that we’re closer, I recognize the man who spoke first. His name is Spurling. A year older than I, he attended the White Citizens’ Council school on the north side of town. Spurling has the sullen expression of a man for whom life holds few happy surprises. He will fight me on the slightest provocation, and probably on none. These guys have never gotten past the emotional age of fifteen. They brawl over disputed calls at little league games, beat up homosexuals for fun, and shoot each other over marital infidelities.
“Keep walking,” I whisper to Caitlin, and we pass them with only a brush on the shoulder.
“I’m talking to you, cocksucker,” Spurling calls after me.
“That was the newspaper chick,” says a slurred voice. “That stuck-up Yankee bitch.”
Caitlin stops and turns. “Why don’t you dickless Neanderthals find a gun to play with? Maybe you’ll do the world a favor and shoot each other.”
They hoot and run after us. This is exactly what they wanted. I admire Caitlin’s courage, but she is writing verbal checks that I might have to cash with blood. In seconds the four of them have formed a line between us and the parking lot.
“She’s a bitch,” says the one with the slurry voice. “But she’s a fine bitch.” He jabs a finger toward Caitlin’s crotch. “I’d sure like to get in those pants.”
“I already have one asshole in my pants,” she retorts in a voice like a saber’s edge. “Why would I want another?”
The roughneck blinks, thrown off balance by the ricochet comeback. But Spurling has his Academy Award–winning line ready. “How about sitting on my face when you say that?”
“If I thought you’d know what to do once I sat down, I might.”
Spurling sticks out his tongue and flicks it up and down like a snake. He’s trying to force me to throw a punch, which I do not especially want to do, considering the odds. Chivalry is a wonderful concept, but just now it doesn’t seem the most prudent of options.
Spurling is still wiggling his tongue when Caitlin pops him across the mouth with a closed fist. He’s more surprised than hurt, but he must have bitten his tongue, because he’s spitting blood on the concrete.
“You thucking cunt!” he gurgles.
“Let’s all take it easy!” I say, holding up my hands. “We were minding our business, walking along a public street—”
“Nobody wants you on this fucking street!” yells the one with the Jack Daniel’s bottle. “Go back to Beverly Hills or wherever the fuck you live. We gotta make a living here, unlike you.”
A few club patrons have noticed our exchange and are moving toward us, but they don’t look like ready sources of aid. I take Caitlin’s arm, spin her around, and walk her toward the BMW. She hisses something indignant, but I’m not listening to her. I’m listening for the scuff of boots on gravel.
Soon enough, I hear it.
I shove her to my right and dart left, feeling a breeze as the whiskey bottle arcs through the space my head occupied a split second ago and smashes on the gravel of the parking lot. Guessing that someone will follow the bottle forward, I whirl and throw a blind punch.
Luck is always better than skill. I hear bone crack, or maybe nasal cartilage, then a strangled scream of agony as someone hits the gravel. Throwing the car keys at Caitlin, I yell, “The black BMW!” then whirl to face the other three, who jump me simultaneously.
We’re wrestling more than fighting, but once they get me on the ground, they’ll remove my teeth two at a time.
“She bit me!” someone screams. “She bit my fucking ear off!”
I would probably laugh had not serious blows begun landing on my skull. My thoughts instantly evaporate into survival instinct as I cover my head and try to keep my feet.
A wallop to my right temple obliterates my sense of balance, and I drop to my knees, glimpsing the silver toe cap of a boot just before it savages my ribs. Another head blow puts me on my back, and the fists come down in a steady hail. I see white flashes of light, and my ears are roaring. You hope you black out at a time like this, but I’m not that lucky. Every fist feels like I walked into a steel pole.
Suddenly a new sound breaks through the fog in my jiggling brain. A brief, percussive pock. Again: pock-pock. At first I think it’s the sound of something hitting my skull, but no one is hitting me anymore, yet the sound goes on. Pock! Pock-pock!
Rolling onto my side, I see three men cowering against a brick wall. A large uniformed man stands over them, hammering them mercilessly with a stick.
Deputy Ike Ransom.
Ike the Spike is beating Spurling and his redneck posse like willful dogs, his baton cracking shins, shoulders, elbows, and skulls with surgical precision. The flashing lights I saw must have been the arrival of his squad car.
“Penn? Penn, can you hear me?”
It’s Caitlin. Soft hands try to pull me to my feet, but they haven’t the strength to lift my frame.
“Count to five!” she orders, her voice electrified by fear.
“Is that what they teach you at Radcliffe?” I croak, wobbling to my feet. “I’m surprised you’re not over there screaming about police brutality.”
“Screw them. They need to learn some respect for women.”
Two roughnecks have fallen facedown, but Ike shows no inclination to stop what he’s doing. Spurling makes the mistake of lunging at the deputy and screaming “nigger,” which earns him a sweeping baseball-style lick that lays him out flat on the ground.
“Ike!” I yell. “Stop it, man!”
Caitlin and I run toward him, but I’m not about to try to grab his baton. In his present state he might not be able to distinguish between white faces quickly enough to spare me a concussion. Caitlin isn’t so timid. She steps between Ike and his targets and holds up both hands, creating a sight arresting enough to paralyze the deputy. Ike lowers his baton and turns to me, his eyes filled with sweat.
“You’d best get out of here quick. Police won’t be long.”
Now isn’t the time for extended thank-yous. I take Caitlin’s arm and hobble toward the driver’s door of the BMW.
“You’re not driving,” she says. “Give me the keys.”
“I’m fine.”
“You took at least ten blows to the head. Your nose is bleeding. I’m driving you to the hospital.”
“My father can check me out when I get home. Get in the car!”
She scrambles over the driver’s seat to the other side. I crank the car and pull slowly out of the lot. Ike’s cruiser is already gone.
One circuit of the block takes me to Caitlin’s green Miata, and I park in the street beside it. Double-parking is an old Natchez tradition.
“I
