Bad Moon Rising

Hondo already had flexcuffs holding his guy’s wrists together behind his back. My friend looked at me and said, “Mr. Miyagi taught you well.”

I sat on the ground and held the injured ankle between my hands like a baby bird. My foot twitched sideways with every pulse beat, and I’m telling you, it really, really hurt.

Hondo looked at it. “Reminds me of that joke, Whenever I roll a joint, it’s always my ankle.”

“Haha.”

Hondo said, “Rub some dirt on it.”

“No, I’ll get blood poisoning.”

“Come on, the skin’s not broken. It’s barely a sprain.”

“Huh, my foot almost twisted completely off.”

“Would’ve killed a lesser man.”

I said, “You know it.”

He walked toward the house and patted me on the shoulder as he went by, “I’m going to check inside. Looks like the women are fine with what happened.” He added, “I don’t see Bodhi or Amber with that group.” I glanced at them. The women in the yard definitely didn’t include our quarry.

My heart sank. The small, brown people sat in silence, maybe a little scared as they watched us, shooting occasional angry glances at the two black men.

“You speak English?” I said.

They shook their heads, looking at the ground as if ashamed they couldn’t say yes.

I rubbed my swelling ankle, which already had a knot the size of a lemon on the outside, so I didn’t pay attention when Hondo came out of the house.

Two slender, tanned arms, smelling like smoke, went around my neck and she hugged me from behind.

Amber said in my ear, “Hey, cowboy.”

I scooted around to face her. Amber’s smile was lopsided. Swollen, bruised lips pushed out the left side of her mouth and cheek. The left eye puffed half shut and the skin there showed a faint undertone of purple over a wide area. She kissed me and winced at the pain, then ran the pink tip of her tongue over the swollen area.

I said, “You’ve got moose lips.” That got a smile.

She looked at my swollen ankle and at the dust and dirt on my clothes and said, “Ain’t we a pair.”

Hondo said, “Are you two gonna be all right while I go for the car?”

I looked at Amber, “We’re okay.” I nodded my head at the two downed men. “If they try something, I’ll let the ladies practice Brazilian waxes on their crotches.”

Hondo loped down the road like some human greyhound, and I looked at Amber. She cocked her head to see the other women behind me. They acted shy, but smiled at her and she returned the smile, such as it was.

I said, “Which one did this to you?” I indicated her face.

“The one they call The Kiowa.”

“The one not here.”

“Yeah. He came to take Bodhi out of the room in the other house and I tried to stop him.” She ran her tongue on the inside of her mouth, feeling where he hit her. “He’s a bad man, Ronny. I mean real bad. Be careful if you run into him.”

I hoped I’d get the chance. “Do you know where they took Bodhi?”

“No, everything happened fast. There was some yelling and scuffling in the front room, and I heard other people but couldn’t make out any voices. Then there were some shots. After that, I heard a car leave. A minute after that, they hustled us into the van and took off.”

“You never saw the other vehicle?”