Speaking metaphorically, Jack felt as if his had been a losing hand ever since the second card dropped in five card stud. The next three cards didn’t matter because he had it coming irrespective. He told me that he’d met his girlfriend/fiancĂ©/love of his life for the moment, in a whorehouse. Bambi corrected the record. They’d met in a bar downstairs. She worked upstairs – in the whorehouse but wasn’t actually on duty when they met. That cleaned it up in her mind. She could wear white at the wedding, the date set off about four years for her peace of mind.
With a long day behind me, a long night of waiting ahead and half a bottle of Ten High under my belt, I started to drift. Before I went out completely, I screwed a six inch silencer onto the Lone Wolf barrel on my Kimber .45. Some people prefer lighter rounds, but I always preferred the widest wound channel that a hollow point could make. Killing is all about wound cavitation. Ask any ER doctor. Or just ask me. Somewhere after midnight somebody re-jimmied the front door and eased in. All they’d needed to do was push, but they didn’t try pushing first. They went for the razzle-dazzle and I went from REM sleep to wide awake in something shy of a second. When the human being cleared the door jam, I punched three into the knees. Two hit with satisfying, wet cracks and the third embedded in something beyond. The guy screamed, but I don’t think anyone noticed, what with the screaming and “Oh-My-God” from the neighbors. He grabbed for his knees and I grabbed for Jack and Bambi’s baseball bat. A satisfying thud and he stopped screaming.
Folklore holds that you never hit a colored boy in the head with a club because it doesn’t do all that much damage. Malik Boudreaux proved that you need to listen to old wives tales. His head was ringing. No doubt about that, but it would have stove in the skull of a man of a different persuasion.
I shined his legs with a pen flashlight. Both rounds hit the same leg, which meant that he’d never walk normally again. One severed his rectus femorus, and in my expert opinion, he needed a surgical team to work on it immediately to repair it. No apparent arterial damage from that one, just chewed up striated muscle tissue. The other bullet hit the fibula, and based on the bone fragments sticking out, it shattered the bone. Either the bullet or the shards of bone cut his femoral artery and he bled to death as I watched. I looked at my watch to time the event.
The medical degree didn’t mean much in terms of knowing how things really worked inside a body. The internship, residency and emergency room practice had clarified them and helped me understand far more clearly. Jack, real name Yakov something-in-ski, brought out the worst in me. He had a flat slavic face, feral eyes and couldn’t have taught Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsk a single thing about ramming a hot coat coat hanger wire up a guy’s penis/urethra and into his bladder to encourage him to talk. I admired the art and the sizzle from the inside because it had a surgical precision and brought real results.
When you’re into the bookies fifty large and you are saddled with med-school debt, the mob can mold you like putty, hippocratic oath or not. If priests and cops can go bad, why not doctors? At least that’s how I saw it.
This is just something by way of fictional shorts, to start off the New Year (not unlike the old year). I'm going for more intensity, trying to put you into the action as if you are an eye-witness who can slip inside the skin of the first-person narration. Hope you like it.
Happy 2016 to my readers.
Uhhh……was the coat hanger thing really necessary?
Other than that, nice writing!
Ooh that was proper nasty and yet deliciously compelling. I like the first person narrative because that gives it even more intensity. Great detail.
Great writing indeed.
Happy New Year
Nicely done, as usual! Best wishes for a great 2016!
I had to let you know they were serious about their work.
Thanks, Jules.
Happy New Year, Rick!!
It's great to see that you're settling down in Texas.
Really enjoy these short stories. Hope to see more!
I completely agree with Jules. Can't wait to see tomorrow's installment.
I think that the good doctor might be local to the North Dallas area these days.
!!!
You can read about it tomorrow. No spoilers.
Thank you, ENS Welling.
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