The Southside of Paradise- Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - The Drink Will Flow; The Blood Will Spill

    Dean was worried about Danny. He drove the streets north of Main Street  nervously searching for signs of danger.  Danny was a pure ass fool to go to Jill's house only hours after firing a shot at Porcine's car. Mickey and his minions had put people in hospitals for far less.

     Traveling across Main into Mickey's stomping grounds after taking that fool down a notch was just plain stupid. Parking his car right in front of Jill Booth's house was the craziest thing he ever known Danny to do. It was statement saying, "Here I am, Foo; what ya gonna do?"

      Dean knew the way Concord worked. Danny wouldn't have been parked there five minutes before the news had traveled from one end of the town to the other. Dean imagined a scenario like from the movie High Noon with people sneaking peeks out from behind their pulled shades and businessmen locking the doors to their shops and putting up Closed for Business signs in the windows. 

       Dumber yet, Danny had not taken one single precaution to prevent it. He hadn't even asked for help. His brother Glen had some crazy buddies, Nam vets too who would had been more than glad to beat up some snot-nosed rich kids. Dean was still at Danny's and had witnessed Danny placing the .22 back in the box and putting it back beneath the bed. 

       "You might be needin that tonight, Dumbass."

      Danny had looked at him and smiled grimly, " You really think I'm jus going to shoot the dude? Really, Dean? I'm gonna impress this girl by shootin her ex-boyfriend in  her front yard."

      "Fuck, I don know. I didn't  count the notches in the handle. I was too busy lookin for the machete I left here bout a month ago. Besides ya jest admitted that ya know he's gonna come at ya hard."

       " I don't think he'll do anything in front of Jill's house. I don't think he's much afraid of that .22 anyway."

       "He hit Mikie over the  head with a car battry. He might jes have a gun hisself; think about that?"

       "Like I said, he ain't gonna make a scene in front of Jill's."

     "I think ya seriously misreadin dis sitchiation. Dis here's like taking a dump on the front steps of his daddy's house," he paused and sighed frustratedly. " Least take the machete."

      That time Danny laughed, " Goin on a date, idiot; I'm not lookin for lost Spanish gold."

     Danny used both hands to pull his hair behind his ears and then held it in place with his worn San Francisco Giant baseball cap. Dean knew that he had bought the cap on his first trip to Candlestick Park, and that he had had the name Willie Mays stitched on the back. Danny considered the cap his lucky charm.

    Danny walked across the room and picked his car keys up off the table. The gray rabbit's foot on the keys was his other lucky charm. Dean spoke wistfully almost like an afterthought, "Ya might be ya know."

    Danny was one foot out the door but stopped, " I might be what?" He looked at Dean quixotically.

    "Lookin for loss Spanish gold. Wouldn't hurt to have somethin to hack though jungle vines, scare off a crazy monkey or three."

   The door closed and Danny was off to his appointed rendezvous with destiny. A smokey gray fog filled in the places behind Dean's eyes.

     Later on, after it got dark. Dean climbed into his Chevy and drove across Main himself. The machete was sticking out from under his seat. He was taking a chance and knew it. The local constabulary was excessively fond of messing with him, once pulling him over to just ask him the time. He didn't see anyway out of it. He would have to take the chance.

    He didn't drive in front of Jill's house at all. He used intersections that were at least a block away trying to act inconspicuous while knowing that  cruising Olympic Heights in his well known ride was conspicuous as hell.  There was a road that teed into Sherwin Road, the one that ran in front of Jill's house, and if he drove east or west on Baldry, a block away, while passing through the intersection, he could see the front of her house without  being noticed.

    The first time he passed, he saw Danny's Impala. Jill's block was three houses wide and sat between two side streets. The street lights from both corners seem to shine right down on Danny's car. If he had placed a billboard on his roof, it couldn't have been any more obvious. To make matters worse, you could see Danny and Jill's silhouettes outlined against the closed shades of the big picture window. Didn't seem possible. He was a least a half a block away and moving.

      "Might as well use a fucking moose call," Dean muttered to himself as he passed a second time. He circled the area for about forty minutes before noticing he needed gas. He drove to the east end of Main to the station where his good friend Benny Sanchez worked. Dean liked Benny, but it didn't hurt that Benny's foxy girl friend Yolanda and her friends always hung around the station. Yoli and her friends were the fiercest party girls in town, and Dean like to hang out with them.

     Benny, a heavy set, handsome looking Mexican dude wearing sagging jeans and a dirty light blue mechanic's shirt was washing the cement with a long red hose when Dean pulled in next to a pump.

    "Hey, dude! What's up?" Dean offered his outstretched hand through the open driver's window." Benny walked over took it and shook it hard.

    "God Damned, Crazy Ass Dean! What's up, Pendejo? I heard you and fuckin Danny were goin all wild west and shit on that maracon Porcine. What's up with that?"

     " Asshole thought him and his buddies was goin to whip Danny's ass. Danny thought diffrent, shot his back tire out."       

     Benny walked over to the side and shut the hose off. "That's crazy shit. I know that fuckin dude; he'll come after Danny. Why ain't you guys together tonight?"

      "I know, man. I tried to tell Danny's dumb ass that. He parked right now right in front of Jill Booth's house, proud as ya please."

        Benny's eyes widened, "No fuckin way! He like, he's one of them dudes who likes pain?"

      "He better like it cos he fixen to run into some, he don't start acting smarter then he's actin."

      Benny motioned to ask Dean if he was holding anything.  Dean nodded . Benny leaned in a whispered, "Tell Yolanda what you want in gas and me and you and Sylvia go light it up in the back." He motioned for his girl Yolanda to come out and pump the gas. She stood up, sat a beer down on the cluttered office desk, brushed back her long black hair and walked out of the office. She was wearing cut off Levis, wrapped leather sandals, and a white tank top with her red bra straps showing. She walked like she was dragging a long mink stole behind her.

    Dean got out slowly and made an exaggerated deal of appreciating Yolanda's walking ability, "Hey, girl. Ya lookin good, Yoli."

      She pretended to be offended, "Always, Dean. You know that, Foo."

     He handed her the keys to the gas cap. She raised her head to ask how much.

    "Fill it up, Doll." He walked toward the back of the station. Before turning the corner, he heard Yolanda yell, "Tell Benny, he better save me some."

      Waiting in the alley behind the station was Benny and Sylvia Longoria, another lithe and long legged black haired beauty dressed the same as Yolanda but with far nicer breasts. It was dark back there and illuminated only by a green covered light that hung above the peeling red door of the tire shed.

    Dean pulled a joint out of a shiny silver cigarette case and handed it to Benny to light. Benny first opened the top off a beer bottle and gave it to Dean. Benny took a long hit, started choking, and handed it to Sylvia. She took a hit like a 500 pound dude would take, never coughed once, just smiled at Dean from behind the cloud of smoke as she exhaled.

      Benny finally choked out, "That's good shit, Dean. You always got good shit." Dean took a drag from the joint then handed it back to Benny.

    Sylvia looked over at Dean and smiled and then spoke in a deep and sexy almost whisper, "I love your car, Dean. We should go cruisin some time."

       Dean looked at Danny and asked, "She know anything bout me?"

     Smoke poured out of Benny's nose as he laughed, "Every body knows your ass, Foo. It don't matter to this girl. Sylvia's coo. Her voice alone made dem pants rise up." He pointed at Dean's crotch.

       Dean looked down and started to laugh, but then broke if off quickly, "Fuck, damned Danny!"

       Benny grimaced like he was addressing a school boy, "You got time to go for a fuckin ride. That's dude's in that pad with Jill Booth, he ain't gonna be in no hurry gettin out."

        Sylvia just looked at him from behind the smoke cloud smiling seductively.

       Dean thought that at that moment she looked like a young Cleopatra. He looked down at his pants again, smiled at Sylvia and blurted out, "Let's go for a ride then."

    Sylvia and him left Benny to finish the joint off and walked back around to the front where Yolanda was strolling toward them with his keys.

     "How much?"

     "Twenty, and I did all your windows."

     Dean fished a crisp twenty and a five out of his wallet and wrapped the bills around a joint and handed it to her. "I hope ] Benny knows he's one lucky ass dude.

       She laughed and said, " I'm fixing to tell him in case he don't. See ya later, Deano."

       Dean dropped Sylvia off back at the station a little after nine. They had made plans for a date the following week-end. She blew him a kiss while he was driving away.

     It only took less than five minutes for him to drive back across town to Jill's house. He sighed in relief when he first saw Danny's car was still there, but drew up straight when saw the figure of someone standing over something in the road. There was nothing else that he could do. He turned right sharply and quickly found himself at the stop sign across from the Booth residence looking at Mickey Porcine holding something in his hand and hovering over Danny's curled up form lying in the road. Mickey's partners were behind them leering like a couple of hyenas. 

   Dean's tires barked as he left the stop sign. He jumped out of the car sprinting with the machete in his hand. Mickey and the others were running to his car which was parked on the other side road. Dean chased them yelling as they laughed back at him and jumped into Mickey's car.

  They pulled away just as Dean got there. In frustration, he threw the machete at the fleeing car and heard it bounce harmlessly off the rear bumper clattering onto the street. He turned and ran back toward where Danny was lying curled up like a ball under the street lights and in the middle of Sherwin Road.