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.Pock Face, a.k.a.Kinney, hurtled over my chair, crashed to the floor next tome.Some of the dark jelly that was now his face slapped against my cheek andchin.The blood was so hot it stung.Big Man bellowed, bolted through the open door as another blast from theshotgun ripped into the air where he had been standing.Fragments of the walland door frame leaped toward me.Shadow.A tall man, the one with the shotgun, stumped past me, and as the light swungback and finally came to rest, I saw his shotgun stock swing out, catch Boogerupside the head with a sound like someone popping loose the vacuum-packed lidof a jar.Booger took the blow with a grunt and a spray of teeth.He swung the bat, butthe man holding the shotgun used his weapon to block it, brought the barrelaround in a short arc and hit Booger in the face.Booger did a kind ofbackwards hop, hit the table, knocked it flat, fell down on top of it.The man with the shotgun kicked his boot into Booger s balls.Booger screamedand the man fit the shotgun into Booger s mouth.He said, Good night,ass-lick, and fired.Booger s head sort of went away.* * *I lay very still.The man with the shotgun squatted down and looked at me.Hewas a lean-faced dude wearing a stained white cowboy hat, old boots, bluejeans, and a faded western shirt decorated with little green flowers.Irealized the face belonged to the man in the yellow Pontiac. Your ass is hangin out, friend, he said. I m also tied to a chair. I see that. You planning on shooting me, too? Well, you are kinda gift-wrapped.But no. The cowboy took a large knife from his jeans pocket, cut the cord on my feetand around my chest, then he got behind me and went to work on the wire,twisting it free.I wobbled as I tried to stand.The cowboy put the knife away with one quickmovement, took my arm and helped me.I pulled up my pants and fastened them.Isaid, Man, I don t know what to say.Did you have to kill them? How about Howdy ? And yeah, I guess I did.I started to just yell time-out,but decided that wasn t a good idea.I m Jim Bob Luke. Hap Collins, I said. I know who you are, he said. I followed them out here, then drove past, youknow, to stay cool, so they wouldn t know I was following them, but thesonofabitches sort of lost me for a time or I d have been here sooner. I m just glad you showed up.Not that I understand why.What about Big Man? Oh, I ain t worried.I been watchin the doors. Confident, aren t you? I invented the goddamn word.Now, why don t you use your shirtsleeve and wipethem brains off your face, and let s skedaddle before ole big un comes back. I thought you were confident. I am.But I ain t stupid. 20Jim Bob Luke led me out through the back way, over the door he had kickeddown.We went quickly into the woods.He moved well in the woods, and we wentalong like that and found a spot where we could look through the foliage, backat the shack and the raging fire of the Impala, but there wasn t any sign ofBig Man Mountain. Hated to burn a classic car like that, Jim Bob said. I started to just kickthe door down and come in blazin , but I like a little edge.You any good withPage 76 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlguns? I don t like them, but I m good with them. Good.I got another one here, and it ain t no peashooter.It s a forty-fiveautomatic. He gave it to me.We sat there and watched the car burn.The fire wasn t sohigh now and it licked around the frame of the Impala like the devil s tonguelicking the bones of an animal. Ole big un is out there somewhere, Jim Bob said. I m tryin to decide Iwant to hunt him down or not. He has a gun. I know.He shot at me with it.He s a shitty shot.Couldn t hit a circuselephant in the ass with a trick stool.But out here in the dark, and thisbeing his stomping grounds, maybe I ought not.How you feelin ? Queasy. Can you buck up? Yeah. Come on. We moved deeper into the woods, along the edge of a swampy creek, then finallyout of the trees into a clearing.We climbed under a barbed-wire fence andonto the grass next to the road.The yellow Pontiac was parked there, in thegrass.It sat on four flat tires. Well, Jim Bob said, looking around. Looks like ole big un got here ahead ofus. Think he s watching us? Could be. Jim Bob reached in his back pocket, took out a penlight and flashed it around.He found tracks in the soft dirt of the road.He said, Motherfucker s gotsome feet on him, don t he? I ll say. And look here. Jim Bob put the penlight s glow on the side of his car.There was a deepscrape along the side. He just had to do that, didn t he? Jim Bob said. Well, the scraped paintdon t stop me, and I got me four spares in the trunk, so fuck him.I used tobe a goddamn Boy Scout.I came prepared. I hurt something awful downstairs in the ball department, but I changed thetires while Jim Bob kept guard with the shotgun. Why d he just do the tires? I said. Why not screw something else up? I think we interrupted him, Jim Bob said. And he didn t want any part ofthis shotgun. I changed the tires as fast as I could, constantly expecting a shot in theback.But Big Man Mountain didn t come out of the woods with his little anklegun blazing.He didn t offer to help me with the lug bolts.A Saint Bernarddidn t bring me a keg.When all four spares were on, Jim Bob put the flats in the trunk along withthe jack and drove us out of there.I couldn t hold out any longer.The painwas too much.The activity had made it worse.I passed out on the car seat.* * *When I awoke, Jim Bob had my feet and Leonard had my arms.I looked up atLeonard.He said, Take it easy, brother.You all right now. Funny, I said. I don t feel all right. I closed my eyes and they carried me away and put me on a cloud and the cloudwas comfortable, except for a fire built between my legs, but I couldn t moveto get away from the fire; no matter how hard I tried it followed me, andfinally I slept, fire or no fire, and in my dream heads kept exploding, andtwo rabid squirrels, one with a pocked face, the other one black with a shavedhead, bit me repeated on the balls, while another squirrel, very plump withoversized feet and a beard and devil s horns, turned a crank on a battery thatthrew sparks.21Page 77 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlWhen I awoke it was early morning, still dark
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