Educational Experience

Part III--Chapter 21

If you're used to the usual three act format, this may throw you a curve. But EE is meant to play out differently than most novels. You're living with us, and the story may zig when you think it should zag--like life does. There are a few more loose ends to tidy up, especially between Colt and Wyatt. This chapter leaves you hanging a little. But those of you who've been with me the whole time know to expect little miracles and surprises and "ambiguities" that lead to or refer to other things. Stay with it. We're really close to the end now, at last!

So Chase sits down next to me and hands me his cell. Last thing I'm in the mood for, but he looks kind of tired and rumpled, like he's been working all night on this thing. And probably giving the wife and kids holy hell, too.

He gets obsessed. Like a bloodhound, chasing that scent--relentless. And I owe him big time for that, because he has done things for me that nobody else could.

So I de-escalated a little bit to check out what he'd brought up on the screen. He'd lined up some videos, maybe to take my mind off the shit that's about to hit the fan. Or maybe because he saw that murderous stare I was giving the Child Protective Services crewe and wanted to calm my ass down.

So he hit the little triangle "Play" thing on the first video that was basically just a bunch of people on the street reacting to the praying and whatnot going on in front of the building. It was from KVOA News. One of our local talking heads trying to do a network news type of thing.

I hate to be mean, but Tucson gets the leftovers. Once in a while we get somebody good, trying to get some impressive video to help them get hired in one of the bigger cities. They do a killer job for a year or so, and then one day you hear the other ones wishing them good luck in LA or Chicago or New York or wherever they've moved up to.

But this one was sort of engaging, at least. She looked like she was right out of college and still kind of nervous in front of the camera. But she was personable, not shell shocked. She set it up with a little summary of what was happening to me that day and who I was.

And then this one young black dude with all these little D.L. Hughley dreads sticking up goes, "I mean, c'mon, man! He had a few guns? This is Arizona! You can get a gun at WalMart'n' then go on over to the drive through liquor store for a twelve pack and a box o' bullets. I got a neighbor could open his own gun shop! You name it, he got it-house fulla kids, too. Catholic dude. One o' them pistol packin' Christians."

That made me actually laugh. Because I had a friend who used to say there were passages in the New Testament that made him feel like if Jesus was alive today, "dude might just bus' a cap in yo' ass," if you riled him up enough. He meant how Jesus supposedly made that big scene in the temple, knocking tables over and calling the shop keepers whores and all. Plus, he hung out with thugs. You get the idea.

The next one was a young Mexican woman holding a toddler on her hip. There were some other little kids running around behind her, making faces at the camera and whatnot. I love how little kids just do whatever, whenever. I was more interested in the crazy stuff they were doing than what their mother was saying.

But she said, "I got a whole Thanksgiving at that food thing they do every year. A big old turkey and everything! And my kids, they get shoes an' their shots for school every year-there's a whole lot of people couldn't ever see a doctor if it wasn't for him. And I mean, there's boys his age out there runnin' the streets, doing drugs, shooting up the neighborhood and got a buncha baby mamas and kids running around that they don't even care about. Him, he wants his children! They should support that!"

And then these two girls, two really white girls, come on giggling and shrugging and one of them goes, "Like, I don't know what he supposedly did or anything, but I mean, if you just look at him--okay, I mean you shunt just, like, let somebody off the hook because they're good looking or anything like that. But--"