Queen's Park

CHAPTER 22

Lester sat on The Racquet Club steps close to the front entrance. The sun shone on the bricks, the bricks radiated heat and barbecued him like a bratwurst. He read yesterday’s newspaper. It had been on the table at Tim Horton’s when they went for breakfast. That was over four hours ago.

They chose The Racquet Club because it was in one of the wealthier districts. Marv had been sure it gave them a better chance of stealing a Mercedes. God my brother is a pain in the ass, Les thought. “It’s gotta be a Mercedes, or it’ll all go wrong,” Marvin had said. Les was beginning to think jail would be better than another day with his brother.

The newspaper front page had HEAT WAVE written across the top. He looked over the paper as a green mini van made a U-turn in front of him. The side door slid open. Four kids in bathing suits and sandals poured out. A woman’s voice hollered, “I’ll pick you up in two hours!” The last kid slammed the door.

In a couple of minutes those kids would be screaming and splashing in the pool. He could hear children in the water just on the other side of the entrance way.

Someone had to pull up, leave the car running and go inside. He’d done it lots of times. Just one person needed to do the same for him. Lester had only seen six Mercedes so far. Lots of mini vans, though. Hate those mini vans! Give me a Cadillac anytime. Big engine, leather seats, cruise, air conditioning, he thought.

A motorcycle climbed the parking lot hill and eased into a spot only a few meters from Les. The rider kicked out the stand, leaned the bike over and killed the engine. The guy was wearing a short sleeved shirt, shorts, runners and helmet. He pulled the helmet off and walked past Les. Cool as a cucumber.

Man, Les thought, that’s the way to travel. A Honda Gold Wing with the highway stretching out ahead of him. A friend of his traveled down to the States every summer. Packed his pistol on his hip and road his bike from coast to coast. It would be cool on a bike. Get a Gold Wing and ride down to the States. A man could still be a man down there and ride with a 9 mm on his hip.

He heard the howl of an engine. It was the green mini van. The driver braked, leaned into a U-turn so tight the tires rubbed themselves bald. The van rocked back and forth when the driver dropped it into park before stopping. A woman hopped out with a plastic shopping bag with a towel trailing from the top. She ran into the club.

Les folded his newspaper and tucked it under his arm. Looking in the rear windows to make sure there was no one inside, he moved closer to the front of the vehicle. Empty. He opened the driver’s door. Cool air enveloped him. Les smiled as he leaned to slide the seat back. He closed the door, shifted into drive and eased his way down the hill. “After we get the money, I may just get me one of these.”

The only kind of sandwich Nanny would eat was made of white bread and ham. And a cup of coffee. “Make sure you don’t put nothin’ in my coffee but coffee,” she’d said. It was early afternoon and the kitchen was cool. He’d kept the blinds and curtains closed like she’d told him. Ernie wondered why she hadn’t made him feel guilty about going away with his father. She’d be alone during the day and she hated being alone. Last night she’d insisted he drive home. She was definitely getting weirder.

“Just keep busy, try to think about something else,” Ernie said.

Scout lay under the kitchen table with her nose on her paws and belly on linoleum. Her eyes followed Ernie.

“Cooler, isn’t it girl?”

Scout wagged her tail once in reply.

Ernie turned to butter the bread. Carefully, he spread yellow to the edges of the crust, just the way his grandmother liked it. “She’s really acting strange. Well, she always acts strange.” Talking to Scout was easy. She listened and he couldn’t say the wrong thing. If he talked to her, maybe he wouldn’t have time to think about other things. He peeled off two slices of honey ham and centered them on the bread. “When Nanny’s this nice, it’s really strange.”

Ernie looked over his shoulder at the dog. She lifted one eyebrow.

“You’re right. People are crazy. Dogs aren’t.”

Scout yawned.

“Humans think they’re the smart ones. How come we’re so screwed up if we’re so smart?” He squirted a bead of mustard over the ham and slapped the sandwich together.

Reaching into the opaque plastic pouch, he pulled out a slice of ham and jammed it into his mouth. It tasted like paste. He poured the coffee and wondered how something that smelled so good just a few days ago could taste like nothing today. Why does everything taste the same? He headed for his grandmother’s bedroom. When his feet touched the family room carpet, he heard the rattle of toe nails on a hard surface. “Oh no.”

Scout had her front paws on the edge of the counter. Her tongue reached out and licked the ham out of the package.

“Scout!” The ham slapped the floor. Scout picked it up and scampered into the front room. “What if I want to make another sandwich?”

Ernie turned and walked upstairs to Nanny’s room. Fatigue scratched at the insides of his eyelids.

Nanny was exactly where she’d been since morning.

“Here’s your lunch,” Ernie said.

“Thanks,” she said without looking at him.

Fear and lack of sleep forced the words out before he had time to think. “What do I do if he comes back?”

“Who?” Nanny said.

“Uncle Bob. What if he comes after me again?” Ernie slumped onto the edge of the bed.

“Oh, him.” She reached for her cigarettes.

Ernie looked at the pile of butts and ash.

She stuck a fresh smoke in her mouth and spoke through partially closed lips. “He’s not coming back. Don’t worry about him.”

“How do you know?”

“I know.” Nanny blew smoke through her words, “He’s not coming back.”

“Then why am I having these nightmares? I can’t sleep.” He crossed his arms and rubbed goose bumps.

“Come here.” She waved him closer. “Bob isn’t coming back. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“Sometimes, even when I’m awake, I see that knife in front of my eyes and I can smell him, hear his voice.” He tasted ham and stomach acid at the back of his throat.

“I had those too.”

Ernie waited. She never took her eyes off the road. A white pickup truck breezed by. “That guy lives down the street,” she said.

“Who are you watching for?”

Nanny ignored the question and told him something he hadn’t heard before. “Getting the news about my brother dying in Italy wasn’t when the nightmares started.”

Ernie opened his mouth to ask what this had to do with anything, hesitated, then decided to wait.

“It was later, when the boys came back after the war. I kept looking for him. Then one of the guys came to the house and told us how my brother died.”

Ernie looked at the head and shoulders portrait of Nanny’s uniformed brother.

“Had nightmares after that. You know he was burned alive?” A blue car approached and she lifted the binoculars.

She set the binoculars in her lap. “The nightmares lasted at least a year. I swore no one would ever take family away from me again.” She crushed the cigarette butt on the edge of the ashtray. “Then Bob took my Judy away.”

Her anger was as familiar to him as her menopausal mustache.

“Couldn’t do a damned thing about it. Judy wouldn’t listen when I told her he was no good for her. Now his tough friends are back. They won’t leave until they find Bob. No way they’re gonna take anyone else away from me.” She turned to look at him. “Don’t worry about Bob or his tough friends. Take the dog and go into the basement. Have a sleep on the couch. It’s cooler down there. Nightmares don’t like the cold.”

Ernesto knelt at the edge of his garden. “All done. No more weeds.” Nasturtiums, gladiolas, tiger lilies and wild flowers accented tomatoes, onions and lettuce. The soles of his feet were black like his fingers.

His knees crackled when he leaned up against the garage to stand up. He looked at Nonna sitting at the table. “You want me to move you under the umbrella?” He bent to brush the soil off the knees of his jeans. “The sun does feel good this time of day.” Ernesto shaded his eyes and looked up. The sun was nearly half way along on its glide into sunset. “Must be close to five o’clock.” He lifted his white ball cap. “Got fresh tomatoes, lettuce, onions and some olives for a salad.” He felt newly cut grass between his toes. Stepping lightly, he went up the stairs and disappeared into the doorway’s shadow. “Just a quick stop in the bathroom to clean up.”

Ernesto didn’t hear the gate latch open.

Nanny spotted Lester and Marvin sitting side by side in a green van.

The van turned right. The brake lights told her what she needed to know. “Ernesto’s,” she said while flipping open her cigarette package to check for the lighter. She dropped the pack into her purse and pulled out a white envelope to set on the bed. “I knew the sneaky bastards would be back.” Glancing once at the portrait of her brother, she picked up her purse, shuffled across the carpet and went downstairs. “God damn war killed my brother. God damned Bob. God damn his tough friends. God damn.” She switched over to the portable oxygen tank. “God damn cigarettes! So damn short of breath.” She wished she could go into the basement and touch Ernie’s cheek one more time while he slept.

Nanny stepped outside and into the shadow of the house. Ever since she started to take those blood thinners, she couldn’t stand the heat. “Damn!” The sun was a hand smacking her face. It was hard to breathe so she cursed to herself, God damn heat. Why couldn’t those assholes park closer to the house? Took away my Judy. All I had was my family and you bastards took that away! Her rage pushed her till she stood beside the van and heaved the oxygen tank inside the open side door.

Marv sat in the driver’s set of the green van. He thought, Lester doesn’t understand. This van was no good. It had to be a Mercedes. Without the right car, their luck would turn bad.

He looked over his shoulder at the open door. It was just the way Les wanted it for a quick getaway. They’d snatch the doll. All they had to do was kidnap the doll and find out what the old man knew about Bob. This way they didn’t have to deal with Bob’s crazy mother in-law.

The van leaned to the right. “Les?” Marvin said and looked over his shoulder. Bob’s mother-in-law, her hands on either side of the open door, pulled herself inside.

“What?” Marv reached to push her back out but the seat belt held him. He reached for the release. “What the hell?”

“What,” she said. Each word was separated by a breath, “the… hell… did… you… think… I’d… do?”

They were face to face. Leona held her purse with both hands and slid her backside across to the middle of the back seat.

“Get out!” Marvin said.

“Told… you… two to… leave… me… and mine… alone.” She shifted left till she sat behind him. Sweat soaked her T-shirt.

Marv felt a growing sense of doom. First the Mercedes and now this. The plan was going to hell.

“What the hell is she doin’ here?” Les’ face was running with sweat. He held the doll by the hair. “Get her out of here!”

Marv fought with the seat belt.

Leona pulled hers across her body and locked herself in. BLATT!

“What was that?” Marv said.

“You’ve never heard a fart before?” Les said as he sat the doll down on the floor.

“Sonamabitch!” Ernesto said.

Les shoved the doll inside. Her head caught Leona on the knee.

“Ouch!” Leona said as Lester slid the door shut.

“Go!” Lester clawed his way into the front seat.

Marv punched the accelerator. The engine screamed.

“Put it in gear, stupid!” Les slammed the door on his ankle. “Shit!” He dragged his foot inside.

Marv shifted into drive before completely releasing the accelerator and the van lunged forward with squealing tires. He wrenched the steering wheel left. The passenger door’s mirror snapped when it clipped the back of the red van.

“You all right?” Marv said.

“Shut up!” Les winced when he shifted his weight. “Just get us away from here so we can dump the old bitch!”

“What about him?” Marv jerked his thumb toward the back of the van.

Les leaned forward to look out the passenger mirror. It flopped like a hand with a broken wrist. He turned to look out the back window. The red van was gaining. “Lose him.”

Leona lifted the glass jar of gasoline out of her purse and set it upright between her legs. She took quick gulps of bottled oxygen and leaned against the window.

“Take the main road!” Les said. They joined six lanes divided by concrete barriers.

Les adjusted the interior mirror so he could watch Ernesto. “You just worry about what’s ahead and I’ll worry about him.”

“It’s turning yellow!” Marv said.

Les glanced at the road ahead. “Good! Just go!”

Leona saw the light turn red before they entered the intersection. A silver car saw them just in time. Brakes screamed.

Les watched the red van. It had no choice but to brake. Blue smoke spilled out around the tires.

“That’ll do it. Only two or three more sets of lights before we hit the river. Get in the right lane.” Les adjusted the rear view mirror so he could see Leona’s eyes. “Why’d you let her in here?”

“She just climbed in,” Marv said.

“Shit!” His ankle was throbbing and the pain made it harder to think, to plan ahead.

BLATTT!

“Jeez Marv!” Les said.

“It wasn’t me!”

“Yah, right.”

They hit a green light and Les saw the sign for Memorial Drive. “That’s our turn.”

“You said two lights!”

“Just take the right lane.” With the way his ankle was throbbing, Lester wouldn’t be able to drive even if he had to.

“Look out!” Marv said.

Ernesto shivered.

“Never again!” He swerved into the right lane and passed a city bus.

“No bastard’s gonna do this to you!”

“He’s behind us!” Marv said.

“Watch out!” Les slapped his brother on the shoulder and pointed ahead. A backhoe, doing about half the speed limit, bounced on huge tires. The bucket at the back of the tractor was less than two car lengths ahead.

Marv swerved right and cut off a pickup truck.

A horn blared.

Les leaned into the turn. They flashed past the yellow tractor. “Watch the road like I told you!”

Marv accelerated to join the traffic on Memorial Drive.

Ernesto pulled up less than a car length behind them.

“Don’t panic, Marv.” Les pulled the Smith and Wesson out of its holster. “When you see an open stretch of road, let him pull up on my side.”

Marv looked ahead. Trees lined the right side of the road.

In between the road and the river, joggers and cyclists navigated the paved pathway. They were the fourth vehicle behind a group of cars. Ernesto trailed them. They passed through an intersection with the Louise Bridge on their right.

A car in the left lane slowed. They passed on the right.

“Get in the left lane,” Les ordered and opened the window. “Let him get nice and close.”

Ernesto saw the green van pull into the left lane. The passenger’s window opened half way. The broken mirror flapped against the door.

“Culo!” He swerved to drive alongside.

“He’s almost beside us!” Marv said.

They ran over a manhole cover.

Les fired one round. A star appeared in the center of Ernesto’s windshield. “Shit! I missed.”

“He’s pulled in behind us,” Marv said.

“Watch the road!” Les looked ahead. Now I have to figure out something else, he thought. The road curved right. Center Street Bridge arched its sandstone back over the water. Suspended beneath, a steel bridge hung above the swollen river. “Get in the right lane.”

“What you gonna do?” Marv said.

“The old guy wants his doll. We’ll give him his doll. We still have the old bitch. I’ll bet she knows where Bob is if anyone does.”

“You said the old man would be a pushover,” Marv said.

“You won’t believe me when I tell you where Bob is,”

Leona said.

“Just turn right under the bridge and do what I tell you. We’ll get rid of the old man and then we’ll find out what this old bitch knows.”

Marv braked for a red light. A white Mazda sat between them and a right turn.

Les held the rearview mirror in his hand as Ernesto opened his door.

Leona fumbled with the lid of the jar.

The light turned green.

Marv lurched forward.

Leona screwed the lid back down tight.

They turned right. The bridge deck was narrow. Tires hummed on the irregular, perforated metal surface. “I don’t like this,” Marv said.

A taxi passed going the other way. No other vehicles approached. “Stop in the middle of the road,” Les said.

“Why?”

“I won’t be able to get out and throw the doll over if you don’t stop in the middle.”

“Why?” Marv said.

“Do it!”

Marv hit the brakes and swung the wheel to the left. The van straddled the center line.

Les leaned into the damaged passenger door. Pain clawed at him when he put weight on his right foot. “Shit!” He heaved the van’s side door open, grabbed the doll by the back of its dress, twisted its arm at the elbow and limped to the edge. He heaved her over the side.

“NO!” Ernesto was crossing to the other side of the bridge. He looked at the green van once.

Leona shuddered as she heard the cry of a man ripped

open by grief.

The old man heaved himself up to the railing and jumped into the river.

Les pulled himself into the van. He lifted his right leg inside. The door would only close part way. He heaved to slam it shut. “Get us out of here!”

“You bastards.” Leona shook her head.

“He’s just a dirty old man. Turn left and get us back onto Memorial,” Les said.

“You ruined my family, and now you’ve killed Ernesto,”

Nanny said.

Ernesto bobbed to the surface. The shock of hitting the water stunned him.

The current carried him while he searched the surface. His foot smashed painfully against rock. He saw her hair first. Just under the surface. Ernesto swam to her and grabbed. Her face surfaced. By this time his feet were pointing downstream. He held her hair in his teeth and used his arms to keep them floating. They passed under a bridge. A pair of faces stared down at him and were gone.

Ernesto locked her arms around his neck. “Helen?” No answer. “Talk to me.”

The water seemed warmer now. He thought about their holiday in Italy and cooling off in the Mediterranean. It hadn’t been so long ago. “Remember our big trip? Remember how warm the water was? I can see that dress you wore.”

“Hold on to me,” she said.

He remembered the sea. Helen’s face inches from his.

Looking up at the sky, he thought about how perfect their honeymoon had been.

A steel cable caught him on the right side of the head. The shock of the blow knocked him out. They rolled beneath the surface then over the concrete weir. In a moment they were caught in a churning prison of white water. It turned them over and over till all the oxygen escaped Ernesto’s lungs.

“Take the Deerfoot North. That way we’ll get there faster.” Les pointed, directing Marvin.

“It was you two who threw the rock through our store window.” Leona lit a cigarette.

“Gimme a cigarette,” Les said and reached back with an open hand.

“Answer first.” She took a drag.

“What the hell are you asking?” Les said.

“Our store. You two helped ruin our business when my Judy ran away.”

“That was a long time ago,” Les said.

Leona waited and watched him through a filter of exhaled smoke.

“The rock was Bob’s idea. Said it would scare you.” Les wiggled his fingers and she dropped a cigarette into his palm.

“How about the slashed tires?” she said.

Marv looked at Les who searched for the cigarette lighter.

“I need a light.”

“Answer the question and I’ll light it for you.” She glanced left to see the jar in the cup holder. The gasoline quivered. Cars, pickup trucks and semis passed them on either side as they headed north on the freeway.

“Judy was right, you are a controlling old bitch.” Les put the cigarette between his lips.

Leona took a breath to keep her mind clear for what she had to do. This is what I should have done when they took my Judy away, she thought.

“Yah, we did it. Bob paid us 20 bucks for that one.” He reached back for the light.

Leona lit another cigarette with the tip of hers and handed it to him. “What about the letter to Beth?”

Les looked at his brother. He took a long drag on the cigarette, blew smoke out his nostrils and said, “I’m real good at letters.”

Leona nodded.

“Judy helped me write it.”

“Judy?” Leona said.

“Sure. Then she tried to get Beth to run away with her to teach you a lesson.”

Leona thought, Beth never told me. Never told me while she gained all that weight. No wonder! No god damned wonder she hates Judy. She looked out the left window. A silver blue semi was pulling up alongside. It struggled as they climbed a gentle incline. “Where we goin’ now?”

“Back to your place. You’ll tell us whatever we want to know. All I have to do is put my gun up against the side of the boy’s head.”

You’re not gonna get anywhere near Ernie, she thought.

“And if I call the police after you leave?”

Les said, “We’ll come back. Marv, we gotta get off this road pretty soon. Get in the right lane.”

“Can’t,” Marv said.

On the right, a white semi rolled up beside them.

“Slow down, then,” Les said.

Marv pointed back with his thumb. The headlights and grill of a black one tonne pickup filled the rear window.

“Speed up,” Les pointed.

Leona threw her cigarette on the floor. She pulled the oxygen tube over her head and dropped it. The lid of the jar opened easily. Nanny leaned forward and poured half the gas down the back of Marv’s golf shirt.

“What?” He leaned forward. “What the hell are you doin’!?”

Les turned.

She flicked the remainder into his face.

“My eyes! Gas! For Christ’s sake, she’s got gas!”

She reached into her purse. The oxygen tubes lay next to it. She put a smoke in her mouth and lifted the lighter.

“My eyes!” Les said.

Leona lifted the lighter and flicked the wheel. She leaned to touch it against Marv’s shoulder. Flame traveled across the back of his neck. Gasoline ignited on her hand. She saw the flames spread to Les’ face. Both men screamed.

Marv swerved into the left lane.

The van buried its nose under the trailer.