Wrong Thing (21 page)

There were six cars. The Kid was sitting with his back to the wall, and the cops stood behind the cars, forming a semicircle around him. They all had guns aimed at him.

Vanjii. Vanjii. He kept bringing her face into his mind, remembered how she looked when she was smiling in the bathtub in candlelight and loving him.

“Lie down on the ground and put your hands on top of your head! Do it right now!”

He stood up, flipped them off with one hand, and reached in his pocket with the other, pretending he was reaching for a gun. He didn't get his hand out of the pocket before the bullets hit him, turning him weightless and throwing him against the wall. It hurt and it didn't hurt and then it hurt again. The cops kept on firing until there were bullet holes even in the soles of his feet, but he didn't know that. He thought about Catboy and hoped that nobody would be mean to him.

Then he was dead, and some people cried, but most didn't. And the people with lawns and 401(k) plans and straight white teeth felt safer now, because the Kid was gone. But, in hospitals and houses in the barrios, more kids were being born. And, when they were born, they were slapped on the ass and they started to cry. With their first breath they started to cry, and they would not be quiet because they knew what was theirs.

I
've heard it said many times that writing is a lonely occupation. This is not true if the writer has friends like mine. Years ago, on a cold winter night in Santa Fe, Chrissie Orr and I were eating, drinking, and talking as we sat together in the warmth of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and the idea for this novel came to me during our conversation. I told Chrissie, who then encouraged me to write it. I am grateful to her, for that and many other things.

There are people to whom I owe thanks who would prefer not to be mentioned by name, some for reasons of good taste and some because they have cases pending. My gratitude to them is no less because they are anonymous.

Thanks also: Larry Fondation, Nick Hentoff, Cecily Dubusker, Taryn Shell, Craig Taylor, Dale Baich, M.V. Moorhead, Chuck Bowden, Lonna Kelley, Rebecca Story, Susan Thompson, Rebecca Hoelting, Daishin Bree Stephenson.

And to Andrea Gibbons and Gary Phillips, without whom you wouldn't be reading this book right now.

A sliver of this book appeared, in different form, in the anthology
Phoenix Noir.
I'm grateful to Patrick Millikin for that.

A man can live and write without cats, but why would he? Nine deep bows to Jimmy and Maggie, who taught me that opposable thumbs don't mean I'm smart.

The Sitting Frog Zen Center

Phoenix, Arizona

Summer, Year of the Tiger

Barry Graham is a fiction writer, poet, journalist, and blogger whose novels have received international acclaim and whose reporting has helped more than one corrupt politician leave office.

Born and dragged up in Glasgow, Scotland, he has traveled widely and has been based in the United States since 1995. His previous occupations include boxing and grave-digging. He is also a Zen monk and serves as the Abbot of The Sitting Frog Zen Center in Phoenix. He has witnessed two executions, invited by the inmates, not the state. To keep up with what he's doing, find him online at dogobarrygraham.net.

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