by Jay Morris
“Lies!” Darnell snapped, “God damned lies! Who told you that crap? Tucker?” he laughed, “bullshit from a murderer.”
But Mrs. Driscol was unfazed, she said that Tucker did not deny anything, she then said that since the world ended that he had been there for anyone who needed him.
“Lady, you are out of your damn mind.” Darnell said poking a finger at her.
“Look, I have been thinking about this” Rico offered, “and I tried to imagine what I would have done in his placed and honestly Darnell, I just don’t know, if she was with those…”
“Screw you Hernandez!” Darnell interrupted “those guys were her friends; they didn’t do any of that crap that he said they did. Face it everyone, Tucker killed them because they were black.”
Elaine answered back “Ridiculous! Tucker has never said anything like that, ever!”
“Oh my God, he has all of you turned inside out you can’t see straight! I have had enough.”
He took his M-9 from his holster and pulled the slide back and started for the stairs. There was the sound of a second gun being loaded,
“Don’t Levingston, don’t even think about it, not yet anyway.”
Lt. Klein said, she held a .45 in both hands and was pointing it at Darnell’s back. Darnell had frozen and he slowly turned to face the older woman,
“Oh that’s just great, jarheads all together, I should have known. How far did this brotherhood go with Barnes? Huh?”
Lt. Klein didn’t blink she just said
“He told me about Barnes and he told me where Janey is, he told me what happened and I believe him.”
Darnell was on the verge of losing it, his father looked hollow eyed, and I knew that he and Mr. Tucker had liked each other before, but a daughter was a daughter and people can be kind of prickly where things like this were concerned.
Darnell had a crazy look on his face and then he smiled and quick as a cat he pointed his pistol at Lt. Klein, a second later Rico had his pistol out and was pointing it at Darnell, crap this was turning into a gunfight where no one was going to win. Elaine snatched up Lucy but she couldn’t leave the lobby because Darnell was in the way, Karen and Kyle slipped back by some of the overstuffed chairs, I guess they hoped all that stuffing would stop the bullets. I couldn’t stand it, this was insane, and so I did the only thing I could do, I stepped in the middle between all three pistols.
“I saw them” I said, I swallowed then reiterated more softly “I saw them.”
The three soldiers looked at me as if I had spoken Martian or something, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Mrs. Livingston’s soft eyes looking at me,
“What did you see, son?” she asked quietly.
I couldn’t look away from those eyes, those eyes that seemed to drill into me.
“I saw them do things to Mrs. Franks, I saw Mr. Franks chained to the flag pole, I saw the bruises and the scars and the open wounds. I saw Mrs. Frank’s cousin and how they cut his...” I didn’t know how to finish that part so I just finished “how they killed him.”
Mrs. Livingston didn’t look angry she just kept looking into my eyes,
“Is that all you saw, Johnny?”
I shook my head softly “No Mam, I saw him shoot my mom.”
Words seem to burst from me as if I could just say them fast enough then it would be like I never said them,
“She was hurt real bad and was in pain and well…”
I felt tears welling up inside me and a little voice in my head said ‘Why did you do this? They were going to kill him!’ but I shook my head to clear the whispers away and I finished by saying
“He just did what he had to do.”
I looked around and all the pistols had been lowered but it was Darnell who broke the silence
“I can’t believe this, Mother, you don’t believe this do you? That Janae was a member of some freak-ass gang shit?”
Mrs. Livingston walked past me and up to her son,
“Darnell, you have been gone a long time, and she wasn’t the same as she was before you left. So, yes son, I believe it.”
“No! It’s not possible!” Darnell begged.
His father spoke next “Son, these are terrible times and your sister was traveling with some pretty terrible people, there is enough death going around for everyone, we don’t need to add to it.”
Darnell looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone he thought warranted it, by that I mean the adults, he finally got to Mrs. Driscol he looked at her, forced her by sheer will to meet his gaze, it was if he was pleading with her to stand by him. Mrs. Driscol, sighed deeply then shook her head, she mouthed “I’m sorry” to him. Darnell’s handsome face, the face of a movie actor was etched in fury and the pain of betrayal. He turned and stormed down the hall towards the armory.
“Rico, follow him okay?” Lt. Klein said.
Rico followed him in a hurry but moments later both of them reappeared, Darnell with Rico close behind. Darnell was carrying a large weapons bag; he headed towards the front door. His parents began to follow him asking him, begging him to stop, to tell them what he was doing.
“I’m leaving.” he barked. “You all can stay here with your psycho cracker scum, but I sure as hell can’t.”
Mrs. Livingston was pulling on his arm, begging him not to leave, his father said something about how we have to forgive and move on, that it was the Christian thing to do.
“Screw that Dad. There ain’t no God anymore.” he yelled.
When Mr. Livingston tried to hold him back Darnell shoved him to the ground, his wife quickly knelt beside him and they both looked up at him with shocked expressions.
“Don’t touch me, don’t talk to me!” Darnell yelled.
He turned and climbed in the MRAP in the circle drive. The huge engine roared into life and he jammed the thing in gear and gravel flew from the spinning tires as the huge war machine accelerated down the private road towards the highway.
Everyone was silent, everyone was in shock, I looked up at Deputy Weir on the roof, impassive as always he just watched Darnell leave the grounds. This was my fault, I did it, I told them what I saw and now Darnell was gone and Tucker was going to get away with murder again. I wondered just how many people he had killed. He was like an eel in a bucket, slippery and slimy, but this time he escaped because of me.
I heard Mrs. Driscol saying something to Lt. Klein and then she took Lucy’s hand and headed inside and I followed them at a distance. As I entered the lodge I turned and looked at Mr. and Mrs. Livingston, sitting in the dirt, grief and loss on their faces. Mr. Livingston wept openly and his wife tried to console him; the other people on the porch, Elaine, Karen and Kyle, Rico and the Lieutenant were silent in sympathy and were trying to slip away to give them the privacy they had earned at such a dear price.
Mrs. Driscol and Lucy were heading up stairs and I knew where they were going so I followed them up both flights of stairs to the roof top garden. Mrs. Driscol just waved to Deputy Weir and he came over with the keys. Tucker looked even worse, he looked pale and disoriented, and he flinched when Mrs. Driscol touched him. I couldn’t tell if he had been asleep or was in shock; he asked who it was, what happened, and what was going to happen.
He said “Make sure Lucy doesn’t see.” over and over.
Mrs. Driscol shushed him and once the cuffs were off she and Deputy Weir helped him to his feet; I noticed he was holding his left arm strangely: bent, palm up, like he was carrying a football, his hands were trembling.
“Mr. Tucker I am here, don’t worry, Mommy Driscol and I will take care of you, wont we Mommy?” Lucy said while pulling on the seam of his jeans.
“Yes Lucy, we will.” Mrs. Driscol said.
It was hard to get him down the stairs to the second floor but with Deputy Weir’s assistance we got it done. When we got him into his room Elaine appeared and Mrs. Driscol asked her if she and Lucy wouldn’t mind to fetch some water and bandages. Elaine smiled gently and
took Lucy with her down to the kitchen, I could hear Lucy peppering Elaine with questions and suggestions about what kind of food to make; the last I heard was Elaine gently telling Lucy that Cramberry Sauce–n–pasgetti would be wonderful but she didn’t know if they had any of that right now.
Deputy Weir excused himself to find Rico; he was dead on his feet having had watch for almost 6 hours straight. Mrs. Driscol thanked him and then asked me to try and help OMT get his shirt off, and that was a sight that I could have lived without. It wasn’t the dark purple bruises on his ribs or the agonizing moans he made whenever we had to move his left arm. It was the hair, OMT had more hair on his back than the Frank’s dog. His arms were furry too and the hair on his chest was long, curly and grey but some of it was matted with moisture so it looked more like he was part zebra. It struck me that if OMT was an example then that Darwin guy had it backwards and apes came from people. I was disgusted but Mrs. Driscol didn’t seem to notice she helped him into bed and then began to clean his face again leaving one cool wet cloth across his eyes. She asked him about his arm and he said he had rotator cuff surgery many years ago on his shoulder and he was pretty sure that at least one blow from Darnell’s two by four had shattered the joint. He didn’t expect he would be getting surgery again anytime soon.
It was then that he asked again about what had happened so Mrs. Driscol did her best to describe how things went down; when she got to the part where I told them what had happened, I felt my cheeks burn, I wished she had just left that part out but OMT stopped her and he held his good arm out and he asked
“John, you did that for me? You stepped in front of all those guns?”
I admitted that I had, but I quickly informed him that it was the only way I could see to stop things from turning into a gun fight. I said it to hurt him, but he seemed relieved by that and he lay back down resting his arm on the bed.
“I see, that’s good, John. Just don’t do anything like that again, okay?”
I really didn’t understand what kind of monster he was, he was acting like he was worried that I might have gotten hurt; he seemed to accept that I had done it to save the others instead of me pulling his fat from the fire.
Mrs. Driscol proceeded to tell the rest of the story and just about the time she told how Darnell had taken off Elaine and Lucy reappeared. Elaine had a tray with a plate, a glass of water, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some bandages on it. Lucy carried a saucer and she had a huge smile. She came over to the bed and said
“Mr. Tucker! I brought you a toast sandwich!”
He winced as he made a deep rumbling laugh and said
“A toast sandwich! My favorite!”
Lucy sat on the edge of the bed and gave him a bite and he kept saying how delicious it was. I leaned over and asked Elaine what a toast sandwich was and she informed me it was a piece of dry toast between two pieces of bread.
After he ate and Mrs. Driscol shooed Lucy out of the room we got his ribs wrapped tight and he asked us to bandage his left arm to his side as well since any movement at all was agonizing. Mrs. Driscol told him to get some sleep and they would talk again later as she and Elaine left the room. We were alone, my monster and I, and we waited in silence for a minute or so. I then blurted out
“I heard the humming circle on the radio.”
He nodded and said “Yea, that’s what I thought too, John I bet there is a way we can take advantage of this.”
“Oh? And how is that?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking on it.”
He then asked me to go and ask Lt. Klein if she would come and talk to him. I said that I would and I left the room. As I walked down the hall all I could think was what a frustrating man he was.
I wanted to just be alone but everywhere I went there was someone, the only person I could see myself with would have been Deputy Weir but he was sound asleep by then I was sure. Then I remembered OMT’s request so I went downstairs and found Lt. Klein, she was studying a map with Rico and she had circled a town not too far from us. I figured that was where Janey was and I said that if they were going to get Janey I wanted to go to. The tall Lieutenant looked over at me but instead of giving me grief she said pleasantly that was indeed what they were talking about but they were not going to leave until the morning and when they did I would be welcome.
“Wow, I thought I would have to fight to go along.” I said.
“Well Tucker said you were a good man, a good shot, and excellent under pressure, as good as any grown up, after today I believe it. Besides Janey might want to see someone she knows better than us.” she responded.
I looked over at Rico and he smiled (something he did a lot) and then he nodded as if to corroborate the Lt.’s statement.
“Oh, well, good then, want me to get things ready to go?”
She nodded “that would be great Johnny perhaps you and Rico can handle that together?” I nodded and then I told her that OMT was asking for her.
She said “OMT? Who is OMT?”
I laughed, “Old Man Tucker”, she chuckled “well I guess that fits. OMT it is then.”
She started off towards the stairs and I suddenly found words that I didn’t even want to say coming out of my mouth,
“Hey Lieutenant, when did OMT say that about me?”
She turned and looked at me.
“The first day we met, it was one of the first things he said to me.”
She went on up the stairs. I remembered that day; I remembered watching Barnes, Klein, and OMT talking, almost whispering, off by themselves. I thought they didn’t think I wasn’t good enough to hang with the Marines. He had said something like that about me, God I hated that man.
The next few hours were spent with Rico, we put 10 gallons of diesel in the Hummer from what he called “Jerry cans” when I asked him why they called them that he looked at them and said
“No idea bro, it’s just what they do.”
I liked Rico, he was quiet, but not silent like Weir, and if you spoke to him he didn’t act like it was a big pain to answer you, even if you were a kid. He was kind of young but I thought that maybe with Darnell gone, Rico might... “Might what?” asked a voice in my head, I really didn’t know but somehow it seemed that Mrs. Driscol should be with someone and Rico was the front runner. I then realized that it wasn’t up to me so I drove it out of my head. Rico looked at me strangely and asked if I was okay so I told him I was, that I was just thinking about Jerry cans; it was his turn to laugh out loud. We then put another claymore mine in the back of the Humvee and made sure that plenty of .308, aka 7.62 NATO to Rico, was loaded, we put water and some MREs in as well, we had to talk about how much to take and we decided on 12; enough for 3 peeps for 4 days or 4 peeps for 3 days. That was my idea and I was actually pretty proud of my mathematical skills.
That was when Rico found OMT’s Thompson.
“Oh dude! This is so cool!” he said while he popped the magazine and then cleared the chamber.
“Yeah, it is Tuckers.” I said.
“He says he likes the big heavy round but honestly I think it is because he doesn’t see so good.”
Rico admired the gun and after he replaced the magazine he held it out to me and then he said
“It’s probably a mix of both, this thing can fuck you up.”
It sure can, I thought to myself, I took the Thompson and said
“I’ll run this up to him, I guess, I’ll be right back.”
“That’s cool, I need to use the latrine anyway Rico said.”
As I went inside and went up the stairs I thought about how OMT always called it “the head” and for about the millionth time I muttered under my breath that grown-ups are crazy.
I went into OMT’s room, Klein was standing there and they were talking she said
“I don’t know Tucker, maybe, I think Rico knows how to use that stuff, but we would have a hell of a time finding it.”
She stopped when I walked in but I repressed the
thought that they were keeping secrets.
“I brought you your Thompson” I said.
His eyes were still swollen shut but I thought there might be a tiny slit in one so maybe he would be able to see again soon enough, so I leaned it against the wall for him. I started to leave and OMT called out
“Hey John” and I stopped.
“Yes?”
He smiled and said “could you please try to find my colts too?”
I said sure and then he said “and John, I got a present for you.”
A present? I swear I wanted to pick up that Thompson and use it on him right there, but I swallowed my pride and started to say something about how I didn’t need a present when he tossed something at me and I caught it. He must have guessed where I was from the sound of my voice. I opened my hand and found a huge molar, it had a filling in it and was cracked,
I said “what the heck?”
OMT started to laugh and then he choked that back as his ribs sent signals of protest to that particular activity. Klein chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. She was kind of pretty when she smiled even though she was as tall as a man, as hard as twisted rope and was way old. She wasn’t as old as tucker of course, who was like a hundred and fifty but she was still ancient, I figured she had to be at least thirty.
When I got downstairs Rico was in the kitchen with Lucy and Elaine. Lucy was on his lap and was letting Ronald Bear climb up the mountain patch on his jacket while she was describing to him the intricacies of having to organize a tea party with a bunny, a bear and his honorable self. He was nodding quite seriously while Elaine leaned against the counter and tried to suppress laughter. I spun on my heels and headed out the door, I went around the corner and then around to the back yard. Karen Morena was sitting with a book on the back porch.
“Hey Johnny” she said.
She sounded really down so I very cleverly said “Hey.” I walked over to her, stood there for a minute while she looked at me. Then I found myself getting all flustered and I didn’t know why. The silence was deafening so I finally said