“I’m not going to—”
“GET THE FUCK OUT!” I shouted at Walker’s pansy ass as he tried to say something else.
Melissa walked back into the room. “Got some meds for you,” she said as she tried to steer around Walker.
“Get out of the fucking way!” I shouted at him.
I glared at Walker, still standing there. He awkwardly turned to leave and ran into some orderlies with a food cart.
“Get! Ya bull in a fucking china shop!” I shouted at him as Melissa stepped in to give me my meds.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be up to eating anything, but this medication is best with food,” she said.
“Thank you, sweetie, I am a little hungry.” I rattled my handcuffed hands. “Are you planning on hand feeding me, or—”
“What’s wrong? You can’t eat by osmosis?” Melissa giggled a little as she pulled a
handcuff key out of her pocket. That right there, that key, that is the holy grail of all keys.
The keys to the kingdom. The keys to my kingdom. The plot twist of the day.
Maybe I still had a shot at setting things right?
I figured I could just wait until she let one hand loose, then I ask her to adjust my pillow? She’ll lean in, I’ll crack her skull into my bed rail, help myself to the key, and kill every single man, woman or child who stands in the way. Well, maybe not the children, and probably not the women and hell, probably not anyone.
I honestly do not find, and never have found, any joy in killing people. The ends just— they have to be met. I am a winner. I am in control. I make my own destiny, certainly can’t leave it up to fate. Sadly, that has led to killing a couple of people in my day. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, unless they have it coming. If they have it coming, well, then it’s just game on.
We’d have to play this one by ear.
“Which hand do you prefer to eat with?” she asked.
I watched her as I thought about my plan. The timing was too risky, what with the orderlies there and the door propped open. I am a patient man. I’ll wait.
She stepped in and un-cuffed my right hand.
“Ah, finally,” I said to her, as I scratched my nose. “Been trying to scratch that itch with my shoulder for a while now but it just wasn’t cutting it.”
I watched the key to the kingdom fall back into her pocket as the orderlies stepped in and put a food tray on my little bedside table: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce. “Looks like a holiday feast,” I said to the orderlies, trying to be pleasant.
“Yeah, Christmas dinners are always nice around here,” Melissa said. “Christmas?” I was honestly kind of surprised.
She smiled at me as she handed me the pill cup with a small, one- ounce paper cup of water. “Percocet,” she said as I dropped the pill into my mouth.
Then I accepted the little tiny cup of water from her. “This is barely enough to wet the whistle; can I get a little more?”
“Sure,” Melissa said as she walked over to the sink.
I surveyed my quarters while she was away. The two orderlies were tidying up the room. The door was open enough to see there was a guard on detail, just outside the room. Lots of people lining the hallways. It seemed a lot busier than I would expect. “Damn, happening place, eh?”
“It’s always like this around Christmas. Carolers come in to cheer everyone up,” Melissa said.
“Ahh.” So I had a hallway full of carolers to contend with too.
Melissa returned and handed me a large pink cup. “Do you need or want a straw?”
“Nah, this works.”
I took a big swig. “Can I get your help with my pillow, though?” “Sure.” Melissa leaned over and helped me adjust my pillow as I slid
the key out of her pocket. “Tell me when.” “That’s perfect, sweetie, thank you.”
“Anything you need, just push the button.” Melissa handed me a little plastic contraption with a button on the tip of it. “Try to eat as much as you can. I’ll be back to check on you a bit later.”
“Thank you, sweetie.” I patiently waited for her to leave as I slid the handcuff key under my right thigh.
Once she was gone I started to reach for the key, then my damn door opened again. “Can’t a man get a little privacy in here?” I said, agitated. Sonny walked in, pushing a broom and wearing a janitor smock. Sonny, of all people. He’d been on JD’s crew for a while, which meant he was on my crew. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time palling around with the help, but I figured he was in a world of trouble, just like the
rest of us.
This game of drug running is always about ownership. As long as I was in charge and he was a player, I owned him. Now that it seemed I might not be in charge anymore, it was anyone’s guess who owned Sonny. “Who’s in charge around here anyway? They seem to let all the riff-raff in,” I joked, gauging the score to see if my day was about to get a whole lot worse.
“How’s it going, boss?” he said.
“How’s it LOOK like I’m doing?” I rattled my handcuffed hand at him.
“Looks like a rough day,” he laughed as he approached the bed table. He grabbed the fork and played with the mashed potatoes. “Hospital food looks better than expected.”
“Help yourself.”
“Nah man.” Sonny set the fork down and locked eyes with me. “Slip’s here. Got a bounty on you, your family, and that chick June.”
“Well, I ain’t got no family left and he can have that bitch. But you gotta know he’s not stopping there, man; he’ll go after everyone involved, including you and yours. Help me bust outta here and we’ll go clean up this mess together.”
“Nah man, there’s cops everywhere, and carolers too, oddly enough.” Just then the carolers started singing out in the hallway.
“That is odd, or maybe it isn’t. I don’t really remember being in any hospitals on Christmas,” I said.
“What happened anyways?” he asked.
“You win some, you lose some. This time I lost; it’s as simple as that. But it’s not too late to clean up the mess. Let’s work together,” I said as I looked him up and down.
“I got amnesty,” he said.
“You really believe he’s gonna honor that? He’s losing millions of dollars right now. He’s gonna wanna take a little ass for that, and trust me - that means your ass, too.”
“I figure my odds are better this way,” he said.
“Well then, what are you waiting for, sweetheart?” I smiled and winked at him. “Let’s rock and roll.”
Sonny lunged at me with a knife.
I captured his arm between my right knee and right hand. His bones cracked on impact.
I kneed him in the face with a hard blow, sending him and his knife to the floor, un-cuffed myself and launched up off the bed.
Ownership
This is one of those moments in life to treasure, like the moment you resurface from the deepest