Stay Wild: A Curly Shepard Love Story

- Epilogue -

"Where is he?" Ella Rae shouts, running into the hospital waiting room where Tim had called her from. He'd been pacing the waiting room for 2 hours waiting for her to get here. She was at college, almost 3 hours away. Speed limits didnt exist right now. Not when Curly was dying.

The whole way here, Ella Rae had tears running down her face. Her last conversation with Curly ran through her head on repeat.

"I don't want you pulling any of that gang shit no more, okay. Promise me."

"Come on, Els, I'll be fine."

Curly said he would be fine, yet here he is on the operating table at Tulsa's main hospital with a bullet in him. Ella Rae felt like she had a bullet in her. Her heart was racing and pain struck at every nerve. Curly was hanging on and she was hoping he would be as she got there. And he was. He was holding on, not for Tim and not for Angela, but Ella.

"Tim, where is he? What happened?" She shouts. Tim didn't even remember, he didn't know. Tim hadn't seen it coming and he was the only one. Ella Rae saw it since she met him. She knew Curly was gonna be in the wrong place at the wrong time and that's what happened.

God knows everyone else knew it was going to happen. Everyone else had been ticking off the days since the moment he had started the gang, God had probably put a fucking hourglass over his head that everyone could see but him.

Just thinking about all of the possibilities made Ella Rae sick to her stomach. She wasn't there. She could have gone to school around here but she didnt. Curly could've gone with her, but he stayed. He told Ella Rae it was because this was his home and he belonged here. That was part of the reason.

The other part, the gang. He liked it. He liked the rush he got when doing a run, or vandalizing a building. The more reckless, the better. He knew he would never be smart like Ella Rae. He would never get a degree or a real job. He hated that she was better than him, but he couldn't hate her if he tried.

Curly couldn't stand seeing her live out everyone's dream--going to college, getting a job. She had what everyone wanted. Curly hated to admit that he wanted it too.

Ella had shown up just in time because the doctor walked right out and up to Tim.

Mascara ran down the sister's face, staining her cheeks in the dim lighting of her living room. She knew she couldn't get there. She was far away--California actually. She was on a vacation with her Fiance and she was angry.  She was angry with Tim. She was angry with Curly. She was angry with whoever shot him. She was angry with herself.

She felt helpless, they all did. They all knew they could have done something, but they didnt. They listened to Curly and they let him keep going. He went and he went until he couldn't go anymore.

"He's in god's hands now." God? What kind of God would let this happen? He was a kid. 19 years old, almost 20.  God had no part in what happened to the youngest Shepard boy.

"I would say goodbye," the doctor advised. "Sometimes even our strongest fighters lose."

That's what he was:

A fighter.

Tim went in first, fists clenched in anger. He hoped Curly was awake, he wanted to know who did this. He was angry with Curly for doing this. He wanted to knock some sense into that kid.

On the other hand, he hoped Curly wouldn't be. He didnt want him to be in pain. Tim didnt want Curly to see him like this. He was broken. He was terrified. He wasn't the tough brother Curly knew, the one he looked up to.

Looking at him now, stretched out on the hospital bed with a tiny machine showing the unsteady beats of his heart, Tim couldn't find any trace of anger in his body. At Curly, at least, but he couldn't wait to get his hands on the fucker who did this to his brother.