Many Rivers to Cross

42

42 it turned dark, PJ stole through the forest of downed oak limbs covering the streetcar tracks on St. Charles Avenue and found a hiding place behind a thick green hedge that bordered the hotel's circle drive. The yellow school bus was parked in from, where he'd first seen it. He knelt on the damp grass and peered through a breach in the wall of bushes, watching the cops unload the bus while he ate two packages of cheese crackers from the grocery store. They were laughing and drinking beer in a swirl of flashlight beams as they hauled their takings into the dark hoteL Mostly electronics, from what PJ could see- flat screen televisions and laptops and DVD players-but also a bulky chair that took two men to handle and even a glass chandelier that sparkled like a thousand tiny mirrors in the crisscrossing lights. "Yo, Bobby, that chandelier's gonna look good in your momma's whorehouse," one of the cops said. "Yeah, you can come over and watch your sister blow me under it." What had he gotten himself into? If there was any other way out, he would have jumped on it. He'd thought about breaking into garages to see if he could find a car left behind. He'd thought about thugging people driving down the street, but he hadn't seen a car all afternoon. He'd thought about walking to the city limits and sticking his thumb out, taking his chances, but it was a long hike to the nearest bridge and he knew that the first car to stop would be a black and white. Hard as it was to believe, his best shot was an old drunk named Alton Lee who said he could drive them to Houston in a fucking school bus. 317 3lB He heard something stirring through the hedge, a cat or some other creature prowling in the darkness, slowly making its way toward him in the undergrowth of wet leaves. A cop said, "Hey, you hear that?" His buddies froze, listening. "Where, man?" "Over there," the cop said, pointing his flashlight at the hedge and slowly dragging the beam from one end of the long boxed row to the other. The light filtered through the thick wall of greenery and PJ could see a fat possum crackling along over the leaves not ten yards away. "You hear what I'm hearing?" "Hey, cocksucker," shouted another cop, "if you're on two legs, you better come out and show us your haru:ls!" They waited in suspended motion, their anns ftlled with stolen goods as they watched the flashlight beam search the long hedge. "One way to ftnd out," said the country-talking cop PJ recognized from the grocery store. He set down a pair ofspeaker ooxes and withdrew his sideann. "Give me some more light, ooys." Half a dozen flashlight rays pierced the hedge and the cop began ftring his gun. PJ rolled over on his side, protecting his head with his anns. Bullets ripped through the foliage all around him. He curled into a ball, waiting for the piece of lead that would shatter his body. When he peeked between his anns, he saw the possum scramble out from the hedge and scamper toward the hotel in clear sight. Someone hollered "Ught that fat fucker uP!" and the men pulled their weapons and took target practice on the panicked creature, laughing wildly at the splatter of hair, gristle, and bone. "How we know it's dead?" asked one of the cops after the ftring had ceased. "It might be playing possum." They laughed and shot several more rounds into the dead possum , then holstered their weapons and resumed their work unloading the bus. PJ lay coiled like a snake, not daring to move. He held his breath until his lungs burned, afraid they would hear him breathing. Eventually he sat up and hugged his knees and waited in his hiding place behind the hedge while the cops laughed and joked and transported stolen property into the hoteL They loaded smaller things into an idling squad car and a couple of brand new Cadillacs parked nearby. Soon they'd cleared everything out and the cars drove off and the men disappeared into the hotel for another round of drinking . Alton Lee had been right about them. They were going to party...