Further Adventures (36 page)

Al Capone—Meyer Lansky—Lucky Luciano—Lionel Horvath!

“This is something precious I’ve made. For my family. Not just food and shelter—
security
. No uncertainty about tomorrow. My kids can have their own houses right here in New Plains. I’ll visit my grandchildren where we’re standing right now. With the peace of mind I ripped out of the world with hard work and Yankee ingenuity. That’s us all over. If you want to do anything that makes a difference you’ve got to get your hands dirty.”

Newberry you talk about your repulsive business like it is a lollipop factory you hammered together by candy cane nails & chocolate planks in the midst of Gingerbread Wood! What about the way your work ends up with CORPSES at your feet! What about all the Laws you broke not to mention the Supreme Commandment?

Watch his face go pale & sad from this Wound I made on his sensitive feelings. When he can choke down his emotions & think of the right words he holds up his hands for me to see them in the plastic gloves with a web
of Blood on both sides & wet crumbs of Freddy’s stomach sticking to his fingertips. “Look what I’m willing to do for my loved ones.”

Newberry told me very Proud & Satisfied how a year from now he is going to adopt Dolores so she will be his daughter by Law. I am happy for him I am happy for her etc. blah-blah-blah—he wanted a regular conversation from me so that’s what I gave him. My inner thoughts belonged to me & all of them crowded in my Mind like rain clouds piled on top of each other. His cockeyed version of the Story of our Country for one thing. I hope you see if he can twist the facts of American History so easy because of the hole in his head where Conscience should be then he will twist anything. So the other heavy cloud was I could not be near Dolores to protect her from her Papa’s wicked influence.

He made me sit in the passenger seat of my own car he even held the door open for me The Weak Invalid. “Buckle up for safety.” He pointed at my seat belt. I clicked it shut then Newberry pulled it tighter. “Don’t want to lose you.”

I did not dwell on Nilo’s corpse lying in the back of the Raymobile or the Cowboy Shirt fellow either. Only when I looked out the back window to check how close Wayne was behind us I could not avoid my eyes from the bloody sight. I rolled my window down all the way & the wind blasting in blew some of the meat odors away or thinned them out at least. I am guessing here but I think somehow Newberry got used to the smell of the Dead & when he observed the sour look on my face he tried to distract me by cheerful Conversation.

Mainly his topic was The Worst Is Over. “This is the last thing we’ve got to do together.” It did not encourage me nor it did not take my Mind off of the meaty aroma in the hot car so here is another Lesson Of Life for the books—You Can Not Avoid Your Senses. So I leaned my head out of my window & smelled the dirt of the Desert & only heard the wind roar around my ears.

On the Front Page of the
Examiner
I see some Boy Scouts found the
4 Corpses they were a few miles north of Deming. But when we pulled over at the time I did not realize this exact location. Newberry did not make me soil my hands & help him pull Nilo etc. out of the Raymobile. Also Wayne Feather handled the Remains of the other Mexicans he had in his trunk he rolled them out of their trash bags on the ground.

In the back of my car they left bloodstains plus the dirty blanket they wrapped Nilo in. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Dump it somewhere.” Newberry shrugged at me & he peeled off his plastic coveralls. “I’d burn it,” was his expert advice. (I believe this is what happened to the Radiation Suit i.e. the last time I saw it Newberry stuffed it in a trash bag & Wayne threw it in the trunk of his Buick.) He pushed his open hand in front of me to shake man to man. “Good-bye Ray.” I refused him. “Can you open the glove compartment for me? There’s a rag in there.” He used the rag to cover his fingers when he popped the hood release. Wayne came around with a wrench & he worked on the motor.

“What’s he doing to my car?”

“Nothing. He’s just taking your spark plugs out.”

“I don’t even know where the hell I am! Could be the Sahara Desert out here. This is fine. This I expected…”

“Before you give yourself a coronary Ray listen a minute. I just want to make sure I know where you are for the next couple hours. Wayne’s going to drop off one spark plug every 100 Yards in a straight line. You can find them easy enough. We’ll even leave you the wrench. Won’t we Wayne?”

“You bet.”

“I don’t know from auto mechanics!” I said. “The guy at the gas station changes my spark plugs.”

“Easy as pie,” Wayne said. “They just plug in.”

“You can throw this in the tumbleweeds too.” I handed him the .38 revolver but Newberry pressed it back by the flat of his hand so I threw
it out of the window to defy him.

He found it & brought it back. “Giggle and give in. It’s the smart thing to do.” He wiped it off & dropped it in my lap. “This way you always know where it is.”

“You mean you do.”

“Our guarantee that nothing upsetting is ever going to happen. Hold on to it Ray. So you can sleep at night.” He poked his head inside when he shut the Raymobile door. “I think you should check the pressure in the back tires. Felt like we were fishtailing a little bit.” His Final Words on the subject.

“Newberry!” I jumped out of the car my shout stopped him.

“What do you want to do Ray? Hit me over the head with a wrench?” He climbed in Wayne’s car & from there he said, “You don’t do things like that. You’re too tender-hearted for the bare knuckle stuff. Go home. You don’t want to see me again.”

I did not think of a strong Comeback until they pulled away so I ran behind them straight into the ball of dust Erupting on the road. “I’m sticking to you like napalm!” is what I warned him & I swore it on my honor to the clear blue Sky.

A person believes in JUSTICE so what can he do & answer Newberry’s crimes? Every Deed attracts some Deed in return by its own Gravity so I ask you what kind of a answer does a man throw at a KILLER & a PERVERT the NATURAL ENEMY of Decent Life? What is the right answer when you meet a dishonest F.B.I. Agent who betrayed his Pledge of Allegiance also cheated on his wife also simultaneous he smuggled paying customers over the U.S. Border on his Mexican girlfriend’s back—and who led her on by his masculine Power so far he made her pregnant with child—furthermore a man who DOES NOT REGRET the terrible fate that befell upon this beloved woman i.e. strangled to death because the only thing he cares about is he should come out on top—

On top of further Death by his own hands & by his expert precautions he can prove he was nowhere near these Crimes. Instead he will use all of his Power to plant Evidence on a innocent member of the public & fix him with a phony File etc. & besmirch his good name beyond repair & twist everything that happened so far
to save his own skin
& raise the Blame on somebody he can keep under his thumb or he will make them squirm under his bare knuckle!

I am asking you what is the answer to John Newberry who can do this & then drive home to his ranch house in Albuquerque in time to eat dinner with his beautiful Family.

You want to hear my Answer?

I fired up the Raymobile & drove in Newberry’s tracks all the way on that back road I concentrated on his dirty Threats the whole time. I followed his trail until I got to the Interstate. IF HE IS GOING EAST THEN I WILL GO WEST. I WILL GO AS FAR AWAY FROM HIM AS I CAN UNTIL I FALL OFF THE END OF THE AMERICAN MAP.

Oh yes I was coming to a Conclusion—

A person keeps his eyes on the Good he pledges himself & it will hypnotize him & tenderize his Heart so he is looking at flowers & butterflies when Evil is waiting to ambush him. Nor the Good he sees will not protect him it does him Mortal Harm I believe.

I go back to Science here & quote you Sir Isaac Newton’s well-known Law—Every Action Makes A Equal & OPPOSITE reaction. By my personal experience I will say this Law applies to Human Deeds the same. Ergo here is the last Lesson of Life that persons with good intentions
will learn: While you smile very brave & whistle a happy tune they sneak up behind your back & kick. It is not the Truth if you believe honesty & suffering etc. triumph in victory by my experience I say it is the Opposite.

I left my old beliefs behind on my way out of New Mexico. I zoomed past the Welcome To Arizona sign I told them good riddance. Altogether I did not stop driving I went 23 Hours nonstop. A changed man! I am all for Crime now I think about all the Good you criminals do in the world! You Killers who let us know how delicate threads hold up every Life…You Thiefs who show us we have to lock up our money & real estate to treasure it…You Cheats & Liars who make us doubt every sincere word we hear…You Pimps who remind us how we come out of meat & the most beautiful desire of a man is only meat in motion…You Perverts who teach us the low Truth about how humans behave when nobody is observing…

Hereby I join you! I will do the Human Race a big favor! I will achieve this by my own strength & will power! I will do the worst thing I can think of & wake you up with it so nobody will get hypnotized by the shiny idea there is something Good alive in the world some Power to help you some Friend to defend you. Then you will not be so helpless when the next Criminal sneaks up. I thank you Newberry for you made me the man I am today!

Now Howard Silverstein comes back for a minute so I can say good-bye to him before I disintegrate into Death.

GOOD-BYE MR. SILVERSTEIN!

“Ray I’ll be honest with you. You showed some promise in the beginning. How old were you then—18? 19? That’s youth for you. And look what happened.”

“What
did
happen?”

“The usual thing. Promise. Then less promise. A little less every year. After the ’39 season I knew you didn’t have anything bigger in you than The Green Ray.”

“You’re saying I wasn’t any good after that?”

“So-so. You hit your peak in 1939.”

“The show was on till ’46.”

“Nobody said we were looking for Alfred Lunt to play The Green Ray.”

“I’m sure I had talent.”

“So-so.”

“I’m having trouble accepting this.”

“You want me to lie?”

“I made The Green Ray come alive, Lamont Carruthers said so.”

Mr. Silverstein jiggles his hand in the air. “A one-note samba. I’m not saying you didn’t put any oomph into the part. You did. Plenty of oomph.”

“Then how did I end up on the street?”

“To tell you the truth you got to be a rope around my neck. Not just you. The whole show. Those antics the last night! You want to jump around like a monkey on a chain? Fine. Not at my network. Excuse me if I didn’t want to be your organ grinder.”

“I made you look bad in front of your friends.”

“What else?” he said from the Raymobile backseat.

“What kind of a man I am inside.”

“Not interested.” He starts to fade out. “Who has the time these days?”

In the middle of Arizona in the middle of the night I laid my lead foot on the gas I made the Raymobile eat up the miles of miles. Everything is the same after 5 Seconds. The neon signs going by. The billboards. The coffee shops. The dotted line on the road. I know the things of the world a Sight or a Sound you possess 5 Seconds then
pfft
the next
thing they are a Memory behind me.

GOOD-BYE BERNHARDT GRYM!

“My darling! Come here! Can I kiss you?” I watch him make a reach for me & then he remembers the Rules. “No,” Bernhardt says very disappointed, “I can’t.”

“That’s your deepest feeling for me?”

“Well…”

“Nothing else?”

“There was something,” Bernhardt is ready to reveal. “Your
aroma
.”

“Besides the physical I mean.”

“Your aroma of
tragedy!
What a bouquet you had on you. What a bloom! A whiff is all ordinary people can bear. You could clear a room in 30 Seconds! But I want you to know it
attracted
me.”

I ponder this point over & I think it is Correct.

“You were
born
with it my boy! From the second that single sperm out of billions & that egg out of millions met to create you—you knew the sad truth in your tiniest cells…there is no pleasure on Earth that lasts longer than a touch & it’s really all you have a right to hope for.”

“There! You said it—HOPE for,” I jump in here. “I gave people hope. The public didn’t smell my aroma on the Radio.”

“You’re not on the radio now.”

“For 73 Years I didn’t compromise my morals.”

“Bully for you. Show me the rewards. The achievements. No woman. No family. No house. No respect. I don’t want to be unduly cruel about it my dear but you never even owned a washing machine.”

“Sometimes it was false hope.”

“If you can tell me the difference between false hope and the other kind,” Bernhardt drips his words out, “I’ll marry Ronald Reagan.”

I laugh out loud at this.

“My dear darling Ray you’re at the end of a 73 Year Long daydream. Once in a while some small happiness roosted in your shabby gables. For instance when the
Mason Examiner
paid you $10 for that article about local dinosaur bones. Red-letter days.”

“My name in the newspapers.”

“Your name in the newspapers.”

“A milestone.”

He fades away from me & the last thing I see of Bernhardt is his lordly nose he tilts it in the dark Air. “Where would we be without tragic stories like yours?”

I am going backwards to go forwards. Before I cross the border to California I have to clear my mind.

GOOD-BYE DAVID ARCASH!

“I finally want to tell you how much you absolutely disgusted me,” I am happy to say out loud.

“Glad to do it,” says David. “Was it my general attitude or was there something in particular?”

“Are you interested?”

He holds up his pinky fingernail I see it in my rearview mirror. “About that much.”

“The way you treated women. It revolted me. You picked them up and threw them away like a used Kleenex.”