getting choked out from behind. I was helpless, so, with no other option, I sunk my teeth into his arm.

  I bit my assailant hard enough to loosen his grip. I then rammed my head backward and smashed it into his nose. Still, the Marine held fast. The second time I did it, it knocked him rearward sufficiently to twist his bum knee again. That resulted in enough pain for him to let me go. Once released, I took several shots to the bruin's face that ultimately drove him onto his back with his legs spread wide open. That was a juicy opportunity. I drove my foot, the one that still had a shoe on it, deep into the intruder's groin. That finally seemed to do the trick.

  While he was immobilized, I grabbed the jarhead's feet and dragged him to the stairway. As I pulled him back down to the ground level, I made sure his head bounced off of every concrete step along the way. When we reached the foot, though, the Marine came back to life. He yanked one of his legs free and swept my own out from beneath me. Before I realized what was happening, the goon had me straddled and was throttling me with a furious series of punches thrown about my head and shoulders. I managed to get my arms up to protect my face, but I was getting my ass kicked at that point. There was nothing I could do about it. That was when I heard Mari burst out of her apartment and jump onto the Marine’s back, slapping him while screaming, “Itigil! Itigil! Itigil!” Stop! Stop! Stop!

  And then she struck the bastard so hard that he flew off of my chest. At least that was what it looked like from my perspective. I was so busy getting pummeled that I did not see Sergeant Tejada run into the courtyard and ring the Marine’s bell with his nightstick.

  Once my attacker was off of me, Mari threw her arms around my neck and started bawling. I carried her away from the chaos as my master chief and Tejada got medieval with our guest. They made sure that Tala’s ex-boyfriend was not going to jail that night. He was going to the hospital.

  Mari was hysterical. To calm her down, I laughed and asked, “You hit that big guy, didn’t you?”

  “Oo,” she answered as tears streamed down her face. Yes.

  “You did that for me?”

  Mari wiped her eyes and smiled. “Yes.”

  Despite the beating I took, I had to laugh. “Do you have any idea how brave you are!?! That guy was scary! I don’t even think the men I live with would have had the guts to do what you did! You want to know something?”

  “What?”

  “Ikaw ang aking bayani,” I told her. You’re my hero. Mari’s face twisted up as she started crying again. Her arms wrapped around my neck so hard I was not sure if she was hugging me or trying to choke me out, too.

  *****

  When Tala got home, she was beside herself, wracked by fear, guilt, anger, and confusion over what had happened. “How he pind me? I move to get away prom him! I change job to get away prom him! How he track me down?”

  “One of your customers followed me home,” I said to her, right in front of Darrow and Sergeant Tejada. At TJ’s insistence, I told them all about how Mulvaney saw me talking to her at the bar, how he used her real name, and how we took the same jeepney back that night. It seemed innocent at the time, but it developed sinister undertones the instant I heard that man pounding on my gate.

  Tejada turned to my master chief. “You tink you can pind dis guy?”

  Darrow shrugged. “I’ll make a trip to the A Company barracks and see what I can find out.”

  Daniel Morris was Tala Bono’s ex-boyfriend. He was the man she hoped would get her out of Olongapo, but soon after he moved in with her, it was clear he was more interested in becoming her pimp than her lover. His feelings toward her became crystal clear after he beat her for telling him she wanted to quit work so that she could be with him exclusively. The next time he had duty, she gathered up her daughter, changed jobs and apartments, and left him a note telling him to stay away from the two of them.

  He tracked her down to Barrio Barretto and beat her up at work soon afterward. The local hooligans, very likely the same people who tried to rob me a few days before, banged him up pretty bad in return and banned him from Baloy Beach. When the tale of what happened made its way back to the A Company barracks, Morris’s command placed Barrio Barretto off-limits to him also.

  As LCPL Morris was lying on his side, bleeding out of his broken mouth, Sergeant Tejada barred him from the rest of Olongapo as well. “Unless you want to go to jail,” TJ told him. “You tell everybody dat you got jump by gang boys, you hear? And ip I see you out here again, I no gonna send you back to base in handcupps. You goin’ back in a pucking casket. Got it?” After getting a nod out of the battered man, the policeman set him free, literally kicking him out of my yard. Using his feet, Tejada savagely throttled Morris in the ribs until he was in the street, lying prone against the curb.

  “Y
ou’re letting him go?” I asked when TJ returned.

  “Yeah,” Master Chief answered. “We gotta keep this one off the books. After what happened to Miller in Sasebo, the captain has adopted a zero-tolerance policy regarding liberty incidents. If the skipper gets wind of this, we’re both going to be on restriction for the rest of the time we’re here. Especially in your case.”

  Darrow thought for a moment. “Jesus, Doyle, why does this stuff always happen to you? You seem to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  After everyone left, I went to look for Tala and Mari. I found them sitting in an old metal rocking chair in the courtyard. Tala held her daughter in her lap, both of them crying to themselves as they slowly rocked back and forth. I wanted to talk to them and make sure that they were all right, but I sensed that they were having a moment. That was something they rarely got together, so I decided to let them be.

  *****

  Several hours later, after the sun went down and I was drinking with my roommates, we were interrupted by a knock on the door. I got up to answer it since I was pretty sure that it was Tala Bono, and I was right.

  For the first time, I saw Mari’s mother dressed for comfort instead of seduction. She wore loose jeans, a t-shirt that fit her like a dress, and flip-flops instead of high-heels. She let her hair down and removed her makeup. She was still gorgeous, but without all her bargirl armor on, she looked vulnerable. Tina, the woman who worked at the Pagoda, was formidable, confident, and tough. Tala, the woman with a little girl to feed, was just winging it

  “Can I speak wit you?” Tala asked after I opened the door.

  Nodding, I welcomed her inside. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  Tala stood fast, shaking her head. “Can we speak outside, maybe downstairs in da courtyard?”

  “Okay,” I said, grabbing my beer and following her to the picnic table, now back at the far end of the yard.

  Once seated, Tala’s tears started flowing. “Doyle, t’ank you por what you do por my daughter. Everyt’ing. Buying her pood, pixing her teeth, protecting her prom Danny. I don’t know how to repay you por all dis.”

  “Hey Tala, you don’t have to do anything for me. Hanging out with Mari is keeping me out of trouble. Well, at least it was until Danny showed up.”

  “Doyle, I…I…we already so par in debt to you por everyt’ing you do por Mari. I need to ask a pavor prom you, dough, and I no t’ink I know how…”

  “For Mari?” I asked. “Tell me what she needs. I…”

  Tala heaved, noisily drawing in a deep breath of air while doing so. “She need you to stop doing all dese t’ings por her! Please! You have to stop!”

  Unsure of how to answer that, I stammered. “I don’t understand…”

  Sobbing, Mari’s mother cried, “Dat right! You no understand! You no understand what you doing to her!”

  “Tala, did I do something wrong?”

  Shaking her head, she answered, “No! No! You doing everyt’ing right! She just a little girl, Doyle. She have little girl pantasies and…” Tala paused to get herself together. “Doyle, I born on Leyte Island. My pamily very poor. Dere lot of bad boys in da place where I grow up. Dey in trouble all time, in gangs, dey always doing bad t’ings. When dey want somet’ing, dey take it and everyone apraid op dem, so no one ever stop dem. When I was thirteen, dey take me. I have Mari when I only pourteen.

  “I never tell my parents what dem boys do to me, I very ashamed. So, when dey see I am having Mari, dey ask who da pather is and I tell dem I don’t know. Dat make dem ashamed too, and scared. Dey can no appord to feed another baby and dey very upset dat dey daughter give her body to boy she no know. So dey kick me out op my house.”

  Tala winced at the memory, discarded like trash by her own parents. “Dem boys, dey kill me when dey make Mari. Dey kill who I was and who I dream I become. I had to go to missionaries to take care op me until I have my daughter. But dey want to take Mari away prom me because dey say I too young to take care op her. She da only person I got, dough, so I run away to keep her. I come to Olongapo to work, but I know dere only one type op job I can do here. It scare me, and I no want to do it, but it only way I can take care op my little girl. But I only pourteen, I too young to work in Olongapo. I pind people dough dat tell me to go to Pagsanjan. I can work dere. So, I do. Dat horrible place, but I stay dere two years until I get job here in Olongapo.”

  After taking a moment to wipe her eyes, Tala continued. “Doyle, da girl I was when dose boys take me, she died. She gone now, replaced by Mari. Dis body you see, dis body dat used to be Tala? Dis body now Tina. Tina only have one job in dis lipe. Tina here to protect Mari. Tina feed Mari, Tina clothe Mari, Tina keep roop over Mari head, and Tina work hard, very hard, to send Mari to good school. It very expensive. Tina only live to see Mari do what she want to do when she grow up and be happy. Tina protect Mari prom having to live a lipe like Tina. Mari never have to sell herselp to keep pood in her belly. She be a nurse. Or a teacher. Or a journalist. She no gonna supper through her lipe like me.”

  I felt like it was my turn to speak, but I had nothing to say. The best I could come up with was, “Tala, how does me staying away from Mari help her?”

  “Mari never have man in her lipe dat she connect wit,” Tala answered. “You dough, she t’ink you really nice. She surprised by a white guy dat can speak her language a little and is good to her wid-out wanting not’ing prom her mot’er. She like you a lot an’ talks to me all da time about you since you here. Dere no kids in our barrio, and da other kids at her school no play wit her because dey mothers know what I do. You da only priend she t’ink she has.

  “Like I tell you, she a little girl wit little girl dream. She tinks ip we nice to you dat you marry me and take care op us. She tinks you take us wit you to America and…”

  “I…I…hey, look, Tala,” I stuttered. “I barely know…”

  Tala let out the saddest laugh I ever heard. “You can relax, Doyle. I no proposing to you. I telling you way dat a little girl mind work sometime. I don’t know you good, but I tell you smart man. You kind man. Plenty op girls see dat, and you make a nice lipe wit one op dem. I know what I am too. I know how I make my living. I know I damaged and…”

  “Hey, Tala, one day, you’re going to find someone who…”

  Mari’s mother suddenly looked angry. “Stop it! Ip I have to hear dat again...” Standing up to leave, Tala said, “Look. In pew weeks, you ship leave Philippines porever. When it goes, da base close too. I don’t know what me and Mari going to do. I do know dat da higher you get my daughter’s hope up, da more you allow her to have pantasies, da more her heart break when you leave. Please, Doyle. Please. Leave my little girl alone.”

  Tala sobbed, then rushed up to run back to her apartment. I stood to try to comfort her but stopped myself after a couple of steps. In the moment, my heart was breaking for her. She did not deserve the lot she had drawn in life. Neither did Rafaela. I wanted to rescue them both, but there was nothing I could do about either.

  For an instant, I wondered what it would be like being with someone like Tala. She was so beautiful, and with Mari, they would be an instant family, something I never had. Would we have dinners together, play board games on weekends, and go on picnics in the park? Or would we end up like the Greens? Would Tala and I drink away our demons and ignore Mari while our relationship deteriorated into violence?

  What Tala did for a living disgusted me, yet I could not help but be impressed with the sacrifices she made for Mari. She endured unimaginable violations every night to give her daughter a fighting chance in an unspeakably harsh place to live. That was love at its fiercest, in its most primal form. I sensed she was sincere when she spoke to me and thought it sad that few men would ever consider her as anything other than a commodity to be bought and used. She deserved a chance at a better life. It was a shame that she would probably never get it.

  But what if I gave her a chance? I shook my head to force t
he thought from my mind.

  You’ve had a few beers, I thought to myself. And you haven’t been laid since Hawaii. You’re thinking with your dick. Don’t be an idiot. She’s playing you, and you’re taking the bait.

  I lit myself a cigarette and looked up the steps to Tala’s door as the angel on my shoulder tried putting thoughts into my head. But that woman is so gorgeous. If you just let her in a little bit…

  My inner devil was having none of it. What’s the matter with you? Of course, she’s gorgeous! That’s why you keep your guard up! You let it down with a woman like that and she’ll destroy you, you fucking imbecile.

  I wondered if bar girls were really so bad. If I did ever let Tala in, would I ever be able to trust her? Would I always be suspicious of what she was doing whenever she went somewhere without me? Tala would have been so far out of my league had she not been a hooker. If I ever did give her a chance, would she be grateful for it? Or would she stay with me just long enough to get a better offer?

  Moron, why are you even thinking about this? Your mind is getting away from you here. You need to reel it back in a little.

  How would I react if I was with a woman like that, and she did try to leave me? What if we ever had children together, and she wanted to take them with her? Would it drive me mad like Randy Green? Could it push me to do to Tala and Mari what he had done to Rafaela and Manny?

  Or could they push me even further? Could they force me to do to them what my father did to…?