him, and then suggested where in our growing crowd they should take their places, Julius Caesar deploying his Legionnaires.
Now Spider and the Stagger Bay Fog Choppers roared up on their hogs and parked their Harleys in a neat row on our side of the avenue. Big Moe beckoned to them, but Spider just grinned and thumbed his nose at him.
Spider and his Fog Choppers swaggered over to stand with me and Sam. I still owed Spider for that pool debt but the old biker still didn’t seem overly concerned. Fat chance I’d be able to chase these obnoxious scooter tramps away from underfoot, it looked like they were stuck with me.
A white bus pulled up, with ‘Stagger Bay Lutheran’ painted on the side. Several dozen men filed out and made a beeline my way through the crowd, smiling like they knew me. And they did: I recognized them from that day at the Plaza; they were the fathers of the children I’d saved at the school.
They murmured greetings as they formed ranks right in front of the 18th Street Crips, facing the other side of the avenue like they’d die before anything got past them. We’d earned each other, I suppose.
People kept joining our group, or adding to the other, until every vehicle was empty, and every person there had made their position clear. To my surprise, the people standing with the Gardens now vastly outnumbered those who’d come to destroy them; with friendly additions our group was easily twice the size of our enemies’ force.
I was humbled and awed. The people of Stagger Bay had finally risen up.
I’d been arrogant: throughout this whole affair I’d thought I was fighting some lone-wolf battle. I thought it was me against the world, me against Stagger Bay. But I’d been wrong; been guilty of vanity and pride.
I’d never been alone all along – I’d been only one of many.
I was gulping for air and it hurt to breathe; my chest and throat were tight. My lower lip waggled around like it wanted to put my upper lip in a submission hold from beneath, but I did my best to hide it and I’m sure none of them saw.
Down the avenue, about fifty yards away in the direction of the swamp and the Hospital, I saw Leo standing there with his rolled-up sleeping bag hanging from one shoulder by a knotted rope sling. He looked at us all mopey and hangdog, unmoving.
“Leo, come here,” I called out to him, beckoning. “Come over here and stand with me, Leo.”
But he just turned around and walked away down the trail and out of sight – the same trail I used the night I’d reeled into these people’s lives.
A steady stream of catcalls still came from our out-numbered foes, but the silence on our side of the avenue was as ominous as it was eerie. Amongst my folk, there was an occasional cough, or someone stamping their feet in the growing chill – but there were no insults or threats from our team.
I wondered what kept our enemies standing there so obviously outnumbered. I looked at the faces of our foes, recognizing a lot of them, realizing how many of them were staring at me and singling me out from the crowd. My one-time barber Bill kind of stood out to my eye; from the expression he kept aiming my way I supposed any civic gratitude he felt for my deeds at the school had worn off.
I compared the faces of our adversaries to those of the group I stood with. It struck me how similar they were: you’d never be able to predict which group any of these people would pick to stand with before watching them make their choice.
Over with those who’d come to wipe us out was a blue-haired grandmother. To look at her you’d think she was the kind to offer milk and cookies to all the neighborhood kids; but the hate shining from her face was almost palpable.
On our side stood a lanky beanpole of a redneck dressed to the nines in cowboy style, with wide Stetson hat, string tie, pearl-buttoned shirt, and snakeskin boots. He looked like the kind of guy who used the n-word a lot, and would never be at a loss for a funny racist joke at the bar. But here he stood with us.
I’d have predicted every construction worker in Stagger Bay would have rationalized themselves onto the side of their bread and butter. But the toolbox crowd was evenly divided between our side and the other.
You never knew, about people that is. They were what they did; there was no getting around it.
Then, from the direction of the hospital, I saw strobing red trouble lights coming our way, lots of them. Our enemies raised a rebel yell, certain their bloodlust was finally going to be allowed legal vent.
That’s what these crackers were waiting for: The Stagger Bay Police Department was on their way to join the festivities.
Chapter 65
Their sirens were off but their trouble lights spun like a Big Brother rave display. They drove in a tight column of Crown Vic rollers along the ridgeline highway, down the access road and around the outskirts of the development, which was now crowded with hundreds of civilian cars.
When they got to the road in front of the Gardens, however, the cops lost their cohesion: a dozen police cars parked on our side of the avenue, but only a few of cops joined the lynch mob parked across the way.
The small number of cops supporting them had an immediate effect on the enemy camp: suddenly they stood still and silent. An air of hopeless disbelief crawled across them like a visible entity. Faces grew unhappy, and many of them eyed their vehicles with longing.
A steroid-buffed cop I recognized from the deposition got out his car with megaphone in hand; he stood in the middle of the avenue between the two opposing camps, facing our enemies. “This is an unlawful gathering, and you will disperse immediately,” the amplified voice of the law boomed. “Cease and desist – it’s time to go home, folks.”
Our opponents did so, cringing away in driblets to their cars and driving away singly, no longer a caravan, no longer a mob, without that sense of communal purpose and predatory hum they’d seemed to bring with them. They drove home alone, hunched over their steering wheels, defeated. The few cop cars that had parked with them drove away too; I wondered if they’d still be on the department payroll after tonight.
Moe dropped to one knee. “Yes,” he said, karate-chopping his hand down at the ground like he thought he could split the earth. “You lost, bitches,” he laughed. “Don’t come back to the Gardens.”
All Sam’s friends erupted into applause. People threw hats and clapped one another on the back.
They looked around at one another, powerful emotions on their faces. This was the night Stagger Bay rolled over like a giantess in her sleep and escaped to less unpleasant dreams.
The cops unbent enough to smile and shake hands with everyone around them, appearing a little sheepish but still standing on Sam’s side of the street. The cop with the megaphone – the new Chief of police after tonight I assumed – looked my way and gave me a miniscule diplomatic nod which I returned.
I walked through the crowd, meeting everyone’s eyes. Tonight I could let them look right at me despite the grotesquerie my eye patch concealed. I circulated with everyone else, soaking up the feelings just as though I had any right to share them.
News crews had shown up without me noticing. That redheaded newscaster from Oakland eyed me intently as she advanced through the crowd clutching her microphone, her ever dutiful cameraman behind her in tow. She was one determined newswoman.
“Moe,” I said. “Here’s your chance to be on TV.”
I pointed at the newscaster and his eyes lit up like a hungry man seeing a delicious meal. He got in front of her and started talking even as Sam and I commenced our getaway, me limping along as rapidly as possible whilst clutching his shoulder for support.
As we left Big Moe spoke enthusiastically about the Driver and the war on the Gardens; about the atmosphere of fear ruling Stagger Bay. His bloody head made for a dramatic on-camera touch. He sounded like a natural, more comfortable in front of the camera than I’d ever be.
I heard a siren behind us and turned to watch as a fire truck warbled along the ridge line highway and up Moose Creek Road. Looking back into the hills in the ambulance’s direction of travel I saw a flickering glow up there in the woods, like a fire was blazing just about where Chief Jansen had lived.
Tubbs said he was cleaning up loose ends tonight. The Ancients believed fire was a good purifier, a good cleanser; it was also a great way to destroy CSI evidence. How wonderful when two ages could agree together on a course of action.
