Page 4 of Circle of Death
WE’RE A BLOCK from campus. Maddy is trying to outpace me. In fact, she’s pretending I don’t exist. I grab a thin stick of wood from a trash barrel and use it as a cane to push myself along. It always takes a little time to adjust to a new form.
On the outskirts of the campus, there’s a low wall shaded by tall bushes. A wooden bench sits back from the sidewalk under some overhanging branches. The bench is occupied by three young men. Not exactly college types. This is the corner I heard about. This is where the trouble is.
The guy sitting in the middle is tall and muscular, with bare arms and a tight-fitting vest. He sits forward and scans his surroundings like a radar dish, looking for threats—and opportunities. His partners lounge back on the bench, legs spread.Macho.Arrogant. Like nobody can touch them.
Maddy is a few yards ahead of me. She knows the right thing to do, which is to just keep walking. But the men don’t make it easy. I see their eyes tracking her as she gets close.
“Baby, you make my heart stop,” says one. He slaps his palm across his chest and pretends to slide off the seat. His buddy starts panting like a dog and strokes his crotch. Classy. The big guy tries to catch Maddy’s eye. His right hand taps his pocket. “Whaddaya want, whaddaya need?” he mutters, just loud enough for her to hear. Then again, the same pitch: “Whaddaya want, whaddaya need?” Maddy ignores him. Just keeps going. Smart girl.
I’m catching up to her. My makeshift cane clicks on the sidewalk. Maddy turns around and glares at me. “Stop!” she says, her voice low and quiet. “I’m fine. Don’t make a scene, okay?”
Now the two guys on the ends of the bench stand up. They’re lean and fit.
One of them is wearing a watch cap. The other has a bald head covered in tattoos.
“We don’t have a chance with this lady,” says the guy in the cap, joking to his buddy. “Can’t you see she already got a boyfriend?”
“Nah, I don’t think he’s a good match for her,” says his friend. “Gimp can barely walk.”
Maddy doesn’t look at them. Doesn’t even acknowledge the taunts. I don’t take the insults personally. After all, they’re not seeing the real me.
Suddenly, I feel my cane being kicked out from under me. I lurch to one side and catch my balance. The cane clatters on the sidewalk a few feet away.
“See that?” says the guy in the cap. “Old man can’t even stand on his own two feet.” Both guys are cackling like crows.
Now, for the first time, Maddy turns toward them. “Hey!” she says. “You’re making a mistake.”
“No mistake, baby,” the bald guy says, lifting his T-shirt to expose a chiseled belly.
“I got your attention, didn’t I?”
I stoop down and reach for my cane. A heavy boot comes down on top of it, snapping it in half. I look up. It’s the guy in the vest. The boss man.
“This is a place of business,” he says. “You’re distracting my associates.” His voice is raspy and threatening.
“He’s leaving,” says Maddy, calmly. “Right now.”
All of a sudden, the guy in the cap grabs Maddy around the waist. He pulls her up tight against him, his nose in her hair, his lips near her ear. “The best idea is you hang with me and forget about this fossil!”
I can feel my blood boiling. It’s a really great feeling.
I plant my feet and plow into the boss man’s midsection, knocking him off-balance. Then I pick up the two halves of my busted cane, one in each hand. The thugs are surprised at how fast I’m moving. The old fossil. Before they can react, I crack one half of the cane hard against the head of the guy holding Maddy. He rocks backward. She spins away. The third guy comes at me hard. I side-step him and bring the other half of the cane down on the base of his skull. He drops face-first onto the sidewalk.
When I turn around, the big guy is holding an ice pick. He weaves it in front of my face, then thrusts it at my belly. I see a flash and blur. The ice pick is not in his hand anymore. It’s in Maddy’s. She has the guy on the ground, and the steel point is poking against his throat.
“I changed my mind,” says Maddy. “I want drugs. All you’ve got.”
From an early age, Maddy knew she had the power to control the behavior of others. And this guy is in no position to resist anyway. He reaches into his pockets and pulls out small packets of white pills. A bunch of them. Maddy grabs them in her fist and tosses them down a storm drain. Then she stands up and gives the guy a solid kick in the ribs. “Nowgo! If I see any of you back here again, I’ll have my doddering old boyfriend murder you.”
The thugs struggle to their feet and hustle down the block, looking back over their shoulders as they go, like they can’t believe what just happened.
Maddy picks up the two parts of my cane and throws them into the bushes, along with the ice pick. I can see she’s annoyed with me. “For once,” she says. “Can’t you just benormal?”
“I made pancakes for breakfast, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” says Maddy. “And now you made me late for class.”
“Admit it,” I say. “Wasn’t that satisfying? Just a little bit?”
