LEFTY — Chapter Two

by Mary Thomas

All you need to know I was pushed out of a moving car in the middle of the night, in South Chicago with no fucking hand. I had no wallet, no cell phone and only a stump. I had the good fortune of taking a hand full of vicodin earlier in the evening. This was partially in anticipation of getting my ass kicked and partially because it was a Saturday night.

My first thought was wishing I had been dumped in a nicer neighborhood. I was in the projects and needed to get cleaned up. I was worried I was going to get my ass kicked, but no one is going to fuck with a guy with a bleeding stump, plus, there was no one around. I tried to get into a few apartment buildings until I found one that had the door propped open with some cardboard. I went downstairs into the basement, and found some clean rags. The water in the sink ran brown with rust at first, but then cleared up. For the first time I looked down at the mess of Egyptian cotton, blood and bone.. I needed a cigarette.

I wake up coughing. Smoke. Smoke is everywhere and it’s hotter than hell. The rags were on fire, and in the light of the fire, I could see the can of paint thinner beside them. I had to get out. I climb the stairs, but there is a car pulled up front with a couple talking. Not good. I could get charged for arson, manslaughter and quite possibly a hate crime. I knew in most circumstances a good lawyer could throw reasonable doubt on an ID, or have it thrown out, but a white guy bleeding with one hand?

The whole: Fugitive, one armed man, Chicago thing occurred to me later. I had more pressing things on my mind.