God Is a Comedian

Down in the basement was a very frightened Jenny, a bored looking employee of Dokey's and a calm Dokey, who was sitting on a metal chair. I stood behind Tommy as the man hand Dokey an ax. "What's going on?" Jimmy said, causally.

"Where's your other brother?" Dokey asked, nonchalantly.

"He had to run off." Tommy said.

"That doesn't look good. Does it?" Dokey shifted a little in his seat. It was dark in the basement. The only lift source was a single light bulb placement on the ceiling above Dokey's head.

"He's scared." Tommy explained.

"I guess I could understand that." Dokey said standing up.

Tommy immediately turned towards Jenny. "You should leave. Jimmy take her upstairs."

"No. Allie can take her upstairs." Jimmy stated.

"No. No ones' taking anybody upstairs." Dokey ordered. His tone reached a threatening level.

"Are you going to tell us what we are doing down here?" Jimmy asked.

"Shut up, Jimmy." Dokey took the words right out of my mouth. "You know what's funny. All those people right up there. And we're down here, just a few feet away. Something totally different going on, you know? And they're none the wiser. It's funny how that works. You know, you guys could wind up dead tonight. I just say that I was at a wake. I mean, it's the truth. I got witnesses. You ever found yourself in a situation, Tommy, with your brothers that people could have swore you were there. And yet, you were doing something else."

I knew he was talking about the lie I had told him not an hour ago. I started to think back on it. Was there something more I could have said that would have prevented this incident? Nothing came to mind.

"I need her to leave, Dokey." Tommy said slowly.

"I'm fine right here." Jenny said quickly.

"See, she's good. I know you killed Huey. I don't know how you did it, but you killed him." Dokey said to both Jimmy and Tommy. "You were the last one with him, Tommy. And you, Big Mouth, shooting your mouth off in the bar. How your brothers killed for you. You have a big mouth, Jimmy." Dokey started to pace around the chair. "You know, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I do know one way to get to the truth." Dokey set an empty keg down in front of Jimmy. "Jimmy, would you do me a favor? Put your leg up there."

I was finally shaken out of my silence, "Stop this." I grabbed Tommy's arm; begging him to do something.

"He was in jail the night Huey was killed, Dokey." Tommy said quickly.

"Yea, that's good. I would have thought of that too. Now would you put your leg up there, please." Jimmy laughed quietly and put his leg upon the metal keg. "That's your bum leg, isn't it?" Dokey asked with a grin on his face.

Jimmy laughed. "You better leave me dead, Dokey. Because I'm gonna stick this stump straight down your throat."

"You got it. It's a promise." Dokey said, pointing the ax of Jimmy.

"You wanna know what happen. Do you? I want her out of here." Tommy pointed at Jenny.

"Sure. Take her upstairs." Dokey said to his friend.

"I leave here, I call the police." Jenny quickly said, shaking the man's guiding hand off.

"She's not going to call the police with us down here." Tommy said. "Please. It's okay." Jenny slowly and quietly walked upstairs.

"What about Allie?" Dokey asked, motioning to me, who was still clinging to Tommy's arm.

"She has to stay. She would call the cops." Tommy said through a soft smile.

"Is someone gonna to something because my leg's getting tired." Jimmy said sarcastically.

"Shut your mouth, okay. And you got one chance to tell me the truth." I didn't know how Dokey's voice could get more threatening but it did.

"We called Huey because we screwed up and the Italians were coming after us." Tommy started to explain.

"I'm getting a cramp." Jimmy said as he pulled a gun out from under his jacket and pointed it at Dokey. Practically at the same time, Tommy hit Dokey's friend in the face as he pulled out his own gun. Tommy took it and pointed the gun at him. "Stay down." I pressed myself against the wall, trying to become invisible.

"You pull guns on me?" Dokey said. "You are dead."

" And you acted so friendly." Jimmy laughed.

"You want a gun?" Tommy said as he laid the gun down on the keg.

"Oh, that's real smart, Tommy." Jimmy said with uneasiness.

"No, thanks. I'm cool with my ax, Tommy." Dokey said holding up the long wooden handle ax.

"We need your brother's help because we killed somebody. Okay." Tommy continued to explain.

"You need my brother's help because you killed somebody. You did you kill?" Dokey asked.

"I can't tell you and you don't need to know you." Tommy replied.

"Tommy, don't tell me what I need and don't need, okay?"

"It was someone who wanted Kevin dead. He owned him money and he couldn't pay. It was an accident but that doesn't make him anyless dead. Huey came to the hospital and said he had a connection with Sal and he'd try and help us. That was the last time we saw him." Tommy said.

"So you killed somebody, it just wasn't Huey-"

"He was standing right where you were." Tommy said, cutting Dokey off.

"What'd you do? You'd shoot him?" Dokey started to examine the concrete floor.

"Yea." Tommy muttered.

"Well, shooting makes a mess." Dokey started to look around the bare room for blood strains. There wasn't any because I had cleaned all the blood up. "Earl. Roll over there and put your fingers in that drain, please." Dokey pointed to the small drain in the floor. Earl slowly walked over to the drain, took the small lid off and placed two fingers in the drain. When he removed them, they were covered in blood.

And that's the way life works sometimes. If they hadn't killed Louie Downtown, we would have been dead right then and there. "Put the gun down, Jimmy." Tommy said. Jimmy slowly lowered the gun. "Are we good here, Dokey?"

"Don't you ever point a gun at me again or I will hack you in half." Dokey snapped at Tommy. Dokey and Earl went quickly and quietly back upstairs, followed by the three of us. I quickly went to the bar and took a huge drink of the Kosher wine. It helped stop my hand my shaking. My shock was gone by the time Tommy stood up to say something.

"If I could say something. I wanted to say something about Huey. I…" He voice trailed off while Jenny walked out of the bar with another man. "….I think if you could remember what a person meant to you and hold on to that feeling. I think you can survive a time like this."