Further Adventures (35 page)

I turned my face away & by a shove I hardly felt Nilo danced me backwards he pinned me to the wall.

NILO: Amelia would
not
shut up. She wouldn’t let go & accept how it was so what am I supposed to do? Didn’t make a difference which way she wanted it. Front or back.

Right here I started singing a song I believe it was Irving Berlin’s cheerful “Blue Skies.” I was singing to block Nilo’s dirty talk & I shut my eyes from his porky face. Nor I did not see Newberry behind me he grabbed my head back around so I had to smell Nilo’s cigarette breath in my face.

NILO: So I get my hand on her throat & my other one in her snatch & I’m squeezing both ways. Gonna flip her.

NEWBERRY: His hand on her private parts Ray! Hear that? Choking Amelia while he’s fingering her pussy…

NILO: Oh yeah. Fingers up her greasy greaser crack. Then her breathing it went all hissy. It wasn’t so much fun after that.

ME: What kind of noise did your friend Perry make?

NILO: Say what?

ME: Like bacon sizzling? When the electric shock hit him—

NILO: Perry
died
from it you kikey kike!

Nilo threw a sloppy punch at me his hammy fist clipped my jaw & landed on my ear—he pulled the front of my jacket then I twisted out of his grip. A bad move since then he knocked me into the wall. I felt Newberry’s hands under my arms he hauled me on my feet & threw me right back at Nilo. The gunsel caught me by my throat he had my windpipe I think it was the raw idea of where his other hand was reaching that pushed me so far I pulled out my gun—

NEWBERRY: Nilo! He’s got a gun!

Nor I was not afraid to use it on him—I brought it down hard I lowered the boom on him I conked Nilo a good one on his forehead. Nilo grabbed my wrist he pinned it to the wall & my Weapon pointed Harmless at the ceiling—

NILO: John? You got it?

He could not see since he kept his head down ramming in my chest. Newberry pried the revolver out of my sweaty fingers I felt the seams on his plastic mittens scrape my palm & then the Sound exploded by my ear—BOOM!—only I did not feel any hole open up in me I only felt Nilo’s flabby weight peel away & thud on the floor. His fingers scratched the Air over his head until they landed on my ankles he tried to get up on his knees. Newberry stood next to him & shot Nilo in the back of his head then his Blood came spraying up the front of my pants to my knees & splashed on my shoes.

Newberry flashed Wayne a look with Death Rays in it & that was the only signal they needed for the wild Circus to start. The Mexican boys enjoyed the show until Wayne pressed his gun against the back of the little one’s head. He pulled the trigger & a gold tooth went spinning across the floor in front of a burst of Blood & Spit. As fast as that tooth Newberry had his knee bent into the other Muchacho’s back & wrestled him down to the Floor he shut his eyes & turned his face away before Newberry shot a bullet into his neck nor he did not stop squirming so Newberry put another one in & it cracked the top of his head apart.

I took my eyes off this Sickening Sight just in time to see the cowboy shirt Mexicano block Wayne out of his path & push himself outside by the back door. He ran for the fence like Crazy Legs Hirsch—

NEWBERRY: Don’t hit his stomach! Not in the stomach Wayne!

Agent Feather took off after the cowboy shirt Señor and Newberry took off after Wayne very clumsy in his plastic suit then 3 or 4 shots in a row maybe from both guns I did not Witness who did what because they chased him behind the Raymobile & I can only testify what was the terrible Result. John Newberry & Wayne Feather carrying the deceased Mexican in by his arms & legs I saw his head was red & wet &
seeping it was split open like a watermelon.

“Hold it,” Wayne said & hooked his foot around the edge of the door & flipped it shut behind him. He let Newberry lift the Corpse on the metal table belly up.

Newberry checked me over he tilted my face in the Light. “Your color’s gone,” he noted then he slapped the revolver into my hand he pressed my fingers around the handle so I did not drop it on the floor again. “Don’t be afraid.” He shook my shoulder very firm & brotherly.

What do you expect a person to do if he has got decent scruples concerning Life & Death? I will say I was not afraid of the sight of those poor dead bodies or the way
Newberry killed them so easy
no I was afraid of what I was supposed to do about it. On the spot something else took over—

I aimed the gun at John Newberry and he turned around because he heard me cock the hammer. The sigh that huffed out of him made me think he was exhausted from waiting all day for this Deadly Event to happen. Very slow he smiled at me & stood like I was snapping his photo at a family BBQ. I say it was this kind of Mockery put sudden Strength in me. Or set my sudden Weakness free it curled my finger around the trigger. Wayne did not make any move to jump me & I remember a sob swole up in my throat it was the last Particle of my Sympathy leaving my body.

Newberry said, “Playtime’s over.”

“Yes it is,” I bit my teeth down but I could not shoot the gun at him like a man.

So Wayne & Newberry are giggling from the High Hilarity of my unmanly cowardice I can feel the hot mud bubbling in my stomach & I can taste the sour salt of it before it hits my back teeth & splashes out of my mouth.

“For crissakes Ray! You have to do that in here?” Wayne yelled at me.

“Yeah c’mon Ray,” Newberry stopped laughing to point out. “You’re right next to the door. Stick your head outside if you have to do that again.” Then he got busy with Nilo’s corpse he picked up both legs under the knees & dragged him. Wayne grabbed one of the limp hands & he steered Nilo around so he ended up side by side with the Mexican boys he Delivered.

“Future generations owe me one,” Wayne said. “Stopped Nilo from pissing in the gene pool.”

“Ray…don’t ask me why. While you’re standing there looking at all the whys the
what
runs you over like a freight train.”

Even a rock in the dirt has got some Why behind it. Igneous e.g. or Sedimentary. I did not respect John Newberry’s answer so I asked him again.

He broke open his silver razor. “I know this is going to be a shock to you my friend but listen—everybody who owns a refrigerator thinks he’s civilized. It’s just a trick Westinghouse pulls on us.
I
know we never moved out of the caves. Caves and clubs before and now we’ve got ranch houses and guns.”

A perfect Point I remind him also we have got LAWS.

“I’m not saying it’s a
deep
philosophy Ray,” he said. “Look at it this way. Instead of laws your caveman had campfires. Some weak little light. A flickering dot in all that darkness. A teensy puff of heat in the path of the Ice Age. Something they made to scare off wild animals and the ghosts of their ancestors. It’s the same thing.”

Not exactly by me.

“No—not
exactly
. Any campfire is superior to any law. You know why?”

Why?

“You can’t roast a weenie over a law. You can quote me.”

You said it!

I watched him peel the cowboy shirt backward over the bulge of the
Mexican’s belly. Newberry shimmied his shoulders. “I hate this part.” And he dipped his cutthroat razor down & cut across the yellow skin 2 Cuts in a long X that met in the middle of the stomach. So I saw what the gutters in the table were there for i.e. more Blood etc. drooled down them & by the drain between his feet it dribbled into a oil drum underneath. Dry as sandpaper my tongue but I asked him Why again.

“Get Ray a glass of water,” he said to Wayne. “And I think there’s some Alka Seltzer on the shelf above the sink.” He stopped his amateur surgery & he gave me the impression he was thinking about why he was standing there in a plastic suit with 3 Corpses on the floor & another Corpse on the table & Human Blood up to his knees cutting a X into a dead man’s stomach with a silver razor. “Because…I think because…I feel
responsible
.” Which was all the thinking he wanted to give it & he leaned over the Mexican again & cut the flesh to ribbons & dug his hand down into the hole he made.

When they started coming out I thought they were golf balls. He dropped them 1 by 1 in a plastic bucket. I believe Newberry got 40 out of that particular stomach. I drank my glass of Alka Seltzer in a gulp but there is a limit to how much Relief a person can get from Alka Seltzer in a revolting situation like this.

In the sink Wayne washed off the 40 balls & got ready for the next batch that Newberry scooped out of the little Mexican nor I do not know how many were crammed in there he was so skinny. It was not golf balls it was 10 Dozen rubbers Wayne washed & dried by the end. Newberry cut them open it was White Drugs inside. White Powder that he poured out very delicate & careful. He filled up a dozen coffee cans.

I thought of Dolores. This Murderer this Arch Criminal this Smiling Slave Trader this Walking Perversion is her GUARDIAN! I saw how she was helpless in his house just a INNOCENT child at his Mercy. I doubt if John Newberry has any Human feelings for anybody.

“All I’ve got is human feelings!” He buttoned up the Señor’s cowboy shirt over the Wound his razor sliced in. The stump of a Artery poked up from between the shirttails. “You think I’m enjoying this? I’m not even
happy
about it. Glad it’s over yes. Ray you don’t know the
half
of it.”

What do you deserve for your Perverted Deeds? A Life of Luxury? I will not get a argument out of anybody if I dare & say everything did not turn out so wonderful for those poor Mexicans!

“Oh
them
. Tell Ray about this trash Wayne. Before he goes off half cocked.”

Wayne flapped his hand over the Cowboy Shirt. “Augusto Ramirez. A pimp. His specialty was little boys & girls in Mexico City. He broke them in, Showed those kids how to satisfy every kind of weird thing. Augusto wanted to move his business Stateside so we told him sure—no problem.” He kicked the boot on the foot of the skinny Muchacho. “Enrico Raul Cruz. Rico wanted to come across pretty quick on account of his wife’s family. They wanted his balls for breakfast no doubt about it. He gave her the clap—which he picked up off one of Augusto’s niñas. Mrs. Rico spoke up on it and Rico broke her face on the back of a shovel. Broke the shovel too I heard. Nilo you know about.” Wayne skipped over him & stood where the skinny Mexican boy was laid out. “Freddy Duarte. Looks like a teenager huh? Freddy made it to 31 but I honestly do not know how he got that far. Went around with the idiotic idea he was Billy the Kid reincarnated. He’d do anything anybody would pay him to. Got up to some pretty wild activity around Ojinaga. Nilo hired him for a job or two. Get this. For a joke Rico showed up with a donkey at some rich guy’s Cinco de Mayo & the guy offered him $100 if Freddy took his pants down and did it with the burro.”

“I never heard that,” Newberry said & laughed down at Freddy.

“He got another 50 bucks outta the guy for hay. Freddy said the donkey she’d expect him to buy her a nice dinner after they got done just to prove he still respected her.”

“What you see here?” Newberry said to me. “It’s the most worthwhile thing any of them ever did in their whole lives.”

Why?

“Look how they sacrificed themselves for the sake of a better future.”

He believes this cockamamie line! For your information Mr. Newberry a Sacrifice is something a person does
voluntary
—look it up in Webster’s Dictionary if you doubt my definition!

“I’m not crying over what happened here. And Ray don’t tell me you are either because I know you’re a respectable man. Upright.
You
don’t like to see our streets crawling with this kind of human garbage. You’re uncomfortable being around this terrible violence. It’s so far outside your experience. I know. And I’m sorry you got dragged into this. You accidentally got yourself involved in what I do. Something I hate but this is in my life too.” He dropped a glance at the wet blood on Freddy’s shirt. “
Was
in my life. From today it’s all a thing of the past. I’m retiring from the Bureau. With
honor
. These bodybag enchiladas are beyond the call of duty.”

Oh really? You might want to add something to that! How about that shipment of rat poison that white gold dust you cut out of their hides? How far beyond does THAT BUSINESS go?

“Ever hear the expression What’s Good For General Motors Is Good For The U.S.A.? It trickles down. That’s what it means. I’m trading this dumb powder to a few rich New Yorkers for this piece of real estate. Acres and acres of land for a few dozen coffee cans of this stupid junk.” Newberry shook a couple of the Folger’s cans like a pair of maracas. “I’m on the right side of the law of supply and demand.”

Phonus bolonus!

“Listen to this. I raised a loan on this property big enough to build 300 houses. Which means jobs for laborers and brick layers carpenters and masons plumbers and electricians interior decorators and landscape
gardeners. Orders from lumber yards wallpaper manufacturers and hardware companies. It means 300 new telephone customers and maybe 900 new telephones. Plus regular work for gardeners and pool cleaners. Brand new suburban streets in the middle of this godforsaken desert. And good houses. Quality homes I’m talking about that will attract young families to New Plains. So please don’t go away thinking the only thing I’m interested in here is personal profit. It’s
community
.”

Let Freedom Ring! God Shed His Grace On Thee John Newberry!

“What’s your problem with this Ray? Have you got something against free enterprise?” He squinted at me. “You’re not a
communist
subversive are you? Where would we be today if some kind of
doubt
stopped Cornelius Vanderbilt or Henry Clay Frick in the middle of what they were doing? Or John Paul Getty? John D. Rockefeller—J. P. Morgan—Andrew Carnegie? You’re an educated man—you know these names? You’ve heard of these men?”