Weekend At Willies Chapter Four. Half Red

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Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. Gold On The Ceiling. Fuck Yes.










Joey grabbed his leather jacket off the end of the gurney and shook it out. Desert mud fell onto the floor tiles, and he saw that it was half red. It had been spray-painted with red paint from a fire alarm trigger.



When you pull a fire alarm trigger, you get a shot of red paint for your troubles. It marks you, and it doesn’t wear off.



You become a red man, and that color is permanent.


Red is the best color.



Tahoo: Amen.



Joey pulled on his damp leather jacket. Always mind your leather. He went looking for the girl he had brought to the hostibal.



+ + + + + + +



The young man in prison awoke with a scream. But this time, he did not hear keys jangling onto the hard tiles of a kitchen floor and echoing in the cement tomb of his cell.



He had heard a whisper of a breath escaping from the lips of a close friend. It was the last breath she would ever exhale.


It creeped him the fuck out. Where were these strange, awful dreams coming from?




+ + + + + + +



Tellesco pulled up to the side entrance of the West Clovis Medical Center and said, “I can’t go in with you like this.”


Sean looked over the seat and began to cackle. I’d never heard him laugh like that before. He said, “Why are you naked, young fellow?”



Tellesco blushed. He said, “It’s a long story. You need to go inside and have them look at your head.”


I was already out the door and on my way. I needed to have my own head checked.



+ + + + + + +


Joey went back to the front desk of the emergency entrance and sat down in front of the emissions nurse. He would have laughed at such a desk sign at any other time, but he was not in the mood for laughter.


The night nurse looked over at him. “May I help you?”


Joey shrugged. “I brought in my friend who was in a car crash and I want to know where she is.”

The nurse nodded. “You were in shock and you fainted. How are you feeling now?”


Joey said, “I’m feeling worried about my friend. Where is she?”



The nurse clicked her computer keyboard and there came a look in her face for a brief instant, and then it was gone. She said, “Oh, we have been looking for you--- wait here for a moment, please.”


She got up and left.


Joey sat there and looked around. The place was spotless, white, and clean. There sat a mop bucket nearby, and a fresh mop stood up-ended in it, setting against the wall nearby. The floors were shiny and damp from being freshly scrubbed.


He understood. Sometimes, there was blood on the floor in the entrance way.


The whole area smelled like cleaning agents.


His nose stung.



He turned around and saw an open area where folks waited for their turn to be seen. Some nestled hands or arms wrapped up in bloody bath towels from home, others held cloth-wrapped bags of hostibal ice against various body parts (one held it against his right eye) and most of these folks had someone sitting next to them who probably had brought them here.




“Excuse me.” The voice made him swing back around to the nurse’s station, but there was no one there. He looked up over his shoulder and saw someone standing there dressed in blue surgeons’ scrubs.



Joey stood up. “Where is she?” He looked down to what the doctor was holding in his hands. “What’s that?”



Then he recognized it. He was wearing the same sort of thing. It was a damp leather jacket, the size that a young woman might wear, and there was red paint all over it.



The doctor said, “It looks like you know about this red paint. It’s a marker for an emergency fire alarm. Half of your face is covered with it. We thought it was blood when we brought you in. You need to come with us.”



Joey looked at the security guard behind the doctor and the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up.





He listened to his instinct.



Joey fucking bailed. He could run quite fast. He didn’t bother looking for the expensive car. That would have been too easy.


Behind him, the security guard grunted and took off after him, and the doctor yelled, “You need to answer for her death!”



But Joey didn’t hear that. He was in panic mode.


Sometimes, panic is your friend.





Sometimes, that is all there is left for you.







God Help You.


God Help Us All.


---willies out.






Buddy Guy. Baby, Please Don’t Leave Me. Milky strings; dirty groove. Dig Deep.




































Radio head. Optimistic. The best you can...












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