"She's a Wild One," Part 9 Excerpt from "Inside Your Shadow" (C) 2025

 

 

“This is the plan. We drive the car on ninety. We park it in a spot across from the hospital. Then we put her on the beach. And we going to wear gloves so that there will be no finger prints,” the dealer instructed.

“We? But how are we going to get back here?” The employee asked.

“Oh yea. Good thinking. You’re going to drive her car. Put gloves on. Then you gonna drag her body to the beach. Somebody will find her and we won’t get blamed,” the dealer said. Then he took out a huge fold of money wrapped by a huge rubber band. Unwrapped it and handed the employee a hundred dollar bill.

“May I see your license,” the police man asked. Well this one was polite. May work in his favor. Handed him his license then kept his hands low so that the policeman couldn’t see his trembling. “What are you doing out so late?” The employee thought about all of the scenarios. What would be the best and worst? It may not be what it looks like.

“Why you got those gloves?” “Oh, I just got off of work. They don’t let me handle food.” “Whose car is this?” “It’s my girlfriends.” “What do you have in the back seat?”
“Man, who knows. My lady is such a pack rat.” Then read the employee’s license. “You got anything on your record?” “Funny you should say that sir. I was jamming to Led Zeppelin earlier.” “Have you been drinking tonight?” Then the officer chuckled. The scenarios were racing through his mind. The policeman was going to take him out of the car. Then dig through the back and find her dead. The policeman would call for back up. He’d be in jail. Then he thought that possibly the dealer set him up. Probably called the police. But the dealer paid him with a hundred dollar bill. But the dealer would pay for more if he himself got caught, Then the employee thought about how he would be held responsible for the girl dying. How many drugs had he delt that killed people. He had destroyed lives. He remembered her name was Mary. Or was it Maggy? She had a son. Probably would never see her son again. Maybe he could turn this around and not get the full wrath of the law.

“Maddie Mary, her father said her name. “Everything is getting hot now. Why?” She asked him.

A loud sound came over the policeman’s radio. Sounds of panic. The employee was too stoned to decipher the sounds. “Well be safe, son,” the policeman said. Handed the employee his license back. Then he got in his patrol car and sped off.

She was afraid to look at her father’s face. She looked at the sun in the sky instead. The sun seemed to be lowering. Or was it a light? Or was it the Other Side coming?

“Well thank God,” he sighed and slowly puffed a cigarette. “Naw this ain’t got nothing to do with God. Yet Maybe it did. Afterall, nothing happens in God’s world by mistake.” He wondered where that voice came from. Then he remembered that he accidentally hit the am radio while he was digging in his pocket for his license. “Maybe there was a moment when divine intervention came. Think of that memory. And you’ll find that moment where ‘A Power Greater than yourself saved you.’”

I remember the way she used to look when she was very tired. The employee looked out of his rear view. Was getting anxious, hoping the dealer would pull up soon. Maybe he wasn’t coming. He had to do something. If that same cop came it would definitely be suspicious. He smoked another cigarette and decided that after he smoked he would move the body himself.

 

 “Damn,” then he flicked his cigarette butt out of the opened window. At First he held her body in his arms, thinking that it would look like she was his bride and they were on their wedding night about to consummate their love for each other on the beaches shore, “Yes baby I love you more and more every day. It’s like my love grows when we are apart for so long. Made me learn to make myself into a better man. For once you’re quiet babe,” and he went on and on. Set her body on the edge of the shore. Looked at her face, and the guilt came back. He tried to reason with himself that it wasn’t really his fault. Then he thought about the addicts in the newspaper article. Yea the ‘high cost’ rumor mill.

That’s one thing about addicts. They love to spread rumors about the most tragic events. There was a group of them. A couple that insisted to try the cocaine, “there to make sure it was a legit”-the real purpose was to get as much of a free high as they could. “Hey man you hear about Reggie? He took a bad batch. Ended up thinking he could fly. Waited till the morning, climbed up the old Seers building and jumped off. Suffered two broken legs.” “Well, that didn’t come from me,” the dealer was quick to say. “It really could not have been the Seers building. That place has been abandoned for years,” the girl said. “Yea that’s uh bad neighborhood. That’s where the gangs are. Dudes so bad. You never dare say their names. Probably got thrown off of the building for some gang shit.”

That night the same couple died. They say it was a murder suicide.

When you left me I blamed myself. I should have said or done something different. Should have done something better. With that distance of time, I have learned to love the right way. I can love you the best I can-That’s the difference in ‘The Serenity Prayer.’

A thought occurred to the employee. There’s a pay phone about a block away. He could tell the dealer he was calling to see where he was. By the time it took to chain smoke two Marlboros, he was on that gas station payphone calling 911.

“What does that mean?” She asked as the sun seemed to be coming closer to her. She felt the heat on her face. One of the EMTs shined a flashlight in Maddie’s eyes. “We got a pulse.”

I remember when you left. I’d look for any clue of you everywhere I went.