Ride The Lightning - Episode 17

I Hate to deal with crying women.

I slept relatively peacefully then I woke up.
The whisky worked. It dulled the dreams. I recalled having very strange and disturbing dreams but the whisky had buffered them. I could barely remember them. They quickly faded from memory when I awoke, much like normal.
Even so, I did NOT want to think about what they implied.…so I thought about something else.
The calls I needed to make. One to Chris’s Sister and the other to my family….
I really needed to..
I really ought to…
………..nooooooope!
I purely hate to hear women cry. I’d rather face enemy fire. I wasn’t ready for it yet.
Instead…I dithered..and considered the nested ThumBrains hanging from the torque around my neck. I examined them. I removed the one that Chris had given me and held it in my hands. I directed a thought to it .
The DiamondFog that the ThumBrain’s case was made of squirmed and moved…the alien stone from the head of the alien cat girl was revealed. It was beautiful. I stared into it’s depths . I was almost mesmerized by it’s beauty. It was unlike anything that I’d very seen before.
Abruptly I jerked my head and looked away. I felt that if I stared to long into those infinite depths I’d loose my soul.
Enough of that.
A thought to the ThumBrain and the Stone was concealed. I’d consider this in depth later….when I got out of the infirmary.
The self imposed obligation to make the calls weighed heavily upon me. How else could I waffle and dither? Never put off something today that you can put off tomorrow…I always say.
Which…thinking about waffling, dithering and …eh… ducking…brought to mind the last time I was doing some serious ducking…in a gunfight at the OK Corral. I mean the truck parking lot...ok?
I’d done a LOT of shooting. Surely I was short on ammo. YES! I needed more AMMO!
Safe topic.
I could think about my shortage of ammo with no fear of live crying wimmen or dead wimmen that couldn’t cry cause their head had disintegrated into powder.
I’d order some more ammo!
I did…it only took about half an hour.
Now what else could I do to avoid making those calls?
Come to think of it…since I’d ordered that ammo for my Smoke Pole. Where was my smoke pole?
AHA!
A new topic of dither. A serious one. I certainly did NOT want to loose my smoke pole. It was a gift from my family. No way would I ever permanently part with it voluntarily.
I called the nurse.
Legs and SmokePole Returned

“Mr. Allen. I’m here to return your personal effects.” A pretty serious lady had entered my room. I had just finished getting dressed as best as I could. I still needed my “stuff” before I left…my legs for example. I was using any excuse… NOT to think about the stone hidden in the Amulet, or calling those wimmin.
Yup…she was right. That was my stuff. I could see my legs and my SmokePole from here…and other things. Legs would be handy. It’s hard to get around without them, and people looked at me funny. The medics had removed them earlier when they tucked me into bed.
“These are your belongings?” She asked.
“Yes ma’am. So it would appear.” I told her. ”Not all that stuff is mine though.”
“We’ve included the personal effects of your deceased friend. You have the best claim. There is no one else to give it to.” She explained.
“Oh…” I said. I suppose that made sense. Mighty honest of them. Some places would just take it, and sell it later, perhaps at an auction. ”By the way, what about Chris’s body. Will there be a funeral?”
“His body has been cremated.” She said. “That would be standard procedure for bodies for whom we could find no next of kin. We had nothing to go on with him. No identification.”
“He’s been cremated?” I repeated. I’d dithered too long before calling his sister. I’d deprived her of any choice about Chris's body. One more grievous sin on my head. In my defense..I’d been mostly unconscious until just recently.
“Yes..we have the ashes in a nice urn for you if you want to take it. If you’ll thumbprint here then please?” she pointed to a spot on her electronic device.
After she left I finished getting dressed. I felt much better wearing my legs and in possession of my smoke pole. I also discovered what kind of weapon Chris had.
Here come ‘da JUDGE!

To Be Continued
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