Another Sample of Love Never Dies

The next few days were uneventful. Alexi walked to work, punched his time card at the enormous factory clock, skirted disaster around the big thudding machine, and made small talk with his coworkers. He had made two deliveries, and earned fifteen dollars.

On a Sunday, Alexi was on his way to the hideout when he passed Stephanova hanging around outside the beauty shop with a few friends. He slowed his walk, and the girls giggled among themselves and stared as he passed.“Hi, Alexi,” one of the girls shouted as he passed the group. He raised his hand and kept walking, hearing the giggles of the girls fade as he continued. Farther down the sidewalk, Alexi passed a fellow by himself, Tom, leaning against a building, eyeing the girls and gnawing on a toothpick. Tom didn’t notice Alexi; he was enraptured by the small crowd of girls.

A shiver ran down Alexi’s spine as he passed Tom, so he slowed his stride for a moment, and decided to turn around and observe. He crossed the street, and walked the other direction, chancing a quick glance in the direction of this lecher. He strolled a few blocks, and stood at a busy street corner, glancing back at the group of girls and Tom watching them. The girls were too caught up in their conversations to notice they were being watched  —  by Alexi, or Tom leaning against the nearby building.

Alexi stood there frozen, hoping for a cue as to how to proceed. He felt like a wolf sizing up its pray. He allowed the activity and energy of the busy avenue to wrap him in its cloak. Tom took the toothpick from his mouth, tossed it into the street, and began walking toward the group of girls.Alexi’s blood thudded through his veins, and his face burned. He glanced around and saw Fred coming out of a nearby store. Alexi turned and approached the boy, who looked at him with recognition as he approached.

“Go get the fellas,” Alexi said as he leaned in toward the boy. Fred turned and ran down the sidewalk, dodging the strollers, drunks, and prostitutes. Alexi watched Tom walk to the girls, speak to them briefly a moment, and lead one away down the sidewalk.

Alexi felt the urge to kill within him. He clenched and unclenched his fists, and squeezed the gaslight pole he leaned against and watched the alley where Tom had the girl. He bummed a cigarette from a person walking by and lit it, hoping it would help him pass the time until Fred returned with the gang.

Just as Alexi threw down the spent cigarette, Fred ran up to him, out of breath, and turned around. Alexi looked down the sidewalk. The boy had brought four others, aged fifteen to twenty-one. The boss was among them. “Where’s Scott?” he said. “Church, with his mom and sisters.” Alexi turned his gaze to the alley across the street. The fellows looked. Alexi spoke over his shoulder, “That alley  —  he took her into it. That’s where he raped my sister. Wait a few minutes then we hit him.”

He looked at Stephanova talking with her friends. “I want to make sure he’s the guy, then we go, okay?” They all nodded. As Alexi spoke these words to the gang, he wondered where the words came from. He wondered why he was disobeying his father. He felt guilty, dirty, and wondered if there was some way he could undo his command to Fred to “go get the fellas.” But, the love and compassion he felt for his trusting and naïve sister as he looked at her with her friends brought a lump to his throat and an ache to his heart.

“Give me a cigarette,” Alexi demanded. The boss stepped forward, and handed him one, lighting it for him. Alexi put the cigarette in his mouth, and made his way across the street. He dodged a few wagons and horses and arrived on the opposite sidewalk. He walked up to Stephanova, and got her attention while the other girls clammed up and looked him over. “That guy, the one who took your friend over there,” he pointed toward the alleyway with his thumb. Stephanova stiffened up, and gave her full attention to Alexi. “Is he the one that…?” Stephanova looked to the sidewalk, then to her friends, then she met Alexi’s stare. She nodded. “He paid me,” she said softly. “That doesn’t matter,” Alexi said, then turned away from her and nodded to the gang across the street.

They all crossed the street and in a minute were at his side as he quickly walked down the sidewalk toward the alley. No one spoke. A few boys looked to Alexi for direction. He rounded the corner and entered the alley, the gang filing in behind him. Tom was twenty feet down the alley, around the corner of a protruding doorway. The girl was on her knees, her right hand firmly grasping his pole.

Alexi put his arm out straight, and the gang stopped in its tracks. Tom hadn’t noticed that he was being observed, but the girl slowed the action of her right hand, and glanced over at the boys. She moved her head back, and Tom grasped her by the hair to coax her to resume. Alexi slowly walked forward and met Tom’s half-closed eyes, which in a minute opened wide while he attempted to push away the girl and put his penis back in his pants.Inside his body, Alexi wrestled with the choice of lunging out or slowly advancing.

He felt no need for decorum while Tom tried to use both his hands to get rid of his awkward erection. Alexi’s inner turmoil made him seethe, and he stood there for a few seconds, feeling his inner energy rise. It rose through his feet and his legs, to his gut, where it expanded, and he felt sick to his stomach, but he remained, his gaze finally resting on Tom’s eyes, where Alexi saw terror.

Alexi moved forward to Tom, in his face in a second, feeling Tom’s puffy breath on his cheeks. He reached out a hand, put it to Tom’s neck, and clenched. The gang had moved up behind him, and stood ready with adrenalin coursing through their veins. Alexi, his hand to Tom’s neck, his crew behind him decided it was time to talk. “So you think you’re hot, mister.” Tom tried to gulp for air. “You think you can grab girls off the street, take them back here, give them a few bucks, and have them suck you off.”

Tom tried to gulp air again, but his windpipe was constricted, and he reached up a hand and began to squirm. He was afraid for his life. Alexi’s hand tightened at Tom’s  throatand Tom had all ten fingernails scraping at Alexi’s hand, trying to escape. Then Tom decided he must fight or perish. He brought a knee up and connected with Alexi’s groin, and Alexi released his grip, and buckled from the blow.

“Get him guys,” the boss commanded. The seething gang advanced on Tom, and held nothing back while they slammed their fists into his face, his chest, his gut, and made him double over.Alexi slowly rose, and saw the boss slam his own fist into Tom’s face. Tom’s head flew back into the brick wall, and he still continued to try to fight back.

As blood poured from his nose and mouth, the boss grabbed Tom by the hair, held his head steady, and brought around a brutal right hook that threw Tom’s head into the wall again. Alexi heard a crack, like melon splitting, and Tom’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he slumped down, unconscious, like a felled tree. As Alexi watched, horrified, the gang members punched Tom’s face, and slammed their fists into his jaw, even though his arms now lay limp at his side.

The fear that coursed through Alexi’s veins brought him to his feet, and he tried to pry the boss from Tom, but was thrown back in the dirt. The boss continued to pummel Tom’s limp jaw until his knuckles were raw and bleeding, and then Tom was nothing more than a pile of bones, and blood seeped from his eyes, his ears, his head, and his mouth.

Alexi rose, and stood next to the gang as they looked with hatred at the dead boy. They all moved back a few steps. Alexi turned his attention to the girl who had stood and watched the mutilation. Another surge began to rise up in Alexi’s body, and he surveyed the scene. He felt the shock that comes from witnessing such raw violence. He remembered the battle at Terraminsku river, but felt that was different.   “How do you like that?” the boss said. “I didn’t think we were going to kill him,” Alexi said. “Too bad now,” the boss said, straightened his clothing and sauntered from the alley.

Alexi knew he had to tend to evidence, the body. He was the leader now. He looked around, allowing his thoughts to come to him, like fish nibbling at bait. He breathed deep and turned to meet the eyes of the boys in the gang. He lifted an arm and waved at the boys, who moved into a group, and looked to him for guidance. “Let’s get him out of here,” Alexi said.

As a spider’s web can be dispersed by a stiff downpour, the minds of the boys in Alexi’s small gang began to clear and to come back to life, and one of the older fellows stepped forward and spoke. “Maybe we should get a carpet or a big box and put him in it.” Alexi pondered that idea for a moment, and said, “Good, a box or a carpet.”

With a small task at hand, the fellows in the group shuffled around, looked to each other for direction, and began to disperse. The older fellow who had mentioned the box or carpet moved toward the bloody mess on the alley street and knelt down, looking the body over and thinking to himself. He stuffed one hand into the dead boy’s pocket, and then the other, and brought out a small bundle of dollar bills and a key. He inspected the items, and  then turned to Alexi who was looking right through him. “Should we split it?” he asked. “What?” Alexi said, snapped back to the reality of the incident. “Split the money.” He counted out the money. “He has fourteen dollars. Maybe we can each take a few for ourselves.”

Alexi thought for a minute and nodded. The boy rose, peeled back four dollars from the bundle, jammed them into his pocket, and handed the rest of the money to Alexi. Alexi looked down at the money in his hands, and counted it. He had ten. Alexi looked up from the dollar bills, reviewed the alley, and hoped that all this mess surrounding him would turn out to be a dream.What have I done, he asked himself.

He glanced around the alley, hoping for some answer to his question, but none came. He looked down at the mangled mass of bloody flesh on the ground, and knew that his life had changed forever. A chill ran through his bones, and he invoked a silent prayer, sent to any nearby angels who may have the power to intervene, that if he should ever make it out of this trouble, he would devote his lifetime to answering and fulfilling the angel’s needs.

He tried to propel his thoughts to another place, a place where his only thoughts and worries were of the possible punishment he might incur if he wandered home late for dinner, or with torn pants. He longed for the time and place of relative innocence, of nature, birds, wood ducks, beaver, and bear. He felt that if he could just retrieve that state of mind, that feeling, if only for an instant, that it would refresh his taut body and tormented soul.

He felt a sense of urgency, a need to change, to start fresh, and put his current life style and forthcoming demons behind him and at rest.The fellows returned to the alley, lugging a flimsy cardboard box, and dropped it down into the dirt at the feet of the dead boy.

Alexi was yanked back into the present and had to respond to life’s immediate needs. “What do we do now?” little Bobby said as he tipped his cap back on his head and gazed up at Alexi for leadership.“Put him in the box,” Alexi said, with a face that put the boys into immediate action. They grabbed Tom’s floppy arms and legs, and shoved the rumpled bloody mass into the box, and one of the fellows in the group took a role of tape and wrapped up the package at the loose ends.“Now, put this in the river, and we can all go back to our daily business,” Alexi said, and the big, bulky box was hauled away, and only a bright puddle of blood was left at Alexi’s feet, and he kicked a bunch of dirt into the puddle, and all evidence of the crime was covered.

As Alexi turned and headed out of the alley, set foot on the sidewalk, and aimed his feet toward his family’s apartment, he felt like weeping, and so avoided the gazes of the cute girls who stood giggling in front of the beauty shop.