When the guys on white horses arrived, they took over. I looked like an elephant seal who tried to protect the pups from getting clubbed.
Shirtless and covered with blood, I set off in search of Selby.
I found him about a hundred yards in the bushes. The instant he saw me, he bent over and puked.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
He looked at me and wretched again.
"Sorry, man," he managed to say. "It's the blood."
"The what?"
"The gore. The blood. I can't stand it."
"Why didn't you give the driver your phone?" I asked. "His was dead. There was a delay in calling for help that could have cost that old man his life."
"I didn't know," Selby said. "Is he . . . is he . . .?"
"No, thank goodness," I said. "But it's only by sheer luck. The EMT said it could have gone either way if the blood loss hadn't been slowed."
"You didn't tell anyone who I am, did you?" Selby asked.
"Of course not," I said, stomping back to the car. "You never change, do you? And open the window. You smell like vomit."
"Stop the car," Selby said. "Driver! Stop the car, now!"
Selby looked at me, smiled that perfect smile that only good dentistry provides, and said, quietly and evenly, "Get out."
I think I heard Selby tell me where he wanted me to go, but I had already started walking, and his words were drowned out by the limo's spinning wheels in the gravel on the shoulder of the hard surface.
YOU ARE READING
Love Songs: The Wrong Note - A Collection of Short Stories
General FictionA second volume of short stories in the Love Songs collection. Many of the stories in this collection focus on the theme of love and how it sometimes goes wrong. A large collection of stories that run the gamut from humorous to tragic. 1. Love Songs...
