Chapter 5

Carl spent the rest of the day with his head tucked low, trying to be as invisible as he could, and was successful for the most part. He couldn't figure out what happened to his life in such a short time. He had thought that everything was roses, and it seemed now like the shit just kept flowing. He made it out of school at the end of the day, moving around any large groups of people he saw. He didn't feel like talking to any of them, and they seemed just as content to ignore him as he passed. Wasn't that strange? Didn't they always call out to him after school, wanting to hear the stories of his latest conquest? As he pondered this, he wove around another clump of people. The more he thought about it, it was always him who initiated the conversations, picking and choosing which group he'd like to join, and then telling them all about his latest exploits. If today was any indication, though, they were more than happy to just pretend he didn't exist. What the hell was going on?

Carl was so preoccupied as he approached his car that he didn't recognize the two people standing under a nearby tree smoking cigarettes. Carl dug for his keys with his back to the two strangers as they dropped their glowing cigarettes into the dirt and stamped them out with their toes. Then, moving almost as one, they silently approached Carl. As he placed the key in the ignition, the larger of the two strangers grabbed his arm and pushed him forward against the car, twisting Carl's wrist up between his shoulder blades painfully, and preventing him from turning around. The stranger leaned close behind Carl, taking care to not let his face be seen.

"So this is the fuck who messed Janice up, huh? Hey, you fuck. You ever touch her again and it's your ass, you get me? Huh?" He wrenched Carl's wrist up even further, causing Carl to hiss an exclamation of pain through his clenched teeth.

"I'll take that as a yes, I think. Oh, but just so you know we're serious... go ahead, man."

The last was said to his compatriot, who cast a shorter but wider shadow across the roof of Carl's car. At the verbal signal, the shorter one stepped forward and kicked the back of Carl's knee, hard, sending it crashing forward into the car door. Carl cried out from the surprise of the impact, but the man holding his wrist held him still. The shorter one crouched low to the ground and moved around to Carl's left, staying low so that Carl couldn't see the man. The next thing Carl felt was a painful thud into his left side, near his kidney. He started to cry out, but the man behind him grabbed his hair with his free hand and pushed Carl's face into the car's roof. As he did this the shorter man stood up and put all his weight behind his next blow. The punch came in hard and fast and connected directly into Carl's kidney. Carl screamed into the car roof, saliva dribbling out of the corners of his mouth onto the cool metal as another punch rained in, then another. Carl's whole side was on fire, and his body fiercely tried to lean to that side to alleviate the pressure, but he had no leverage to move and had to simply endure what was happening.

After more punches than Carl could count, to the side, kidney, and lower back, Carl's head was yanked back by the hair, so that he was looking straight towards the sky. He tried as hard as he could to look out the corner of his eye and get some idea of his attackers' identities, but he was turned in such a fashion that there was nothing to see. Then a strong, straight punch connected directly into his lower right ribs. His hear skipped a beat, and he felt all the air rush out of his lungs. He croaked and gasped for air, trying desperately to free himself using his one free hand, but the taller man held him easily, staying deadly silent while the puncher methodically worked over Carl's ribs with quick, extremely hard strikes, up and down. On the seventh punch Carl felt a slight crackling sound and pain flared through his system like a struck match. He screamed to the sky, and the man holding him released his hair to clasp his hand over Carl's open mouth. Carl tried frantically to shake him lose, but the man ratcheted his wrist further between his shoulder blades and Carl shuddered to a halt, feeling like any further motion would completely dislocate his shoulder or wrist, or both.

"Get him once more, on the other side." The tall one said in a low tone. The short one just grunted and set his feet. The punch came in with as much force as he could muster, and this time the crackling noise was eerily audible to all three of them. Carl started to cry from the pain, and felt like his lungs were full of liquid. He couldn't catch his breath, and every gasped attempt felt like fire in his chest. His wrist was suddenly freed, and the hand left his mouth as his two attackers ran off into the trees. Carl crumpled on the spot, his muscles not having the strength to hold him in place any longer. This action redoubled his pain, and he curled as best he could into a ball and cried intense, hot tears as he willed the pain to go away.

Mary had been watching Carl for the better part of the day, from as safe a distance as she could muster, and she was fairly certain that she hadn't been seen. She could tell, even from a respectable distance, that he had a lot on his mind. She had caught the tail end of his confrontation with Lisa, and cheered to herself at the girl's comments. She had watched Carl's face crumble into a mask of confusion and knew that he was starting to doubt everything about his life. Which, she realized, was sort of the point. But even they couldn't have scripted it this beautifully.

She lost track of Carl at the end of the day, but knew where he could be found. She surreptitiously made her way from group to group of people, all the places where he used to go and beat his chest. She half expected there to be all sorts of rumors and gossip about her being spread, but nobody batted an eye. What's more, there was no sign of Carl anywhere. She stepped to the edge of the building and looked back to where his car was parked partly in shadow at the far end of the lot. And lying next to the car...

"Damn", Mary swore under her breath. She pulled out her cell phone and turned away for some refuge from the buzzing conversations behind her.

Carl heard the sirens approaching, but was in too much pain to realize what they meant until the white vehicle parked right behind his car and he saw brown shoes jogging towards him.

"Sir? Are you all right? Sir?" The man reached for Carl's shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze. Carl wailed at the touch, and the man jerked his hand back as if he had been bitten.

"Jim, bring the bag. The kid's awake, but in pain. Kid, can you hear me?"

Carl managed a grunt, but even that effort sent him rocking slightly from side to side, groaning.

"Kid, where does it hurt?" the man asked, sounding concerned.

Carl managed to lift his arms away from his ribs slightly, but the pain from this motion made him cry out loud. Luckily for him, though, the man had noticed.

"Hey Jim, I think it's his ribs. Gimme a hand here, willya?"

The two men took their places on either side of him and reached around his clenched arms to lift his shirt slightly. His sides were already starting to bruise, and there were marks from where the fists had struck him on his side and on his ribs. The man called Jim let out a harsh whistle between his teeth.

"OK, let's keep him very still. Jim, go get the gurney and we'll get this kid out of here and to the hospital.

Kid, do you have any ID on you? Maybe in your back pocket? Don't try and talk, it'll just hurt worse. Just nod your head."