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Volume VII – Terry Turned Right
“I’m going to tell you something
I never told anyone.”
“Dude! No,
you’re always doing that shit.
I’m your emotional dumping ground.”
“That’s all right. You love it.”
The Judge takes a drink,
“Makes you more interesting.”
I take a drink.
Somehow he’s right.
I give him a nod, “Go on.”
“I went to school
grade school
high school, hell
all the schools
with a kid named Jerry,
no, Terry
Novacks.”
The Judge pauses.
He pulls a
cigarette
slowly
from his
pack of menthols,
long
and brown
he holds
the flame
to it
for
a long
time
dragging and puffing.
His eyes water
a little.
“And what did
Jerry, no, Terry
Novaks do?”
“He was in
the Air Force
with me.”
Eww, I think
then ask
“Was he in ‘Nam
with you?”
Big gulp of Scotch
“No.”
A wave to the bartender.
“Never made it.”
“Fuckin buzz-kill
bastard,”
I say and nod
at the bartender,
(I'll need one, too.)
“tell me the rest.”
a chuckle,
a sweaty smile
like we’re in a lounge
in the jungle,
holding that thin
brown cigarette
with two fingers
and a thumb
pointedly
out in front of him.
Squinted eyes.
“We were on a
training mission over
by Vegas
out in the desert
there.”
His big paw
points his drink
towards the Valley
de Death.
“Terry and I were
in formation
and a captain
was on his ass."
A drink. A drag.
"I pulled out
to gain an offensive
position”
My own exhale.
“Jesus,
is this going to lead
to a crash?”
“Yeah.”
“Was it legal?"
A confused look.
I take a drink,
"Meaning were they
below the flight deck
or any of that
crazy mumbo-jumbo?”
(I know from Top Gun)
The answer takes
another three rounds.
Yes, they were below
the flight deck, but
that’s not really a big deal.
The Judge was
never allowed in the sky
with the Captain
again.
“They knew I’d kill him.”
It’s Friday night.
This is hardly
happy hour fodder
but The Judge is
buying.
“Didn’t you say
you were in an offensive
position?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you think
about taking him out
then?”
“I couldn’t ...” he
finishes his tumbler,
the glass smacks down
on the bar.
“I watched the whole
thing happen”
The Judge nods for
two more.
“Terry turned right
when he should’ve
went up.”
Nothing I kept
bottled inside of me
this week
seems important
now.
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