One Bloody Thing After Another Read Free Page B

handcuffs.
    â€œThat’s embarrassing,” Jackie says to him. “You both wore the same outfit today.”
    okay.
5
    â€œTwo grown men with guns for one dumb kid. Do you see that, Mitchie?” Charlie reaches down to untangle Mitchie’s leash from where the fat little idiot has wrapped it around the bus stop. Mitchie, meanwhile, is busy wrapping himself around Charlie’s leg. “You want me to fall over right here on the sidewalk, is that it?” Charlie says to his dog. Mitchie looks up at him happily.
    â€œCome on, Mitchie,” Charlie says, and they start up the hill again. It’s none of their business what goes on in people’s driveways. It is not their problem. Charlie loops the leash around his hand. At the next pole, Mitchie stops to do his business. Then Charlie starts pulling Mitchie up the road again. They stop at the next pole, too. A little girl in a pink dress comes down the driveway from her house.
    Will it never end?
    â€œHave you seen Wednesday?” she says. She’s holding out a poster with a crude drawing of a cat on it. Charlie doesn’t even pretend to look at the picture.
    â€œNo,” he says.
    The little girl holds out the poster again. “My cat Wednesday ran away,” she says. Mitchie’s fat little tail is going berserk now that he’s heard the little girl’s voice. She bends down to pet him, and he starts licking her like they’re old friends. She says, “Oh, hello! How about you? Have you seen Wednesday?”
    What is she, slow?
    â€œNo he hasn’t,” Charlie says. “He’s been with me all day.”
    â€œShe’s real small, and she’s all black except for her nose,” the little girl says to Mitchie.
    â€œWe have to go.” Charlie pulls on the leash and waves her off with his other hand. She stands watching as Mitchie and Charlie start walking up the hill again.
    Mitchie stops at the next lamppost. Charlie looks back at the little girl, making sure she doesn’t take this as a sign to start talking to them again.
    â€œChrist almighty, Mitchie. I want to get home. How would you like it if we stopped at every house, so I could go inside and use their toilet?”
    Mitchie doesn’t care — he’d probably like that just fine.
    Tell
6
    The cop says “Sorry” when he cuffs Jackie’s hands behind her back. He guides her head gently as he helps her into the cruiser. Jackie doesn’t fight. Then both cops go to talk to Mrs. Hubert, and Jackie is stuck listening to the police radio with her hands cuffed under her butt.
    It’s uncomfortable sitting on handcuffs. Jackie rolls over on her left leg, which isn’t comfortable, either. She rolls over on her right leg. The police radio people are having a great time, using their code words and sounding very official. “One-Mike-one, are you dealing with a fifty-one-fifty?” Jackie can hear her own breathing too clearly. The first-kiss tree used to be between the house and that fence. You could have seen it from here. It’s gone.
    Maybe if she had come yesterday she could have saved her tree. But that’s stupid. If she came yesterday it would have been there and she would have sat underneath and thought about Carl and his rat-tail haircut and his dog. Then, the next time she got sad, she would have come and found nothing. She would have rung the doorbell then. This would have happened either way.
    After a few minutes, the cops close their notebooks and Mrs. Hubert comes over to the car with them. The cops stand and talk some more, ignoring Jackie for now, but Mrs. Hubert looks down through the window. Jackie smiles at her before she even realizes what she’s doing. Mrs. Hubert looks startled.
    And then the cops are in the car and they’re driving. Jackie feels a bit better now. Mrs. Hubert is okay. She probably has insurance. It was just glass. And now Jackie feels strong and tough,