He grew up in Detroit in an autoworker’s home on a tree lined street in a middle class neighborhood. Father, a strict disciplinarian, ruled home like a concentration camp. So as soon as he could, he took a job at the local hardware store, stocking shelves and sweeping floors. After work, he would escape reality at the movie theater alone. There, he met action stars like Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson, and although they became his heroes, desire alone hadn’t been enough to match their courage.
To flee his impotence under Father’s domination, he dropped out of high school the summer before his junior year, and drove his old Dodge cross country to LA. Not able to afford an apartment, let alone a cheap motel, he lived in his car. To earn cash, he watched for help wanted signs and secured day labor to feed the gnawing beast in his belly with bread and bologna.
Then on a chance after three months, he stepped into the human resources office at Xandar Studios and found work as a grip. Not in front of the camera and not a steady income, but enough to afford a small hovel and bring him one step closer to those action stars.
They had just passed Lone Pine when Hank stirred. Rudy turned his eyes toward the front of the car. After a couple of beers, Hank had fallen asleep before the lights of Mohave had faded behind them. Rudy relished Hank’s grating snore as it meant he couldn’t keep up the constant chatter with Tony.
Hank stretched his hands up, pushed on the headliner and forced a growled yawn.
“After we’ve raped the bitch ‘til her brains turn to pancake batter, then what?”
“Unless she kills us first,” Tony said, “the whore has to die.”
“How we gonna do it?” Hank asked.
“What do you think, lover boy?” Tony asked.
Rudy sensed that Tony searched for his image in the rearview mirror and turned his hooded face back to the side window. This was the conversation he had dreaded. He couldn’t imagine any circumstance where he would bring harm to her. But once he realized their deception in the warehouse, he not only feared this outcome, but that he would be dead right next to her.
“You never said we were going to kill her. In fact, we agreed we weren’t going to hurt her at all. She was supposed to think the screen test was real. Can’t we—?”
“No we can’t,” interrupted Tony. “She recognized you. If she hadn’t, then yes, maybe we could’ve let her go, but not now. Sooner or later she would’a figured out that the screen test was bullshit, but by that time all the evidence would have been gone and so would we. There would have been nothing tying us to it.”
“So, what are you saying?” Rudy asked. He leaned forward in his seat and caught Tony’s eyes in the mirror. “Even if she didn’t recognize me, I would’ve never been able to see her again?”
Tony turned to Hank, and laughed, “I think the boy’s got it.”
Hank laughed and howled like a wolf.
“Of course not, asshole!” Tony shouted. “Start thinking with your head and not your cock. Once she figured out there was no screen test, she’d come looking for you alright. Not because she would want to have another go at you, but because she wanted to chop your balls off. Now she’ll want revenge. Whether she can pull it off is still to be seen, so until things get out of hand, we’ll keep the play thing around.”
“Maybe we should take her out to the desert,” Hank sneered, “and stake her to the ground in some god-forsaken place. Then we’ll just leave her there for the coyotes to rip the skin from her bones and the vultures to peck away her eyeballs.” He wailed again.
“You’re sick,” Rudy shouted. The realization of how badly he had misjudged his friend made his stomach feel like it had been wrapped with barbed wire. “We just can’t kill her,” he whimpered. “She’s innocent, she didn’t do anything.”
“Not yet,” Tony chided, “for that we’ll have to wait and see. I have a feeling she’s back there plotting right now and you’re probably top on her list for getting her into this.”
“She’s not like that. Why don’t you drop us off somewhere and then you disappear? I love her and if I can just get some time with her I know she will warm up to me.”
“You’re a damned nutcase, kid. You don’t know what love is. You’ve confused it with horny. This was just a fantasy with someone you’re infatuated with. If we give her enough time and opportunity, she’ll see us all dead, you included.”
“She’ll never do that, just give me time.”
Tony glared into the mirror at the hooded figure in the back seat and said, “Time is something we may not have.”
_____
©
Jearl Rugh 2012
All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment