Shots Fired in the Melting Pot

administration staff had not arrived to see their ‘Rape Beer Float.’ The teens marveled at this moment of rebellious protest, and most of them had never dreamt of serving up mob justice to a billionaire. They cheered as the marching band led the float across the asphalt while six popular cheerleaders performed antics atop the unit. The football team followed close behind chanting, “Rape is bad, rape is wrong; just say no with a good fight song.”

  Ned felt cold atop the rickety float with nothing covering his body other than a deerskin loincloth. His hands were shackled to a steel chain that fed through a hole in the pinewood and connected to a hitch on the back of the truck. The students had painted the word ‘rapist’ on his forehead in their school colors, along with a blue broken heart symbol on his right bicep. A blonde cheerleader was standing behind him with a Taser in her right hand, which she had used multiple times to make him submit. Between the pepper spray and moderate voltage shocks, Ned had elected to endure his punishment in silence.

  He thought about the powerful black man that had removed him from his yacht and the mouthy brunette who played along with the crime. They had loaded him into what looked like a cheap rental speedboat and cruised to a dock in the Brooklyn area. From there, the mysterious couple had offloaded his naked body to some high school football players in the middle of the night. Ned scowled as he considered how the duo had provided the minors with beer, money and non-lethal weapons to teach him a lesson. He then spent the remainder of the night in a garage watching dozens of drunken young men putting together a haphazard float. As the drinking intensified, someone had the moronic idea of strapping deer antlers to his head and wrapping him in a loincloth made from the same animal.

  The parking lot was littered with cheap beer cans that had been crushed underfoot by the group of demonstrators. In their drunken state of celebration, the teens felt invincible and had no idea how dangerous their prisoner could be under different circumstances. They continued their unsanctioned rally as their peers recorded videos and shared them with the world.

  It took less than an hour for a police car to show up, which caused most of the teens to abandon their posts. A brown-haired policeman got out of his patrol car and scratched his head in confusion. He read the words ‘Rape Beer Float’ on the side of the colorful vehicle a few times, but didn’t understand what was happening.

  The driver pulled the truck to a halt when the police officer approached, and the squad of cheerleaders stared at the ground with inebriated guilt. All of the band members, football players, and spectators had sprinted across a nearby soccer field to escape the wrath of school administrators and the authorities.

  Ned began to tremble with joy when he saw the police car coming to his rescue. The skin around his eyes was red from pepper spray, and his muscles were sore from the recurring onslaught of Taser shocks. He reflected for a moment on his abduction in lucid detail, hoping to learn the identities of the perpetrators. However, as the police officer came toward him, all he could think about was getting home for a warm shower.

 

  Canarsie Park – Brooklyn, New York

 

  ‘Today is the day; I can’t wait any longer,’ the pale German thought to himself while stalking the green grass of Canarsie Park. He swore under his breath when noticing the many attentive mothers that were watching their beautiful children. The child predator had decided to wear faded jeans and a short-sleeve flannel shirt to blend in with other dads that came to the park. His heart was pounding as he watched for the black man when taking a route through the play areas.

  He knew that more than one pass would arouse suspicion, but there were dozens of children from which to choose on this special day. One of the mothers had confused him for a single father and gave him an invitation to her little girl’s birthday party. To his delight, the party started two hours before the black man would show up to spy on him. Although the nosy man had shown up at varying intervals, he had never bothered coming to the park at nine in the morning. His absence gave the crafty German plenty of time to complete an abduction and make it back to the city across the bridge.

  The kidnapper grew impatient as he strode through the ranks of children at the birthday celebration. He spied many angelic faces that were only inches from his desperate fingers, but the women were alert and ready to protect them. The man’s pale right hand began to tremble at the thought of defeat with such a gratuitous event.

  A little black girl with pigtails was throwing a ball in the air near an empty swing set. The predator traversed across the sand near her with rapid footsteps, trying to keep his feet from making too much noise. He began to raise his hands in a steady path above his prey, glancing around at options for a swift exit.

  “Hey, sir, what the hell are you doin’?” An African-American woman shouted from behind a large wooden information sign that was just seven feet away. “I see you walkin’, loser. You just keep walkin’!” The woman stopped talking on her satellite phone and bolted over to the play area, scooping up her daughter in a vicious display of protection. “Yeah, you keep walkin’; my husband will kill you!”

  The ashamed stranger could not vacate the area fast enough. His steps were longer and faster as adrenaline surged through his body, making him more aware. After the woman’s death threat processed in his mind, it put him in an instant state of survival. He felt like an enemy combatant that had just been caught on the wrong side of a battlefield. His fingers began to tighten as the fear of lost opportunity was beginning to bite at the back of his neck. ‘I just need one to get me through the year,’ he internalized with a feeling of panic and sadness.

  The forlorn kidnapper was on the verge of crying when he saw a chubby girl with black hair playing alone near a patch of pine trees. Although she wasn’t his first choice, the German’s legs began to carry him forward out of compulsion. He could feel darkness creeping through his bones and the foul thoughts that entered his mind made him wince. The man quickened his pace like a wild beast in the forest and snatched up the little girl, almost unaware of what he was doing. His right hand covered her mouth as the center of his stomach became nauseous, and they disappeared together through the pine trees.

  He pressed forward through the park with an overwhelming feeling of guilt, pretending that he was taking his daughter home to her mother. The chubby man removed his hand from her mouth and held the girl tight against his right shoulder, allowing the child to kick and scream.

  “No, you can’t stay and play,” he repeated every few steps, “mommy needs you at home to get ready for the wedding. I’m sorry, my little Susan, but we have to get to your uncle’s wedding. I understand that you don’t want to go.”

  He got bolder in playing his role as her father, and they made good time in getting away from the play areas of the park. After a few minutes of walking, they were nearly a hundred yards from where he had found the girl, and the twisted German felt that she was his property. He saw his white pickup truck in the parking lot at the far end of the park, which helped the man to relax. The girl was writhing in his arms with all her strength, but none of the onlookers knew what he was doing. Some people stopped and looked at him with caution, but he bought them off with a charming smile, and they let him pass.

  The pale man began to smirk with wild satisfaction as he admired the prize in his arms. She was dressed in a white jumpsuit with a red undershirt, and her hair was tied up with a little red ribbon. A torrent of delight pulsated through his gut when he considered the heartbreak her mother would experience in the park. His mind was ablaze with the omnipotence of knowing that someone would feel the stabbing pains of loss and hopelessness.

  There was an abrupt sound of footsteps pounding the earth as he approached the tree line near the edge of the park. He made an about-face turn to see if someone was coming, and his mouth opened in shock. A bulky figure with a black ski mask was rushing toward him. The mysterious perpetrator kicked
the German in the right shin and pried the little girl from his arms with ease. He cried out in agony and dropped to the ground as his prize was wrenched away by the aggressive newcomer.

  “Finders keepers!” The man taunted him as he sprinted toward the city.

  The German kidnapper got to his feet with dozens of thoughts racing through his mind. Although the logical side of his brain told him that this scenario was impossible, his addictive pathology demanded that he retrieve the youngster. He stood and watched with a perplexed expression as the stranger jogged away with the girl bouncing on his right shoulder. His adversary was dressed in a solid black sweatshirt and sweatpants, which matched the ski mask. A tremendous amount of conflict entered the pale man’s mind, and the loss of his prize seemed to make him short circuit.

  He exhaled with desperate gasps as the girl gradually got smaller in his field of vision, and the predator found himself trailing behind the masked stranger. His better judgment told him that this was a setup, but he saw no harm in following from a safe distance. The man’s legs carried him forward at a frantic pace, inspired by an arrogance of needing to know the fate of the child. For a brief