Dead Man Running (27 page)

He left his office, saying goodbye to his staff, still hard at work.  He would go back to his apartment and enjoy a Heineken and the Knicks at the Lakers.

In bed, he would dream of better times,
of
friends not so long gone.

Gretel Hesterbrink and her best friend Gloria Murkowski positioned themselves in front of the widescreen located in the Bayside
Arms
retirement home in
Brooklyn
.  They had commandeered the television from the trio who were playing Wii bowling.  To Gretel, you could play the Wii anytime – once in a lifetime could she watch her former pupil, little Benny Wiley, at his confirmation hearing for a seat in the president's cabinet.

Given the dustup with
Wii triplets
Mary Lou, Victor and Dudley they were already into Wiley's opening remarks by the time Gretel flipped to CSPAN.

How handsome he looked, Gretel thought.  Wiley wore a crisp black pinstriped suit with a white shirt and a slate tie.  His lapel was decorated by a
US
flag. 

Her attention drifted to the angry group of Wii
wannabees
skulking about the dayroom throwing darts with their eyes at Gretel and Gloria.  She gave them the look that she used to give the bad boys in her class
room
.  Benny Wiley had been one of those bad boys but Gretel Hesterbrink, Miss Stoneybrook back then, had straightened Benny out with her sharp words and a few whacks of her yardstick. 
Look at him now!  He's where he is all because of me!
 

Gretel's eyes drifted back to the screen, drawn by what she just heard.

Wiley said: "I want Housing and Urban Development to be a model agency.  Not just an agency but an agent of change for
America
.  I want it to
create living space
that my own mother would be proud
to occupy."  He then turned around in his seat, smiled, clasped both hands in front and nodded his head toward a petite gray haired matron seated in the front row of the Senate chamber.  The woman was crying, excitement and pride sharing her ancient features.  She waved at her son and Wiley turned back to the committee.  He had a tear in his eyes, which he allowed the camera to find before he deftly wiped it away.

"Who is that woman?" Gretel asked out loud.

Her friend Gloria, who had drifted off, roused herself to attention.  "What?" she asked as her eyes scanned the room for the Wii'ers.
  She found them in the far corner sword fighting with the Wii remotes.

"That woman, I don't know who she is.  Wiley's mother died at least twenty years ago."

"You sure, Gretel?"

Wiley seemed to be concluding his opening remarks.  He was talking about bringing a new level of competency and accountability to government.  He again referred to the gray haired woman seated behind him, how she worked hard all her life, cleaning the floors of those above her on the economic ladder in order to lift up her son.  He called what she had done
the '
Wiley Way
' and defined it as hard work and sacrifice for the greater good.  When he finished he was greeted by muted applause from the demure audience and a peck on the cheek from his proud mamma.

But that wasn't his mamma – or was it?  They were similar in coloring – that deep, dark Yap
h
et Kotto
'
back to
Africa
'
black skin. 
And they clearly had the same wide mouth, full of bright white teeth.  Gretel Hesterbrink hated people with wide mouths and she didn't know why.  Maybe it
was
how they reminded her of clowns and Gretel had been frightened by a clown in her youth.

"Maybe I'm mistaken," she finally responded to her friend. 

She turned her attention back to the hearing.  The senator from
Nevada
, Reid, was asking a question.  Gretel could read people and he had bad skin and beady eyes.  That boy had given some teacher a lot of trouble along the way.  She leaned forward on the couch so she could hear.

"Mr. Wiley I'd like to tell you first how touched I am by the story of you and your mother's struggles.  It is a uniquely American
tale
and I, for one, look forward to what the
'
Wiley Way
'
can contribute to our nation."

"Thank you, Senator," Wiley responded.  Gretel recognized the same look of mischief on his face that he had before he used her scissors to hack off
pretty little
Louise Lee's hair braid.

"Mr. Wiley, are you able to review the status of HUD and federal stimulus dollars?  What has been accomplished thus far, what funds remain and how do you intend to make the best use of those dollars to help put Americans back to work while fulfilling HUD's mission?"

"What a softball question," Gloria remarked. 

"Wait until the Republicans get their turn," Gretel responded.

Wiley droned on with his response – 'shovel ready projects' was said so frequently she expected a yellow duck loaded with cash to come down from the ceiling.  Now Groucho Marx, that was a funny man, thought Gretel.  She remembered watching "You Bet Your Life" on her father's knee.  Gretel drifted away from the nursing home.

Gretel woke with a nudge from Gloria.  "Now he's gonna get his ass handed to him.  Here's that Republican kook from
Tennessee
."

Senator McConnell adjusted his microphone.  "Mr. Wiley, I too appreciate your background and what it says about our great nation."

"Thank you, sir," said Wiley.  He looked very humble, thought Gretel.

"Given the financial trajectory of this administration, how do you plan to bring budget discipline to this department?"

"Another softball," Gloria said.  "He won this thing by trotting out his momma."

Gretel nodded.  That was the boy
s
he taught – yes he was mischievous but at the end of the day he got what he wanted and made others feel good about it.  As Wiley spoke about 'strict budget discipline' and 'hyper accountability to the American people' Gretel again drifted away.  She was with her father again – this time the family was on a camping trip in the
Adirondacks
– when the confirmation hearing concluded.  Her friend roused her as Wiley was getting a standing ovation from the audience and the Senators who, later that day, would vote
unanimously
for confirmation.

Eldina
Thomas and her granddaughter Tamesha entered the Save-a-Lot on
Cromwell Avenue
.  Granny T didn't have much money left from her
pay
check but she had enough to buy a few items that hopefully would feed her and her granddaughter for the rest of the month.

She found that canned vegetables were on sale and she stocked up on a dozen cans. 
It was good thing – fresh vegetables were rare at the store and those that were there were very expensive.

Next the pair examined the offering
s
in the meats section.  Of particular interest for Granny T were those meats that were discounted because they were close to expiration.  Sometimes she could find
meats half off or better, depending on how close the expiration date was.
 
 

As she
reviewed the contents of the refrigerated cases s
he found
the day's
pickings to be slim – she
lifted
up a package of eighty percent fat free ground beef that expired that day and therefore was half priced.  She would take it home, quickly form the meat into hamburger patties,
and then
freeze her creations.

Tamesha noticed that her grandmother had not selected much.  She knew the hamburger meat would not last them the rest of the month – they need
ed
at least three more items and everything else was out of their price range.  Her Granny T cruised around the meat section, unsure what to do.  This was the only grocery store within walking distance and they had no car and dared not to take groceries on the bus, which would make them a target for robbers or hooligans. 

"Why don't you ring for Mister Bryant?" she asked finally.  She knew that her grandmother didn't like Mister Bryant – and the old man didn't seem to like her either – but he sometimes had some discounted meat in the back that perhaps had just been taken out of the bins in order to be thrown away.

Eldina
Thomas sighed – Michael Bryant could be an ass.  She had dated the man in her youth and he never forgave her for dumping him in favor of her eventual husband.

She didn't answer Tamesha but
did not object
as the child rang the bell for the meat section
staff
. 

The door to the meat section quickly swung open and out came Michael Bryant.  Except for the blood soaked white apron, the man was neatly dressed in well creased black slacks and a white dress shirt and tie.  His blue and white Save-A-Lot hat was propped on his
precise
ly trimmed head.

He smiled as he approached the pair.  Tamesha smiled back at the man. 
Eldina
Thomas did not smile.
   She immediately recognized Michael Bryant for what he had become – a monster.
  She took a step away from the
creature
before her. 

She placed her body between
it
and her granddaughter. 
Is this my time?

"
Eldina
, hello.  How are you?"  The creature didn't wait for an
answer;
instead he reached a hand toward Tamesha.  "Hi there, Tamesha.  It is so good to see you."

Granny T tucked her granddaughter completely behind her body, muffling the child's "hello" to the
beast
that had greeted her so warmly.

"We…we was wondering if you had any day old meats in the back," she managed.

The thing wearing Michael Bryant's meat skin laughed.  "
Eldina
, for you, I have anything you'd like."  He took her hands in his.  They enveloped her small hands and felt cold as ice.  She looked up at his wide smile and dead eyes and forced a smile in return.

"You know I'd appreciate anything you can do, Michael."  She smiled again as she extracted her hands from his.

"Of course," he replied.  "Hold on one minute."

Bryant went back through the swinging doors. 
Eldina
Thomas fought every instinct to run out of the Save-A-Lot.  Running would bring their attention to her much sooner and possibly put Tamesha in more of harm's way.

Bryant returned with his impossibly wide smile – full of teeth although
Eldina
Thomas had personally witnessed Little
Rudy
Jones knock three of
the
teeth out of his mouth in the tenth grade.  He placed four cuts of meat into their cart.  The meats were discounted to ridiculously low prices –
including
three fifty for a slab of baby back ribs, food she and her daughter could never afford.

"I don't know how to thank you, Michael." 

Tamesha emerged from behind Granny T and also thanked the man.

"I really can't thank you enough
,
" Granny T said as she got behind the cart.

"My pleasure," the zombie said.  "Maybe one day you can have me over, let me eat some of that fine meat."  He gave Granny T a look that she had not seen from him in nearly thirty years, one she had not seen from any man since her last boyfriend died ten years prior.

"Maybe so," she replied
as
she quickly pushed the cart to
ward
the front of the store. 

They paid and soon Tamesha pulled their hand cart
loaded
with their food while her grandmother walked behind a pace
, deep in
thought. 

She needed to arm her granddaughter with ways of identifying these creatures.  How would she explain
to her virginal granddaughter that these things are as sex crazy as a high school boy?

F
IF
TEEN

GEORGETOWN
WASHINGTON
DC –
APRIL
2011

The realtor, a middle aged white woman with bad skin but a sunny disposition, let Jan Sugerfoot and Ben Wiley into the
Georgetown
townhouse.  Jan bristled at the price – over a million dollars – but Ben told her not to worry about it.  That was his
stock answer for everything, delivered in a patronizing tone that irritated the hell out of her.
"Don't worry about it
-
it's all taken care of." 

Months into the 'Wiley Way', i
t bothered her that she was no longer 'inside', that she had no knowledge of the how's and when's of her
man
's plans.  She knew that he had co-opted many wealthy men, men who could supply enough cash to buy a hundred DC townhomes. 
She knew that tomorrow he would get final Senate confirmation but that news was all over the Web and cable.  Everyone knew that.