(no subject)
“Yeah.”
“Uhuh.”
“Looked like four of em. Sorbonne PD I think.”
“Uhuh.”
Bill Badalamente said to Carmine that he would call the Judge of Holden County, the County in which Sorbonne was a city, a Judge on the collective ‘payroll’ - one who owed a favor or two here and there, and one who continually got re-elected.
“Mincia, Bill, how soon?”
“Bill we need this now.”
Carmine reached under his overcoat and scratched an itch in an area physicians refer to as the intercostal nerve trunk, that sensitive track of skin skirting the underside of the rib cage. The spot where one gets ‘the wind knocked out of him.’ It’s also the spot where Herpes zoster erupts, as a red rainbow of a rash - a mutation of the dormant chicken pox virus, re-manifest in a disturbing ailment known as ‘shingles.’
‘Shingles’ is usually manifested during periods of intense stress in mid to late adulthood. Turns out, the breakneck time Carmine spent in Clifton as a gutter punk took it’s toll. And now, what with the added stressors of pretending to be a van dwelling bum along the fetid shores of Lake Me, compounded with the actuality of the much anticipated and hyped naval battle - the stress had mutated the dormant chicken pox virus into a festering rash along his intercostal.
“Bill,” Carmine scratched, “This looks heavy.”
Some more joggers slowly jogged by, noticing Carmine hunched inside the phone booth, wearing tattered trench coat, talking on the phone, and feverishly moving his hand inside the coat.
William Comparetto
© 2007