Hood Ornaments

Mann entered the house first. He actually let out a small chuckle because all three bodies had one bullet hole in the back of their heads. There were two in the kitchen and one in the dining room. He nudged Sticks, “I guess he was the one who almost got away. Ol’ girl shoots like her Daddy.” Sticks turned and glared at Mann but then realized there was no need because Tony didn’t hear anything. He just stood there in disbelief.

Sticks’ phone vibrated. It was Dell. He happened to turn on the news and saw that kids playing with sparklers accidentally caught one of the docks at the marina on fire, which normally wouldn’t have been a huge concern for Sticks except that was the marina where his yacht was docked.

And now they needed another plan.

Sticks was shouting obscenities and kicking over the cheap kitchen chairs while Tony, Malik and Mann’s eyes darted back and forth from the tirade to the dead bodies. In between the tirade, Mann made it out to the truck to get the “body bags” and began the process of collecting the bodies. Sticks explained their predicament about the boat. He looked at Mann as if he were stuffing the answers to the universe into the body bags.

“I dunno what we are gonna do with em once we bag em.”

Mann looked up at him, “Put em in the truck.”

Sticks sucked his teeth and retorted, “So Einfuckinstein, I’m just supposed to ride around with dead bodies in my truck? That’s your brilliant idea motherfucker?”

“Sticks,” Tony attempted to meekly interrupt.

Sticks continued as if he didn’t hear him, “This is why your ass don’t do shit but drive me the fuck around Mann. Put em in the truck. No shit…”

“Sticks, I…” Again, Tony tried to interrupt.

“What motherfucker what?!!!” Sticks yelled as he pulled a zipper over what appeared to be the head of “Pop-Pop”.

“We can put em in your building,” Tony said.

“My building? Oh what we gonna sit em in my living room pour em drinks, let my lady fuck em? The hell are you talkin bout, my building?”

Tony looked defeated, but Malik quickly had his back, I think what Tone was tryna say was with all of the construction to put them in the actual building.”

Hmmmph. Sticks thought to himself.

Not a bad idea.

We’d have to get lime though.

As if Mann could either read Sticks’ mind or had done this before, he replied, “I’ll pull the truck around back. Believe or not, the lady wanted to plant a garden last season so…everythin we need is in the trunk.”

Sticks’ cell vibrated again this time with a text from Dell:

She’s waking up and REALLY wants to go home.

Just like Malik and Mann said, everything they needed was either in the truck or at the construction site. They moved with swift agendas and soon, Tori’s dead rapists were covered in lime and cemented into the basement walls of the condominium building.

It was done with the nonchalant-ness of someone going to the corner store to buy a fifty cent red hug and a bag of BBQ chips.

Sticks wished he could dispose of a million more bodies if that meant he didn’t have to call Trudy Watts and explain how her granddaughter lost all of her innocence in less than forty-eight hours.

He told Malik and Tony to tend to Tori. He and Man walked around the side of Trudy’s house and knocked on the door. She pulled the sheer curtain to the side. The glare she gave Sticks through her tired eyes was powerful. She opened the door and stepped aside to let them enter. A lump rose in her throat as the stature of both men seemed to encompass her tiny kitchen.

She swallowed.

Sticks blinked

Manndropped his head.

Trudy looked at Sticks, and the tears escaped her eyes.

“It can’t be good if you are here.” She said as she pointed to the empty kitchen chairs. Mann sat down and Trudy instinctively poured him a large tumbler of iced tea. He thanked her softly. She went to get another glass, but Sticks shook his head no. She placed the pitcher on the table and sat down. No matter how firmly she braced herself, she was still visibly shaking. Sticks came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.

The scene was surreal. As he spoke, Trudy wailed and threw the pitcher against the wall. Then she wailed upon Sticks. Mann tried to grab her, but then she turned and began to wail upon him. At that point, Sticks grabbed her arms and held her to him, and Trudy collapsed against him sobbing. When she cried all of the tears out of her body, Trudy eased out of Sticks’ embrace and went over to the sink to grab the dish towel. She wiped her eyes and then began to attempt to clean up the mess she made.

“Trudy, we…” Sticks said as he took the towel from her hands.

As if the thought just occurred to her, her head jerked to look at Sticks, “Did you…”

Sticks shook his head no, “I didn’t think it was necessary to call him. There is nothing he can do about it now; it has been taken care of. But it might be a good idea, if we begin to tell Tori the truth.”

Trudy shook her head wildly, “No, no, no. Absolutely not. She has been through enough. Go get her and bring her to me now.

As they left, a short man in a CVS shirt was running up the side of the house with a knapsack.

“Ms. I believe this belong to…young girl…live…here,” the employee said in broken English, “I found in alleyway…mail… big letter to Chicago.”

As stunned as Trudy was, she took this as a sign from God and walked the envelope to the corner mailbox and dropped it in.

Tori was getting out of that city.

It took too many lives, but it was not about to take what was left of her granddaughter’s.