1
As soon as Janice had
finished with Eddie, she fired off a quick message to Jonathan.
“Jonathan, can you here me?”
she probed.
“Jonathan, come in, dammit!”
she tried again.
“Yeah, I'm here.”
“There's no time to talk, so
just listen. Dad, you and Eddie are
going to drive down and meet me at Ft. Canby.
Just do what ever he says until you get there. I'll be waiting. Try not
to piss him off, I think he's about ready to blow.”
“What about Luke?”
“Let's keep this in the
family, it'll probably get ugly before it's over. If you get a safe chance to call me later, do it. Otherwise I'll see you at the jetty. Understand?”
She waited for almost a
minute before accepting the fact that Jonathan wouldn't be answering her
question. Eddie had no doubt entered
the picture again. What a mess! She felt the urge to throw up again, but
fought it down.
"Let's go
Granite!" she yelled out the open passenger door.
He was back in the car in
seconds. Janice reached across him
again and slammed the door shut.
Seconds later they were back on the road, windshield wipers on full
speed, as the rain and wind continued to increase.
"I got a bad feeling
about all of this, Granite. But it's
too late to turn back. Gotta protect
the ones that are counting on me, you know I what I mean?"
The dog just looked at her
quietly, then returned to watching out the window.
"How silly of me? Of course you know what I mean," she
thought out loud. "What part of
big ol' dedicated guard dog don't I understand?"
There was still no answer
from her canine passenger.
"Don't feel like
talking, eh? Can't say I blame
you. How about we grab a few burgers,
and then get this shit over with. Once
and for all?"
Granite quickly barked
twice, and then leaned over and began licking the side of her face. Janice let out a giggle as his tongue
tickled her ear.
"Damn Granite, a simple
'yes Kemosabe' would have been fine," Janice said as she pushed him back
into his seat.
“Good to laugh. Good to eat. Then we bite ass,” he finally said to her.
"The term is kick ass, Granite," she
corrected him.
“We'll see.”
2
Jonathan was still listening
to Janice give him his latest set of instructions when Eddie came storming out
of the bathroom. Luke was standing
behind the bar.
"I've decided you're right
father. Jonathan, let's get that tire
changed. Now. I want to be out of here in ten minutes."
"What's the hurry,
Eddie?" asked Jonathan, not wanting to seem that he knew too much.
"Let's just say there's
been a change of plans. Round up a coat
old man, you're going too."
"I'm not going anywhere
with you, Edward," replied Thomas sarcastically.
"You'll do what ever I
tell you to," Eddie said, as he crossed the remaining distance between
himself and his father in an instant.
He had his father by the shirt with both hands, and pulled him off the
bar stool before Luke could get his pistol out.
"That'll be enough,
Edward."
Eddie spun around, holding
his father in front of himself as a shield.
He felt the power rush through him as he stared at his father, seeing
the mixture of surprise and fear in his face.
He glanced over Thomas' shoulder toward the bar, where Luke stood
pointing his revolver directly at them.
"Well, well. What have we here, Luke? You’d better put that thing down before you
hurt someone."
"Let him go
Edward. Now."
Luke watched intently as
Eddie began half-stepping backwards from the bar with his father in tow. His eyes were beginning to glow red again,
and Luke knew he was capable of doing almost anything at that moment. He decided to shoot him as soon as his
target was clear. Unfortunately, Eddie
wasn't giving him one. Just as
unfortunate, he couldn't see the pair of eye-bolts twisting counterclockwise
out of the two by fours above his head.
"He's right Eddie. Let him go," shouted Jonathan from
behind.
Eddie continued to
concentrate on the eye-bolts as he answered his brother without turning away
from Luke.
"Jonathan, shut the
fuck up and get over here in front of me where I can keep an eye on you. Now, before I break his fucking neck!"
"Look Edward. You can take my truck. It's parked out in back. Here are the keys," Luke said as he
fished them out of his pants pocket and set them on the bar.
"Just leave Thomas at
the door, and I promise we won't do anything to stop you leaving."
"You know what your
problem is, Luke?" asked Eddie with a wicked smile.
"I'm sure you're going
to tell me," said Luke as he continued to aim the gun towards his friend
and his captor, hoping for a clear shot.
"You watch too much
TV."
With minimal effort, Eddie
mentally pulled the eye-bolts from the ceiling where they supported the heavy
25" color Sony Trinitron above Luke's head. He didn't even have time to look up before the set bounced off of
the back of his head, sending him flying against the bar. His gun went off at the same time the
picture tube shattered against the floor, sending glass and powder
everywhere. Luckily for Thomas, the
impact had thrown Luke's aim off, and the bullet ended up in the base of one of
the pinball machines, tripping the tilt alarm.
Eddie
allowed Thomas to break free of his grasp, and he immediately ran around the
end of the bar and dropped down to check on his friend. Jonathan was just about to pick up Luke's
fallen weapon when Eddie spotted him and sent the pistol spinning across the
floor and under the flashing pinball machine with the bullet hole in it.
Thomas rose from behind the
bar, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks.
His face was white as a ghost.
"I think he's
dead," said Thomas, in a quiet monotone.
He turned towards Eddie.
"Are you happy now?"
"This wouldn't have
happened if you’d done as you were told and Luke would have minded his own
fucking business. Now get your fucking
coat and let's go. Jonathan, grab those
keys, you're driving."
"You might as well kill
me here and now Edward, because I'm not going anywhere with you," replied
Thomas as if in a trance.
"Gee, father, you know
I wouldn't do that," started Eddie in a whinny voice. "I'll just have to rip Jonathan apart limb
by limb, and then God only knows what I'll do to your precious little
Janice. But you? No, you'll get to live for the rest of your
miserable life knowing you were responsible, and I don't think there is enough
brandy in this whole damn world to ease that pain."
"Better do as he says,
dad," said Jonathan, still shaking in disbelief.
"What do you need me
for? Why don't you just leave? I sure can't stop you."
"True, but Janice would
like for all of us to be
together one last time. Just look at it
as some kind of small family reunion.
We make her happy, and then I leave.
Simple as that."
"All right, but I'll
see you rot in hell for this someday, Edward."
"Probably. Maybe we could share a cell together. I do have connections down there you
know. Now, let's get going, shall
we? Don't want to keep our little
Janice waiting."
3
Janice made an extra effort
to watch her speed as she approached the turn off for Warrenton. She wasn't far from Astoria now, and the
traffic had begun to thicken a little as local people headed home from
work. Between the rain, wind, and the
spray that the other cars kicked up, the driving conditions were
miserable. She looked at the clock on her
dashboard. 3:40 PM. She cursed at herself for cutting the time
so close but Eddie sounded like he was about ready to lose it.
If he got there before she
did, he'd just have to get over it, she told herself. Still, she would like to get there enough ahead of him to scope
out the area a little. Maybe form some
kind of a plan. Yeah, right! How do you plan against some kind of lunatic
like Eddie? Hell, she hadn't even seen
him in, in how long? Not long enough,
that was for sure.
A voice nagged at her from
somewhere in her sub-conscious.
'When was the last time we really saw Eddie?' it
asked.
He was there, standing behind dad, when Randy picked me up to leave for Oregon, she answered. That would have been 1972. There, are you happy?
'And before that?'
I don't know, he was around,
he was always around, but we never said any more to each other than we had to,
and that was next to nothing.
'So when was the last time we really saw Eddie. You know what I mean. When was the last time we actually interacted with the little fucker?'
Hey, are you trying to
psychoanalyze me?
'That was the plan, wasn't it? You're the one who opened up this can of worms after all these years. Remember? You don't expect me to just shut down and go back to sleep, do you? We’ve got too much of a buzz on for that I'm afraid.'
I don't need this shit right
now, okay?
'Maybe you do, maybe you don't.'
What in the hell is that
supposed to mean?
'Just try and remember.'
Janice thought as hard she
could and couldn't remember a damn thing at first. There just seemed to be a black hole of nothingness between the
time that the McNalleys had died, correction, had been killed, and the day that
she had left Nebraska.
'You didn't even remember being at the McNalleys until a half an hour ago, Janice. Try harder.'
Hey, fuck you! All of this shit is stored in your half of
this conversation, not mine. Dig it out
yourself!
'I'll give you a little hint.'
I'd give you a fifth of
tequila right between the eyes if I had one.
That would shut you up.
'Not this time, Janice, you need to know. I need you to know. We're in this together, remember?'
Like you're going to let me
forget?
'I just want you to remember. I'm tired of carrying this all by myself.'
So give me a clue, ol' wise
one.
'We were sixteen years old, and very high. Trippin' high. Mr. Natural was going around that summer. Remember now?'
Give me a break, Sub. If I had a nickel for every time I tripped
I'd be vacationing in the Bahamas right now instead of having absurd
conversations with you and the rest of my family.
'The Pack was there too. Remember the Pack? You named yourselves that after seeing some TV show on Frank Sinatra and his friends. They were called the Rat Pack, but you decided to just shorten it to the pack.'
Yeah, I sorta remember, now
that you mention it.
'It was you, Linda Horton, Denise Stahl, and Patricia Warner. You remember Patti don't you?'
Patti. Yes.
Poor Patti. Another floodgate
opened.