REAL LIFE/REAL DEATH Chapter Fourteen

“EASY CHOICES”

We were parked outside of large, fancy hotel, I don’t remember which one.

The anonymity of being one out of hundreds of parked cars was a little comforting. Jennifer had gone inside to see if the others were still checked in. Apparently this place was their de facto hideout. Whoever chose this place must have had money to throw around. She said it was one of her teammates, the one that paid for all their plane tickets. I found it suspicious, that’s for sure, if for no other reason than the generosity.

Sandy and I sat in silence. I couldn’t say anything to her. What was I supposed to say? I had a whole new realization. I could see what our relationship was all along, nothing more than an easy thing. What really upset me was that I had gotten really accustomed to it. I guess I was beginning to treat it like a second marriage. But it was easier because we didn’t have to see each other all the time.

“Frank…listen,” she started, “about what happened back there. I swear, I didn’t…It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”

“You don’t have to say anything. I know the score. Pete got me drunk, got my car away from me, then dropped me off for you to keep busy ‘til the other guys came for the pick up. Right?”

“Frank, Gurly didn’t tell me anything. He just said I was supposed to keep you busy. He said…he said you’d be better off this way. “

“Better off in what way? I could have just crawled back into the bottle and forgotten about the whole thing, right? Go back to being the pathetic, drunken fuck up. That’d be better for everyone, huh? Well fuck, he’s probably right. It wouldn’t have been that hard. Feels like I been doing that my whole life. But I’ll tell you one thing, that girl wouldn’t have been better off. What about her? How am I supposed to live with that?”

I must have raised my voice a little because she screamed at me next. “Don’t fucking yell at me!” she said, “You never cared about anyone but yourself as long as I known you, and now all the sudden you gotta do right by this girl? She’s not your daughter, Frank! You abandoned her ten years ago, and helping out Jennifer is not going to make up for that!”

Every decision we make, every choice we are given, we have to struggle with what our intelligence tells us is right, and what our impulse tells us to do. For some people, it’s no choice at all, as the two are one in the same. For others though, like myself, it’s a constant struggle, and the easier of the two choices is usually taken. It’s not that I don’t want to be a better person, it’s that somewhere along the way, I got to a point where I felt I didn’t deserve to be a better person and just let my impulses carry my decisions.

The last time my ex-wife spoke to me like Sandy just did; she left with a broken nose. She took our daughter with her and I’ve never spoken to either of them since. Now, I’m a man who can recognize his own faults no matter how much he tries not to, but that doesn’t mean I like to hear them. I could feel my mind racing and my fists clenching.

REAL LIFE/REAL DEATH Chapter Thirteen

“SHARON”

Her scream drowned out the other sounds of the night.

It was hard to tell exactly what was going on. Between the flashing lights of the squad car, the piercing beam of the handheld flashlight, and all my regular anxieties brought on by the usual city night life, I was finding it hard to focus. But what I can tell you is that within seconds, Jennifer and I were running down the street in front of the apartment complex. She left the two cops on the ground, no doubt calling for backup, if it wasn’t already on the way.

We didn’t get half way down the street when a car sped past us from behind, squealing to a halt just in front of us. My heart sank because I thought it must have been Ross. But I paused in surprise when Sandy jumped out of the driver side door and screamed, “What are you waiting for? Get in!”

I rushed into the passenger seat and Jennifer climbed in the back. I was breathing pretty heavily. Sandy hadn’t really entered my mind since the guns started firing, and now that I was thinking about it, I wasn’t sure if I should be trusting her. Shit, I didn’t know what I should be doing anymore.

I don’t know if I really loved Sandy, but whatever we had, it was as close to love as I was capable of getting. Emotionally, I couldn’t handle the idea of her selling me out. But the more I tossed it around in my head, the less impossible it seemed. I mean, why wouldn’t she? It’s not like she has anything invested in me. I’m just a lonely old fucker who gives her attention whenever he needs a lay. I don’t deserve her love. I don’t deserve anybody’s love. Not since my marriage with Sharon ended. Christ, I haven’t even thought her name in forever, not since Sandy came into the picture. So fuck it, I know what you’re thinking and you’re probably right. I was just using Sandy to help forget Sharon. I knew that. Sandy knew it too, I’m sure. Maybe she didn’t believe it, but deep down she knew it.

So yeah, how can I blame her for selling me out? I’m sure she got enough money for it. Lord knows she could use more money. Then again, who couldn’t? Were I in her position, I can’t say I wouldn’t have thought it over.

“Frank!” Sandy yelled, interrupting my thoughts. “Jesus fuck, Frank! I’m trying to talk to you here!”

“Sorry, was just thinking about some stuff,” I solemnly responded.

“Well, you better start thinking about what you’re going to do now. Jesus, what happened to those cops back there?

“That’s a good question.” I said, turning around to see if Jennifer was even in the car. She sat with her head down, like a dog who knew she was in trouble and about to get whipped.

“It was his ring,” she finally said. “He was wearing a ring on his right hand. It was the same ring I saw two nights ago when Azul died.”

“His ring? It could have been a wedding ring,” I said flippantly.

“No, I saw his hand pick up the brief case. It belonged to the same man that killed Azul. It was him. I know it.”

“You didn’t say anything about no ring before.”

“It was there, okay?” she screamed, “I saw it. I swear it was him.”

“Do you realize what you’re saying? You’re saying a cop was involved in a drug deal and killed your friend who was a witness,” I said.

“That’s crazy,” exclaimed Sandy.

“No, it’s not,” I confessed, “Koslowski is as crooked as they come. Fuck, of course. It had to be him, that’s why he was riding me the other day. He’s looking for the other witnesses. That’s why Gurly was playing along with him. I bet it was Gurly’s money. Koslowski was going to give the money back in exchange for the girl. Aw fuck. This is fucked. We got to find somewhere to go.”

“I know where to go,” Jennifer whispered.

“What?” I asked, “Where do you know?”

“Well, see, we had a rendezvous. The team, I mean, in case we got separated, we had a secret meeting place.”

“What? Why didn’t you say anything about this before?” I shouted.

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to go back, after Azul got shot. I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

“You didn’t know if you could trust ME?” I shouted even louder.

“Frank, Jesus, she was scared, okay. Leave her alone,” Sandy said.

“Alright, your right. Fine. Shit. Let’s meet up with them. If they’re even still there. Maybe they all came to their senses and got outta town. I hope they got some more information. If this is turning out to be what I think it is, we’re going to need more witnesses, or we’re going to be spending a lot of time in prison. If we’re lucky.”

Admittedly, I felt some relief from having some sense of direction finally, but it was undercut by one other thing.

Detective Ross was going to be pissed.

REAL LIFE/REAL DEATH Chapter Twelve

“IN THOSE EYES”

The phone rang interminably.

“Hello?”

“Detective Ross?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Ross, it’s Frank, Frank Calico.”

“Frank! What are you calling me for? You know the whole precinct is looking for you?”

“Yeah, I figured. Look, something big has gone down. I don’t know, I just…It’s big, okay. I want to talk to you. I thought I could handle this, but…I just don’t know. Things keep happening. I don’t even know what I’m trying to do anymore. I’m too paranoid, I guess. I need help. But, I need someone I can trust, okay?”

“Okay. Right. Well listen, I’m on my way home, why don’t you meet me there, okay?”

“I don’t have my car.”

“Well, alright, I’ll have somebody pick you up. Where are you?

“At Sandy’s.”

“Jesus, Frank. We just got a 911 call about some shootings over there. You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”

“No, well, yeah, look I can’t…I can’t talk about it right now! Fuck.”

“Okay, okay, okay, calm down. There’s already some officers on their way over there. Just stay put. I’m on my way over, too.”

“Ross, I called you for a reason. I don’t trust cops right now.”

“Frank, now c’mon…”

“Don’t bullshit me and try to tell me there’s no such thing as corrupt cops, Ross. You of all people should fucking know that!

“You’re right, Frank. I’m sorry. Okay look, I’ll be there shortly. Just stay out of sight, and for the love of God don’t do anything stupid.”

“Fine.”

“Look, Frank…just relax okay. You’re going to be fine.”

I took a deep breath, couldn’t think of anything to say, and hung up the phone. I liked Ross, but I never knew how to talk to him. He was a good man. He was a responsible man. He was also responsible for me losing my job, but it’s hard to be mad at him. He was doing the right thing. I was in a bad place at the time. I don’t like to dwell on that time of my life.

I did feel a little relieved after getting off the phone with Ross. Everything got really fucked up over the last few days, and it was nice to know that everything would go back to normal. Well, as normal as it could, I guess. I made my way back to Jennifer, she was still sitting on the curb. She was looking up, staring at the stars, I guess. When she noticed me approaching, she buried her head between her knees and arms.

She was crying.

She did her best to cover it up, but it was still pretty obvious. Fuck. I didn’t know what was going on with this girl, but I was beginning to think it was too big for me. I was almost ready to just turn her over to Ross and be done with her.

“Jennifer,” I said, “I got a friend to come pick us up. He’s…he’s a cop, but he’s a good man. We can trust him. “

She didn’t look up, she just kept quietly crying. I stood there, trying to think of something to say. I was beginning to feel anxious about standing out here. I didn’t know how long it would take Detective Ross to get here, but I didn’t really want to talk to anyone else if I didn’t have to. I didn’t like to interrupt a crying woman, and couldn’t really think of how I would approach doing so. It didn’t matter, though. I never got the chance.

I felt the squad car pull into the parking lot before I ever saw it. Cops give off an aura; you can just feel whenever they are around. The cruiser pulled up in front of us, blinding us with its headlights and drenching everything else in alternating shades of red and blue.

An officer stepped out of the driver side door, followed by his partner on the passenger side. Even though the cruiser’s headlights were pointed right at us, he still drew his flashlight and shined it directly in my eyes. I squinted, unable to see.

“Hands where I can see them,” he said.

I already had my hands up trying to shield my eyes, but Jennifer didn’t move. I tried to keep their attention on me.

“Look, officers, I just spoke with Detective Ross and he’s on his way over…”

“Well, well, well,” he interrupted, “Frank Calico. I thought we’d find you here.”

My stomach turned upon hearing the way he spat out my name. It was that son of a bitch Koslowski. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

“So you talked to Ross, huh? Well, we’re responding to a 9-1-1 call. Seems somebody’s been shooting off some guns in the area. You know anything about that?”

“I’m only going to talk to Ross.”

“That a fact? Who’s your friend there; maybe she doesn’t have a problem talking to me.”

Jennifer finally looked up. I guess she was off in her own little world for a while there, because once she realized what was going on, she stood up as tense as possible.

“We’re both only going to talk to Ross,” I said resolutely. I hated this fucking asshole and had no problem giving him as much shit as possible, but I still had to watch my tongue. Ross already agreed to help me out and I didn’t want to fuck things up more than they already were. I was going to have deal with Koslowski as nicely as possible until Ross got here.

“Well then you can wait for him in the squad car, for your safety,” he said.

“Fine,” I said between gritted teeth.

“Hey Mike, what’s this?”

Koslowski’s partner picked up something small and thin off the ground. It wasn’t until he brought it over to Koslowski that I realized what it was.

“My mask!” Jennifer screamed. She shot up off the curb and snatched it out of their hands.

“Whoa, girl! What do you think you’re doing?” yelled Koslowski. Things were getting tense.

She clutched the mask to her chest, ignoring the irate cops.

“A mask? What the hell you need a mask for?” Koslowski’s partner asked.

“Shut up, Jerry,” Koslowski snapped, “Alright ma’am, I need you to cooperate with me and get into the car.”

Jennifer stood there, not even acknowledging the cops. I was starting to get a sickening feeling in my stomach.

“Ma’am, I will not ask you again.” Koslowski approached Jennifer and unhooked his handcuffs from his belt.

“Wait a minute, Koslowski,” I started, but was interrupted when he shinned his flashlight in my face.

“Shut your god damned mouth. I’m through fucking around here. Get in the fucking car!” he barked. Normally, I’d never let this little shit talk to me like that, but I was determined to keep myself from fucking this up for Ross. Koslowski put his flashlight away, but his partner, Jerry, kept his trained on the girl. Koslowski grabbed Jennifer’s wrist, forcing her to look up.

There was a single quiet moment when the whole city seemed to pause, waiting for a reaction. Now, verbal and physical abuse I could take, but I could not abide this piece of shit laying his hands on that poor girl. I felt a volcano build up inside of me. All my sickness and anger was boiling out of me and all I had to do was give it a target.

But I didn’t.

Before I could react, for that brief second when the world stopped and Jennifer and Koslowski were caught in the flashlight beam like actors on a stage, I saw Jennifer’s eyes. They were fixed directly on the hand gripped around her wrist. And in those eyes I saw a torrent of emotion that smothered all my rage and sickness.

Inglourious Basterds

I'm going to talk extensively about the movie, so be warned, there are spoilers aplenty.

It's long been my contention that Quentin Tarantino's movies work so well because they are self aware genre pieces, each one seemingly more so it's predecessor. Inglourious Basterds is no exception. Like Kill Bill and Death Proof before, Tarantino is going for a deliberate "genre mash up" style, done in such a way as only he can do. Also similarly to Death Proof, Tarantino is making a movie about movies. But where Death Proof was primarily about the portrayal of women and men in horror movies, Inglourious Basterds reaches for a bigger goal, that of racism in America, and it's manipulation through Hollywood.

The film opens, appropriately enough, with "The Green Leaves of Summer", a song originally used as the opening to John Wayne's own War/Western film, The Alamo. Aside from being a good song that sets a wonderful mood, this connection to John Wayne provides a direct link to the old American Western Films that Tarantino will be will be commenting on in Inglourious Basterds.

The first chapter introduces us to Landa, the ruthless Nazi officer known as the "Jew Hunter". Landa is charged with hunting down all the Jews hiding in France, the new territory that the Nazi's have taken by force. Landa himself is intelligent, charming, and poetic in nature, but beneath that lies a horribly racist, murderous, madman. He is despicable, but also frightening. Tarantino does a fantastic job of giving us a great villain that would be at home in any classic War film, which becomes a little unsettling when you remember that it's not just a War film, but also a Western film. Yes, this is a Western, and the Nazis are representations of the Manifest Destiny Americans.

The Nazi's are our "cowboys" and in the second chapter we are introduced to our "Indians", the American Jewish soldiers known as the Basterds. Tarantino draws a lot of parallels between the American Indian and the Basterds. The Basterds' only mission is to terrorize the Nazis. They do this through guerrilla warfare, which includes scalping dead Nazis, brutally beating prisoners to death, and carving swastikas on the foreheads of the survivors. The scalping plays a significant part in the movie. It's important to remember that scalping was not a widespread practice among Native Americans, quite the contrary, European colonists paid Native American's bounties for the scalps of their enemies. The savagery of scalping was something that was grafted onto Native American's and portrayed as natural through Hollywood Westerns. In the same fashion, Tarantino's Jews learn from the Nazi's. Just as the Nazi's branded Jews with the Star of David, the Basterds brand the Nazi's by carving the swastika into their foreheads.

In the fourth chapter, Tarantino drives home the metaphorical point even further when the undercover Basterds have a confrontation with a Gestapo officer. The group play a bar game that involves trying to guess(through a series of questions) the name of a famous person(real or fictional) written down by the person next to you. The Gestapo officer's card reads King Kong. After a series of guesses he learns that he was "born in the jungle, came to America on a boat, was not benefited by his arrival, and imprisoned(or something along those lines)" and unsuccessfully concludes that he is "the story of the black man in America". When he's told that he is wrong, he matter of factly states, "Oh, then I must be King Kong." Tarantino speaks the universal language of film. Everybody knows King Kong, and if you didn't think about it being an allegory for racism, he expects that you do now, and if you're willing to accept that, then you may be ready to look for the same allegories in his film.

Inglourious Basterds has a fairly straightforward Western plot, but told with Nazi's and Jews in place of cowboys and Indians, and in doing so, gives us a movie where we effectively root against John Wayne, the Hollywood Cowboy icon.

But as I said earlier, this is also a War film, but Tarantino isn't as interested in looking at the effects of War as he is in looking at the effects of War Films(it's a movie about movies remember). The rest of the movie focuses of the War Film as propaganda. The Nazi's made many propaganda films portraying the superiority of the Aryan and the inferiority of the Jew(similarly, Western Films champion the superiority of the White Man over the savagery of the Red Man).

The other story that runs concurrent with the Basterds story is the story of Shosanna, the young Jewish girl who survived Landa's brutal assault in the first chapter. She is now living under an assumed identity and owns a movie theater. After meeting Frederick Zoller, a Nazi parody of Audie Murphey, her identity becomes endangered when he falls in love with her and wants to screen his latest film in her theater. This leads to the climax of the movie where the top members of the Nazi party, including Hitler himself, attend the movie.

The Basterds infiltrate the theater, with the intention of blowing it up. Shosanna intends to burn it all down. As the plans unfold, we being seeing the Nazi propaganda film, a film in which the young Nazi star does nothing but shoot down American soldiers in a violent fashion, all the while the Nazi movie patrons cheer as the Americans are shot down. But then Shosanna's secret plan is put into action. She has recorded her own message over the ending of the Nazi propaganda film in which she proclaims that she's going to burn the building down with everyone trapped inside and they should know that "the Nazi's will die by the hand of a Jew". A fire is started using the theater's film cache, which burns three times faster than paper. As the message plays, the theater is engulfed in flames. The Basterds, their plan having completely fallen apart, improvise by grabbing machine guns and repeatedly mowing down Nazis. Ironically, we are now cheering at a scene in which the Americans do nothing but shoot down the Nazis in a violent fashion. This all culminates in the big scene where Hitler is riddled with bullets. Even after he is dead, and they've moved on to shooting the movie patrons, one of the Basterds makes it a point to go back and continue shooting Hitler until he is no longer recognizable.

So, what we have here is Hitler, in a movie theater, being butchered beyond recognition by films, while a movie announces his death at the hands of Jews. With the understanding that many power players in Hollywood are Jewish, and the fact that for the last sixty years Hitler(and Nazis in general) have been torn down so completely by Hollywood to the point of being cartoonish villains, I'd say it's a fairly accurate portrayal of what happened to Hitler.

Inglourious Basterds raises a lot of points about Hollywood's control over our perceptions, and plays our expectations of genre against us to give us a movie that might be deeper than it initially wants you to believe. I immensely enjoyed it, even if it didn't feel as tight as Pulp Fiction or as superficially awesome as Kill Bill.

REAL LIFE/REAL DEATH Chapter Eleven

“NIGHT CAT”

The city was abuzz with its nighttime choir of sounds, but it was all silence to me.

The sound of my heavy breathing echoed inside my head. I was only listening for one thing, and I couldn’t hear it. I ran out of the apartment complex, desperate to find what I was looking for.

And I did. She was running in my direction, ducking behind cars in the parking lot. Then I saw him. He was just another guy in a suit and he seemed to be by himself, but I knew he was armed. All the others were. He was standing at the opposite side of the parking lot. I doubted he saw me, but I hung back in the shadows anyway. He just stood there for a moment, surveying the lot. It was dark and I doubted he could see much of anything.

My gun felt heavy in my hand. I looked back at the man in the parking lot. He was slowly stalking his way through the lot. He was on alert, but he didn’t see me. I tried to raise my gun up, it was a clear shot. My hand was still shaking. I grabbed hold of my arm with my left hand, unsuccessfully trying to steady my aim. I couldn’t do it. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger.

I felt sick. The guy in the suit was making his way toward me; I was surprised he hadn’t seen me yet. In a way, I guess I wanted him to. Everything would be so much easier if he’d just shoot me. It would be a fitting end to my night.

But he never got the chance. Helplessly, I stood there and watched as that stupid girl jumped out from behind a car and effortlessly kicked the gun out of his hands. It went off when it hit the ground. In the time it took the gunshot to echo across the parking lot, the man was dropped to the ground, effortlessly it seemed, by a few precise kicks.

I ran toward her, calling out, “Anne!”

She spun around so quick I thought she was going to attack me. Thankfully, she didn’t.

“No Anne here, sir. Just me, Night Cat,” she said in what almost sounded like a parody of a police officer.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, you know what I meant, Jen-Jennifer. Whatever.”

“No. I’m Night Cat. And as long as Night Cat is here, nobody is getting shot. Not anymore.”

Her fists were clenched tightly, ready to knock somebody out. I took a step back; her voice was different, and not as reserved as it had been before. She was emotional, and ready to explode on the first person to argue with her. Unfortunately, so was I.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Are you crazy? Those guys had guns, they were shooting at you! Why the fuck did you run down that hallway. Don’t you have any sense?” I kept screaming at her for a minute or so, I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I’m sure I repeated myself a bunch of times. She finally just cut me off.

“Somebody had to something!” she shouted, “that what being a superhero is all about. I can’t just be doormat for the rest of the world. I won’t be. I won’t let anybody else get hurt. That’s Night Cat’s job!”

“I’m just glad that you’re okay,” I finally blurted out, “Look, this is big, okay. Somebody sent these people after us. I…I have to call the cops.”

“I thought you didn’t trust cops,” she sneered. Her newfound courage was unsettling.

“I was wrong, okay. I was being stupid. We can’t just let this go. It’s…too much.”

“Good,” she said, “These men should be arrested. Breaking and entering, assault, I’m sure there’s plenty of other stuff these guys are guilty of.”


“Right,” I stuttered out, “I’ve got a friend, a detective. I’ll give him a call. He may be able to keep this low profile. It’ll probably be better for both of us.”

“Fine,” she said and sat down on the curb to wait.

REAL LIFE/REAL DEATH Chapter Ten

"THIRTY-EIGHT SPECIAL"

My ears were ringing.

I shook my head, trying to get my bearings. I think the alcohol was finally wearing off. There was a familiar weight in my right hand. My gun. The Thirty-eight Special had been fired. I looked over to Sandy, she was screaming something. At least, that’s what it looked like; my vision was a little blurred and I couldn’t hear what she was saying, just a dull tone muffling her voice. I looked back to the doorway, there was a man in a navy blue suit leaning against the wall in the hallway, clutching his leg as cherry red blood leaked out.

Fuck. I just shot someone. I fell backwards, fortunate that the couch was there to catch me. I needed to snap to attention, and fast. My hand was shaking so I put the gun away, unsteadily. That gun hadn’t been fired in over twenty years. What had I done? Suddenly, everything seemed so pointless, so futile. Maybe my time really was up and I’ve just been prolonging the inevitable, torturing myself out of some deep sense of self loathing. What the fuck do I deserve to live for anyway?

Steadily, the sound of Sandy’s voice came pouring back into my ears.

“FRANK!” She yelled, “You have to get out of here! Are you listening to me?”

She had been repeating herself for what seemed like eternity. Even when my hearing returned, I still couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge her.

Then, I heard her say something different.

“What the shit! What’s she doing?” screamed Sandy as she jumped behind the couch, followed by the distinct sound of a man punching a large side of beef.

Looking up, I saw Jennifer, in full costume, twisting a man’s arm around behind his back. I think I heard a ‘snap’ but I don’t honestly remember. She turned toward me and I could see her mask covering her face. That fucking mask! I didn’t think she still had it.

The man screamed. He had entered the apartment after seeing his companion get shot and was immediately disarmed by Jennifer. That damn girl was going to get herself killed!

“It’s okay, Frank! Night Cat is here.” She said, rather boisterously. She gave the man a sharp kick to the back of his shin, felling him instantly.

Another gunshot pierced the air and splintered the door panel next to Jennifer’s head. Then, before I could even react, she bolted down the hallway toward the gunfire. Two more gunshots rang out, followed by scuffled feet. I was completely paralyzed with fear, unable to move until I noticed the bleeding man leaning against the wall. Still clutching his leg, he reached into his jacket for his firearm.

I pulled my revolver out and roared, “Don’t move!”

He froze and stared at me. I had my gun trained on him, but my hand was shaking like a rattlesnake tail. The gun nearly fell out of my hands. He turned toward me. I saw it in his eyes, he knew I wasn’t going to be able to hit him. But he didn’t shoot. He spoke.

“Frank, you damn fool. Why’d you have to complicate things?”

Realization crashed into me like waves on a beach. These were Gurly’s guys. I’d even worked with these guys before. The guy I shot was named Rick. The one on the floor’s name was Jason, I think. Fucking Gurly set me up. It was so fucking obvious. It was Gurly’s drug deal that went wrong last night. He must have been the one who sent the guy to my place. Then I fucking walked right into his arms. Fucking idiot!

“What are you here for, Rick?” I asked as calmly as I could.

“My name’s Nick you fucking idiot.” He snapped.

“Fuck you, asshole. What does Gurly want?”

“We’re not here for Gurly, fuckhead. Gurly sold you out. Too bad his stupid bitch stripper couldn’t keep her mouth shut, this would have gone a lot smooth—“

He coughed twice, spit up blood, and fell to the floor, leaving a bloody stain on the wall behind him. I don’t remember shooting him, but the smoke was still emanating from the chamber of my Smith and Wesson, which now contained two less bullets than it did yesterday.

I looked down the hall, desperate to see Jennifer, but all I could see was a couple of bodies lying on top of each other. I hoped to God she wasn’t one of them.

This whole day had been one colossal fuck up.

REAL LIFE/REAL DEATH Chapter Nine

“SANDY BREEZE”

Sandy’s lips sucked gently on my neck. It was a good way to end the night.

Sandy Breeze was a stripper at Gurly’s. She was small and stout in stature, had short, dark brown hair, and was pushing forty. She wasn’t the most attractive stripper, but something about her just pressed all my buttons. She reminded me of better days.

And she seemed to like me well enough. To say what we had was a relationship was a bit of a stretch, but it was something. I don’t think either of us was looking for any kind of relationship anyway. Relationships just lead to misery. But even a lonely old broken fucker like me needs some companionship every once in a while. She had other occasional boyfriends, but never anything serious. At least, not serious enough to disrupt what we had between us. I don’t know what she saw in me that kept her from ditching me altogether, but I wasn’t going to fuck it up by asking.

It was stacking up to be a pretty good night. I was more than a little drunk so Pete gave us a ride to Sandy’s once his shift was over. It just felt so good to get everything off my mind. I didn’t have to think about murders and costumes and drugs. All I had to think about was Sandy’s plump lips making their way up my neck.

But then, inexplicably, I pulled away. I don’t what was wrong with me, but I just couldn’t get one thing out of my mind.

“Where’s Anne?” I asked.

“Who? Anne? Jesus, Frank, her name’s Jennifer,” Sandy moaned, “and I already told you, she in the other room watching television or something.”

I looked around a bit and sat up. I was inside Sandy’s bedroom and had been propping myself up on my elbows rather awkwardly. The room was small and cluttered with clothes and trinkets. I was lying on Sandy’s bed. It was small and crammed in the corner of the room. Sandy was hovering over me on her hands and knees. All in all, it was an excellent view from where I was sitting, but I still couldn’t get the girl out of my mind.

I nearly pushed Sandy off of me. She landed on her feet and stumbled to keep from falling over.

“Frank, what the fuck!?”

“Oh fuck,” I muttered, “Sorry doll. I just….where’s Anne?”

I could see tears welling up her eyes, “Frank…I…” she hesitated and sat down on the bed next to me, “Frank, Anne is gone. She left a long time ago. That girl you came over here with is named Jennifer.”

“I know that!” I snapped, “Fuck, you knew what I meant.

“I’m sorry, I know.” She sighed, “Frank, what’s wrong. I mean, I wasn’t going to ask, Jesse told me you needed a place to figure things out, but…this girl, you keep calling her ‘Anne’ but she is not your daughter. You don’t owe her anything.”

“She needs help. Isn’t that enough? She’s…not well. I just…She needs help, okay?”

“Oh Frank,” she said as she started to massage my chest, “I know you mean well, but helping this girl is not going to bring your daughter back.”

I stood up and wobbled trying to maintain my balance, “I too fucking drunk to help anybody, anyway. Where’s Jen?”

“I already told you, she’s in the other room.” Sandy crossed her arms. She was pretty upset. She hated repeating herself.

I walked out of the bedroom and saw Jennifer sitting on the couch watching Sandy’s TV. She was still wearing my old clothes. I nearly fell over just from walking across the room and quickly found an empty chair to collapse in. Jennifer gave me a timid look, but didn’t say anything. It was good, I didn’t really feel like talking anyway. I just sat there and let the ambient sound of the television lull me into a state of meditation.

Sandy walked out shortly thereafter and sat down on the couch. The TV droned on for a few minutes before Sandy started talking.

“So, I saw you and Pete were getting pretty friendly, are you his new girl?”

“Who me? No, of course not! We were just talking. He’s the first person that’s really been nice to me since I got here.”

“Oh, where are you from?”

“New York.”

“Well now, that’s quite a travel, what are you doing all the way out here?”

“I…” she paused, “it’s a long story.”

“S’alright, I understand.”

“No, it’s not like that, it’s just…” she trailed off.

“It’s okay, girl. You can trust Sandy. Prolly more’n you c’n trust me.” I said, or, at least I think that’s what I said. Whatever I said, it got her talking.

“Well, you are probably going to think this sound crazy, but…I’m a Real Life Superhero.” Jennifer braced herself for the inevitable barrage of questions, but got a little surprise instead.

“Oh yeah, I saw something on the news a few months ago about that. I thought it was some kind of joke. I didn’t know people actually did it! Neat, what’s your superhero name?”

Jennifer was clearly caught off guard, but she seemed to relish in the fact that somebody was interested in her.

“Night Cat," she said gleefully taking of my old clothes revealing her costume underneath, “I have a cat mask with ears and everything, but no tail. Everything I tried with tails looked stupid and just got in the way.”

Sandy seemed to be warming up to Jennifer, which was good because it gave me time to relax. I really needed to get my head straightened out, figure out what was going on. Shit, but all I could think about was Sandy.

“What on Earth made you wan to do this?” Sandy asked skeptically.

“Well, I didn’t grow up in New York. I was born in Ohio. Spent most of my life there, actually. But then I moved out to New York with my boyfriend at the time…”

“Oh, I see,” Sandy interrupted, “one of those stories.”

“Yeah. We got a place together for a few months before it ended. He ended it. Fell in love with someone else. I was only 20. So there I was, all alone, little girl in the big city. I got a cheap place and a waitress job and was barely getting by. My parents wanted me to come home, but I just couldn’t. One night a coworker convinced me to go to some clubs with her to pick up some men. We spent the night dancing and drinking and I ended up going home with some guy. I didn’t really like him, but he was very insistent, for some reasons I couldn’t say ‘no’ to him. It was the alcohol. We walked home from the club, it was only a few blocks. Before we even got to his place he starts getting…intimate…with me. By the time we got to his apartment he was already trying to get my clothes off. I panicked and ran off, but I was still pretty drunk and had no idea where I was. I spent the night in an ally behind the club.”

“That’s…that’s horrible!” cried Sandy.

“I know, I felt like such a weak fool. The next weekend I signed up for Taekwondo classes, put together my costume, and patrolled the streets around the night clubs, in order to help girls from being taken advantage of.”

“Well good for you. Lord knows I couldn’t have used a superhero in life a couple of times.” Sandy said wistfully. Shit, I hoped that wasn’t supposed to be directed at me, I’m so bad with women.

She continued, “Have you ever gotten into a real fight. I mean, isn’t that dangerous. What if someone pulled a gun on you?”

The room got as silent as a graveyard. Jennifer sat down and covered her face. She just got brought back to reality. And it hurt.

“Oh shit,” stammered Sandy,” I…I didn’t mean…”

“That’s why we’re here, darling. One of her friends got murdered last night,” I coughed out, “now somebody is after us. And I just…I just don’t know what the fuck to do. I think maybe it’s the cops trying to cover something up, that Polack sonuvabitch knows something, that’s why Jesse set me up here tonight. I’m gunna owe him big for this, but at least he’s helping me out of a jam.”

I looked up at Sandy for the first time and saw tears streaming down her face, “Oh Frank,” was all she could stutter out before I heard the footsteps outside her apartment door.