Woman Scorned Read online

  “Jesus, Terd, I’m so sorry,” Obe protested. “Does it hurt?”

  “Hurts like a sonofabitch,” Terd said.

  “Well, isn’t there anything anyone can do? I mean… there are plants on the island. Some of them must be medicinal, right?”

  “Search me. I never studied anything like that. I’d as likely cover myself in poison ivy before I found something helpful.” Terd stared at his foot then put it gingerly on the ground. He was not putting any weight on it. “No. The best I figure I’ll be dead from gangrene or whatever this is in another week. Maybe two. I’ve thought of jumping from the cliffs. Thought of jumping in front of a car. Not sure I’m quite ready for either one. Told you the other day, I’m payin’ a price for my sins back home. Maybe I’m meant to suffer, you know?”

  “But surely the Family can help,” Obe said. “Somebody here must have been a doctor or have run ambulance or something.”

  Terd laughed. “Eh,” Terd shrugged. “They might have if I was one of them. Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed my pant leg.”

  Obe nodded, and glanced at his jumpsuit’s zipper. It, too, was bare of the distinguishing gang sign. “But if you joined them now…”

  “That’s not how it works. It’s too late for me. I had my chance but I rejected their offer. Can’t say as I regretted it often. Now, maybe. But not often.” He looked up at the sky where a huge white and gray cloud was drifting slowly past. On another day, Obe would have stared at that cloud in hopes of seeing a face or an animal or a simple household object. “I had plenty of chances in my life. I blew them all.”

  Obe stood uncomfortably not knowing what to say. Soon, Terd filled in the silence for him.

  “You really think this lot is made up of doctors and teachers and do-gooders?” He laughed again. “Look around, Obe, these men are criminals. Evil to the core. You. Me. All of us. We’re nothing but a bunch of pigs. The women got it right.”

  More men were coming into the alley now, and as four came in together- all with their right pant leg rolled up, Obe saw- he used the opportunity to change the subject.

  “Why are so many men here so early?” he asked.

  Terd looked at him for a second. “All right. I’ll tell ya, but this is the last freebie. Just ‘cause I’m dying don’t mean I’m already dead.” Obe nodded, listening. “The Family meets about an hour or so before noon. It’s their time together. You know, to keep things organized and whatnot. I’m a loner, so they let me sit in if I like. Usually I don’t but with my foot the way it is, I figured I might not get another chance.”

  “I see. I missed that last time.”

  “You sure did,” Terd laughed now. “Too busy runnin’ the streets before you stopped on by. Brought some company with you, too. God, that really was great. It’ll be sure to come up at today’s meeting. The elders will want to introduce you officially, and they rarely get to do it with a story.”

  “Introduce me?”

  “Yep. You’re a blue now. You’ve got to get all that ole green blood out of your system. They’ll want you in the Family, of course, but either way you deserve an intro.”

  “Would you do it differently?” Obe suddenly asked. “If you had to do it over, would you join them this time? Them or the other group… those guys in the hills, I forget their name.”

  “The Hillbruhs,” Terd said. “And if it’d stop the pain in my foot… I guess I would. Yes. I wanted my independence when they made their offer. Thought that just ‘cause I was starting to remember stuff that I didn’t need them. But I was young back then. Young and stupid.”

  Obe smiled but heard the sincere warning from the shadow man two days before… “A guy like you would be better off making it on your own, I’d say. Stick to those shadows if you can.” He hadn’t realized it until just now, but Obe had agreed with the man instantly and had no intention of making a priority of advancement through the Family’s ranks. He thought again of Leb and how easily he’d blended into the background, even during the brawl for food, and then of the two men who had worked together to get their food. Now, however, a little fantasy allowed itself to form in his mind,

  Look, Obe, it’s your brother! We found him!

  but he pushed it away before it could shape itself into something that would later break his heart.

  Even more men had entered the alley now, about two dozen in all. They meandered around making light conversation with each other. Yet another man came up to Obe and asked about how he took the sneakers, and Obe told the story once again.

  Then Doov entered and everyone’s head turned. He spoke to a few people, all of whom had his complete attention. His conversations were brief and businesslike rather than informal time-passers like the rest. Eventually he made his way over to Obe.

  “Morning, Obe. Morning, Terd,” he said.

  “Morning, Doov,” they said in almost unison.

  “I’m asking everyone if they’ve been chased or even seen a car since last grocery day. So far, nothing. It looks like the women are in one of their static periods.”

  “Sorry, I’ve been out of the loop,” Terd said. “My damned foot…” He held up the pant leg again and Doov offered his condolences.

  “Actually,” Obe said. “I was chased. That night- well, early morning, actually- after last grocery day.”

  “You were?” Doov was clearly surprised by this. “Come with me,” he said, then led Obe toward the back corner of the alley. Obe waved Terd farewell and the infected man returned the motion. “Tell me every detail,” the head elder said once they were alone. “It’s critical to the Family.”

  Obe told Doov the story of his midnight escape, and apparently the chase was extremely out of the ordinary- the time of the chase, the lone woman, the plastic bag, even the color of the car seemed to widen Doov’s eyes. Obe held back only the shadow man and his tomato. As far as Obe was concerned, it wasn’t part of the same story and wasn’t any of Doov’s or the Family’s business.

  Doov listened intently and didn’t ask questions until the end, when he asked only one. “Do you have any idea what was in the bag she took?” Obe confessed it had been too dark and that he had no idea, though the curiosity of it had perplexed him as well.

  “That’s a fabulous run, Obe. And you’re a good story teller. Be sure to keep that part about the taffy. I liked it.”

  The man seemed to think for a moment before coming to a decision. “Okay, Obe,” he continued. “I have another matter to discuss with you.”

  Obe flushed, thinking that he had done something wrong or perhaps Doov wanted information about Rein’s backstabbing behavior. But it was neither of these things, and the words that came next out of Doov’s mouth were truly shocking.

  “The Family of Blue would like to make you an offer,” he said. “We’d like you to be a part of us… officially.”

  “Oh,” Obe said. He was suddenly flustered, not sure if he was ready to commit or not.

  “There are pros and cons, and you seem like a smart enough guy to have figured some of them out already. I won’t lie to you and say you don’t have other options. You do. There are several men who go it alone. We call them ‘loners’, though they are always welcomed to join our meetings, use the alley, and trade wares with our members. We have no beef with a loner, so long as he stays honest and keeps himself to himself.”

  Obe nodded. “I’ve met a few of those,” he said. “Terd is a loner, right?”

  “Yes, Terd is alone, though looking at his foot just now makes me guess he’s wishing he’d chosen differently when he was offered.”

  “There’s no second chance, then? No way Terd could get back in the good graces of the Family, perhaps?”

  “I’m sorry, but no. If he came to us now, his reasoning would be all too obvious. We may be able to help him, but it’s unlikely considering how far gone he is. It’s unlikely he’d ever be able to pay his dues.”

  “Dues?” Obe asked. Though he knew perfectly well what the other loner, Jain, had told him
, he wanted to hear it from Doov’s own mouth.

  “Five bags of food, delivered alternately over the next ten grocery days.”

  “Five bags?” Obe questioned. Times have changed, he thought. Jain must be working off an older system. My God, how in the world would I survive on just one bag of food a week for more than a month?

  “Yes, five,” Doov repeated. “If you’re wondering how you could pay it and survive, just look around you. Every man wearing his right pant leg rolled up has managed to do it. So can you.

  “I don’t know,” Obe said. “That’s a lot. And I didn’t get anything last time. I feel like I’m kinda starving already.”

  “You’re not,” Doov said. His voice was harsh, almost angry. “You’re not even close. And when you get there one day you’ll know just how good you have it now. One of the advantages of being in the Family is that after your dues are paid you never have to worry about that again. We have reserves, and we never let a man go hungry.”

  Reserves! Obe thought, amazed.

  “What if I don’t get food one day? How would I pay then?”

  “Not my problem,” Doov said. “Now hush a minute. There’s more and I’m in a hurry today.” Obe hushed, and Doov continued.

  “There are other men,” he said, “who were loners gone rogue once upon a time. Today they’re neither Family men nor loners. They call us the ‘Cretes’, some sort of insult in their minds like we’re all filled with concrete in our brains or that we live only in the city streets or some such nonsense. They call themselves the ‘Hillbruhs’ because they live exclusively in the hills. The Hill Brothers, if you will. They come down only to steal from us or the greens, and some never come down at all. They may try to contact you as well, in fact I’d be surprised if they haven’t sent one of their scouts to feel you over already.”

  Suddenly Obe began to think about the men who wore stones in their zipper tabs and which of them he’d talked to at length. None came to mind, but he felt a little queasy nonetheless.

  “I’m going to strongly advise against joining their ranks. If you do, you will no longer be permitted to trade with us, meet with us, or take food from our alley. There is a long-standing feud between us, one that cannot be ignored. They have gone beyond rejecting our offer and crossed the line into personal defilement and attacks. They’ve even gone so far as to have done the women’s job and actually killed some of us in days past. I won’t lie and tell you we haven’t retaliated, but it’s important to note they started this war, and we have a mind to finish it.”

  Doov straightened his back and motioned to another man, holding up one finger to indicate he was almost done. Obe recognized him and thought he might have been one of the other elders, though he couldn’t remember his name.

  Not his name! Not his real name! What’s your real name, O. B. E. Obe? Does it really begin with the sound of ‘C’?

  “You don’t have to decide today,” Doov said. “But before the start of our next grocery day, I will need your decision. What I’ll want to hear is that you’ve chosen to live with a family. If so, you’re first bag of food will be collected that afternoon. And if a single bite of bagel is missing, you’re out. The choice is yours. Any questions?”

  Obe allowed the word ‘family’ to roll around in his mind for a bit. Somewhere on this island was a man who was his real family, and he wondered if paying his dues to the Family of Blue would be a conceivable way to find him.

  “I have two,” Obe said. “Why is the story of my recent run so ‘critical’ to the Family?”

  “A fair enough question,” Doov said. “But instead of answering directly, I’m going to direct you to listen closely to our meeting. It will make sense then. Your other question?”

  “I want to ask about someone in the Family.” Doov eyed him suspiciously, but Obe surprised him again when he continued. “Two someones, actually. I noticed them working together last grocery day. One guy tossed his bag of food to the other, and then they worked together to get another bag. It was… pretty amazing, considering how everyone else ended up behaving.”

  Doov allowed a little smirk to betray his stoic demeanor. “Their names are Jile and Roe, and they’re an exception all right. It’s true you’ll see the occasional friendship that transcends even grocery day, but it usually ends in tragedy. I’ve never seen one that didn’t.”

  Here he paused and looked very quietly at the ground. “I saw a man kill his best friend once over a bottle of water. Watched it happen. Threw him off the Cliffs of the Moon. There were six of us there that night. I’m the only one left. Only one who even made it to elder status. We thought…” and here he looked back up to Obe and stared him directly in the eye. “We thought we were that something special. There were eight of us at the beginning. Banded together like a rag-tag losers club. Thought we could change things, make a difference. Ended the same as all the others.”

  “I’m sorry,” Obe said, and he was sincere.

  “Thank you,” Doov said. And another moment of mournful silence passed. “Jile and Roe have the record, I think. Don’t know how they’re doing it, but what you’re seeing is the real deal. They’ve kept it simple. I know that’s part of it. But more than that they keep to themselves. Never seen them talk much to others. Hell, I think Baj knows the sound of their voices better than anyone. I don’t know what else to tell you about them, but I’m encouraged by your observation. It’s intelligent.”

  He looked past Obe then, at the other elder who was clearly becoming impatient. “You’ll want to tell Baj about that midnight chase. Get your mark. I think you’re the only one today. Excuse me. I have some business with Leet and Paist.”

  “Sure,” Obe said. Those are the other elders, he thought. He left the alley’s office-like back wall to get his second mark from Baj. This time he did not curse. Did not, in fact, even wince. He almost enjoyed the pain of the cuts. Sucking the blood from his arm, Obe thought he just might endure the dues the Family insisted upon after all. There was one man, however, he still wanted to talk to. When Baj was satisfied, Obe went searching for Leb.

  But Leb wasn’t there that day. Not before the meeting, not after the meeting, and not at any point during the grocery day that followed. In time, Obe would come to realize just what this meant, but just then he was concerned only with the pre-grocery meeting.

  When Doov carried a bucket to the back corner of the alley and stood on it, two other men stood to either side of him on their own. Which one is Leet and which one is Paist? Obe wondered.

  “Welcome, brothers,” Doov’s voice boomed.

  Brothers? Obe’s ears perked up.

  “It is a rare but welcomed announcement that there have been no kills since our last meeting!” There was a brief but hearty cheer. “It seems the women have found… other priorities.” Obe noticed that subtly, dozens of heads swiveled imperceptibly toward the man standing on the bucket to Doov’s left.

  “But we do have two new members of the Family to introduce,” he continued.

  Two? Obe thought. He wondered if he knew the man, and looked around for someone familiar.

  “Obe comes to us with his first run soundly intact,” he said, and as Doov pointed to Obe several men hooted their approvals. “And Tode arrived just this morning.” Obe followed his finger and saw the other ‘greenhorn’. Obe had never seen him before. “Let’s give them a Family-sized welcome.”

  The response was explosive and automatic, the deep, baritone chorus of a full company of military men, and Obe could not help but smile and laugh at its reverberating power.

  “HOO-YA!”

  “Now with the lack of chases lately, we all know what to expect. The women have found the black sector’s hideout and Leet will be leaving us for transferal there very soon. This may very well be his last meeting with us. If we’re lucky, we’ll see him once or twice more.”

  “We’ll miss you, Leet!” one man shouted out. The rest echoed the sentiment, and the man standing to Doov’s left that had attrac
ted attention earlier nodded his appreciation.

  “I encourage you all to say your goodbyes soon. In the meantime, let’s not forget that when the hunting returns, it’s going to be at a fevered pace. Those bitches-” and Obe noticed that even Doov could not help but lower his voice at the word, “-have their quotas to make. We can expect a big funeral the next few meetings. Here’s to hoping we can piss them off and make it hard on them.”

  The demeanor of the crowd had changed instantly. It was somber now. Disquieting. Obe looked around again for Leb but couldn’t find him. He did see, however, Jile and Roe standing together toward the back of the crowd. They even appeared alone, Obe realized. He wondered what kind of reaction he’d receive if he approached them and complimented their friendship.

  From there the meeting quickly ended and men in the alley turned to personal conversations to wait out the time before groceries. Obe found a quiet corner to avoid telling his sneaker story yet again. It was during this long, lonely hour of his life that the man now called Obe felt the hunger inside him rise to unprecedented proportions. How could Doov say he wasn’t starving? He clearly was doing just that. With the prospect of food so close his stomach didn’t just roil, it brawled within itself, soon becoming a microcosm of the alley fight he’d been a part of just three days earlier.

  When the crate finally arrived overhead, Obe’s mouth began to literally drool in Pavlovian response. His heart beat faster and his legs began to shake. If he didn’t get food today…

  If I don’t get food again, he thought, I’ll die.

  Soon the nervous ripples caught hold throughout the crowd just as quickly as it had the last time. Obe forgot about the other men and the rules and even his new-found fame. His stomach, empty, hollow, gnarling itself in frustration, suddenly became his whole world. The saliva welled up again and again inside his mouth, drowning his tongue.