“Yeah, we all gotta get straight with the Man upstairs.”
—Anonymous
The Black Hawks continued to roar through the Pakistani night. Adara listened listlessly to the conversation in her chopper. In the droning darkness, she couldn’t tell who was saying what to whom.
“And the ball goes into the gutter.”
“C’est la guerre.”
“Vive le legionnaire.”
“Stop taking the fun out of my day.”
“Where’s Johnny D.?”
“Got chalked.”
“Dead?”
“Uh huh.”
“Fuck him, man. He took the easy way out.”
“This way’s better?”
“Better the devil you know.”
“Than the one fucking your brains out?”
“There you go.”
“You can only do so much with duct tape and chicken wire.”
“Or spit and chicken shit?”
“Whatever turns you on?”
“I get high on life.”
“No shit?”
“And the Man upstairs.”
“Yeah, we all gotta get straight with the Man upstairs.”
“I hear He looks a lot like Hank Williams, Jr.”
“Or Johnny Cash.”
“The man in black.”
“We go in looking for a way out.”
“Righteous, but we don’t back up. We don’t back down.”
“We hold our ground. We die hard.”
“I makes the other muthafucka die hard.”
“Outstanding.”
“Out-fucking-standing.”
“It always bid-ness.”
“Always.”
“I told them: ‘The whole package never make it back to the station, cap’n.’”
“‘It ain’t my dope, Officer.’”
“Things got so bad we was stabbin’ each other in the front.”
“You wanna do them goat-ass muthafuckas?”
“So bad my dick hurt.”
“My dick wanna bone itself some fine funky bitch.”
“Bone your fist, you mean.”
“You sayin’ I ain’t up for it?”
“You could mouth-bone a bitch maybe.”
“Yeah, you got the mus’-snatch—I mean, mustache—to do it.”
“Got to admit that be one fine poon broom.”
“I hear your mama be a fine woman.”
“Hard-hittin’ woman.”
“Fine funky woman. Easy-ridin’ woman.”
“A low-ridin’ woman.”
“With dead men in her eyes.”
“Too much bitch for you, sucka.”
“Don’t you go pimpin’ on my boy. He got him a fine pussy-pusher.”
“Don’t you give me that big-yard stare.”
“What do you expect from me anyway?”
“A little love?”
“Can we keep it on the down low?”
“I said don’t go pimpin’ on my yard bitch.”
“I ain’t lyin’, I ain’t tryin’.”
“When we get back?”
“In the fullness of time.”
“That which does not kill me makes me dumber.”
“You can’t get no dumber.”
“A natural-born fact.”
“Slippin’, slidin’, easy ridin’.”
“Let’s shake and bake.”
“I be your witness there.”
“I be your witness there.”
The Black Hawks continued on and on through the Pakistani night.