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"This was a bomb."
"That don't bother me. They'll throw a pipe bomb in the house. You've seen it done. They can make a pipe bomb, they can make any kind.
What's the difference?"
"What's Do
"Somebody wired the wrong car."
"He tell you that with a straight face?"
"Why couldn't it happen?"
"Wendell, the guy'd have to come to the wrong house first. Look at it.
With the fucking lions sitting out in front.
A guy's go
Wendell, hands in his pockets, stared at the house.
The front door was closed now. He said, "Or, Do
"Maybe Jerry could," Chris said.
"I'd want to take a little more time myself. But where's Do
Wendell was nodding, resigned.
"I suppose."
Chris looked at the house again, wondering what they were doing in there, right now. He said to Wendell, "How come Mark went to get the peanuts, not Do
"Do
"What if Woody had his own car wired," Chris said, "and sent Mark out to get the peanuts?"
"He couldn't have, he didn't know Mark was there.
The man doesn't seem to know much of anything. Eyes all watery like a skid-row burnout."
"Psychosocially debilitated," Chris said.
"I like that," Wendell said, "I'll put that down. I talk to him, here's his brother blown to shit just a while ago, the man hardly seems to realize it. I don't mean 'cause he's in shock, either. Man has a wet brain."
Chris was looking at the house again.
"What if it was Do
"I'm go
"I'll tell them on the third floor I interrogated you and found you psycho socially debilitated, couldn't think of nothing but peanuts.
How's that sound?"
Chris was still looking at the house. He nodded and said, "Planters Peanuts, in the blue can." wW hat the man liked to do for his nap time, couple of hours before di
"Do
Do
Say to Cochise, "What's it remind you of?" Cochise would see it, sure, like the pig cartoons used to be in The Black Panther. Pigs squealing, a big black fist holding them up by the tail. Pigs hanging from a tree, lynch ropes around their necks. Pig in a cop uniform sweating bullets, going "Oink," a brother holding a pistol in the pig's face.
It was Cochise Patterson had brought him into the Panthers, Cochise telling him the basic tool of liberation was the gun. Cochise reading to him from the minister of defense, Huey P. Newton: "Army.45 will stop all jive. A357 will win us heaven." It was all to do with the gun and it was cool. Justify packing. Have a reason. For only with the power of the gun could the black masses halt the bullshit terror and brutality perpetrated against them by the jive racist power structure. Cochise telling him they would never stop till they had destroyed and committed destruction on capitalism.
Except Cochise was back in the slam doing fifteen to twenty-five, saying fuck it and reading comic books. Some had learned, some had come around and joined the other side. Look at Eldridge Cleaver, the most famous Panther of all. After ru
Being called a "world-record-breaking belly crawler" didn't seem to bother him one little bit.
Do
"Mr. Woody," Do
The man floated in the steam mist with his eyes closed, hands trailing in the warm water. What would he be thinking, his head all fucked up from booze? What would he see in there? Sights maybe from a long time ago still clear, but the recent shit gone, not having made a good impression in his mind. What had the man done lately that was worth remembering?
"Mr. Woody?"
"What?" Eyes still closed.
"You thought about supper?"
The man worked his mouth like he was getting a bad taste out of it, but no words came from him.
Do
"Ain't that your tummy I hear growling?"
No answer.
"You upset about your brother, huh?"
No answer. The man was asleep or didn't know what he was talking about. What brother?
"You go
How's that sound?"
No answer.
Call the Chinaman, pick up a load of chicken lo mein and pile the shit on a di
"You have a funeral parlor you want to use?… I'll look up see who did your mama. Don't you worry about it.
I'll take care of everything."
Do
Thelma would find the key and smile as she wrapped chords around a voice doing maybe "Green Dolphin Street" like they'd worked together forever.
Do
Juicy was a Pony Down ru