For Randall

            by Alex Nichols

 

  “As far as I can remember, it started with these two young fellers. Well, at least I thought they were young college students of some sort. They were nice, real nice guys. So, we started makin good conversation until they asked me to buy em some liquor. Wait, maybe that was out of order. No no that was while I was drunk…wait…” I stammered as I lost my train of thought.

 

“Well what happened before that?” asked the officer.

“I don’t remember, I was really hammered,” I replied with a smirk, followed by a faint chuckle.

“Look, just finish writing your statement, it’s almost two in the morning. I’ll come back in a bit.” He closed the door behind him.

The room was cold and dark, other than the over head lamp that was swinging incessantly, maybe it wasn’t really swinging though, maybe it was just the booze, and besides, I was pretty tired. The room had no windows in it besides the giant pane near the door which people must have looked through during the day. I leaned forward and stared at my statement which I had just finished writing. I couldn’t tell how long the officer had stepped out for but it must have been quite some time by now. I positioned my shoulder so I could look at my “Dirty White Boy” ink. It had been proudly etched onto my right bicep before the war. This led me to reminisce about my days in Vietnam. All the action I had told those boys I met outside the liquor store. Half of it true, half of it a little “edited” shall we say. They seemed pretty impressed by my stories. Besides, how many ex war vets do you see with “dirty white boy” tattooed onto their arm?

My life’s been pretty screwed up ever since I came back from Nam, but I’ve been able to manage. I’m hypersensitive to everything so I turned to booze. I lost my wife, my friends, I forgot who Peter Tim Wellkel was. I was just an old crazy who drank too much and told too many stories. People always ask me if I had “seen any action” during the war. Truth was, I never did kill nobody during the war

These pigs were so uptight; I really hadn’t done anything you couldn’t get away with.

 

“Mr Willkel, your pen hasn’t moved since I left,” scowled the officer, storming back through the door. “I need to know everything that happened because right now, it’s looking real bad for you.”

“Look, I’s innocent, honest ta god okr? I’s wer jut messin round. Wus an accident!” I said half asleep. The officer glared at me in disbelief, shaking his head. He pulled up a chair and put his cup of coffee down. “You know, it seems awful hard to make those two kids look like an accident. I’ll read your statement now if you don’t mind, then I’ll ask you some…Mr Willkel, Mr Willkel! Did you hear what I just said?”

I grabbed the trash can that the officer had given me in case I had to vomit. A lovely colored green and yellow soup floated above old papers and a half eaten muffin as I eyed my puke which smelt like hot nasty shit. I shook my head, still feeling the effects from the booze. I handed the officer my statement and slumped back into my chair while he carefully examined my story.

                                                    

―――

 

My car was in the shop yesterday morning so I thought I’d walk. I was on my way over to my friend Randall Magus’s house to apologize to him and his wife for something that happened to his wife a few days back. His house was almost like a shack. Windows and boards bulging out of the sides, coats of brown paint which were once a lighter red were peeling off, and the house looked as though somebody had shoved it off balance. Not to mention the house was darker inside that I had ever seen it. It was like the neighborhood had a power outage. I approached the house and stopped at the small fence, trying to peer through windows to get a glimpse of anyone who was inside. As I was opening the small wooden gate, Randall made his way from around the house, carrying a broken wrench in his hand.

“Hey Randall, how are ya buddy?” I tried to say joyfully.

“Can I help ya Pete?”

“Well I thought I’d mosey on over to…”

“Look…Pete…you should be on your way, I just think its best you come back another time to talk.” He glanced around, avoided any eye contact with me. His wife made her way to the screen door and peered out at me. I turned around and began walking down the sidewalk, kicking old bottles that had been left on the ground. A ride would have been nice, it’s quite a walk back to my apartment. I turned around to see if anyone was watching me walk away.

“Randall? Could ya give ol Pete here a ride?” I hollered back, shrugging my shoulders, smirking at him and his wife who hadn’t moved since I started walking.

Without a word, Randall grabbed the keys from inside his pocket and sat in the car while he waited for me to make my way over to the car.

−−

“Wait…wait…” the officer said, shaking his head. “What happened with you and Randall? Why is he upset?”

“Its wus a smalls incident; I’s justs go too drunk one night why Randall wus havings a party, got into arguments with he and his wife. Da’s all.” I ran my fingers through my shaggy brown hair and took a deep breath.

“You’re probably the worst liar I ever met.” The officer snickered and took a sip from his cup. “We’ll come back to that. Let’s get on with the story.

−−−−

 

I never really understood how I had offended Randall Magus’s family but then again I don’t remember much of that incident. It was at a party about a week ago…I don’t remember much.

There wasn’t much conversation during the car ride, but I tried to lighten the mood with a few jokes here and there.

“So how’s the misses?” I said awkwardly. Randall didn’t reply. He continued scanning the road, like he was expecting to hit something.

“Look Pete, we need to talk, but maybe now’s not the best time. I gotta run down to the hardware store to get a new wrench. Why don’t you get yourself something at the convenience store and I’ll pick you up in a bit for some supper.

“Yah…yah Randall that sounds great! You know, I knew you’d come around from being all sour and all from the party, I mean, you can understand it was just a little incident right?”

“Of course Pete,” he glanced at me with cold eyes followed by a light laugh like he was joking around.

 

Eventually, he got to Ben’s Convenience Store and dropped me off. I stepped out of the car and gave Randall one last glace before I shut the car door.

He was okay though, really, I was sure he’d forget all about it.  I took a seat next to the convenience store and pulled out a cigar.

 

ﻛ ﻛ ﻛ ﻛ

 

            The gloomy afternoon sky was almost all grey with patches of scattered white clouds that slowly crept to the ground, adhering to the buildings, covering them with a misty coat. It was about six o’clock or so when I decided to get up and start moving again. I felt like I was being watched, like someone was following me and besides, I hadn’t heard from Randall in about an hour, so I figured I would go buy myself something inside convenience store.

I opened the door that had one of those irritating cowbells on it that rang every time someone walked in. The store was warm compared to the brisk air outside. I made my way to the back where the alcohol was and grabbed a pint of Whiskey. As I was standing in line at the cashier, two young men came in, about twenty-ish years old each. One had an A’s hat on and a brown jacket and looked just like a baseball player while the other had some glasses on and thick black hair. He almost looked like Harry Potter. They both wore blue jeans. The baseball player was laughing at some joke he had made as they casually made their way to the back where the alcohol was. It’s not hard to tell when kids are going to try and get alcohol. It’s all in their behavior. The innocent, random laughing. The hats, the glasses, all trying to make themselves seem older than they appear to be. They also loved to blurt out random sentences like, “Oh here’s the can of fava beans! Or Here’s the Gum mother asked for.”

I’m no stranger to crime.

I stepped outside and leaned against the wall of the store while I waited for Randall to pick me up. The whiskey was looking pretty tempting so I opened it up. After about five minutes or so, I was starting to get a little woozy. I was just starting to get comfortable when the boys came out of the store, empty handed.

“Any luck with the liquor, Mr. Pothead? I mean…Potter” I burst into laughter while spilling some liquor all over my pants. The boys gave me a look like they had just found out I sexually assaulted their mothers before they walked off.

The boys let out a series of faint, awkward chuckles before turning around to head up the street. Disappointed by their immediate reaction, I shouted out to them as they walked away.

“Wait, wait, I’s Peter, what’s your names kids?”

One of the kids glanced back for a moment and then continued walking up the street, into the distance.

I could hear the wind hissing through the trees. Off in the distance, the fog had thickened to the point where I couldn’t read the store signs anymore. I had lost sight of the boys but I figured I had an idea as to where they were headed. The chilly breeze had stopped as a light rain began to drizzle down on the moist pavement. I started walking up the road to where I thought the boys had parked their car. As I continued up the road, I got that same feeling that I was being watched. Why would anybody follow an old guy like me? Who was watching me? I turned around a few times just to check but there was nothing. The liquor was really starting to kick in as my walk was becoming more of a stumble. There was nothing but the damp, misty fog and the pattering of the rain that had now begun whizzing down violently.

There was a parked car with its lights and engine on so I decided to approach the driver’s side in hope of finding those boys.

“Heyo, is anyody in der?”

No response. Whoever was inside decided it was time to turn on the windshield wipers. I could make out a tall manly-like figure but the windows were too fogged. Maybe this car wasn’t the right car. I continued up the road, checking back to see if they had moved, but that one car’s lights stayed on, getting dimmer and dimmer in the distance as I stumbled up the street.

About two blocks or so up the street, I came across another parked car. This one was a dark blue Volvo that seemed old, but fully intact. I could make out two figures through the smudgy waterfall of rain that continued streaming down the windows.

“Dat you boys? No luck wif de liquor eh?”

“Who’s that,” one of them asked, still stationed in the car while I sat out in the pouring rain.

“I’m Pete, I met you back at da shtore. Rememember? Remememeber me? You that funny kid dat look like Harry Pothead…I mean Potter!” I burst into laughter again to try and lighten up the mood.

“Look old man, we don’t really know you, we don’t want any trouble so we’ll just be on our ways here,” the baseball player said, leaning forward out of the passenger seat to try and get a glimpse of me through the window.

I walked around and opened the back door of the car where I could see that there was nobody present in the back seat. I opened then door and jumped onto the seat. I found myself incredibly comfortable with the heater on and a sudden head rush from the whiskey.

“Phew, some rain out there dontcha fink? You know, it use to raim like dis back e Nam…”
”Look sir, this is our car, you can’t just come barge in like that!”

“Hey now, if I’s tryna kill you, you’d de dead by new. I’m friendly”

The boys looked at each other for a moment, and then burst into an awkward chuckle, not knowing how to handle the situation. They didn’t know how to react to me. I mean, who would?

“So, no luck wif dat booze?” I said with a smirk, cluing them that I was already plastered.

“No sir, those bastards won’t sell to us because I’m only twenty, and my friend here is nineteen,” They both looked at each other again. They didn’t say anything directly to each other, but I knew that they had figured out they could use me if they just stuck around with me long enough.

“I’ll get you yur liquor if yu promise ta do me a favor. And yu won’t dknow wat it iez quite yet, but I’ll huld ya..hold ya to it okr?”

“Sure that would be great. Look I’ll drive ya back and wait outside the store for you to come out ok? One fifth of Bacardi melon, and one fifth of Jose Cuervo. What’s the favor you want from us? And how much do you think all of that will co…”

“It use to piss rain like dis wen I dwas back in Nam. See I, we, would shpread out in groups of tens ro twentys. Some of dsoldiers woulds wanders off into dthe villagers whiles wes weres settin ups camp. Lord knows what dey did.”

The boys just sat their, turned around in their seats, gazing back at me.

“Yu know swhat dey did? They raped the women. Theys wuld go out lookins for them womens and rape em to death. Horny bastards,” I burst into laughter again, but this time it brought a tear to my eye. The boys still sat there, too nice to kick me out of the car, but too weirded out to have this crazy guy go on any longer.”

“You wana sees my tat?” I positioned my shoulder to show them a tattoo of a naked angel humping a broken heart that had an arrow going through it and right underneath, “Dirty White Boy”.

“That’s right fellers, take a good looks. Funny idn’t it? I had dis inked on befor de war, looks likes I hads the wrong nintentions…intentions whens I had this put on.”

I went on and on about nothing, about everything. Mostly stories about the war. The boys pretended they liked them, but I knew I was just wasting their time. It wasn’t too long before they asked me…

“So can we head back to the store?”

So, they drove me back to the store. On the way, I noticed that the first car I had approached was still stationed with it lights and windshield wipers still on. I tried to get a glimpse of the driver but his lights were too blinding…

ÀÀÀÀÀ

“So you bought them alcohol?” said the cop, stretching out his arms but keeping his eyes fixed on mine.

“Yeeehawah, is that a crime?” I let out another faint chuckle.

“Oh you are quite the character,” His sarcastic tone soon became very serious. “Ok Pete, what happened next?”

―――

 

Just I was handing them their liquor, Randall pulled up.

“Cmon pete, get in the car,” Randall said while reaching across to open the passenger door.

“Hey, we give these fellers up their car? Their parked too and besides, pouring rain for shits sake” I said while handing them a brown bag with two bottles in it.

“Peter…I don’t understand a thing you just said. I hope you’re not drunk again. We’re supposed to talk but…yah, ok sure. Just move that bag of tools in the back…”

“Great! Look at that boys, liquor and a ride up to yurs car! Not bad at’all!” a wide smirk spread across my face as we all hopped in Randall’s car.

They had parked their car about two or three blocks away, but it was pouring rain. A woman was walking up in the same direction we were, so I rolled down my window to ask her if she needed a lift.

“Need a lift sweetheart? A fines girl like you can’t be walkin all alone. Now come on and…”
”That’s enough Peter! Roll your window up!”

Without acknowledging Randall, I gave the woman a quick wink and rolled up the window. Randall seemed really irritated at this point. He sped up the car as we approached the spot where the boys had parked. Randall suddenly slammed the breaks on.

“Get out boys, this is it, I can’t take it anymore, out you go!” I had never seen Randall in such a rage.

“Randall, the boys didn’t do anything, they just wanted a ride. If anybody should get out it’s you. You silly bugger, you can’t take a joke? Come on Randall, calm down would ya?” I was so scared I didn’t know what I was saying. Before I knew it, Randall hopped out of the car and opened up the back door, motioning to the boys that he wasn’t fooling around.

“OUT!”

The boys got out without saying a word, carrying their brown paper bag with the liquor which hardly seemed worth all the trouble to them at this point. I started thinking that maybe I oughta smarten up a bit here and try and act a little more sober.
Randall got back into the front seat, his hair damp from the rain that was still drizzling outside. The engine was still running but we stayed in park.

“Look you bastard. I’m sick of this bullshit. You keep wandering around, piss drunk, pretending like nothing happened between you and me. You’re a dirty ol bastard, no wonder you got that nasty tattoo on yah, you dirty son of a bitch. You don’t remember do ya? You don’t remember what you did to my wife? She won’t even come out of the house anymore you bastard!”

“Look Randall…”

“Quiet, I’m talking here,” I suddenly became very nervous. I could feel my heart beating in my throat as I tried to make out some words. Before I could say anything, he reached into the back seat and grabbed a wrench out of the plastic ace hardware bag and swung it down onto my left hand that was lying on my lap, over and over again. I screamed as my already frozen hand became numb.

“OW Randall has you lost it?” He had stopped hitting me at this point and let his head fall against the steering wheel as he began to sob. I peered out the rearview mirror to watch the boys slowly walk away. Randall was still sobbing so I thought I would make a run for it. I scrambled to reach for the door handle but before I could escape, Randall grabbed the wrench again and hit me in the chest with such force I thought I had died right there.

“You son of a bitch!”

At this point I was so out of it that I could hardly tell what was going on. I tried to cry out for help only to be silenced by more whacks. This one to the jaw. Again and again he struck, this time hitting me square in the nose until I had slumped down into my seat. The blood trickled down my nose from both nostrils. Before I was completely out cold, I heard some footsteps running back to the car. The last words I heard were, “You goddamn kids!” coming from Randall’s voice.

 

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

“So you think you heard the boys come back to the car?”

“Look I’s don’t know…”

“I’ll tell you what; I think you know perfectly well what happened here. You knew that Randall was pissed off because you put your hands on his wife right? That’s the incident that you didn’t want to talk about. Now you may or may not remember what happened but we certainly know that it did happen. So all this time you were worried Randall might come after you and he did. He was the one in the parked car, he was the one following you. You weren’t sure, were you? But you knew.”

“I will say no more.” I said…all the while wondering who’s got the story right, the officer, or me? It’s all rather foggy with all this liquor in me. Is Randall trying to frame me?

“You puttered around the convenience store trying to figure out what to do and getting drunk because you knew you were suppose to meet Randall later. So you see these nice boys that need some liquor.  You’re desperate for help so you do them a favor, all the while knowing that Randall would blow up at you for making jokes about ladies because it reminded him of what you did to his wife. You tried to make the boys sympathize with you and that’s exactly what you did. You’re tellin’ me those must have been their footsteps coming back to the car and that Randall must have gotten out of the car and kidnapped the boys, Right?”

I wiped the sweat that was dripping down my sideburns.

“Where are those boys Pete? Why would he kidnap them? And is there even a goddamn Randall Magus for Christ sakes.