"She's a Wild One," Part 8 Excerpt from "Inside Your Shadow" (C) 2025

 

 

“The answer ugh?” Her father said to her. Then laughed. She knew he knew something that she didn’t know. Would she ever know? The sun-the light in the middle of dark clouds didn’t move.

“I think she’s dead?” He asked trying to sound comical-had that nervous laugh. Had that type of buzz when everything’s funny or at least he hoped for that.

 

 

She meant everything to me. Even though I didn’t know her for long. “You know Zeppline stole a lot of songs,” the employer said.

“Dude, there’s only so many riffs, melodies, and rhythms that a musician can play.” The dealer said. Then took another pull off of the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ bong. “’Nobodies fault but mine’ was originally by Blind Willie Johson. ‘When the Levey Breaks’ was by Memphis Mimi and Kansas City Joe. They were Mississippi Delta musicians. The employee insisted, ”Squeeze my Lemon,” The dealer said. Then he started singing with Plant’s vocals from the loud vinyl player.

 

I know it’s been said many times, and sometimes said untrue; but there’s nothing I wouldn’t give to see her again.

 

Mary could smell the thick marijuana smoke lingering in the air. It seemed to fill up the whole trailer home. Her heart felt like it was being stabbed. Then she thought that maybe she could…Then she willed that maybe she could sit up in her bed. Placed her feet on the floor. She stood up feeling that she was about to fall. “Hey!” At the same time of her unheard yell there was a strange hiss that played from the record player. The lights of lamps and ceiling lights blinked three times.

 

She feared to look back at the bare mattress.  

Then She looked closer at her father’s face. Looked so close that she could see the reflection of her face in his eyes. She saw herself getting older. She focused on her father’s face. He was the same young age and she was getting older.

 

She looked at the smoke in the air that was not moving.

She looked at the mattress. Her body was still on the mattress.

“Is it possible to live in two different worlds at the same time?”

“It’s really no big deal,” the dealer said as he broke up finger sized buds on the table. The employee’s hand trembled so much that Mary’s keys sounded like a percussion.

 

Twenty minutes later, the employee was driving her car. The dealer and the employee covered her body up with all the trash and clothes in the back seat. He was chain smoking cigarettes, and his hands kept trembling. The dealer gave him a hundred dollars. “Hundred dollars for thirty minutes of work is pretty damn good,” he tried to justify to himself. Sometimes he was the middle man. He sold to a couple lawyers. Even the worse ones made at least two hundred an hour. He kept looking out of his rear view for cops. What if they recognized the car? He could justify that he was her boyfriend and he was going to pick her up. Maybe he could sit her up in the passenger seat, tell the cops she was wasted. But what if they decided to check the car? He should have checked the car for drugs. She was at the dealer’s house, so she probably didn’t have any drugs in the car. But what if there were syringes, papers, or pipes? A couple of the cops had to know she was trouble. People like her were always tangled up in the law. What if the cops knew him? “Where is he?” he looked at the dashboard clock. It’s two am in the morning. Nothing good ever happens at two am in the morning. Then he felt guilty. Maybe he should call the cops. Tell them some lie. Maybe he should rat out his dealer. Then red, blue, and white shined brightly. Almost blinding him hitting the rear-view mirror.