Part 18: I struggled to open my eyes.

The ethereal smile faded away…slowly. My eyes were gummy and gritty. At first I could barely see.

Someone was standing at the foot of my bed. I was relieved to find that there actually WAS someone present….not just a fading grin.

“I see you’re having a rough time” the person at the foot of my bed said.

“Who’s that?” I asked. My sight was slowing clearing. I still had ringing in my ears. I vaguely remember a loud gun. The person at the foot of my bed was coming into focus slowly. By GOD! It was the rent-a-cop from the TruckLot gunfight.

“My name is Captain Robert Boyer. My Friends Call me Bob. You did us all a great service the other day. I came here on behalf of a lot of people to express our gratitude.” The cop said.

Imagine that! A cop wanting to be friends with a Trucker. Cops and Truckers were natural enemies. I remembered my experience with cops from before the cooling, before the SHATTER. Not good. I slowly gathered my wits about myself. The SHATTER was long gone although that couldn’t be said about the cooling.

Things were different now, MUCH different. Today all cops were private security. Rent-a-cops as they’d been called in days of old, the bad old days. No longer. Cops really were my friends.

“Um…” I said brilliantly. I still wasn’t up to speed.

“Cough Er. I don’t know what to say” I said to the Captain “Thank me for what?”

“You are the one who killed Mahmoud Fawzi Qaboos bin Said Al Mustafa Pasha Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz Amin abIdin Bin Nashi” he said. “Folks around here just call him Ben Nasty, it saves time. He’s been pretty nasty. He’s the leader of a local gang. We think he’s organizing for HezBubble, BooBoo IceCream or maybe the TowelBan. He’s terrorized, tortured and killed a lot of people. You did us all a big favor and performed a public service by getting rid of him” the Captain said.

“Ah” I said “With a name like that no wonder he was nasty. His mother must have hated children to inflict a name on a child like that. Abortion would have been kinder. I don’t remember any details. I remember being shot at and shooting back.”

“Well you got him. It was your tiny rockets in his body. Everyone else was using bullets.” Bob said

“Ummmm…..yeah” Strangely enough I was exhausted. I hadn’t sleep well at all and hadn’t rested. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. “Ahh…you’ll pardon me Bob. I haven’t been resting well. Nightmares don’t you knoooo……”

I drifted off. The Nurse had injected sleepy juice into my IV. I went to sleep.