The Boy and the Bookstore

Do The Right Thing

It was the day after Jamie’s performance. Jamie had been blowing up Sam’s phone. She was worried that he was mad at her for talking to Cam and ignoring him. In reality Sam was slightly mad but was more disgusted that Jamie couldn’t see through Cam and realize he was a sleaze ball trying to use her. He had told her he understood. When she tried to get him to come down to a jam session she was having with her band Sam passed on the opportunity and came up with a lie that he was shooting some magazine advertisement thing. In reality he was with Pete most of the day spying on Cam. As the day turned into night Jamie texted Sam again to see if he wanted to eat some popcorn and catch a movie on TV in her apartment. Sam thought this was turning into a date until she mentioned that all her band mates had friends over and she was feeling left out. Either way he wasn’t interested and instead headed out to a bar to brood for the evening telling Jamie that he had a date for the night.

Sam had grown accustomed to the run down bars. They were off the radar of upper class people and he didn’t have to worry about any serious security. Although because of this the company that was in the bar was usually somewhat sketchy. It wasn’t uncommon to see a biker gang come through these places or even a person or two that had themselves involved with the drug scene. Tonight Sam thought he might try out a new one of these bars and see what kind of drink specials they had.

Sam was on his third drinking of the evening when an older burly man came and sat two bar stools away from him. The two didn’t say anything but gave each other a nodding and lifting of their drinks to salute a fellow man drinking off his disgusts of the world. The man had black hair that covered his forehead and covered most of his neck. He had a black beard with a few spots of grey in it. Sam assumed he was a man in his 40s. From what Sam noticed the guy wasn’t wearing any affiliated gear but was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, and boots. He had dark eyes that continued to stare off at the counter. He was rubbing his left ring finger with his right hand.

“Newly divorced?” Sam couldn’t help but say. The guy looked up at him with a slightly outraged face at first. He glanced away and then look back at Sam.

“Yeah. Signed the final papers today.” The man said.

“She get anything valuable?” Sam asked.

“Only my dignity.” He said with a small chuckle. That made Sam smile a little.

“Any kids you have to worry about?”

“I have a son. He’s going to be turning ten soon.” He reached into his wallet and pulled out a photo and slid it over towards Sam. Sam got up and sat at the bar stool next to the man.

“Good looking boy. Looks strong too” Sam said.

“Yeah he’s a good kid. You have any kids yet?” The man asked.

“Nope. I don’t think I could handle a kid right now. I’m still trying to figure out my life.”

“Yeah you still have plenty of time.” It seemed like the conversation might die there but then the man reached out his hand. “My name is Henry by the way.”

“Jacob” Sam said shaking his hand.

“Well Jacob you’re only in your twenties right?” Sam nodded his head. “It’s not uncommon to feel that way then. It’s not like a switch just goes on and off and all the sudden you get it. It’s a gradual process. Heck I’m 41 and I’m still trying to figure out. Women, children, life… it all just happens. You have to take the good with the bad.”

“And right now we are both dealing with the bad.”

“Damn right.”

“I’m buying you another beer. We need to figure out how we get back to the good.” Sam said getting the bar tenders attention.

The two of them drank and drank for the night. They talked about their ex-lovers, the friends that they didn’t have anymore, how it’s tough to maintain that same identity of being a man over time, and many other topics. Henry being a bigger guy and drinking beers allowed for him to stay on pace with Sam. The two of them had left the bar and were walking away down the road looking for a taxi ride home. Henry pulled out his cell phone and decided to call a taxi company and was giving the guy an address to meet them when Sam heard a girl scream. It was coming from behind an abandoned building. Sam quickly took off to look for the noises. He quickly walked along the side of the building looking for someone while also listening for the noises. He came to the back of the abandoned building and saw a man trying to take his pants off with one hand while he had his hand covering the mouth of a woman. Her shirt had been ripped and her pants were on the ground. Her underwear looked to be torn off. She was squirming but without too much force. She was acting as if she had been drugged.

“Hey!” Sam yelled. The man looked over at saw Sam. He pulled his pants back up and let go of the girl.

“Mind your own business pal.” The guy said. The girl fell and was laying next to the bottom of the building. Sam continued to walk towards the man.

“A woman screaming is now my business.” The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife. Sam continued to walk towards him and looked at the girl. She was barely conscious. He stopped when he was slightly out of reach of the man and his knife.

“You just made a bad decision mister.” The guy lunged towards Sam with the knife leading the way. Sam moved out of the way and grabbed the man’s arm. He elbowed the guy in the head causing the man to stagger backwards. The man got angry and tried to slash Sam a few times with the blade. Sam dodged the blade attempts. On the fourth attempt the man got close enough that Sam punched him in the face with his left hand causing the man to fall backwards and drop the knife. Sam kicked the knife behind him. The man stood back up and tried to tackle Sam. Sam quickly retaliated by raising a knee to the man’s face and knocking him down to the ground. He was temporarily knocked out moaning and shaking his head. He went over to look at the girl. She had gotten herself sitting against the building wall and was coherent enough to know what was going on now. Sam took off his jacket and gave it to her to put on. The girl had sweaty brown hair that was the length to her shoulders. Her hair covered most of her face but she shook it away enough that Sam could see her face. She had a bloody nose and a few cuts on her face. He also noticed she had the same amber brown colored eyes that Amie had. Sam had a quick flashback to Amie sitting under a tree and quickly moving her hair and catching a glance of him the same way this lady had. It set Sam off. He turned around and went back to the guy laying on the ground. He was starting to stand himself up when Sam walked back over and punched him in the face. He continued to punch him in the face yelling at him for what he tried to do when Henry finally came over and grabbed Sam by the shirt and threw him off of the guy.

“Jacob! Stop! Stop!” Henry said holding Sam back from the guy. “He’s unconscious now. What are you trying to do?”

“He tried to rape this girl.” Sam yelled angrily.

“Yeah I know. I already called the cops. They’re on the way. You can’t beat this guy though. You’ll get arrested too.”

“I’m going to get arrested for stopping a guy from raping this girl? Who would do such a thing?” Sam said ecstatically.

“Well if you keep going you’re going to kill this guy. I’m pretty sure they can arrest you for that. Now we just have to wait for the cops to show up. You’re going to have to answer some questions now.”

“To hell with that, I’m out of here.” Sam said walking away.

“What you saw could be the only thing that gets this way tossed away in jail.” Henry yelled at Sam. Sam stopped and turned around. He looked at the girl. She was shaking and was holding onto his jacket. He walked over to her and crouched down in front of her.

“You’re going to be okay now. That guy is knocked out. He’s not going to hurt you. We are going to get you to the hospital. Do you have a car?” Sam quietly asked. She nodded her head and pointed down the road. There was a car parked along the street. She must have been walking towards her car. Sam helped stand her up and slide her jeans back up on her body. Her purse was thrown a few feet away. With her right arm around his shoulders he walked her over towards her purse. He reached in there and found her keys.

“I’m taking her to the hospital. You can wait here for the cops and explain what happened.” Sam said. Henry didn’t know what to do so he stayed there and waited while Sam helped walk the girl to her car. He got her in the passenger side and drove her off to the hospital.

As he drove to the hospital the girl had passed out. He rushed into the hospital and got the attention of a nurse. Them wheel chaired her inside and off into a separate room. Sam went back outside and grabbed her purse from the car. He handed it to one of the nurses in the emergency room. He quickly told her that he saw this girl being attacked and that he thought she had been drugged. The nurse asked a few more questions and was writing down Sam’s answers. Sam said he was just going to go park the car in the parking lot and he’d be right back, but Sam parked the car and left the keys underneath the floor mat and walked away. He did all that he knew he could do. If the girl was drugged the hospital would get it out of her system. She wasn’t beaten up too badly that it wouldn’t heal soon. Henry would tell the cops the story about the mugger and attempted rapist would go to jail. Sam couldn’t take the risk of a cop identifying him and getting arrested himself. As Sam walked away from the hospital parking lot towards a man road he noticed that he had been slightly cut on his side. It was nothing life threatening but he knew it was going to hurt in the morning when the booze had worn off. He quickly found a cab. He knew once he got home he needed to get his side stitched up and hoped that Pete was home.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning Sam woke up on the couch to the sound of the television on. Sam was sitting in the chair watching the news. Sam slowly rolled up his shirt and looked at his right oblique area where Pete had stitched him up last night. He felt pretty sore and the area around the wound stung pretty bad. Sam sat up on the couch and rubbed his eyes. He looked over at Pete who was starring at him.

“How you feeling?” Pete asked.

“I actually feel like I’m hungover, plus my side is throbbing. I guess I should be happy my side is throbbing because then my hands don’t feel all that bad.” Sam looked over his hands. It was obvious he had been in a fight.

“I recorded something for you that was on earlier.” Pete said. He grabbed the remote and went into the DVR settings until he found the piece he wanted. He clicked it and the two of them began to watch it. A male news reporter in a suit was standing in front of a hospital. He began talking.

“Last night was a night that Amber Stone will never forget. After a casual night out having a few drinks with friends she decided to call it a night and was walking back to her car when a man attacked her and drugged her. But before the man could take advantage of poor Miss Stone an unidentified man came to her rescue. The two men fought until the attacker was knocked unconscious. A local man named Henry Wellmeyer witnessed the scene stating it was ‘self-defense that the fight had gotten that far’ and that he waited with the attacker until the police arrived while this heroic young man took Miss Stone to the hospital to be looked after. Mr. Wellmeyer stated to the police officers that he did not know the man or his name. He simply witnessed the fight take place while he called the cops.”

The scene switched to Amber in her hospital bed. Her eye was bruised and she had a bandage on her chin. “I just want to thank the man that saved me last night. I wish I knew your name or how to contact you to thank you in person and at least give you back your jacket.” Amber said lifting up Sam’s jacket so that the camera could see. Pete paused the television and looked at Sam.

“So this was the bar fight you got into last night huh?” Pete said sarcastically. “I really hope you were sober enough that you didn’t leave anything in that jacket.” Pete said.

“No I made sure to grab it out of there before I brought her inside the hospital.” Sam felt around his pockets to make sure his wallet was still in there as well as his keys and phone. “How the hell did that get in the news already? It happened last night at like midnight.”

“It was around one fifteen according to this story. You didn’t get home till past two. You do realize that right?”

“What do I have a curfew now or something?” Sam asked sarcastically. He yawned.

“You do realize you should probably be in the hospital yourself right now right? Knowing you, I’m sure you had plenty of alcohol in your system and then you lost a good amount of blood based on the bloody t-shirt in the garbage.” Sam cut off Pete.

“I planned it that way. I knew if I had enough alcohol in me it’d kill off any infections I could get from the guy’s knife.” Sam said sarcastically. Pete shook his head.

“Were you with that Henry guy when this happened?” Pete asked.

“Why are you going to get jealous?”

“Go ahead and make jokes. When that attacker wakes up and says you beat the shit out of him for no reason and this other guy is forced to tell the truth I won’t lose a night’s sleep over it. I wasn’t the one there. They didn’t see my face.”

“We had some drinks at a bar. We talked for a few hours about life. I doubt he’s going to side with the guy who was trying to rape a girl over the guy who bought him drinks while he talked about his son.”

“Are you 100% positive of that? What if he has a record himself and they try to charge him with battery on this attacker guy? You don’t think he’d roll on you then?” Pete questioned.

“Damn. You’re right. What you want to do?” Sam asked concerned.

“Well we have his name. I’m going to look into him. I think you need to talk to this guy though. See what was actually was said and what happened with the cops. You know how the media is. They say what will sell their story best but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all true.” Pete said.

“You find me an address and I’ll approach this guy. He just signed his divorce papers yesterday. He could be living in a hotel for all we know until he finds a new place.”

“Well perhaps the ex-wife is a good person to start with then.” Pete said getting off the couch and walking away.

“If she’s hot do the right thing and give her to me. A hero deserves his reward after all. Henry isn’t using it anymore!” Sam yelled at Pete.