“Get hit by a bus? That’s not likely when she’d be standing there waiting for it.”
“No, maybe not the bus. But maybe a car, or a delivery truck…”
Tommy shook his head. “Nah… I don’t think that’d work, man. What would we use to pull her focus, run up behind her and yell ‘boo!’?”
“How about a bike? Or a skateboard?” Mike turned to Marvin. “Didn’t you say the kids in your building are always leaving stuff around?”
Marv nodded but stayed silent and turned his focus back out to the street. The old guy staring at him from across the way looked familiar: the rumpled white shirt and khaki pants, the dirty sneakers and…the eyes; there was something about those eyes. They were bright and intelligent, yet dark and deep; eyes that held his gaze. Tommy and Mike continued to discuss the latest plan but none of the words penetrated Marvin’s brain, they faded into the background and became unintelligible.
The old man studied Marvin and tried without words to get him to understand. You’s fadin’ son. And lookit yo’ pals there. They’s got a tinge roun’ the edge now, too. And you’d see it if you’d stop them shenanigans of yo’s and look at one t’other. He wished those who occupied this existence would look at themselves once in a while, because if they did, if they really looked, they would notice the darkness creeping around the edges; the fading sharpness. A heavy sigh escaped him. He was tired, getting too full to hold on to many more. The woman could be there soon. He directed his thoughts toward her and nodded. She would be on her way immediately.
-43-
Jenna never waited for anything with much patience. She stood up from the bench at the bus stop and peered down the street for the first morning run; still no bus in sight. She checked her watch and heaved a sigh. “Damn. Come on, come on. If I don’t get this brief done and on Jo’s desk by nine-thirty, I’m toast.” She thought how fast things change. A week ago she was being threatened if she didn’t stay home. Now, despite having spent an entire weekend chained to the computer at her desk, it seemed she couldn’t spend enough time in the office to finish everything they’d dumped on her. She began to pace up and down the sidewalk, formulating her strategy on the final argument.
Tommy, Marvin, and Mike watched, and waited for something to come along that would inspire them.
Tommy sighed. “Dudes, it’s too early for anyone in their right minds to be out riding anything!”
Mike stifled a yawn. “Shit, Brody. He’s right. Does she always go in this early in the morning? Christ, the sun has barely even cracked a smile yet.”
“Come on, something is bound to —”
“Dude, delivery trucks have just started to get out on the street. I didn’t even see newspapers in front of doors when you came and got us! Really, Marvin, think about it: we had to walk because the buses hadn’t started running when we left the hotel. This is useless.”
“Jesus H! What a couple of whiners. All right. Come on, let’s go to the deli. We’ll have to figure out some other plan.”
They turned to start the walk when Marv stopped short and caused Mike to bump part way through him. “Brody! What the fuck?”
Marvin ignored him, turned back and stood in the line of Jenna’s path. Just as she approached him, he kicked a shoe off. It dropped to the pavement and winked into sight a fraction of a second too late. The heel of her shoe caught and she stumbled and fell to the concrete sidewalk. Her high-heeled shoe came off, her purse slipped out of her hand and its contents flew in all directions.
“Goddammit!” Jenna rolled and stood up, looking around to see what she’d tripped on, but Marv had already slipped the shoe back onto his foot. All she could see was her own black high heel tipped over on its side.
“Now, dude, what was the point in that? Just to do something to hurt her?”
“No, ya schmuck! Look,” Marvin pointed to Jenna. “Now she’s gotta go back upstairs and change. It bought us a little time.”
Jenna inspected the damage. She brushed dirt from her skirt and scanned it for rips, looked at her skinned knees and the scrape on her left palm. She limped around to retrieve her belongings, “Son-of-a-bitch! Woman, you are turning into a complete mess.” She pulled out tissues that hadn’t slid from her purse, spit on them and wiped at the tiny beads of blood on her knees and hand. “Okay, no big deal. Nothing’s broken, skirt’s not torn. I’ve got extra hose in my desk…”
Marvin stomped a foot into the ground. “Oh, Jesus H. Christ! Do you always have to be so damned organized!”
Jenna peered down the street and shook her head, picked up her wayward shoe and slipped it back on. With the first step she took, her foot wobbled, her ankle bent and the heel broke off. She took in a deep breath and held back the scream that tried to break free.
That made Marvin smile. “Perfect!”
Jenna hobbled down the street toward home, mumbling, crying, and cursing.
“There! That’ll buy us some time.” Marvin beamed with pride.
Tommy swung a hand through Marvin’s arm. “Dude, that was mean. Look, you made her cry, man!”
Mike chortled. “Jeez, Tommy, I think she’ll get over it. She’ll live.”
“Hey! Bite your tongue.” Marv pointed a finger at Mike, and looked at Tommy, “Hey, hippie, you think the deli has coffee made yet?”
“Depends. What time is it?”
Mike looked down at his watch, an accessory he had little use for but felt naked without like some men feel naked without keys in their pocket. “Just about 5:50.”
Tommy shrugged. “Mm, maybe. It’s usually the first thing to get done after Moe shows up and they open in ten minutes. Are we gonna have enough time, Marvin?”
“Trust me, if she has to change the shoes, she’ll change the skirt. Then, she’ll decide she has to change the blouse. And because she changed the shoes, she’ll change the purse. Plus, since she’s crying,” Marvin told him pointedly, “she’ll have to take off all the make-up and redo it. We’ll have plenty of time to get to the deli, get coffee and come back.”
They walked the few blocks, through the unlocked front door and snatched cups from the rack next to the brewer. Tommy poured and slipped the pot back onto the burner just as Tina-I’ll-Be-Your-Server-Today came around the corner of the deli and glanced in the window.
“So, dude, can we sit for a while or do we have to head right back?”
“How long’s it been now, Mike?”
“About twenty minutes,” Mike said through another string of yawns.
“Then we can either sit for a few minutes, or we can stroll back slowly. She moves pretty fast when she has to, but I’m thinking it’ll be at least forty minutes.”
“No time like the present then.” Mike walked out through the front door. He waved and offered a good-natured ‘morning’ to the incoming deadheads who frequented the early rush. Marvin and Tommy, close behind him, nodded in silent greeting.
The three were a block away from the bus stop when Mike noticed a bicycle leaning against a street pole. He nudged Marvin and pointed to it. “Now, why didn’t we see that earlier?”
“Damn, it’s chained to the pole,” Marv called to him after a quick inspection.
Tommy walked over and took an inventory of options. “Maybe… What if we tried this. Marvin, grab the chain and lock in one hand. See how it fades a bit, gets a tiny bit transparent so we can see through it?”
“Okay, now what?”
Tommy elbowed Mike. “Now, you grab the bike by the seat and give it a pull. The wheel will slide right through the chain like it’s —”
Mike’s hands slipped off the seat, or rather through the seat, and the chain snapped tight. “Uh-huh. So much for that idea. Now what, Einstein?”
“Sorry dude. I thought for sure the bike and chain would separate between their world and ours. How about if Marvin lets go and you give another pull on the bike?”
Mike came up empty-handed again. “Nope. Something’s got it grounded to the living plane, but I’ll
be damned if I can figure out what.”
A small crowd of deadheads on the way to the deli stopped to watch what they were doing and offered a few suggestions.
“Well, why did you lock it up like this in the first place?” the one in the red polo shirt asked as he helped to pull the chain in the opposite direction.
“We didn’t.”
“What d’you mean you didn’t? It’s locked.”
“Oh,” Tommy shook his head. “It’s not our bike. We just need to borrow it for a few minutes.”
“You’re stealing a bike?” Red Polo Shirt dropped the chain and the others started to mumble and back away. “No way. Tommy, I’m real disappointed in you. You never came across as a crook. What’s going on here?”
“Nothing! Really,” Marv butted in before Tommy had a chance to open his mouth. “We just wanted to take it for a quick spin. I saw it here and remarked how I hadn’t ridden a bike in so many years.”
Mike piped in. “Right. Then we got into the old argument — you know how people always say ‘It’s like riding a bike, you never forget how’? So, we thought we’d test the theory and have Marvin here give it a shot.”
With each lie, the tinge around their edges darkened a little bit more. Red polo shirt studied them for a few minutes, looked Tommy right in the eye and shook his head. “I don’t believe you. You’re all up to something. I can tell just by looking at you.” He jutted his chin toward Marvin, “Especially him.”
The group of deadheads backed away, then turned and walked off at a brisk pace. Marvin looked at his friends. “What the hell was that about? What did he mean ‘especially him’?”
Tommy shrugged. “Beats me. You both look the same as always.”
Mike glanced at his watch. “Come on guys, let’s go. She’s going to beat us back to the bus stop. We’ll find something we can use.” Mike headed off down the street.
When they rounded the corner, they spotted Jen in a different outfit as she paced and peered down the street. Mike glanced around and took off running. Marvin and Tommy sprinted after him.
Tommy craned his neck to look down the street. “Dude! What is the rush? The bus is still more than a mile away with three other stops to make.”
“Over there!” Mike pointed to a kid across the street from the bus stop.
Blake Simmons propelled his skateboard along the sidewalk on his way to school. He had plenty of time; his ninth-grade homeroom bell wouldn’t ring until 7:20. He laughed at the looks on people’s faces as they tried to dodge out of his way. He purposely steered in front of them enjoying the harassment and havoc he could cause when his folks weren’t around to yell at him to behave and show some respect for others.
Mike slowed to scoop up a small stone, overtook the kid and dropped the stone in front of the skateboard. Before Blake could adjust, the nylon front wheels locked onto and scraped the rock along the pavement and the kid launched through the air. Mike snatched the board as it veered into the street.
People on the sidewalk cleared a path as Blake let out an “Oh, shit!” and rolled his body with the fall as he hit the concrete. A man approached and asked if he was okay.
“No prob, man. I’m fine.” He brushed the dirt off his pants and turned to retrieve the skateboard. “What the fuck… What happened to my board?”
“Okay, you two,” Mike held the board out as he crossed the street, being careful to avoid the traffic, “which one of you knows how to ride one of these contraptions?”
“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t even allowed to ride a bike until I was ten.” When he noticed the odd expression on Tommy’s face, Marvin shrugged and explained, “Hey, she’s a typical Jewish mother hen, what can I say.”
Tommy took the skateboard from Mike and placed it onto the ground. “I’ve been on a couple, but dudes, that was years ago. They still had steel wheels —”
“Hey! Hey, lady!” The kid yelled as he dodged cars and ran toward Jenna. The man who’d stopped to help him continued on his way with a scowl. “That’s mine! I don’t know how the fuck it got all the way over there, but —”
Jenna shook her head to clear her mind. “I’m sorry, what? I wasn’t paying attention, were you talking to me?”
Tommy heard the commotion, picked up the board and it blinked out of sight. Blake stopped for a second, dumbfounded, in the middle of the street and all the deadheads who’d witnessed this prank on the living laughed. Car tires squealed and horns blared as Blake tried to make his way through the increased traffic.
Frustrated, Blake launched himself the rest of the way across the street. “Okay, bitch, what did you do with it?”
“Excuse me?”
“It was right there next to you. Where did you kick it to?”
“First of all, I am not a ‘bitch’ and second of all, I don’t know what you’re talking about, you little shithead.”
“Ah! I love it. Don’t you love it?” Marv turned to address the deadheads who’d gathered around to be entertained by the living. “That’s my girl! Heart of gold, but she takes no shit and takes no prisoners.”
“Look, lady. I saw it, right here, damn near under your feet. You had to’ve kicked it or taken it. What, you got some snot-nosed kid at home who wants a skateboard and you’re too fuckin’ cheap to buy him one?”
Jenna advanced on the kid, who appeared to be about twelve years old. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, you little bastard! But, I’ll tell you this much, you better get out of my face before I slap yours silly.” The kid backed away with each step Jenna took toward him. “I don’t have any kids, and you know why? Because I wouldn’t want ‘em to turn out like you. Inconsiderate little shits with potty-mouths before they’re ten. I think maybe you better run off to kindergarten before you get into trouble.”
The kid turned and ran to safety a good fifteen yards away. He stopped to watch the crazy-ass woman and ponder why she’d been so mean to him, when all he wanted was to get his skateboard back from her. And he watched for the board to drop from under her skirt or to see where she’d go to retrieve it. He figured maybe he could run over and wrestle it away from her.
Jenna looked back over her shoulder. The bus was just down the street and approaching. Each step she had taken with every word hurled at her accuser took her farther from the bus stop. She began to walk swiftly back and regretted the way she’d berated the boy; she’d never talked so nasty to a child before and chalked it up to the stress at work, the earlier mishap, and pushed the incident out of her mind.
Tommy walked into the street with the skateboard under his arm and tried unsuccessfully to dodge traffic. He cussed and uttered groans with each car or truck that rolled through him. “Dammit, Marvin! Dude, you better appreciate what your Uncle Tommy is doing for you here.”
“I appreciate it more than you know, hippie! We’ll figure out how I can pay you back later. Right now, would you just hurry up and get this done?”
Mike yelled, “Now!” and Tommy pushed himself forward on the skateboard, jumped it over the curb and hopped off. It rolled right into Jenna’s path. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and tried to avoid tripping over the blur of red. She skipped and sidestepped to her right, the toe of her right foot slid down the lip of the curb and she tumbled into the path of the bus.
-44-
The driver slammed his foot onto the brake pedal and held his breath. The brakes screeched and the hulking metal came to a jarring halt inches from Jenna’s sprawled body. He threw the gear into neutral, locked the emergency brake in place, opened the door and ran to help Jenna. “Jesus, lady, are you all right? I thought I’d hit you.”
Jenna waved him off. “I’m fine. Really. I’m sorry.
The driver turned to the voice he heard approaching.
“I knew it! I knew you did it.” Blake picked the board up from the gutter and pointed an accusing finger at Jenna. “She stole my skateboard. That bitch stole my skateboard! You deserved to be hit.”
The bus dri
ver grabbed Blake by the arm. He tried to struggle and the driver signaled to a young guy sitting in one of the front rows of his bus. After the man descended, he took Blake by the scruff of the neck. “Hey, whoa. Whoa! Don’t you move.” Blake continued to wriggle and the guy lifted his feet off the ground. “I’ll let you back down, if you stand still while we get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, I can dangle you for another hour and not break a sweat. You got me, kid?”
Jenna stood and swiped dirt from her clothes for the second time in one morning. “I’m fine, see?”
Blake let out a weak, “Yeah, okay.”
Marvin stamped a foot into the sidewalk. “Shit!”
Mike slung an arm over Marv’s shoulder. “Take it easy, Brody. So, it didn’t work. Something will, eventually.”
The driver gave her a visual once-over. “Are you sure? What happened here?”
“I don’t know! That thing,” Jenna pointed to the skateboard, “came out of nowhere and I tripped over it.”
“He says you stole it from him. I think it’s more like he rolled it in front of you,” the driver threw a glare at Blake.
Marvin’s face turned glum and he sighed. “I’m beginning to wonder if this woman is indestructible.”
“Hey, look at it this way, dude. Maybe she has nine lives. How many has she used up now? You’re bound to be pretty close,” Tommy pointed out.
Jenna looked at Blake. “No. It was nothing like that. He didn’t do anything. He was twenty yards away, for God’s sake. Look, I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t take that thing. I’m sorry I yelled at you.” She paused and took a deep breath, “It’s been one hell of a morning.”
Blake’s eyes softened. “That’s okay lady. Sorry I accused you. I don’t know what happened. It just… I was across the street when I fell off and when I looked around,” he shrugged, “it was over here next to your feet, then it just… disappeared again.”
Jenna nodded to the passenger who still had a tight grip on the kid’s shirt. “Let him go. No harm, really. Can I get on the bus now? Can we just get moving so I can get to work?”
[Marvin's] World of Deadheads Page 23