Brokenhearted in Bakersfield

 

97 - TIME TO GO

Everyone watched as two bulldozers ripped through the trailer park.  Everyone, that is, except the Silver Ghost, who was just dancing by himself.

Between the train wreck, the shootings, the cops, the Kachinga eviction, and just about everything else under the sun, most everyone had already hightailed it outta Broken Heart Park.  Many former friends and neighbors left for Stardust Acres.  There was still a couple’a rental coaches left around, but what with the bug damage and all, they fell right apart once the dozers nudged ‘em.

The Fire Chief was kind enough to push Joe Plato’s trailer off to the side so he could have a place to crash come sundown.  I figured I’d be bunking under Joe’s for the night.

Sashimi called out to the Kachinga braves, “We need to get this woman to the clinic.”

I turned to see my Maggie laying inside the Escalade grasping at her bullet wound.  “Honey, you gonna be okay?”  A tear welled up in my eye.

She said, “Don’t worry about me, just take care of yourself.”

“You got the RobbinsYUZ stock certificate?” I asked.

“Hell, no,” she sniggered.  “I paid that idiot lawyer Abel Chase with it.  Ha, it’s not worth a used roll of Charmin.”

Then Maggie looked deep into my eyes.  “Honeypot, you can still learn to play the game, if you try, you just picked the wrong place to play it.”

Sashimi Luckyfeather yanked on the door and closed it.  Big Chief Like-A-Horse shrugged and waved from the passenger’s seat.

I turned away and saw Shoots-The-Moon, Jacks-Or-Better, and the twin braves, Snake-Eyes and Box-Cars, all standing in a row now surveyin’ the flat and blackened field.  I couldn’t help but notice one stray tear trickle’n down one copper cheek four times over.

And just like that, the Kachinga Nation was on its way.  With the cavalcade of vehicles fast disappearing in a cloud of dust, Deputy Whitey slipped up behind me and placed a big ol’ bear-paw on my shoulder.  “Once they learn the way of the Kachinga,” he sighed in deepest sympathy, “they don’t come back.”

When things go straight to hell, I try to console myself and think of it as a plot-twist.

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