Those words would ring inside Jimmy’s ears for a long time.
Chapter 18
The next few weeks passed slowly, but Jimmy found that despite everything that had happened the change of scenery had been good for him. Snow continued to fall, and it soon was nearly impossible to walk where it hadn’t been shoveled. He missed the Dahlgrens. He thought of them often, but it was good to see new faces and to develop new routines. Jimmy got used to eating organic foods, and he was amazed at how much better he felt. Venus dealt him a severe blow when she told him that Julie wouldn’t see him. Jimmy had sat with her twice before she had delivered that message. “This is a hard thing for her,” Venus had said. “But it will pass.”
Jimmy asked about her every day, but almost three weeks later, Julie still refused to see him. Doc fell back into his practice and into the beatnik lifestyle. He began wearing love beads and sunglasses, and he would flash Jimmy a peace sign when he saw him, but they seldom talked. Jimmy knew that he still held him responsible for Julie’s injury. Meanwhile, he spent his days with the mechanics, and he soon had the shop looking as he felt it should—clean and orderly.
Music seemed to follow him everywhere. When he was in the shop, Big Al would usually play classic rock and occasionally some country. When Jimmy ventured out into the commons areas, he would usually run into small groups of musicians as they practiced. Some of these musicians seemed awfully talented to Jimmy, but since no one ever used last names in the camp, he never knew if he was listening to anyone of note.
There were some rules to get used tom and what surprised Jimmy was how everyone seemed to follow them, despite the lack of a police force or even a formal disciplinary policy. A few families wandered into their camp, the last stragglers in what had become the great northern migration. They seemed to adjust quickly to the way things were run, and most seemed eager to prove their worth. Jimmy thought that when people worked for pride and not money, almost nothing was impossible. He also thought that by setting a standard and providing a clean shop and a positive attitude, he had rubbed off on the men he worked with. They no longer took naps after breakfast, and gradually they began to work as a team and attack what needed their attention.
Jimmy stayed close to Bill while he was out of the shop, and it worked fairly well for protection from unwanted advances. Venus would remind him every so often that she was keeping a close eye on him. Jimmy would assure her that she had nothing to worry about. As the days turned to weeks, this became more of a challenge. More than one of the women in camp had made it clear to him that she was interested. Some still fawned after him, while others were more subtle. He would think of Julie and her plaster face, and that was usually enough to guide him through temptation. That didn’t mean that it was always easy.
He didn’t think it was fair of Julie to shut him out like she had. He began to resent that, and the feeling was undeniable. He wondered what she would look like when Doc removed the cast. Yet he knew in his heart that she was the woman for him as long as she would have him. He would love her no matter how she looked.
Jimmy learned more about Mars in the coming days. He had spent six years in the Army, and his skills were in organization. He set the schedule and made sure everyone knew what was expected of them. Jimmy was amazed at how he seemed to have an answer to each and every problem they faced. “Work smart,” Mars would say. He was good at matching people to problems, and the result was a well-oiled machine. Jimmy couldn’t help notice that he seemed to go through women like there was no tomorrow. All he could do was watch with a little envy as Mars spent time with a multitude of women.
Wart caught him watching Mars one day in the mess hall. “I’d give my left arm to be that dude,” Wart had said. “But, if there was ever a contest, I’d put my money on you. He’s burning through these chicks like cigarettes, man. They’re onto his shit.”
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of his rice. “Maybe,” he said, “but that’s his business, and it has nothing to do with me. Remember, he’s single and can see who he wants. I’m not.”
“That’s right. And when was the last time you saw your Julie?”
“That’s not fair.”
“All I’m saying is that he’s not even in your league, man,” Wart whistled in his distinctive voice. “You could have any of those babes. All you’d have to do is snap your fingers.”
Jimmy wasn’t taking the bait. Wart talked to Bill, which meant that anything he talked about would be yesterday’s news in only minutes. Still, he couldn’t help thinking about what Wart had asked him. When was the last time that he had spoken to Julie? He knew it had been over a month, maybe as long as six weeks. Venus continued to reassure him that Julie was healing and would soon want to see him. She explained that Julie’s wounds were more than skin deep and that those wounds took longer to heal. Jimmy had spent many hours reflecting on what had happened on that terrible day, and the passing of so much time had only muddied the waters. With each passing day, Jimmy felt less responsible for Julie’s injuries and angrier that she still refused to see him.
The days became shorter. Christmas came and went, and the New Year ushered in bitter subzero temperatures. Jimmy began spending more and more time locked up in the shop. He had a new admirer, and as much as he tried, he was having a hard time keeping her out of his thoughts. She was an Asian woman about Jimmy’s age with long black hair and piercing brown eyes. She had arrived alone on a pair of cross-country skis the week before the holidays, and her name was Jasmine.
Jimmy wasn’t the only one to notice her. Mars seemed immediately smitten with her, and Jimmy watched as he gave her the white glove treatment. Although he couldn’t be sure, Jimmy thought she had spurned his advances. She said it with her eyes.
Once Mars followed her eyes, and it was as if a light bulb flashed. Jimmy quickly averted his gaze, but there was no mistaking the accusing look that the Equal had flashed him. That was when Jimmy began to avoid the commons. Jasmine seemed like a very nice girl, even if he had never spoken to her. He just didn’t want the temptation. Besides, Mars was obviously interested in her, and the right thing to do was to be out of the picture.
Late at night, Jasmine and Julie would duke it out in his dreams.
Chapter 19
One afternoon at the end of January, Jimmy heard the familiar buzz of a high-performance snowmobile engine. Doc had been allowed to keep his trusty Skidoo, and he puttered around on it to make house calls. Jimmy could see it parked outside Julie’s shuttered cabin each day just after breakfast and an hour before dinner. The sound he now heard was definitely not the Skidoo. The snowmobile buzzed straight up to the shop, and the engine was killed. A moment later there was a knock at the door.
“Get that, will ya, Jimmy?” Big Al called from behind him. “If its Gloria, tell her I’m not here. Okay?”
Jimmy smiled. He thought of Gloria as the female Bill Huggins. That wasn’t quite right, but it was close enough. Gloria had obviously discovered steroids and was probably the strongest person in the camp. She had Popeye arms and a Neanderthal forehead, and Jimmy guessed that she weighed in at somewhere around two hundred pounds, not an ounce of which was fat. Gloria was a big woman, and nobody knew that better than Big Al, who now sported what he called love bruises on his arms.
Jimmy opened the door, but he only found Tony Clerk standing outside in the cold. Tony quickly stepped inside and unzipped his jacket. “Hey Jimmy,” he said with a smile. “You’re just the guy I’m looking for.”
“Good detective work, man,” said Jimmy.
“Thanks, brother,” Tony said. “There’s this big black dude down at the gate, and he’s looking for ya. He says his name is Burt.”
Jimmy smiled, thanked Tony, and ran to find his Sorel boots.
The day had been cold, but there had been no wind, and the sky hadn’t been this blue since mid-October. Jimmy wore his Columbia jacket and jogged all the way down to the gate, wishing he had asked Tony what Burt had wanted. Had something happened to Ken and Patty? Had they been overrun? Maybe they had been taken by the Guard. Jimmy was out of breath by the time he arrived at the gate. Burt Sharpen stood there, holding a semiautomatic hunting rifle. Jimmy could see that Burt was genuinely glad to see him, and he took that as a good sign. He suddenly wondered how Burt would feel about their no-gun policy.
“Jimmy,” Burt said. “Would you please explain to these fine men that I am a Minneapolis Police Detective, and that it is not only my right to carry a weapon, it is my duty as a sworn peace officer.”
Standing next to Burt was Tony’s partner, Myron. Jimmy had never liked this man, and he wondered why anyone had thought it was a good idea to grant him any power. Jimmy thought he had a classic case of short-man syndrome. Myron eyed Burt and grinned. “Then you are going to have to get a warrant,” he said with a smug grin.
“Jimmy?” Burt asked. “I’m trying to be patient here. Tell your man that I’m all right. Ask him to stand down.”
“Look,” Jimmy said. “He’s on the level, man. He’s a cop, and it’s the law. He does have to carry a gun.” Jimmy had no idea if that were true or not, it just seemed like the right thing to say.
“He’s not getting in!” shouted Myron.
“The hell I’m not,” said Burt. “Move it or lose it, buddy.”
Myron smiled, and Jimmy saw nothing but emptiness. This man had probably been a bar bouncer somewhere, and he looked eager to prove himself. He went for Burt’s rifle, meaning to snatch it away from him. Burt was waiting for him. The butt of the rifle suddenly shot up and caught Myron right in the middle of his square jaw. His feet flew up in the air, and Myron landed flat on his back. The second he opened his mouth in protest, Burt shoved the barrel of his police revolver down the man’s throat.
“Don’t think it, don’t say it. I am a police officer, and I don’t give two shits what you think. You will never take my weapon. No one takes my weapon!” Burt was now kneeling on Myron’s chest, his eyes blazing fire. “Nod your head if you understand that.”
Myron nodded.
Half an hour later, Jimmy and Burt stood in a conference room before the Equals. Tony Clerk and Myron stood on their end of the big table. Jimmy guessed this was their version of court. The biggest difference here was that the defendant was heavily armed.
“That’s when he stuck his gun in my mouth!” Myron was ranting. “I refuse to be treated that way. I want him out of here!”
“Myron,” Mars said. “Mellow out, man.”
“Yes,” agreed the grizzled Pluto. “This isn’t about what you want. This is a much deeper issue. I’ve seen the man’s credentials, and they look legit to me. The question here is what we should do about him.”
“He stuck a gun down my goddamn throat!”
“You will leave now!” Venus ordered, taking her feet and jabbing a thick finger at Myron.
Myron looked thunderstruck. “Oh, I see it all now,” he hissed in a lilting voice, thick with emotion. He turned on his heels and bolted to the door. “Just remember, I was only doing what you asked me to do. This is on you. This is on you!” He walked out and slammed the door behind him.
The long room wasn’t very large, and the slamming door echoed off the knotty pine walls. Jimmy shook his head, wondering exactly what the loud mouth was warning them about. Tony Clerk looked at Jimmy uneasily.
“Your friend has a very big mouth,” said Venus. “The next time he opens it like that, I will walk him to the gate. You make sure he knows that.”
“I will, I will,” said Tony. “I just want you to know that Myron is a righteous dude. Please don’t come down too hard on him. He’s very emotional. He found his entire family gunned down inside their church. He’s a little messed up.”
Jimmy and Burt exchanged a sorry look.
“We all know about what happened to his family, just as we all have our own story,” said Pluto. He turned to Burt. “Look man, this is my place. My rule is no guns, and I have a thousand reasons why if you ever care to debate me, but that one is set in stone.”
“I am a cop and you know that,” plead Burt. “Here you are,” he said, setting the big rifle down on the table. He then unzipped his jacket and removed his two .38’s from his matching shoulder holsters. “There you go. Are you happy now?”
Mars shook his head. “How do we know that he’s telling the truth? Dude could still be packing. Tony, pat him down.”
Venus again stuck her finger out, and this time she pointed to Mars. “Nobody is going to pat this proud man down, no sir! She was holding Burt’s wallet up to her eyes, and she slapped it on the table. “Why, as I live and breathe, Burt Sharpen.”
Burt smiled, but it was obvious that he had no idea who Venus was.
“No,” Venus said. “You would not remember me, Burt Sharpen. But I never forget a name or a face. Do you remember a young man named Scoot Hoover?”
Burt scratched his bald head and scrunched his nose. “That was a long time ago. Bullet wound to the chest? Cashier at Mutt’s Liquors—that Scoot Hoover?”
“That was my nephew.”
“I nailed the two punks that did that.”
“I know you did. Thank you. He was an angel.”
There was a moment of silence as Burt and Venus exchanged a sad look. Jimmy thought about how the world was really a small place, full of strange intersections.
“Fair enough,” said Pluto. “Burt, as long as we have your word on it. You are not carrying any other firearms?”
“I am not,” said Burt.
“That’s good enough for me,” said Pluto. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go have a cup of tea. Mars, would you care to join me?”
Mars shook his head. Jimmy could tell that he was still stinging from Venus’ rebuke and by Pluto’s siding with her.
“I wasn’t asking,” Pluto said with half a smile.
“Can I go now?” Tony asked. “We don’t have anyone at the gate. I don’t think Myron will be back today, and I’m going to need a new partner.”
Mars jumped on it. “Burt, say hello to your new partner. Tony, this is Burt. There, done. Let’s split.”
A minute later Burt, Jimmy, and Venus stood talking in the empty conference room. Jimmy was shocked at how soon things heated up.
“You can tell me,” Venus cooed. “You’re still armed, aren’t you?”
“I’ll never tell,” replied Burt with a grin.
“I could search you, myself.”
“Only, if you let me search you first.”
“Aren’t you the frisky one?” Venus gushed.
The door opened, and Tony Clerk stuck his head in. “Are you ready, Burt?” he asked.
“No, he’s certainly not ready!” Venus shot back.
“But… I don’t want to do it alone,” stammered Tony.
All three of them turned to face the door. “Are you afraid to be alone?” Venus asked with a warm chuckle.
Tony looked down and nodded.
“What do you need me to do?” Burt asked. “Stand at the gate with you?”
Again, Tony nodded.
“That sounds like cop work to me. Let me get my stuff on. Got any donuts?”
“Leaving me just like that?” Venus asked. “We were just getting to know each other. I know all about men like you.”
Burt turned and suddenly took Venus’ chocolate hand and he lifted it to his lips. He then softly kissed it. “That’s where you’re wrong, sister,” he said softly. “You’ve never met anyone like me, and you never will.” He then bowed and followed Tony out the door.
“Oh, my,” exclaimed Venus after a long moment. “Why didn’t you tell me that your friend was Burt Sharpen?”
Jimmy smiled at Venus. She was holding both hands to her chest and staring at the door with such passion that Jimmy thought she would run the men down. “He’s a good man,” Jimmy said. “No, I take that back,” he said, scratching his chin. “He’s a great man.”
“I can tell, Jimmy. Oh, yes, I can surely see it in those bright eyes of his.”
To avoid congestion in the mess hall, dinner was served between five and seven, and Jimmy knew Tony Clerk was usually first in line. That day was no exception, and Jimmy met them at the door at five o’clock sharp.
“Hey, guys,” Jimmy said with a smile. “How did it go down at the gate?”
“That was a complete waste of time, and I felt like someone should have painted a target on my back,” grumbled Burt. “But that’s just my opinion.”
“Guns kill people,” Tony said, sticking his hands on his hips.
Burt struck the same pose. “People kill people, you moron! You libs, you really crack me up. What planet are you from? I’ve been working homicide for twenty years, and I have yet to meet a gun that pulled its own trigger.”
Tony visibly bristled and struck a sidelong stance. Jimmy thought it looked very feminine. Jimmy looked at Burt, but he wasn’t giving Tony an inch. He looked like an offensive tackle, twenty years out of the game. He returned Tony’s glare with a hard stare of his own. Jimmy wondered what had happened down at the gate. He had obviously walked straight into an argument, and he knew he had to try to stop it.
“I don’t want you down at the gate tomorrow, man,” stammered Tony. “I’d rather stand guard by myself.”
“Good!”
That was easy, Jimmy thought as Tony spun around and rushed inside the mess hall. “What was that all about?” he asked, frowning at Burt and showing his disappointment. “Haven’t you ever heard of blending in?”
“Look at me, Jimmy,” Burt said, tapping his own chest with his fingers. “I haven’t been able to blend in since I was six years old. Besides, from what I’ve seen, I’m the only brother in this whole compound.”
“Let’s get inside and eat. We can sit at the other end of the room from Tony.”
“Well, am I?”
“Are you what?”
“Am I the only brother in camp?”
Jimmy nodded as he thought about it. “Yeah, I guess you are.”
“Venus is single, isn’t she?”
Jimmy saw where this was headed. “As far as I know,” he said, opening the door for his friend.
Burt smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that. So your buddy Bill came down to the fence and filled me in on everything. Poor Julie, I’m really sorry. She’s still not talking to you? That’s bad…”
Jimmy’s muscles began to twitch, and he felt his face begin to turn red. He followed Burt inside and directed him to the short line at the kitchen window where the meals were served cafeteria style. They each grabbed a tray and some silverware and got in line.
“Smells good,” said Burt. “I sure am hungry.”
“What else did Bill say?” Jimmy asked, trying to be casual about it.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Burt, stepping up to the window. “He was down there for almost two hours. He said an awful lot.”
“I’ll bet he did.”
They were handed steaming plates of spaghetti, and they found a table as far away from the sulking guard as possible. Jimmy saw Tony steal a look at them with something very close to loathing. The lines of tables could easily seat three hundred at a time, but there were only about twenty souls inside the big redwood room. A fire glowed in the fireplace, and the mess hall smelled of garlic and wood smoke.
Burt dug into his food with vigor. He had helped himself to six pieces of garlic bread and had finished two before Jimmy had even begun to eat. Jimmy was furious with Bill, and he knew he had to warn Burt about him. Bill was a blabbermouth of the highest order.
Burt drank deeply from his water glass and smiled. “What time does she eat?” he asked, setting his glass down. “I can sit here all night.”
Jimmy shook his head and smiled. He was happy for both Burt and Venus, for it seemed almost serendipitous that the two should be together. A few minutes later, Burt suddenly smiled.
“There she is,” he said. “Do you think she’ll sit down with us?”
Jimmy shrugged. “Slow down, buddy. She’s not going anywhere. You’ve got to be cool, man.”
Burt gave Jimmy a strange look. “You sound just like one of these hippies. Don’t forget who you are, Jimmy. Look, maybe when you get to be my age you’ll understand this. I’m all done wasting time. I’m done pussyfooting around, and I’m done hiding how I feel. I want to spend the rest of my life with that woman.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“I know enough. Look, she’s sitting down all alone,” Burt said, rising to his feet and picking up his tray. “I’m goin’ in.”
Jimmy laughed as he watched over his shoulder. Burt moved in like a man on a mission, and the people between him and Venus were forced to scatter to avoid being run over.
“Excuse me?” asked a soft voice. “Would you mind if I sit here?”
“Not at all,” Jimmy replied absentmindedly, watching as Burt set his tray down and sat down across from a smiling Venus.
“Thank you,” replied the voice.
Jimmy shook his head and turned around, and he found himself staring straight into the eyes of his admirer, Jasmine. He felt his heart skip a beat. “Hi,” he said, thinking he had to get out of there.
“Please, will you sit with me while I eat? I don’t know anyone here, and I hate eating alone.”
“Huh?” said Jimmy, feeling tongue-tied. “I mean, sure.”
Jasmine smiled coyly, and she spun her fork in her spaghetti, then set it down and took a sip of water. “My name is Jasmine Ling, and I’m thirty-two years old. I have lost everyone I ever had in this world. I like old movies, long walks, good tequila, and anything by the Black Eyed Peas.”
Jimmy didn’t know how to respond to that, and he could feel his mouth hanging open. Jasmine Ling was smiling now, her brown eyes never leaving his.
“This is the part where you tell me your name. You do have a name, don’t you?”
“Jimmy… Jimmy Logan.”
“Jimmy Logan,” Jasmine said, rolling his name off the tip of her tongue. “I like that name. Tell me Jimmy. Why is it that you always look so sad?”
Jimmy was desperately searching for a way out. He knew it was only a matter of time before Bill showed up to eat, and he didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. “I’m not sad,” he said. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind, that’s all.”
“Nice try,” she whispered across the table. “Will you let me take your blues away, Jimmy?”
“What?”
“You’re not making this easy. Look, I don’t want to be your girlfriend, and I don’t want to have your children. There. Is that better?”
Jimmy smiled and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I was a little worried there for a minute.”
Jasmine frowned and shook her head. “Maybe you can try reading between the lines here, okay? I can’t believe I’m doing this. Let me spell this out for you. I am drug and disease free, and I work out two hours each and every day. I’m also one of the most spontaneous women you’ve ever met.”
Jimmy’s eyebrows raised and he reached for his tray. “Whoa,” he said.
“I want to have a physical relationship with you.”
“No, that’s probably a bad idea,” Jimmy muttered. “Let’s forget you said that.”
“You can trust me, Jimmy. I’ll never tell anyone. I know all about Julie and her accident and how she won’t see you. Go ahead and tell me that you’re not lonely. Tell me that you find me unattractive. Tell me that you don’t find me desirable. I’ve caught you looking at me. I just want to show you that the feeling is mutual.”
Jimmy was sweating now, and his eyes were darting around the room as it slowly began to fill up. Jasmine continued to stare at him seductively, and he suddenly felt the toe of her shoe run up the inside if his calf.
“Mars would have me, but I really don’t want to go there with him. He’s been with nearly every girl in the camp. That’s why I want you, Jimmy. No strings attached, I promise.”
As Jimmy struggled to find the words to say to Jasmine, Mars approached the table at great speed. His feathered hair flew behind his ears, and his blue eyes were as cold as stones. “My, isn’t this cozy?” Mars asked, barely concealing his distaste. “Jimmy, what’s going on here?”
Jimmy was about to stand and excuse himself from the weirdness, but for some reason he wasn’t moving. He sat back in his chair and eyed his rival. “Mars,” he said. “I believe you’ve met Jasmine. I promised her that I’d sit with her while she eats.”
“How noble of you,” replied Mars, with plenty of smug in his silky voice. “I think it’s time for a shift change. Jasmine and I are good friends, and I have something I want to talk to her about.”
“Talk to me later, Mars,” Jasmine said, picking up her fork. “I’m trying to make friends here.”
Mars seemed taken aback by her comment. He studied Jimmy for a minute, and his gaze gradually grew into a glare. “Take a hike, Jimmy.”
Jimmy knew he should follow that advice—knew it with every fiber in his body. Still, he didn’t move a muscle. Mars was challenging his manhood, and Jimmy wasn’t having any of it. “I think I’ll wait until she’s finished her dinner, thanks,” Jimmy said.
Mars grew red in the face, and he looked back and forth between the two with pure contempt. “Fine,” he said. “If that’s the way you want to play it. Jasmine, I’ll be talking to you after dinner.” He then turned his back on them and walked away.
“You are my knight in shining armor,” gushed Jasmine. “Thank you.”
Jimmy had turned in his seat and was watching Mars leave the mess hall. He knew he should have listened to him and that he had somehow created more trouble for himself.
“Who’s a knight in shining armor?” asked a familiar voice. “Jimmy?”
Jimmy spun around and found Bill sitting down next to him. His tray held a triple portion of spaghetti and nearly a dozen hunks of garlic bread. Wart was hot on his heels, and he sat next to Jasmine. “Hello, beautiful,” he said, and he winked at Jimmy. “Do you mind if I sit here?”
Jasmine smiled and rose from the table. “I’m sorry. I was just getting up to go. Jimmy, it was very nice meeting you, and I hope you’ll think about what I said.”
Jimmy nodded and quickly wished he hadn’t.
“Enjoy your dinner, dudes,” Jasmine said with a bright smile. “I’ll be seeing you around.”
This last comment had been directed to Jimmy, and Bill looked back and forth between the two of them with his cheeks stuffed full of half-chewed spaghetti. He watched Jasmine walk away with all the subtlety of a fox watching a stray chicken. “She’s so damn hot,” Bill managed to say as he stuffed some garlic bread into his open mouth.
“I’ll say,” said Wart. “She’s four-alarm fire hot. Jimmy, you dog!”
“There is nothing going on!”
Bill and Wart studied him for a moment, and they both began to chuckle. Jimmy wanted to scream as he wondered how everything could have gone so wrong in such a short amount of time. He shook his head. “Believe what you want,” he said, picking up his tray and rising to his feet. “I’m going back to the shop.”
Wart and Bill both began to speak at once, but Jimmy didn’t hear a word of it. He knew where he had to go, and nobody was going to stop him. This foolishness had to end. Julie was going to see him whether she liked it or not. He slipped on his jacket and breezed out the door into the frigid night air.
Jimmy lit up a smoke and thought about what he should tell Julie. He quickly settled on the truth; this was no time for lies, and Julie deserved no less than to hear it from him. He hadn’t really done anything, and he needed to explain things to Julie. He only wished they would remove the cast from her face. He missed that face. He missed that woman.
The walk took him nearly his entire cigarette, and he paused about a hundred feet from the front of Julie’s cabin. He was shocked to see that the blinds had been opened. Candles lit up the inside of the cabin, and they cast a warm glow from within. Jimmy snubbed out his smoke and slowly made his way to the cabin. His heart was racing inside his chest as he thought about how he would explain this mess.
Ten feet from the front door, Jimmy suddenly froze in his tracks. Julie wasn’t alone.
Mars was inside with her.
Jimmy gritted his teeth and growled in anger. He slowly moved away from the door and hid in the shadows behind a birch, studying the big window and trying to decipher what was going on inside. Mars was talking, and it seemed to Jimmy as if he was pleading with her. Julie, her casted face looking orange in the candlelight, was pacing the room and covering her plastered ears. Jimmy didn’t think it looked good.
He stood there for nearly five minutes before Julie rushed into his rival’s arms and held him tight. Jimmy felt like a wounded animal and wanted to scream. Mars seemed to see him out in the cold shadows, even though Jimmy thought it was impossible for him to do so. He had his hands on Julie’s back, and he was slowly running them up and down. He was smiling with such satisfaction that if Jimmy would have had a gun, he just may have used it. When the two finally broke for air, Julie went to the window and slowly closed the blind.
Jimmy then ran back to the shop with tears of helpless anger streaming from the corners of his eyes.
The explosion nearly knocked Jimmy off his feet. The shop, their beautiful man cave, blew up like it had been filled with hydrogen gas. The walls bulged out, and most of the roof seemed to be raining down from the sky. Flames shot almost a hundred feet into the night air, and Jimmy could feel the heat as it tried to blister his skin. He rolled away on the snow and checked himself for any injuries. Had he arrived a minute sooner, he knew he’d be a dead man. He stood helplessly as people ran towards him from all directions.
They fought the fire and contained it to the shop. A headcount was taken, and they waited a while before doing another. They had lost two of their group in the blast. There was no sign of Big Al or Gloria, nor would there ever be again.
Chapter 20
Losing Big Al was a heavy blow to the mechanics. Burt had taken the last of the cabins, a small one-room dwelling that had been fashioned into a cabin out of a shed. Wart, Jimmy, and Bill were each assigned their own ice fishing shacks to live in until they could find more permanent housing. The shacks were small and rustic, but they were heated with LP gas furnaces and had been designed to protect their occupants from the cold. They came equipped with a gas burner for cooking, a sturdy but battered kitchen table, and steel folding chairs. Homemade bunk beds sat on each end of the small fishing quarters. They were in need of a good cleaning and airing out, but they provided the men a place to get away from the world. As luck would have it, there were three of them, and they sat down by the frozen lake. The men took turns shoveling the two hundred foot path out to them. The shacks were painted olive green, and each boasted a picture window with a lake view.
Wart would spend nearly a week locked away in his little shack. He and Big Al had known each other in their previous lives. Jimmy could see the pain in his eyes, and he looked even more pale than usual. Not to be outdone, Bill began wearing a black armband that he fashioned out of an old dress sock. He walked around the camp looking sad—some said a little too sad—and it took him many days before he could deal with his loss and return to work. Jimmy also missed Big Al, but he missed a lot of people these days. The sad truth was that life went on, with or without them. Jimmy spent his days combing through the rubble and salvaging what he could. Some of the tools had survived, hand tools mostly, but they were a welcome sight.
Pluto and Venus shared the caretaker’s house across the camp from where the shop had stood, while Mars lived alone in a doublewide trailer that sat a hundred feet behind the house. There was a garage there, and Jimmy decided to ask Pluto if it would be all right to set up shop there. Pluto couldn’t see why not, but he explained that Mars had some things stored in the garage and that he would have to run it by him. Jimmy nodded, fully expecting what was about to come. Jimmy tracked down Pluto the following day outside the mess hall and cornered him on it.
“What do you mean?” Jimmy asked, unable to hide his disappointment. “Where the heck are we supposed to work?”
“I know, Jimmy,” Pluto had said, looking red-faced and embarrassed. “Mars says that he has some very valuable things stored in the garage. I’m sorry.”
“But you own the garage, not Mars. Tell him to get his shit out of there.”
Pluto’s eyes narrowed. “Mars was here from the beginning. None of this would be possible without all of his hard work and dedication. You watch what you say about him, young man. I agree; you men need some space, and I’m working on getting it for you. Look, Jimmy, I’m sorry for your loss, and I want to help. Maybe we should talk about your feelings. You miss Big Al, don’t you?”
Jimmy shook his head. “Yeah, everyone misses Big Al, and no, I don’t want to talk about it. Listen, we need a shop as soon as possible.”
“I feel your pain, Jimmy. I can see it in your aura. Big Al was a good man. Go ahead and let it out. You’ll feel better, I promise.”
Jimmy opened his mouth, but there were no words that seemed appropriate for the situation. Instead, Jimmy spun on his heels and returned to his work.
Burt had all but disappeared from the moment that Jimmy had left him inside the mess hall. He and Venus had instantly hit it off, and they seemed suddenly joined at the hip. Jimmy asked Burt what he thought had caused the explosion, but Burt only shook his head. He said that these things happen, and that he was sure it was accidental. Jimmy wasn’t so sure about that. He thought he had made an enemy on the day Burt arrived, perhaps more than one.
Bill and Cindy spent little, if any, time together. Cindy spent her days attending classes and her nights in the company of Seth Pason. Seth seemed like a decent kid, and he seemed completely smitten with Cindy. Jimmy was happy for them, but he missed his conversations with Cindy. She seemed to have grown up overnight.
Julie still wouldn’t see him, and Jimmy had grown bitterly angry that she seemed to have plenty of time for Mars. She still hadn’t left her cabin, and it was very rare for him to catch a glimpse of her. Seeing her in the plaster mask always made him feel a little queasy. Those few moments were enough to remind him of what she was going through. The cast was to be removed soon, and everyone seemed quite nervous about that.
On the fourth night after the explosion, there was a light tapping on the door to Jimmy’s fish shack. Dinner had been served three hours ago, and he wondered who would bother him at this hour. He knew from experience that Bill didn’t knock. Could it be Julie? Jimmy checked his hair in the mirror and quickly chewed a breath mint. The tapping started again, and Jimmy opened the door. Jasmine stood there. In one gloved hand she held a gallon jug of wine; the other held two wine glasses.
“I never drink alone,” she said, stepping by him. “Brrr… it’s cold out there.”
“Look,” Jimmy said, quickly lowering the blinds on the big window. “You can’t be here. We can’t do this.”
“What, two friends can’t share a bottle of wine?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Let’s start over,” she said, setting the glasses down on the table and unscrewing the cap to the bottle of Italian Lambrusco. “I’m Jasmine. What a beautiful place you have here.”
Jimmy shook his head and chuckled. The truth was that he was starving for some conversation as well as thirsty for some alcohol. The problem was going to be keeping her at arm’s length. He promised himself to resist temptation; he reasoned with himself that Julie could see Mars and prayed to God that no one would find out that he and Jasmine were spending time together. He took the glass she offered him.
“To new friends,” Jasmine said, clinking her glass against his.
“To new friends,” said Jimmy, nearly blushing as he saw the way she was looking at him. He took a sip of wine and sat down at the table. “Have a seat. You can’t stay too long. I have to get up early.”
Jasmine nodded as she took off her winter jacket. Jimmy took another sip of wine when he saw what she was wearing underneath. “Tomorrow is Sunday,” she said, shaking a finger at him. “You don’t have to get up for anything.”
Jimmy took a deep breath as she tipped her glass to her lips and drank. Jasmine’s winter clothes had hidden a body that practically demanded attention. She wore a low-cut blouse that revealed bone china skin and a fair amount of cleavage. Her jeans looked painted onto her long legs, and she obviously hadn’t been lying about her workout schedule. She smiled at him in a knowing way, picked up the bottle and refilled their glasses. She then sat down on one of the bottom bunks and patted the spot next to her. “Come on, I promise not to bite,” she said, seductively.
Chapter 21
Jimmy wasn’t sure what time it was when Burt suddenly burst inside the cabin. Bright sunshine followed him in, and it hurt Jimmy’s red eyes. Burt was holding his service revolver.
“Thank God!” Burt said. “I thought they’d got you.”
“You thought who had got me?” Jimmy asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and quickly sitting up. “What the hell is going on?”
“Your friends Myron and Tony,” Burt said, peering out the door. “They’ve lost it, man. They’ve got guns, and they’re holding everyone hostage in the mess hall.”
Jasmine was gone, and Jimmy sighed with relief. He spotted the empty glasses on the table; there was no hiding the lipstick on one of them. “Slow down. Tell me what happened. What do they want?”
“They want a million dollars and a helicopter,” growled Burt, closing the door. “How the hell should I know? I’ve got Venus staying with Julie and Doc, but we need someone to ride back to Ken’s and bring back some firepower. I can’t take ‘em with this,” he said, holding the black revolver in front of Jimmy’s face. You’ve got to ride, Jimmy. The whole camp is counting on you.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“There’s no time for that. Get up and get some damn clothes on! My machine is still parked down at the gate. Here, take the key.”
The morning sun was bright, and Jimmy’s head ached from the wine. He ran as fast as he could to the gate and was relieved to see Burt’s machine parked there. He rode the Polaris hard, like a man possessed, and he tried not to think of anything except the matter at hand. This proved to be difficult as so much had happened so quickly. When Jimmy hit the opposite shore of Ken’s lake, he pulled all the way back on the throttle and held it there for nearly a minute. The speedometer needle buried, and Jimmy’s eyes watered as the screaming snowmobile flew across the hard-packed snow.
The wall still stood, and Jimmy could see wood smoke coming from the stone chimney of the house. Snowmobile tracks led from the lake to the gate, and Jimmy followed them with reckless abandon. He slammed on the brakes and slid nearly fifty feet before coming to a stop, just an arm’s length away from the timber wall. “Open up!” Jimmy croaked, trying to find his voice. “We need help!”
What amazed Jimmy more than anything was the speed of their turnaround. Not even a half hour had passed before he and Ken had armed themselves to the teeth and were heading across the lake back to Bailey’s. Ken had asked Jimmy to explain himself, and he had asked very few questions. There was only one thing to do. Patty hugged Jimmy and told them both to be safe. Rita promised to keep an eye on things while Ken was away. Jimmy didn’t need to ask what she meant by that. The remaining two snowmobiles from the pole shed stood next to the house. Ken chose the larger onem and the two set out at high speed.
Jimmy had to stop halfway back. Ken roared in behind him as Jimmy ran three steps into the woods, pulled off his helmet, and fell to all fours. He then became violently sick into the virgin white snow. Ken looked away as his idling machine covered up Jimmy’s tortured groans.
“Are you gonna be okay?” Ken asked as Jimmy wiped the corners of his mouth and followed his footsteps back to his machine. “You look like shit.”
“I’ll be all right. I just needed to do that.”
“Did we have a little too much to drink last night?”
“Something like that.”
“I suppose Julie is hung over, too,” Ken said. “This is exactly why you can’t drink like that. You need to keep your wits about you, kid. I was hoping to get her a gun before we storm the place. Maybe we should just move in and do it ourselves.”
Jimmy nodded, realizing for the first time that Ken had absolutely no idea of what had happened to Julie. The thought made him gag, but he fought down the urge to be sick and climbed on his snowmobile. “I think that’s our best bet. Let’s just kick the damn door open and rip some shit. These two are a couple of punks. They’ll throw down their guns as soon as we show up.”
“I hope you’re right, kid. I hope you’re right.”
The morning sun nearly blinded Jimmy as they headed east down the winding trail. Tall white pines dotted the rolling landscape, their snow-covered limbs offering brief interludes of shade as they raced underneath them. Jimmy guessed the temperature to be in the single digits, which seemed warm compared to what they’d recently experienced. The only wind was generated by their speeding snowmobiles, and it sent tiny shivers of cold down to the bottom of Jimmy’s Sorel boots. They were close.
Faces seemed to flash in front of Jimmy, the predominant one being the china doll profile of Jasmine. Julie’s former face was a close runner up. Patty, looking saddened and disappointed, followed Julie. The last face he saw was that of an angry Venus. Jimmy swallowed hard and tried hard to push them out of his thoughts.
He carried an M-16 slung over his shoulder, as did Ken. He had two holstered handguns at his side, exposed for the world to see. Ken had a .44 Magnum stuffed into his belt and a .38 Special tucked into his boot. They passed the gate at over eighty miles per hour.
Burt was waiting for them behind the old woodshed outside the mess hall. Jimmy and Ken drove straight for the steps, and they wasted no time waiting for Burt. “Lay down your guns,” screamed Ken. “That is, if you want to live!”
Jimmy and Ken exchanged a glance, and Jimmy slammed his shoulder against the glass double doors without ever checking to see if they were locked, and they burst open in a cascade of broken glass. Jimmy rolled to his feet and came up with the assault rifle. He felt strangely calm as people began to scream in terror.
A gunshot sounded, and Jimmy watched as a young man was violently thrown back in a shower of blood. Jimmy quickly spun on his heels as another shot whizzed past his ear. Tony Clerk stood there with a handgun; his crazy eyes told their own story. He fired again. Ken then stepped through the door like a hunter with all the time in the world. He leveled his M-16 at Tony, took careful aim and slowly squeezed the trigger. The shot caught him low in the throat, and dark blood exploded from the wound as Tony was violently thrown backwards onto the hardwood floor. There were more screams, and Jimmy began to frantically search for Myron in the frenzy of movement. The mess hall was full beyond capacity, and everyone seemed to be running toward the exits.
“Did you get them?” Burt asked, fighting for breath.
“I got one,” Ken said, kicking the Colt from Tony’s quivering hand. “Go to hell, you bastard,” he said. Ken then pressed the barrel of his gun onto Tony’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
Burt exchanged a worried look with Jimmy as Ken walked over and retrieved Tony’s sidearm. “Burt,” he said above the din in the big room. “This looks like the Colt I gave you. How did that creep get his hands on it, and where’s the other one?”
“We can talk about that later,” said Jimmy, ripping the gun away from Ken and tossing it to Burt. “There’s still one more of them here, somewhere. We’ve got to find him.”
Ken looked at them skeptically, and Jimmy knew that he suspected something close to the truth. He shook his head in disgust. “Tell me who I’m looking for,” he growled.
Jimmy quickly explained what Myron looked like until Ken looked satisfied. Burt kept his distance as he covered the room with the big handgun. They split up, and each moved to an exit where the screaming had died away and the residents were funneling out the open doors into the bright sunshine. Gunpowder hung in the air, and the room stank of that and fresh blood. A woman groaned impatiently as she waited her turn.
When the big room was empty, the three of them searched it from top to bottom. There was no sign of the other shooter.
“What is he armed with?” Ken asked.
There was the loud crack of a rifle from somewhere close, but well away from where they stood. Jimmy’s heart stopped as he thought the gunshot seemed to come from down by the cabins. Ken said something, but Jimmy was already scrambling for the door.
He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, managing somehow to keep his balance on the icy footpaths. Jimmy was breathing hard and trying to keep a level head. Automatic gunfire exploded from the rifle, and it confirmed Jimmy’s worst fears. Myron had found his forgotten M-16 and the backpack of ammo. A tear streamed across his cheek and over his ear.
A long row of tall pines separated him from the cabins that were strung alongside the shore. A lone shot rang out, followed shortly by a quick burst. Jimmy dared a look over his shoulder, and he saw Ken and Burt following him perhaps fifty yards away. Jimmy reached the end of the pines and ran into the open. A shot exploded from Julie’s ruined window and passed close enough that Jimmy could hear it whizzing by. He quickly stopped and doubled back to the last pine for cover.
He stole a quick look around the gnarled bark of the pine and gasped. There were five bodies scattered on the snow around Julie’s cabin. None appeared to be moving. A squirrel chattered from an unseen limb above him. Jimmy estimated that eighty feet separated him from Julie’s front door. He needed a plan.
Ken and Burt ran up behind him, and Jimmy signaled for them to stop. They were both winded, and Burt doubled over to catch his breath. When he stood up Jimmy could see the look of absolute terror in his dark-skinned face. Jimmy had never seen it there before, and it scared the hell out of him.
“He’s in the cabin?” Burt asked.
Jimmy nodded.
Ken stuck his head around the tree, and another shot rang out, hitting inches above Ken’s head in an explosion of bark. “Christ almighty,” Ken said. “Look at all the bodies. We’ve got to move on this guy.”
Burt bulled his way past the both of them and disappeared past the protection of the fat trunk of the pine. “No!” screamed Jimmy, but it didn’t do any good. He and Ken exchanged a look, and they both followed him out into the killing field.
Myron stood smiling at the window. He held a stoic-looking Venus in front of him with one thick arm held under her bosom. He held Burt’s other Colt under her chin. “Come on, big boy!” he called to Burt. “You can watch your girlfriend eat a bullet!”
“You bastard!” cried Burt, racing toward the two of them with reckless abandon.
Myron squealed with delight as Burt approached. “Take a good look, you piece of shit! This is on you!”
“No!” roared Burt and suddenly lifted his revolver and quickly pulled the trigger. The shot came from the hip with terrible consequences.
Jimmy gasped as he watched Venus ripped from Myron’s hands in a shower of blood. Burt had hit Venus, and Myron stood looking at him for a second in complete shock. That was all the time he needed, and Burt put three shots into the little man before he hit the ground.
Jimmy and Ken ran behind Burt and stood next to him. He shook like a leaf as he stood at the shattered window. He was sobbing like a baby as Jimmy and Ken quickly tried to console him before going inside to assess the damage. Burt wailed as Jimmy and Ken ventured inside the little cabin. There was no doubt that Myron was through with his killing spree. His corpse was lying in a dark pool of blood; his eyes were open, and to Jimmy, they still looked confused in death.
“I’m sorry, Venus!” called Burt from the window. “I had to take the shot. I’m so damn sorry!”
And to Jimmy’s horror, the next sound he heard was the sudden explosion of Burt’s Colt. When he turned to the window, Burt was gone.
“Oh, my baby!” groaned Venus, weakly. “Help my poor baby.”
Chapter 22
The next few hours were unlike any Jimmy had ever experienced. Despite the horror of the moment, he nearly cried out in joy at the sight of Julie as she emerged from the cabin. She appeared to be in shock as she lethargically rushed into Ken’s arms.
Ken gave Jimmy a confused look. Julie’s plaster mask completely hid her identity, and Ken was still reeling in the moment. Jimmy knew he should say something, but he knew that this was no time for explanations. He quickly ran to Burt’s side and found himself screaming as he dropped to his knees next to his fallen friend. “Damn you!” he cried to the heavens. “Why?”
The snow around Burt’s head had turned into a bloody slush, and Jimmy’s tears fell like rain as he checked Burt for a pulse. Jimmy’s own heart nearly stopped when he discovered that Burt’s heart hadn’t. “Help!” he screamed. “He’s alive! He’s alive!”
Julie was next to him a moment later. “Shit!” she screamed in a voice that was muffled by her mask. “Go inside and grab me some towels, Jimmy. Do it now!”
Jimmy never understood why he did what he did, but he reached his hand around Julie’s neck and drew her to him; he then planted a fat kiss on the mouth-hole of her cast.
“Oh, Jimmy,” Julie moaned. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m the one who’s sorry,” groaned Jimmy as he rose to his feet. “I love you, Julie.”
“I love you, too,” Julie answered, her hands balled into fists of conviction.
That was all Jimmy needed to hear. He sprinted into the cabin where he found Ken holding an armload of white bath towels. “How is he?” Ken asked, dumping half the load into Jimmy’s open arms.
“I don’t know,” Jimmy answered, honestly. “But he’s not dead.”
“I’ll look after the woman. She’s hit in the shoulder.”
“Venus,” Jimmy said. “Her name is Venus.”
“Right,” said Ken. “Venus. What about the one in the mask? What’s her name?”
“That’s Julie.”
“Damn it Jimmy! I leave you on your own for a few months and look at the mess you’ve made! Get out there! Don’t you dare let that man die!”
Jimmy felt like he’d been sucker-punched, and he bared his teeth at Ken. “None of this is my fault,” he growled back before leaving Ken to help Julie with Burt.
Julie carefully bandaged Burt’s head, and just as she finished, Doc ran to up to join them. “Head wound, maybe a cracked skull,” Julie said, as if she had any medical training. “I couldn’t see any of his brain.”
“That’s because he doesn’t have any,” Doc said, sadly. “We’ve got to get him inside. Help me, both of you.”
Bill appeared next to them right after they’d finished the heavy lifting. “What happened?” he moaned, still wearing his black armband. “What the hell happened?”
Jimmy helped Ken with Venus; they gently put her in the single bed next to Burt. They then plugged Julie’s shattered window with blankets as she helped Doc tend to the wounded.
“Come on, Jimmy,” Ken said. “We’d better take care of those bodies. We can’t leave them out there like that.”
Jimmy understood, but the last thing he felt like doing was handling dead bodies.
“My back,” said Bill. “I’m sorry.”
Jimmy wanted to bust Bill in the mouth, but he only shook his head as he followed Ken out into the day that had once been so promising.
What struck Jimmy first was the total lack of support from the other members in camp. Where is everyone? Jimmy thought to himself as he and Ken heaved on the lifeless arms of a middle-aged man. Jimmy thought he recognized the man, but he had a hard time looking at his face. The top of his head was missing, and gray matter hung from the wound like spoiled jam. They dragged the body to the back of the cabin.
“We’ll put them all back here,” said Ken. “We’ll need to find a tarp to cover them. Do you think you can handle that?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right back.”
“Not now! Let’s get the bodies back here, first. Can you handle that?”
“Yes,” snipped Jimmy. Ken was starting to wear thin on him, and he needed to draw a line somewhere. This was that somewhere. “Cut the shit. This is hard enough as it is.”
Ken only gave Jimmy a hard look as they returned to the killing field for another body. They worked in silence, dragging the bodies behind the cabin and placing them side by side in a gruesome slumber party.
The last casualty had suffered a bullet wound to her neck, and she died with her hands clutching her own throat. Jimmy gasped as he realized that the pretty dead woman with the snow-colored skin was Jasmine.
“You know her?” Ken asked.
“Yeah,” Jimmy croaked. “I’ve seen her around.”
“Damn shame. So young,” Ken said. “Come on, grab her arm. Let’s finish this.”
Bill was standing over the bodies when they arrived with the lifeless body of Jasmine. He looked at her and then to Jimmy. He then stuck his hands in his pockets and walked away, never saying a word. Jimmy’s next task was to find the long-lost M-16 and to hide it until Ken could return it to his basement. He only hoped that the awful truth wouldn’t come out. Many people had died because of his carelessness, and Jimmy felt a growing emptiness in his belly.
They waited inside Julie’s cabin as life slowly returned to the outside world. Bodies were tearfully claimed, and most of the blood and gore was cleaned from the snow. Ken and Jimmy sat at Julie’s table and drank hot coffee spiked with some Irish cream. Ken surprised Jimmy by actually listening to him with only a few interruptions as he tried to explain the events of the past days and weeks.
“Communists,” said Ken, shaking his head.
“It’s not like that,” Jimmy said, defensively. “They’re good people.”
“They may be good people; they’re just misguided. This mess, this day, should teach them a few lessons about their way of life. If only one of these people would have had a gun, think of how many lives would have been saved.”
“I know. I tried to tell them. I really did.”
“But you gave up your guns to get inside here. I just don’t understand that. How could you do that?”
Jimmy shook his head as he tried to think of a reason. “That was the only way I could get inside,” he managed, hoping it was enough excuse for Ken.
“Oh, that’s a steaming pile of bullshit, and you know it. Goddamn it kid, wake up and smell the coffee. Nobody takes your guns. Do you hear me? Nobody!”
And as if they had been waiting outside the door for Ken to say just that, Pluto and Mars walked into the cabin without knocking. “That’s where you’re wrong,” Pluto said, glaring at Ken from the open door. “I’ll be taking your guns if you plan to stay. Don’t you think they’ve killed enough people?”
“Kiss my ass,” growled Ken.
Bill slunk back inside the cabin and took a seat next to Ken and Jimmy at the table. “Don’t mess with this guy,” he said to Pluto and Mars. “He’s a crazy bastard.”
Jimmy slapped Bill on the shoulder and nearly sent him over the back of his chair. “Will you shut your damn mouth? This is serious!”
Bill looked hurt, but he said nothing as things inside the cabin began to heat up.
“You’ll have to leave now,” Mars said, crossing his arms in front of him. “We don’t allow guns here. Get your asses out of those chairs and get the hell out of here.”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Bill.
“He wasn’t talking to you,” Pluto snapped.
“I’m not going anywhere without my friend in there, and right now he’s fighting for his life,” Ken said. “I’ll be happy to leave once I know he’s going to make it.”
“Then give me your weapons,” demanded Mars.
“Try and take them from me,” hissed Ken.
“Ken,” said Jimmy. “Come on. Let’s be reasonable. This is their place.” Jimmy instantly regretted those words as Ken’s face contorted with rage.
“Listen here you pansy-assed piece of shit, nobody is taking my guns! Let me guess?” Ken asked, standing to his full six foot three and pointing a finger accusingly at the newcomers. “You must be Mars and Pluto. What the hell kind of names are those? Are you playing some sort of game here?”
“Give me your guns, old man,” Mars demanded again, this time between gritted teeth.
“Listen here you snot-nosed punk,” Ken shot back. “I’m nobody’s old man, and anytime you want to try me, you can give it your best shot. I’ll snap your goddamn neck.”
“He will, too,” said Bill. “He’s a crazy bastard.”
“Enough!” shouted Pluto. “You must be Ken, I’ve heard a lot about you. This bickering is getting us nowhere. Let’s back up and start over.”
“After he gives up his weapons,” Mars quipped.
Pluto turned on his counterpart and pointed to the door. “I’ll handle this,” he said. “You go out there and help manage this crisis. People are going to be looking to us for some direction.”
Mars held his hands out in front of him and stared into them helplessly. He snarled at both Ken and Jimmy before turning away from Pluto and walking out the door.
Chapter 23
Jimmy sat in silence as Pluto and Ken had a heated discussion about gun control. Bill tried to interrupt only once, and Ken rewarded him with a hard slap to the face. “Keep your yap shut,” he warned, closing his hand into a fist. “Or you’ll get one of these.” Bill whimpered as he rubbed his flaming-red cheek, but he said nothing.
“That’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about,” said Pluto, stroking his long beard thoughtfully. He was dressed as he usually was, entirely in denim, and his long gray hair was tied back in a ponytail. “Your anger is uncontrollable. What gives you the right to slap that man? Who are you to threaten him with violence?”
“Have you ever met this guy?” Ken asked, incredulously, hooking a thumb back towards Bill. “He’s a goddamn fool, and he never knows when to shut his damn mouth. He’s got one friend in this world, and that’s Jimmy.”
“That’s not true,” whispered Bill. “I’ve got friends.”
Jimmy glared at Bill and held his finger to his lips. Ken shook his head and returned his attention to Pluto. “Look,” he said, scratching the gray stubble on top of his head. “We can argue about this all day long. I respect you, and you have every right to run your camp as you wish. I think you’re nuts, but you’re the boss. The second that Doc tells me that Burt is ready to move, I’m out of here, and I’ll never be back. Okay? The bottom line is that I’m not going anywhere without my friend, and I’m not giving up my guns.”
“Can’t you see what’s right in front of you?” Pluto asked. “Your guns killed a lot of people here today. None of this would have happened if you and your friends hadn’t shown up with your firearms. You right-wing nut jobs never cease to amaze me. This is all on you—all of it! What part of that don’t you understand?”
“Get off your soapbox, you commie asshole,” Ken fired back. “I didn’t kill anyone who didn’t need killin’. You can’t hold me responsible for what your people did here today. If it wasn’t for me and Jimmy and Burt in there, you might all be dead by now. You goddamn pacifists are all the same, always blaming someone else for your own bullshit.”
“My people were just fine until your people showed up,” retaliated Pluto. “There were no guns here and everyone got along just fine. There was no killing because there were no guns for anyone to kill each other with.”
“We need our guns for protection.”
“You need them for protection from each other. How twisted is that?”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Warmonger!”
“Can it, leftie!”
“Are you going to hit me? Would you hit an old man? Should I be afraid of you?”
“Guys!” shouted Jimmy. He’d heard enough of this argument. The time had come to do some damage control. “Look, you’re never going to agree on any of this. You both make valid points, and I respect both of your opinions. Can we all just agree to disagree? This arguing has got to stop.”
Doc suddenly stepped out of the bedroom. His flannel shirt was splattered with blood, and he looked as if he had aged ten years. “He’s a long way from being out of the woods,” he said. “But, God willing, I think he’s going to make it.”
“Thank God,” said Ken, holding his hand to his heart.
“Venus should be all right, too. She took a round up by her shoulder, and it passed through her without doing too much damage. I think she’ll recover fairly quickly.”
“Can I see her?” Pluto asked, already moving to the bedroom door.
“Just for a few minutes. I’ve still got some work to do.”
“I’m going in to see Burt,” said Ken. “Jimmy, don’t you dare let anyone touch those firearms. Do you understand me?”
“Let it go, Ken,” said Doc. “I heard every word of your argument. I’ve heard enough.”
Doc followed Pluto and Ken into Julie’s bedroom, and he quietly closed the door behind them.
“That Ken is a crazy bastard,” said Bill.
Jimmy roared back with a fist, and Bill ducked his head. “Will you just shut your damn mouth? Why do you always have to say something stupid? You’re driving me crazy.”
“You shouldn’t talk to me like that.”
“Why the hell not? It’s the truth!”
“Because I know, Jimmy. I know everything.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You spent the night with that dead Asian chick,” whispered Bill. “I saw it. I saw her leave this morning before it got light out.”
Jimmy felt as if he would be physically sick, and his knees suddenly became weak. He sat down next to Bill and stared at him, stupidly. “I will kill you if you repeat that ever again,” Jimmy whispered. “I promise you, Bill. I’ll make it as painful as possible, and I’ll send you to hell screaming.”
“That’s no way to talk to a friend. Who said I was going to say anything?”
“Bill, you’ve never kept a secret your entire life. That’s going to change right now. Look, nothing happened. We shared a bottle of wine and had a nice talk. She’s dead now, and none of what happened last night is anyone’s business.”
“Who’s dead?” Julie asked from behind them. “And what happened last night?”
Jimmy’s heart dropped when he caught Bill’s eye. Bill was enjoying this, and he could barely contain himself. He then turned to Julie and smiled. “Nothing happened last night,” he said. “Nothing at all.”
Once Ken and Pluto got past their political differences and found some common ground, the two men found that they really weren’t all that different from each other. After they visited their friends, they returned to Jimmy and Bill out in Julie’s living room and began discussing their current situation. There seemed to be a lot of fighter jets flying north these days, and both men speculated on what that might mean.
“Canada was better prepared for this than we were,” Pluto said as he ate peaches out of a can. “They have more natural resources and fewer people. I’ll bet we’re up there trading with them. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Ken nodded. “That’s possible,” he said, thoughtfully. He had finally shed his jacket and bibs, and he now sat at the table wearing a pair of blue jeans and a faded flannel shirt. “We could also be sizing them up. Why trade for what you can take?”
“I pray that you’re wrong. We’ve got enough trouble without starting something with the Canadians.”
“I agree. There’s another possibility: what if Canada has been invaded? How would we ever know?”
“We wouldn’t,” said Jimmy. “We could be at war with the entire world and we’d never know it.”
“That’s what I think,” said Bill. “This is World War Three. We’ll probably get nuked any time now.”
Ken looked at Bill and grimaced. “Let’s not turn a few fighter jets into the Third World War, okay? I was just trying to make a point. We have got to find a way to make contact with the outside world. Do you have a ham radio?”
Pluto nodded. “We have one, not that anyone here is what you’d call an operator. The few people we’ve managed to make contact with are much like us, just trying to survive.”
“They said it’d be like this,” Ken said, “those guys on the internet that everybody called nut-jobs. They predicted this every step of the way. Why didn’t more people listen to them?”
Pluto sat up straighter in his chair and smiled. “Thank you. I was one of those nut-jobs. I had a blog that I wrote in every day. I was quite popular. Maybe you read some of my stuff. My blog was called A View from Pluto, VFP for short, ever hear of it?”
Ken thought about that and shook his head.
“I heard of it,” said Bill.
Jimmy groaned, and Ken covered his face with his big hands.
“Bill,” Pluto said, “would you mind following me up to the main house? I have some plywood there and we really should cover this window before it gets cold again.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” agreed Bill.
Ken stood and followed both men to the door, waiting until Pluto had zippered up his parka before taking his hand and shaking it. “I’m glad we finally got to meet,” he said. “Like I said, I’ll be gone as soon as I know that Burt is out of the woods. I have a wife at home waiting for me.”
“Please understand that you’re more than welcome to join us permanently. You’d just have to give up your guns.”
“Not a chance.”
“I knew you’d say that. Good-bye, Ken. And good luck.”
“Good luck to you too, Pluto.”
The two men exchanged smiles and a warm handshake. Pluto walked out the door and Bill followed, sticking his hand in Ken’s chest. Ken rolled his eyes, but he gave Bill’s hand a quick shake.
“Thanks for all your help, man,” Bill said.
Chapter 24
Ken rode out of camp with all of his rifles right after Doc assured him that Burt was out of immediate danger. Before leaving, when he and Jimmy were alone, he took one of the Colts and an extra clip of ammo and stashed them in the ceiling of Julie’s kitchen. “You can call that insurance,” he said. “It ain’t much of a policy, but it’s better than none at all.”
Later that night when Jimmy was once again all alone with his thoughts, he had time to shed a few tears for Jasmine. He stared into the blackness of the fish shack and wondered what caused people like Myron and Tony Clerk to snap like they did. They had appeared to be regular guys, but a lot of people had proven they weren’t what they appeared to be. There had been a lot of tragedy—too damn much of it—Jimmy thought, and people were at their breaking point. He’d seen it first hand and he knew it to be true. He was one of those people. The last thing Jimmy thought before he fell asleep was his promise to Bill. He hoped that Bill had understood him because he hadn’t been kidding. He really would kill Bill if he told anyone about their secret. He fell asleep that night thinking torturous thoughts.
The next few days passed in a blur of activity. There were people to tend to, bodies to stow away until the ground thawed, and for Jimmy and Julie, there were sparks to rekindle. Doc explained that Burt had somehow missed his mark and that the bullet had merely creased his skull, “the damn fool,” he had said, adding, “good thing he’s a terrible shot.” He also said that it was nearly time to remove Julie’s cast and see if the bones in her face had mended. As kindly as he could, he reminded the two of them to be prepared for the worst. Julie assured him that she was, and Jimmy took her hand and nodded in agreement.
Burt regained consciousness two days after the incident and was overjoyed to the point of tears to see Venus in the bed next to him. The following morning, Burt shocked both Julie and Jimmy by getting up in the middle of the night and pushing his own bed across the bedroom next to Venus’ bed. Julie found them cuddled up together when she went to check on them. “Look at this, Jimmy,” she whispered.
Jimmy got up from the sofa and walked over to stand next to Julie. He smiled and shook his head. When Julie was leaving the room to fix coffee, Burt asked if she minded closing the door. “And knock when you come back in, okay?” he whispered.
“You’re terrible,” chuckled Venus. “Ouch, oh, quit making me laugh, Burt Sharpen.”
“I will not close this door,” said Julie, “and no monkey business. My God, Burt, show a little respect.”
“But that’s just what I’m trying to do. I’m showing this beautiful woman as much respect as I can.”
“Well,” Julie said, putting her hands on her hips. “You can respect her later. That’s my bed you’re in.”
Burt, despite Doc’s warnings, was out of bed and moving around camp just four days after the shooting. The days had grown suddenly warm, and melting snow dripped from the roof of Julie’s cabin. Jimmy was pacing Julie’s kitchen when she came out of the bedroom. “What’s wrong, baby?” Julie asked, moving in front of him and placing her hands on his hips.
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head with half a smile. “I just feel restless. I think it’s the weather.”
“I know what it is. You’re worried about Ken and Patty. Why don’t you hop on Doc’s snowmobile and go see how they’re doing? We’re fine here. Just come back in the morning. I’m sure they’ll love seeing you, and they’ll appreciate an update on Burt.”
“Really?” Jimmy asked, thinking that Julie had just read his mind. “I’ll be back after breakfast. I promise.”
Julie stepped into Jimmy and pressed her body against his. “I know you will,” she whispered. “I’m going to ask Doc to remove this damn cast today.”
“I should be here with you.”
“I don’t want you here. Please. I want to do this alone.”
Jimmy reluctantly agreed, and he was soon dressed in his winter gear and went out in search of Doc. The first person he ran into was Wart who had finally dealt with his emotions and seemed to be back to his old self. He caught Jimmy walking out of Julie’s cabin and he joined up with him. “How’s it going, brother?” Wart asked, slapping Jimmy on his butt.
“Knock it off. What will people think?”
“Let ‘em think what they want. Who gives a shit?” Wart said. “I’m bored to death. Let’s go over and work on the women’s shower.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the women’s shower.”
“I know, but there could be.”
Jimmy laughed. “No, I’m going to have to pass. I’m getting out of here for the day. I’m heading back to my people to check on them.”
“Christ, Jimmy, my people? What are they, Indians? Take me with you. I need to get out of here.”
Jimmy thought about that for a moment. “Okay,” he said. “But you need to be on your best behavior, all right? We’ll go ask Doc if you can borrow his Skidoo. There’s no room on Burt’s Polaris.”
“What Polaris?”
“The snowmobile that Burt rode in on. The same one that I rode to Ken’s and back.”
“Nobody told you?” Wart asked, narrowing his eyes at Jimmy. “Mars had us take it apart. You know—carbon footprints and all of that bullshit. I thought that you knew.”
“Son of a bitch,” muttered Jimmy. “Are you kidding me?”
“I’m not. What happened between you guys? He sure doesn’t think much of you.”
“Come on Let’s go find Doc. We can both fit on the Skidoo. I’ll explain everything on the way there.”
“Can I drive?”
“I don’t care,” Jimmy said with a sigh. “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”
Doc happily agreed to lend them the snowmobile. “Just bring her back in one piece,” he said. “That’s my baby.”
Wart had obviously spent a lot of time riding snowmobiles; he rode the old machine with confidence and pulled over after they left the gate at Bailey’s simply to adjust the carburetor. They rode without helmets, and warm sunshine heated their cheeks.
Chapter 25
They arrived at Ken’s at just before noon. Wart looked up at the timber wall and shook his head. “Holy shit,” he said. “I thought you were kidding me. That’s really impressive, man.”
“Thanks,” said Jimmy. “Ken!” he shouted up to the house. “Can you hear me?”
“What do you think?” Ken asked from high on the other side of the wall.
Jimmy and Wart looked up to see Ken covering them with an M-16. “Hey, man,” Wart said, sticking his hands in the air. “Don’t shoot.”
“Who are you?” Ken asked, not bothering to move the barrel of his gun away from them. “Who are you and why are you here?”
Jimmy smiled and shook his head. “It’s all right, Ken. He’s a good guy.”
“He’s a communist, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know,” said Jimmy. “Are you a communist, Wart?”
“Nope, I’m just a Wart. I think that makes me an independent.”
“You hear that, Ken? He’s not a communist. He’s an independent.”
“Bah,” said Ken, turning away and disappearing behind the wall.
Jimmy knew that Ken didn’t think much of independents; he said that they diluted the issues and talked out of both sides of their mouths. Ken opened the gate and allowed them inside. Wart putted the Skidoo inside the compound and killed the engine. Patty was already heading down the front stairs, and Rita was waving in the window. Jimmy rushed to Patty and the two embraced.
“Jimmy, it’s so good to see you,” Patty said, kissing him hard on the cheek. “Can you stay for dinner? Is everything all right?”
“Everything is great and I can actually stay overnight, if that’s okay with you.”
“What about this one?” Ken asked, nodding his head at Wart.
“They rode in here together, dear,” Patty said, speaking to him as if he were an idiot for asking. “They can ride back together in the morning.”
“I thought you were going to say that,” Ken said.
“Don’t look so happy about it, pops,” Wart said in his whistling voice. “You might crack your face.”
“You interrupted my target shooting.”
“Really?” asked Wart. “Whoa, like I’m sorry. Let’s start this over. Nice to meet you, sir; my given name is Mort West, but my friends call me Wart.” He then walked over to Ken and stuck his hand in his chest. “I love guns, I sure do.”
Ken’s face softened, and he took Wart’s small hand into his own and shook it. “Ever shoot one of these?” he asked, nodding to the M-16.
“Can’t say that I have,” answered Wart. “But I’d love to learn.”
“You vouch for him, Jimmy?” Ken asked.
“Of course he does,” answered Patty. “Go on and bring Morton out back and show him your little shooting range. You know you’re dying to do it. Just be in for lunch. We’ll be eating in an hour.”
Ken rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he said to Wart. He then turned to Jimmy. “What about you, kid? Want to crack off a few with that .50 caliber?”
“He certainly does not. Jimmy is coming inside to visit with me and Rita. You boys run along. I’ll call when it’s time to eat.”
Rita met them at the front door and gave Jimmy a big hug. “Oh Jimmy,” she said, “it’s so good to have you home.”
Jimmy returned the hug and smiled. “Thanks Rita, it feels good to be home.”
Patty smiled with such unbridled joy that Jimmy thought she looked drunk. The two women ushered him into the kitchen, and he was soon drinking hot coffee out of his favorite cup. All seemed right in the world. The kitchen smelled of fresh baked bread, and Patty set a plate of sugar cookies in front of him. “We baked these yesterday,” she said with pride. “I knew you would be here. Didn’t I, Rita?”
“She certainly did. She’s been watching for you all morning.”
“How could you have known that?” Jimmy asked. “I just came out here on a whim; actually, it was Julie’s idea. She’s getting her cast cut off today, and she didn’t want me around.”
“Jesus told me that you’d be here for lunch. You know me, Jimmy; I never doubt the word of the Lord.”
Jimmy shook his head in amazement. “Well, He sure does work in mysterious ways.”
“I prayed that you’d come back to us. There’s no mystery there. I prayed that you’d come back to stay.”
Jimmy’s heart fell at hearing the words. As much as he loved Ken and Patty, he knew that Julie was happy in her new home and that he could never leave her again. He smiled bravely and took a bite of one of the big sugar cookies.
“Tell us about Bailey’s,” Rita urged, taking a seat across the table from him. “Ken says that all the people there are communists and named after planets. Is that true?”
Jimmy laughed. “Not really. You know how Ken is.”
Patty nodded her head with enthusiasm. She was wearing a white blouse over blue jeans, and Jimmy thought she looked better than she had since they had first arrived. Her eyes were bright, and her skin color looked good. “We all know how Ken is,” she agreed. “Go on. Tell us the rest of the story.”
They all laughed at that, and as if on cue the report of a gunshot echoed from the back yard. Jimmy went on to explain how the people at Bailey’s had a different belief system when it came to arming themselves. The leaders there believe that by allowing anyone a chance to stay there unarmed, untold lives would be saved. Jimmy caught Patty and Rita exchanging exasperated looks.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if life were that uncomplicated,” said Patty.
“There will come a day when they regret that decision,” said Rita, shaking her head. “We’ve seen that enough times. Oh, those poor people. Jimmy, you’ve got to bring the others back home. They aren’t safe over there.”
Jimmy felt something bump his leg and he looked down to see Whiskers looking up at him. Jimmy gasped. Whiskers was now completely bald, except for a patch of mottled fur on her face. To Jimmy, she looked like a plucked chicken with paws. She meowed at him and wrapped herself around his leg.
“Look who’s here,” said Patty, as if she was talking to a toddler. “It’s our long lost friend, Jimmy. You love Jimmy, don’t you? Oh look, isn’t that sweet.”
Whiskers suddenly jumped up on Jimmy’s lap and rubbed the top of her head under his chin. Jimmy had to use all of his strength to keep the smile on his face. The cat smelled as if it had been dead for weeks. Whiskers stayed there for a moment and then seemed to wink at him before she leapt back down on the floor and moved next to Patty.
“You haven’t told us how you feel about how they live over there,” Rita said, perceptively.
Jimmy had been on the fence over that ever since Tony and Myron had went on their killing spree. Pluto had made a good point, that it was Ken’s people that had introduced the weapons, but Jimmy also knew that guns were everywhere. The next time they showed up over at Bailey’s could very well be the last. “I don’t agree with their no-gun policy,” he said, as much to himself as the women in the room. “I agree with you, Rita. I think if we had law and order and they wanted to live that way, that’s their deal. The way things are now, they’re dreaming if they think they’re safe. The trouble is that their leader is never going to change his mind. He’ll never allow another gun inside the compound.”
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Patty said.
Chapter 26
They relished their lunch of roast venison, freshly baked bread, canned corn, and instant potatoes. Wart and Ken carried the conversation with the ease of old friends. Jimmy found that Wart never ceased to amaze him. He not only handled himself with class, but he was knowledgeable in a number of areas. He was also a superb listener. His table manners set the bar, and Jimmy had to fight to keep from laughing. He knew that after grace had been said, Ken’s people usually ate like sailors. They were comfortable enough around each other to sit with their elbows on the table and to use the “five second” rule. That wasn’t the case this time, and everyone seemed to enjoy putting on their Sunday manners.
“What happened to your front teeth?” asked Patty. “If you don’t mind my asking?”
“Not at all,” said Wart. “I got in a scrap with a pipe wrench. I was pulling when I should’ve been pushing. Not smart.”
They all laughed at that, and then Ken went ahead and told Wart about all they’d experienced since arriving up north. Wart listened with wide eyes.
After dinner Patty and Rita reluctantly handed Jimmy off to Ken, and Wart put on a shooting display like they had never seen. He shot three times with the M-16; hitting three quarter dollars from one hundred paces using open sights.
“You’re such a bullshitter,” said Ken with a wide smile. “Oh, I don’t know how to shoot an M-16. What a load of crap. Where did you learn to shoot like that?”
“My old man was a marksman. You should’ve seen him shoot,” Wart said, with as much pride as any son had ever used talking about their father. “Never missed, and I mean never. He was a sniper over in Viet Nam. The old man never talked about the war. Anyhow, yeah, he taught me everything I know. Sorry Ken, I wasn’t trying to show off.”
Ken waved him off and laughed. “I wouldn’t give two shits if you were,” he said. “What I’m trying to figure out is how I can get you to stay with us. I’ve got plenty of guns. I’m just a little short of people to help shoot ‘em.”
Wart shocked them both by his response. “All you have to do is ask. I think those people over at Bailey’s are nuts.”
“I’ll expect you to earn your keep,” said Ken. “We share the workload, but we’ve got plenty of food and enough guns and ammo to put down a third-world country. I’m a fair man, but Patty and I are Christians, and we expect people to behave accordingly. We don’t cuss, fart, lie, cheat, or steal. We live and let live, but God help anyone who messes with us. Does that sound fair to you?”
“Everyone farts,” said Wart, but he said it with a toothless grin as he nodded. “But yeah, I’d love to stay on with you people. Jimmy, you’re going to have to get Julie out of there. She’s not safe. You understand that, right?”
“Hell no, she’s not safe,” said Ken, his voice full of conviction. “I’ve been worried sick about you guys ever since I got back home. I want you to go back there and bring Julie, Burt, and Doc, back home to us. Bill can stay there, but make sure to ask his girl if she wants to come back to us. We all miss having her around, especially Rita.”
“Okay,” said Jimmy, knowing that this was the right thing to do. “I’ll give it my best shot. I don’t know about Burt and Doc. Burt’s in love, and Doc loves it there. You know how he feels about guns.”
“You have to try to reason with him,” Ken said, putting a heavy hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “You need to get through to all of them. They’ve been lucky, that luck is going to run out. You mark my words.”
They all took turns shooting with Wart critiquing them and giving instructions. The sun beat down on them, and the snow grew soft as it began to melt. The freakishly warm afternoon would pass all too quickly, and they were soon packing up their guns to be cleaned down in the workshop.
“Do you have a lot of gear back at Bailey’s?” Ken asked Wart as they walked down the back stairs into the basement. “I’ve got plenty of things here that you can have. I think I’ve got clothes that will fit you, and I’ve got enough toothbrushes and razors to last all of us for fifty years.”
“Thank you,” Wart said. “That’s very kind of you.”
“Are you a Christian man, Wart?” Ken asked, from over his shoulder.
“I never thought much about it. We never went to church while I was growing up.”
“Well, we’ve got plenty of religion, too. We’ll get you fixed up.”
Jimmy smiled. Ken had taken to Wart like he was a long-lost son. The opposite seemed to be true, as well. Wart looked up to Ken with unabashed admiration and a fondness that couldn’t be faked. Jimmy was proud to claim both of these men as friends, and he knew that they had both been right. He needed to get the others back here. This was their home, and as small as it was compared to Bailey’s, at least it offered some level of protection from the outside world.
Jimmy helped Patty with the supper dishes that night. They talked about anything and everything, like the two old friends that they were. Patty tearfully apologized to Jimmy for what she had said, explaining that something hadn’t been right with her mind. Jimmy hugged her tight and told her over and over that he forgave her. Whiskers was again looking up at him from Patty’s feet, and once again, Jimmy swore that the naked cat had winked at him.
The cribbage board was dusted off, and they played a tournament, sipping cold beers as a hot fire roared in the fireplace. Patty played her boom box like a high school girl, changing CD’s every few songs. Rita made a tub of hot popcorn, and Jimmy couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so good and at ease. This was home. He could see from the look on Wart’s face that he felt the same way. He was happy for him; he was now among family.
Jimmy slept in his old room, and all too soon he was sitting at the kitchen table, lacing up his winter boots.
“You listen to me,” Ken said. “You tell them whatever you have to. I want them back. I don’t care if you lie to them. God will forgive you for it.”
“Amen,” said Wart. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go back with you?”
“No, I want to do this alone. Don’t worry. I won’t forget to grab your bag.”
“And the picture of my family. Don’t forget that.”
“I know—it’s on the shelf next to your bed. I’ll get it.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Don’t let me down, kid,” said Ken. “I’m counting on you. Something bad is on its way. I can feel it in my bones. We’ve got to get them out of there.”
Jimmy nodded and stood. He then shook both Ken and Wart’s hands and got his hugs from Patty and Rita. Soon he was headed across the lake under a gray sky. The temperature had dropped a good twenty degrees, but it was still much warmer than it had been the previous week. Snow began to fall as he coaxed the old Skidoo up the embankment and onto the opposite shore.
He stopped the snowmobile at what he figured was the halfway point. He lit up a cigarette and leaned back on the long seat, blowing his smoke straight up in the air. He needed time to think. There was a lot at stake here. He couldn’t forget what Bill had said about seeing Jasmine that night. The thought was eating him from the inside out, and he knew that he had to come clean about it with Julie. Those types of secrets never kept, and even if he flat out denied them, there would always be doubt. He was either going to have to kill his friend or tell Julie the truth. Nothing had happened. Not that Jasmine hadn’t wanted it to, but because Jimmy had put a stop to it. She was dead now, but he knew the truth in his heart, and Julie would see it there. She had to. She would be angry, probably furious with him, for allowing her to spend the night, but she would accept it and move on from there.
Besides, thought Jimmy, what about all the time that she’d spent with Mars? That was also eating at him. Mars was a smooth operator; there was no denying that. He was strikingly handsome, well-spoken, and all the girls in camp seemed to have a crush on him.
The sky looked like a shaken snow-globe, and Jimmy smoked as he watched fat white flakes float to the ground. There was no wind to speak of, and the quiet had settled in around him like a warm quilt. Jimmy suddenly felt at ease with himself. The truth was about to come out, and his burden suddenly seemed lighter. He was also anxious to see how Julie now looked. Had his prayers been answered? Did it matter? No, Jimmy decided. He would love Julie no matter how she looked, and he would love her until he took his last breath. He would convince her to return to Ken’s. He would convince Burt and Doc, too. He hoped Cindy would see the light, but she was in love, and he doubted she would leave of her own accord. Bill wouldn’t leave—at least that’s what he hoped. Jimmy flipped his smoke into the fresh snow and fired up the Skidoo. There was much to do.
By the time he reached the gate at Bailey’s, it was snowing so hard that Jimmy could barely see fifty feet in front of him. The wind had suddenly picked up, and it brought with it an icy cold chill. Jimmy slowed and finally came to a stop at the tiny gatehouse. There was a cable stretched out across the road.
And then Mars and Bill stepped from out of the wooden gatehouse. Jimmy killed the engine.
Chapter 27
“Hello Jimmy,” said Mars, but he didn’t sound happy to see him. “What have you done with Wart? We were expecting him to ride back with you.”
“Yeah,” said Bill. “Where’s Wart?”
Jimmy stood up and brushed the snow from his shoulders. “Wart stayed over at Ken’s. What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal, Jimmy, is this!” roared Mars, ripping the .45 Colt out of his waistband. “Bill found it stashed in the ceiling of Julie’s cabin. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Asshole,” Jimmy said to Bill.
This only seemed to enrage Mars, and Jimmy saw that in his eyes, wide open and wild looking. Jimmy thought that Mars had somehow tumbled out of his orbit. His eyes suddenly narrowed as his face was contorted with rage. He pointed the .45 at Jimmy’s head.
“Put it down, man,” warned Bill. “He’s not worth it.”
Jimmy wanted to scream at Bill for saying that, but Mars still had the gun trained on him from five feet away. Jimmy crossed his arms in front of him and awaited his fate.
“You’re lucky I don’t bust a cap in you,” Mars spat. “I could do that. I’m going to let you live, but understand that you’re not welcome here—you or any of your gun-crazy friends. Turn that tub around and go back to wherever the hell you came from.”
“I’ve got to get my things. I’ve got to see Julie.”
“You’re not going in, and she doesn’t want to see you,” Mars said, but now he was smiling. “Julie is mine, and you’re not taking her from me.”
Jimmy had heard enough. “Listen Mars, I rode out here to see her and that’s just what I’m going to do. Put the damn gun away before you hurt someone. This doesn’t have to be like this. I’m not staying, I’m moving back to Ken’s.”
“You sure are,” said Bill. “You really messed up, Jimmy.”
“What did you say to her?”
“I didn’t say a thing to her. I didn’t have to.”
“Jasmine told me, and I spilled the beans to Julie. Not that it matters,” Mars said, with obvious delight. “While you and Jasmine were shacking up, I was sleeping with Julie.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Is it?”
Jimmy felt his face grow hot with anger, and he turned on Bill. “Tell me the truth, shit-for-brains, what do you know about this?”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Bill said. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Then he turned to Mars. “Are you kidding me?”
Mars shook his head with all the smug he could muster. “She’s a hot number. I especially like the little mole on her right butt cheek. Have you seen it, Jimmy? I think it’s sexy as hell.”
Jimmy had seen the mole, and he suddenly charged Mars like an angry bull. Mars was waiting for him and swung the butt of the Colt down on his neck. Jimmy went down like a ton of bricks.
He woke up already seated on the idling Skidoo. Bill held him up while Mars covered him with the Colt. “You’d better get going,” said Bill. “I like you, Jimmy, no matter what you think. I don’t want to see you get shot. He’ll do it. Trust me, he’ll do it.”
“That’s right,” said Mars. “Go ahead and give me an excuse to kill you.”
Jimmy’s head was spinning, and he tried to clear his vision. He growled at both men and spun the Skidoo around in a looping circle. The fresh snow was starting to pile up, and Jimmy’s heart felt like it’d been shattered in a thousand little pieces. He stopped the snowmobile just as Bill and Mars were stepping over the cable. “Nothing happened, Bill! You make sure that Julie knows that. Nothing happened that night, do you hear me? Nothing at all!”
Bill looked at him for a long moment before Mars turned him away, and they resumed their walk back to the camp. Jimmy pressed hard on the throttle, and the Skidoo bleated like a wounded sheep, but it quickly carried him away from Bailey’s so he could be alone with his own tears. What was he going to tell the others? How could he tell Ken and Patty the truth? Was Mars telling Jimmy the truth about Julie? Jimmy rode on and stopped about a mile down on what was left of the trail heading back to Ken’s. With shaking hands he pulled a crumpled Camel from his pocket, barely managing to get it lit. The snow was falling fast, and even at a dead stop Jimmy could hardly see fifty feet in front of him. Jimmy’s head felt as if an invisible someone was forcing it down onto his left shoulder. He tried to straighten it, but it was no use. This only served to make him angrier than he already was.
Jimmy smoked and swore at the snow-covered pines.
What would Ken and the others think of him when he showed up all alone and with his neck bent at a ninety degree angle? Jimmy didn’t want to think of it. He didn’t want to think of any of it, so he focused on how he was going to get even with Bill. Doc would be putting his fat face in a cast and soon, Jimmy swore it. And what about Julie and Mars? Jimmy turned that over and over in his head, but he always ended up at the same conclusion. There was no way Mars was telling the truth. Julie wouldn’t sleep with a dirtball like him—not in a million years. Beyond that, she wouldn’t have slept with anyone on this planet, not with a plaster cast covering her face.
He watched the snow pile up, and it finally dawned upon him. He had to get Julie out of there, and his best chance would be right now during the storm. The snow would provide cover, and they wouldn’t be expecting him back—at least not right away.
At least that was what Jimmy hoped.
He rode the Skidoo at a little more than idle speed, creeping within a quarter mile of Bailey’s before killing the engine. Jimmy wished for some type of weapon. He rummaged in the machine’s tool kit, but there was nothing there that seemed even remotely lethal.
Rubbing his stiff neck, Jimmy set out into the woods on foot. The warm temperatures of the past days followed by the freeze had hardened the old snow, and the three inches of fresh powder absorbed the sound of his footsteps. He moved quickly, choosing a route that would take him well behind the mess hall and around the main house to the fish shacks. He would follow the shoreline roughly two hundred yards, and with any luck Julie would be waiting alone inside her cabin. He knew it was a poor plan, but he couldn’t see any other options.
Jimmy was certain that this is what Ken would want him to do and knowing that is what drove Jimmy now, just as it had motivated him in the past. Jimmy could see lights glowing inside the mess hall. He was perhaps one hundred feet behind the long building, moving like a shadow from tree to tree. Jimmy knew that the inside lights would make it nearly impossible for anyone inside the mess hall to see him.
Jimmy slipped behind the mess hall, and then it was a five-minute jog through a pine forest to where the fish shacks stood at the far end of the shoreline. Jimmy reached the final tree at the end of the wooded point and stopped to catch his breath. This was where things would get dicey. There was still plenty of light to see him, and he had two football fields of open land to cross. If anyone was watching for him, there was no place to hide. Jimmy found that his strained neck was positioned perfectly for peering around trees. The next sound hit him like an avalanche.
“Jimmy,” Bill’s voice called softly from barely ten feet away. “It’s me, Bill.”
Jimmy’s heart began to mule-kick, and his stomach fell flat. He couldn’t believe his ears.
“Mars is waiting at Julie’s; he thought you might turn around,” Bill quietly called from somewhere very close.
“Why would you tell me that?” Jimmy asked. “Why did you throw me under the bus?”
“I didn’t throw you under the bus. Mars is a pretty smart dude, man.”
“Quit talking like that!” hissed Jimmy.
“He thought Ken would leave you a gun, and he was right. He made me do the search at Julie’s while he watched. I didn’t throw you under the bus.”
“You told Julie about Jasmine.”
“I did not! I didn’t tell anyone!”
“Keep quiet, liar.”
“I ain’t lying. Somehow he knew about that; maybe Jasmine really did tell him. How the heck should I know? I wouldn’t rat you out. You’re my best friend.”
Jimmy closed his eyes and groaned. “You sure have a strange way of proving that. I’m not leaving here without Julie, understand me?”
“That’s why I’m here. I’m your wingman.”
Again, Jimmy groaned.
They made their way into Bill’s shack and slipped inside as the storm really began to rage. The little shack looked as if a bomb had exploded inside of it. “Unbelievable,” said Jimmy. “You’re such a slob.”
Bill turned down the blinds, and they sat in near darkness, speaking in hushed tones. Jimmy still had a lot of questions, and they had some time. They still needed to come up with a plan to rescue Julie. “How did Mars find out about Jasmine?” Jimmy asked for a second time.
“I told you, I don’t know, man.”
“If you call me ‘man’ one more time, I am going to break your neck.”
“Sorry. How’s your neck?”
Jimmy could feel his left earlobe involuntarily touching his left shoulder blade. He gave Bill a cold look and said nothing.
“Yeah,” said Bill, “that’s what I thought. Look, Doc knows everything. He’s in there with Julie and Mars, taking off her cast. I filled him in, and he suggested that I wait for you out there in the woods.”
Jimmy cursed himself for being so transparent. Everyone seemed to know what he’d do, even before he had. He was going to have to change that. “Does he want to leave here? What about Burt? Is he ready to come home?”
“You don’t get it. We don’t want to come home. We just want to get rid of Mars.”
“What do you mean?”
Bill reached over and grabbed Jimmy’s wrist and did so with considerable strength. “We like it here, Jimmy. We like it here, just fine. Pluto is a good man, and I like not having to carry a gun. I like the idea that nobody here carries a gun. We all feel the same way.”
“Burt never said that. You’re full of shit.”
“Okay, maybe not Burt, but Doc and Julie did. Cindy is never going back, either. They don’t want to leave. We’re all hoping that you’ll find a way to get rid of Mars. He’s a crazy bastard.”
Jimmy groaned. Why couldn’t they see the truth? They needed to get out of here before something really bad happened. He stood from the table and walked over to the window and cracked the blind with his finger. What he saw there was enough to make his heart grow cold. Mars stood outside of the window. He held the .45 in his right hand and was smiling at him. Four solid men stood behind him, each armed with a wooden baseball bat. They stood still, and Jimmy wondered how long they had been there. “Oh shit,” Jimmy said.
“That’s right,” Mars said from outside in the snow. “Oh shit—that pretty much sums up your situation. Can you hear this? That was the sound of your door being padlocked. These men are here to make sure you two don’t try anything stupid. Good night, gentlemen. Julie’s waiting for me in my bed or I’d take care of you both right now. That woman is insatiable.”
“You’re full of shit, Mars!” Jimmy shouted.
“I beg your pardon?” asked Mars, with a delighted touch of malice. “She says that she’d never met a real man before she met me. Sorry if that hurts. Do you know what I like about her, man? She never says no.”
“Stop it!”
“She doesn’t even know the meaning of the word.”
“Stop it!”
Mars then laughed like a screaming banshee, and his voice sounded muffled in the swirling snow. Jimmy’s fists were clenched so tightly that he thought his fingers might break. He heard Mars instruct the men to surround the fish shack and to bash the brains out of anyone who tried to escape. “I’ll deal with the two of you tomorrow!”
“Coming here was stupid,” groaned Bill. “We’re screwed, man.”
“Don’t say that!” hissed Jimmy.
“Oh,” whispered Bill. “I’m sorry, poor choice of words.”
Chapter 28
Jimmy had never spent any time in a jail cell, but he was sure it had to be a hundred times better than this. He tried his best to push what Mars had said out of his thoughts. Bill began complaining about his own stupid problems, and Jimmy had to block him out, too. Minutes seemed to last for hours. He could hear the men outside, talking and laughing. Jimmy searched Bill’s shack for a weapon, but all he found was plastic silverware and stubby fishing poles. He cursed his luck and studied his limited options. He thought about kicking out the door and throwing Bill out. And the more Bill began to complain, the more seriously Jimmy contemplated following through with that plan.
Sometime after dark, Jimmy quit his pacing and finally fell back on the rumpled little bed opposite from where Bill lay. Bill had quit grumbling and seemed to have fallen fast asleep in only a few short breaths. Jimmy closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him. He would be waiting for a very long time.
“What time is it?” Bill asked, standing up in his baggy white underwear and scratching himself.
“Time to get dressed,” Jimmy said. “I think something is happening out there.”
“I hope so, I’m really hungry.”
Outside the storm seemed to have tapered off, but the wind had really picked up since last night. Jimmy stared out the window, and he could see that the storm had dropped at least a foot of snow that was now drifting into blinding white dunes. Jimmy thought that their contingent of guards had been reduced to a single man, although he couldn’t be absolutely sure. The tall man, whoever he was, looked angry as he slowly circled the fish shack. He was armed with a wooden baseball bat he held it against his shoulder like a soldier carries a rifle. Jimmy turned away from the window and was happy to see that Bill had dressed.
“What’s goin’ on?” Bill asked. He held an open jar of peanut-butter; he scooped two fingers full and stuck them into his mouth. He then held the jar out to Jimmy.
“No, thanks,” said Jimmy, shuddering. “Something was going on, I heard someone screaming up there, somewhere.”
Bill scratched his ear with his peanut-butter fingers as he thought about this. “Screaming, huh?” he asked. “That can’t be good.”
Jimmy shook his head. He was wondering about how Mars was playing this out with the others. Where was Doc or even Burt? Jimmy knew that if either man knew that he was being held prisoner, that they would demand his release. Mars must be keeping it under wraps. Jimmy watched as Bill continued to devour his breakfast. Bill’s mouth opened and closed as he mechanically worked his jaw, and the smacking sounds he made began to turn Jimmy’s empty stomach. Jimmy suddenly heard a familiar voice. Mars was outside the door talking to their guard. A moment later Mars opened the door and walked inside.
“Is it time to eat?” Bill asked, setting the jar down on the table. “I’m starved.”
Mars looked at him and chuckled as he brushed the snow from his perfectly feathered hair. “No, it’s not time to eat. You’ve eaten your last meal here.”
“So, you’re letting us go?” asked Jimmy. “What about Julie? What about the others?”
Mars held up a finger as he unzipped his jacket. The Colt was stuffed into the front of his blue jeans. “Jimmy,” he said. “I don’t like you, not even a little bit. I could kill you. I could kill the both of you, and believe me I’ve thought about it. But what would that solve? Sure, you’d be out of the way, but another guy like you would just show up and take your place.”
“What do you mean?” Jimmy asked, standing at the window and watching Mars as he sat down heavily at the table.
Mars removed the .45 and placed it on the table. “You don’t understand anything, do you? Ya know, when I first met you, I thought you were pretty sharp. I can see that I was wrong about that. Let me spell it out for you. I was the one that put this all together. Sure, it took Pluto’s money to make it all happen, but I was the guy who arranged everything. I made all the provisions and saw to it that we had the right people in place to make this thing work. I was very careful about that. I was very selective about who I chose to live up here. Can you dig it? I didn’t want any competition and then you showed up.”
Jimmy shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to compete with you. I already had someone and you knew that.”
Mars pointed across the table to Bill. “This guy was telling everyone about how all the girls melt when they see Jimmy Logan. And you know what? I was fine with that until your precious girlfriend smashed her face in. Did you think that gave you the right to steal from me? Your woman was damaged goods, and you thought you’d just take one of mine? Did you really think that I would allow that to happen?”
Jimmy could see that he was dealing with a crazy man with an ego the size of Lake Superior. He knew he had better tread lightly or Mars and his Colt could go off at any moment. Mars was in control here, and as much as Jimmy wanted to bash his brains out, he knew that he’d be a dead man before he got halfway across the room. He thought about this as Bill picked up the jar of peanut-butter and dug deep.
Mars turned away from Bill and continued. “I knew this was coming for six years. Pluto and I spent every hour of every day painstakingly planning this out. We wanted to create a beautiful world of our own. We called in favors. You don’t see the National Guard rounding our people up, do you? Can’t you see what I’ve created for myself? This is how I envisioned Utopia.”
“That is so cool,” said Bill. “That’s exactly what I would have done.”
“Shut up, Bill!” barked Jimmy.
“I was just saying that he had a good plan,” muttered Bill. “He’s living my dream.”
“Damn right I am,” said Mars. “And then Jimmy Logan shows up and tries to take it away from me.”
“I did no such thing.”
“What about Jasmine?”
“She came onto me! Nothing happened, nothing at all. If she wasn’t dead you could ask her yourself.”
“Oh, how convenient! After Jasmine it would have just been somebody else. Face it—you and I aren’t so different. The world is our bakery, and we just have to sample as much of it as we can.”
“No, you might be like that. I’m not like that at all.”
Mars grinned at Jimmy and shook his head, tossing his long locks from side to side. “Go ahead and lie to yourself if that makes you feel better. We both know the truth. You’re a horn-dog, just like me.”
“That’s right,” smacked Bill. “You’re a horn-dog.”
“Shut up,” hissed Jimmy. “That’s goddamn bullshit and you know it! I’m in love with Julie and would never mess around on her.”
“I can see that you’re not going to make this easy for me,” Mars said, standing up and tucking the Colt back into his pants. He picked up his jacket and put it on, leaving it unzipped. “You know what? You’re a convincing liar, I’ll give you that. She might even believe you.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Mars only smiled as he moved towards the door. “Liar,” he said again. He then opened the door and stuck his head out into the wind. “You can send her in now!” he shouted.
A moment later, Julie was pushed inside Bill’s fish shack. Someone had bound her hands with tape, and a wide hunk of it covered her mouth. She ran straight for Jimmy and tearfully buried her head into the crook of his neck. Jimmy could feel his face redden as molten anger raced through his veins. “What have you done to her?” he demanded. “You dirty son of a bitch!”
Mars was now holding the Colt trained on Jimmy’s forehead. He casually stood there for a moment, wearing a confident smile. “I wanted her to hear what you had to say, that’s all. I was hoping that you’d come clean, but I should’ve known that you wouldn’t. Just sit tight. After the storm is over you can all head back to wherever the hell you came from. I’m done with you. I’m done with you all. Don’t you dare come back, do you hear me? If you do, you’re a dead man. I’ll kill you all, and I’m just the guy who can do it. I promise you that.”
And with those last words, Mars gave them a quick wave and disappeared out the door. Jimmy quickly removed the tape from Julie’s face and held her by the sides of her head. She was crying, but her face looked as beautiful as Jimmy had ever remembered seeing it. Her hair had grown out some and looked to have been styled. Jimmy’s heart soared until Julie opened her mouth.
“I was drugged,” she moaned. “Oh God, Jimmy, I don’t know what happened last night. I think he raped me!”
“Are you sure?” asked Bill.
“She’s a liar!” shrieked Mars from the other side of the plywood wall.
“I am not lying!” screamed Julie, in such a tortured voice that Jimmy wanted to scream himself. His head was pounding with a furious anger.
“I didn’t drug you! You loved it and you know it!”
Jimmy roared with a primal scream that lasted nearly ten full seconds. “I am going to kill you, Mars, if it’s the last thing I do. Do you understand me? I’m going to make it painful!”
Bill stepped in front of Jimmy and held his hands to his lips. “Quiet,” he whispered. “He’s got a gun.”
Jimmy shoved Bill out of the way and ran to the door. He leaned back and kicked at the jamb. Jimmy’s rubber Sorel boot slammed hard against the heavy door, and suddenly the door was held only by a single hinge and the hasp lock on the outside. Jimmy reared back to finish the job.
A single gunshot exploded from the other side of the shack. Jimmy suddenly saw a quarter-sized hole of light appear straight ahead at eye level in the center of the hanging door. He immediately ducked for cover, as did Bill and Julie.
“Did I get you?” Mars asked, in a gleeful voice. “Sorry about that—my bad. These things are so touchy.”
“You bastard!” screamed Julie. “You dirty rotten bastard!”
Jimmy stole a look behind himself and saw the gaping exit hole. The bullet had missed him by mere inches.
“Julie,” hissed Bill. “Let’s live to fight another day.”
“Yes, Julie,” agreed the unseen Mars, his voice lilting on the vowels of her name. “That is sound advice and from the village idiot, no less. Just the same, I think you’d better take it.”
Julie gave Jimmy a hard look, but all Jimmy could do was shake his head. Village idiot or not, Bill was right. Mars would have no problem killing them. Jimmy raised a finger to his lips and hoped for the best. A long second passed, followed by another.
“Good,” shouted Mars. “About time you assholes wised up! Look, I don’t want to kill you guys. I really don’t. I’m a good guy. I just won’t listen to anyone lie about me and smear my good name.” He then paused for another long moment as if he were thinking things through. “Here’s the deal: if I kill the three of you, which I’m ready to do, it’ll take me forever to rebuild their trust. I don’t want to have to do that, just as I’m sure you don’t want me to blow your brains out with this superb piece of hardware. Does that sound agreeable to you?”
“Yes!” screamed Bill. “Oh, please, just let us live!”
Julie buried her head in her hands and began to sob. Jimmy could only look at Bill in wild wonder.
“That’s the right attitude,” snickered Mars from the other side of the plywood wall. “Now, I’m going to give this gun to my friend, Chico. If anyone tries anything, he has my permission to shoot the three of you. I’m going to gather up the rest of your bad seeds, and you can all leave together. That’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I’d take it if I were you.”
“We’ll take it!” cried Bill.
Julie crawled up onto the bed that Jimmy had slept in and curled up into a ball. Jimmy stared at Bill with an angry glare that didn’t pale with passing of time. The seconds turned to minutes, and Bill’s expression suddenly darkened as he stared with cold eyes right back at Jimmy. “I’m going to kill him for what he did to you,” Bill whispered to Julie with more venom than Jimmy thought possible.
“Thank you, Bill,” Julie whispered back. And then she began to sob.
Jimmy waited a minute and then tried lying next to Julie in an attempt to console her. She immediately began to wail and pushed him away. He tried again, and she beat on his chest with closed fists. Jimmy pulled her close and held on as she continued to fight him. Gradually, like the dying embers of a fire, Julie gave up her struggles and clung to him with all her strength. “I’m sorry, Jimmy,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
Jimmy stared coldly at the plywood walls as his hatred for Mars mushroomed into something close to a nuclear blast. Julie’s body continued to be racked by sobs, and his chest was wet with her tears. Bill paced the floor, and Jimmy wondered what was going through his mind, if anything. Bill had grown so difficult to read while it seemed that he himself had turned into some kind of open book. That didn’t seem fair, and he vowed to try to change that. He only hoped that he had the chance.
Jimmy didn’t trust Mars, not for a second, and there was a very real fear that he would return and kill them all. His brain had snapped like a dry twig. That level of insanity was their only hope of survival. They had to convince him that they were leaving and that they’d never be back.
They would have to act like Bill. God help me, Jimmy prayed.
Hours passed.
Chapter 29
Jimmy’s stomach growled as Bill registered his tenth complaint in as many minutes about his own hunger. None of them wore a watch, and Jimmy estimated that it was well past one and perhaps as late as three. The steel gray sky offered no clues, and outside the wind had only picked up in intensity. Chico had long ago moved his guard post inside Jimmy’s fish shack. What was keeping Mars? Jimmy could only guess.
Julie had finally dried her eyes and had seemed to pull it together. She began by making small talk about the weather and how filthy Bill’s little shack was, and she didn’t stop there. Jimmy went over and sat on the bed next to her. He felt like he’d been roper-doped when she suddenly popped the question. “So,” she said, taking both of his hands in her own and staring straight into his eyes. “Tell me about Jasmine. I want the truth, Jimmy.”
Jimmy’s eyes never left Julie’s, and he paused as he gathered his thoughts. “She popped in on me the night before she died with a bottle of wine. I know—I should have never let her in. I was bored, and it was dumb. We drank the wine and talked, but that was all. Nothing happened, nothing at all.”
Julie stared into his eyes without any expression, and Jimmy fought the urge to look away. He could feel Bill watching them. Finally, she gave his hands a squeeze and kissed his cheek. “I know,” Julie whispered. “I just wanted to hear you say it.”
“That’s right,” said Bill. “Nothing happened, and that’s all that matters.”
Jimmy smiled and let go of Julie’s hands. He stood up and walked the four steps to the edge of Bill’s bed where he was lying on his back and scratching his hairy stomach.
“What?” Bill asked, looking back at Jimmy as if he’d just sprouted antlers.
“You just had to tell her, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t tell her anything. Honest, Jimmy. I didn’t say nuthin’ to nobody. Honest, I didn’t.”
“You knew?” snapped Julie, which confused Jimmy. “And you didn’t say anything to me?”
“See Jimmy, you heard her. I didn’t say nuthin’ to nobody.”
“How did you know?” Jimmy asked, turning away from Bill. “Did she tell you herself?”
“She knew better than that,” Julie said, staring at the floor. “I know what she wanted. I’m proud of the way you fought her off.”
“How could you know that?”
“Yeah,” Bill agreed. “What? Were you there?”
“As a matter of fact, Bill, I was. I stood outside and almost caught my death of cold, but to answer your question. Yeah, I stood next to that stupid fish house, all night.”
“Holy shit,” muttered Bill.
“Bill, this has nothing to do with you,” Julie shot back. “Shut your Goddamn mouth. Yeah, Jimmy, do you think that Jasmine didn’t talk to anyone about you? I knew she was headed over to your place an hour before she even showed up. Do you want to know who told me? It was Mars. Jasmine had to ask him for the wine, and he got the truth out of her. You were right about one thing—you should have turned her away. You could’ve lost me forever. I hated that bitch, but I had to see how you would handle her. I was proud of you, even though you let her spend the night.”
“She passed out. What was I supposed to do?”
“I know she did, and it’s over. She’s gone, and that’s all that matters.”
“Mars told you, huh?”
“See Jimmy, it was Mars,” whispered Bill.
“There are only three of us here,” spat Julie. “We know that, you moron.”
“I meant when Jimmy tells anybody else about this,” Bill shot back. “I didn’t want anyone to think I was talking behind his back.”
“Bill,” Jimmy said. “You do that all the time. You are like my own personal talking diary. That has to stop. I’m getting sick of you telling everyone my life story.”
“What else is there to talk about? Nothing new ever happens.”
The wind howled from across the lake and snow peppered against the side of the fish shack. Jimmy had plugged the gaps around the door with Bill’s dirty clothes and covered up the door with a heavy blanket. Still the swirling wind found its way inside, and even with the little stove on high, there was something crisp in the air. Voices suddenly chimed in with the wind, and Jimmy’s ears immediately perked up.
The door was jerked open, and Mars stuck the gun inside, quickly covering the room. “I thought you’d try something stupid,” he said to Jimmy. “You disappoint me.”
“You wish,” hissed Jimmy.
Mars stepped back, and Burt and Venus were ushered inside followed by Doc and Cindy. Jimmy was glad to see them all. Both Venus and Burt looked strong considering their injuries, and Doc and Cindy looked grave about their situation. There was an awkward silence as everyone kicked the snow from their boots and found a spot to occupy.