Chapter Four
"DAMN IT! CAN´T A GUY GET A BREAK LONG ENOUGH TO EAT SOMETHING?" the startled man bellowed, slamming his beer bottle down on the kitchen's large counter.
"Help! Let us out! Please!" came Hutch's muffled voice from behind the pantry door. "The lady's going into labor! Please, sir! Open the door!"
Without further word, Kravitz got to his feet, ruthlessly grabbing Starsky by his arm and dragging him along with him toward the pantry door.
"Shut up! Stop pounding that door, fuck! You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood!" The man shouted out.
"Okay. No more wasting time. I think it's time to get the party started once and for all." Kravitz announced, halting in mid step and heading back, towards the phone in the dinning room never releasing his tight grasp in Starsky's arm.
"What...What are you going to do?" The kid asked, apprehensively.
"I'm going to call the police to ask them for a car, a safe way to leave the States and money. After all, that was my reason for being here. And they better give in on my requests, or else they will be responsible for three deaths… Four, actually." Kravitz stated picking up the phone receiver. Starsky feared the outburst to come, once the felon realized that the phone wasn´t working.
"But?...What the hell? What's wrong with that fucking piece of junk?" The man asked right then, having brought the receiver to his ear.
"It… it's not working." Starsky answered softly, wondering for a moment if the clasp knife that he had in his pocket was going to be of any help against an infuriated and armed man who seemed to him as big as a gorilla.
"DAMN! WHO IN HELL ASKED ME TO COME HERE!" Kravitz roared slamming the receiver down hard. "Listen, kid! Now I'm going to take that woman's car and I'm going to leave this goddamned place!" While saying this, he dragged Starsky back towards the pantry door. "And you'll come with me!"
On hearing that, the heart of the dark-haired boy sank. His mind raced, looking for any way to escape and help Hutch and Carol.
"You first! I don't wanna any surprises!" Kravitz commanded, once they were facing the pantry door. He held the key out to Starsky and pushed him forward with the barrel of his gun. Knowing that Kravitz wasn't in the mood to stand any defiance, the kid unlocked the pantry door and stepped in with the tall man behind, just to see Hutch standing on a stool, by the entrance side, ready to drop a heavy can of tomato sauce over Kravitz's head. Unfortunately, he was behind Starsky.
"FUCKING DAMN KID I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! I'LL BE DAMNED IF I DON'T KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW!" Kravitz hollered upon seeing Hutch. He shoved Starsky aside and rushed towards the blond one, roughly jerking his jacket and making him to fall off the stool and onto the floor, where he started punching and kicking the defenseless kid's head and back with his enormous fists and feet. Hutch tried to protect himself, curling his body into a ball and covering his head with both arms.
"Let him alone, you bastard! You're going to kill him!" Starsky screamed, leaping onto Kravitz's back. He tightly wrapped himself around the man's upper body, making him to lose hold of his gun that slid under a nearby shelf, while Carol screamed with all her might.
Then, all of a sudden, a fast item flew in the man's direction, missing him by a few inches and hitting instead the back of the blond kid's head. Hutch suddenly stopped his attempts to protect himself from Kravitz´ blows.
"Oh... shit..." Carol whispered in disbelief, seeing that the bottle of wine she had thrown at Kravitz had hit Hutch instead.
Kravitz, seeing Hutch go limp on the floor, froze just for a second. Then, before he had time to react, a piercing pain, coming from Starsky's clasp knife, bit into his right shoulder blade.
"Aaahhgggg! Shit! Shit! SHIT! DAMN KID! You're dead! Did you hear me? YOU´RE DEAD!" Kravitz howled, reaching his muscular left arm backward, and grabbing a handful of Starsky's jacket. He easily dragged the kid over his head, and threw him against the wall ahead them, where Starsky crashed before sliding in a heap onto Hutch. The blond kid began to struggle to get out from under the weight of the brunet's body. Meanwhile, Carol, almost paralyzed by a new, and particularly painful, contraction watched helplessly the scene.
At that moment, Kravitz had managed to pull the clasp knife out from his own back and was stepping menacingly towards Starsky, with the blood stained switchblade tightly grasped in his hand and his face contorted in a mask of pain and insane rage, too infuriated to notice the quick exchange of looks between both kids…Too blinded by anger to notice at first, how Starsky began to convulse in the floor, how his eyeballs rolled up, his back arched up in a taut arc and a thread of saliva escaped from between his lips.
"Starsk?... Dave? Dave answer me, please!… STARSK!" Hutch said frantically, kneeling beside the convulsing boy and looking at him with terrified eyes, as Kravitz stopped in his tracks and the clasp knife fell from his hand with a clang.
"Is… is he… epileptic?" The man asked becoming pale and with a blank stare in his eyes, approaching Starsky. Then, moving as one person, and taking the felon aback, Starsky scrambled quickly to his feet, forcefully shoving him backwards, as Hutch crawled under the shelf retrieving the gun that had slid under it a while earlier, aiming at the tall man with shaking hands.
"What… what means this?" Kravitz asked in bewilderment, as Carol, from her spot in the floor, uttered a new tearful, long moan.
"I'm sorry, friend. Very sorry." Starsky apologized earnestly, taking the gun from Hutch's hands into his much steadier hold. "I hate to play dirty, Kravitz. I really do… And this one was a risky move also. But I had to try it. It was you or me... All of us. Now, hands up. And don't try anything, okay? If I haven't another choice, I'm going to pull the trigger. I mean it… Hutch, look for a rope or something to tie him up." Starsky asked, firmly as Hutch, never taking his eyes off of Kravitz, struggled to hide his fear.
"Fucking bastard! I… I…" Kravitz stuttered as Starsky kept aiming the gun at him. The man had given up any attempt to fight, meekly letting Hutch to tie his hands and ankles, just wincing in pain when the injury in his shoulder blade throbbed.
"Tell me something, kid," The felon asked Hutch, as he was tying his ankles. "You knew it, right? You knew that Curly there was playing a trick on me. He hadn't any chance to tell you about what he was going to do, but you knew it nonetheless, don't you?"
"Sort of." Hutch responded curtly, still musing in astonishment about the unexplainable and silent connection he had shared with Starsky short earlier.
xxxxxxx
The next minutes were a rush of activity. Both boys helped Carol to her feet, and out of the pantry, locking Kravitz in there. Then they took the waitress to the small office that the owner of the diner had in the backroom, helping her to lie down on the crummy couch placed against one of the walls.
"I'm going to look for help, Hutch, you stay with her." Starsky said, nodding at the woman.
"WHAT? Why…Why don't you stay with her and I go for help instead?"
"Because I don't know nothin´ about childbirths or babies and you don't know how to drive a car, that's why." The dark-haired kid countered, already heading out of the office.
"Okay, okay, then why can't we take her to the hospital in the car?" Hutch tried again, terrified at the idea of staying alone with a woman about to give birth.
"No, please! I… I can't move! It… it hurts too much… I just can't!" Carol whined among labored breaths.
"You heard the lady, Blondie. She can't move!" Starsky said. "Don't worry. I'll be back in no time. Meanwhile, you go to the kitchen of this joint and boil some water. Besides, you have to get all the clean towels you can find. And take the gun, just in case," Starsky said, holding the gun out for Hutch. Neither of them had forgotten Kravitz.
"Wait Starsk!... w-why… why must I boil water and get towels?" Hutch asked in a trembling voice.
"Geez, buddy… I´m not too sure." Starsky answered, scratching his head. "However, in all the movies I have ever watched, when a woman is going to give birth to her baby, everybody around hurries to get that stuff, so it must be the right thing to do, I guess….And don't forget to get a clean knife and…"
"A KNIFE?" The blond boy cut off with a shriek, as his headache climbed up a few notches.
"Hey, take it easy, Blondie. The knife's just to cut off that thing that keeps the babies attached to their moms, you know, the navel's rope, or imblical cord or whatever its name is. Don't worry Hutch, everything's going to be okay," Starsky cheerfully reassured Hutch. He patted his shoulder before hurrying downstairs and getting to his car, driving towards the nearest police station.
Once the brunet had left, Hutch went to the kitchen. While he waited for the water to start boiling, he quickly assessed the situation. He was alone with a woman who was about to give birth at any moment. She needed help, and he was the only one who could give her that help. No matter if he felt unable to do it. No matter either if the whole scenario would have been plainly unbelievable for the blond kid, if just a few hours earlier, somebody had told him what was going to happen that night. The only thing that mattered right then was that he had to let go of the panic gripping his entire being and help Carol. For the first time in his short life, Kenny Hutchinson was the one in charge in a very difficult situation, and he just had to take things in his hands and be useful.
"You can…You're able to do this, Kenny, you can, you'll help the lady and everything will be okay…" Hutch kept repeating to himself, trying to find some self-assurance in his words.
"Heeelp!" Came the high-pitched voice of Carol from the backroom, making Hutch put aside his thoughts. "Help me, Kenny! My…My baby!"
That was the last time the kid had any chance to think, or doubt, or be aware of his own fears. From the very moment in which he hurried to the back room carrying some towels and the pan containing the hot water and until help came, Hutch became both eyewitness and actor in the most frightening yet awe-inspiring experience he had ever been through.
Apart from Carol's, his hands were the only ones that helped the newborn into life and his hands, too, were the ones that cut the umbilical cord and cleaned the small body, wrapping the baby in his own jacket.
And finally, once the fear was gone, all of that did make Hutch to feel content and proud of himself, as never before he had been.
A while later, a stretch of time that for Hutch seemed endless, Starsky came back to the diner with two police officers and two paramedics, just in time to see Carol, drained after the nightmarish experience she had went thought, dozing off on the couch, covered with a worn out afghan, as Hutch, looking sweaty, pale and exhausted sat onto his heels on the floor across from the couch, tenderly holding in his arms a tiny baby who seemed to look fixedly at the blond one's eyes.
"Is a boy… And I… I h-helped… I helped C-Carol to give b-birth to him, S-Starsk… I did it!" Hutch stuttered in choked voice, raising his eyes to meet Starsky's.
"Yeah, buddy. You did it." Starsky said crouching down beside Hutch to look at the small bundle of life.
"Hey, little one, welcome to this crazy world," he said smiling at the baby and caressing with his fingertips the soft cheek, before one of the paramedics took the infant from Hutch's arms while his companion checked efficiently Carol's vitals.
"Guess what, Hutch? Don't ask me why, but I knew it. I was just sure that you could do it. That you can do anything you want or you have to." The brunet added confidently while helping the shaky blond one to his feet.
"Yeah? I wasn't too sure, actually." Hutch said, running his trembling hands through his hair.
"Trust good ol' Starsk on this one, buddy," the streetwise kid said. "You're stronger than you think. And you can do anything; do you hear me? Anything…"
xxxxxxx
After a trip to the ER of Memorial Hospital where doctors checked on Starsky's split lip and the bruises that Kravitz's kicks and punches had caused Hutch, besides the lump that had grown up in his head because of the bottle that had hit the wrong aim, both kids had been taken to the station of the NYPD fourth precinct, where, at that moment, and as the first sunrays of a new day entered through the squad room windows, young Kenny waited to sign his statement, with his upset and scared mother by his side, who kept fussing over him before his father's reproving look.
"As soon as we're back at the hotel, you're going to give me a detailed explanation for this irresponsible and immature behavior of yours, Kenneth, and it has better be a good one. Do you hear me?" Mr. Richard Hutchinson demanded angrily of his son, his words spat in low, cold voice. The boy, still feeling overwhelmed by the night's events, wondered if he would have any chance to see Starsky before leaving. The brunet kid had been lead to the captain's office as soon as they had been taken to the station by a patrol car, and it looked like he wasn't going to get out of there any time soon.
"Oh, come on, Richard, give Kenny a break, please. He's exhausted." Hutch's mother was pleading at that moment. "You've hear Sergeant Preston. He didn't do anything wrong."
"Not just that, but what's more; he has been very brave." Sergeant Preston interrupted, once more trying to explain the facts to the man in front of him, yet being quite sure that nothing was going to placate the badly hidden anger glaring in his eyes.
"As we've explained to you, your son and Starsky´s kid, somehow did manage to subdue a very dangerous criminal who had escaped from Attica Penitentiary, Mr. Hutchinson. Also Kenneth helped Mrs. Carol Garret, the waitress of the diner they were held as hostages in, to give birth to her baby. Actually, you should feel very proud of your son instead of being angry at him."
"Phone call for you, Sergeant Preston" A uniformed officer said then, approaching Preston, who excused himself and headed to his desk to answer the call.
"So according that so-called police sergeant, Kenneth leaves the hotel on his own to go wandering through the city, then, as if that wasn't enough, he decides to spend most of the night hanging around with a young lowlife, getting himself into a hell of a mess and it turns out that I should feel proud of him? That's odd reasoning, if you ask me; a real weird one!" Richard Hutchinson mocked sarcastically.
"Starsk isn't any lowlife, father! As a matter of fact, he's the son of a valiant police officer who died in the line of duty a few months ago. Also, last night he saved my life! All of our lives!" Young Kenny heatedly defended his new friend.
"Don't answer me back, and don't you dare to forget the respect you owe me, young man, or you'll have something more to regret today!" Kenny's father admonished tersely.
"But…" The kid tried to say.
"Shut up Kenneth! Right now I don't want to hear one more word coming from you! Do I make myself clear?" the older Hutchison asked, raising a warning index finger and glaring angrily at his son.
"Yes sir… I'm sorry." Kenny apologized meekly, as if drained of all his might in front of the imposing presence of his father.
At that moment, an older plainclothes police officer approached him with the report of his statement already tipped.
"Okay, kid. Now if you sign this report we'll be done here and you'll be able to go back to your hotel and get some rest. I bet that you can use it," he said, leading Kenny and his parents to a nearby desk.
Kenneth signed his statement and he and his parents were already being guided by the officer towards the squad room exit, when the Captain's office door opened and Starsky, accompanied by a woman in her early forties who by her physical resemblance to the kid had to be his mother, stepped outside.
"Take into consideration what I told you, David, will you?" The police Captain was telling the kid, as the woman protectively surrounded his thin shoulders with her arm.
"Looks like you've been pulling some stupid stunts lately, son. Hanging around late at night, driving a car and carrying a switchblade in your pocket to just name a few. And eventually, your behavior can cost you dearly," Captain Bradford warned Starsky paternally. "However, I must admit that you and your friend did great last night. You got a very dangerous situation under control, and you did it intelligently and bravely. Apart from a few minor injuries, nobody got seriously hurt, and also you both saved lives. Let me tell you that what you got deep inside are nothing but the essential qualities that any good police officer must have."
"Thanks sir." Starsky answered blushing despite himself.
"You don't have to make any decision yet, David" The Captain kept talking "Actually, though most likely you'll won't agree with me on this one, you are still just a child, younger than any of my own kids are, and you have years ahead of you before you can begin making decisions regarding your future. I'm only asking you to think about it… I know that your father would be real proud of you if someday you decide to be one of us, and also, the Police force of this city will be very honored having another Starsky among its members…Will you think about, please?"
"Yes sir. I'll do it, Captain Bradford…" Starsky answered respectfully.
"Fine, son. That's the only thing I'm asking you for. Now if you excuse me, I must leave. I've a meeting with the commissioner in thirty minutes. See you David… Mrs. Starsky." The captain said his goodbyes to mother and son before getting back into his office.
"Starsk…" Hutch called out then, shrugging himself loose from his father's hand placed onto his shoulder and approaching the brunet.
"Hey Blondie, you okay?" Starsky asked stepping towards him.
"Yeah, I'm okay, I guess…You?"
"Oh, fine. I think that right now I could eat half a dozen of burgers before going to bed to sleep a whole week, but I'm fine."
"Come back here, Kenneth." Mr. Hutchinson commanded curtly, looking at Starsky and his mother with clear disdain. "I really think that you got more than enough of that kid's company."
"No father, this time you're wrong." Kenneth answered with a new defiance glaring in his eyes, turning to stare into his father's. "I hadn't enough of this kid's company because… because he's my friend." The blond kid took his eyes off his father's to look back at Starsky.
"Yeah, Hutch. You're right. Darn right, hell! I am your friend." Starsky stated with a crocked smile, before dragging Hutch into a bone-crushing embrace.
Along some seconds, both boys kept silently into each other's arms, before the astounded looks of the adults around them, until pulling apart.
"Anything, Blondie. Don't forget it. You can do anything you want." Starsky said solemnly, locking eyes with Hutch before they parted ways, feeling a lump tightening their throats, and without saying further word, because no more words were needed.
EPILOGUE
Bay City. September 1967
Ten years had gone by since that night. For the first few months, both kids got occasionally in touch with each other via phone calls, but eventually they left childhood behind and life, while turning them into young men, took Dave Starsky and Kenny Hutchinson through very different paths, although those dangerous yet exciting hours that they spent together were never entirely forgotten, but rather put aside in that place of their minds where the long-lasting memories did lay.
After rough years of disagreements and arguments with his parents who regardless of their son's wishes had planned his whole future and especially his choice of a career as a prestigious lawyer, and after a short and wrong marriage with Vanessa, a very beautiful yet cold-hearted woman who'd bring nothing but unhappiness to Hutch's life from almost the very first day, he had eventually found his real vocation.
Finally, after thinking carefully about it, he was totally sure of what he wanted to do for a living. And from the very moment in which he had made his mind up, no pleas, arguments or threats had been able to shake his will. He was going to be a police officer and he would do his best to make a difference in the world, as he had always wanted to do.
xxxxxxx
Life for Dave Starsky hadn't been too easy during those years either. Despite the promise he made to Captain Bradford, in the months following the night he had met Hutch, the kid's behavior did nothing but worsen, until finally, one night he showed up on his doorstep, beaten, pretty drunk and bleeding from a knife wound in his shoulder. Soon after that, his mother, scared of the nasty turn that matters were taking, and unable to deal any longer with her rebel oldest son, had sent him far away, to live across the country, with her sister Rose and her brother-in-law Al in California. There, as months went by, being far from the wrong friends, and with the help of large amounts of love wisely mixed with the proper discipline, the angry boy began to change into the adult man that he was going to be. A man, stubborn and hot-tempered, yet at the same time, good-hearted, loyal, and decent, who did make his whole family proud of him.
Near his majority, Starsky was drafted into the Army, and soon after that, he had been sent to Vietnam, where he spent months fighting for his country. He went through enough horrors to almost drive him insane before being sent back home with a badly broken ankle. There, and with the proper medical treatment his injury would heal nicely while he had time enough to deal with his nightmarish memories until he managed to come through them emotionally stronger and much more mature than before.
It was during these months that his last doubts vanished and he finally was sure about what he wanted to do for a living. He wanted to help people, to make a difference in the world.
And he knew perfectly well the best way for him to accomplish his goal…
xxxxxxx
That morning it was the beginning of a new life for Kenneth Hutchinson, as he kept thinking nervously on his way to the Police Academy where, in a while, a new course was about to start. A course that he would attend as a new cadet and that he hoped would give him, besides a good training, good memories to treasure in the years to come.
Plunged in his musings, and feeling a little alone and lost among the unknown faces of his fellow new recruits around him, Hutch was heading absentmindedly towards the Police Academy building when a male voice shouted out at his back
"Hey!... Hey you, the blond one! You! Turn around! I'm talking to you!" Realizing that the unknown voice was addressing him, Hutch halted and looked back to see a dark-haired young man about his age trotting towards him.
"Your watch. It dropped out of your pocket when you climbed outta your car." The boy said, handing out to Hutch the pocket watch that his grandfather had given him months before his death.
"Oh! Thanks… many thanks. This watch means a lot to me… I'm glad I haven't lost it." Hutch thanked earnestly, looking briefly at the golden watch before replacing it in his pants' pocket.
"Never mind… It's neat, by the way. A real beauty." The curly-haired boy in front of him kept saying referring the watch.
It was just then, on hearing those words, or maybe on looking at those piercing dark blue eyes that something clicked in Hutch's mind, and a flow of images and memories of one night, very distant in time, during which he had spent the most awesome hours of his life, replayed itself in his brain.
The physical appearance of the brunet in front of him had gone through a great deal of change since the day in which they had met. Now, he was taller and more muscular. His features had lost the last traces of childhood and a mop of thick chocolate curls that softly waved in the morning breeze had replaced his ducktail hairstyle. He also wore much more casual clothes and blue sneakers, but his sapphire eyes, and his playful smile were still the same ones that Hutch could remember very clearly.
"Dave?... Starsk?" Hutch asked astonished, as a smile curled his lips.
"Hey… hey! Hutch! It's you, Blondie? It's really you? Oh my! I can't believe it!" Starsky said, as his own smile mimicked the one in front of him, and he reached out his hand to vigorously shake Hutch's
"Oh, come here!" Starsky exclaimed then, pulling the blond one into a hug, while patting his back.
"What the hell are ya doing here, Blondie?" Starsky asked, once both men had pulled away from each other's arms
"I'm going to be a cop, Starsk," Hutch stated proudly "And you? Are you going to join the academy, too?"
"Yep. I wanna be a cop. A damn good one, like pop was!" Starsky said enthusiastically.
"Hey! That means that we'll go through our training together! Isn't that great?" Hutch asked, no longer feeling lonesome in the middle of all those unknown people.
"Terrific!… And who knows? Maybe some day we can even be partners!" Starsky kept on picturing their future, as he and Hutch began climbing the stairs.
"That would be fun, you bet!" Hutch light-heartedly followed the other's train of thought.
"We'd be a terrific team, Hutch. The best one in the force… Besides, if you remember, in our first bust together we did quite well." Starsky joked.
"No, Starsk. Not just quite well, but damn well." Hutch countered in mock seriousness.
"Yeah, you're right. Damn well!" The brunet agreed, placing a friendly arm around Hutch's shoulders
Both young men disappeared into the hall of the large building, feeling comfortable with each other, making plans for their future and chatting cheerfully, as the long time friends that they already were.
They'd have plenty of happy moments lying ahead for them, although they would also have to deal with hard times, and they'd have to stare death in the face more than once, as well. But mostly, life would be good and generous for both young men, and its first gift for them was the seed of a friendship that, after years of waiting, finally had found the right soil to grow up strong and invincible.
The End