Storm prey

20

CAPPY LAY ON THE FLOOR in front of the television, tuned it to Channel Three, for the news, put his foot up on a couch pillow. He'd done what Barakat told him, and most of the bleeding had stopped. He hit the cocaine, once, but that seemed to make his mind focus on his toe: the pain grew worse. He stopped with the cocaine, tried to focus on the television: the cops were all over the hospital. A thrill here-he'd done this. He'd caused this chaos. People were paying attention. He was still lying, watching, there when Barakat got home.

"How bad?" Barakat asked.

"Not so bad, really. Mostly my little toe. But that's wrecked. I can't put any weight on it," Cappy said.

"Let me get some things," Barakat said. He went into his bedroom, did a twist, and another, and went back to Cappy with a brown leather bag that looked like a small briefcase. He popped it open, put it on the floor next to Cappy's foot, dragged a reading lamp over, and started unwrapping the foot. "Did you take the oxycodone?"

"Two of them," Cappy said. He told Barakat about running down the stairwell, and then getting shot. "I don't think the slug could have missed my head by more than an inch. I mean, it was like my foot being hit with a sledgehammer, but I almost thought I could feel the slug go by. Right in front of my eyes. Two inches back, and I'd be dead."

"Uh-huh." Barakat finished unwrapping the foot and said, "Okay. It's messy, but not so bad. I'm going to have to… uh…"

"What?"

"I'm going to have to give you a shot before I can work on it," Barakat said. "An anesthetic. It'll hurt too much, otherwise."

"Whatever you gotta do," Cappy said.

"Need a little hit first," Barakat said. He did another line of coke, came back.

Barakat had three single-use syringes in the kit. He took one out, unwrapped it, then said, "This is going to bite a little…" He slipped the needle in, and Cappy said, "Huh," and Barakat said, "There'll be three little sticks, here." He stuck him the three times, feeding the anesthetic around the base of Cappy's little toe.

When he was done, he put the empty syringe on a coffee table, stood up, and said, "I'm going to have to wash your feet. I need to get some alcohol."

He was back in a minute with the alcohol and some paper towels, and began washing the wounded flesh. "Can you feel that?" Barakat asked.

"Not too much," Cappy said. "Feels lots better."

"It'll hurt again later," Barakat said. He took out a forceps that looked like a big pair of tweezers, and began probing at the wound. The wound was still oozing, and after a minute, he said, "Hmm," and then, "You got lucky."

"Yeah?"

"Your small toe is mostly gone, but your fourth toe was only damaged by debris from the shoes. The bones and joints look like they're okay. I can clean it up and bandage it. The little toe… I have some work to do. You will have trouble with balance at first, because your little toe helps with that, but after you get used to it, you won't even notice that it's missing."

"It's mostly missing now, you said?" He tried to do a sit-up to look, but Barakat pushed him back.

"Lie still. Yes. I just have to clean it up, and bandage it. If you follow my prescriptions, it'll be okay."

Cappy lay on the floor and closed his eyes, and Barakat went to work, cutting off wounded muscle and skin, nipping off a piece of shattered toe bone, leaving a neat but tiny stump just above the joint closest to the foot. When he was done with that, he carefully wrapped it with gauze soaked in an antiseptic gel, covered that with more gauze, wrapped the fourth toe separately, and then wrapped the corner of Cappy's foot with medical tape.

"I'm done. Just lie there for a while," he said. "I'll clean up. You don't want to stand up in a hurry."

"I've got to stand up pretty soon, though," Cappy said. "They'll get a fix on me sooner or later. I need to get my ass out of here. Down to Florida, I'm thinking."

"Why not back to California?"

"I've never seen Florida."

"What you think best, but it's snowing like crazy out there," Barakat said, slapping him on the knee. He picked up the operating debris, got a plastic garbage bag from under the sink, and dumped it inside. He'd throw it in a public trash can somewhere, he thought.

He went to the bedroom for another hit. WHEN HE CAME BACK, he gave Cappy a bottle of penicillin pills and told him to take the rest of the oxycodone. "If you drive all the way to Florida, your foot will hurt bad the whole way. Better if you got out of here, one day, maybe to Kentucky or somewhere, where there won't be all the cops looking for you, and then find a motel to stay in for a couple days. Watch TV and keep the foot up high."

They talked about the foot, and then about the chase at the hospital, and Cappy said, "I don't know if I dinged either of them, but I don't think so. I tricked them at the end, though…"

"Do you think they might know your name?" Barakat asked.

"I don't know what they know. They might know my name. The woman in the operating room… it sounded like she said, 'Cap,' like my name."

"Hmm. If they don't know your name, it would be best if you could stay overnight, leave in the morning, after this snow goes through. The highways will be impossible tonight. You don't need to get in an accident now."

"But I need to get back and load up my stuff," Cappy said. "I need to get my bike in the van."

"Do you need me to help?"

"Naw. I've got a ramp, I'll ride right up it. I don't have anything else heavy," Cappy said. And, "What are you going to do?"

Barakat said, "I am going to ask the hospital to give me time to fly home to Lebanon to see Shaheen's parents and talk to them about what a fine fellow their son was. I don't think they can say 'no,' so I will be out of sight. I will stay one hour there, and then go to Paris, maybe for a month. You should see Paris someday…"

"Don't think I'll see Paris," Cappy said.

"When I come back, I will think some more about this Karkinnen woman, and what she has done to us. If not for her, we would be done here."

"Good luck on that," Cappy said. "She reminds me of this dude out in California. He was the foreman at this company I worked for, and he used to give me shit all the time. I was going to kill him, but when I was ready to, he was always off somewhere. I couldn't find him. When I could find him, I wasn't ready. Just luck. Maybe this bitch is one of those."

"This is not a good thought," Barakat said. AT NINE O'CLOCK, Cappy couldn't stand lying on his back anymore, managed to get to his feet without help. He couldn't walk on the front of his damaged foot, but could stump along on the heel. "Not as bad as I thought," he said.

Barakat was heavily stoned, flying: "You still have residual effect from the local anesthetic. It will get worse, believe what I say."

"That's great," Cappy said.

"One thing more," Barakat said. "We have not talked about Joe Mack. Joe Mack is the other threat. I believe that sometime he will call me again. If I find out where he is, it would perhaps be better if Joe Mack died."

"I think you're right. He is a dumb guy who'll get caught sooner or later," Cappy said.

"I will try to find out where he is, and will call you. Perhaps you could deal with him."

"If I can," Cappy said.

"And I will deal with Karkinnen. I will think of something." THEY WERE STILL rather pleased with their friendship, and Barakat helped Cappy keep his balance as he stumped out to his van, where Barakat gave the younger man a quick Lebanese hug with a backslap. "I will call you. I will pack the drugs from the hospital, I will send them to you wherever you're at. You can make the connection, and sell them. I trust you for my share."

Cappy was embarrassed about the hug and the trust, but smiled and said, "Keep on truckin', dude."

As his van rolled into the night, Barakat turned back to his house and began to think about talking to the cops about Shaheen's funeral, and talking to the hospital about compassionate leave.

Cappy's taillights winked at the corner, and he thought, That might be the end of Cappy.

Now, he had to spend some time thinking about himself.

But first, he could use another twist. He had to think clearly.