The Lion Tamer (Completed)

Chapter Six - Destiny and Evan

Chapter 6

Eddie opened the door to ComiX Unlimited and he heard the familiar tiny bell that rang whenever anyone entered. In his pocket he only had a few dollars left but it was also his third trip to the store in just this week alone. The light inside was bright fluorescent tubing that ran the length of the ceiling back to the counter in the rear. Three aisles ran parallel to each other leading back and on both sides were white formica racks that held thousands and thousands of brightly colored and thin books. Each had several dividers in them, meticulously separating sections from each other. DC comics were housed on the left side while Marvel was on the right of the first aisle, as if providing a barrier to their never-ending rivalry. The middle aisle contained horror and some sci-fi and from mostly unknown publishers. Creepy, Crypt, Fang and Darkness were just some of the titles to be found among the horror section, while in the aisle on the right hand side carried easy reads like Archie and Richie Rich or humor rags like Mad or Cracked.
The place was quiet, more or less, it not being a Tuesday when most of the new titles arrived and only a pair of wiry-haired kids that sat Indian style on the floor, leafing through their recent purchases, unable to wait until they reached home. They sat with their heads down until the sun was blocked out by Eddie’s frame. They looked up in a kind of awe and scooted out of his way, sliding across the moss green carpet on their rears.
Eddie spent the better part of an hour fingering his way through the sections, occasionally pulling one free from the other to inspect it, holding it just inches from his face. He finally decided on one and walked up to the counter with a smile on his face.
“Hi Ed,” said the skinny kid behind the counter. He had a faded red t-shirt on and jeans that looked like they had been on the bad side of a motorcycle accident, with shredded holes in the knees and missing both front pockets. He put down the Hulk #27 he was reading.
“Hi Brian,” Eddie said in his throaty voice, sounding as if it took an effort to complete the sentence.
Brian looked over the few selections that Eddie placed on the counter and began to ring them up, the metallic crunch and bells of the register sounded pleasing to Eddie.
Eddie liked Brian because he was always nice to him and would let him look for hours through the comics, as long as he didn’t remove any from their plastic sleeve if they had one.
“I’m glad you don’t have one of those, one of those new cash machines,” Eddie said, “The ones that make all the beeping. You know?”
Brian nodded. “I hear ya. Hard to tell if there’s any money going in at all if you don’t hear that bell, eh?” He bagged up two of the comics, one was DareDevil # 42 and one was a back issue of Thor, # 16. He paused at the third and looked at it quizzically.
“Not one of your usuals, eh?” he asked and slid it into the brown bag.
“It’s for my brother, but he don’t like comics.”
“Then never trust him,” Eddie said and waved his hands in front of him and widened his eyes. It made Eddie laugh.
“Still not sticking to one side or the other, eh?” Brian said.
Eddie looked at him and his face wore a puzzled expression.
“You know, Marvel or DC, the great war of the ages,” he said with a smile.
“Oh, yeah.” Eddie nodded his large head, making the gold and blue tassel on his cap wiggle. “I just like what I like, you know?”
“Yep. I do.” He leaned across the counter and blocked his mouth on one side with his palm as if telling a secret. “I happen to think the whole thing is horseshit. Read what you want.”
The tiny bell sang out again to signal the arrival of another customer and Eddie thanked Brian and said he’d be back soon.
“Read on, MacDuff,” Brian answered and waved.
Half the time he didn’t understand what Brian was talking about. The few times he thought that maybe he was making a joke on him it was quickly dismissed because he knew that Brian was not like that. He thanked him and walked back out into the sunshine.
When he arrived at home he found Leo sitting in the parlor with the family photo album cradled on his lap. The single lamp in the room was on and threw deep shadows across the small, unused room. The wallpaper was old looking and was peeled up in the high corners of the ceiling. This room had become simply a wide hallway to the kitchen over the years, maybe because of the photos that still clung to the walls, the ones of their father, the great drunk of Draper Street. He looked up when Eddie came in.
“Hey Leo, whatcha doin’?” Eddie asked in his lumbering and clumsy way.
Leo folded the book up. “Eh, nothin’. I thought I’d look at some old photos of us.”
“And Dad?”
“Yeah, and dad.” Leo never was quite sure of the image that his brother carried with him about their father, but Leo thought he was a son of a bitch. He might not have deserted his family in the traditional way, such as packing bags and pulling away in a car with a young chick waiting for him, but he deserted them nonetheless.
“Where’s mom?” Eddie asked.
“Upstairs, resting. She said to tell you that she made a sandwich for you and it’s in the fridge, you wanna go get it? We gotta pick up Danny and Tommy.”
“We gotta work?” Eddie asked and showed the defeat in his face, the cheeks sagging a bit and his eyes looking to the floor.”
“Yeah,” Leo answered. He followed him into the kitchen and looked up at his sagging shoulders, heavy and rounded and offered a gentle slap on his back to bring him back from the grayness he was in.
“C’mon, now, those comic books of yours won’t pay for themselves, hey?”
That brought Eddie’s head back up and he turned around and produced a wide smile, the smile of a child who has just found a forgotten old favorite stuufed animal buried at the bottom of his toy chest.
“Hey! I almost forgot!” he cried. I got you something, something I think you’ll…”
Leo waved both hands and interrupted. “Okay, wait, okay? We gotta get moving and you can tell me when we get in the car. Danny and Tommy are waiting for us.”
Eddie nodded, still sporting the goofy grin that Leo couldn’t help but smile back at.
They picked up Danny and Tommy and drove out of the city along I-476, heading into the lush suburbs. The sky was clear and dotted along the hills with bleach white clouds.
“So, Angie is watching this show, right?” Tommy was continuing with his story that he had started back when they had first hit the interstate. “And some guy is on this panel and the audience is asking him all sort of questions, like, questions about destiny and shit like that. He wrote some book called “The Plan” that is apparently shit hot right now, especially with the chicks, right? Angie just finished it and she wanted me to read it, but I never did. So this guy, a young guy actually, has been studying what he calls “pre-destination”, like when something is going to happen no matter what you do. It’s already part of your destiny. Well, this guy says that we all have this pre-destination and no matter how we try to change it, we can’t because there are too many factors, you know? We might be able to change what we do, but we can’t change what someone else is going to do. Especially if we don’t know them.”
“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Leo said, looking out the window of the passenger seat. Danny sat in back with Eddie and both were quiet, well, Danny was always quiet.
Tommy turned down the radio.
“Hey,” Danny offered in a rare sounding of his voice.
Tommy waved him off over his shoulder. “Hang on. This guy is saying that although you can maybe change your own behavior, you can’t change the guy who is going to kill you with his car in five, ten, or fifteen years from now. The wheels are already in motion and they have to just play out. I mean, how could you protect yourself from something that you don’t even know is going to happen, right?”
The car was quiet.
“The radio,” Danny finally said. Jesus, he was a chatterbox today, thought Leo.
Tommy screwed up his face and raised the volume again. “Anyway, pretty interesting stuff, no?”
“Eh, buncha horse shit.” People can change their destiny,” Leo said.
“I don’t know, the guy made some sense. ‘Course I’m not saying it as smart as he did, ya know? But still, what if the guy who was going to run over you ten years from now is in bed right now or having breakfast or fucking someone and doesn’t even know that he is going to be your killer? What could you do about it?”
“Not be where he was, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah, but you don’t even know, get it? You have no idea that your life is going to change…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Leo snapped. He didn’t want to think of spooky shit like that right now. “I’d kill the fucker that killed me, hey?”
Tommy looked at him and smiled but Leo wasn’t smiling. He was still looking out the window at the bright blue sky and the pure white clouds.


They arrived at the house in the late afternoon. The street lights were just beginning to hum with artificial life and add their glow. They slowed the car to a stop directly in front of 467 Chasebrook Avenue, a rich brown-brick house with a large porch and a parcel of gray land surrounding it. Bare hedges grew near the walls and a black driveway skirted up along side of the house. The windows were still in that state of limbo that existed after daylight was almost gone and before you threw on the lights for the evening.
Tommy pulled the car up the driveway. He heard the tires crunch to a stop before speaking.
“Is everybody clear?” Leo asked, turning back to face Eddie and Danny hunched in the back. He kept his eyes locked on Eddie and was eased a bit to see a set of steady brown eyes staring back. Leo had shown them the picture of the kid and filled in what little he knew to the crew and threw off the questions that he got back. The who’s, where’s and why’s were answered with the same shrug and tilt of the head. Leo only knew that they had to scare this kid and good. But, as DropDead had been specific about, John didn’t want any trophies this time.
What did he do with these things anyway? Did he keep them? Leo thought.
The image of a glass display case in John Pronti’s basement with fingers, noses and ears laying on blood red velvet made him quiver for a second.
No more questions came from the back of the car or from Tommy so, satisfied, they exited. Tommy and Leo went to the front of the house and Eddie and Danny went out behind to scoop up anyone that might try to make a dash.
The door was unlocked and not expecting any resistance, Leo opened it without a gun drawn. Tommy had his hand stuffed into his coat pocket ready to pull if he had to, but the large entry room was quiet. A sound was in the distance and it seemed to be coming from the basement. Voices, a few, could be heard above a television set. The two traced the noise until it led them to a door. They opened it and descended the stairs, and Leo removed his own revolver.
The light was dim but the smell was familiar. Pot smoke hung in the air above a low circular table where three man and two women sat Indian-style and handed a saw-handled bong back and forth. The gray smoke hung above them like a spirit that refused to leave. One man, who was in the motion of passing to his left, looked up and spotted the two standing at the bottom of the stairs. He held the smoke with eyes widening and then slowly let it out as if trying to whisper.
“Who-who the hell are you guys?” he asked and the rest of his smoke came out in a burp-like sound. The rest of the party turned to see what he was looking at and one of the girls simply giggled and took a deep breath of white smoke from the colored plastic tube. On the television was an old rerun of Get Smart and Don Adams was busy talking into his shoe.
College kids with nothing better to fucking do, Leo thought.
“Which one of you is Evan?” Leo asked as the television warbled in the quiet room. Four heads turned to a wiry kid sitting next to the girl who had just taken a hit of the bong. He was wearing a faded blue t-shirt and jeans and sported a close cropped haircut. His face was wide and pale and he looked like he had some muscle under his loose fitting clothes. He looked like a regular smartass to Leo who had just realized that he was in over his head. Leo liked the look and the power it lent him. He was going to have fun here.
Three of the other kids slowly got up and moved themselves away from the vicinity of Evan and he let his eyes dart over to them and then back again. The girl next to him stayed seated and giggled again into her bong, letting powder-white streams of smoke creep from the corners of her mouth.
“Buzz kill,” she said and giggled again.
“What do you want?” Evan asked, managing to keep his voice steady.
Tommy spoke up next. “You know what the fuck we want. You know John Pronti?”
Evan shook his head and it convinced Leo. The kid probably didn’t realize that his debt had been transferred.
“You ever have a bank account, Evan?”
Evan turned his attention away from Tommy and back to Leo. He nodded.
“Well, you ever take out a loan?”
He nodded again.
Leo noticed that the three that separated themselves from Evan were listening intently to the line of questioning. He turned to them.
“Get the fuck out. All of ya.”
It was as if he had pushed a button. The kids cleared out of the room, filing up the stairs quickly, leaving beer bottles and bags of weed still resting on the round table. The stoned girl still sat next to Evan and she began filling up the small bowl of the bong again. She still wore a crooked smile across her lips and her eyes were bloody red, her hair a mess of auburn tangles.
Tommy walked over to one of the basement windows and rapped on it with his knuckles. A pair of brown leather shoes appeared and Tommy motioned with one hand for the shoes to come in. They disappeared and were followed by a second, much larger pair of sneakers.
Leo sat down on the floor next to Evan and waved some of the smoke away from his face with one gloved hand. Tommy stayed on his feet and watched the girl with the tussled hair and a grin spread across his face. She was watching Leo while absently putting the bong tube to her colorless lips. She could have easily been trying to watch a TV show.
“Well, Evan, you know how sometimes a bank buys out another bank and then they own your loan? Ever hear of that happening?”
Evan nodded. “Look, it’s not…”
Leo put up a hand. “Don’t talk yet, it’s better if you don’t talk right now.”
Evan closed his mouth obediently but allowed his head to turn to the sound of the basement door opening and the pair of footfalls coming down the stairs. Danny was leading and Eddie followed, bending slightly to allow his bulk to clear the ceiling where it met the stairs at the bottom.
Evan’s eyes widened but he remained silent.
“Holy shit!” yelled the stoned girl as she looked at Eddie and she let out a cloud of blue gray smoke. “Jesus, where did you get this guy, the set of The Munsters?” she cackled at her own words and was ready to light up again, flicking her lighter and putting it to the green weed when Leo grabbed her by the shoulder of her t-shirt and hauled her up on her feet. He led her roughly towards a half-opened door and pushed her inside, closing the door and turning the small brass button on the knob. A stumbling sound came from inside the darkened room and then more laughing.
“You always were a prick, Evan! Hey!” She broke into laughter again and hit the door once.
Evan paid no attention to the words and watched as Leo came back and sat down again. He put his arm around Evan’s shoulder and was silent for a few seconds until the girl quieted down. She never let go of the bong and was probably lighting up again in the darkened room while she waited.
“Girlfriend?” Leo asked.
That appeared to loosen Evan a bit and he curled one corner of his mouth. “Hell, no. Can’t stand the bitch.”
Leo smiled too and he rubbed Evan’s shoulder. The gesture must have raised Evan’s alarms again because the relaxing turn of the lips vanished quickly and he hunched his shoulder as if waiting for a blow to the head.
“So,” Leo began, “I hear you’re in for two large. Is that right?”
He hesitated before answering. “Is that a lot?”
“Would you want to have someone owe you two thousand dollars?”
“No, but…”
“There you go, then.” Leo said, cutting him off again. “Do you have the money that you owe?”
“No.”
Leo did appreciate the straight forward answer and he could tell the kid wasn’t lying. His eyes were clear, forming a thin layer over the fear underneath.
“Well, then I got a job to do, Evan.” He motioned to Tommy and Danny and they walked over and grabbed him by each arm. He didn’t resist. That was another thing that Leo could give him credit for and thought shit, at least this isn’t one of those ugly fucking scenes like with Timmy or that guy last month and the radiator. This is more like acting. Play the part convincingly.
Across the room was another door and in the crack of light behind it, Leo could see a toilet.
“Get him in there,” he said.
The two men pulled him to the room, his feet dragging across the worn carpet, unwilling to help them move him.
Inside the bathroom there was a small porcelain sink and toilet and a claw-foot bathtub that had gray green rings around the inside. Overall, the room was small and only a couple of people could fit in it at any time. Plastered and stapled to the four walls were pages that had been ripped out from various magazines. Women posed across the shiny pictures, spreading their legs and pushing up their chest. Some allowed a hint of tongue to poke out from their mouths, pink and inviting. Some were airbrushed to perfection, their tanned legs and stomachs appearing soft and smooth; others arched their backs against machinery as if in ecstasy, their mouths open in a silent moan.
“Whack-off room, evan?”
Leo motioned to Danny and he removed a roll of silver gray tape from his coat pocket. They pulled Evan’s hands behind his back, crossed them, and began winding the tape tightly around his wrists. Leo came close to Evans face and he could see now that the act was going to work. He put up a tough face, but now a tear spilled from one eye and trailed down to his chin. His upper lip quivered.
“My-my dad is important,” he said.
“I’m sure he is, Evan, but he’s not here right now, is he?” Leo reached to the faucet of the tub and turned on the water. Then he reached down and plugged the drain with the small rubber stopper.
The kid still looked straight ahead and Leo could see him trying to control his breathing. Eddie and Danny waited outside of the room.
There was an awkward silence as the tub filled. Occasionally Evan would steal a glance down at the tub and the gathering water but he made no protests.
Guess we’re all playing a part, aren’t we? Leo thought as he turned off the water.
He motioned for Tommy to leave and a few seconds later Eddie’s frame filled much of the small bathroom. Leo grabbed Evan by the back of the neck and swung his knee into the back of Evan’s. He went down hard on the tiles and winced briefly.
“Time for a little swim,” he said and pushed the kids head under the cold water. He kept it there and the boy didn’t resist much, but after a few second Leo could feel the twisting and pushing back, the hot panic felt like it was seeping right through the boy’s body into Leo’s hand. He pulled him back up and Evan sputtered and spat. Water ran from his head like a faucet and his hair had become like wet weeds on his head. He kept his eyes closed then blinked the water away, shaking his head and sending water flying in arcs like a dog drying his fur.
Leo gave him a moment or two before thrusting his head under again. He pulled up again and waited for the boy to shake his drenched head again. His breathing had become more labored now and a line of snot ran from one nostril and plopped into the water
“You sure you don’t have the money around, Evan? I’d hate walk around and find it…you know, and find out you were lying to us.”
He plunged the head down again before he could answer and kept him down a bit longer this time, bringing him back up just as he whooped a mouthful of air in desperation.
“No money. Really, no money, man.” His lips sucked into his mouth with the effort to fill himself with oxygen. Leo nodded.
“We’re going to look around a bit Evan. I hope you’re not lying, hey?” Leo then motioned to Danny to come in and he stepped outside to allow Eddie to enter. “He looks like he’s still thirsty. Help him, Eddie.”
Eddie obediently cupped the back of Evan’s head with one palm and pushed his head back under. His face remained placid and Danny waited a few moments before tapping Eddie’s arm to let him back up. Leo could see that Evan was beginning to draw in air harder, his lungs beginning to protest the strain.
“Be back in a few minutes,” Leo said and he and Tommy spread out across the basement, inspecting it casually. Tommy scooped up the plastic bag of marijuana and stuffed it in his pocket.
“For Angie,” he said somewhat defensively when he caught the surprised look from Leo. “I don’t like the stuff, but she still likes to get stoned,” he said, referring to his girlfriend, “besides, she fucks like a pro when she’s high.”
Leo smiled and they went upstairs to check the rest of the house.
Danny said nothing but tapped Eddie once more and Evan was barely able to pull in air before his head went under again.