Clara (Six of Twenty)

After the 6^th hit, my fist starts aching. I hit him again to try to make the pain go away. When he talks, it looks like he took a bite straight off a cow. Keeps asking what's going on through mushmouth, even when I tell him to stop playing dumb and tell me where Clara is. Slob's got the gall to ask who she is. I tell him it's the brunette he picked up Monday night, smack him in the head to jog his memory.

Slob's gone full-on dame, says she called herself Paula through his blubbering tears. Of course, why would she give her real name to a slob? He's slumped over, shaking, complete mess. Spits out a tooth, then spits out that he told her she wanted to wanted to leave with a random stranger and have sex so she could look back in 50 years, say she lived.

The bourbon in me's saying there's a spot I missed near his shoulder could use some tenderizing, but I gotta find Clara. I ask him again, using my indoors voice, where he left her. He's choking on his words and all the blood. Says they drove to a secret spot, but she chickened out. He left her there, drove off.

I look him in the eyes. He's already got 2 black eyes, a broken nose, and he probably won't be speaking right for a while. I ask him real kind if he could take me to his spot. There's a funny hissing sound. We both look down, and his pants get dark at the crotch. It's spreading down his leg. Now he's begging to get let go.

I tell him he doesn't have a choice, we're going. I lift my shirt and flash Joan. He starts crying and hiccuping and blowing snot bubbles when he sees the gun handle.

We get in his Mercedes, worth more than I make in a year, sometimes 2 years. Kinda sad that he's gotta bleed all over the leather, stain it red. He drives us out to a bridge a mile out from a metro stop. Real dark, but a few homeless are half hidden in the shadows.

I ask him why he couldn't even have driven her back to the station, and he says it was cause she was a tease, that was her plan all along. Put my hand on his shoulder, tell him that I wasn't gonna sleep with him, ask if he's gonna leave me here. He drives me to the metro. Too late now, gotta wait for daylight.