Danny boy

Nose, broken.

Plain white shirt, covered in blood.

A pair of old blue jeans, torn.

Black leather boots, untied and dusty.

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He was sitting on top of a thick concrete wall that surrounded the cemetery, with a cigarette in his mouth and a bad boy look that made the girls go crazy. Don't ask me how he got up there.

People called him Danny boy. The name stuck, after his pops found him in bed with his new stepmother and chased him across town with a rifle in his hands, yelling: "F**k you Danny boy" along the way.

He was a loner. The mysterious kind.... The kind that everybody wants to get to know better, but no one really dares to. He was alone most of the time. Occasionally we would see him driving around with a group of boys from the trailer park. Nobody knew where they were headed, but everybody knew that they were up to no good.

Danny was always the talk of the town... And sitting there on the top of that wall, he sure as hell looked like the King of it.

I wanted to be like him when I grew up, but my mamma didn't agree: "Are you stupid boy? You wanna end up in jail, hmm?!" She hissed at me, raising her eyebrows so far high up her forehead, that they almost touched her hairline. She was smoking a cigarette, leaning on the countertop in our kitchen.

I was sitting by the window, chewing a gum so big that I almost choked on it, just observing Danny sitting there in the distance. I thought he was cool.

"Anyways, gotta go now sweetie. Don't wanna be late for work. See ya in the morning." She barked as she threw her cigarette in the sink and picked up her purse. Then she kissed me on the cheek and left. I didn't like it, I was too old for my mamma to be kissing me.

Me and mamma lived outside of town, on the side of the dusty old road. Across from us, on the other side of the road, was a cemetery. It used to scare the living hell out of me. Not anymore, though. I knew I couldn't afford to be afraid of dead people and lost souls, if I was ever going to be as tough as Danny. He wasn't afraid, or at least he didn't seem to be. But I didn't know him and although I was only 12 at the time, one thing I knew for sure was that people are never what they seem to be. Mamma made sure I understood that: "Never trust nobody! People are never what you think they are." She never trusted anyone and she wanted to make sure I wouldn't either. So, I didn't and consequently I became a loner of my own kind. Not the mysterious kind like Danny, but the lame kind. I had no friends. At all. Except for my fat cousin, who was more like bad company than a friend and would always beat me up for no particular reason. I wasn't cool. And I was bored... I don't remember what came over me on that particular day, because normally I would never have had enough balls to do it, but I decided to find out what Danny was up to.

I don't remember the details, but I remember that the skies were bright, even though it was getting real late. I was still able to see Danny clearly. He's been sitting at the same spot for nearly two hours, smoking his cigarettes. As I was just about to leave the house I noticed that Danny was gone.

"S***...!" I covered my mouth abruptly, before finishing the sentence. Covering my mouth after cussing was an automatic response of mine. See, every time a word like that came flying out of my mouth, mamma would slap my face just to make sure it wouldn't happen again. But the forbidden fruit is always the sweetest. So I kept cussing. I thought it was cool. What can I say... I was young and dumb. I still cuss, every now and then, when I feel like it. I'm not young anymore, so I guess I must just be dumb ...

Anyways, that night, after realizing that Danny had left, I went to bed.

Then, in the middle of the night, a loud banging on the door woke me up. I almost sh*t my pants. I was scared to death. Why was there someone banging on my door in the middle of the night? "I must have been right the whole time and the cemetery really is haunted!" I thought to myself. Mamma was working. I was home alone and if I disappeared, there is no way anybody would have known what had happened to me. The banging got louder and louder and I had no choice but to hide. But then the banging stopped and I heard someone say: "Please, help...".

Scared to death I decided to see who needed my help. It was my chance to prove myself. I had to be brave, if I was ever going to be as tough as Danny. I took a step... and another one... and I reached out my hand to unlock the door. Suddenly, in fell a guy. "Jeeez..." I sighed, both in fear and excitement.

I remember he passed out right there in the doorway, so I had to pull him in. I thought he was dead. I struggled pulling that heavy body of his, but I somehow managed. I quickly closed the door and locked it. I lit up a candle and brought it closer, to take a better look. It was Danny!

I stood there in the dark with a passed-out Danny lying on the floor in my living room and a candle in my hand. I felt bad for him.

His nose, broken. Plain white shirt, covered in blood. His old blue jeans, torn and his black leather boots, untied and dusty.

Suddenly it hit me. Whoever did this to him might still be out there searching for him. I had to do something. Fast. With a candle in my hand, I ran to the kitchen, picked up the phone and started dialing.

"Put the phone down!" Danny mumbled, turning his head to the side . I put the phone down, didn't hesitate... not even for a moment. "Come here."

I might have not hesitated to put down the phone, but something inside of me certainly hesitated to get any closer now that he was awake. Thinking about it now, I'm not sure why I was so scared... I mean the guy was obviously barely able to move. Anyways... I did somehow manage to persuade myself to go and sit down next to him. "It's okay. No need to call anyone. We are safe for now." He was barely able to speak. His face was all swollen, his eyes bruised and his nose broken. I even noticed his front tooth was chipped.

"What happened to you?" I whispered.

He ignored my question. "I will need you to do something for me!" He moaned, pressing his palm on the bleeding stab wound under his ribs. Danny needed my help... I must have been the luckiest kid in town.

"First, I need you to bring me some whiskey and a bunch of towels, okay?" Before he even finished the sentence I was up and ready, searching for mamma's whiskey through the kitchen cabinets. I came back a minute later, with whiskey and towels, just like he asked.

He thanked me and then looked me straight in the eyes. He was beat up like a dog. He grabbed me by the hand, trying to keep his head up: "Listen carefully... I need you to run out to the cemetery".

Was he joking? He wanted me to go to the cemetery? Alone? At night? He was crazy. No way I was doing it. "No way!" I replied firmly.

"Please, it's important. If you don't bring me the money I left there I am doomed. The guys that did this to me are gone, but it's just a matter of time before a whole bunch of them comes back to finish what they started."

I gave into his request and he saw it in my eyes. "There's a bag full of money behind my mother's grave. You have to get to it before someone else finds it! You know where her grave is."

Of course I knew... everybody knew where his mom was buried. We all attended the funeral years ago. In a small town like ours, everybody attends every funeral. I also saw him at her grave many times, sitting there and smoking away. So yes, of course I knew where it was.

"I will go fetch it Danny, but I want to know what happened!" I said boldly. "And whose money is it, anyways?" I never knew I was capable of talking in such a way to anyone, especially not to someone like Danny. But I did and I guess it worked.

"You heard them rumors, ey boy?" He hissed at me. I nodded.

"Well, it's true. I work for Rolo..." Danny continued.

I was shocked. Rolo was THE biggest criminal in town. Everybody knew it, but because of his wealth, he was quite protected. He never even served time. It's funny how some people can get away with everything...

Danny kept talking: "I'm the finest thief in town. I steal fancy stuff... Mostly rich folk's fancy cars. I steal them, Rolo pays me and that's that."

"But who gave you a beating?" I asked.

"The boys that gave me a beating used to work with me, but after I decided to steal back the money Rolo still owed me, they came after me." He mumbled.

"You stole Rolo's money?" I asked in horror.

"It's my money!" He smirked back. "Now go fetch it. I'll need it to get the hell outta this s**thole of a town!".

I don't know how, but I ended up fetching that money for him. And the adrenaline running through my veins made me forget all about fear. I guess I was just as tough as Danny.

He opened the bag I fetched for him, and started counting the money. Twenty thousand dollars! Even he was surprised at the amount he stole. He grabbed a little stack of it and pointed it towards me: "Take this."

He didn't have to ask twice. I took it and stacked it between the pages of the little black book that I found sitting on the shelf.

Then I sat down on the sofa and I guess I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, Danny was gone and my mother was home. I jumped off the sofa, scanning the floor for any residue of blood. There was none. I was relieved... mamma would have lost her mind if she knew what happened. "But wait, was it all just a dream?" I wandered. I ran to get the book and to my surprise, the money was still there.

At that point, someone knocked on the door. Mamma went to check who it was, as I peeked from around the corner. She opened the door and there stood a big man, dressed rich and elegant. He was smoking a cigar.

And that's how I met Rolo...

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Love,