brick
by Pares
Roy had never been so glad to see a cop in his life.
The bitches who'd been whaling on him broke and ran, and he tried to get to his knees without puking again.
Someone was talking to him, had been, but he hadn't really noticed until the someone touched his shoulder.
Roy figured it was the cop, and so decided not to introduce the guy to his right hook.
"Easy there, man. Can you stand up?"
Roy wiped some blood out of his eye and looked up.
Definitely not one of the shitkickers who'd been busy beating on him, but no way in hell was he a cop, either. The guy hunkered down beside him, one hand still on his shoulder.
"Who the fuck are you?"
The guy had crazy hair and a stretched out T-Shirt that said RELAX.
"Blair Sandburg. Jesus, you look like crap. Maybe you should just stay down, in case you have internal injuries--"
Two navy blue legs showed up and Roy was no longer all that glad to see a cop.
"Gentleman, you two want to explain what's going on?"
Mr. Blair Crazy Hair Sandburg tipped his head up and nodded.
"There was a bunch of guys attacking this man, and uh. I threw a brick through the store window."
Roy decided to risk looking up, and what do you know, the cop was a brother.
"Uh huh. And why did you do that, Mr..."
Crazy Hair stood up to introduce himself one more time.
"Blair Sandburg. S-a-n-d-b-U-r-g. Do I need to sign something? Fill out a witness report?"
"Seeing as I'm about to read you your rights for misdemeanor vandalism, I'm sure that won't be necessary."
Roy put a hand to his aching head and heard himself say, "Aw, man, come on. He didn't vandalize nothing. He threw the brick so the cops would come. He threw it, you came."
Crazy Hair crouched down again, frowned, then looked up at the cop.
"I think he may need an ambulance, sir."
The cop was quiet for a while, and then Roy heard the crackle of the radio.
"Officer needs emergency vehicles of the corner of Warner and Fulton. And somebody call the owner of Freddy's TV Repair, tell him his shop's been vandalized."
"Officer, sincerely, it was not an act of vandalism. There were, like, six guys! I couldn't exactly dive in and start busting heads. This man was already down when I showed up."
Roy squinted up at the cop, wiping again at the blood that kept seeping into his left eye.
"Fuck a duck, man." Roy braced himself on Crazy Hair's shoulder and managed to get to his feet. "This dude saved my motherfucking life, and you're gonna give him a ticket?"
"Uh, actually," Crazy Hair looked nervous. "I think he's gonna arrest me."
The cop, who was chewing a fat wad of what smelled like grape Bubble Yum, stopped chewing long enough to smile at Roy.
"You're Jeanne William's boy. You never can stay out of trouble, can you?"
"Tommy DeSoto? You a cop now?"
"You musta been born lucky, son. This kid really did save your bacon."
"So, you two know each other?"
"Mr. Sandburg, this here is Sweet Roy Williams. He's gonna be big time one day, maybe even heavy weight champion of the world. But even with his right hook, he's just one man. What'd you do to get on the wrong side of that pack, anyway?"
"I believe the technical term is 'driving while black', Officer DeSoto."
Then the ambulance arrived and the EMTs jogged over to palpitate him and flash lights in his eyes. By the time he'd refused a deluxe overnight stay at the hospital hotel, he could see Crazy Hair talking to some burly latino. Crazy Hair waved his arms around so much, Roy started to wonder if the latino was deaf.
"Who's that?"
"That's Freddy Hervez. He owns the window the kid smashed."
"That little guy really gonna go to jail for helping me?"
Tommy shrugged heavily.
"Depends on whether Freddy wants to press charges or not."
The two of them watched Mr. Blair Sandburg tapdance for a little longer, and then Hervez nodded, looking satisfied, and walked away.
Sandburg took a deep breath and then caught Roy's eye. He grinned and bounced toward them like a superball.
"Hey, so you're not going to the hospital? That's great!"
Tommy tipped his head.
"I take it Mr. Hervez won't be pressing charges?"
"I promised him I'd pay for the window. He was really cool about it."
Roy felt like he should say something.
"I just wanna say thanks, you know? Those guys were ready to grease me."
"If they catch them, you should totally bring a civil suit against them. That's just unconscionable, man."
"Yeah, well. I owe you one."
"No, hey, glad I could help."
"Seriously, you ever need anything, I got your back."
"Thanks, but honestly, you don't owe me. Unless... You hungry? You could buy me some eggs. I'm starving, and I'm a little short on cash."
Just the thought of food made Roy's stomach roll, and all he really wanted was to climb into his bed for a week and a day, but the kid had saved his life, right, and Roy Williams paid his debts.
***
"Actually, I was getting ready to seriously freak out. I mean, I threw that brick, but then I was like, shit the fuzz, you know?"
Roy busted out laughing. The kid didn't smell like weed, but he was all tricked out in full on hippie gear, so he had to be a stoner child.
"You're frontin' me. You holding?"
"Me?" Roy was impressed with the guy's genuine imitation surprise. "No. Noooo. I do not break the laws of sovereign nations."
"Why you so worried about cops then?"
"Uh. I've been ingesting-- It's sort of a... vision quest kind of deal. It's kind of hard to explain, but peyote buttons are still not exactly--"
"Shit, you were tripping the whole time?"
"I would have to say yes." And he forked another mouthful of soggy waffle into his mouth. "So you're like, a boxer, huh? How come they call you Sweet Roy? Is it because you taste like--"
"Boy, if you say brown sugar I will knock your punk ass into next week."
The kid grinned at him.
"I was gonna say 'pancake syrup'," and pointed at Roy's sticky sleeve, where it rested against the lip of his plate, wet with syrup to the first button on his cuff.END
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