Chapter Six
Saturday, April 23, 2005
“Jessica! Wake up this instant!”
The two sleeping lovers entwined in the middle of the queen-sized bed woke up instantaneously, even though the shouted command mentioned only Jessica’s name. Conrad sat bolt upright with the intention of jumping into action. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, forced into his bloodstream by the threat of imminent danger. The fact that he was naked, coupled with the appearance of the person who shouted, put an end to the idea of getting out of bed. Jessica already knew who the person was when the shout woke her up. She put a pillow over her head and prayed that she was experiencing a vivid nightmare.
“Jessica. I know that you are awake. You need to ask your ‘friend’ to leave so you can get out of bed and get dressed. We have a lot of things to take care of before we can leave for New Orleans, and the sooner we get started the better,” Joan informed her from the foot of the bed.
“Excuse me. Who are you? Why are you standing in Jessica’s bedroom barking orders?” Conrad inquired, even though he had a fairly good idea what the answers were going to be.
“I am Jessica’s mother. I understand that you probably don’t know her very well, but she has some personal issues that she needs to work out. I’m sure you’re a very nice boy and I don’t mean you any offense, but she and I have some very important matters to attend to. Since she doesn’t seem to be capable of handling even this, I’m afraid it’s up to me to ask you to get dressed and be on your way.”
“I don’t mean you any offense, but could you come back in about an hour? That should give us enough time to get showered and get dressed. Maybe we could all get breakfast and coffee when you come back,” Conrad suggested in the most pleasant tone he could manage. Jessica whimpered into her pillow behind him.
“That is out of the question. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care. I assure you that I can be a very tenacious person when it comes to safeguarding the well being of my daughter. I suggest you get dressed and leave us alone before I am forced to take action to be rid of you,” Ms. Sinclair threatened curtly.
Jessica threw the pillow off her face and screamed, “Get out! Get out of my apartment and get out of my life!” She flung the covers back and sprang to her feet without a care for her nudity. Jessica hopped into her panties and pulled her T-shirt over her head in one fluid motion. Then she turned to face her mother and stared directly into her eyes with undisguised hatred. Joan Sinclair gasped and took a step back, caught off guard by the depth of her daughter’s vehement response.
Conrad decided Jessica had the right idea about getting dressed. He slowly got out of bed without looking at either of the two women. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, standing on his tiptoes. He lazily put on his clothes and sat back down on the bed, followed shortly by Jessica, who had done the same thing. He leaned back into the pillows and smiled at Joan with genuine good will.
The middle-aged woman appeared to be having serious problems communicating her thoughts. Ms. Sinclair took a deep breath and addressed her daughter, “Jessica, I already spoke to your landlord. I explained to Mr. Duplessis that you needed to return home to New Orleans for personal reasons. I paid him an extra month’s rent and told him he could put the apartment back on the market immediately. He wasn’t upset at all, so your housing situation has been resolved satisfactorily.
“We still have a lot of paperwork to do in order for you to properly withdraw from the university. We need to pack your belongings and deal with the moving company. I saw that you have been drinking, but you need to compose yourself because we have a very busy day ahead of us,” Joan lectured her daughter in a businesslike fashion.
“Mom, you don’t think you may have completely overreacted? Do I appear to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown? Am I weeping and alone?” Jessica asked incredulously.
“The way you have been acting reminds me so strongly of that terrible time of your life that I’m not willing to take any chances. I love you, Jessica. I’m here because I care about you. You don’t need college. We have enough money to allow you to do anything you want. I’m here to take you home, where you will be sheltered from harmful influences,” she said with a glance in Conrad’s direction. “You’ll thank me for this one day.”
“Whether or not you mean well, your coddling has done nothing but cause me emotional pain all of my life. That’s why I attempted suicide, mother. Your love asphyxiated me to the point of blindness, but I have learned to deal with your brand of love since then. I have outgrown you.
“I think you finally realize that you have lost control over me forever. That’s what this whole crazy display is really all about. You can’t stand the idea that I have grown up, that I don’t need you anymore. I’ve got news for you, mother. I won’t fit in your womb anymore.” Jessica delivered those last lines without emotion, but tears formed in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
“Jessica, this conversation is pointless. You have to come home with me today. I saw to that. You won’t have a place to live in Baton Rouge. When we get to New Orleans...”
Conrad burst out laughing at that point. Ms. Sinclair stopped speaking and stared at him, as if she were looking at him for the first time. Jessica turned to look at him, and the merriment she saw in his eyes caused her to smile despite the emotions she felt inside. “I suggested breakfast and coffee, like a rational human being. We can still do that. There really is no urgency, Ms. Sinclair. Jessica won’t be going home with you. A good cup of coffee and a bagel will help you with the acceptance process. What do you say?”
“I hardly think this is any of your business, whatever your name is. Jessica and I need to work this out, alone.”
“His name is Conrad, mom, and he’s right. I’m not leaving school. Nothing you say or do can change that. In a little while I’m going to eat breakfast with Conrad. If you’d like to come along, then we can talk,” Jessica said calmly. She marveled that she had the strength and serenity to talk to her mother without yelling. She knew that things would have gone terribly if Conrad had not been present.
“What are you going to do, Jessica? You aren’t thinking clearly. You don’t have a place to live in Baton Rouge anymore,” Joan reminded her smugly.
“Yes, she does,” Conrad said with another big smile. “I told her she can have the bedroom at my place. She would be completely sheltered from harmful influences there. Nobody would be able to interfere with her studies or her art. We both hope you will reconsider withdrawing your support for Jessica’s education, but she will still be able to finish college, even without your help.”
“I don’t have to stand here and listen to this, young man. Jessica, you have obviously made a decision. I will pray for you, because I think you are making a huge mistake. I can’t imagine a better way to teach you a lesson than to allow you to go through with this fiasco. Just remember that you can call me when it doesn’t work out,” Ms. Sinclair asserted with an air of superiority before turning on her heels and striding out of the room. A moment later Jessica and Conrad heard the front door slam, and shortly after that the sound of a car tearing down the driveway.
Conrad rolled across the bed and pulled Jessica down next to him. They kissed and held each other for a long time without saying anything. Finally Jessica declared that she needed a shower. When they pulled away from each other, she got out of bed and gathered a change of clothes from her dresser and closet. Conrad took his shirt and pants off again and burrowed under the covers to wait for his turn.
“You don’t want to take a shower with me?” Jessica feigned hurt feelings.
“Of course I do, angel. I just didn’t know I was invited.”
The two young lovers played in the shower until there was no hot water left. Jessica was certain her back was cleaner than it had been at any other time in her adult life. Conrad wondered if he was having a very good dream. He could not believe how lucky he was to be there. Neither one of them spoiled the mood by discussing anything serious. They saved the heavier conversation until they were dry and dressed once more.
“You might have mentioned that your mother had a key to your apartment. She almost gave me a heart attack when she woke us up. For a second there I was scared we had been busted by a lesbian lover you failed to mention. She gives off the impression of masculine strength when she’s standing over a naked man.”
Jessica bubbled with mirth. “You’re the first person who ever likened my mother to a lesbian. Now that you mention it, I see what you mean. Were you afraid for the safety of your private parts?”
“I was more afraid for the safety of my private parts after I figured out she was your mother. No, I’m just kidding. To tell you the truth I think that what happened might have been for the best. By barging into your apartment your mother gave herself a good dose of reality. She may have deluded herself into thinking that she could still control your life, but she won’t be having that delusion anymore. You only screamed at her once, too. That was a fine display of self control, Jessica.”
“I couldn’t help it. She wouldn’t go away. God, how am I going to move all of my stuff to your apartment? Do you know anyone who has a truck?”
“Moving your stuff won’t pose any problem. Do you think she would really cut you off and have you tossed out of your apartment? It seems like she genuinely loves you. Why would she do something so hurtful to someone she cares about?” Conrad asked, unable to imagine any sensible answer.
“I’m sure she originally decided to blackmail me into leaving school because my mental state appeared precarious to her. An excess of money and power has corrupted my mother’s thinking. We both questioned her authority and her sanity this morning. She won’t back down from her position because she knows her pride is on the line, at least when it comes to me. Her attitude started out as misguided and over protective, but now it has become stubborn denial.”
“I didn’t think she would go through with something like this. I feel sorry for her. She must be very lonely to fight so hard to keep you from leaving her nest. It must be horrible to grow old and watch the people you’ve cared about your whole life disappear all around you.”
“Thanks for the cheerful imagery.”
“Where is your father while all this is going on?”
“My dad lives for work. I don’t know where he is exactly, but I’m sure that wherever he is work is involved. Were you serious about going somewhere to eat breakfast, or should I go make something for us in the kitchen?” Jessica asked after she felt another hunger pang.
“I was serious about going to eat breakfast if we could have caught a ride with your mother. I don’t plan on walking to a restaurant, though. Please allow me to make breakfast for you. I would have brought it to you in bed, but the natural order of things was disturbed. What would you like?”
“I have coffee. I also have bagels and cream cheese.”
“Bagels, cream cheese and coffee coming right up,” Conrad guaranteed her, and fifteen minutes later they had both eaten and had some coffee. The sustenance did wonders for their outlook on the day.
“Conrad, do you think rushing into this is a bad idea? I’m scared. I am crazy about you, and I don’t want to ruin our chances by living with you too soon. I don’t know what to do. I should have prepared for something like this a long time ago. If I had, then I would have a place to go right now. Please talk to me. I need some reassurance here.”
“I’m scared too. All of those things I told you yesterday morning were true. I think we were destined to be together. There’s no way for me to explain the way I feel, because there are no words for it. I can tell you that I will do everything in my power to make our relationship work.
“You don’t have a lot of choices about a place to live right now. I know you want to stay at LSU and finish school. To do that you probably have to move into my apartment. It bothers me to think misfortune drove you into my arms. I would sooner give you my apartment and live somewhere else than use your living situation as leverage in our relationship. I don’t want you to be with me until you find a better place to live. I want you to be with me because I am the person you want to be with. Am I making any sense?” Conrad asked, dismayed that she may have taken him the wrong way.
“You’re making perfect sense to me. I do want to be with you, Conrad, but there’s no way I would move in with you today if I didn’t have to. You’re right; I don’t have a lot of choices. I can predict one thing that will come out of this. If our relationship makes it through moving in together after two dates, then there won’t be any challenge or adversity we can’t overcome after that.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal,” Conrad said with one of his disarming smiles. “Now let’s go talk to your landlord about getting you out of here. I wonder how much time we have.”
“Yeah. Let’s go talk to him, right after you tell me your middle name.”
“It’s Joseph, and my parents had never heard of Joseph Conrad. They just liked that name.”
He told Jessica that without knowing that it was false. His mother and father played a joke on him when they told him that. He repeated the false fact on a number of occasions, a victim of his own gullibility. His father would have found that hilarious.
“Weird.”
“I know.”
Jacques Christie Duplessis took his first breath of fresh air in the spring of 1924. He was born on a plantation outside of St. Francisville, Louisiana. The family had an excellent doctor in attendance at his birth, which was better than making the long trip to a hospital. The plantation belonged to his uncle. His mother took refuge with her sister and brother-in-law after his father was killed in a gambling dispute in the French Quarter. Jacques’ mother never forgave his father for getting killed while they were penniless and riddled with debt, and a day never passed when she didn’t attempt to instill in young Jacques the value of good business practices.
Despite the many ills that could befall an infant in those days, he grew up to be a strong and intelligent young man. He excelled at school, but his true passion was the outdoors. He spent all of his free time in the forests of the Felicianas trapping, hunting and fishing. When he was seventeen years old he won the Louisiana State Marksmanship Tournament in Covington. People said Jacques Duplessis could shoot the eyeball off a mosquito at fifty yards.
When World War II broke out he broke the hearts of his aunt and his mother by joining the army to fight Hitler, but breaking their hearts was not his intention. The hearts he intended to break belonged to young ladies who drooled over men in uniform. Like many young men his age he had no idea what war entailed. After he had been in France a couple of months all of his romantic ideas vanished.
The army made him a sniper. He killed seventeen people that he knew of before the end of the war. Their faces haunted his dreams for the rest of his life. When he got home he wasn’t the same person who had left. He went into business using the same principles he learned in the war. Jacques Duplessis had earned a million dollars by 1960.
Jacques Duplessis was eighty years old on the day Jessica Sinclair and Conrad Ryland walked up to his front door to talk to him. Duplessis had ceased to worry about money by that time. Death concerned him more often, at least when he wasn’t busy overcoming agonizing pain. The young couple awakened him from blissful narcotic oblivion.
Earlier that morning he endured thirty minutes with the older Sinclair lady. He found himself disliking her intensely. She reminded him too much of himself when he was her age. The woman apparently thought money was his only concern. Mr. Duplessis got the idea Joan Sinclair had a low opinion of Jessica. He did not approve of unsupportive parents. When he saw that Jessica was at his door, he wondered what she had to say.
“Hi, Mr. Duplessis,” Jessica greeted the old man cheerfully. “Can I speak to you for a second?”
“Go ahead, young lady. If I didn’t want to talk to you, then I wouldn’t have answered the door,” Jacques responded grumpily.
“My mother withdrew her support for my college education, including my apartment here. I’m not sure what she told you. I want to be sure you know that I’m not having personal problems and I’m not leaving LSU Without her support I will have to move in with my boyfriend.” Conrad waved from behind her when Jessica said that. “I need to know how much time I have to get my things out. My mother made it seem like I had to move out today. I hope that’s not true, because I don’t have any way to move my things today.”
“Hold on a second, Miss Sinclair. Your mother did tell me you are having personal problems. Now you tell me that she has cut you off. Why would she do that?”
“She was trying to force me to move back home to New Orleans. She doesn’t like the fact that I have a boyfriend. I guess she underestimated Conrad and I. Instead of giving up I am moving in with him,” Jessica explained in one long breath. She hoped she didn’t leave anything out. Conrad rubbed her shoulders for emotional support.
Jacques squinted and studied Jessica. He considered himself a good judge of character. He noticed that she was not nervous or upset. She didn’t have any hidden agenda. She wasn’t trying to sell him on something. Jacques Duplessis decided she was telling the truth. He knew there was a reason he didn’t like her mother, and now he knew why.
“You can’t afford to live here without her help, and you need to know how much time you have to move out. Well, how much time do you need?”
“I’m not really sure. We don’t have anybody lined up with a truck at the moment. We thought it best to speak to you before we did anything,” Jessica told him sweetly.
“It’s a good thing you did, young lady. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. When you’re ready I’ll call my handyman. He drives around in my great big company truck. I’m sure he would be happy to help you move in with your boyfriend. Since your mother chose to leave you hanging financially, I’ll also write a check to the university for your tuition, for the same amount she gave me this morning. How does that sound?”
“You would do that? I’m overwhelmed. Thank you so much, Mr. Duplessis.” Jessica stepped forward and embraced the old man when she thanked him. Slightly embarrassed, the old man took a step back.
“Think nothing of it, Miss Sinclair. I have all the money I need. More of it won’t do me any good at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’d like to go back to bed. I’m not feeling very well today.”
Conrad wanted to voice his thanks as well, but the old man closed his front door on the couple. Neither of the young lovers had ever before experienced such kindness from a virtual stranger. There was no way for them to know what motivated Jacques Duplessis, or that he considered the act to be too little too late. All Jessica and Conrad knew was that his generosity had just made their blossoming relationship a lot easier. They walked back to her apartment holding hands in stunned silence.
Saturday passed by quickly after the stress of the morning faded into distant awareness. Conrad demonstrated to Jessica how to substitute doubled garbage bags for boxes. She had healthy misgivings about using garbage bags, but neither one of them could think of a way to find enough boxes on such short notice. The recycling bin at the rear of the main house provided them with enough newspaper to wrap up all of the small, fragile items. By the time the sun started to slip behind the trees, most of Jessica’s belongings had been prepared for the move.
“I’m going to miss this apartment. I like the two acres of landscaped yard, the palm trees, the massive brick courtyard and the fountains. It’s so quiet at night. The hot water lasts practically forever when you take a shower here. This was my dream apartment,” Jessica said nostalgically.
“I’m glad you’re not moving out of a place you owned. If you had lived here a few years longer, then I would have had to use a crowbar to pry you out. It is true that my apartment barely meets habitation standards, but I don’t plan to live there forever. Try to have patience. We can move somewhere nicer in a couple of months.”
“I’m not complaining about your apartment, Conrad. It just bothers me that my parents are rich, but I keep getting poorer and poorer. I wish they had never supported me in the first place. I’m sure that own my own I would have a car and a nice apartment by now. My parents suck.”
“I don’t know. They couldn’t be all bad. After all, they brought you into this world. Would you like to carry a load of your clothes over to my apartment right now? I need to change before the party, and I came over here with nothing at all. I didn’t even get to brush my teeth this morning. I have a whole box of brand new toothbrushes at home, and here I am without a way to brush my teeth,” Conrad lamented. “Before you mention your mouthwash, I used it first thing this morning. It’s just not the same.”
“That’s really funny. I used one of your new toothbrushes before I left your apartment yesterday morning. I was having the same problem.” Jessica smiled and continued, “Yeah, let’s take a couple of bags over to your apartment. I think I’ll start living there tonight. I can’t stand the thought of waking up with my mother standing over us again.”
“At least I got meeting her out of the way. I’ve never before met someone’s mother while I was naked. I hope I made a good impression. I noticed it took her a good thirty seconds to speak after I stood up to get dressed. She was at a loss for words,” Conrad stretched and sighed. “Not too many women can handle the sight of a man like me.”
Jessica laughed, “She probably hasn’t seen a naked man in ten years. I’m surprised she didn’t faint. Not that you wouldn’t inspire awe in any woman.”
It was Conrad’s turn to laugh. “I don’t believe a word you say. Which of these bags do you want to take? You only have like three tons of clothes here.”
Jessica pointed to a pile of bags separate from the others in the corner of the living room. Conrad picked up two bags in each hand to test the weight. He added one bag to the two he was holding in his right hand. That left two bags still sitting on the ground. “Do you think you can carry those two?” he asked Jessica.
“I can handle that. I guess we’ll get everything else in Mr. Duplessis’ company truck on Monday. I doubt his handyman would appreciate it if he were asked to help a tenant move on a Sunday,” she reasoned aloud.
“I still can’t believe Mr. Duplessis is going to donate the rent money to your tuition. I wonder what possessed him to decide on such a course of action. He didn’t get to be a rich man by giving his money away.”
“I got the feeling that Mr. Duplessis may be dying. It’s not only what he said, but also the way he looked. There was an air about him that suggested his spirit was flying further from home with every dream. I think he was being honest when he told us he doesn’t need the money. I wish I knew more about him.”
“I think his donation is another sign that we were destined to be together. The next thing you know one of us will win the lottery. Another couple of strange coincidences and I will be certain that something supernatural is going on. You don’t happen to practice Wicca, do you?” Conrad asked sincerely.
“No, I do not practice Wicca. You’re not putting my mind at rest with your talk about supernatural powers bringing us together. What if the powers bringing us together are trying to destroy the world? Being destined for each other may not necessarily be a good thing. I prefer to view the world more logically. We’re just two people taking a chance on each other in the face of overwhelming odds. That may be why Mr. Duplessis decided to take pity on me. Maybe he figured we could use the help.”
“I’ll stop talking about it. I’ll stop talking about it… until I have irrefutable proof. I do think it’s a positive thing, though. I want to be sure you know that.”
“Thank God I’m involved with a normal person, instead of some freak who believes in the supernatural,” quipped Jessica as she fetched her keys off the kitchen counter. “Are you ready to go?”
“Let’s do it,” Conrad said as he hefted the five garbage bags full of clothes. “Pray that the bus makes it to my neighborhood without having a flat tire or something. It’s when you most need the bus that something totally random happens that leaves you walking.”
“Stop worrying. The bus never breaks down on this side of campus. This is where the wealthy students live, remember?”
They walked down the driveway of the estate and out into the come and go of South Baton Rouge. The bus picked them up and dropped them off at their destination right on schedule. Night closed in all around them as they walked up the steps to Conrad’s apartment. Jessica looked at the outside of the place more closely than she had the night before. She concluded that it would not be a bad place to live after all, at least until they could afford a nicer place. She imagined it would be highly entertaining to be with Conrad when he realized what he had gotten himself into. She hoped she could keep a straight face on that day.
Chapter Seven
Six Days Earlier
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Moonlight filtered down through sassafras trees to cast dim illumination on a shadowy form wriggling into an open window at a vacant office building. Closer inspection revealed the form was a medium sized person dressed in dark clothing. As soon as the figure gained entrance to the building, another person hidden in the murkiness below the window handed up a large duffel bag. Seconds later the second subject followed the first through the window and disappeared from sight.
Inside the window, in a small empty room, the two people gave each other hand signals. The two people weren’t wearing anything over their faces, so had there been any hidden onlookers it would have been obvious that they were both men. One of the men seemed to be having a problem understanding the other’s hand signals. After a couple of seconds they started shoving each other. The shoving match rapidly disintegrated into a wrestling match, with both men rolling around on the floor vying for superiority. One finally pinned the other down.
“Let me up, Buzz. Come on. I can’t breathe,” pleaded the man pinned to the floor, “I’m sorry I couldn’t understand your hand signals. I never learned sign language!”
“Jesus, Jake! Are you trying to tell the whole world we’re in here? Stop yelling,” the man named Buzz told the guy he was slowly suffocating, “I just wanted us to spread out. You didn’t have to attack me.”
“Then you shouldn’t have made all those obscene gestures. You know how homophobic I am,” Jake complained.
Buzz attempted to stifle the wave of giggles that began bursting out of his mouth, and in the process he released his friend. Outside the window a cat meowed loudly before leaping up to the windowsill. The cat jumped down into the room, walked over to Jake and began rubbing itself back and forth against his leg. Buzz saw the cat and stopped rolling around on the floor.
“I knew the cat would follow us. I told you to keep the cat locked in the house. Now we’re responsible for taking the cat with us when we leave,” Buzz grumbled.
“Why? Do you have paranoid delusions that the police might trace the cat back to us? Nobody will think twice about finding a cat in an abandoned office building that has an open window. Besides, Lightning wanted to come along. Didn’t you Lightning?”
The cat meowed again at the mention of his name, and then shifted his attention to Buzz. They broke into the building for the purpose of stealing a computer. So far the escapade was going better than Buzz had thought it would. They at least gained entrance before everything fell apart. Jake thought about how it all started.
The utility company cut the power to the building at 100 Government Street on a beautiful Friday morning in April. Jake saw the electrical worker walk to the meter box, take off the lock, slip in the plastic tabs and then return to his truck in time for an early lunch. It was the day he had been waiting for.
100 Government Street previously provided a headquarters for a large software production company, River Rat Software. River Rat was arguably the largest software company in the Gulf States. There never were very many software production companies in the Gulf States, so the distinction carried little weight. Nevertheless, the company had been recognized nationally by some of the major players in the business.
In January of that same year the bubble burst over the company. The owner was named Zachariah O’Donnell. His mother was Jewish and his father was Irish, but he was a genius, so it wasn’t hard for him to see that the party was over. Rather than go down with his ship he went down to the bank and withdrew every liquid cent he could get his hands on. That was a lot of cents. Within an hour he was on a plane bound for Argentina.
Jake’s girlfriend Eva heard about it later that day. Apparently Zachariah told his secretary, Lisa, he was leaving. He slept with her for almost a year. He even told her he was going to leave his wife and marry her. Lisa was heartbroken when he broke the news of his sudden departure. She went to the neighborhood grocery store for vodka and orange juice to ease the pain. That was when she bumped into Eva.
Lisa and Eva weren’t friends, but they were on friendly terms. Lisa told Eva all about the problems at River Rat Software while she was waiting in line to buy vodka. Eva just went for some cough drops. She walked away with more knowledge than she ever wanted about Lisa and Zach.
When she got home she told Jake everything she knew. He was less than happy with having to listen to the story, but he knew better than to voice his objections. Their relationship teetered on the brink of a violent argument at times, and he loathed upsetting that balance. Towards the end of the story he realized his neighbors would be gone shortly. He wondered if they would throw away anything good.
Jake and Eva lived in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. Their neighborhood was so old that most of it was no longer houses. Half of their block was parking lots. The other half of the block consisted of abandoned houses. The big building at 100 Government Street seemed poised to join the ranks of the vacant.
After he heard the news that day, Jake watched the big building across the empty lot for signs of activity. Jake explored the joys of dumpster diving for years. Anything of value that even went near their trash became his. After a couple of weeks he became very frustrated. Nothing happened at 100 Government Street.
Eva told Jake that it took time for bankrupt businesses to be closed out. She assured him that spring cleaning at River Rat would be impossible to miss, because it would probably take a lot of time and a half dozen moving trucks. By late February he was almost certain Eva was wrong. He began to think nobody cared about the contents of the building at all.
He told his friend Buzz what he thought. They were getting stoned one night after Mardi Gras. Jake said he believed that the contents of 100 Government Street would still be inside when new owners took possession. He reasoned that anyone who purchased such a nice office building would surely be able to get new computers. He had been in need of a good computer for underground magazine and music production for years, but he definitely couldn’t afford to buy one.
“Are you thinking about breaking in to steal a computer, Jake?” Buzz asked him.
“No, I wasn’t thinking… no, okay, yes. Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking,” Jake responded in his usual glib manner.
“Jake, the lights are still on. The building still has electricity.”
“So what does that mean?”
“The alarm still works in there, Jake. The police would be there faster than flies landing on shit. Eva will leave you after you’re arrested, and you will be arrested. It’s a very bad idea, Jake,” Buzz lectured in serious tones.
“I really need a computer, Buzz. My creativity is going nowhere. What about after the power gets cut off?”
“It’s still stealing, Jake, alarm or no alarm.”
“The owner of all that stuff left the country to avoid a federal investigation. I think that counts as an extenuating circumstance. Zach O’Donnell is never going to know his computers got stolen. I doubt he cares what happens to anything in that building.”
“Jake, all I’m saying is that the police won’t look at it that way. They’ll see you as a burglar. You could even get shot.”
“What if the power is off? No, don’t look at me like that. Tell me, honestly, how dangerous would it be to break in if there’s no alarm,” he persisted.
“There would be practically no risk at all,” Buzz conceded.
“So we just have to wait until the power is off.”
“What do you mean ‘we’?”
“You don’t think I’m going in there alone, do you?”
“Jake, Eva’s probably right. Any day now a crew will be along to clean the building out. There’s no use speculating about it because it’s never going to happen.”
“So we just have to wait until the power is off,” Jake concluded.
“No wonder Eva says you never listen.”
Jake’s wait ended just before lunch on a very mild day at the end of April. Eva told him the utility company disconnected service to the former offices of River Rat. He waited until she left the room, then picked up the phone to call Buzz.
“Buzz, it’s Jake,” he said triumphantly.
“What’s up Jake?”
“It’s on, Buzz. The power is off!”
“Jesus.”
“Be here at nine.”
Jake put on his favorite Ninja outfit for the occasion. “The most pathetic ‘special needs’ child in the world wouldn’t break into a place without a Ninja uniform,” he told himself as he modeled the outfit. He looked at his stomach critically. Even in the loose fitting black garb he could see that he needed to lose twenty pounds. He sucked in his stomach and flexed his right arm. That looked much better.
In advance of Buzz’s arrival Jake pulled out a few of the items they would need. A crowbar and oversized duffel bags dominated the top of his list. They needed the crowbar to get in, and they needed the duffel bags to carry things out. He congratulated himself on his planning skills. Then he pulled out the camouflage face paint.
At fifteen minutes to nine Buzz knocked on the front door. People used to compliment him on his punctuality, until it was widely revealed that he had absolutely nothing else to do. By the time he and Jake came face to face, Jake looked truly fearsome. He painted Maori warrior patterns on his face during the long wait.
“Are you ready, Buzz?” he asked innocently.
“My God!” Buzz exclaimed. “What did you do to yourself?”
“It’s just a liberal application of camouflage so that --"
“I know what it is, Jake. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to get us caught? Oh, no! Is that a Ninja costume?”
“It’s not a costume, Buzz. It’s a uniform.”
Buzz did not respond. He showed off his impression of a newly captured fish on the bottom of a boat. Instead of a fishy silence, however, the room resounded with his guffaws. The hilarity failed to infect Jake.
“You kill me, Jake. I’m already happy I came over. Where else could I get comic relief of this caliber?”
“Is my outfit a little over the top?”
“You’re outfit is in outer space, Jake. Where’s your bag? I want to get mellowed out before you change and we go next door.”
“It’s under the sofa on the tray.”
“Thanks, my man,” Buzz said with another round of giggles.
Jake wiped off the face paint with a wash cloth while Buzz bubbled happily away. Then, with an intense pang of remorse, Jake stripped off the Ninja outfit. Buzz made it clear that dressing like a normal human being was absolutely necessary. He explained that no story in the world could turn a face painted Ninja into an innocent bystander.
Once again garbed in baggy jeans and T-shirt Jake returned to his friend in the living room. Buzz’s head was rolled back onto the sofa and his eyes were rolled back into his head. His right hand continued to clutch a death’s head bong in a grip of iron.
“Buzz! Wake up! You can go comatose some other night. We have an adventure lined up for us tonight,” Jake barked with all the authority of a cocker spaniel.
“Jake, what if there’s nothing over there?” Buzz asked groggily, obviously attempting to weasel out of the endeavor.
“Then we won’t be there long. Don’t worry, that place is full of computers.”
“Actually, that was the part I was worried about.”
“Focus, Buzz. What are we going to need besides a crowbar and duffel bags?”
“We’re going to need a very specific plan. We also need an excellent explanation for our presence in the building. We both need to know our story to perfection. If we get caught, then the police will question us separately. If our stories match perfectly, and make perfect sense, we stand a good chance of walking away,” Buzz lectured as though the information came from a textbook.
“I thought you said there was almost no chance we would run into any trouble if the building didn’t have power. What gives?”
“Preparation increases the likelihood of our success exponentially, and decreases the already slim chance we’ll get into any trouble. Burglarizing the former offices of River Rat displays enough stupidity. I don’t want to add to the problem by committing the crime unprepared.”
“Okay. What’s our story? We were playing baseball and knocked our only ball through a window?” Jake asked his partner in crime.
“Window… you have just displayed a keen insight into diabolical intrigue, Jake. Are any windows open over there?”
“I haven’t checked. Why?”
“We can say your cat got away, and we watched it enter the building through an open window.”
“That’s a pretty good story, man. Let’s go with it,” Jake said decisively. The story satisfied their need for an alibi, and Jake’s impatience increased beyond measure the longer he sat waiting to do the deed. He wanted to get his hands on a computer so bad he could taste it.
“First we need to see if a window is open, Jake.”
“Christ, Buzz. We could have gone and come back twice by now. The cops never patrol our neighborhood. The building has no power. The owner of all the stuff fled the country. Now we need an open window also? Okay. Get your ass up right now so we can go check for an open window,” he demanded.
“All right, Jake. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I’m getting up.”
“Wait. Get a bowl loaded for when we get back.”
“Right on.”
Buzz and Jake became friends when they were thirteen years old. Their lack of social graces relegated them to the bottom of the totem pole in middle school. Jake’s weight problem guaranteed him daily ridicule, and Buzz suffered from back problems that left him in a giant, bulky back brace. That condition certified Buzz as a freak and a pariah. Their friendship resulted from the ignorance of their peers. Together they vowed to increase their superiority over the herd in every way possible. Their combined IQ’s almost equaled the number of days in the year, so they felt that they had an excellent foundation to build on.
The only social experiences Jake enjoyed were lengthy role-playing sessions with a few other outcasts. It turned out Buzz also dabbled in the role playing arts. They knew other people who liked to play, and together they became a small group of brainy nerds. The group formed a role-playing club. Members of the club christened the organization “The Fellowship”, but other students referred to them simply as “The Goobers’ Guild.”
Those blissful days of enthusiastic game playing perished by the wayside. Dark clouds gathered over Jake’s life when his sixteenth birthday rose on the horizon. His mind opened to the lure of the opposite sex. Nothing was ever the same again. Though many of his friends continued to indulge in dungeon exploration and combat with wandering monsters, he whiled away all of his free time gazing at girls who didn’t know he was alive.
Buzz experienced the same problem, except that the girls he gazed at did know that he was alive. He shed his back brace before going to high school, and filled out into a good-looking guy. Buzz lost his virginity three months before his seventeenth birthday and never looked back. He finally knew what he wanted to do with his life: have sex every waking moment.
During that same time period Jake peaked out at fifty pounds overweight and developed acne. Shortly after that his acne developed acne. His romantic life looked bleaker than a cabbage farm in West Oklahoma. Jake spent an eternity of lonely moments at home, studying and reading.
As a result of their divergent lifestyles Buzz and Jake parted company for a number of years. Jake went off to college, because he never had anything better to do than learn. Buzz floated around in party circles for a couple of years, until he finally got married and settled down, for six months. Buzz broke out of his marriage the same year Jake graduated from college.
They quickly renewed their friendship when they bumped into each other in a liquor store that same year. Their adult friendship no longer relied on false ideas about conquering the world. Jake wanted to make an artistic impact on his contemporary peers. Buzz respected that pursuit enough to hang around for a few laughs.
The major obstacle to all Jake’s creative goals could be reduced to one word: funding. A good computer remained the only way for him to make the music and underground magazines he wanted to make. Jake probably could have saved up enough money to get a computer eventually, but the high cost of enjoying life seemed to cut into his savings at every turn. That led to 100 Government Street, and the unfolding crime drama.
“Jake,” Buzz said with great volume and clarity, “you go that way, and I will go this way. Meet back here as soon as you find something, like we planned.”
The two friends left the empty room and went in opposite directions down the hallway outside. The cat got bored and jumped back through the open window. The minutes passed slowly until Buzz and Jake returned to the small room. The darkness obscured their facial expressions, but their body language seemed less than triumphant.
“There’s nothing in this building, Jake.”
“Nobody moved anything out of here. I kept this building under close surveillance ever since I heard the company went bankrupt.”
“Have you ever considered the possibility the company went bankrupt because there was nothing in here in the first place?”
“No, it can’t be. I watched trucks deliver boxes all the time. This building has to be full of computers.”
“There’s nothing in this building, Jake.”
“My hopes, my dreams… they’re all trickling through my fingers like streams of sand…”
“Get a job, Jake. The price of computers has dropped significantly over the last couple of years. It wouldn’t take you long to buy one if you grew up a little bit.”
“It can’t be. It can’t be.”
“Oh, put a cork in it. Let’s go back to your house and smoke that bowl we have waiting for us.”
The two friends climbed back out of the building and walked across the vacant lot that separated it from Jake’s house. The widely spaced streetlights shed little light on the overgrown path they trod. Every now and then a car passed by on the nearly deserted street. Lightning rejoined them at the halfway point. Suddenly a bellowed cry pierced the stillness.
“Run! It’s the cops!” Buzz thundered. Jake jumped out of his shoes and came down running, but his upper body got too far out in front. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Buzz laughed all the way back to Jake’s house.
“I wonder what happened to Conrad, man. I haven’t seen him in a long time. I still see his dad every now and then, because he lives so close, but I never see Conrad,” Jake lamented after they were back in his living room.
“I don’t know. I think it was a freak accident that we lost track of each other. We hung pretty tight, right up until the time I couldn’t figure out where he went. You know how spooky this town gets. People vanish. Entire streets disappear. He could live a block away, and we wouldn’t know it. On top of that, he could spend all his time with people we know, and we wouldn’t find out until years later. Everybody knows everybody here, but not everybody knows that until later.”
“Wow, Buzz. I’m fried.”
“Ha. I am too.”
“I wonder if there’s some way to develop THC in a plant that’s not illegal. I’m going to look into it.”
“What are you talking about, Jake?”
“Nothing. It was just a thought.”
Chapter Eight
For almost thirty years the area around the northeast gates to Louisiana State University accommodated bars, party houses and a large underground drug culture. After the turn of the millennium the area changed dramatically. Private contractors and the city government bulldozed dozens of rundown apartment buildings and rental houses that once provided safety to drug dealers and drug users. Expensive condominiums and high rent shopping centers sprang up in their place. Most of the biker bars became yuppie grills. The crowds of punk rockers and hippies once common in the area vanished without a trace. The underground culture packed up and moved away, leaving behind a wasteland of advertising signs, Sunglasses Huts and Starbucks.
A small number of apartment buildings and rental houses dodged the bulldozers. Party houses still survived on State, Carlotta and Ivanhoe, the streets that got away. One street traditionally included in that roster, Vicaro Street, no longer existed. The local government demolished the buildings on the street and eradicated the street itself, a move that dramatically reduced the number of hard core drug addicts in the area. Junkies could not afford to rent the places that still stood. Fewer gatecrashers showed up at private parties after that, and petty property crimes dropped dramatically. Progress did have its benefits.
Like many of the old streets around the university, live oaks lined Ivanhoe and kept it in perpetual shade. At night the street was darker than most. Even the brightest moon could not brighten the ground beneath the trees. The sky the night of the party ran with streaks of burgundy and purple as clouds rolled in from the Gulf of Mexico. There was no moon that night.
Dozens of guests arrived between the hours of nine and ten. The short street soon ran out of parking spaces for all of the cars. The music echoed two blocks away, and as the soiree continued the guests raised the night as well. The party preparations included the icing of half a dozen kegs of beer, and the tempo of the festivities indicated that not a drop would go to waste.
Pookie twisted the truth when he told people that he and his brother were throwing a party. Pookie was also fond of saying he and his brother rented the house where the party was located. The truth was that Pookie had nothing to do with the party or the rent of the house. His brother, Buzz, and Buzz’s friends planned and executed the party on Ivanhoe that night. Pookie didn’t lie maliciously. He lied because the lie made him feel better about himself.
Conrad didn’t know any of that. The young Mr. Ryland doubted that there would be a street full of cars at a party thrown by Buzz and his strange brother. He assumed Pookie was boasting about the size of the party. Conrad pictured a medium sized get-together where he could catch up on old times and introduce Jessica to his old friends. He and Jessica were two blocks away when the truth hit him in the stomach like a medicine ball.
“Is all that noise coming from the party?” Jessica asked him innocently.
“I’m afraid that it is,” he responded without any elaboration. The sick feeling crept upward from his stomach. Bile at last found its way into his mouth when they turned the last corner and saw all the cars. He brought his new girlfriend to a massive beer bust. He remembered telling her about all the people she would meet, and the memory made him feel very small.
“Jessica, this isn’t the kind of party I thought it would be. We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Conrad said in measured words. He was careful not to tell her that he was an idiot.
“Nonsense. I can’t wait to meet all your friends. We’ll…”
The sound of breaking glass interrupted her sentence. A group of guys had gathered near the corner of Ivanhoe and State. They took turns chunking beer bottles into the parking lot where July Street came out. They burst out into wild cheers every time one of the bottles shattered on a car or a truck. When the owner of a 1989 Ford F150 tore out into the street like an angry bull, the vandals scattered in all directions. The owner of the truck picked one of the guys to chase, and ran off into the night after him.
“Like I was saying, we don’t have to do this.”
“I want to go to this party. I am actually relieved that it’s huge and out of control. That releases me from any obligations about being appropriate for your friends. Why don’t we get crazy tonight, Conrad? For the first time in my adult life I have nothing to lose. I want to do things I have never done before. I’m going to this party.”
“If you want to get crazy, then we will get crazy. Let’s go meet a few of my old friends first. Buzz better be here or his freak of a brother is in trouble.”
Someone they could not see screamed like a predatory cat, and an Oakenfold mix boomed out at six hundred watts. Jessica and Conrad made their way to the house right past the kegs. Conrad would have gotten them beer, but as they passed by he noticed there were no cups. It didn’t matter because Jessica seemed to be more interested in the people. There were people in every nook and cranny outside and inside the house. None of them noticed the young couple.
Conrad had no idea where they were going, but he was on the lookout for a locked room inside the house. The discovery of a locked door would probably lead to the discovery of his friends. The two-story house contained a lot of rooms, so checking every door could take a little while. He leaned over and explained the situation to Jessica as they threaded their way through a crowd in the kitchen.
The house appeared to be decorated with late twentieth century dumpster discoveries. Every piece of furniture in sight proudly displayed broken pieces, peeling paint and missing components. The garbage can in the kitchen had split from top to bottom; the cans and alcohol bottles inside threatened to burst out like the guts of a road kill armadillo. In the living room the lampshades endured at the limits of their usefulness. A broken mirror hung on the wall next to an Animal House poster. When the crowd parted Conrad saw that the poster had a hole punched through it. The things Jessica saw fascinated her. She had never seen a place so desperately vacant of good taste. Nothing the residents owned looked new or valuable.
None of the rooms on the first floor contained anyone even slightly familiar to Conrad, so he led Jessica upstairs. When the couple reached the second floor they noticed the crowd thinned out. The second floor consisted of a hallway with four doors. One of the doors led to a bathroom, which was obvious because of the people coming and going out of it. The contents of the other three rooms remained a secret until Conrad began opening doors.
Behind the first door a couple in bed copulated like rabbits. When the light from the hallway revealed their activity, they yelled at Conrad to close the door. Jessica punched him and told him to knock first. He knocked on the second door and got no response. The contents turned out to be an empty bedroom. When he knocked on the third door a guy inside shouted, “Go away!” Jessica convinced him to listen at the door instead of barging in. The sounds indicated that the room contained a scene very much like the first room.
“We’re out of rooms to check, Jessica. I think I may have been misled about this party. I don’t know a soul here. God, I’m going to kill that little dude.”
“Hush up. You’re being a drag. Let’s ask some people if they know your friends. It won’t hurt anything to ask.”
Conrad sulked while Jessica led him downstairs by the hand. She walked up to a small group of people drinking beer and laughing. They looked like friendly, helpful people, so she asked them, “Do any of y’all know Buzz?” At first nobody spoke. There was no way for Jessica to know that they were sizing her up to make sure she didn’t pose a threat. She thought they were being rude, until a skinny guy wearing a Ministry T-shirt answered her.
“Yeah. He’s out back in the shed, but they won’t let you in if you don’t know the password,” the skinny guy responded.
“Do you know the password?” Jessica asked him sweetly.
“No, I don’t know it,” he scanned her body with his eyes, “but if you let them see you, they’ll probably open the door.”
“Thanks,” she told him. She looked at Conrad, who appeared to be pouting. “Shall we go look for the shed, Conrad?”
Conrad talked to her while they walked out of the back door. “I haven’t felt real jealousy in years. I thought I was going to lose my cool when that guy checked you out. I know he didn’t mean any harm, but I’m starting to feel an attachment to you.”
“You better never embarrass me by causing a stupid scene. Our relationship won’t last ten minutes if you can’t handle me talking to another guy. I won’t let you treat me like a possession. My parents treated me like a possession my whole life. I won’t have it from you. It’s not like I was flirting.”
“Ow. I might need medical attention for my rear end. I think you misunderstood. The fact that I felt jealous was a good thing. Never mind. Don’t worry. I’ll never cause a scene over you. Look, there’s a light on in the shed.”
Jessica and Conrad both knocked on the door of the shed at the same time. Someone inside coughed out, “What’s the password?”
“Conrad Ryland! Open up!”
“That’s not the password. Go away,” yelled the voice. Conrad thought they were joking, but nobody ever opened the door.
Jessica knocked again and said, “I’m looking for Buzz. I’m really pretty. Is he in there?”
The door opened almost instantly. Buzz looked out at the young couple. “You are really pretty, whoever you are,” he said. “Conrad! What’s up? How the hell did you get here?”
“You’re very funny. We searched the whole house for you. Your brother told me this was your party. I’m glad to see you, man,” Conrad told his old friend. “This is Jessica. I told her she would have a good time here. Please don’t prove me wrong.”
“Pleased to meet you, Jessica. I promise you will both have a good time. Come on in,” Buzz invited as he stepped out of the way to admit them.
“Nice to meet you too,” Jessica responded as she walked into the shed.
The shed turned out to be a small apartment. The apartment was lavishly furnished and decorated. A leather wraparound sofa filled up a large part of the living room. A large marble-topped coffee table occupied the space in front of the sofa. Three of the walls sported original art in fine handmade frames. Each painting was surrounded by enough space to command respect and reduce the feel of clutter. An entertainment center stretched across one side of the room. Japanese animation played on the plasma screen television, but the stereo pumped out the sounds of Skinny Puppy. The crystal clear postindustrial dance music came from Paradigm speakers located in the four corners of the room. Next to the front door a red light blinked out of a security system panel. The “shed” contained a fortune worth of nice things.
Only one person besides Buzz, a young man, tarried in the living room, and that fact seemed very odd with throngs of people partying just outside the door. Buzz introduced the man to Jessica as Jake. Conrad already knew Jake. All three of the men played war games together when they were adolescents. They all engaged pleasantries before the four of them sat down on the long couch.
“Why would your brother tell me this was your party?” Conrad wondered.
“My brother has gone totally crazy. He stays awake six or seven days at a time doing crank. A few months ago my mother and father set aside their differences to have him admitted to a rehab. The rehab center let him go after two weeks because the insurance company refused to pay. He stayed clean for about five minutes after he hit the street. I know nobody will change unless they want to, but it would have been easier for him to kick crank if he could have gotten away from it longer.
“About three weeks ago Pookie came over here and had a miniature nervous breakdown. He cried for a long time about all the shit he put our parents through. He admitted that he felt jealousy towards me his entire life. I thought that was pretty messed up. My life isn’t a pleasure cruise. Anyway, after about thirty minutes of his weepy, slobbery self-pity party, Pookie went to the bathroom. I guess there was a battle raging inside of him while he blubbered on my couch. He must have lost, because when he came out of the bathroom he was tweaking his ass off. He took off shortly after that. How he found out about this party I do not know,” Buzz explained in depth.
“I feel sorry for him. I know Pookie from the convenience store near my apartment, excuse me, what used to be my apartment.” Jessica sighed and continued, “I did think there was something wrong with him. He seemed like a nice guy, but he always appeared to be on the verge of a nervous fit. He tried to hit on me a couple of times, but he didn’t make any sense. Doesn’t he know he can go insane permanently from prolonged sleep deprivation?"
“He may have already gone permanently insane. I saw him at the convenience store a week ago. He could still do his job, but when I tried to talk to him he just looked at me. It was like he couldn’t see me or hear me. I’ve known him since he was a little kid, and he couldn’t figure out who I was. It was creepy,” Jake said. “It was like Pookie had gone on vacation, and a replacement robot took his place in his mind.”
“Wow. I haven’t seen either one of you guys in so long. The last time I saw you, Jake, you were all packed up to move to Lafayette. I thought you were going to make your fortune working offshore. Are you still doing that?” Conrad inquired.
An incredibly loud boom came through the door from the party outside the apartment. The music outside ceased at that precise moment. All four of them held their breath for a second. Jessica laughed when she was certain they weren’t under attack.
“Holy crap! I wonder what just happened to their stereo. No, man. I quit doing offshore work. I worked seven on, seven off for a few months. Then I started working twenty-one on, seven off. I made a ton of money, but I would spend most of it while I was waiting to go back offshore. It turned out that I spent all of my time on a rig out in the gulf, and I never had anything to show for it. Screw that. I can sit around in Baton Rouge and come out with the same thing in the end,” rationalized Jake.
“You can only do that because Eva supports you, you worthless bastard,” Buzz put in bluntly.
“Shut up, dude. Don’t start with me.”
“So Conrad, what have you been up to? Are you still doing any of the things you used to do?” Buzz looked at Jessica when he asked that question.
“Yes, I still do that. I kicked myself for months when we lost track of each other. You know how tight we had things rolling. I can’t believe we both moved and changed phone numbers at the same time. How weird is that? From the look of this place you haven’t been doing too bad. Those are very nice speakers,” Conrad told him.
“Thanks, man. Would you two kids like to get high? I have a couple of good things to get high on. Now that I think about it, I also have a couple of good things to get low on,” Buzz asked his two guests. He motioned to Jake, who pulled a small bong from behind the couch and a tray with weed on it from underneath.
“That sounds great. I wanted to drink beer, too, but they didn’t seem to have any cups. What kind of party has six kegs and no cups?” Jessica asked in frustration.
“They have cups up there. They probably have them hidden somewhere so just anyone can’t walk up and start hitting their keg. I’ve got a couple of pitchers in the kitchen, though. Conrad, would you like to go grab some of the beer or shall I?”
“Why don’t you go up there with me, Buzz? There are a ton of drunk dudes around the kegs up there, and nobody knows me at all.”
“Good thinking. We’ll be back in a minute,” Buzz told Jessica and Jake. He walked to the tiny kitchen and returned with two pitchers before escorting Conrad out of the apartment.
As soon as Buzz and Conrad walked out, Jake pulled a sandwich bag out of his pocket. It contained about a dozen pink pills. He took out two of them and crushed them on the table. In about five seconds there was a little pile of pink dust sitting on the marble. Jake took out his NRA card and split it into two lines. “Would you like to do some Dexedrine, Jessica?” he asked her.
“I’ve never done it. What does it do?”
“It’s good pharmaceutical speed. It’ll make you feel good, and you’ll be able to go to sleep after it wears off.”
“That sounds good,” Jessica answered as she took a bill out of her purse and rolled it up. She was finishing off the enormous line when Buzz and Conrad walked back in the door.
“Oh shit, Jake. What did you just give my girlfriend?”
“Relax. It’s just Dexedrine. It’s not like I just gave her a glass pipe. These pills came from my little cousin. He’s in the eleventh grade. They give him the pills to help him focus in school,” Jake explained.
“I know why they prescribe Dexedrine, Jake. I was scared you were dosing her on something heavy.”
“What if he was, Conrad? It’s my nose,” Jessica protested.
“If it was something heavy he was going to have to break it out, so I could have some too. Wait a second. What am I saying? Give me one of those pills, right now. You have to share with me too,” Conrad demanded.
“I was going to share. I just wanted to make sure Buzz was out of arm’s length when I did it. He gets too uptight.”
“Up yours. Do you want a beer, Jake?” Buzz asked with a glass of beer outstretched in his hand.
“Yeah. Give me one,” Jake replied. He handed Conrad one of the pills at the same time he took his beer from Buzz.
For the next two hours all four of them talked and drank beer. They had to make three more trips to the kegs. Conrad abstained from smoking any weed, but the other three passed around two or three big bowls. They were all having a good time. Jessica felt like she had known all of them for years. They all had so much in common. When they came upon differences in their course of the conversation, it didn’t come between them. It was like they were all meant to become friends.
They talked about education, politics, religion, friendship, love, hate and everything else that crossed their minds. Everything they talked about seemed very important at the time. The next day they didn’t see anything special about what was said. The speed dissolved into their blood streams. The lights in the room took on that special twinkle that indicates dilated pupils and prolonged dopamine release. None of them cared about that. They were young, as was the night, and there was much fun to be had.
After midnight the sounds of the enormous party outside Buzz’s place died down considerably. Jessica was reclined into Conrad’s lap, who was rubbing her shoulders. Buzz’s eyes were partially glazed over, and his foot tapped to the beat of an old Pixies album. Jake requested the album. He listened to it with his eyes closed, and sporadically mouthed the words without making a sound. A warm mellow feeling settled over the group. None of them wanted to disturb the serenity with meaningless chatter.
The sound of automatic gunfire on the street in front of the house shattered the peaceful mood in an instant. Screams followed the shots, and they contrasted sharply from the howls of debauchery that reverberated through the air earlier. These screams chilled the blood. They were cries of agony and terror.
Conrad sprang off the sofa and ran out of the apartment. He heard Jessica yelling for him to stop, but he forced himself not to hear her. The sound of a person in terrible pain slammed into his awareness, and a force inside of him compelled him to rush to her assistance. His rational mind played no part in the decision, or he would have stopped to consider his own safety. Instinct and compassion overrode his common sense.
Women and men alike ran in all directions away from the font yard. Conrad sprinted for the street, aware that loud moans had replaced the ear splitting shrieks. The sight of a young lady sprawled in a pool of her own blood stabbed into Conrad’s heart like a dagger when he cleared the corner of the house.
He almost tripped and fell as his legs carried him across the last few yards between himself and the victim. He scraped his knees on the bloody pavement as he flung himself down to see what could be done. The girl on the ground suffered from multiple gunshot wounds. She looked at him and whimpered pitifully. Conrad was more afraid of her quietness than he had been of her cries.
“Call an ambulance! Call a fucking ambulance!” Conrad yelled at the top of his lungs. Then he reached down and touched the girl on her shoulder, telling her calmly, “You’re going to be okay. We’re going to get you some help. Don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay.”
Buzz stood a few feet behind him, shouting details and directions to an emergency dispatcher over a cell phone. Conrad always knew Buzz would follow him into danger without a moment of hesitation. The dispatcher must have gotten the message, because a second later Buzz was on the ground next to him. “What can I do to help, Connie-boy?”
Conrad surveyed the girl’s wounds more closely, desperate to stop the outward flow of her life’s fluid. The girl had gone into shock. She was beyond communicating any information. She had obviously been shot in the stomach. That may have been the source of her agony, but the river of blood wasn’t coming from there. Conrad saw that the inside of her upper thigh was wet. When he pressed his hand to her jeans he knew she had an arterial wound.
“We have to get a tourniquet on her upper leg or she won’t survive until an ambulance gets here,” Conrad said frantically. The adrenaline rush that carried him out into the street was wearing off, and cold fear began to set in. He didn’t want to watch this young lady die, but he wasn’t a doctor. He wasn’t a paramedic. He was just a guy.
Buzz tore the belt out of his pants with lightning speed and wrapped it around her upper leg. He twisted it as tight as he could, but he could still see blood seeping out. “I need something to twist it tighter, Conrad. Get me a stick or something as fast as you can!”
The words galvanized Conrad back into action. He scrabbled off the concrete and ran for the nearest tree. He could see Jessica approaching the street cautiously, no doubt scared out of her wits. He didn’t have time to worry about her. He cast about under the tree and found a short, sturdy stick. Sirens in the distance heralded the approach of professional help, but they were still a long way off.
Conrad flew back to Buzz with the stick, who shoved it through the belt and twisted until veins stood out on his forearms. Both of the young men dripped sweat, even though a chilly breeze blew down from the sky. Jessica stood off to one side with her hands over her mouth. Ever other living soul had disappeared.
“Jessica, are you okay?” the young man asked her with deep concern.
“I’m okay, Conrad. I’m just shaken up.”
“Please go back inside,” Conrad prompted her gently when his mind began to function. “It may still be dangerous, and there’s nothing you can do.”
“I’ll go sit on the front steps,” she compromised. She felt that if something happened to him she would not be able to go on with her life. Conrad accepted her answer and started praying for the wounded girl. He didn’t pray very often. He hoped God would understand how important it was.
“Does she still have a pulse, Conrad?” Buzz asked him fearfully. The girl’s chest no longer visibly rose and fell. Conrad checked her pulse and found her heart continued to beat.
“She’s still here, Buzz.”
A fire truck ripped around the corner and halted only yards away from them. The Fire Department usually arrived at emergencies faster than other agencies. Because of that firemen sometimes saved the lives of people who would not have lived long enough to see an ambulance. Conrad and Buzz both breathed a sigh of relief when a couple of big men in protective uniforms leaped from the truck to give assistance.
One of the firemen took over for Buzz. The officer in charge asked what happened, and Conrad told him what he knew. The first ambulance whipped up to the scene while they were still talking. Moments later two paramedics were working on the girl. The blood spattered young men were led to the side of the fire truck to catch their breath. Police units converged on the scene from everywhere, along with another ambulance.
Once the cavalry arrived things happened very quickly. The girl was shifted onto a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance within sixty seconds, and the ambulance roared away from Ivanhoe for the hospital. The police talked to the firemen and the paramedics. Conrad and Buzz were surrounded and unable to leave the scene, so they leaned against the truck and waited to answer questions. It didn’t take long for a police officer to approach them.
“I take it one of you made the 911 call,” the police sergeant stated rather than asked. Buzz nodded his head nonetheless.
The sergeant then asked, “Did either one of you see what happened?”
“No,” Conrad and Buzz responded simultaneously.
“I believe you, and I am going to tell you why. According to 911 dispatch your call came in at 12:52. That lieutenant with the Fire Department over there says that they didn’t hit the scene until almost 12:59. He stated for the record that when BRFD got here you were both assisting the unconscious victim. He stated that one of you applied a tourniquet to her leg. The chief EMT on duty here says that if the girl lives,” the sergeant sounded as if a great weight rested on his shoulders, “then it will only be because of that tourniquet. He says she would already be dead if it weren’t for the tourniquet. I’ll have to get your names, of course, but I don’t think you need to be put through anymore trouble. You should both be proud of yourselves. Without you that girl didn’t stand a chance.”
The police officer was as good as his word. He took their names and a brief statement, and then he told them they were free to go. The entire time they were talking Jessica sat on the front steps of the house shaking. When Conrad and Buzz walked away from the emergency vehicles toward her, she rushed out into the yard and flung her arms around her boyfriend. The blood didn’t matter to her at all.
“Thank God! I was so frightened. After the cop started talking to y’all, I worried you would be in some kind of trouble. Thank God you’re okay. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you,” Jessica gushed, and tears dripped down her cheeks.
“Everything is going to be fine. Hey, I thought you didn’t believe in God,” Conrad stated with kindness in his voice.
“Sometimes I do. Tonight I do.” She gripped him even tighter and kissed him before she asked, “What happened? Is that girl going to live?”
“They don’t know if she’s going to live or not, but they said we may have helped her. As for what happened, the police officer said she was probably an innocent bystander in a drug related shooting. He told us that this is the fourth drive-by shooting in this neighborhood this year. Don’t worry, Jessica. It was just another drive-by.”
Jake remained sitting on the sofa in Buzz’s apartment during the entire incident. He sipped his beer and listened to The Pixies, secure in his belief that no matter what was happening outside he didn’t want to be a part of it. When he heard sirens converge on the property from all directions, he congratulated himself on staying far away from the action. Jake held aloofness in high regard.
The sight of Conrad and Buzz drenched in blood when they walked through the door caught Jake off guard. He approved of minding his own business, but he loathed missing excitement even more. After he saw blood on Jessica too, the reality of the situation penetrated through to his core. Playing it safe had cost him a role in a good story.
“Do I even have to ask what happened?”
“We’re not going to tell you what happened. You don’t even deserve to get hints. Did you move at all while we were outside? Oh, wait, I see you took a few sips of beer. It’s good to know you exercised your right arm a little bit. Conrad, Jessica, don’t tell him a damned thing,” Buzz suggested devilishly.
“Buzz, I think we’re going to call it a night. I’ve had all the fun I can take for one night,” Conrad.
“It was nice to meet both of you, even considering what happened,” Jessica told them.
“I’ll give you a ride home if you tell me what happened,” Jake suggested.
“It’s a deal,” Jessica answered without a pause.