Double Death Chapter 2: Willie

Here's Ch. 1 in case you wanted some reference: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work/GreenLigh...

Double-Death Chapter 2: Willie 

He was tall but in the George Washington way: always trying to make you think he should be shorter. His favorite food was his mama’s grilled cheese and his favorite movie was The Legend of Bagger Vance. Oily, dark grey hair was hidden somewhere beneath his patchwork newsboy cap because revealing it was never an option. His small, frightened eyes were like lightly salted almonds: just engaging enough to keep you from giving up on them altogether. They weren’t always afraid, though and his gaze became rather direct during the moments just before he pulled the pearls from around an extravagant bitch’s neck.

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The very first time I laid eyes on William “Ty” Johnson I had him pegged as my trophy target. I was the white-feathered hawk, circling high above the forest floor and he was the little, brown field mouse, awaiting a sweet surrender between my waiting talons. As I sit and reflect on that still October night, I know I would have felt an immensely quiet sense of pride at having cleansed the world of such an insignificant playing piece. By some eerily pleasant providence, however, Willie considered me a reputable artist rather than a run-of-the-mill bitch. The swollen, purple eye he left me with kept me out of Eros Weekly the next morning but, where we’re from, you never really see anything until you’ve lost that perfect, 20-20 vision. Willie’s vision was far from 20-20 and, from what I could tell, it never even had been. He let me share in his cloudy blindness and, for that, I am forever indebted to him. In our eyes, the sun was always setting and rose for the sole purpose of retreating once more. We often sat down to watch it dance across the great, wide sky we both wanted to tear a bloody hole in.

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“Stop loafing around and take the body off of the damn dresser. Fold it up good so it fits next to the boy’s...I put the suitcase on the coffee table down in the living room.” Willie’s hesitant nod and drawn-on grin reassured me that I was the flame and he was the waxen candle. Bodies always made him cringe without cringing and I liked that, especially when I asked him to move women. This old hag’s hubby hadn’t asked us to spare her, so Willie gave she and her trust-fund calf a few good shots between the eyes. Blood and Chardonnay were flowing by the glass, ‘cause Willie popped the cork but then forgot to pour himself anything. More for me I thought, he never was a very big wine person.

“Hey O, I think there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What’s that, Ty?”

“Well, it’s kind of embarrassing to be honest.”

“Aw, come on ya big clutz! I’m like your big sis or somethin’, spit it out.”

“You sure you wont get mad?”

“For fuck’s sake, Willie what i-”

“Both bodies wouldn’t fit in the luggage, so I threw the kid in the elevator shaft.” My heart began to race and my entire being beamed with insecure pride.

“Way to go, champ. Let’s hightail it to Philly, post-haste.” 

To Be Continued...