Chapter Twenty
TJ and Ursula took the trolley over to the hospital where Mister Rush was located. The outside of the vehicle had a picture of Superman's symbol on it. In the daytime, Metropolis looked like a modern city with all the amenities. On the other side of Trauma Medical was the Daily Planet that merged with News Channel Five, and they headed the reporting on the Action News Four shooting. A plethora of media sources, looky-loos, and families of the deceased were all over the hospital, and when the couple walked into the building, they were bombarded by a hundred microphones.
"I'm not prepared to give a statement at this time," Ursula said, "I lost family tonight." That was the end of the conversation, and TJ was impressed by the fact she cut off the conversation without fumbling. Holding her hand, they went directly to the emergency room and searched for Mister Rush. He was in room number six. When they walked into his room, he lay on the bed with his right leg in the air. He had a cast on it and appeared to be relaxing.
"Your wife isn't here?" Ursula asked.
He looked over at her for a moment and then said, "She doesn't care. I called her, and she told me she hoped I had died."
Bay looked at him for a moment, and immediately assumed it wasn't the cheating that caused Randy's wife to turn her back on him, but it was the simple fact he didn't have principles. For the short-lived fame, a medium income level, and a white woman, he gave up his principles, turned on his own people, and didn't have an ounce of loyalty to anybody except his hedonistic lifestyle.
Randy tried to sit up in the bed, but according to his face, he was in a lot of pain. "Did the police shoot Sara?" Ursula asked in a calm voice. "I was under the impression the cops took her out."
Mister Rush shook his head in the negative, and said, "When I ran out of the newsroom, I hit my leg on the steps, burst it open, and pretty much low crawled out of the room. All I could hear was the whimpering and the crying. Before Sara shot our co-workers, she would say, 'I charge you with racism. The punishment is death.'" He paused for a moment as he told the story, and then in a brittle voice, he said, "Boom. She then blew off another person's head. She did the same thing repeatedly. I was so scared that I could barely move."
"Damn! Why didn't she kill you?" TJ asked with a grimace.
"That's the crazy part," he said, "I was lying in the hallway. My leg was throbbing. I heard Sara's steps walking towards me. She then said, 'I charge you with racism.' I closed my eyes, and waited for the bullet to the head." After pausing for a few seconds, and swallowing. He said, "Pow! Then her body dropped near my feet."
"I don't know why I thought she shot you," she said.
"I was shot," he said, "By the cops."
"The cops?" TJ asked.
"Yeah," he said, "I crawled out the building, and before I had a chance to put my hands in the air, a cop fired, hit me in my hurt leg, and then I just laid as flat as possible."
"I don't understand," Ursula said, "Sara televised the murders. Everybody knew it was her doing the killing."
"When in doubt, take the black man out," TJ said, "But there shouldn't even have been any doubt. It was deliberate."
"She shot Blake first. It happened so fast that it took a second for me to realize what was happening," he said. "Blake hit the ground hard, passed out, but he wasn't dead. His girlfriend said he survived, but he's wearing a bag now."
"Shit!" Ursula exclaimed.
"Exactly," Mister Rush said laughingly.
Bay sat in a chair on the other side of the room, and his girlfriend sat on his lap. She received a message on her phone and made a grunting noise.
"What's the problem?" TJ asked.
"My cousin's fiance keeps offering me money," she said, "He's saying I'll need it."
"He's probably right," Randy said with a grimace. "It'll be months before we build a new team."
"I guess I'll tell JJ I need his money," she said.
"Your cousin's fiance is JJ?" TJ asked with a shaky voice.
"Yeah," she said.
"How long have they've been together?" He asked.
"They're only like sixteen or seventeen, but he's extremely smart. He built an app that brings him in a lot of money," she said, "But they've been together since birth. He was born around April First and she was born around April Second. Their fathers were like best friends until a gang shot his father when he was twelve-years-old. He died on the spot."
"They've really been together since birth?" He asked in disbelief. "That's incredible."
"For years, at least a couple times a week after his father died, he would run over to Peppermint's apartment, into her room, and make sure she was okay. My Uncle Lee used to stress out over JJ's bouts of anxiety, but he's all better now."
TJ laughed a little, and then said, "Yeah. Something probably changed in him."
"What makes you say that?" She asked.
"JJ, Peppermint, and Vera are the rock band Black Mold," he said, "Right?"
'Yep," she said, "They're hardcore with their music."
"I was in National City at a formal dance that James Olsen threw in November, and he had some sucky music playing. This couple came in the ballroom, a black kid and an Asian girl, with guitars strapped to their backs. He stood directly in front of the band's singer looking at him like a crazy man. I thought they were going to start fighting. Suddenly, the young kid said, 'Do it right or don't do it all.' The singer stopped in the middle of his song, and then the young man grabbed the mike, and said, 'Who was born around nineteen seventy?' Half the room raised their hands. He then started singing classic eighties songs, and the entire room started partying. Come to find out, that was JJ and Peppermint, and the singer of the other band taught them how to play."
TJ placed his right hand on Ursula's back, and it felt soft to the touch. Now that he knew she loved him, he wanted her badly. He hadn't ever had sex in his entire life, and now that he had the perfect woman by his side, he was ready to experiment. He gently caressed her lower back until some young kids walked into the room. It was Randy's kids, but TJ didn't see the wife.
"Lovely, Kylie, and Nathan your father really needs you right now," Ursula said.
They hugged their father, and TJ thought it was a beautiful picture. "We're going to leave, for now, Mister Rush. Take care of yourself," TJ said.
Later in the evening…
When TJ (Bay) and Ursula walked out of the hospital, a group of prostitutes walked into the building, and when he saw them, he knew the reason why. Aesha Patel was still barely hanging on after the stabbing, and even though her killer was dead, he could never reveal that he witnessed it. But regardless of how the man died, he felt somewhat good that he wouldn't be able to hurt another person.
The young couple took the trolley back to his dilapidated motel. They walked holding hands and looked like the sweetest couple in the land. The parking lot in front of his motel teemed with indigent people cooking another pig over a burning trash can. The aroma of the cooking swine masked the horrible smell of car exhaust. Their cold faces showed the pain of aging, and how poverty made it that much worse. Every one of them had their own way of dealing with life, and it all led to an early demise. No matter what he saw he recognized the pain of aging, and it was a pain that all people felt. But at the same time, he had to contend with the understanding that his entire life wasn't his life. TJ Jones was an imaginary man created on a computer. He had a fake credit score, a fake social security number, a fake birth certificate, and a fake college transcript. He was a fake man.
He looked back at Ursula as she stood quietly to his rear, and then opened the door to his room. Her bangs set right above her eyebrows, and the back of her hair was long. She lay on his bed, turned on the television, and said, "Why don't you go get us some Bang Bang Burgers?" He smiled for a moment because he didn't understand why she desired to lay in his dirty bed, in the dirty motel, and pretend like it didn't matter.
"Yeah," he said, "I'm going to head over there in a little bit." He walked out of his room, made sure the door locked behind him, and then headed down the street to Bang Bang Burgers. It was only a few blocks over, but the streets were sparsely crowded, but in a few hours, he expected the crowds would come. After about a block down the road, he heard the roar of a loud engine, and he recognized it. The car pulled up beside him, and a bald Hispanic man sat in the passenger seat.
"I know what you did, homie," he said, "We got your ass on video." The driver revved the engine of the car, and slowly drove beside Bay as he walked down the street. "You kill my cousins."
TJ turned to the man, and said, "What are you talking about, boy?" The older Hispanic guy had a scar over his right eye, and it looked hideous.
"You killed my cousins," he said with a grimace, "I've watched the video a thousand times, and I know it was you. You'll pay for what you've done. You're a demon. I see it in your eyes, in your gait, and in your talk. I know your kind. I've seen it in Olmec. They call you Incubi, a demon who can seduce women into doing heinous crimes. Your strength is beyond the ordinary."
Bay paused for a moment, and said, "I don't know what I am. But when I'm attacked, I attack back. It's the only thing I truly understand."
"We'll be coming for you, monster," he said, "I promise you that."
When the Hispanic man drove off in his hot-rod, he laughed for a moment because he didn't believe what the guy said. The things he spoke about were crazy, and he didn't think he had the ability to control anybody. A young woman of the night walked by him, and he said, "Can I see your breasts?" She pulled down her blouse, he looked at her bare chest for a moment, and then she put them away. It happened that fast, and then she continued back down the street. But at the same time, he didn't think that proved anything. She was a prostitute, and they had their goods on display all the time. It was part of their job. When he came across another young lady, about twenty-something, and dressed for the club walked past him, he said, "Can I see your breast?"
She turned around, smiled, pulled up her shirt, and put them on display for a good five seconds. When she did that, he didn't see the cop car parked across the street. The lights flashed, and then it pulled up to the girl. It was two female cops, and they were belligerent with the young, black woman.
"Do you know you just broke the law?" Officer Janeway said. She had reddish-brown hair that she wore in a ponytail. When she pulled out her handcuffs, Bay immediately thought he needed to intervene.
"Officer Janeway and Officer Jenkins, please show me your breasts, then leave without arresting this young lady," he said with a smile. The officers stood in front of him, and slowly undid their blouses. It happened one button at a time, and then they unbloused their shirts and took their blouses off completely. Once they removed their shirts, they had on white bras that they pulled down around their waists. "That's enough," he said. "Now, please get dressed and leave."
After Bay finished buying the food, he went back to his room, and Ursula lay on the bed watching television. She sat up, grabbed her bag of food, and began eating her burger. "Can I see your breasts?" He asked.
She laughed. "You will later," she said with a smile. "If you're good."
He smiled, and thought, why didn't she pull off her shirt like the other women did? He didn't know anything about his gifts, and that bothered him. He knew he had limitations, but he didn't know what they were. Ursula sat across from him on the bed, without a clue of his powers, and living her life in a complete bubble.
"What took you so long getting the food?" She asked. "I thought I was going to have to search you down."
"I needed some time to think about everything that happened today," he said calmly. "If you had returned to Action News Four immediately, you would've been shot too. It's kind of playing over and over in my head right now. I guess I was kind of lucky that she fired me."
"Shoot! I was thinking the same thing," she said, "I ran into Mister Ryan, and he was discussing his new book with me. He's been a little down because his wife was arrested a few days ago."
"I saw something about that online," he said, "After the cops shot her son, she attacked one of them."
"I don't think his money can save her," she said, "They still haven't found that Bay guy. I was looking at his picture the other day. You have his mouth."
He laughed for a moment, and then said, "I don't look anything like that guy."
"It's okay," she said, "You're hot like no tomorrow."