A Brief History of Seven Killings (32 page)

Demus

A
nd the Datsun
dash down another road that I don’t know and then another road then left down another road a boy jump out of the way but we still hear a bump nobody talking but everybody screaming Weeper say shut up, pussyhole, shut up, pussyhole, we turn again turn turn and dash down a lane so narrow that we scrape house on both side sparks burst off and somebody scream inside outside of the car don’t know then we drop into one pothole two three the car just bouncing up and down and then we skid a right past a bar playing HIS song a bar with a Pepsi sign and a sign with the old man from Schweppes Heckle say fling ’way di gun throw ’way di gun and so he fling ’way him gun Weeper say you is a bombocloth fool but keep driving and we turn right the road small no streetlight headlight dog we hit a dog then left then right and nobody know where we is I know I don’t know I can feel me head coming down already I not going get a hit now this coming down getting sadder and sadder vomit coming up my mouth send it back down we turn down one empty lane and another lane and end up on a wide road that cut a valley between the Garbagelands before I see that the police not following we anymore right now me is a boy and me want me woman the woman me leave this morning knowing that me might not come back but not thinking it I want me woman but nobody in the car making a sound until Heckle say dog going nyam we supper we going roast in hellfire them goin’ fuck we up them going put we under heavy manners they going eradicate we he start to cry and Weeper stop the car and come out and what the bloodcloth you a do Josey say but Weeper pull out him revolver and pull open the back door on the left
get out of the bloodcloth car, you batty boy
he say to Heckle but Heckle say him nah go nowhere Weeper fire a gunshot in the air me thinking Jesus Christ peo
ple surely goin’ come now but Weeper put the gun right near Heckle head and say to me
Brethren, you betta shift ’cause brains going splash over you
and Heckle start bawl me coming out me coming out me gone he climb out of the car and Weeper grab the M16 from him and throw it on a garbage hill and point his gun and say you better run ’cause me no business with you and as the boy turn Weeper kick him in the bottom he stagger get up and run and Weeper get back in the car
anybody who want to join him better come out of the fucking car now
nobody want to come out I just want to go somewhere a cave ’round the beach or some hole I want just want one more line I just want one more line one more line before me dead just then I reason that they will kill me because they must and I goin’ be one of the man who kill HIM which is like the man who kill Jesus I wish me woman could sing to me I wish me did dead from ghetto sickness from polio or scurvy or dropsy or whatever poor people die from Weeper start the car and we drive through the Garbagelands who have the time how long we going keep driving if we never stop why we can’t reach Copenhagen City and in the gully outside Trench Town Weeper stop get out of the car and run he just run leaving three of we he just up and run and disappear in the bush like it swallow him up I wait for it to burp and Josey Wales in the front seat look at Bam-Bam and Bam-Bam run and disappear in the west and Josey Wales look at me and say fucking fool it was almost you, it was you until you sniff Weeper shit and I say what the bombocloth you talking ’bout but he run off east into the bush that swallow him up I think to wait for another burp thinking of a burp make me want to laugh but there is nothing to laugh about not this time so I start to cry nobody watching or at least I can’t see nobody watching me I want to cry louder I want my woman I want a line ’cause I hate coming down I hate it I hate it worse than I hate thinking of them shooting me and is not even a month but me start sniffling turning into madman on the street with the cocaine hunger I going mad me brain must be gone somewhere that it never coming back but nothing coming back now not a single thing something brush the bush at the top of the gully and the bush burst with light like hair on fire like burning bush in Exodus the light mean a car coming this way to use the gully as a shortcut it’s the
police I know it’s the police I feel it’s the police run run run trip over a stone smack knee hiss bombocloth get up try to run but left leg only limp like the killer in
Dirty Harry
now Harry after me no no no right there is a clump of weed so high it hide me like a tiny chair can hide a big wabbit which way did the wabbit go which way did he go but I’m not the rabbit I’m Foghorn Leghorn and I’m a gonna hide I say I’m a gonna hide behind this here weed see that what I gonna do that’s a joke . . . I say, that’s a joke, son tee hee hee giggle giggle giggle the car pass by I can’t stop giggle they’re going to catch me tee hee hee and kill me tee hee hee I don’t know why I can’t stop laughing shut up mouth I clamp my mouth shut the car pass with a rattle and roll and splash in the nasty water running down the gully waking up the rats so many rats I want to scream and aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee nobody ’round to hear me aieeeeeeeee like a girl now me gun missing I can’t find it the rats took it they going tear me skin off and eat my toes and so much garbage in the gully: Brillo box, corn flakes box, FAB detergent, reconstituted flour enriched flour plastic bags dead rat trapped in plastic bags live rats coming out of milk boxes biscuit boxes running over soft drink bottles cooking oil bottles Palmolive dishwashing liquid I think it’s Palmolive
you’re soaking in it
so many bottles like rats and rats in bottle that can’t come out have to run have to run now forget the gun just forget it they’re coming to kill you I don’t want to die have to beg Jesus have to beg Papa-Lo have to beg Copenhagen City but is not Papa-Lo send we is Josey Wales but Josey Wales can’t do anything without Papa-Lo saying yes no maybe so right I trying to think in a straight line but line means white means coke I need a hit hit hit and I shot up HIM place and now it’s something that I don’t think of all the time but something that run in and out of my head like when I not wearing brief I know that Josey Wales was supposed to make a lot of money from this or he wouldn’t do it politics don’t mean nothing to a man like that everybody know and there was no police and no guard no guard at all which is like they know we was coming but Josey promise I would get at least one police to deal with and no guard at the gate we just run in but we could have walk I think all I kill was a piano I need to get back to Copenhagen City because this look like PNP area why Weeper leave we in a PNP area when we just
kill PNP most famous sufferah and whoever find me going kill me till me dead I don’t know where this place lead and the road breaking up and the rats rats rats rats rats rats I run out and it must be late because this first street empty and I don’t know where I am this place two bars the sign say closed two sleeping dogs one creeping cat a burned-out car shell blocking the road a sign that say Rose Town Walk Ride Drive and Arrive Alive another one saying Slow: School both sign bursting with old bullet hole every hole I see I hear a blam or a bok or a pow like Harry Callahan
did he fire six shots or only five
and my gun gone and maybe I leave it in the garbage fields dunes fields dunes and
in all the confusion to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement but being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you’ve gotta ask yourself a question do I feel lucky well, do ya punk
and Harry blam blam blam hands stop shaking stop shaking please stop shaking nobody love me nobody care my head don’t think them ways it must be the coming down from the drugs why when you come down you just go down and down and downer and a high is nothing but a peak from which you just come down and down you fall and never stop and I going down lower lower soon sink into the road under the road into hell nobody going see me running through the night run faster make the world move slower but everything moving faster than me and road popping potholes and zinc fence blocking me from seeing the houses run run run right into people who I didn’t hear before I see quick behind this bush they playing dominoes somebody must did see me somebody must be behind me no they all under the streetlight four man at the table three man watching two woman the man at the head leaning back on the fence slamming down one domino then another then another they bang hard and the table shake the women scream and laugh and the radio
love to love but my baby he loves to dance he wants to dance he loves to dance he’s got to dance
but nobody around I hate them for ghetto people not supposed to be happy nobody should laugh everybody should be in misery me never laugh must be two time my entire life and saying my entire life make me feel like me old even though twenty birthday don’t come yet and all me have is
me woman and she be a good woman and me running back to her but me not running back to her and I just want to get away just crawl with left knee then right then left right left right somebody water this hedge mud on me knee and in me fist God Hallelujah Jesus don’t make there be no dog but I crawling like a dog in somebody yard this must be a PNP area because every wall orange and them people too fucking happy I should have me gun them people don’t know what it really mean to kill Jesus fucking Christ rockstone in the mud ow ow ow ow bloodcloth oh shit the woman hear, the woman who not playing where me gun where me gun where me gun but then she laugh again and say stray dog over deh so and me crawl and crawl until me can’t hear no domino no more then me run run run until I run into the main road a car scream and I aieeee back and run across the road to the banking I don’t know how only God know how or maybe Satan know but now I’m on the railroad track the track push me and pull me and lead me back to the shack somebody sing
take me back to the track jack
but is the radio in my head taking me right back to whatever start all of this and will people think that is because of something political but it is political the white man don’t care ’bout no horse race I remember when the white man and the Cuban say know the difference between pointing a gun and shooting it and now me here on the racetrack but it too dark to know if it’s really a racetrack but one plank of wood follow another it must be so no train coming this time of night but one pass by early in the morning before cock crow maybe I should just lie down right here go to sleep on the tracks and wake up in hell no that’s not me talking it’s the comedown Jesus I hope Weeper is back at the shack with some lines but there is no shack just a railroad going everywhere this could be taking me back to country or even a PNP area but at least I smell the sea them probably take him to the hospital now a hospital that scorn Rasta but you’re there now in emergency with plenty of white doctor around you the nurse says he’s lost a lot of blood doctor and the doctor says I need blah blah blah for blah blah blah on the blah blah blah stat then grab two paddles says clear and jumpshock your chest the music come up not pretty music but music that make the back of
my neck sweat the nurse look away first and the doctor say we’ve lost him everybody turn black if only my head would stop traveling and leave my feet to do it alone because they going nowhere but here the moon half but orange the sky black and red and bombopussyr’asscloth me ankle broken bottle rat and shit on the railtrack Daddy say that train toilet flush right out on the track and which worse, broken bottle or dry shit I don’t know there’s the shack I can roll out a towel and sleep please for this is not a house but is my house now closer closer who looking who watching who set trap closer closer now the door not supposed to open so easy I don’t know I say I don’t know need a line need a hit fucking pussyhole Weeper give me a hit the shack never look so small the window look out into nothing but black and inside getting darker and darker than black then I wake up drowning until I touch wood. I smell a raw man in here with me but can’t see nobody.

—Oi, you can’t stay here. Pussyhole, me say you can’t stay yah so. Yow. Yow!

—Haffi wait for Weeper. Haffi wait for Josey Wales.

—Clint Eastwood coming? Who behind him, Francis the talking mule?

—First. Is me come here first.

—No brethren me see you from last night. You not first or last.

—When you . . . You was in the second Datsun or first? Bam-Bam? So tired, so—

[CLICK]

—Hear that, pussyhole? You know click? You can tell difference between click and tick?

—Second Datsun or first? Me know you name? You is . . . you is . . .

—Like what you hear a second ago. Click or tick?

—Is not a second ago. Weeper? Tell Bam-Bam to stop chuck badness with me.

—Pussyhole, the click from a click ago. Me give you nothing to laugh ’bout?

—Me never hear no click. Heckle?

—After tick come tock. You know what come after click?

—Me never hear no click.

—Never hear the click? Well after the click come the fucking bang, want to bet say you hear that?

—Chitty chitty bang sitting on a fence.

—Boy you coked up?

—Trying to make a dollar out’a fifteen cents.

—Them make you smoke lizard tail weed?

—She twist, she twist, she twist like this.

—How much line them make you sniff?

—You know Josey Wales? You know Weeper? You know if him coming?

—You is a cokehead, pussyhole. Better if you was a battyman.

—Me not no cokehead, me just want a line. Just a line. Weeper coming and when he come he going give me a line.

—Cokehead.

—Just tell Weeper—

—Nobody name Weeper come ’round here.

—He coming and when he come he going tell you who can and who can’t come ’round here. Is fi him house this! You going see. You going see.

—House? You see any house here?

Bush. No wood, no floor, no window, just bush. On the ground, under a tree hanging tamarind and bats. Tamarind in the dirt. Tamarind in the grass from one to another, tamarind to tamarind to tamarind to broken dish to Pepsi bottle to doll’s head to grass to weed to zinc fence. A yard, somebody’s yard. Somebody who scream as soon as I see that I’m lying in the grass in somebody’s yard. She screaming and screaming and I can see who it is.