matter. Who knew how long he’d be, and we couldn’t wait around all afternoon. I cleared my throat. “Drac?”
Oblivious to everything that wasn’t his target, he savaged the bag like a pit bull with a mouthful of baby. I could see his tattoos clearly now. On his upper left arm, razor wire was wrapped around the word “Drac.” Part of me was relieved, the rest felt sick with the feeling I was about to do a deal with the Devil.
I raised my voice. “Hello… Drac?”
Pivoting on his right foot, he drew his fist back and smashed the bag with a thunderous uppercut, sending it high into the air. He turned to me, nostrils flared, snorting air into his lungs, looking like he was about to teach me a lesson on unwelcome disruption. “What da hell you wan’?”
The two old guys stared with their whiskey glasses half way to their lips, like they’d never had visitors before.
“We need to talk to you,” I said. “Can we go somewhere?”
Drac’s upper lip curled and his breathing grew louder.
“It’s just… we were wondering if–”
With his eyes still on the bag, he launched into it with both fists, pounding it hard and shouting between thrusts. “What… da… fuck… you… wan’?”
Raj and Gordie stared, mouths open and eyes wide. I wanted to give up, but leaving with the money wasn’t going to get Kyle off our backs. “We need your help,” I said.
With one last punch, he turned to me and scrunched his eyebrows together.
The two old guys lowered their whiskey glasses, eyeing us suspiciously. It’s not like they’d rush off to report us to the cops, but I could’ve done without the audience. I continued, “It’s someone from school. He’s causing us trouble and we need you to make him back off.”
Turning his attention to the punching bag, he raised his gloved fists. “Why I help you?” He struck the bag with his left fist and followed with a right uppercut.
“We’ll pay. Two hundred now and two hundred after.”
He focused intently on the bag, his eyes drilling it like he was trying to explode it with his mind. “Four hundred now.” He pounded the bag repeatedly with both fists.
Negotiation was always going to be part of the deal, but it didn’t feel right to give him the cash upfront.
Raj shrugged. Gordie shook his head.
I moved a little closer, but stayed out of arm’s reach. “He’ll be at the Stony Creek Lake parking lot at 8pm tonight. Can you meet him there? His name’s Kyle Swindon.”
The corner of Drac’s mouth twitched upward a fraction and then turned into a toothy grin. “Da, I break him in little pieces.” He launched into the air, spinning like a whirlwind as he pulled-off a lightning-fast roundhouse kick. His shoe smacked the bag and sent it swinging into the ceiling. When it landed, he finished it off with a booming smash of his fist.
“Holy…” Raj whispered.
A wheezing sound came from Gordie’s throat.
I raised my palms. “No, we don’t want you to hurt him. Just tell him there’ll be trouble if he comes near Chris, Raj, or Gordie – that’s us. Okay?”
“I make him cry like baby.”
Raj bit his lip and looked at me expectantly. There was more than a slim chance we were about to make a big mistake, but it wasn’t like we were in a position to be demanding. And if he wanted the cash up front, who was I to disagree? I nodded, and Raj fumbled in his pocket and handed me the cash. I folded the bills and held them out for Drac. “Four hundred dollars – paid in full. Don’t hurt him, understand?”
The grin returned to his face and then fell away as he glanced in the direction of the two old guys. The guy nearest him laid out his palm and looked at me.
Feeling like a freshman asking a bully to take my lunch money, I walked over and put the bills in his hand.
Without so much as a nod, Drac went back to jabbing his fists into the bag.
“You’ll be there, right?” I raised my voice. “Stony Creek Lake parking lot. Kyle Swindon. Eight o’clock tonight. If you’re late, you’ll miss him.”
He continued pounding the bag.
Gordie stammered, “Do… do you need to write it down?”
Drac raised his gloves and stepped toward us, a vein pulsing on the side of his head.
Gordie stumbled on his crutches, gasping between shallow wheezy breaths.
Grabbing him by his arms, Raj and I supported his weight, lifted his crutches, and helped him to the door, occasionally glancing back as Drac glared holes into us. If Kyle was about to be confronted by this guy in the woods at night, I almost felt sorry for him. The doorbells jingled behind us as we stepped out and started along the sidewalk.
“That went pretty well.” Raj dug his hands into his pockets.
“Well?” Gordie spluttered. “Do you even realize what just happened? We made a donation to the Russian mafia, that’s what. And if for some reason he actually decides to do it, Kyle would have less chance of being killed if we’d paid an international assassin.” He rubbed his forehead. “We’re so stupid… such idiots. We didn’t even ask for a receipt.”
Raj shot me a grin. “You’re right, Gordo. And we didn’t ask for a satisfaction guarantee. Or offer him a 401k plan… or medical.”
“Shut up, you fuh… fuh…!” Gordie swallowed hard.
“It’s okay,” I said. “If you need to swear, we can handle it.”
He wrinkled his brow as he swung the end of his crutch at an empty bottle. The bottle clanked against the sidewalk, hit a wall, and smashed into tiny pieces. “Why is this happening? What did we do to deserve this?”
Raj crunched the broken glass with his shoes. “Drac will do his bit. There’s nothing else we can do but wait for this to be over.”
It was only when he said it out loud that I realized nothing was ever that simple. This was our last hope; we couldn’t leave anything to chance. “We need to know if Drac shows tonight,” I said. “We need to make sure Kyle gets the message.”
Gordie raised an eyebrow. “You mean go to Stony Creek Lake? What if Drac doesn’t go? We’ll be target practice for Kyle and his new gun.”
“Raj and I will find somewhere nearby to hide,” I said. “They won’t even know we’re there. And you won’t have to leave the car.”
Thunder rumbled through a mass of dark clouds, and a drop of cold rain hit my face.
16. Fear of the Dark
The dash clock glowed orange, 19:17, and heavy rain glinted in the headlights as it pummeled Gordie’s driveway. At the end of a brick footpath, light shined through a narrow window next to the front door.
Raj spoke from the back seat, his face lit by streetlight filtering through the car’s rain-stained windows. “Kyle’s brain should be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Right after the Egyptian Pyramids and computers.”
“Computers?” Allie lifted the hood of her white puffer jacket over her head. In the orange glow of the dash, she could have been the twin sister of Kenny from South Park.
“You know, scientists don’t fully understand how they work. They do mostly, but not completely.”
Allie smiled. “Actually, they kinda figured it out at the same time they invented them. I’ll explain it sometime if you like.”
“So why haven’t they invented robot women then?” he asked.
“Because science. And gross. Why would you want a robot woman? Wouldn’t you like to have a real girlfriend?”
“I guess. The technology’s getting better though. You can get robots that have over sixty degrees of movement.”
“Gross.”
“And operating times of over an hour.”
“Gross!”
“And artificial intelligence that's programmed to learn.”
“What would you teach…? Oh gross.”
“And skin made of lifelike silicone.”
“Stop talking.”
“What?”
The front door to Gordie’s house opened and bright light spilled out. Shutting the door behind him, he
hobbled toward us on crutches, head down, grimacing as the rain washed over him. By the time he reached the car, the water had flattened his hair and his clothes hung heavy. Raj pushed open the door and scooched across the back seat.
Gordie slid his crutches onto the floor in the back and climbed in. “My old man wouldn’t let me leave without a Guantanamo-style interrogation.” He closed his door and wiped his glasses with his sleeve.
“What did you tell him?” I glanced at him through the gap between the front seats.
“Just that you guys are going to hook me up with some drugs. He knew I was kidding, but he gave me the talk anyway. Drugs are bad, in case you didn’t know.”
Allie smiled. “Livin’ the thug life, Gordie.”
The warmth of her smile had an effect on all of us. And by sticking with us through all this, she’d given us a reason to feel like things would be okay. She had no idea how glad I was to have her here. I dragged my seatbelt over my shoulder. “It’s nearly time. We should go.”
Reaching under the dash, Allie turned the key and revved the engine.
I looked at Raj and then at Gordie. “If either of you don’t want to be part of this, now’s your chance.”
“It’s getting late,” Raj said. “Can you drop me home on the way?”
“No, you’re coming.”
Gordie turned up his jacket collar and let out a breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
Looking over her shoulder, Allie reversed down the drive and onto the street. Rain hammered the roof, muffling the drumbeat of the wipers as we drove through the night streets of run-down West Side neighborhoods. Keeping to our own thoughts, we gazed out at the glow of streetlights splashed across wet sidewalks.