The Sound of Building Coffins

“You sucker-punched me, boy. Can’t let you get away with that.”

Willie wound back for a final swing, a swollen right fist connecting directly to the center of the Christ Kid’s unguarded chest. Unprepared for the blow, the Christ Kid dropped like a sack of bricks, flat on his back, his head hitting hard to canvas. The Kid let out a gasp and a cough, then a fountain of thick phlegm and blood shot upwards into the air.

“Goddamn it, I said stop this fucking fight!” The Irish cop’s cheeks were reddening rapidly.

An ungodly shriek pierced the air. Reilly’s head turned to the source:

“Scriminee-HEE-HEE-HEEEEE! That’s my partner! Dropsy, get up!”

It was Ratboy, jumping to his feet and charging towards the ring. The little white kid jumped under the first rope and slid to the side of the Christ Kid, pulling off his own rat-bloodied shirt to tuck under the Kid’s head for a pillow.

“Dropsy! Dropsy, say something!”

The Christ Kid looked into the eyes of the Ratboy, gave a little smile, said, “I’m hurt bad, Jim. Where’s that doctor?” His eyes went cloudy and rolled to white.

“DOCTOR!!” shrieked Ratboy. “They done kilt him! They kilt my best partner Dropsy!”

A paunchy man with a stethoscope dangling from his neck ducked beneath the ropes and climbed onto the canvas. “Now, boy, stand aside. I’m sure ol’ Dropsy’s just got the wind knocked out of him.”

Ratboy edged aside, refusing to let go the boxer’s swollen hand.

Cops wrestled with distressed bettors; some fighting like wild animals, others offering only nervous smiles and futile negotiations. The big Irishman stood near the ring: “He gonna be okay, Doc?”

The Christ Kid’s eyes, no longer purely white, stared upwards. His lips sputtered no more, and Reilly noted odd-shaped ovals of blood adorning the canvas around his head.

“Well, Officer, what we have here is an accidental death,” said the man with the stethoscope.

“Death?” The cop: Incredulous, eyes wide.

“Yessuh. Deader ’n fried chicken, I’m afraid.”

Ratboy shrieked.

The Irishman’s eyes narrowed. “Well, doc, what we have here is manslaughter.” Then, turning from the ring with his loudest authoritarian voice: “Bad news, you surly bunch of law-breakin’ sons o’jackals! Your ‘illegal gambling’ charge just got upgraded to ‘accomplice to manslaughter.’ That’d be a felony in the great state of Louisiana, so the first of you to make a move for the door gets a bullet in the back. Do not doubt my sincerity in this matter.”

Holy shit on a shingle, thought Reilly, rapidly calculating the odds of his own awful luck.

The New Yorker edged his way up to the Irish cop-in-charge, fine-tuning in his mind a burgeoning angle.

“Officer, may I have a word?”

“Stand aside, scum.” The scowl of the Irishman brought Reilly a chill.

Needfully persistent, Reilly flashed his most winning faro-smile; “Officer, I’m a businessman from New York, and I have a train to catch in thirty minutes. I assure you that I was brought here under false pretenses by a tour guide whom I’ve only just met. I had no idea-”

“New York, eh?” The cop was smiling.

“Yes, sir,” Reilly offered hopefully. There were lots of Irish families in New York; maybe this cop was from one.

The cop sent a backhanded smack across Reilly’s prickly cheek, throwing him backwards into the arms of a second, conveniently located police officer.

“Listen, you high-brow Yankee dirt bag. Your big city bullshit don’t wash with the Louisiana law. What’s your name?”

Reilly saw another card to be played and went for it, “Eugene Reilly, officer. Of Irish decent just like yourself. How about giving an Irish brother a break?” Reilly gave his faro-smile another workout. “Whaddaya say, Captain?”

“Well, Mr. Eugene Reilly of Yankee nativity and Irish descent, I will make a note of just who and what you are. We have special fun with Yankees down the precinct, but I’ll make sure the boys leave a bone or two unbroken on account of your fine Irish bloodline.”

“But Officer, I’m certain we can work something out if you would only…”

Reilly’s pleas were interrupted by renewed commotion near the front door. A group of desperate gamblers had tried to smash the padlock with a crowbar smuggled from behind the bar. A corresponding group of beefy men in uniform responded with corresponding brutality.

“Stand against the bar, Reilly!” The big Irishman grabbed Reilly by the back of the neck and shoved him towards the bar. Fearing another blow, Reilly meekly complied. This was clearly not a good time to explore further negotiations. Perhaps at the jailhouse, after temperaments had a chance to cool. There was nothing Reilly could do now-except stand with his back to the bar as the pathetic black circus of his life unraveled around him.

Suddenly a new distraction presented itself-this time from within the ring. Reilly stared in weak amusement as Ratboy chased Windmill Willie around the ring in a surreal blur-waving his ratkilling stick and shrieking gibberish like a wounded hog. The big man and the skinny boy somehow managed to avoid trampling the corpse of the Christ Kid in the course of the wild chase, Willie bellowing threats at the boy but fleeing just the same. The thin lips of the Christ Kid seemed to curve at the edges-most likely a trick of the light, Reilly deducted-or perhaps a minute muscle contraction related to the dying process. Either way, this image of smiling death made the tiny hairs at the back of his neck bristle and stand. Reilly practically jumped out of his skin when a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind. He turned to look.

Stiffy Lacoume stood behind the bar with eyes wide and finger to lips. Before Reilly could think to question, the old Cajun displayed surprising strength and agility by yanking all two hundred pounds of the New Yorker over the bar top and onto the sticky concrete floor behind. The two men crouched alone on all fours as the room beyond exploded into a new wave of violence, Reilly’s disappearance going unnoticed.

“If you want to get out of this mess, you’ll keep your mouth shut and follow me,” said the Cajun. Reilly quickly nodded. Stiffy wasted no time, turning around and crawling towards the deep end of the back of the bar Reilly followed Stiffy’s sizable backside, glimpsing salvation in its frantic waddle.

The bellow of Crawfish Bob rose above the din, “He got ’em, goddammny! Ratboy done got Willie! Got ’im with that naily stick o’ his! Now we got ourselves two bodies!” Bob’s excited tone was a weird mixture of horror and amusement.

“Holy Christ almighty!” Reilly yelped.

“Quiet, damn ya!” Stiffy scolded.

Reilly looked up to see Stiffy fiddling with a section of wall near the back end of the bar. Miraculously, a rectangle measuring approximately two and a half feet wide by three feet high came loose in the Cajun’s hands. Stiffy shoved the rectangle outside and bounded out and after it. Reilly followed fast.

Once they were both safely in the comparative cool of the alley outside, Stiffy reattached the rectangle, got to his feet and brushed himself off.

“I devised that escape route for in just such a case,” said the Cajun, with no small amount of pride.

“You’re a genius,” Reilly exclaimed in genuine awe. “Now what?”

“Now what?” Stiffy grinned. “Now ya git gone, sunnyjim. Catch the next train north. You done made a big impression on that mick copper.” He took a deep breath before amending, “No offense meant by that, my Irish friend.” Continuing, sans grin, “Good chance he’ll notice yer gone once the dust settles. Git yerself to that train station and keep low about it. Cops might try’n nab you there since you were dumb enough to mention yer travelin’ by train. So be careful, palley. Goodbye, and good luck.”