Old Drew Id
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Episode II - Session II: Crystal's Apartment, Southside
Episode II - Session II: Crystal's Apartment, Southside
Willie was on the balcony smoking and staring out into the distance. Crystal was in the kitchen making coffee, and that left Taylor to watch the “prisoner”. The kid looked like he was starting to come around. His eyes were fluttering at least, and he let out a low moaning noise every now and then. Taylor took that as a good sign.
Taylor had checked the kid’s pulse, and it was a little weak. When he took a peak under the kid’s shirt, the bruise on his chest looked like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. But, on the bright side, there was no swelling of his abdomen, and his breathing didn’t sound congested, so Taylor figured there was probably no internal bleeding. Still, he expected that the kid would have woken up by now, and he began to worry about whether the kid had suffered a concussion or maybe was suffering from shock. He felt a weird connection to these people, but he certainly didn’t intend to be stuck with them if there was a dead body to get rid of.
The couch shifted underneath him, and a odorous mixture of perfume and cheese assaulted Taylor’s nose. Taylor turned to greet Joe, who had returned from the bathroom and sat down beside him. Joe had washed most of the blood and mess off of his face, and his hair was slicked back with water and several handfuls of some thick hair gel. In place of his comic book tee-shirt, he had a pink silk bathrobe wrapped around himself.
Joe nodded to him in greeting, “Man, I feel a hundred percent better.”
Taylor nodded back in kind, “Aye…ye do look a sight better. Ye were startin’ ta ‘semble death warmt o’er a wee bit erler.”
Joe nodded thoughtfully, “Yep…yep…I have no idea what you just said.”
Taylor grunted, “Ah said---”
“Don’t bother, “ Joe interrupted, and stood up to scrutinize the kid’s face. “So, is he gonna wake up anytime soon?”
“Ah cannae say. He’s in shock, Ah’d wager,” Taylor answered.
Joe furrowed his brow for a minute, then fished a pink silk handkerchief out of his pocket and started wiping the kid’s face. When that didn’t change anything, Joe used the handkerchief to pat the kid on the forehead, then started poking the kid in the nose with it.
Taylor sighed, “Joe, yer erse is oot the windae with tha. ‘e’s in shock or---”
“Is that my kimono?!” Crystal was standing behind the couch, holding a pot of coffee in one hand and a couple of empty mugs in the other. She did not look pleased.
Joe looked up at her in calm surprise, “I don’t know. It was in the closet on the far left side behind---”
“GET OUT OF MY F&%^ING KIMONO YOU SICK F&%^!!”
“Ahem…neighbors,” Taylor muttered, and reached for one of the coffee mugs.
Joe sighed and set the handkerchief down on the kid’s head, then started untying the kimono. Taylor nearly had a grip on one of the coffee mugs, but Crystal suddenly ripped it from his hand. “IS THAT MY UNDERWEAR?!”
Joe stopped untying the kimono, looked down at the underwear he had set on the kid’s head, and replied calmly, “I don’t know. It was in the third drawer next to the---”
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU SICK F&%^!!”
“…neighbors,” Taylor muttered again, as Willie walked in from the balcony.
“What the hell are y’all doing in here? Are you trying to get somebody to call the police?” Willie hissed.
“TELL HIM TO STAY AWAY FROM MY STUFF!”
“Tell her to calm down! She’s gone psycho!”
“Ahem…people?”
“WILLIE, I WANT HIM OUT OF MY HOUSE!”
“Crystal, look, Joe, take off the robe, man…”
“Ahem…edjits?”
“YOU HEARD HIM! TAKE OFF THE F&^%ING ROBE!”
“Sure, Willie, take her side. I see…”
“Wheesht! Wheesht! Wheesht!” Taylor hissed at the three of them and snapped his fingers. The group fell silent and looked at him.
“The kid’s awake.”
. . .
“At least tell us your name.”
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
Willie leaned back on the couch and rubbed his eyes with one hand. This was going nowhere. No matter what questioned they asked, they got the same response. He tried again anyway, “Where are your parents? Do you want us to call them?”
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
“Yeah, thanks. I got that.”
Joe turned to Taylor, “Bring me some pliers and a blowtorch.”
Willie shook his head, “We’re not gonna hurt the kid.”
“Um, Willa, shood Ah punt at tha’ ya already shot ‘im once in tha’ chest?”
“With non-lethal rounds!” Willie’s voice rose indignantly.
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
Willie tried again, “Kid, we’re here to help you. Alright? We’re private investigators. We’ve seen Grandmother Spider’s husband earlier tonight, alright? And everybody down at the lab, and they’re all worried about her. Alright? She could be in danger, and we’re here to help her.”
“This blows. This is the worst interrogation ever.” Joe got up to pace around.
Crystal shrugged and took another sip of her coffee, “Actually, I’d say the kid’s doing a pretty good job of interrogating us. So far, we’ve told him who we are, what we’ve seen, and that there’s a lab somewhere with another giant spider in it…Willie, would you like to me to get my purse so you can read him my credit card numbers?”
Willie cut her a dark look.
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
Taylor suggested, “Ah dunnae think the kid can ‘ear ya anyway. Look’s like ‘e’s been brainwished er droogged.”
“No s#&^, Sherlock,” Willie snapped. He sighed, and lowered his tone, “Look, we may be wasting our time here. It could take days to break this brainwashing or whatever, and we still---”
“Wait!” Joe piped up, obviously excited. “Brainwashed? Or mind-controlled?” Before anyone could answer, he ran into the kitchen. Immediately, Willie could hear the sounds of cabinets and drawers being opened and rifled through.
The noise continued for several more seconds. Willie leaned over to Crystal, “Okay, he’s just been trolling through your frilly underwear, but now you trust him unsupervised around your silverware?”
Crystal considered for a second, and then jumped out of her chair to run into the kitchen. At that point, Joe came bounding out of the kitchen with a roll of aluminum foil with a swashbuckling, “Aha!”. He tore off a long sheet with a flourish and wrapped it around the kid’s head. “Tada!”
Willie watched Taylor’s face work through a quick spectrum from complete confusion to amused pity. “Joe, Ah think ya---”
Willie interrupted him, “No, Taylor, you weren’t in the foil room at the lab. This could---”
The kid screamed. Everyone froze. His face was flushed a deep red, and was contorted into a grimace. He convulsed once, and every muscle in his body tensed up. He moaned through clenched teeth, and a thin line of drool oozed out one end of his mouth. Then he passed out.
. . .
Crystal leaned against the counter in the tiny kitchen and watched the pot slowly fill with a fresh batch of coffee. She was completely exhausted. The adrenalin boosts earlier in the night had used up all of her energy and left her totally drained. Plus, she had closed the bar the last couple of nights, and she was really in need of some quality sleep tonight.
As she filled her coffee cup with the fresh brew, she noticed that her hands were shaking.
Taylor popped his head around the kitchen door, announced “The kid’s oop,” and disappeared back into the living room. Crystal closed her eyes, rolled her neck back until there was a satisfying cracking sound, and braced herself for the scene in the next room. With a deep breath, she headed back through the door.
Inside the living room, all of the lights were out except for one lamp right beside the kid. Joe was pacing back and forth around the room, wearing an aluminum foil hat and periodically peeking out the blinds and through the peephole in the front door. Willie was sitting on the edge of the coffee table facing the kid, encouraging him in a low voice to wake up. Taylor was standing behind the kid, fingering the roll of aluminum foil thoughtfully. Crystal sacked out on the couch beside Willie.
Willie continued, “Kid, you awake? Kid? We need to talk to you, man.”
The kid squinted through one half-open eye, “where’s…what?…what’s going on?”
Willie nodded, and Taylor shut off the lamp. The room was cloaked in darkness. Crystal could just barely make out everyone’s shadowy profiles by the streetlight coming in through the blinds on the windows.
“Easy, kid,” Willie continued. “Listen, you’re safe now. We think that you were under the effects of…a drug. You probably didn’t even know you were taking it.”
“Huh?”
“Listen, kid, what’s your name?”
The kid paused, then answered slowly, “Wolf in…winter”
Crystal interrupted before Willie got too confused, “What’s your English name?”
The kid paused again, longer this time, then mumbled, “Randy...Randy Martin.”
She continued, “What tribe are you from, Randy?”
“Choctaw…Mississippi Choctaw.”
Willie took back over from there, “What are you doing this far from home, Randy?”
“I don’t remember. I… it’s all confused.”
“Alright, Randy, just take it slow. What’s the last thing you remember clearly? You were in Mississippi, and…”
“White Oak was gonna take us on a camping trip…”
“And who is White Oak?” Willie took a hint from Crystal, “What’s his English name?”
“He’s the leader of the youth group…I don’t know his…other name. I just joined the group a few days ago…and he said we shouldn’t use those names anyway.”
“Okay, Randy, good. That’s good. And then what happened? You went on your camping trip?”
“Yeah…I mean, no…we got on a bus and then he started talking about…legends and stuff…and Grandmother Spider…and how we were going to go help Grandmother Spider…and it doesn’t make sense now, but it made sense then, you know? And…except we didn’t go camping…we went over to Birmingham and…wait…wait…I shot a cop! No…wait! I think I shot somebody!”
“Easy, Randy, easy!” Willie did his best to calm the kid. Crystal couldn’t see his face in the dark, but she could hear the strain in his voice. “Don’t worry about that right now. Tell me what you remember…just relax and go through it step-by-step.”
The kid’s voice was strained now. Crystal wasn’t sure, but he may have been crying. “I…I don’t remember. There was a warehouse…and we got some cars from somewhere…and we drove around…and he told us to watch this place…”
“Do you remember where the place was? Could you find it again?”
“I don’t know…I don’t remember…but then he told us that people were in a bar…and they were gonna get together and hurt Grandmother Spider…and we had to stop them…and he gave us some guns…and…and…he told us to do it…and it made sense then, but…”
“Easy, kid, easy. It’s okay, alright? It’s gonna be alright, Randy. It’s gonna be alright. Look…how about you just rest right now, okay? We’re gonna take care of everything.”
Willie stood up, and motioned for everyone to move into the kitchen. Crystal led the way and flipped the light on in the kitchen once everyone was inside.
Willie looked angrier than she had ever seen him before. He whispered coolly, but with a deadly resolve, “I wasn’t lying to that kid.” He took a deep breath and explained in a business-like tone. “We’re gonna find this White Oak b@$&@*$ and then we’re gonna take care of things.”
Episode II - Session II: Crystal's Apartment, Southside
Willie was on the balcony smoking and staring out into the distance. Crystal was in the kitchen making coffee, and that left Taylor to watch the “prisoner”. The kid looked like he was starting to come around. His eyes were fluttering at least, and he let out a low moaning noise every now and then. Taylor took that as a good sign.
Taylor had checked the kid’s pulse, and it was a little weak. When he took a peak under the kid’s shirt, the bruise on his chest looked like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. But, on the bright side, there was no swelling of his abdomen, and his breathing didn’t sound congested, so Taylor figured there was probably no internal bleeding. Still, he expected that the kid would have woken up by now, and he began to worry about whether the kid had suffered a concussion or maybe was suffering from shock. He felt a weird connection to these people, but he certainly didn’t intend to be stuck with them if there was a dead body to get rid of.
The couch shifted underneath him, and a odorous mixture of perfume and cheese assaulted Taylor’s nose. Taylor turned to greet Joe, who had returned from the bathroom and sat down beside him. Joe had washed most of the blood and mess off of his face, and his hair was slicked back with water and several handfuls of some thick hair gel. In place of his comic book tee-shirt, he had a pink silk bathrobe wrapped around himself.
Joe nodded to him in greeting, “Man, I feel a hundred percent better.”
Taylor nodded back in kind, “Aye…ye do look a sight better. Ye were startin’ ta ‘semble death warmt o’er a wee bit erler.”
Joe nodded thoughtfully, “Yep…yep…I have no idea what you just said.”
Taylor grunted, “Ah said---”
“Don’t bother, “ Joe interrupted, and stood up to scrutinize the kid’s face. “So, is he gonna wake up anytime soon?”
“Ah cannae say. He’s in shock, Ah’d wager,” Taylor answered.
Joe furrowed his brow for a minute, then fished a pink silk handkerchief out of his pocket and started wiping the kid’s face. When that didn’t change anything, Joe used the handkerchief to pat the kid on the forehead, then started poking the kid in the nose with it.
Taylor sighed, “Joe, yer erse is oot the windae with tha. ‘e’s in shock or---”
“Is that my kimono?!” Crystal was standing behind the couch, holding a pot of coffee in one hand and a couple of empty mugs in the other. She did not look pleased.
Joe looked up at her in calm surprise, “I don’t know. It was in the closet on the far left side behind---”
“GET OUT OF MY F&%^ING KIMONO YOU SICK F&%^!!”
“Ahem…neighbors,” Taylor muttered, and reached for one of the coffee mugs.
Joe sighed and set the handkerchief down on the kid’s head, then started untying the kimono. Taylor nearly had a grip on one of the coffee mugs, but Crystal suddenly ripped it from his hand. “IS THAT MY UNDERWEAR?!”
Joe stopped untying the kimono, looked down at the underwear he had set on the kid’s head, and replied calmly, “I don’t know. It was in the third drawer next to the---”
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU SICK F&%^!!”
“…neighbors,” Taylor muttered again, as Willie walked in from the balcony.
“What the hell are y’all doing in here? Are you trying to get somebody to call the police?” Willie hissed.
“TELL HIM TO STAY AWAY FROM MY STUFF!”
“Tell her to calm down! She’s gone psycho!”
“Ahem…people?”
“WILLIE, I WANT HIM OUT OF MY HOUSE!”
“Crystal, look, Joe, take off the robe, man…”
“Ahem…edjits?”
“YOU HEARD HIM! TAKE OFF THE F&^%ING ROBE!”
“Sure, Willie, take her side. I see…”
“Wheesht! Wheesht! Wheesht!” Taylor hissed at the three of them and snapped his fingers. The group fell silent and looked at him.
“The kid’s awake.”
. . .
“At least tell us your name.”
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
Willie leaned back on the couch and rubbed his eyes with one hand. This was going nowhere. No matter what questioned they asked, they got the same response. He tried again anyway, “Where are your parents? Do you want us to call them?”
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
“Yeah, thanks. I got that.”
Joe turned to Taylor, “Bring me some pliers and a blowtorch.”
Willie shook his head, “We’re not gonna hurt the kid.”
“Um, Willa, shood Ah punt at tha’ ya already shot ‘im once in tha’ chest?”
“With non-lethal rounds!” Willie’s voice rose indignantly.
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
Willie tried again, “Kid, we’re here to help you. Alright? We’re private investigators. We’ve seen Grandmother Spider’s husband earlier tonight, alright? And everybody down at the lab, and they’re all worried about her. Alright? She could be in danger, and we’re here to help her.”
“This blows. This is the worst interrogation ever.” Joe got up to pace around.
Crystal shrugged and took another sip of her coffee, “Actually, I’d say the kid’s doing a pretty good job of interrogating us. So far, we’ve told him who we are, what we’ve seen, and that there’s a lab somewhere with another giant spider in it…Willie, would you like to me to get my purse so you can read him my credit card numbers?”
Willie cut her a dark look.
“You will pay when Grandmother Spider comes.”
Taylor suggested, “Ah dunnae think the kid can ‘ear ya anyway. Look’s like ‘e’s been brainwished er droogged.”
“No s#&^, Sherlock,” Willie snapped. He sighed, and lowered his tone, “Look, we may be wasting our time here. It could take days to break this brainwashing or whatever, and we still---”
“Wait!” Joe piped up, obviously excited. “Brainwashed? Or mind-controlled?” Before anyone could answer, he ran into the kitchen. Immediately, Willie could hear the sounds of cabinets and drawers being opened and rifled through.
The noise continued for several more seconds. Willie leaned over to Crystal, “Okay, he’s just been trolling through your frilly underwear, but now you trust him unsupervised around your silverware?”
Crystal considered for a second, and then jumped out of her chair to run into the kitchen. At that point, Joe came bounding out of the kitchen with a roll of aluminum foil with a swashbuckling, “Aha!”. He tore off a long sheet with a flourish and wrapped it around the kid’s head. “Tada!”
Willie watched Taylor’s face work through a quick spectrum from complete confusion to amused pity. “Joe, Ah think ya---”
Willie interrupted him, “No, Taylor, you weren’t in the foil room at the lab. This could---”
The kid screamed. Everyone froze. His face was flushed a deep red, and was contorted into a grimace. He convulsed once, and every muscle in his body tensed up. He moaned through clenched teeth, and a thin line of drool oozed out one end of his mouth. Then he passed out.
. . .
Crystal leaned against the counter in the tiny kitchen and watched the pot slowly fill with a fresh batch of coffee. She was completely exhausted. The adrenalin boosts earlier in the night had used up all of her energy and left her totally drained. Plus, she had closed the bar the last couple of nights, and she was really in need of some quality sleep tonight.
As she filled her coffee cup with the fresh brew, she noticed that her hands were shaking.
Taylor popped his head around the kitchen door, announced “The kid’s oop,” and disappeared back into the living room. Crystal closed her eyes, rolled her neck back until there was a satisfying cracking sound, and braced herself for the scene in the next room. With a deep breath, she headed back through the door.
Inside the living room, all of the lights were out except for one lamp right beside the kid. Joe was pacing back and forth around the room, wearing an aluminum foil hat and periodically peeking out the blinds and through the peephole in the front door. Willie was sitting on the edge of the coffee table facing the kid, encouraging him in a low voice to wake up. Taylor was standing behind the kid, fingering the roll of aluminum foil thoughtfully. Crystal sacked out on the couch beside Willie.
Willie continued, “Kid, you awake? Kid? We need to talk to you, man.”
The kid squinted through one half-open eye, “where’s…what?…what’s going on?”
Willie nodded, and Taylor shut off the lamp. The room was cloaked in darkness. Crystal could just barely make out everyone’s shadowy profiles by the streetlight coming in through the blinds on the windows.
“Easy, kid,” Willie continued. “Listen, you’re safe now. We think that you were under the effects of…a drug. You probably didn’t even know you were taking it.”
“Huh?”
“Listen, kid, what’s your name?”
The kid paused, then answered slowly, “Wolf in…winter”
Crystal interrupted before Willie got too confused, “What’s your English name?”
The kid paused again, longer this time, then mumbled, “Randy...Randy Martin.”
She continued, “What tribe are you from, Randy?”
“Choctaw…Mississippi Choctaw.”
Willie took back over from there, “What are you doing this far from home, Randy?”
“I don’t remember. I… it’s all confused.”
“Alright, Randy, just take it slow. What’s the last thing you remember clearly? You were in Mississippi, and…”
“White Oak was gonna take us on a camping trip…”
“And who is White Oak?” Willie took a hint from Crystal, “What’s his English name?”
“He’s the leader of the youth group…I don’t know his…other name. I just joined the group a few days ago…and he said we shouldn’t use those names anyway.”
“Okay, Randy, good. That’s good. And then what happened? You went on your camping trip?”
“Yeah…I mean, no…we got on a bus and then he started talking about…legends and stuff…and Grandmother Spider…and how we were going to go help Grandmother Spider…and it doesn’t make sense now, but it made sense then, you know? And…except we didn’t go camping…we went over to Birmingham and…wait…wait…I shot a cop! No…wait! I think I shot somebody!”
“Easy, Randy, easy!” Willie did his best to calm the kid. Crystal couldn’t see his face in the dark, but she could hear the strain in his voice. “Don’t worry about that right now. Tell me what you remember…just relax and go through it step-by-step.”
The kid’s voice was strained now. Crystal wasn’t sure, but he may have been crying. “I…I don’t remember. There was a warehouse…and we got some cars from somewhere…and we drove around…and he told us to watch this place…”
“Do you remember where the place was? Could you find it again?”
“I don’t know…I don’t remember…but then he told us that people were in a bar…and they were gonna get together and hurt Grandmother Spider…and we had to stop them…and he gave us some guns…and…and…he told us to do it…and it made sense then, but…”
“Easy, kid, easy. It’s okay, alright? It’s gonna be alright, Randy. It’s gonna be alright. Look…how about you just rest right now, okay? We’re gonna take care of everything.”
Willie stood up, and motioned for everyone to move into the kitchen. Crystal led the way and flipped the light on in the kitchen once everyone was inside.
Willie looked angrier than she had ever seen him before. He whispered coolly, but with a deadly resolve, “I wasn’t lying to that kid.” He took a deep breath and explained in a business-like tone. “We’re gonna find this White Oak b@$&@*$ and then we’re gonna take care of things.”
