“Go out to the front to wait on the ambulance.” The tone in Pops’ voice left no room for argument.
We backed out of the alley to the corner. I handed Buzzy his blanket and bag. He was silent and fidgety, looking every which way for the ambulance. “Man, where the fuck is they?”
“They’re coming. I know Audy Rae called them.”
“He can’t die… he jus can’t die.”
“Buzz, what happened, man? How did he get like that?”
Buzzy just shook his head and looked down the road again for the ambulance.
“I mean, he was beat up or something. Had to have been beat up. Don’t you think so?”
Buzzy wrapped his arms around his chest and jockeyed foot to foot. The night was still and we heard the low wail of the ambulance from far off. “Bout fuckin time,” he said and started running in the general direction of the sound.
“They’re coming right here, Buzz. Let’s just wait like Pops said.” The sound grew and the red and white lights of the ambulance reflected off Biddle’s as it turned the corner onto Green. Buzzy ran out to the middle of the road, waving his arms wildly. The ambulance approached and he directed it to the alley opening. Soon after, Sheriff Binner arrived, trailed by two state police cars. The front porches on Green Street were filling up. People began walking down to the alley. Two state policemen established a perimeter across the road; one of them said to us, “Hey, you kids, get back over here.” We obeyed and joined the thickening crowd on the other side of Green.
“They ain’t gonna bring out the amblance for a break-in, Bernice,” someone said.
“Dorlees says it’s a suicide. Ain’t that what you said, Dorlees?”
“Yes’um. The state boys only come for the suicides.”
“That’s what I know.”
I felt a hand on my shoulder, which made me jump. I turned and relaxed when I saw it was Audy Rae.
“He’s real bad, Audy Rae.”
She squeezed my shoulder. “Been praying.”
A fat lady looked over at me. “Who’s real bad? You know who kilt themselves in there?”
“No one’s killed themselves, Ms. Bandy,” Audy Rae answered patiently.
Ms. Bandy looked at her as if she had told her that the sun wasn’t going to make the sky in the morning. “How the hell you know? Dorlees says it’s a suicide.” Audy Rae ignored her and gently moved us out of the crowd to the corner of Green and Main.
She stood between us with a hand on each of our shoulders; as the ambulance gurney came out of the alley, the hands rushed to her mouth. “Oh my Lord.”
Two technicians were working furiously on Mr. Paul, one forcing air into his lungs with a ball attached to a mask. A sheriff’s deputy pushed the stretcher. Another held an IV bottle. Two more police came out of the alley, then Pops. They hoisted Mr. Paul into the back of the ambulance and it pulled away silently. Once it was out of town we heard the wail of the siren. Pops was standing just outside the alley talking with the sheriff, who nodded his head and looked over to Buzzy. Pops walked out to the front of the shops, then crossed toward us. There were creases in his forehead that I’d never seen before, and his lips were a straight white line. “Audy Rae, take these boys home, immediately. I’m going over to Paitsel’s.”
Chapter 14
HOW BAD DREAMS HAPPEN
What the fuck is going on? I’m serious. Someone tried to kill him. I mean, they knocked out all his teeth. Did you see that? Did you see all the teeth on the sidewalk in all that blood? Those were teeth… teeth! What is the deal?”
“Dunno.”
“Did you see who did it? I mean, they beat the living shit out of him.”
“Dint see nuthin.”
“No one running out of the alley or anything like that?”
“Nope.”
We were lying half out of the tent in the backyard. He rolled over and put his back to me and closed his eyes. Soon he was breathing long, slow breaths. I couldn’t believe he was able to sleep after what we saw. I had absolutely no hope of sleep anytime soon, with my mind reeling from the alley scene. I sat up and peeked over his shoulder, watching him for a minute. One eye opened and peered up at me.
“Don’t be starin at people when theys sleepin. It’s how bad dreams happen.”
“You’re not sleeping.”
“You dint know that.”
“Whatever. Buzzy, I gotta talk to you about this. I mean, he had a bone coming out of his nose, white stuff coming out of his ears. I think they killed him and you’re all ready to go to sleep.”
“He ain’t gonna die.”
“How the hell do you know?”
Buzzy flipped over on his back. “He just ain’t is all.”
I was sitting up now. “All right, tell me everything that happened.”
He exhaled an annoyed sigh. “I came down over Kinder Mountain an was walkin up Green Street by the alley an heard a moan, saw Mr. Paul all hurt, an then ran here to get your Pops. That’s all I know.”
“And you didn’t see anybody around in the alley or on the street?”
“No, man, it was deserted.”
“Who do you think did it?”
“I can’t even take a guess on it.”
“I think it was that Budget man.”
He looked down. “Dunno.”
I told him about the meeting at Hivey’s. “… and I saw one of the Budgets shoot their own mule last week. Killed it right there in front of his whole family. At the meeting he was talking about running Mr. Paul out of town. Do you think he did it?”
“I got no earthly idea.”
I started to catalog all the reasons why the Budgets were guilty when Buzzy cut me off. “Look, man, I really don’t want to talk bout this. Let’s jus lay here an go to sleep. I been pullin hay all afternoon an I’m beat.”
“Sure, Buzz.”
He turned his back to me again and soon his breaths were slow and even. I lay there and looked up at the stars. All the blood and teeth and bone that were the wreckage of Mr. Paul carried the memories of Joshua forward. Memories I had pushed so far into the shadows that when I drew them out again, they were still as raw and unprocessed as before. The numbness I had felt for so long after he died began to creep back into my legs and arms and lungs on Mr. Paul’s blood and broken teeth.
Buzzy’s breathing became rhythmic, and I could tell this time he really was asleep. But for me, any hope of reasonable slumber was gone. I stayed half out of the tent that night, watching the travel of the stars and thinking about Josh, replaying everything I did and failed to do on April 11 over and over and over until the east began to muddle the night sky with purple and light blue.