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1. fitness club
"You're like a god," she panted looking up at him.
"Nonsense. I'm just your fitness counselor. Keep breathing." This was Julio, a big ex-cop.
"No really. You're so sexy." The girl glared at him with animal lust.
"Lick your lips and keep it moving kid. Come on! Up one, up two." etc. She is doing bench presses.
Cris, the female, gay manager of the Elan Fitness Club walks by, puts her hand on Julio's broad back and says, "See me when you're through here, huh?"
She goes into her office and Julio Esteban, former New York City Police Officer, looks up as she closes the door smiling at his sweaty face.
2. Cris' office
Cris looks up as Julio comes in. She is very relaxed around him. Julio sits on the floor and does some stretching. "What's up, Cris?"
"Are you okay?"
"Sure yeah."
"You better know what you're talking about. I didn't hire you to watch you punish yourself. You were just a cop who needed a job."
"I know, Cris."
"So, Jewels, will you try taking it easy, cut down the stress. Chill out. Even muscles relax."
Julio, stretching out his inner thighs, rocked back on his pelvis to stretch further. "I dunno, Cris, everything seems so godd--n heavy sometimes."
"Some-times? With you it's getting to be a working-around-the-clock thing."
"Yeah, yeah that's right." Julio puffs.
"So whaddya gonna do about it?"
"Reform." Julio thumps his chest, straightening up from the inner thigh stretch. "From now on I promise to be happy. Now will you leave me alone?"
"Leave you alone?" Cris stands, resting her fingers lightly on the desktop and leaning over her desk to shoot Julio a look. "This is my office."
"You know what I mean." They smile and Julio brings in one knee and puts his weight on that foot, getting up. Bending at the waist, he keeps the same knee bent with most of his weight on that foot to go for the switching sides inner thigh stretch.
"You're gonna have to forget her, Jewels."
"I know. I know."
"The grief ain't gonna bring back Angela."
Julio repeats. "I know. I know."
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"I just want to know how she died."
Now it's Cris' turn to say, "I know. I know." Julio straightens and stands. Cris looks up at him slightly, rises and stands by the side of her desk. "Do you ever speak to Ivan?"
Julio rocks his head back, loosening his shoulders and neck. "Sure. You know we keep in touch."
"Give him a hug from me when you see him."
"Sure."
3. the streets of midtown Manhattan
Jogging around is what Julio is doing. But he continues through Chinatown to Battery Park just to get a long run. Zig-zagging back up through Wall Street and Little Italy buildings, he returns uptown. He thinks about the black church with its small green yard. Julio just can't help thinking of Angela.
She was very beautiful. She was a whore. She liked people. It wasn't just that Angela was friendly to men. It was that she was friendly to everybody. "They better watch their children," was Julio's common remark about Angela, who loved everybody. Julio and Angela had a beautiful platonic friendship.
Had. Had a deep relationship. He could still feel her love from beyond the grave. Julio came to himself, jogging lightly in place in front of his Riverside apartment. All at once he feels very tired and slightly crumples. Straightening up, he puffs wearily up the stairs to his apartment.
4. Uomo's
[note: clarify that Ivan & Julio are not brothers & Papa is not father.]
"I tell you, Julio, you don't want to know what I have done to the guys who call this place Homo's." Papa Julius who owns the restaurant Uomo's is pumping his machismo again.
Julio shrugs. "Sure Papa. Everybody knows you're a real tough daddy."
"Sure as death. They misbehave and I spank 'em."
"Like Hell daddy."
For a moment Julius is offended, then he smiles. "Yeah Jewels. Exactly like Hell. What can I do for a favorite son?"
"Aahh, you know I don't take favors from you Papa."
Papa cocks his finger at him. "Like Hell, kid, you eat my lasagna."
"Sure, go ahead and warm me up one, but keep one left for Ivan. Don't you go eating them all yourself."
"Warm it with my own hands, sonny boy." Papa blows on his hands, smacks them together, parts them slowly, looking up smiling, pleased as if his hands were on fire.
Time passes. The beer Papa left on the table didn't have to be ordered but would be scrupulously demanded on the bill. Finally, Ivan shows up and another beer appears.
Papa emerges with the lasagna. "I heated yours up real good. I figured Ivan would drop it in a lab bottle, but you could take the heat." He leaves.
"How the Hell you doing, Julius."
"Enough with the Hell stuff."
"Papa been trying to spook you again?"
"Big tough daddy."
Both men pause.
"Face it, Julio, Jackie Chan is best."
"Stop feeding me that. No one is better than Bruce."
"Oh but those falling crane glides, his back-kick kick-blocks on all fours. He's poetry. He's based on Bruce."
"That's what I'm saying. When the man keeps his leg stretching out from the high side-kick when that guy opens the door to his room on the island, legendary moment. The flying kick into the guns. The nunchaku. Hell, even Kareem."
"There you go with that Hell again."
"I know"
Both men pause.
"How's work?"
"You call it working for a living?"
"You could say the same about me."
"So don't, Ivan. At least my muscles work."
"My tongue certainly works."
"You can say that again."
"That proves my point."
"Certainly. It is certain that your tongue will max on ergonomic labor."
"Far out Jewels. Been reading those books I gave you."
"Yeah, physics and muscles. You know I do that stuff already, but I'm into reading about it to kind of stir up my mind. When I think about the muscles in my forearm I go ape sometimes."
"Face it, bro, that's the eternal male condition."
"Hoo hoo hah hah hah."
"Sure, another one of your reversionary tactics. Not a throwback to common simian ancestry at all, thank you, but something that has always been true of male homo sapiens."
"You'll get in trouble with Papa, Ivan."
"Yeah, you'll get in trouble." Papa's voice speaks up.
Ivan responds loudly, "Hell, Dad, you know I'm allowed to say homo sapiens here."
"Yeah well don't yell it out just to bother me. Have some manners."
Ivan relaxes and says quietly to Julio, "Some people say I am a mannerism. Not only do I have excellent manners, I have too many of them."
Papa comes over. "How the Hell you could finish that lasagna so fast with all that talking — it's powerful magic."
Ivan: "The magic's in your food."
Julio breathes out heavily.
Papa: "Yeah, we put your tongue on training and someday it will be big and strong like Ivan's here."
"My tongue doesn't need any more work than it's got."
Ivan: "That's 'cause you never talk — just flex."
"Sure I talk."
Papa: "Nah that's not true. All you ever talk about now is Angela. Everything else you say, it's just talking around it." He shakes his head.
Julio: "Well to Hell with you both."
Papa: "There you go with that macho condemning people to Hell business. Hell takes care of itself. It's just our job to stir some up every so often."
Ivan: "Every few days?"
Papa: "All the time."
Julio nods. "Yeah, all the time Dad."
Ivan makes up a song: "Baby's Got A One-Track Mind."
5. Felice's
Her beautiful bedroom was more than big enough for both of them to stretch out, and most of the rooms in the penthouse had rugs or were carpeted so that any room was really available. Even the kitchen, which had some excellent terraced counter-space, had been put to work for stretching many times as part of fitness sessions.
"You look like Hell, Jul."
"You know nobody calls me that except you. You do too honey, what's been going wrong?"
"Michael again, as usual."
"He's got a tough job, Felice."
"Yeah tough, too tough. Something is breaking inside him. I can feel it."
"Yeah well they say a wife knows these things but for me, I'm not married to anybody. You're the wife so you've gotta just listen to yourself inside and go for it."
"Like you do, Jul?"
"I don't have to practice it to preach it."
Felice nods her head. "Jul, what if you can't hear the inner voice anymore?"
Julio is struck. "You do the last things you used to believe in when you could still hear the inner voice."
"Like you do, Jul?"
He is struck again. "Yeah well, I keep in shape and I help my clients stay fit. I can believe in that. It gives me that inner voice thing."
Felice hugs Julio. "What_Jul, what if you can't remember a thing that the inner voice ever said?"
Julio and Felice have seen each other three times a week for more than two years of fitness training. Felice is a lovely sexy wife who, proud of her husband, has created the perfect life at home for him. Her parties are just beautiful. They have a kind of close friendship — Julio, Felice — that only people who do physical workouts for hundreds of hours together can have. Julio does training with hubby Michael every week too.
Julio is trying to steady Felice on her feet. "Felice, whatever's breaking in Michael, it seems like something sure has gotten to you."
Felice looks at him. "You better believe it."
6. Michael Normandy & Assoc.
Michael and Julio are both in intense sweats from their physical routine. Michael, fit enough below the neck, was starting to have a face like Atlanta burning.
"Sort of an unstable period, right?" Julio asks.
"Unstable. Yes, you can say that."
"Thank you. So face it, tighten things up. It's not like you haven't made enough money to live on."
"Enough money, Jewels? Are you serious? How much is enough?"
"Hey I've got a friend, Mike," putting his sweaty hand on Mike's sweaty t-shirt-covered shoulder, "this guy would call that an eternal male question."
Michael: "Appetite. Enough's enough but if I don't have enough now then I'm going to keep on getting more 'til I do. Then I'll have enough. Then your caring questions will get better answers but for now, hey, I've got to function."
7. Felice's, several months later
"What have you been acting so happy for?"
"Jul, Jul, Jul, do you have to keep asking me that all the time?" They had been working out and she was headed for the refrigerator.
"Things are going fine, honey. Just relax. Michael's happy with his business now. You know Richard Stevens is coming to my party tonight."
"The answer is no, darling."
"No really. You could stay. You never stay." She grabs a handful of capsules out of a 'his' bottle in the fridge. Julio sees her ignore the 'hers' bottle but does nothing because he figures she knows what she's doing.
"In my blue and purple-striped shirt and skinny tie? No way Felice. I only wear this to keep your doormen civil.
"So you'll come then?"
Later, the guests arrived. Julio was still there. Michael sauntered up to him.
"So, champ, finally came to one of our parties."
"She begged."
"That's nothing new. Do you know any of these people?"
"I've been introducing myself."
"So what do you think."
"They're your friends."
"So?"
"Well, Denice the singer, I like her music. I saw her January at the Club Blue. I told her I wouldn't though."
"Take her as a client?"
"Yeah, and the other too. You know, sometimes you can tell its just the same thing for them: rent-a-hunk."
Michael laughs. "The story of your successful life. Saying no."
Julio frowns slightly. "I'll say yes to someone. I'm not celibate; I'm just waiting. And I'd rather it not be a client."
Michael puts his arm around Julio's shoulders affectionately and moves forward. "You never know, Jewels."
Richard Stevens comes around a glass-topped stone table, puts his hand out with a big smile. "Julio Esteban. I know you."
Julio's eyebrows rise slightly. "You do now."
Michael steps to the side between them, releasing his hold and evincing a slightly excessive and uncomfortable graciousness. "Well Jewels, this is Dick Stevens."
Julio smiles, "Well then I guess I know you too...everybody does."
"You do now."
Both men laugh.
Felice floats by on a cloud looking beautiful. Michael reaches out for her arm. "How ya doin angel."
"Feeling no pain." With a laughing smile and a slight drawl. "Feeling no pain." Mr. Stevens looks perturbed. Felice drifts away, her dress hem gently waving.
"You're a very successful man." This is Julio.
"I'll say," guffaws Michael, as at the same time, slowly and soberly, Mr. Stevens comes out with, "That's what many people say. You're not without a reputation yourself."
"Apparently, for you to know me. What's my rep?"
"White night fallen off his charger, stung by the unsolved case that hangs over him like a dark cloud. Moving up in the ranks the way you did, a superstar hispanic detective is bound get a rep. Get tired of what you're doing now, come see me. I'll give you a job in my security arm."
"Well thanks Dick. I'm always tired in a way but I'm not tired of what I'm doing."
"You tired?" Michael scoffs. "That's a laugh."
The whole room is startled by a loud crash as Felice's falling body scatters objects. Her limp frame is examined by more than one of the appalled doctors present and pronounced dead.
The detectives arrive, greet Julio who they know, and tell him he can leave but they'll call him. Before leaving, Julio checks the refrigerator and there are no 'his' and 'hers' bottles there.
8. Felice's funeral
Richard Stevens and his wife Titana Beth, to whom everyone referred to as Babe, came down the aisle of the memorial hall grief-stricken. Babe, as usual, defied comparison for beauty and varieties of elegant expressions. Of course they were grief-stricken; it was one of their very dear friends who had died and Dick was giving the memorial speech at Michael's request over the ashes in the glazed white urn. Julio sat and stewed.
Michael Normandy was without internal support, a crumpled and weak man. It seemed he would do anything to live as if Felice's memory could haunt him in a beautiful way. It seemed at the moment that his collapse had overridden the love of his life (Felice) so that only the collapse was evident to him.
On one side of Michael sat Babe gripping his hand. On the aisle side of Michael, down the middle of the hall, Dick was resplendent, ever the man of power. Michael sat between them like a hammock.
Julio thought something smelled rotten. Michael was a mess — too much of a mess for a husband tied to such a strange death as Felice's. What Julio didn't like was that those ashes were in that urn without his friend Ivan having had a chance to inspect some of Felice's blood for drugs. She could have been poisoned or poisoned herself, either deliberately or accidentally. Ivan had tried to get a look at her and was put in his place roughly.
Julio especially hated the part about the disappearing HIS & HERS vitamins. He had reported this to the police, but had been told that without probable cause there were no grounds to hold on to any part of the mortal remains. Just because it looked like the world's happiest heroin overdose was no reason to believe or suppose that an actual crime had been committed. That is what Dick's attorneys argued persuasively to New York City's justice officials, and no liquid remains, blood or tissue samples had been preserved to show any evidence of possible crime. Babe and Dick. Quite a show! They were in it at least up to their throats.
9. Richard Stevens' office
"Hey, uh, thanks for seeing me," mumbled Julio like a big lug. Richard Stevens smiled at him and started showing Julio some of what his daily physical workout looked like.
Dick told Julio: "You've got to live for the future. You're a valuable man. Anyone would give you some sort of job, but you're out there moping because of some fallen-angel whore you were in love with. A platonic relationship: no sex, no nookie or heavy kissing, just hugs and friendly cousin kisses. Who would have ever thought that someone with your capabilities could let themselves down so far, working for peanuts, physical-activity coaching the wealthy? Even my chauffeur thinks she can beat you up. Carlita is one tough Cuban. And she thinks she can whip your ass."
Julio said: "Tell her to drop by. I could use a good date. I just want to ask you some questions, Mr. Stevens. It would be purely a favor if you would consider answering some of them."
"Take your shot, Jewels."
"Have you ever believed that Felice was taking heroin or a morphine-based compound as a drug in her life."
"Well sure, it all depends on how you define morphine-based. But no, Felice was not taking heroin or any other known drug, as drugs are defined. Of course, I'm sure she has sniffed some lines at some point in her life."
"Okay_that was very ambiguously phrased," said Julio as he continued watching Dick perform strenuous floor exercises. "You see, I'm not real sure where I want to go on this. I'm not a cop anymore. Sure, I think like one but everybody knows that happens, just like your eyes keep looking like cop eyes to people who know. Maybe you can't answer my questions but you sure as hell can help me."
Dick stopped moving and allowed his sweat-surrounded eyes to look steadily at Julio. Dick's face had no expression.
"You know you can help me. I don't need a job and I don't need any little piece of your power. Your power is yours, man. But like you said, I've got a bug up my ass about the Angela thing, and the way Felice went down was just as dirty. These are people I love, were or are or whatever. Now I don't want you to take this wrong 'cause I'm nobody in your big time world but...you're in it. You know you can help me because you know what I need to know."
There was nothing for awhile as the silence just buzzed in the room. Richard looked down and then he looked up at Julio again.
"Ballsy macho man_I only help myself. You're right I can't give you answers to your questions. You don't even know where to begin thinking of what question to ask and you're a fitness guy now, not a cop. The thing is I do want to help you. I don't know why but my sense is that some good will come to me, if I just let you have your way. Friends can be enemies and enemies can treat you better than your friends do. Don't make to much of this."
Julio looks at Dick and is extremely shocked. "Yeah, I get it. Where do we start."
"You, my friend, are looking at two big holes in your schedule: Felice and Michael. Now don't scrunch up your face about Michael because I'm sure he hasn't told you yet that he's going out of town to a get-well farm I own. Go see him. Check it out, but he's only in town for another day. Now I want your time and my wife to get together. You saw Babe at the funeral."
"Yeah, and every major magazine."
"Well it's all her fault I'm opening up to you. We knew somebody once who spoke very well of you as a person, like you were some tough-love healing machine, you know? For the last two years, my wife's been after me to let her be one of your clients and I always told her no. You're an ex-cop and I'm a businessman with my share of secrets, and then some. So where we start is I'm changing my mind. Will you coach her?"
"Hey, where we start is where we start. Does she need to get in shape?"
"Babe's in better shape than I am."
10. formerly Felice's
Julio mused solemnly as he walked through the apartment, every inch of which screamed: somebody once lived here. Packed boxes, tied rugs, corners holding little congregations of lamps all testified to her missing presence. At the gaunt center of this assemblage, Michael stared downward by a doorway.
Michael noticed Julio but did not look up. "It's gone. It's gone. Gone or going."
"Not everything."
Michael flinched. "Oh yeah? I'm going."
"Felice is with you inside. There've been a lot of good memories here."
"Don't talk about it! Don't bring her up."
Michael gathers himself, folding his arms in towards his body and facing Julio. "So you and Dick buried the hatchet?"
"Yeah sure, right in each others heads. We seemed to get along. Maybe we're working together on something from opposite ends."
"So what do you think about his chauffeur?"
"Carlita? It's all an illusion. It's just a trick that she's the perfect girl for me 'cause if she's working for Dick Stevens she must be bad news."
"So is she downstairs?"
"Yeah. Since Dick seems to tell you everything, I guess he told you I've got my first appointment with Babe in a little over half an hour. I think he's letting me use Carlita so she can threaten to use her Thai kickboxing moves on me and break my cool."
Michael actually chuckles. "What cool? Godd--n, Julio, just because you're dependable and consistent doesn't make you slick. You wear your heart right under your sleeve, where everyone can see the lump and hear it beat. You're the wrong kind of man to be cool. You're too good. It comes off you like a smell. At Normandy & Associates, we wouldn't have been able to hire you."
"Past tense, Michael?"
"I'm selling it. That's another thing Dick set up, like this rest home for stress-bunnies I'm going to or the apartment being listed. He's arranged my godd--n life out from under me."
"I know there's stuff you're not telling me."
"What do you expect?"
"I don't know. Maybe you could throw me a clue. You know what I'm interested in."
Michael's face flinches. "You know sometimes Stevens looks like the perfect scapegoat for everything that's wrong in the world. Greedy, efficient bastard manages to get credit for everything, even kindness when he wants it to pump his bottom line. The man has problems, Julio." Michael gives Julio a slow, long stare and pauses. "He's a good man in spite of his twisted nature. He wouldn't godd--n be talking to you unless he wanted to get untwisted. The man has a sixth sense. He'd never let someone like you into his life unless he thought getting healthier, as a person, was a suitable goal for his bottom line the next few quarters. I don't know what game you two are starting to play together, but you will find out your answers for yourself. I'm just another victim of the success grinder and I'm not going to give you the secrets of my demise."
"Michael, why...? I mean, I dunno. Look, did you recommend me to Dick and Babe, or did Felice? Because someone did and I would like to know who."
"Jewels." Michael pats his cheek. "If it's a clue, take it. I was one of your first clients, right? When I mentioned you to Dick, he already knew who you were. It's like he told you that time you guys met here, Jewels: he knew who you were while you were still a cop."
11. Babe's penthouse spa
The wood-inlaid private elevator discharges Julio on a broad balcony overlooking an Olympic-size swimming pool spaciously enclosed by glass. Whatever impression of money was made, what struck Julio was that the huge glass panels were clean. He reflected on the fearlessness of the team that must clean them.
"Oh, hi." Babe's wet gorgeous face called out from the pool below. Julio headed down the wide staircase as Babe slipped beneath the water again. Cavorting with her in the pool was a lithe black woman who, as the two dripping figures emerged laughing from the water, appeared to be the well-known designer Trish Kelly.
Towel to hair, Babe waved at Julio and said to Trish, "So you'll make the fleur de lis smaller on the fabric, won't you?"
"You're right, it's too overgrown without more negative space. I'll have Powell run drawings over to you tomorrow. Who's your handsome friend?"
"Julio. He is going to get me in better shape."
Trish laughs into her hand and Babe, standing in perfect awareness of her beautiful wet muscles says, "Don't laugh. I believe in progress."
Trish asks Julio to turn around, changes her clothes and leaves with a kiss on Babe's cheek and a glad-to-have-met-you for Julio.
The equipment room Babe walked Julio into had free weights. "Richard shares this with me. That room in there has mats for his karate and stuff. Then down that hall are changing rooms, the sauna, jacuzzi and a massage table. What do you think?"
"Very nice. You guys don't waste your money. Do you have training logs for your weightlifting?"
"You betcha."
Julio settles down on a reclining exercise bike and studies the numbers in the logs, as Babe curls a 40-pound dumbbell. Julio looks up. "Don't show off. Put that thing down for now. Looks like you're doing everything right here. How about your body measurements?" Babe shows him where the charts of changes over time were in the logs. "OK. Do you log your cardiovascular schedule?" Babe shows him where those pages are.
Julio stares at Babe. "You are a 100% physically-fit woman. What do you want me for?"
"There's more to it."
"More to what?" Julio flips through the logs as if searching, but he knows she means something else.
"My mind is a mess and I want you to hook it up to my body better."
"I'm not a psychiatrist."
"Do you know what psychiatrists are like?"
"Knew one once, friend of a friend. Then there are the police force shrinks."
"Ever been to one?"
"I went to this guy's office a couple times. My friend who was seeing him wanted me to come to her sessions with her so I could tell her to get to the point with the guy."
Babe gets serious. "Best friend?"
Julio is remote. "Very best."
"So what was her point?"
Julio's eyes were very still. "She couldn't accept the evil in this world. Or don't call it evil, just call it the bad things. She thought if she loved enough it could make the bad things go away."
"Love who?"
"You name it. God she loved everybody, physically, emotionally. I told her if you're gonna love everything that means loving the bad things you hate too, facing them, accepting them for what they are so you can deal with them. 'Cause if they're inside of you, you're gonna have to let go of them to be well. And that means knowing them, holding them, caring, getting them out and then letting go."
Babe inhales before speaking. "And what did her psychiatrist say?"
"Poor man. You know he really wanted to help. He was a great thinker. Could think circles around anything. But sometimes that's just a good way to avoid the heart of things. He used to stare at me. When she died he fell apart, started pushing drugs."
Babe straightens her back and lifts her chin. "In other words, he was impotent. All his objectivity could only be used to help your friend, his patient, help herself. But she was too mixed up to help herself, even though she only went to him because something was eating her and she knew she needed to change. Am I right so far?"
Julio is shaking his head side-to-side slightly. "Right on."
"I've been to twelve psychiatrists, all for over a year. A little less than half my life I've been to psychiatrists. They all want to help and I know there are things in me I've got to change. But I can't get out of my problems and they can't get me out of my problems, because all they're good for is to help me do it. So it's just a tease. Here Babe! Get well! You can do it."
Julio, having already put the training logs aside, stands up and walks over to Babe's bench. He puts his hands on her shoulders and says, "Life is such a mess."
Babe is quiet, stares ahead and whispers: "We lead lives out of control." Babe looks up at Julio. "All of us, really." She shakes her head and a teardrop almost comes out. "The whole big picture, it has control in it, you can have some control, but the whole thing is so out of control."
Julio sits on the mat beside Babe, inhales, looks at her and says: "All of it. That's why it's all up to us, to try to control our own lives while we're being bombarded all the time. If you believe in God it helps," Julio shrugs, "but chaos rules this world of ours."
"Who was your best friend?"
They stare at each other for awhile. "Listen Babe, if I tell you her name you must never profane it. I'll tell you. You could find out anyway. Her name was Angela and she was my angel."
"I know."
"You read the papers back then?"
"Angela used to talk about you all the time. Richard and I heard of you before she even died that way. You seem to be everything she said you were."
Julio is pretty much stunned.
Babe continues, "So see, we were customers of hers. Together, I mean. What was she to you?"
Julio: "An angel of light. My own little piece of kingdom come. She was a mess. I wasn't her lover; I was her cop. I kept track of her. Got information from her. Watched over her. You know what she was like." Babe now is stunned as she listens to Julio continue his description. "Did she tell you we never slept together?" Babe nods. "God, who cared about sleeping with her? She was just so lovely."
Babe: "We cared. We cared very much about sleeping with her. Some of the happiest moments of Richard's and my marriage were in the bedroom with Angela. She had a power I've never known. She could love_so fully. Sure it was indiscriminate but that's part of why Angela was a whore. She helped me before and now she's why I'm talking to you."
Julio asks Babe point-blank: "When is a drug not a drug?"
Babe just looks at him laughing in a sweet way. "Ask your psychiatrist, and take me along. Dr. Leonard Stein. I know him. He knows his drugs."
Julio stares and asks: "Do you have his number?"
Babe stares back and answers: "I knew him from Angela too. Sure, I've kept up with him. Do you still have his number?"
"He says I'm one of the only people he give's it to. He says major drug dealers can't afford to have their beepers go off too much. It hurts prestige."
"Hey, Lenny is a man of prestige. A very dangerous man. He's got a big death wish though. Anyway, let's call him together, and you see if he answers your question." She picks up the phone and looks at Julio.
He steps forward and presses the first three-digits of the number, looks at Babe, she presses one number, then he does. Each of them presses one number again to complete the call. At the beeper signal, Babe takes the phone, presses the numbers for her phone, hangs up and waits for the phone to ring. As Babe times this on her stopwatch/wristwatch, Julio notices that it would be almost impossible to figure out who made her watch. Julio looks into space.
Julio: "Babe. How long do you think he will be?"
Babe: "Three minutes probably. He says he needs time to come before he can return my calls."
Julio blushes and Babe laughs delightedly. "Oh look at you. You lovely man."
Finally, the phone rings. Babe, answering, asks: "Guess who I have with me?" She pauses. "Here, let me put him on."
Julio: "Hi Lenny. Babe here seems to know you. Can we see you? I need to ask you a question."
Lenny, on the other end of the phone: "Does it involve criminal activities?"
"No, it's purely scientific_abstract. See me and I'll explain."
"You know the loading dock in my old office building. 8:00 tonight, I'll arrange it. Tell Babe to do herself and let me watch."
12. the loading dock of Dr. Leonard Stein's old office building
Julio looks at Babe as they turn a 57th Street corner. "You know, you got me into this."
Babe looks back at Julio and shrugs. "It was your question, bro."
They see two shapes down the block, lounging outside of the loading dock entrance. Julio and Babe walk by them into the loading dock. Julio turns to one and says: "Hi, Roadie." Babe squeezes the other, chuckling: "Remember me, Beenie?"
Julio and Babe look at each other and walk up onto the loading dock. They walk up a short flight of stairs leading to a little mini-office, which has a window looking out on the rest of the loading dock.
Beside the mini-office there is a landing where crates are stacked along the side wall, away from the loading bay. Babe and Julio cross this. Inside the mini-office, seated in a swivel chair, looking out the window, is Lenny Stein.
Lenny: "I can't believe I'm seeing you here together."
Babe says: "Nice hello, Bozo." She sits on the floor, leaning against the open door of the mini-office. Babe sets her purse on the floor beside her.
Lenny: "Sure, Babe. Reassure me. I shouldn't be seeing you. How did you guys get together. This was even the last place if I was in my right mind that I'd arrange a meeting with you bums."
Babe pouts. "Richard finally let me see the guy. He was all bent out of shape by a friend of his dying. It reminded him of Angela."
Lenny taps the arm of his chair and says to Julio, "Purely scientific and abstract you said. I'm getting out of here. This place gives me the creeps and you two shouldn't be together. Ask fast and then we can all talk on the phone later. It's safer."
Julio: "People trying to kill you, Lenny?"
Lenny: "That was not your question but the answer is — sure, what else is new? Ask your question fast."
Julio: "When is a drug not a drug?"
Lenny stomps his foot, stands out of his chair and sits back down. Julio had sat in a folding chair, against the wall behind the swivel chair, when he and Babe had entered the room. Lenny swivels to face Julio and then closes his eyes.
Lenny: "It was a mistake for me to see you. I shouldn't have come here and you two shouldn't have gotten together. Julio, my friend, Babe is real bad news. She can answer your question. I'm very sorry that I know the answer to the question myself. Drugs will eat you alive. It's not the drugs; it's the mental poison that naturally enters your body when drugs have their way with you. I've been dying for a long time now. You see, when you kiss a poison angel, you take its poison in your body. If you're strong, you live. If you're weak, you die. I am only half a man."
As Dr. Stein said this, looking right at Julio, half of his head came off in the explosion of a shotgun blast that penetrated the window of his mini-office.
Julio grabs the dead man's gun from where Lenny had been keeping it and darts out of the door to take cover between stacks of crates.
A fusillade of automatic fire and repeated shotgun blasts puts a bullet into Babe's lower abdomen and topples crates down onto Julio's legs, breaking the bones in his calves, pinning him down and sending Lenny's gun skidding.
Babe is in extreme pain and, groaning, says: "My purse, Julius. Hand me my purse."
Julio's arms can reach the mini-office door, although Lenny's gun is too far away for him to stretch. He passes the purse to her in the office, but he cannot see much of her body. Julio tries to curl up in order to make a smaller target for all the flying bullets, which are still filling the loading dock with noise.
Babe hurls her rolling body out of the mini-office door, reaching Lenny's gun and grabbing it. Lying down, facing the unknown gunmen, Babe kills them both with well-placed bullets.
13. a room in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
Julio's eyes opened to inspect a dark-haired beauty. Her mahogany eyes stared at him gently. Strong cheekbones and a finely delineated jaw surrounded a thin upper lip, a sultry lower lip and a nose which looked perfect on her although it had been broken several times. A murmur of a healed gash beside her right eye put the final touch on her 5'7" slender muscular frame. Dick Stevens was speaking to Babe, who lay stretched out in a bed about four feet away: "They made a fuss about moving you here, but I paid for this wing and it's time to collect."
Julio's watcher said softly, "Hombre," then she turned and spoke to Dick: "Julio is here." Looking back at Julio's face, she said: "Those pain killers, they really put you out."
The door to the room opened the barest crack and Julio felt as if he had fallen into some different state where all of time was in slow-motion. Carlita. Julio realized this was Carlita, Dick Stevens' chauffeur. She was so beautiful. Carlita so beautiful. Her head had moved the barest fraction, and the creak of the opening door was just starting to be audible. Just as the entering party's head became visible, Dick looked back at Carlita with a glance signifying that everything was all right. And as soon as the door closed behind the entering Dr. Wits, "Head" of the Hospital, Carlita calmed down.
Suddenly Julio felt cast out upon regular time as events resumed their everyday speeds.
Dr. Wits was talking: "So you'll both be out of here in a week. You've both had your surgeries. Fine. No complications. Babe, we discussed that you will no longer be able to bear children. You might want to reach out for some solid psychological help during this period. The scar tissue will hurt you somewhat. It may feel like it's restricting you, but you can stretch out the scar tissue over time. Don't do any physical workouts for one month, and then no swimming or immersion baths until 6 weeks from now. We don't want those sutures getting wet. As for you Julio, you owe Mr. Stevens' genius a debt that you'll be using to walk for the rest of your life. The two bones in each of your calves were knitted together and reinforced by custom-fitted metal rods from BioStyles. You'll have to use crutches for about 4 months. If you do well with that, you can switch to leg braces for another 6 months. There'll be pain the whole time. When you use your legs for 4 hours in a day, there'll be swelling, and you'll want to have canes ready at hand. No running please for at least a year because it is such a weight-bearing form of exercise. You can ski if you like after 6 months, as long as you keep your braces on. You'll need some physical therapy for ankle and calf tightness caused by not walking. In a year, you should be almost as good as new. So, you two are doing great. We'll have you both out of here in a week. Any questions?"
14. the same room
Denice Hardy poked her bobbed hairdo into the same room and enunciated, entering: "Hi, it's visiting hours. I brought some friends of yours. But we're only allowed in two at a time, so here's the Mayor_anyway. Don't worry," by now she is in and kisses Babe on the cheek, "we kept it down to only eight of us in all, if you include Dick's driver girl."
"Hi, Babe." The Mayor jabbed his hand out, froze it and pulled it back with a palsied shrug. "Well, I don't know_is it alright?"
"Hi, Mayor." Babe grabbed his hand and shook it. "Good to see you. Sorry we can't offer better hospitality." She looked over and smiled at Julio, then looked back at Denice and the Mayor, placing her hands at her sides and pushing herself up in the bed slightly.
Denice: "Well, we were so moved_"
The Mayor: "Moved, yes."
Denice: "_by what happened to you. The destruction. So random."
The Mayor: "Disgraceful."
Denice: "And we didn't know, of course, if you felt like seeing anybody, but it's always the time for friends, isn't it?"
The Mayor, warmly: "Good friends."
Denice: "So we didn't know if we should come, you know, with what happened to you and all." She speaks more slowly. "But we just had to come."
The Mayor, nodding, solemn: "We had to come."
Denice starts shaking her head, looking at Babe and crying. "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. This is so much harder than playing a stadium even_Are you alright?" Denice looks up at Babe with big puppy-dog eyes, tearful and trying to smile.
Babe strokes Denice's hair gently: "Aw, you know I bounce back. This is not the worst thing that ever happened to me. So maybe I have to earn a little bit more of that reputation I have for being tough."
Denice stands very straight, collects herself and then composes herself into a grieving nun posture. "Not to ever be able to have children_They shot your biological clock." Her face is very flushed.
"Sweet Denice. You were always so good at showing emotion. I love your new tune: When I Look at You. I hear it's at number eight right now." Denice nods seriously, not breaking from her mournful, erect character. "Now girlfriend, you know Dick and I could never be responsible parents anyway_"
Denice: "You two are such wonderful people."
Babe: "_We have too many problems of our own."
Denice, hyperventilating a little: "You're the best friends I've ever had."
The Mayor wraps a consoling arm around Denice's shoulders and says to Babe, "You know, if you ever need anything_" He looks over at Julio. "You too, Officer."
Babe: "I'll know who to call." And she looks quickly over to Julio, who is looking surprised.
Julio: "Respectfully, sir, I'm an ex-officer."
The Mayor, nodding a little: "Only 'cause you choose to be, lad. You're still New York's finest, even if you did let the little lady grab the glory on this one."
Denice, subdued: "Yeah, Babe, I'm glad you got the guys."
Julio looks a little amazed by all this.
Babe: "It was either get out or get killed, and those guys' bullets were in the way. Killing people's really disgusting, though. I don't like it."
The Mayor takes a step to put a hand on Babe's shoulder, removes it and steps back. "I feel for you. You're quite a lady. There's no need to make virtue out of necessity here but even frontier justice smacks of a little primitive satisfaction."
Denice, smiling again: "He's saying he's glad you got the guys too." The Mayor begins to shake his head but Denice smiles at him, flirting. She looks back at Babe and bounces slightly on her feet, still smiling: "We should go."
The Mayor and Denice are now holding hands and looking around the room, starting to move away.
The Mayor: "Hammer O'Malley will close up the paperwork on this one once you're both feeling up to it. Detective Esteban can vouch for him, Babe. The Hammer'll handle this like a real pussycat. Thank God you fine people survived. Bye bye now." He steps out.
Denice: "Bye now." With only her shoulders and bobbed hairdo sticking through the door, she curves her hand through the air in a perky goodbye and lets the door close.
Babe and Julio look at each other suppressing laughter.
The door opens and closes quickly leaving a handsome black man in the same room. His leather suit bears an impeccably conservative cut and his open, white silk shirt has nearly invisible TJ's woven into the fabric. This is Tommy J.
Tommy: "So, the uptight folks have you laughing?"
Babe: "Tommy, howya don'?"
Tommy winces. "Tsk tsk tsk. You shouldn't be getting yourself shot at." He gives her a gentle, warm hug. "I may be new in your life but I know right from wrong. Ventilating yourself with bullets is a bad idea."
Babe looks up in the air, holds the top of her sheet in both hands and looks down at it. "Yeah, yeah. Mr. Know-it-all. You're right."
Julio hasn't figured this whole scene out yet.
Tommy: "You are my friend. I have a nose for this and I know when people like to get themselves into dangerous situations. You know what I'm talking about. We've both seen it before, the whole play, too many times."
"Right. End of lecture?"
Tommy holds his finger in the air. "I value you, Babe. You are a person with a whole lot of value and you have a responsibility not to waste it. End of lecture."
"Give me that cheek to kiss." She hugs him, kisses his cheek sincerely and then pats it with a hard slap. "Sweetie." She looks over at Julio. "A man with a song at number one thinks he's right about everything."
"That's right." Tommy looks over at Julio and makes a bitter face at him as a joke. "And you, you lucky hound. I saw Carlita up there. She's all knocked up with the love virus by you."
Julio shakes his head, clearing it, reaches out his hand and shakes hello with Tommy J. as he says: "That can't be right, Tommy."
Tommy puts his finger up on his nose as Babe breaks in: "Julio, Tommy's had a crush on Carlita since first sight."
Tommy makes a miserable clown face.
Julio: "Am I dealing with a jealous man?"
Tommy: "Yes, you are, at that. That hard-hearted, hard-luck woman would be perfect for me but I never saw her melt 'til out there in the visitor's lounge. She was going through so much emotion that she was the only one looking at the television set. To hide it."
Julio ruffles his hair, shakes his head some more and gives Tommy a sober look. "I don't know what the deal is with me and Carlita. I hate things that seem perfect and you don't know anything about them. Unsafe. If we fall in love I'll tell ya'."
"Do more than that, hounddog. You can make me your best man."
Julio thinks. "Sure. Yeah. You've got a deal."
Tommy: "And I'm not even getting on your case for dancing along with Babe into the bullet-zone." He holds up his hands. "Rule number one: you two stay out of trouble. Rule number two: call me when you get in trouble, suckers. You two don't seem like you're finished with hard times." He blows a kiss at Babe and points his finger at Julio. "We've got a deal."
Julio nods as Tommy J. is out the door and Babe laughs: "He is such a smart-ass."
"He's right."
Babe makes a point of looking straight in the eyes: "He's a money friend. He's one of the few people who made more money than we did last month. People like him come to Dick for some reason and he helps them place their money. That's how Dick ran into Michael, shopping around for money managers for all our new-found newly-flush friends. Yeah, but Tommy's right and he's such a dear. Give him ten years being rich and see if he stays right about everything."
The middle of this is Missing In Action
final chapter #. JFK
Outside the airport but approaching it, major construction is going on. Julio and Dick are running across a field, between airport roads, and Dick starts running backwards, facing Julio and yelling: "I know a short cut through these buildings. I should know. I'm the guy who's building them." Dick takes off towards the construction site at an incredible run. Julio, still running, looks up at the exposed girders and boards and mutters: "Buildings? He calls those buildings?:" Julio shakes his head, sighs, and takes off after Dick going fast.
An 18 foot fence comes up surrounding the construction. Dick climbs over; Julio, following right behind, does too. Strange lights cast harsh shadows as Dick disappears through a huge metal archway that's half-built. Running through, Julio sees that he's coming up to an excavated garage-area drop, and he gets ready to jump.
Julio jumps and, while he's in the air, Dick comes out of hiding between his legs. Dick had been crouched under the rim of the lower garage, holding a large wooden beam. It is this thick beam which is coming up, like a huge paddle, right between Julio's legs. Julio manages to rest the weight of his hands and wrists on the end of the beam (which being so big is not going incredibly fast). Julio leans in and somersaults over it. He gets up quickly, only a little stunned.
Julio looks around and doesn't particularly see anything. He hears a laugh and looks up to see Dick, who is back up at ground level, loosening a tied-up metal girder suspended by a cable. As Dick releases it, Julio turns his body around and it is coming spinning at him.
Bravely facing the oncoming girder, Julio is muttering to himself, "Over or under? Over or under?" At the last moment he opts for under and survives the girder's first pass. By the time it begins its second downward sweep, Julio has gotten up and is scrambling up to the elevation Dick just ran away from. Dick yells, "I'm going to make it to that plane."
Dick has just reached a caged red metal elevator that goes up, as Julio climbs up the red supporting frame after it. Dick reaches the top, gets out, and sends the elevator down quickly towards Julio. Julio looks up, sees it coming, grabs hard on the thin red metal bars he is holding, heaves his body upward, elegantly and simply opening his arms and legs wide; Julio is suspended in the air as the elevator runs by. Now, Julio reaches in front, grabbing back onto the thin red metal bars with his hands and feet and hanging on tight.
Julio comes up over the top and sees Dick running across a patch of runway that approaches into an enclosed area on the construction site. Dick lets Julio catch up with him and hits Julio with a direct left roundhouse punch to the face. Falling, Julio manages to get enough push off his back leg to land a vicious heel kick with his front falling leg on Dick's shin. A crack is heard. Julio really lands on his ass and is stunned. Dick limps furiously away, going over another 18 foot fence. Julio recovers and goes over it after him.
Now, Dick runs into the airport itself, overcoming the pain in his shin. As he runs down the 2nd front corridor, in front of the exits, a line of schoolchildren completely blocks Dick's path. Not slowing down, Dick sees that it is only a line about three kids deep. Not slowing down, Dick makes a spectacular jump over the kids' heads. Coming up behind Dick, Julio slows down and says in a big firm voice, "Excuse me. Pay attention. Please move to the sides." Having slowed down, Julio trots through the line of kids, one of whom looks up at his passing figure and asks: "Are you Superman?"
After dodging through some halls and stairways, with Dick way ahead, Julio comes out into the general area outside near Dick's plane and hears a man shout: "You bastard. I'll kill you! She'd still be alive if it wasn't for you." Michael is threatening Dick with a shotgun, and herds him towards the hangar that his plane has already left empty.
Julio is not too far behind them. Inside, Michael is sobbing, "Don't stop me Julio. Felice. She'd still be alive except for him. Let me kill him. Let me kill him."
"You can't." Michael looks at Julio, who continues, "You're not the right kind of man, Michael. You're not a murderer."
Michael and Julio look at each other. Dick doesn't move. Michael hunches slightly. "Slide the gun away, Michael. Slide it away."
"God what have I done?" Michael slides the gun away and sits down, collapsing in sorrow.
"Richard Stevens," Julio spoke slowly walking towards him, "you are under arrest for violations of the Federal Tax Code. These are criminal offenses. You have the following rights..." Julio cuffs him and tells Dick to lie down.
O'Malley shows up meanwhile on a paraplegic-adjusted 3-wheel road vehicle; other cops walk in behind him. O'Malley scoots over to where Michael slid the shotgun and picks it up. Julio and O'Malley smile at each other.
THE END
© 1990 Philip Merrill all rights reserved
Philip Merrill |