Novel Treatments / Used Jazz: An Eddy Curant Story

USED JAZZ: an Eddy Curant Story

Chapter One
Eddy leaned against the wall of the restaurant above the Texaco gas station and stared at his shoes.  The black Converse All Star High tops seemed to hold the power to keep his fits of giggling under control.  

“Shut up! Gezz,” chirped Peter James as he peered around the corner of their elevated vantage point.  From here they could see the entire parking lot of the strip mall.  Jo Ann’s Pet Emporium, next to a dry cleaners which was next to a game store which was next to a shoe shop, which was next to a postal store.  It was fairly typical of a Southern California strip mall.  The property was anchored by the gas station that they were currently on top of.  Each of these little businesses was as un interesting and unremarkable as the next, save the little Mexican restaurant that currently housed their quarry.  

“They can’t hear me from here,” Eddy Curant replied.  “They probably can’t hear anything more than three feet away from them.”  He leaned around the corner to look at the parking lot for himself and smiled.  “They are probably just getting through the appetizer,” he paused to consider the financial wherewithal of their mark.  “He’s not too cheap to get an appetizer, is he?”  He asked shaking his head in response to his own question.  “Naw, he’s alright.”  

Eddy looked around at the small band of brothers that he had somehow ended up with.  He really wasn’t too clear on the events that lead up to his involvement with this set, but he had so far been glad.  Moving around a lot was difficult and it seemed like he had to start a new school every couple of years for most of his life, but in seventh grade his family finally decided to stay in one place and he found himself actually having the same group of friends for awhile now.

“Got anything to eat?”  Ty Gudrun asked the rest as he searched through his pockets for money or food or anything that could easily be converted into food.  Ty wasn’t the biggest of their group of friends but he was close.  He stood about six foot tall and had started to fill out quicker than most sixteen year olds.  His short blonde hair and blue eyes spoke of his Nordic ancestry but his anger came from somewhere out of the blue.  Eddy was never quite sure what drove Ty, but he had been on the receiving end of a fist from him on more than one occasion.  He tried to talk to him about it a couple of time but those conversations ended with a slammed down phone or another swing.  Ed found it best to just walk away and wait for whatever mental storm that crowded out all rational thought from Ty’s mind to pass.  Still, after all that, Eddy considered Ty a good friend.  They were in the same grade and he knew that they would be co-captains of the water polo team together in their senior year.  All of the people that they hung around with were either older or younger than them, so it was natural for them to be on par with each other.  It was like they were brothers in arms, having this common situational existence.  This request for food was not a surprise to Ed; Ty seemed to need to be eating all the time.  Eddy could pack away a lot but Ty took the cake.  “I’m gonna go downstairs and get something to eat.  Who’s comin?”  

“Yeah I’ll go,” Brian Leach replied as he got to his feet and put his gun in his pocket. He had been sitting in an exit door alcove, leaning against the wall, being almost invisible.  Brian was 17 and was the largest of the boys that Eddy hung out with.  He, like Ty was quick to anger, and didn’t mind using his fists instead of words.  Eddy often remarked that he was glad Brian was on their side.  Other than his occasional out burst, Brian was a low key guy.  He’d rather be in the background than be noticed.  They thought that it was a result of his home life at first, but Eddy had been to his house a number of times and it all seemed normal to him.  Caring family, all of them smaller than Brian.  Maybe he’s adopted?  They speculated, but they never got around to asking Brian about it.  Some questions are best left unasked.  Ty and he were hanging around a lot lately.  Eddy thought that is was because they were the only two that could handle each other in a fight.  Most everyone else at school tended to stay away from them, especially now that they were so close.  Together they were a force to be reckoned with.

“Just hurry up and don’t let anyone see you,” Peter said curtly through pursed lips.  It was the look he gave whenever someone deviated from what ever plan they had established.  It was what they saw every time they went to the movies and someone wanted to stop and get snacks or chips or a drink to avoid the concession stand prices.  It was a look that he used to display his displeasure and, for some reason, it always made Eddy laugh.  It reminded him of his grandmother

Eddy watched as the two walked down the stairs to the gas station and it made him appreciate his vantage point.  It was somewhat amazing to him that the owners of this building would keep this second story landing open even though the restaurant this landing served had been closed for years.  He had always liked the idea of having a restaurant on top of a gas station, but no one could make a go of it.  This facility was one of the oldest in the area.  It had been here for as long as Eddy could remember.  Long before the strip mall sprang up around it.  Even before the freeway was built that ran along its southern border.

Eddy and his family had been driving past this place for years.  He could remember a number of different chain restaurants that had used the building.  He had actually been able to talk his parents into stopping here on occasion.  It was on of those memories that just seem to stick in his head.  Nothing amazing happened, nor was it one of those days that a historian would determine to be of any significance, it was just a day.  But it was a day that Eddy had a stack of silver-dollar size pancakes two eggs and sausage.  He remembered that his father had coffee and smiled warmly as he ate.  In this memory he could not picture his mother, although he knew she was there.  He could tell you what he father was wearing, the color of the cream laden coffee that he drank and what he focused his attention on.  He figured it was this memory that was the reason he felt drawn to this particular building.  It was the last place he had ever seen his father.  It was not a painful memory, even after he had been told that his father had died.  It was just a memory.  Why his family decided to settle down in the same town as this building he did not know.  Was it fate?  Was it a sign of destiny?  Eddy sighed as shook the thought from his head.  It was what it was.  Just a coincidence.  

The building might have been jinxed for the food service industry, but it served their purpose tonight without fail.  The landing circled the building and had stairs on two sides, both hidden from the main parking lot of the strip mall by the building itself.  This fact was not lost on Peter and Eddy when they surveyed the location the day before.  It was a perfect launching point for an ambush; very little lighting, lots of cars to hide behind and plenty of bushes and poles to provide cover.  When the shooting begins, there will be plenty of things to hiding places, he thought as he looked over the killing field for the twenty third time that night.  

“Eight fifteen…Probably into the entrée by now,” Peter said looking at the diver’s watch that his parents gave him for his fifteenth birthday.  For his sixteenth birthday they gave him a car, who knows what they’d give him next week on his seventeenth.  Eddy looked at probably the smartest guy he knew and smiled.  Peter was just over six feet tall but skinny.  The kind of skinny that makes grandmothers shudder and run for their kitchens.  Ed never really thought of it that way, to him PJ was just PJ.  He smiled to think about how much his friend hated to be called PJ.  The brown haired kid just looked at Eddy and tried to understand what he was thinking.  Eddy had suddenly realized that if anyone was going to do something important with their lives, it would probably be Peter.  “What?”

“Nothing.  You should move his truck and see the hostess,” Eddy said with a smile.  This was going to get interesting very quickly.

“Why move his truck?”  Ned Yip asked.  Being the youngest Ned always took the brunt of the group’s abuse, especially when he asked questions, but for some reason he insisted on asking them.  He was fifteen and seemed to not be very observant.  Eddy had just met him this year and now that they were into the spring, Ned had become a permanent fixture in their tight knit group. It seemed to him that Ned was focused on being Eddy’s friend and didn’t really connect with the others very well, though they tolerated him well enough.  He was likable and often had an interesting story to tell, but in the end, he was Eddy’s friend.  

Eddy shook his head again and smiled.  

“Can you speak Chinese?”  Peter asked in a quiet voice?

“No, and I’m not Chinese, I’m Korean.”

“Exactly,” he replied and pulled a single key from his pocket.  “I lifted it from his mom,” Peter laughed lightly and headed down the stairs.

Eddy watched as the older boy started off across the parking lot.  “He’s moving the truck so when Mark comes out of the restaurant, he will have to look for it.  He and his date will be left to wander around the parking lot looking shelter while we attack,” Ed explained as he continued to watch Peter cross from one amber pool of light to another, like a gangly bug scooting across a black water pond bouncing from one dead lily pad to another.  

Ned stood up and looked over the railing to watch Peter’s procession.  “Mark’s truck kinda sticks out.  They’ll find it quickly, especially since the lot is pretty much empty.”

“Don’t be using that Vulcan logic to mess up everyone’s good time, Ned.”  Eddy said with a smile in his voice.

“That old bastard wouldn’t sell me beer,” Ty said as he trudged up the steps with Brian in tow. Eddy looked at the boys and thought that they looked odd, a bit worse for wear.  They seemed to stagger and shuffle across the landing to where he and Ned had been standing.   “Where’s mother?”  He asked as he reached into his jacket pocket.  

“Moving the car…Oh man, you guys stink,” Eddy said waving his hand in front of his face as if it would magically remove the offensive odors from his nose

“Yeah, well…”  Ty said as he took a bottle of vodka from his pocket.  “I come prepared ya know.  Want some?”  

“No thanks…I’m shooting tonight,” Eddy replied.  It was not unusual for Ty and Brian to be drinking.  It was unusual to be drinking at their age but Ty and Brian seemed to not really be concerned with that.  Although it seemed to happen more frequently these days, Eddy didn’t really care that much.  It seemed harmless enough.  He saw that the bottle they were sharing was almost gone and he assumed that the seal was probably intact when they started.  This is going to get interesting in a hurry, he thought holding out his hand.  “Keys.”

Ty scoffed and sprayed his sloppy vodka spittle through his pursed lips.  “So are you the new mother around here?”  He barked and he pulled out his car keys and tossed them on the ground at Eddy’s feet.  “There. Happy?”  

Eddy did not say anything as the two of them walked back to the exit door alcove to finish what they had started.  He picked up the keys and slipped them into his pocket.  It wasn’t the first time he had driven Ty home, and by the looks of it, it wouldn’t be the last.  Eddy didn’t have his own car, but he had a license and experience.  That was enough.  He turned his attention from his new burden to Ned and smiled.  “Get a driver’s license as soon as you can.  You never know when you’re gonna need it.”

Peter made his way to the fifty six GMC truck that he, Mark and Eddy spent all summer two years ago restoring.  The work was mainly sanding and minor body repair.  The old truck only had thirty six thousand original miles and that made for an easy time in getting the truck actually move.  After all their work, the metallic blue beast stood out everywhere.  It was easily recognizable, truly one of a kind.  So it was with tender care that Peter unlocked the door and climbed in.  

The noise of the motor was as unique as the truck’s color and so was the sound that the door made when it was closed.  But Peter had to take his chance and get this vehicle from the spot right in front of the El Habanera to somewhere in the back of the lot.  So he stuck in the stolen key and slowly twisted it as if by doing it slowly would make the motor turn over quieter.  

The straight eight lit off with its normal roar and Peter was slightly startled at the noise.  He chuckled nervously at himself as he looked at the entrance of the restaurant for any sign of the truck’s owner.  Seeing none, he turned around, dropped the transmission into reverse and eased the big blue beast out of its spot.  Quickly kicking it into drive, Peter pulled it into a spot about a hundred yards from the front door, but still in plain sight.  He figured that when Mark walks out of the restaurant and saw his car wasn’t where he left it, this would be the first place he’d look.

He got out of the truck, locked it up and pocketed the key.  Looking around to his friends on the second floor of the building in the back of the lot, Peter nodded to Eddy and walked to the front door of the restaurant.

“Alright fellas,” Eddy clapped his hands and pulled out his weapon.  “Just like we planned it; keep low and…” He looked directly at Ty and Brian for added emphasis,   “DO NOT be seen.  They’ll be sitting ducks.”

“Like shooting fish in a barrel.  Not that I’ve ever shot fish in a barrel,” Ty said taking the last swig from his bottle and setting it aside.  “It’s a kinda stupid saying if you ask me.”  

“No one asked you,” Eddy smiled and shoved his friend into action.  The four boys came down the steps two at a time. Eddy and Ty followed by Brian and Ned.  Each boy had their weapons drawn and safety’s off, ready for anything.  Eddy hit the blacktop at full speed and pointed his guns down range.  He rounded a Buick and motioned for Ned to stay there as he and Ty continued forward.  They advanced their positions to get as near to the front door of the restaurant as possible without being seen.

“I hate the food here.  It’s kinda bland,” Ty muttered through the intoxicants that Eddy knew were surely coursing through his brain, effecting his every thought and action.  

“Yeah, my parents like it but I always try to find a reason not to be with then when they come here,”  he said as they slammed their bodies into a van parked close to the entrance.  Eddy peered around the rear of the vehicle and two cars that were closer to the target at the end of the row of parked cars.  “I got the caddy you get the beamer.”  

“Oh 730i.  Just my speed,” Ty replied in a drunken imitation of James Bond.

“Shut up.”

Eddy could just glimpse Peter through the dark windows of the waiting area.  The heavy red velvet curtains did their best to hide him but only managed crop part of his body from view.  He looked across the aisle to see Ty slumped against a black BWM.  “Now we wait,” he said to himself as he tried to watch the events through the window.

Peter waited patiently at the podium that was typically manned by an attractive hostess.  The uniforms that they made the girls where in this place were flattering for a well endowed girl and that was the type they typically hired to serve as a hostess.  It was kind of sexist of him to feel that way and he did feel guilty about it, but he had to admit to himself that it was the only reason to come into this place because the food was horrible.  

He kept his eyes on the dining room and made sure that he could not be seen from the main room.  Slowly he turned around and faced the wall so his actions could not be seen and removed a round from his gun.  Smiling he wrapped it in a ten dollar bill and continued to wait.  

After a few minutes the hostess returned and Peter’s smile widened a bit more.  Their initial investigations of this place did not yield the fact that he might actually know someone on the inside.  This is going better than planned, he thought.  “Hi Jules.”

Julie Ryan was seventeen years old.  She was a friendly girl and sat next to Peter in his British Lit class.  Her wit made him look forward to each class.  She was always making fun of the books they were forced to read.  Never in a condescending way, but in a fashion that only someone that had actually read the works could pull off.  Peter thought that he was the only one that read anything for that class until Jules poked fun at Hamlet’s passive aggressive tendencies.   She wasn’t bad to look at either.

“Hey Peter!”  She said with a warm smile.  “You know that Mark and…”

“Shh!”  He said grabbing her arm and pulling her out of view from the main room.  “They don’t need to know I’m here.”

The tall girl flipped her long brown hair to one side of her head and focused her light brown eyes to where Peter had grabbed her arm.  She let her gaze rise up to meet the boy’s eyes and paused for a moment of emphasis.  A disapproving look spread across her round, normally soft face.  Peter immediately released his grip on her arm, shocked with himself and how forward he had been with her.  It was not like him to initiate contact in that way.  “Um…Sorry…”  He said “I…sorry.  I didn’t mean anything by that…”  He looked down into the girls eyes and felt his face grow warm.  His blush caught him off guard and he coughed, trying to refocus his thoughts on the task at hand.  “It’s just that I need your help,” Peter looked over the girl’s shoulder and hoped that Mark didn’t hear them.  Regaining his composure, he focused his mind on his purpose.  “Ok, look I need you to slip this into Mark’s bill folder thing.  I’ll give you ten bucks for your trouble,” he smiled like he had just made her an offer she could not refuse.  “But you can’t tell him who gave it to you.  It’s a surprise.”  Peter’s eyes lit up as his smile grew wicked at the thought of having Jules help him out.  This was indeed going better than he had hoped.

“What makes you think that I’ll do that for so little?  What makes you think that I’m for sale at any price?”  She said in mock protest as she took the object from his hand and unwrapped it from its ten dollar shield.  Once her eyes fell on the object, her face fell, and her voice began to falter.  “Oh no…I…I could get fired,” she said a bit worried of what was going to come of this.  “I like Mark and …”

“Yes, yes.  I do too.  Don’t worry,” he said reassuringly.  He was a bit surprised at how a situation could change so quickly with just the appearance of a projectile.  “Everything will be fine.  If you get fired it would probably be the best thing that ever happened to your budding hostess career.”  

“Yeah, and to your criminal career,” she said nervously with an affectionate smile.  “I suppose I could come visit you in Juvie,” she said with a bit of concern.  Slowly she rolled the object back and forth across her palm and finally sighed.  “Ok, I’ll do it, but you have to promise me two things.  First, no one gets hurt and second, you have to take me out after homecoming.”  

Peter’s mouth dropped open slightly at Jules’ forwardness but he quickly shut it.  “Yes of course.  You drive a hard barging, Ryan, but I suppose that I can make the arrangements.”
“Oh you know you lust after me,” she sighed dramatically.  “Now get out of here and tell everyone to be careful.  I’ll take care of this,” she added closing her hand around the object.

Peter walked towards the door, checking to ensure that he could escape without being noticed by his pray.  “I love you Jules,” he said in an overly sweet voice.  

“How could you not?” she replied in a giggle.

Chapter Two

Mark Kennedy sat at a table towards the back of the little Mexican restaurant near his home in Southern California.  A few of his friends from school had worked there off an on over the years and had commented that the little hole in the wall was a good place for a first date, as the atmosphere was conducive to a romantic evening.  The lighting was not so bright that every defect on his sun kissed face would stand out.  Nor was it too dark to appreciate the beauty of his date’s face and attire.  The level of conversation was such that it was carried slightly above the noise of the generic Mexican muzac but still low enough to give the illusion of intimacy.  

The meal itself played the appropriate role, it was not so horrible as to induce a lasting negative association with the entire evening by causing uncontrollable vomiting or embarrassing hospital visits.  On the other hand it was not good enough to up-stage the main actors in any way.  It simply sat on a plate like a prop in a dinner theater production of a romantic drama; rehearsed, produced and performed just for two.

The wait staff was polite and ultimately forgettable, just as he had hoped.  He had planned this night out well.   It really was an evening for just the two of them and he had done his best to be charming, attentive and in charge.  It was, at its essence THE perfect first date.

“I thought that we could go down to the beach or play some miniature golf,”  he suggested as the last of their plates were cleared away “Or maybe there is something that you’d like to do?”  He asked almost as a secondary thought.  It had only just occurred to him that she might have a better idea as to how the rest of their evening should go.

Samantha Parks simply smiled at her date.  The evening had gone very nicely up until this point and it was about to go down hill from here.  She could just tell that Mark was going to continue to be a perfect gentleman and that was not exactly what she thought she was signing up for when she agreed to this date.  Samantha had the opinion that Mark was more of a flirty, touchy boy.  Those eyes needed to closed and that mouth opened, pressed against mine,  she thought and licked her lips.

She had been looking at him all evening giving him what she thought were clear signals.  It was almost embarrassing she seemingly drank in his incredibly handsome features.  Mark was not a particularly tall boy, probably five foot eight she imagined as they walked into the restaurant.  Taller than me, tall enough.  His close cut wavy brown hair and his light brown eyes blended in perfectly with his perpetual tanned skin.  He was definitely good looking enough for her, but so were a lot of boys.  The thing that got to her before she agreed to this date was his seemingly inexhaustible amount of self confidence.  He was always calm and charming, a bit roguish perhaps but not to the point of causing a concern.  She looked across the table again and sighed lightly.

The brief reverie almost caused the pretty blonde haired girl to blush deeper than her red lipstick, but really that was what she was thinking.  Is that so wrong?  “How about we just get into that truck of yours and see where it takes us.”  There,  she thought.  That should give him a decent road map.

She cast her eyes around the horrible little restaurant and wondered why he brought her here.  Must be his favorite place.  Next time I’ll suggest the little Thai place by the theater.  She mused as her thoughts turned to being alone with him in that awful truck.  It’s cold and clunky, but roomy enough.

The waiter shrugged as if he could care less when Jules asked him to add an object to the bill folder.  He simply carried it to the table where the two teenagers were having an obvious first date.  It wasn’t the tenor of the conversation they were having that gave them away.  Although he did get a couple of laughs at the boy’s explanation of how his family was in no way related to the east coast Kennedy’s and almost fell ill as the kid complemented the blonde on everything from her shadow to a poem she wrote in their English class. Rather it was the lengthy silences that seemed to border on cripplingly awkward.  Better him than me.  He mused as he watched them engage in some ancient form of ritualistic flatware arranging.  “I dropped out of college for this?”  He muttered to himself as he passed their table knowing full well that this kid would not be able to handle the complicated mathematical computations need to add 15 % to his bill.

“Ah, yes, well if there is anything else that I can do for you just let me know.”  The server said as he laid the bill folder on the table next to the young man.  “I’ll take that up when you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” Mark said as he reached for his wallet.  “If you hold on a sec you can take it up right now.”  Suddenly he felt that they should be going and the quicker the better.  It wasn’t the girl’s attentions that made him want to take her out of here; it was some kind of feeling that gently nudged him into action.  A sort of inner guide that suggested that they had best be on their way.  Mark had already calculated in his head the cost of the meal, including appetizers, sodas, desert, coffee, tax and an 18% tip.  Math was easy for him and he smiled as he placed the $47 dollars into the folder.  He glanced at the total on the bill and smiled smugly as it confirmed his mental gymnastics.  “Here you go.”  

As he handed the bill back to the waiter, a small pink disk fell out from between the fake leather folds.  It hit the white table cloth and spun around twice before it wobbled to a rest, staring up at him like a strange albino’s eye.  “Keep the change,” Mark added absentmindedly as his attention turned from his exceptional math skills to the object on the table.

“Thanks,” The waiter replied as he took the bill and walked away.  That kid’s not bad.  He thought as he headed into that void which all servers seem to disappear into right after being paid.

“What is that?”  Samantha asked following her date’s light brown eyes to the pink disk on the table.  “Where did it come from?”  

“It came with the bill; the warning always comes with the bill…”  He muttered as he picked up the plastic projectile.  He placed it in his palm and turned it over a couple of times.  The object of so much interest was a little smaller than a quarter but bigger than a nickel.  In the middle of this flat flying object was a hole about the size of a pencil eraser and next to this central hole were curved slits that aided in the aiming of the bullet.  “This is a tracer disk.  You put them into a tracer gun, you know, one of those little plastic guns you get in the toy aisle at the grocery store?  It can hold about 20 of them without jamming up…”  He began to explain then he held his tongue.

How many?  He wondered.  They’re just outside waiting around my truck for sure.  Panic began to invade his thoughts.  This was going so well…Good thing I parked right in front.  If we are quick maybe she won’t notice.  He thought trying to convince himself that this would not ruin his evening.  He looked at Samantha and could tell that she wanted to go.  The light in her eyes also revealed that it didn’t much matter where, as long as it was now.  So waiting the attackers out was not going to be a solution on tonight’s menu.  Besides, he thought, Peter is infinitely more patient than I.  He retraced his steps about this night and couldn’t recall tipping any off about it.   How did they find out?  I didn’t tell anyone…”Say Samantha, did you happen to mention to anyone that we were going out here tonight?”

“Yes of course I did.  I’ve been talking about it all week.”  She smiled.  “I’ve wanted to go out with you for a long time, you know.  I can’t keep that kinda info all to myself.”  

Mark smiled weakly and nodded knowingly.  He couldn’t tell her not to tell her friends that they were going out.  That would just seem wrong.  He ran the conversation through his mind just to make sure:
“Hey, I like you, I want to take you out to dinner and a nice quiet drive along a deserted road where we could stop and get to know each other better.  Oh, don’t tell anyone, not even your closest friend.”
That was just wrong, indeed.  

Now that these events were sent in motion, he couldn’t tell her what was about to happen.  He was bound by the rules and that breaking them meant a more sever form of punishment: A set of very serious consequences.  The only thing he was allowed to do at this point was arm her.  

Mark reached into his coat pocket and realized that in his arrogance of a perfectly planned first date he forgot the back-up plan.  Like so many intelligent men before him, men with life times of experience and wisdom that also ran into predicaments such as this and failed, all due to ego and lack of a coherent exit strategy.  The lack of a Plan B often causes the mighty to fall.  He groaned as the vision of his own, fully loaded tracer guns sitting on his dresser at home flashed in his mind.  They were going to be defenseless and it was all his fault.  

Aw he looks nervous.  Samantha thought as Mark seemed to reach for something that wasn’t there.  She tucked some of her long blonde hair behind her right ear and smiled warmly at him.  “You know I think that this is the moment where you suggest that we get out of here.”  She said and leaned over, kissing his check.  She let her hand fall into his, knocking the pink disk to the table.  She let her fingers snake down his wrist and followed the soft part of his forearm, pushing the sleeve of his coat up as far as it would go.  

She looked into his eyes and found that the panic that she had thought she had seen there just a moment ago was replaced with a new look of anticipation.  Her smile turned into a pouty smirk as she slowly drug her fingernails up his forearm to his palm.  Boys are so simple.  She thought before she said; “Shall we go?”

Mark’s mind had just slipped into some sort of dream.  At first he was panicked by what was about to happen.  And then, as soon as she touched him, he simply forgot about the ambush of flying plastic disks and insults and other hooliganery that awaited them out side the door.  In the past, he had been in the position of an ambusher, waiting in dark movie theaters, cold parking lots, uncomfortable trees, waiting for the right moment to pounce.  He had managed to keep every first date he ever had quiet.  It was not an easy task as the sheer volume of first dates for him was impressive.  Once he had proof that he had been on a legitimate date with a girl, they were free to date well out of the target zone, not having to worry about getting attacked like this.  

He knew that Samantha was a little high strung and as soon as she got the gist of what is about to happen, she will blame him and demand to be taken home.  She will never go out with him again and he will be the source of all her problems for the next 30 to 60 days, weather real or imagined.  He had seen it happen to Ty and Peter and a few of the older guys on their team on several different of occasions.  The results were always the same.   He looked into Samantha’s eyes and almost wilted under the expectations.  Maybe they could just sit here and have another cup of coffee?  He silently hoped as she ran here fingernails up his arm.  I guess not.

“Ok.”  He said standing up, holding the chair for her.  Man.  He thought starting to get angry.  I really like her too.  I’m gonna kill one of them.  First one I see is goin’ down.  He held out his arm to direct her to the front of the restaurant, placing a hand in the small of her back.  She’s so delicate and nice, she really doesn’t deserve this.  He thought as they passed the front podium.  

“Good night Jules.”  Samantha said to the hostess with whom she had only a passing acquaintance.  She smiled and wrapped an arm around Mark’s waist as they moved towards the door.  

Mark looked at Julie and immediately knew how the pink tracer wound up at his table.  He smiled fakely and said “Yeah, thanks.”  He turned to the hostess and mouthed the words, ‘I’m going to get you back.’

Jules winked at Mark.  “Drive safely you two” She said opening the door allowing the pair to walk unhindered into the cool evening air.

He stood there and almost felt the doors of the restaurant lock behind him, although he was sure that that was just his imagination.  Something’s wrong.  He thought as he pulled his keys from his pocket.  We should be getting pelted by now; they must not be ready for us.  His mind chimed in hopefully as he looked up to unlock the door for Samantha.  It was then that he realized the strategy of this game had taken a quantum leap forward.

“Wow, I though we parked right here.”  Samantha said referring to a spot that was now filled with a minivan.  “But now your truck is way over there.”  She said pointing across the parking lot to where the beast now stood.  “Something…Something’s not right.”  She said getting a bit irritated by the fact that something was potentially unknown and therefore out of her control…  “Did some one move your truck?”  

Something inside him made him shudder.  He couldn’t put his finger on it.  Was it the fact that Samantha was now becoming irritated, causing Mark to want to do more to please her, making her like him?  Or was it that he knew what was going to happen as soon as they cleared the first row of parked cars and that there was nothing that he could do to stop it.  So, in between the minivan and a Bronco, Mark stopped, took Samantha’s hand and kissed it.  “What ever happens, I just want you to know that I really like you.”  He whispered before he drug her out from between the cars into what he instantly recognized as a shooting gallery.

Chapter Three

“Shut up, here they come.”  Eddy whispered to Ty as their targets walked out of the restaurant.  Crouching low, he had to strain to stifle his giggles.  The element of surprise was the most important thing here.  The look of horror on Samantha’s face will be well worth the wait.  Mark of course knew what was going to happen, he just didn’t know when.  The panic of not knowing exactly where they were coming from could be seen on Mark’s face as the two of them emerged from the shelter of the parked cars moving tentatively into the open.

He looked down the sleek lines of the caddy’s body to see Ty crouched behind the black BMW parked two spaces from the entrance of the parking lot lane that Mark and his date would most likely travel.  It was the shortest rout to his truck and probably an instinctual thing to do.  Peter had actually put some thought into this and Eddy felt a little more respect for the older boy.  He always knew that Peter was intelligent, but he didn’t think he had the aptitude to apply it in a practical sense.

He looked across the aisle to see Ned and Brian stooped over behind a pair of Toyotas.  A hint of concern drifted across his face as he watched Brian drop to one knee to steady him.  Too drunk, poor bastard.  He thought as he peered through the window of his caddy and he saw that Mark had taken Samantha’s hand and had already pulled out his keys.  Any second now.  He mused as he checked his weapons for the twentieth time that evening.  Two bright orange and pink pistols that fired little multicolored disks.  They fly up to fifty feet!  Eddy remembered the package saying when he got his set.  It was important to have two of these babies because it was the only thing that you could offer your date as a way of protecting herself.

Eddy didn’t know how this game started or who’s idea it had been but they were spending more time hiding in parking lots, initiating plans of attack and strategically leading victims into the open like Mark and his date were, than anything they used to do.  “Training for war, for when you get drafted.”  Mark’s sister used to say.  Eddy didn’t know about that, he didn’t even know where they came up with the rules of engagement, but they were simple and unbending.

You could only be attacked on a first date.  If you could demonstrate that you had been on a first date with a particular person that any time you went out with her in the future you were shielded from attack.  This proof required witnesses, pictures, receipts and any other piece of evidence that might support the case.  Typically a dinner receipt and a discrete conservation with the girl in question often yielded the desired results.  Mark was very successful at hiding his first dates.  They were usually spur of the moment affairs.  He had the looks and charm to be able to ask a girl out Friday afternoon for that evening.  He would ensure that they would go somewhere very public and be seen by as many people as possible.  Since there wasn’t enough time to plan an attack, he had been able to skip his turn in the barrel.

Another rule was that you could not warn your date about what was going to happen once you receiver the calling card.  The calling card was often the tracer disk or some other indication that there were a number of people outside waiting to shoot at you.  You were only allowed to arm your date and hope for the best.  The attack could happen anywhere at any time during the date.  Eddy had been on a number of these raids; Movie theaters, churches, graveyards, restaurants, concerts, put-put golf courses, all were open game.  It was an amusing and inexpensive way to spend an evening.  At least for the person planning and executing the attack.  Eddy had never been on the other side of the coin.  Peter, Brian, Ty and Mark had been multiple targets, and even Ned was attacked once, although it was at a school dance and Ned went with the foreign exchange student that was staying with his family at the time.  His expression soured as he silently wondered if he would ever be on the other end of this exchange.  The more of these that he went on the more he felt that this would never happen to him, but he  chuckled lightly as he recalled the look on Ned’s face after they pummeled him with the multicolored pieces of plastic.  He was smiling, even though Mark spent the rest of the evening dancing with his date.  He took another look at the hapless duo and raised his weapons.  He could see Peter coming out from between a minivan and a Taurus, crouched down waiting for their victims to move into the clear lane.  He could almost feel the resignation in Mark’s posture as they began to walk briskly up the row of parked cars towards his truck.  He could see Samantha smiling at what she mistook for Mark’s eagerness as he tried to pull her through the parking lot.  “No need to run.”  He heard her say in the calm before the storm.  “We’ll get there soon enough.”  

“Now!”  Peter screamed as Mark approached the first set of cars.  

It’s funny how five screaming teenage boys could sound like a school bus loaded with hyperactive kids driving off a cliff.  Eddy thought as he screamed his lungs raw, lunging from his hiding place and firing three rounds from his left hand weapon.  This sound however was drowned out by the shrill scream of an extremely frighten girl.   Eddy winced as his first three shots lost themselves in the girl’s long blonde hair.  Still he had the presence of mind to raise his right hand and fired three shots at Mark before the sound of the frightened girl stopped him cold.  It was just one of those sounds that reverberate around the base of your brain demanding some kind of action.  He could tell that this girl was far beyond being a little scared.  It had been a scream of true terror, one that tears into the soul and squeezes the adrenals.  It innately drives the primitive flight or fight response mechanism offering almost no other alternatives.  Eddy stumbled mentally as he continued to fire a few more left handed shots at the couple as they started to run.  His focus fell on Ned as he ran backwards to stay ahead of Mark and keeping them in his sights.  The younger boy seemed to be frozen buy the girl’s scream.  Eddy could tell in an instant that he was seriously questioning his involvement in this attack.  Eddy was starting to feel the same way.  This ain’t right.  He thought.

In short, Samantha was not taking the whole thing as planned.  Mark was trying to move her towards the truck but she stopped, frozen in fear and humiliation.  This is not how it’s supposed to work.  Eddy thought as he shot Mark in the head three more times.  

Peter, who had been bringing up the rear and had emptied both of his guns within seconds of his rallying cry, was now walking up to Mark, reloading and wondering what the hell just happened.  

Typically the victims would run for their car and, once safely inside, would curse out the attackers and maybe try to hit one of them while driving out of the parking lot.  The girl would be so angry that she would demand to be taken home and that would be the end of it.  Eddy would normally get a call about thirty minutes later and they would all meet at the Fifth Hole.  That was what was supposed to happen.  Not this.

Ty, in his polluted, demented world, seemed to take this turn of events as a direction to go off script.  He walked up to the still screaming, petrified Samantha and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from Mark.  He wrapped his arm around her neck and pointed his gun to her head.  Dragging her backwards, Ty moved faster than she could go and broke the heal off of one of her shoes.  “What?  You think we’re really gonna hurt you?”  He barked into her hair with putrid breath.

Eddy stood there dumfounded.  He watched Ty drag Samantha away to his left and he thought for sure that Mark was going to walk over there and kill him.  This is definitely not how this game is played.  Eddy thought.  This is going to end badly.  Mark’s face turned red and he started to shout.  “Let her go, asshole.  Can’t you see she’s had enough?”  He started towards his date when Brian stepped in front of him and pushed him backwards.  

“Let him go, Leach” Ned said as he ran at the bigger boy, head first.  The move surprised Eddy, he had never thought of Ned as the Combative type.  Brian, however, seemed ready for Ned’s attack and dropped one of his heavy fists square on the crown of Ned’s head, sending him straight to the pavement.  

“Shit” Eddy said backing up a step away from the big guy.

“Gezz, Brian.  Back off.”  Peter said as he went to look at Ned, lying on the ground.  “You’re a real dick, you coulda’ killed him.”  

Mark tried to muscle past Leach and quickly found himself flat on his back.  Eddy could hear the out rush of air from Mark’s lungs.  It was the unmistakable sound of having the air knocked out of you.  Mark rolled back and forth on the ground, grunting, trying to catch his breath.  Eddy looked at the two responsible for this and suddenly felt alone.

“Let me go!”   Samantha screamed through tears of desperation.  Ty only held her tighter.  His eyes looked wild as he began to whisper into her ear. Eddy watched as the girl struggled more and cried harder.  All the whiled Ty tightened his grip and continued to whisper.  Ed could just feel his hot vodka breath on his neck and it made him cringe.

It wasn’t like Peter might have planed it, and it didn’t happen the way that Mark might have calculated it, it just seemed to rise up out of nowhere.  Eddy walked the three steps over to where Ty was holding Samantha, dropped his gun, balled up his fist and drove it as hard as he could right into the taller boys nose.  

The blood seemed to explode from everywhere and this did not make the screaming girl any happier.  Ty stumbled back a couple of steps and pulled her with him.  Eddy reached out and grabbed her arm.  Giving her a gentle pull he loosened her from Ty’s grip just as he was headed for the pavement.  Eddy watched with some interest as he seemed to crumple into a heap like a pile of old clothes.  

Eddy was still holding Samantha’s arm when she screamed again.  Eddy turned to see Brian heading towards him.  “Shit, shit, shit.”  He muttered as he pulled the girl behind him and got ready to get the beat down of his mildly interesting, but pitifully short, life.

Mark was thinking and flung his foot out, driving the big kid’s trailing leg behind his leading one, sending him to his knees.  Eddy released his temporary ward and took the opportunity to drive his knee right into Brian’s bulbous nose.  Again blood seemed to spurt from everywhere as Lynch fell to the ground, no longer posing a threat to any one.

Eddy felt sick.  He’d be in a few scraps in his life; most of them involved a lot of shoving and very little hitting.  Most of them were the result of some sport free for all.  But nothing like this had ever happened to him before.  The mixture of adrenaline and the sight of all this blood almost turned his stomach.  He gulped down huge chucks of air to keep it together.  He looked at Samantha and asked, “Are you ok?”

“No I’m not ok, God damn it!”  She yelled as she took off her broken shoe and began to beat Eddy with it.  

“Gezz, shit, man, ok. Hey get her off me.”  He said as he tried to protect himself from her rage.  

Mark got up, a little wobbly at first as air finally began to fill his lungs; he wrapped Samantha up in his arms in an effort to comfort her.  “Come on, let me get you home.”  He said directing her to his truck.  “You guys are cock suckers!”  He yelled at them as he got her into the passenger side of the truck.  He rounded the front of the blue beast and caught Eddy’s eyes.  He gave the younger kid a brief nod, climbed up into the cab and sped out of the lot.

“Jesus, Peter.  What the hell just happened?”  Eddy asked trying to wipe the blood from his hand on his pant leg.  

Peter helped Ned to his feet and surveyed the bleeding drunks.  “I don’t know man.  But I think you got in a couple of lucky shots.”  He kicked Ty’s leg and watched it flop back and forth.  “If they weren’t drunk, you’d be dead.”

“Yeah, well if they weren’t drunk none of this would’ve happened.”  Eddy replied shaking his hand.  It felt like there were five or six tiny hearth pulsing away between his knuckles.  His face contorted as he looked down at his hand.  “Man that hurts.”  Eddy finished removing the remaining fluid from his hand by whipping it on his t-shirt.  “This is going to swell up real nice.  How are you Ned?”  

“He’ll be alright.”  Peter said setting the boy down next to his car.  “We have to get these two out of here, though.”  He said nodding towards the Bloody Face Twins.  “Ty’s parents are out of town, right?”

“Yeah, it’s just him and his little brother.  I’ll just throw him in the back of his car and drive them both to his house.  I’ll get Dave to help me get them into the house.  You could come get me after you take Ned home.”

“Yeah, I’m late already. I think.”  Ned finally chimed in.  His head was still swimming with inky images of night time stars.  “I think some fresh air on my face would do me good.”  

“Alright.”  Peter said helping the younger boy to his feet again.  “Can you get these guys in his car?”  He asked opening his own car’s door to let Ned in.  

“Yeah, I was gonna drive him home anyway.  I got his keys off of him in a brief moment of clarity.”  Eddy chuckled as he walked towards Ty’s car.  The Mustang was an older car, and only had two doors.  The passenger side always stuck so to get it open you had to get in from the driver’s side and open it that way.  Eddy got the driver door open and pushed the driver’s seat forward exposing the access to the back seat.  A boy of Ty’s size would have had to use their most elaborate gymnastic moves to egress the space.  Eddy always kidded him that the car should have come with free yoga lessons because of the twisting and bending required to get into it.  

“This is going to be interesting.”  He thought out loud as he walked back to where Ty and Brian were lying.  Thank fully that area of the lot was mostly empty, and the traffic was non existent.  Being passed out drunk and bleeding from the nose was bad enough.  Getting run over by a car because you were laying face down in the middle of the parking lot, would have just been the sprinkles on the doughnut.  

Peter had loaded Ned into the car and had started it up.  “Ok I’ll see you over there.  It might be awhile since this kid lives in BFE.”

“Yeah, ok.”  Eddy said as Peter got into this car and left.  “Yeah fine.  Just leave me with these two bastards.”  He bent down to roll Ty over.  “Ug man you look like hell.”  He muttered to the blood covered face.  Ty’s breathing was ragged and noisy.  Bubbles of crimson ooze expanded and collapsed on his swollen nose.  “Gross.”   Eddy tried to shake Ty to at least get him awake enough to hobble to the car.  He figured that if he could get him to the door of the car, he would just duck his head in and shove him hard into the back seat.  It was a trust exercise in inertia and gravity, buy he figured that if he shoved hard enough, it would work.  Then her would just put Brian into the passenger side and drive them home.  

“Ya need some help there chief?”  A voice behind Eddy rang out in the relative calm.  

“Shit.”  He spat and spun around.  The blood drained from his face as he prepared to do the thing that he really didn’t want to do, but was particularly good at; lie his ass off.  “Man you scared me.”  He said taking a step back letting the stranger look at the scene.  Eddy cast his eyes across the scene and reminded himself that he had done nothing wrong.  Well other than bloody a couple of noses.  He thought, Still he wasn’t the one that was drunk.  So why did he suddenly feel like he was about to get in a whole hell of a lot of trouble?  It was as if he were caught red handed and as he looked down at them he was reminded that he was.

“Yeah, actually…”  He started, pausing for effect.  He tried to get a read on the stranger.  Friend or Foe or Other?  He wondered as he continued.  “You could help me get these idiots into this car, here.  Apparently they can’t hold their beer.” Ok, good.  You said beer and that’s bad but it’s not as bad as a bottle of vodka.

“So it seems.”  He older man said.  As he bent over to help Eddy get Ty onto his feet.  The bloody faced blonde was no help as he just kept to his passed out state.  The old man wrapped the drunks arm over his shoulder and Eddy did the same.  “Smells a little stronger that beer, if you ask me.”  He said with a smile in his voice.  

“Yeah, well kids today…”  Eddy strained at an attempt of humor.  “What are ya gonna do?”  The two walked Ty to his car and they stuck his head in and gave the kid a shove.  His head slumped and went straight down into the seat, stopping his progress at the half way mark.  

“You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?”  The man said walking around to the passenger side of the car.  He pulled the seat forward and grabbed a hold of Ty’s shirt with one hand and pulled him the rest of the way into the back seat.  “Dead weight.”  He grunted pulling the kid in the last two inches.  “He’s a big kid.  I really didn’t think that you had it in you to drop him like that.”  The man said, as he straightened his hat and smiled.  “Oh don’t give me that look, I watched the whole thing.  From the time you and your friends showed up in the parking lot to now.”  He pushed the passenger’s seat back and it latched with a loud clunk, like an audible punctuation to the fact that he had been a silent observer to the whole made his way back to where Brian was quietly gurgling away.  “Now you had help with this one.  But still. .”  He bent over and got his arm around the kid.  “Are you going to help or are you going to stand there and catch flies with your mouth hanging open?”

Eddy quickly snapped his mouth shut and went to help the man get Brian in to the car.  There were a lot of questions that flew through his mind, but the most pressing one was “Why?”  He asked as he got the big kid’s butt into the bucket seat.  Pushing him back and buckling his seat belt around his arms in case he came to.  Eddy would have at least a little warning before the fists started to fly.  It was a maneuver that was not lost on the stranger.  He nodded his approval as he watched Eddy put Brian’s legs into the car and shut the door.

The man stood up and in Eddy’s estimation reached about six foot three.  He looked to be approaching fifty years old he imagined, due to the abundance of gray curly hair that cushioned the weathered Fedora.  He seemed to be in relatively good shape, not that he was muscular from working out, but the kind of shape that comes from having an active sort of hobby.  Eddy became a little wary of the man, not fearful, but cautious.

“Ok, listen.  I have been watching you for some time.”  The man said stepping closer to Eddy.  “I’m a friend of your father’s and he had asked me to keep an eye on you.  You know, help you out if you got into trouble, that sort of thing.”  

Eddy instinctively stepped back and added to the distance between him and the strange man.  “Why?”  He asked incredulously.  “I mean, doesn’t he trust me?  I don’t need a baby sitter!  Eddy’s temper started to rise.  It was one of the worst things that anyone could say to him, insinuating that he could not take care of himself.  Sure he lived most of his life with his head in the clouds, typically unobservant of anything, yet when it came to self reliance, any questioning of his ability was met with instant rage.  “Well don’t worry, when I get home, I’ll straighten him out and you won’t have to waste any more of your time.”

The man smiled and held his ground.  “Your instincts are good.  It is an intelligent decision to be wary.  Especially in times like these.  But I am not acquainted with your stepfather.  I am a good friend of real father’s, as a matter of fact, you once called me uncle.”  

“I don’t remember having an uncle.”  Eddy said as he now had the car between the odd man and himself.  “And, in case you haven’t heard, my real father is dead.  So I think that he wouldn’t take it too hard if you didn’t follow me around.  Stalkin’ ain’t cool, ya know.”  Eddy had his leg in the car and lowered himself into the front seat.   He shut the door and quickly locked it.  “Thanks for your help, just the same.”

The Mustang roared to life as the man bent over to look into the passenger window.  “Please do give my regards to Alice.  Tell her that Villechise is alive and well.”  He said with a smile.  

“Yeah, buddy I’ll do that.”  He said as he pulled away from the strange man.  A shiver ran up his spine as he thought about the fact that this guy had been watching him for awhile.  How did he know my mom’s name?  And what kind of name is Villechise anyway?  He thought as he pulled out onto the street, heading to Ty’s house.

Getting the two out of the car was almost as difficult as getting them in.  Eddy had called Ty’s little brother while still a couple of blocks away and told him to open the garage door.  The novice driver eased the Mustang into the garage and Dave closed the door before any of the neighbors could get a good look at what was actually going on.  

“Thanks, man.”  He said in an exhausted voice.  ‘Help me get these guys in the house.”  Dave complied and helped him get Brian into their guest room bed.  Eddy was grateful for Dave’s silent obedience, but he knew that it wouldn’t last for long.  They got the big kid’s shoes off and Eddy tried to clean up his face so that Mrs. Gudrun wouldn’t freak out about the large amount of blood on her guest room pillows.  They finished with Brian and headed back to the garage to work on extricating Ty from the back seat.

“What happened?”  Dave finally asked.

Eddy had been practicing what he would say on the drive over.  Ty and Brian ran into each other, or that they fell down some stairs, tripping each other or some outlandish series of lies ending with two bloody drunk teens.  But, finally in the end he decided to just tell Dave the truth.  “Can’t you smell it?  Eddy said as he pulled Ty up and towards the opening.  “They got drunk and got into a fight.  It could have been worse I suppose, but luckily your parents will be gone till Monday.”  There, He thought.  A partial truth, no lie, just omitted a few details.

“Yeah.”  Dave agreed.  He was only thirteen but big for his age.  Eddy often wondered where the genes came from to make the brothers, because they were both already bigger than their dad and their mom was svelte.  “Who’d they fight with?”  

Shit.  He thought.  Wasn’t ready for that one.  “Couldn’t tell ya.”  He said as he finally got the head and shoulders clear of the breach.  “Come over here and   Crap.”  He said as his cell started to chirp.  “Yeah?”  He said trying to balance Ty waiting for Dave to get the other side.  “Ok, Peter’s coming to get me, we’ll be right there.  How is she?”  Eddy held the phone away from his ear as the yelling on the other side seemed to escalate.  “Ok. Ok. I’ll be there.”  He said closing his phone and shoving it back into the pocket of his pants.  “Let’s get him into bed.”

With both of the hooligans down for the night, Eddy could finally access the damage to his hand.  He stood in the bathroom and washed it clean.  It still hurt a bit but there was no real damage to be seen.   His clothes however were a different story.  “What am I gonna do about this?  I can’t go home all covered in blood.”   His cell went off again and it was Peter telling him that he was out front.  Drying his hands off carefully, trying not to get blood anywhere in the guest bathroom, Eddy came out and headed for the door.  “Thanks Dave.  Have your brother call me in the morning.”  He said not waiting for an answer.  He walked out of the front door and got right into Peter’s car.  

“Well that was a fucked up night.”

“Too right.”

Chapter Four

Peter pulled his car into a cul-de-sac and turned off the motor.  They were going to meet Mark at the Fifth Hole.  Eddy was never clear on why it was named that.  He assumed that it was some obscure hockey reference, be he didn’t voice that opinion.  Some things were best left in the realm of the mysterious.  

The Fifth hole was the name of a little play area on a private country club golf course.  The developers of the neighborhood placed a swing set at the crest of a little hill just off one of the main streets that traversed the group of houses.  It was just to the left of the tee box for the 8th hole, which drove off into a deep valley.  The banks on each side of the fairway were steep enough to topple a golf cart and sleek enough to ice block on.  

Ice blocking was like warm weather tobogganing.  Kids would go to the local supermarket and buy a block of ice for a couple of bucks.  Then they would put their block of ice on the grass jus t beyond the point of no return and sit on it.  After looking into the abyss and trying to calculate out how they would stop, they would pick up their feet and ride the ice block down into the fairway.  More often than not this ride ended up with the rider splayed out on his face.  The results of this ride were grass stains on the chest, a frozen ass and a strange desire to do it again.

Even though this area was know to a large number of kids, it was typically only used by swimmers.  Again, a mystery who’s solution escaped Eddy, but he was never accused of being the sharpest pencil in the box.

“He’s gonna be pissed.”  Eddy said absentmindedly rubbing his knuckles.  “I think he actually liked her and she’ll probably never want to see him again.  And I’m gonna say it was entirely your fault.”  He added with a smile.

Peter shoved the younger boy with the heal of his hand and laughed.  “Yeah, this is going to be unpleasant, to be sure.”

The two boys walked around the corned and up the well lit suburban street to the golf cart path that led to the 8th tee box.  They could see plainly, in the glow of the amber street lights a lone figure slowly swinging back and forth, dragging his feet.  His head was bowed and the scene gave Eddy a sense of foreboding.  It reminded him of a dream he had had a few evenings before, a night time landscape full of foreboding and dread.  He shook off the thought and continued up the path to the lone swinger.

“Hey.”  Peter said quietly as the pair reached the top of the rise.  It was more of a warning to the occupant in the swing that there were coming in to the area than a greeting.  Mark turned his focus up from his sneakers to the two of them.  

Eddy smiled sheepishly; he could tell that Mark was truly upset with how things had turned out.  “I’m really sorry man; I had no idea that Ty was gonna do that…”  He said by way of apologizing for the fact that Samantha would probably never talk to him again.  

Mark looked almost teary-eyed at Eddy and sighed.  “You know, I’m only looking for someone to talk to, some one I can trust.  I guess it doesn’t matter, cuz there’s no such thing.”  Mark said with all the angst he could muster.  

Peter looked down at the ground and moved a particularly annoying grain of sand to the left with the toe of his shoe.  “Yeah I know what you mean.  No one will go out with me, cuz they, know they’ll be attacked…”

Eddy was no stranger to guilt.  He had grown up under the black specter, having it doled out daily by his mother as if it were the nectar of life.  He had become aware of this as he entered the working world.  He had spent the previous summer working as a lifeguard and found himself at the top of the stack, employee-wise.  It wasn’t that he was a more talented lifeguard than the others, he just didn’t want to disappoint his employer, but working with under paid, under motivated, uncontrollable city employees opened his eyes to a good many things.  The first was that the guilt he carried around with him was making them look bad, and if he didn’t get a grip, he was going to get calibrated.

“Wait a second… Isn’t that a song?”  Eddy said tentatively.  He had already been in one fight that night and wasn’t eager to spark another one if he were wrong.

“What?  Oh no.  Not that I…”  Mark stammered slyly.

“Yes it is!”  Eddy snapped “Agent Orange!”

“Yeah ok.”  Mark finally smiled “So it didn’t go all that bad.”

“Ass hole” Peter said kicking sand at the faker.  

“Hey, you guys made me look like some kind of hero.  She clung to me all the way to her house.  When her dad saw the blood in her hair, she told him what happened and that I protected her.  Her dad was pissed.  I thought that he was going to kill me, but after Samantha went up stairs, he walked me to the truck and he thanked me for looking after his daughter and said that he wouldn’t stop her from going out with me again.”  He smiled that toothy smile that made most girls like him in the first place.  “So there’s that…”

“Great.  Monday, Ty and Brian are gonna turn me into a lumpy bag of bones and goo, but your love life is right on track.”  Eddy said a bit worried that his turn at throwing guilt around might have a bit more truth to it.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”  Peter said sucking wind through his teeth.  “Maybe they won’t remember what happened?”  He said hopefully, chuckling at the same time.  

“Oh yeah laugh it up, chuckles.  You too lover boy.  I expect that you will bring some girls to my funeral.  Maybe they will throw themselves at my coffin, crying that I died so young, without knowing the proper touch of a woman.  Man I don’t want to die a virgin.”  

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