Friday evening, May 29th, 1992. Benny brushed his teeth at his office and changed his clothes. He left for J.J.’s at 6:00 p.m. The rain had died down some, but it was drizzling enough to make any outdoor activity uncomfortable. He pulled up to the shop by 6:30 p.m. and parked behind the store, next to Rings’ suburban. He knocked on the back door.
“Hey Sox, come in,” Rings said. “You’ve got to see something.”
Benny followed Rings to a side room off the storage area.
“What’s that noise?” Benny asked. “It sounds familiar, but I can’t place it.”
Rings opened up the room. “Look!”
Benny’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe it! That’s wonderful!”
It was Twila. She was walking on a used treadmill someone had pawned the year before and never claimed.
“J.J. paid someone cash for a treadmill?” Benny asked. “I’m really surprised.”
Rings laughed. “Not too much. I think he gave the poor soul twenty bucks. It’s been a coat hanger for so long. I’m glad it’s finally getting some use. Look at momma!”
Twila was out of breath as she waved to Benny from the exerciser.
“Hey Benny,” Twila exuberantly said. “My back is feeling better. Look, I’m walking!”
“Good! Glad to see that,” Benny said. “Come see me again next week for another adjustment.”
Rings escorted Benny behind some boxes.
“We keep our bullets in here,” Rings said, opening up a large case. “What kind do you need?”
“Not sure about my new gun,” Benny said. “It’s in the car. I’ll go get it.”
Benny brought back both guns. Rings got J.J. to look at them.
“Nice piece,” J.J. said, referring to old gun. “Where did you get this?”
“A patient gave it to me. Is it worth anything?”
J.J. inspected the gun for a minute and looked down the barrel.
“I’m not exactly sure how much, but this is an 1894 Colt Bisley Single Action Revolver. I haven’t seen one of these in thirty years. How much do you want for it?”
“It’s yours!” Benny said, sensing the old man really wanted it. “Keep it. A small token of my appreciation for all you’ve done for me.”
“No, I can’t accept this for free,” J.J. said. “It’s worth at least five hundred--could be more.”
“Please,” Benny said. “I want you to have it. That thing is old--I’ll probably kill myself with it. But I will take some bullets for this gun.”
J.J. gladly handed Benny three boxes of bullets for his Colt .45.
“Here’s enough to last you at least a month,” J.J. chortled.
Benny took the ammo. Rings put on his public enemy hat and followed Benny to his car.
“Do you have to wear that thing?” Benny asked.
“You’re wearing your Sox cap,” Rings noticed. “The ladies like me in this hat.”
Benny and Rings set out for the Brass Bomber at 7:15 p.m., each driving their own vehicle.
“Got your ID?” Benny asked.
Rings patted his wallet showing Benny he had. “And a few bucks. Drinks are on me.”
“I don’t plan on doing any drinking,” Benny said. “The last thing I need is to be pulled over and have the cops smell booze on my breath. In fact, I don’t want to stay too long--not my kind of scene.”
They pulled into Bomber’s parking lot at five minutes to eight. It had stopped raining. Gail and her mom were already there--waiting in Laura’s Mercedes. They both looked great. Benny and Rings got out of their cars and walked towards the luxury car. The ladies got out.
“You look sensational! Like movie stars,” Benny said. “Both of you are just stunning--like you’re going to the Academy Awards. Man, am I underdressed!”
Both Gail and Laura were wearing knee length skirts and low cut blouses--different colors, but similar styles. And they both smelled great.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Gail said, winking at Benny. “Who’s your friend?”
Benny motioned Rings to come closer.
“This is my good friend, Rings,” Benny said.
“Rings!” Gail said, eyeing the young man up and down. “I like that name. Do you have a last name?
Benny glanced at Rings for a second--Rings glanced back.
“Moss,” Rings said. “But my real first name is Bo. All my friends call me Rings.”
“Well all right,” Gail seductively said in her rehearsed Southern accent. “Rings it is!”
Laura smiled at Benny as Gail escorted Rings into the bar.
“Don’t worry,” Benny said. “Your daughter will be okay with Rings. He’s a nice guy.”
“But will Rings be okay?” Laura joked. “I worry about that girl. She flirts with everyone.”
Benny took Laura by the arm and sat down on the wooden bench at the end of the parking lot.
“You mean she doesn’t just flirt with me?” Benny laughed.
“Sorry to disappoint you--but no!” Gail sarcastically replied. “I don’t know why she got married--isn’t going to last, you know. She reminds me so much of her father.”
Laura put her hand over her mouth, just realizing what she had said.
“Sorry, Benny. I didn’t…….”
“Oh, that’s all right. I understand. Believe me I do,” Benny said as his eyes wandered off to the distance and saw the apartment building where Laura lost her virginity that night with Larry. Laura stared at the complex too and suddenly felt uneasy. She knew Benny knew.
“Let’s go in,” Laura said. “We’ll have a few drinks and talk over old times. Whadda ya say!”
Laura took Benny’s arm and they walked into the noisy establishment. Gail’s husband, Ricky, was busy setting up the instruments and sound system for the evening’s performance. Gail was at the bar talking to some guy, probably one of her husband’s friends. Rings was doing pretty good himself. He struck up a conversation with one of Ricky’s groupies, an attractive blond girl in tight jeans, and bought her a drink. The blond was giggling and already put Rings’ hat on her head.
“Let’s sit here,” Laura said, pointing to a booth. “It’s quieter.”
A perky waitress came by to take their order.
“I’m buying,” Benny said. “Please!”
“Okay,” Laura agreed. “But I’m not a cheap date!”
“No problem. Order anything you like.”
Laura ordered a fried shrimp for her appetizer and a sirloin steak with mashed potatoes for dinner--and a grasshopper cocktail. Benny ordered grilled salmon and diet coke.
“How do you keep such a great figure?” Benny asked.
“I work out--at lot!” said Laura. “Apparently you do too!”
“I do indeed--but you look better than I do.”
They didn’t care that it took the waitress ten minutes to bring their drinks, or forty minutes for their food. They were having the best time catching up.
“I was on my own when Gail was born,” Laura sadly recalled. “Larry dumped me right away. He just used me--a few calls after the birth, but nothing else.”
“Not even child support?”
“Some, not much. But he did spend some time with Gail when she got a little older--in between traveling and gigs--when he could find them.”
“What about your ex? Warren you said his name was?”
“He was great at first--treated Gail like his own. I married him when Gail was three. Then he got busy with his plumbing business and out of town suppliers and all of that. We sort of drifted apart--then I found out he had a girlfriend. That was it.”
“I take it he wasn’t Jewish--well, with a name like Pearson.
“Nope, not Jewish. And I missed that. I missed that a lot. Gail has no religion.”
“And no other siblings?”
“No, just Gail. I have a good career now that keeps me busy--you know?”
“Yeah.”
“I hear you have two kids.”
“Yes, Joshua and Rachel. Josh is going to have his Bar Mitzvah soon--next year.”
“Oh, that’s so nice,” Laura remorsefully said, knowing she would have been a better wife for Benny.
“It’s getting very crowded and very loud in here,” Benny said. “Do we really have to stay to watch the band? Can’t we go out and do something else. I feel like taking a drive.”
“That sounds good to me,” Laura said. “Are you driving?”
“Sure.”
“Then I better give my keys to Gail in case we get lost!”
“Good idea!” Benny said. “I’d like a repeat of yesterday!”
Gail was in a world of her own when her mother walked up to her and gave her the keys to the Mercedes.
“I’ll be back at midnight or before,” Laura said loudly, trying to be heard over the sound system that was spewing out canned music until Ricky was on.
“Okay, mother,” Gail said. “I’ll be fine here. Don’t worry. Rickey’s watching!”
Benny wasn’t sure if he should even tell Rings he was going out for a while. He and that sexy blond were making out in the corner. Benny just yelled from a distance.
“Rings! Rings!” Benny repeated, not getting his attention at first. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Rings acknowledged Benny and waved him off as if to say, “Fine, bro. Don’t let the door slap you on the ass on the way out.”
Benny opened the door for Laura as she got in his Camry, then looked around the parking lot.
“My God, look at all the people here,” Benny said as he got in the car. “Ricky must have quite the following.”
“He does,” Laura said. “Do you smoke cigars?”
“Sorry about that. I forgot to clean out the ashtray. Yes, I smoke cigars. My only bad habit.”
“I thought I smelled it yesterday,” Laura said, pretending it bothered her. “Don’t worry, it isn’t that bad.”
“I won’t light up tonight--I promise!”
Benny pulled out from the parking spot, heading towards Miller.
“I have someplace I’d like to take you,” Benny said. “Someplace you haven’t been, I think, in a long, long time.”
“To your folks?”
“Nope, you’ll see!”
They drove for twenty minutes. Laura knew which direction Benny was heading.
“You’re not taking me there, are you?” Laura asked.
“Just to look around for five minutes--then we’re out of here.”
Benny pulled up to the Marquette Park Pavilion. Portage High was having their graduation party that night. That’s the party Benny saw in the paper. It just happened to work out.
“We’re a couple of old fogies compared to those kids,” Laura said. “We don’t have tickets or anything.”
“Come, on,” Benny insisted. “We’ll tell them we’re with the caterers. They won’t know. And you look dressed for the part.”
“Not for doing any catering work.”
“Just follow me.”
The night was pleasant and still with the clouds hiding the moon. The air smelled fresh from the rain, the wet bark glimmering on the thick trees. The lagoon softly rippled in the distance.
“I forgot how pretty it was here,” Laura said. “You’re right. I haven’t been back here since graduation day.”
Benny reached for Laura’s hand. They walked in the huge marble hallway liked they owned the place. No one noticed them. No one. The band was playing at ear-splitting decibels--tunes that weren’t familiar to them.
“Oh no, Benny,” Laura gasped, putting her hand over her face after seeing who was playing. “How did you know?”
“The paper,” Benny said. “It mentioned Larry by name as the bandleader. Man, some things don’t change, do they?”
Laura felt very uncomfortable.
“Let’s go,” Laura insisted. “I don’t want to be here.”
“All right,” Benny said. “I’m sorry if I upset you. I didn’t mean to. Just curious.”
“No harm done, let’s just go.”
They both got in the car.
“I will say one thing for Larry--he still looks fit. Somewhat on the gaunt side, but fit.”
“Well, if you must know,” said Laura, “he’s a druggie. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t mind him not spending much time with us. Gail also has at least two half sisters and one half brother from him--all living out of state. He’s no good.”
Benny wasn’t exactly unhappy learning Larry turned out to be a louse. It restored his faith in his own instincts.
Benny started the car and turned on the oldie station. Like a ghost from the past, the first voice he heard was Bob Cheats.
“And one more for you old time Sonny and Cher fans out there,” the familiar DJ said. “This one’s for Frank in Merrillville. All I Ever Need Is You!”
Benny quickly turned the volume down. It was too painful to listen to.
“Don’t!” said Laura. “I love that song. Turn it back on.”
Benny’s hand reluctantly reached for the knob and turned up the sound.
Laura saw Benny shaking.
“What’s the matter? What happened?” she asked, immediately clicking the knob off.
“That’s--that’s the same song that I heard when I left our graduation party nineteen years ago when you ran off with Larry. I’m scared. I know something bad is going to happen.”
“Oh, is that all?” Laura said, doing her best to console her old boyfriend. “It’s just a coincidence. It’s just a song. It’s just a song.”
Benny calmed down and turned left onto Oak Street. He didn’t speak until he turned right onto County Line Road. He changed the station only after reaching Potawatomi Trail. It was Sonny and Cher again--same song.
Benny changed it again, but the next station had the same song playing too.
Laura was getting nervous.
“What’s going on? Is this a tape? What’s happening?”
Benny looked at her, doing his best to ease her fear.
“This is what’s bothering me,” Benny started to explain. “I never told anyone--not even Marsha, my soon to be ex. There are certain things I can’t tell, even you. But it’s all about you, Laura. The song, the Pavilion, the lagoon, everything. I haven’t been the same ever since the beating. It keeps flashing back in my mind, over and over and over again. Like a broken record I can’t fix.”
Benny sensed the alarm in Laura’s eyes.
“No, please,” Benny said softly. “Don’t be afraid. Not of me. Please. I’m not unbalanced or anything. That’s my tsores, as my grandmother used to say,” referring to the Yiddish word for trouble.
Laura felt better after hearing that word. Her Jewish grandmother used to say that too.
“Other than that, I’m fine!”
Benny crossed the tracks at Route 12 like he was heading for U.S. 20.
“Aren’t we going back to the bar?” Laura guardedly asked.
“We will,” Benny said. “I just want to make one more quick stop.”
Benny continued to drive down County Line Road. It was almost eleven o’clock, very dark with scant street lights. Laura was fidgeting with her purse and took out some lipstick. The Gas ‘N Go sign was now visible--about three blocks up. Benny slowed to 15 mph and turned on his brights, illuminating the green street sign for Stagecoach Road. He signaled with his left blinker, then turned onto that dark, dark road.
“Why are we here?” Laura frightfully asked, dreading the worst. “Why are you taking me here?”
Benny didn’t say a word as he observed the 20 mph speed limit while passing the houses, then sped up when he got to the gravel. He drove down the road, all the way down--to the tree. He stopped his car on the side of the road, still on the gravel, but next to a puddle.
“Please, don’t be scared,” Benny said, assuring Laura she wasn’t in any danger. “I just have to see something. It’ll just take two minutes then we’ll leave.”
Benny turned around and reached for his gun in the back seat and loaded it with seven bullets.
“MY GOD! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?” Laura screamed.
“Shhh,” Benny said. “You’re OK. You have nothing to worry about. I just want to look around outside for a few minutes. You see, this was the tree where the beating took place nineteen years ago. Right here. Right at this very spot. And here, look,” Benny said, pointing to the gash on the tree from his car window. “That’s where they crashed my car. The Mustang my folks bought me. Remember that car?”
Laura was shaking. She knew screaming for help was futile. But then--she suddenly felt a lot better. Benny got out of the car and left the keys in the motor with the car running.
“I’ll be right back,” Benny said. “Just stay here. Give me two minutes, five, tops.”
Benny took the gun with him and closed the door. Laura nervously waited, not knowing what to expect. Benny in fact did just want to see something. He wanted to see if his car and his boat trailer’s tire tracks were adequately filled in with mud--thinking the heavy rain should have taken care of that. He walked into the woods to the spot where his trailer was parked. The tire tracks were gone. He looked for his car tracks and didn’t see any. He was relieved. The only remnant of the murders was a small piece of rope Frank left behind when he stole Gerald’s body. Benny left it there.
All of a sudden, he heard a loud car coming down the road--like it had a broken muffler. “Am I imaging this?” he asked himself. He wasn’t. The sound of the muffler got louder and louder with each passing second. He saw the lights coming towards him. Laura’s there by herself, he thought. I have to get to her. The sound of the broken muffler was now just a few yards away. It rushed passed him as he rushed out of the woods. The car stopped, screeching its brakes when the driver saw Laura sitting all by herself in the passenger’s side. Four men got out--each in their early twenties and up to no good. They were dressed like skinheads and they probably were. All with Mohawks, tattoos, and pockmarked faces. And they were all holding beer cans when they got out, approaching Laura while licking their chops. Laura saw them and tried to hit the master car lock but couldn’t find it. One of the men opened her door.
Laura screamed for Benny.
“There’s no one else here,” one of the goons fiendishly said while covering Laura’s mouth. “Don’t make fools out of us. We know what we want!”
The other three were only too glad to help. They pulled Laura out of the car and pushed her to the wet ground and started ripping her clothes off. One of them already had his pants pulled down. They were drunk and whooping it up like the crazy derelicts they were. Then, it seemed out of nowhere, Benny walked up to the back of his car.
“LET HER GO!” he shouted. “LET HER GO, NOW!”
One of the men was already mocking Benny.
“Let her go, huh fucker! And what if we don’t? What are you going to do?”
Benny didn’t show his gun then repeated himself.
“I’M GIVING YOU A CHANCE TO GO AND GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!” he emphatically repeated. “NOW! JUST WALK AWAY!”
The thugs were laughing at Benny and getting impatient. Two of them threw their beers to the ground and headed towards him. Benny waited until they were four feet in front of him, then drew his gun, steadily pointing it with two hands directly at the first guy.
“Now wait a minute,” one of them said, raising his hands in a defensive pose, but still approaching. “We were just lea……”
BOOM! Benny shot him in the head, splattering his brains in the air. The other three got up and ran for their cars. Too late.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Benny shot the other three, killing two instantly, and wounding the third. He walked up to the wounded man--the one who had his pants off. BOOM! Benny shot off his stiff dick. The wounded animal tried to get up, but Benny finished him off with his second to last bullet. BOOM right in his left temple, his brains turned to crow feed.
Benny lowered his gun and ran over to help Laura.
“Jesus, Benny,” Laura gasped, happy to be alive. “How did you know?”
Benny gently placed her in the car and grabbed his jacket from the back seat, wiping her off.
“How did I know what?”
Laura took the jacket from Benny and placed it over her legs.
“How did you know to take your gun?”
“I didn’t,” Benny said. “This place gives me the willies, so I thought I’d take it with me. It makes me feel safer.”
“And me too!” Laura said, thankfully.
Benny looked at the blood splatter on his car, shook his head, and got a towel out of his trunk, cleaning if off the best he could. He also got a change of clothes.
“I wish I had some new clothes for you, Laura.”
“Oh, that’s okay--no blood on me. I’m just wet.”
Benny got in the car and put his gun in the back seat, driving past the bodies and back to County Line Road.
“Do you want anything?” Benny asked Laura. “Maybe something else to eat?”
Laura smiled, and looked at Benny like he was crazy.
“No, I don’t want anything to eat. In fact I shouldn’t have eaten dinner tonight. I woke up feeling sick this morning--sort of nauseous.”
Benny stopped his car and looked at her face.
“You mean…….OH NO!”
The End