Be Nice

by David Portlock

  Krank cupped his bloody crotch.

  One of the Be Nice Phoenix members kicked a steel toed boot into his stomach.

  Krank flew off his hog into the dirt.

  The Be Nice member grumbled, “Man in this shit bar, he say you threw some chump out a window…then went after an Afreak chick and a Euro dude. You had `em. So where the eff are they?”

  Krank could hardly speak, but managed, “Rev. Brown and…and his people.”

  The Be Nice member joined the other members in the circle and rested his right hand over his heart. “The black mask is the depths of outer space: all that matters.”

  Krank didn’t move a muscle.

  The Be Nice members recited, “The yellow is the sun: the giver of all life.”

  Krank pleaded, “Oh, c’mon! We told you where—”

  “The red is the blood: the blood of the us, the all, the chosen few!”

  Be Nice shock wands activated.

  Krank screamed.

  Flocks of winged scavengers gathered in the skies overhead.

  The students scrubbed the bullet train. They washed the red velvet seats and the carpeting and the glass on the telescreens. Mr. Dylon supervised from the rear of the car, holding a shock wand over his left shoulder. Other kids cleaned the toilets, gathered the used and unused condoms, and some, using toothbrushes, scrubbed the grime out of the floor mats.

  Ms. Fallings was in the front of the train in the engineer and crew quarters. The compartments were spacious; beds and closets for the female porters and a private room for the engineer, a man in his late fifties; his eyes glassy and void from the meds. The female porters lounged in their panties and T-shirts, smoking cigarettes and drinking martinis.

  One of the porters flopped on her bed. “I don’t know about you, girl, but this has been the best field trip ever.” The other porters high-fived her. “All that good, hard dick out there, shoot, them young boys know how to fuck.”

  The engineer gave a stupid grin.

  Ms. Fallings tapped him on the shoulder. “Only a few more days, and then we’ll be going.”

  “Me…I drive the train,” the engineer replied.

  Mr. Dylon stuck his head in. “You won’t believe this. A sect of Christ-ees in New Mex took them in.”

  “Well, you tell those Christ-ee freaks the longer they provide shelter, the worse it’ll be for them. And then notify Be Nice Denver, Tulsa, and Austin. I want them put on standby.”

  In the last train car, flies and other insects swarmed over Pete’s mouth and nose.

  Ms. Fallings turned on the digi-cam and centered it on John Tom, Abe, and Becky. “It’s time for you to confess,” she said. “Mr. Dylon and I would like to know when Wallis and Janey recruited you into The Blue.” She activated a shock wand and held it beneath Becky’s chin. “Why don’t you go first?”

  Becky urinated on herself and broke down in tears.

  Wallis and Janey were asleep under the tent. It had been tied over the bed of Tyler’s pickup truck.

  Rev. Brown peeled back part of the canvas.

  Wallis and Janey stirred as a ray of sunlight scorched across their faces.

  Janey covered her eyes. “What the eff?”

  “It’s late in the afternoon,” Rev. Brown announced.

  Surprised, Wallis looked around. “It’s already afternoon?”

  “Something terrible has happened. I need you to come with me.”

  Rev. Brown’s wife and a dozen women from the cul-de-sac stood on either side of Tyler’s mother. Her eyes were closed. Her cross of branches and twigs was discarded on the floor. On his knees, Tyler prayed at the side of the bed.

  Wallis, Janey, and Rev. Brown looked on from the doorway.

  “She passed away early this morning,” Rev. Brown said.

  Tyler was a wreck. He continued to pray as he lightly caressed his mother’s gray hair.

  Rev. Brown closed the door and said to Janey, “My wife and some of the other women, they’re going to make lunch and prepare for the prayer dinner. I’d like it if you—”

  Janey put on her shades. “Sorry. But we have to go.”

  “No, child, you must let the man mourn. You may leave tonight after the sermon…”

  “Eff that. We can leave whenever we want.”

  “Young lady, listen to me— ”

  “Okay, look. I’m not your young lady.”

  “But I helped you! I saved you from those heathens last night! Believe me, I know what’s best for you and Wallis—”

  “I speak when I want and I say what I want! And we don’t have to do what you say just cuz you helped us!”

  “Child, for the last time, listen to…”

  “And that’s another thing! I’m not your child, and you’re not my daddy! My daddy, he’s dead!”

  Rev. Brown placed his hands on Janey’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. Forgive me. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.” He smiled. “I only wanted to send you and Wallis off properly.” He held Janey’s hands in his, placing the dark flesh of the back of his hand against hers. “And I know I’m not your father, but I’m sure that I look a little something like him? Yes? I don’t know, perhaps not so much crazy looking hair?”

  Janey’s temper subsided as she touched his skin. “He...he didn’t have any hair.”

  “Oh, I see. So he must’ve looked a little something like you then? But not so, so pretty.”

  Janey smiled.

  Wallis took Janey’s hand and pulled her to his side. “We’ll stay for a bit. But we’re leaving tonight.”

  Janey and the women feverishly cooked and cleaned. They sweated over pots and pans, dragged hot dishes of food out of the oven, and washed dirty plates and glasses.

  Outside, the children arranged picnic tables, put down table cloths, and spiked rows of bamboo tiki torches into the ground.

  Through the living room window of Rev. Brown’s house, Janey could see Wallis’s hog parked at the curb.

  Wallis waited at the bottom of the dirt and gravel hill while Rev. Brown and his men worked on the three crosses. Each of the crosses towered an imposing forty feet.

  The men unlocked polished brass hinges on one of the crosses and pushed it forward. It squeaked and folded to the ground. The men went to the second and third cross and repeated the procedure. Wallis noticed the crosses had been painted; dark singe marks could be seen under the layers of white paint.

  That night, a field of lawn chairs and bar stools and folding chairs were arranged in rows, facing the crosses. The crosses were upright, their spires covered by a quilt of yellow and blue bed sheets. A musician’s lectern was a few meters in front of them; speakers, wired to a generator, were set at the bottom of the hill.

  Rev. Brown’s wife led the women and children toward the sermon area. The women were dressed in their white shirts and crucifixes.

  The speakers crackled with “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”.

  The woman took their seats.

  Janey was seated next to Rev. Brown’s wife.

  Rev. Brown led the men out to the field. Like the women, they were dressed in their white shirts and crucifixes. Wallis followed behind them.

  After the men seated themselves in front of the women and children, Rev. Brown went to the musician’s lectern and bowed his head.

  The music was shut off.

  Rev. Brown looked at his congregation and said, “It was not the silence which ultimately betrayed mankind. It was not our naiveté, nor our ignorance, nor our violent and lustful human urges. What ultimately betrayed mankind was its insipid complacency. The complacency of those who witnessed sin, but chose to stand by and do nothing about it.” The speakers came on and amplified his voice. “But we have gathered here in this community, secure, provided for, and protected by our Lord and savior, and, because of this, we have pledged to
battle sin wherever we may encounter it.” He gestured to Wallis and Janey. “This young man and woman, they were sent to us by the Lord our god! They have been taken care of, they have been nurtured, and they have been loved!”

  Wallis caught Janey’s attention.

  She mouthed the letters “WTF”.

  “But before we set them free, our sins must first be purged! Our sins, the great evil that resides within all of us!”

  The assemblage threw their hands in the air.

  Rev. Brown signaled to one of his men.

  The man walked to the middle cross. He held a cord of rope connected to the quilt of bed sheets and yanked it to the ground.

  Wallis’s face hardened.

  Janey grasped her chair.

  A naked man was nailed to the cross on the left. Another naked man was nailed to the cross on the right. A naked woman was nailed to the cross in the center. Sweat poured over their bodies and mingled with the blood and dirt covering their feet.

  Rev. Brown put his hands together. “Dear Lord…we have brought you a wife, a wife who was found in bed with another man. Dear Lord, we have bought you the man, the man she dared lay with. And, dear Lord, we have brought you the greatest sinner of all. A man who was found laying with other men.”

  Wallis turned to Janey.

  She was stunned, immobile.

  The assemblage jumped up and cried out, “SINNERS!”

  A young boy moved toward the three crosses. He was carrying a lit tiki torch.

  The crucified sinners looked into the night sky and proclaimed one after the other, “I’M AN ADULTERER, I’M A WHORE, I’M A HOMOSEXUAL!”

  Rev. Brown held the young boy’s hand. “This is for you, Wallis! This is for you, Janey! We send you out under the protection of Christ! Our Lord and savior!”

  The young boy touched his tiki torch to the three crosses.

  Flames raced upwards, toward the crucified sinners, and engulfed them.

  As the sinners burned, they confessed, “I’M AN ADULTERER, I’M A WHORE, I’M A HOMOSEXUAL!”

  Three rifle shots.

  The sinners’ foreheads exploded.

  The women and children screamed.

  Shocked, Rev. Brown and the men spun around and looked to the cul-de-sac.

  Wallis immediately made his way to Janey. They pushed through the women and children and broke free into the open.

  Tyler’s pickup truck was at the crest of the cul-de-sac. He waved his rifle over his head and hurried behind the wheel.

  Wallis and Janey rushed to the hog; the engine idled, the tent and their supplies had been packed and tied on to the back.

  The flames lit a dome-like arc over the horizon.

  Tyler steered under a formation of sandstone boulders and punched the brakes. Wallis stopped behind him. Janey stepped away from the hog. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, unable to shift her gaze from the flames.

  Rifle in hand, Tyler exited the pickup. “That son-of-a-bitch! He did it! I know he killed her!”

  Wallis comforted Janey.

  “I know he did it! To keep you two put for that fucking sermon!”

  Wallis held Janey’s face in his hands.

  Tyler reconned the terrain with a pair of binocs. “As long as those crosses burn, ain’t nobody gonna make a move on us tonight.”

  Janey pushed away from Wallis and screamed, “There’s nowhere we can go! It’s shit! It’s all shit! Everything is shit! We can’t go back home, we can’t stay out here! Klanny haters everywhere, sick-ass Christ-ees burnin’ people up! Got-damn, is everybody crazy? I’m tired! Tired! Isn’t there just one place we can go? Someplace where we can—”

  “Little girl,” Tyler said, “I think it’s about time you stopped actin’ like a child, and grew the fuck up.”

  In a rage, Janey charged him. Tyler dropped his binocs and took hold of her.

  Wallis snatched Tyler by the jacket and pulled him back.

  “You need to learn! You both need to learn!” Tyler said. “Now you pay close and listen! I lost my mama, my mama! You know why? It was all because of you! Two spoiled kids who been livin’ in some kinda playground their whole lives! Well, you need to wake up! You need to shake the shit outta your ears! Cuz life, it ain’t no goddamn playground!” He sat on the bumper of his truck. “You think it’s bad out here now? You think the haters and the Christ-ees are a problem? You wait until it’s only Africans, Asians, and India Indians out here. Because guess who’s gonna be in control then? Guess who’s gonna be stompin’ people left and right? And then where you gonna go? Huh? Where you gonna run?” He took off his hat and lit a cigarette. “The whole planet got too hot cuz this group said it wasn’t gonna happen, got too many babies runnin’ around next cuz this group said God wanted it to happen, then you got Be Nice sayin’ that you can’t hate or pray or do anything. Y’know, what we need, what we really lost, was good old fashion common sense. No common sense, and look what happened. We let the stupid fuckers run things and put in rules that don’t make any goddamn sense.”

  He flipped his pink selli to Wallis. A news report was keyed. Becky’s image filled the screen. Her eyes were cloudy. Her face and lips were swollen, badly beaten.

  “The remaining Santa Monica Be Nice contingent,” an anchorman said, “has been rounded up and have confessed to illegal activities related to the terrorist organization, The Blue. The parents of Wallis Barber and Janey Typermass have, surprisingly, also made statements.”

  Janey’s mother, her face heavily bandaged, spoke from a hospital bed. “My girl, Janey…she’s done very bad things. But it was my fault. I did it. I raised her wrong. I’m so, so sorry for what I did.”

  Wallis’s mother and father, their arms and legs in casts, were propped in hospital beds. Wallis’s father looked into the camera. “My son, Wallis, he’s…he’s out of his mind.”

  A coiffed anchorman popped up. “In a Channel 14 News exclusive, newly appointed Be Nice head, Janika Fallings, announced that she has ordered the arrests and interrogations of malcontents nationwide. Ms. Fallings also claims to have case files that prove thousands of under-thirty-fives are actively being recruited by the terrorist organization, The Blue. She has also promised that the two fugitives will be in custody—”

  The selli case cracked in Wallis’s hand.

  “Yeah, don’t break it, chief,” Tyler said, as he took the selli and lit another cigarette. “Now you heard `em. This mess ain’t gonna stop no time soon. So you want a better world, you want to find a safe place, you want to stop runnin’ from Be Nice? Well, there’s only one way to make that happen. You need to quit your fuckin’ baby ass bitchin’ and cryin’...and fight back! You need to get off your spoiled, lazy asses AND GO RAISE HELL!”

  Tyler opened the glove com. He sucked on the water tube, wiped off his mouth, and climbed out of the pickup.

  Wallis and Janey squatted on the ground with their backs to him. They were in the shade of the tent; it was set as a lean-to at the rear of the truck.

  Tyler looked over their shoulders. The map Rev. Brown had drawn was spread out in front of them.

  Wallis patted the map. “The Rev., he drew this for me last night—it shows us where Be Nice is.”

  Tyler kneeled down. “Yeah. Yeah, that could prove useful.”

  “We can’t stay here,” Janey said.

  Tyler lit a cigarette. “That’s for damn sure. All right, look, once I get you to that Native rez—”

  “We changed our minds.”

  “You changed your minds?”

  “We’re not going.”

  “Oh, really? Well, pray tell, where you plannin’ on goin’?”

  “We’re going home.”

  Tyler spit out his cigarette. “You’re gonna do what?”

  “You heard me.”

  “And how are you gonna mak
e it back home? Cuz I ain’t drivin’ you there!”

  Wallis pointed to a spot on the map. “See right here? This is Durango, in Colorado. It’s where our b-train is. It’s where John Tom called us from. And there’s a lot of other kids there with him too.”

  Tyler snagged his cigarette and popped it in his mouth. “So?”

  “So…if Janey and me get on that b-train, we can go back home.”

  “Get on that b-train? Go back home? Are you nuts? Now, look, when I told you to go raise some hell, I meant come up with a plan, think things through before you—”

  “We didn’t have a plan when we took off and came out here.”

  “And if we want to fight Be Nice,” Janey said, “if we want to stop runnin’ scared, then we need to take that b-train and go back home.”

  Tyler pushed his cowboy hat over his forehead. “You wanna run that by me again.”

  “I said, we’re gonna take that b-train.”

  With a smile, Wallis said, “And it’ll be easy, because Be Nice won’t be expectin’ you and your guns to have our backs.”

  Tyler snuffed out his smoke. “So I’m involved in this?”

  “And I know John Tom an’ them are still alive. Be Nice is usin’ `em, so all the other kids, they’ll be on our side.”

  “Is that right?”

  Wallis folded the map. “And when we get back to Santa Monica, we can go hide out in Water Town.”

  “And then what?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll figure out our next move.”

  “And that b-train,” Janey said, “it has the internet, so we can follow everything that happens on the news sites.”

  Tyler scratched his jaw. “Okay, well, listen…I’ve got somethin’ for you two.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a little somethin’ me an’ Joe Joe thought up. All right, now, look, are you absolutely sure about this? I mean, you two know what you’re getting’ into?”

  “John Tom an’ them, they’re Be Nice,” Wallis said. “But Westwood and New Venice Be Nice, they’re on different b-trains, so there’s nothin’ they can do. And everyone else, it’s just the teachers and the other kids.”