The Vigilantes

The Vigilantes

fiction
edward w pritchard

It wasn't until  Billie Rae was stabbed through the chest with a curved hooked sword that Cyrus began to be scared. Billie Rae had been on his own since he was 4 years old and more than anyone Cyrus knew, Billie Rae knew how to take care of himself. At least Billie Rae had known how to take care of himself, for this morning at 9:15AM Billie Rae had been stabbed over on the South side of Dayton street.

Although Billie Rae had been found quickly, bleeding on the sidewalk, and rushed to the Hospital; modern medicine couldn't save him. Not even the new ER at the Summa med center on the North side could save Billie Rae, for the curved sword left an usual wound that bled and bled, and even at the emergency room in spite of a full staff of skilled ER Doctors, Billie Rae died.

Cyrus had lost a good friend and Cyrus suspected the old Chinese Lady who had been with the girl had a hand in Billie Rae's death by stabbing.

Billie Rae had jokingly told Cyrus about a week ago that the old Chinese woman was stalking him. She seemed to be everywhere he was, said Billie Rae. Cyrus doubted that for he had often tried to find Billie Rae, when worried about him, or if he needed him and Billie Rae could disappear and no one find him. Billie Rae had learned to be invisible at a young age, at least since he was four years old, that's how long Cyrus had known him. Billie Rae's Mother didn't take care of him and Billie Rae had to learn to adapt. For Billie Rae to survive on the near North side, he had to learn how to lay low, to be secretly and silently tough, and to vanish if the police, neighborhood gangs, wino's, or other bad people who would prey on a seven year old kid alone were near. Billie Rae hadn't been going anywhere in life, missing a lot of school, getting poor grades when showing up at all, and no-one would miss him. But Cyrus had lost a good friend, his only white friend, and it seemed wrong for anyone to die like that.

Cyrus  worried after Billie Rae's death about himself for he had noticed another old Oriental lady following him. The old Chinese woman seemed to be everywhere Cyrus was for the last week or so.
End part 1

Part 2

Felix, His Eminence, Cyrus, and Billie Rae were walking to the new Dollar Store up off Tallmadge Ave a few weeks before Billie Rae's death. Felix who was 17, had just dropped out of high school and to celebrate he had come down to the Junior High to find a few of his old friends to go out with. Felix, whose Father worked nights and slept in the day, had lifted a twenty from his old man; and Felix wanted to treat his friends to some things down at the new Dollar Store, the first new store to open down here in a long time. No big deal just something to do. His Eminence was Cyrus' goofy cousin who he had to walk home with. Until this year Cyrus, who was a year older was supposed to protect Em [ Cyrus called him that] but in the last six months Em had grown about 6 inches and he was now a lot taller and bigger than Cyrus. Cyrus' mom's younger sister was Em's Mother and she had given him that name and Cyrus' Mom still made him walk home with his cousin, Em. So EM was going to go along to the Dollar Store. Somehow on the way up to the store, Billie Rae had shown up, he hadn't been at school all week, but here he was, as if he somehow knew Felix was buying, which was unusual.

There was a pretty girl carrying a large, full, plastic, yellow Dollar Store bag coming towards them and they noticed her from a long way off as they walked down a side street heading West toward the Dollar Store. The girl was mixed race, maybe Spanish and Oriental and had nice legs, shorts and pink shoes and a pink short tee shirt. As she came face to face with the four young teenagers, Cyrus was a little intimidated by her because she wasn't afraid at all of them, even after Felix said a few things to her. Billie Rae and Cyrus were kind of quiet, just intently looking but Em said a few things and Felix, well he was always brutally direct with women.

There was a very small Chinese woman with the girl. She was very old, maybe over 80, but in pretty good shape. She was hard to understand, but she became agitated and was protective of the girl and there was no mistaking her message. She was waving her arms and screaming at the boys and seemed about ready to raise her arms and beat her chest like an early ape in a school science video, trying to scare the four of them off.

The girl stood her ground. She was squared off in front of Felix, ignoring the others and was glaring intently at him. Likewise, the old Lady suddenly stopped yelling and was studying each of the boys intently.

They were near the old Syrian Catholic Church in a quiet neighborhood, recently the temporary home of a lot of new Asian immigrants on a back street and no one was around. After an impasse of about a minute between Felix and the girl, Felix grabbed the girls shirt near her right shoulder and ripped at it. The girl made no attempt to cover up nor strike back but just stood there and glared in a very aggressive fashion. Now however the old Woman was flying around waving her arms like an old chicken.

Billie Rae and I took over and got us out of there. I didn't want my Mom to find out about this and I knew with Em around eventually she would. Billie Rae knew about the police around here from personal experience, He often said that anytime a police report was called in, if the kid was white he was the usual suspect.

On the Thursday, following Billie Rae's death Cyrus noticed a small Vietnamese woman following him after school. She was only about 4' 8" tall and had weird clothes on. Another woman maybe Chinese, or something like that was following also, with the Vietnamese woman, and Cyrus surmised the other woman was watching Em, who was walking home with Cyrus.

Friday, following Billie Rae's death there was an article in the paper about the stabbing of Billie Rae and the mysterious knife that he was stabbed with. Apparently, according to the detective on the case, the knife used was Chinese and was usually used for ritualistic revenge. It caused a deep wound that refused to stop bleeding.

Tonight about two weeks later as Cyrus went out for Pizza he noticed that Vietnamese lady following him again. As he returned home with the pizza box he glanced back at the Vietnamese lady and was glad to see she wasn't carrying anything.

End