‘PAYBACK TIME’
© Mesmerr
10
Jamie had bought the old bomb car for only two hundred dollars from the wrecker. He had mailed in the cash and asked for the car to be delivered to an address in the suburbs that he did not live in.
Earlier than the expected and advised arrival time of the old car he had caught the subway and then the train out to the ‘burbs and had walked the mile or so to the address where the car would be hopefully delivered. He had also requested and paid for a full tank of gas.
He was early. It was an old Pontiac Transam. The car had arrived around the expected time, along with another car following. The driver got out of the Transam and hopped into the second car and drove off. Hopefully he had left the keys, Jamie thought, as he walked over to it and opened the door.
The colour of the car was a faded metallic blue. He reached up and flipped down the sun visor. The keys dropped to the floor. Smiling, he slid in, fired up the old almost worn out engine and drove to a secluded location outside of town where he had rented a large old house. The nearest neighbour was almost a mile away.
He drove down the dirt road and took the turnoff to the house, passing through a short forest along the way. He stopped the car outside the house, his pulse racing a little with the excitement of everything that was soon to come. Then he went inside and fetched his toolbox and returned immediately to the car.
He sprung the hood and began work on the engine, or rather, the starter motor of the engine. Within twenty minutes he had rigged a kill switch in a location on the bottom firewall. Not even a skilled mechanic would think of looking for it there, although Jamie knew, in fact, that a mechanic or anybody, for that matter, wouldn’t be ‘looking’ for a kill switch at all.
Jamie glanced at his watch, then gathered up his tools and walked back inside the house. He got back into the front seat of the Transam five minutes later carrying a baseball bat, which he threw into the back seat of the car. Then he kicked the Old Faithful engine into life and drove off back toward town, but a specific part of town. It was the only road on the police offer’s route home that passed by a non-populated area.
For about two miles only there was nothing on either side of the road except dirt. It had been cleared of whatever had used to be there to make way for new buildings, but as yet, they had not begun to be built.
He drove to a point approximately half way along that deserted road and stopped the car. Then he got out and lifted the hood. He reached down and flicked the kill switch. Then, leaving the bonnet up he slid back into the front seat and tried to start the engine. It was as dead as a doornail. Jamie grinned and relaxed back into the deep and comfortable old seat.
His right hand reached back behind him to grasp the baseball bat and drew it into the front seat with him. How he would have loved to have one of those bats at certain times when he had first arrived in prison.
He glanced at his watch again. Only fifteen minutes and she should be along. He got out of the car and walked around to the front, leaning into the engine bay, but looking beneath his armpit and back up the road ahead of the way the car was facing.
He glanced at his watch again, then back up under his arm and along the road behind him. There she was. She always drove with her headlights on. Jamie hoped that no other cars came along until he was long gone.
He glanced back up the road beneath his armpit once last time, then stepped back and began swinging the baseball bat at the front of the car’s bumper and mudguards. The metal skin of the old Transam bent and buckled as he flogged it mercilessly with the baseball bat, seeming to any observer who happened to see his behaviour as if he were trying in deadly earnest to actually bludgeon the Pontiac Transam to death. Jamie got so into it he began to sweat and didn’t see the mustang pull up beside him until she actually blew the horn of her car.
“Hey!” Chico yelled at crazy man slamming the big bat into his car like someone possessed and who wanted to do it serious injury. “Stop that! What’re you doin’, man?”
Jamie stopped with the bat high in the air, just prior to the downswing. He looked at her with the saddest, but angriest eyes he could muster.
“I just paid good money for this damn lemon!” He yelled at her. “It just stopped! I know two hundred dollars isn’t a lot of money by today’s standards, but it was all I had! Since it wants to play fucking dead I’m giving it a hand! I’ve always got two good legs to get me where I need to go!”
And with that Jamie crashed the baseball bat heavily down into the side of the mudguard. At the top of the upswing of the next strike the sound of her sitting continually on the horn caused him to stop again.
“Are you crazy or what, Homey?” She shouted at the man with an obvious dislike for his car. “Stop that! I’m a police officer! I’ll arrest your crazy ass!”
Jamie held the bat high for a second or two more, just for effect, and then he just let it fall from his grip and onto the road. It rolled off toward the woman’s car. Then he sat down on the road with his head between his hands and waited, shaking his head from time to time, aware of the feeling of her eyes on him at all times.
He knew she was sizing up the situation. He stood up slowly then and turned to look at her, an utterly defeated look on his face and as many tears in his eyes as he could manage.
“No problem.” He said to her. “Won’t start means it won’t start. It can die right here. I don’t need this shit in my life right now. It can rest in peace right here.”
Then he turned and began to walk forward along the road in the opposite direction from which she had just come. He hadn’t gone far when he heard her door open and then close.
“Hey, man!” He heard her shout at him. “What are you doin’? You can’t just walk off and leave a vehicle unattended! I ‘told’ you! I’ll arrest your sorry friggin’ ass if you do. Now get ‘back’ here!”
Jamie paused, but did not turn to face her as she’d been speaking. Then he slowly stepped forward once more, walking further away from her.
“You’re lookin’ for trouble, Home-boy!” Chico shouted at the crazy man’s back. “Plan on sleeping in Uncle Sam’s rest iron-barred rooms tonight if you don’t stop with your next friggin’ step!”
Chico had recognised the beginnings of her feeling sorry for the man. She’d been stung once with a lemon of a car she had been sold and could remember how defeated and suckered she’d felt at the time. And she couldn’t allow the man to destroy personal property on the side of the road that might endanger another passing motorist. And she fully intended to arrest his sorry ass if he took another step forward.
She watched as he slowly turned and began walking back toward his car and her. His head was down in defeat and his eyes followed the pavement before his feet. When he reached her he stopped. Before she could say anything he spoke without looking up at her.
“You don’t understand.” He said softly, sadly. “It was my last two hundred bucks. I just don’t need this shit.”
Chico understood all right and decided to help, if she could.
“What happened to it?” She asked, watching the man watching the ground at her feet, his shoulders rounded and slumped. He was taller than she was, but didn’t seem that way in his present mode of defeat.
“It just stopped.” Jamie answered her, reeling her in like a fish. His pulse was pounding in his body. The adrenaline wasn’t just racing; it was flooding his bloodstream right at that moment. “One minute it was going fine... and then it just died. It can stay dead. I don’t want it anymore. Okay? Someone else can have the damn thing.”
Chico was feeling sorrier for the man with each passing second as she waited for his head to lift up, but it remained facing downward.
“I don’t want a lift, either.” Jamie added. “I just want to go now. Okay? It’ll take me long enough to get there as it is, but I’ll make it. I’ll come back and get it tomorrow. Okay? I just want to go. I’ve had it.”
“Maybe it’s just a loose wire.” Chico suggested to him, waiting for him to raise his face and look at her, but he didn’t. “These old cars, man, you know... they’re old. What can you expect?”
Jamie just stood there, head down, eyes glued to her feet, saying nothing. He had nothing more to say. He had something more to do, but nothing more to say.
“I know engines.” Chico said. “I’ll take a quick look at it. I can’t give you a lift. Okay? But I’ll take a look at it. Have you got any tools?”
“Only that.” Jamie said, pointing to the baseball bat covered in blue paint from the skin of the car where he’d flogged it.
Chico had to smile. Typical white man. Typical Homey-Home-boy-as useless as tits on a friggin’ bull. She sighed.
“Let’s have a look.” She said as she turned and walked over to the old Transam and stuck her head under the hood. “Probably just a loose wire..”
“I’m the one with the loose wire.” Jamie said, sounding even more defeated as he followed her over to the car.
Chico peered down into the dark engine bay of the old Pontiac. It was familiar. She’d seen plenty of them in her years, and with no brothers to teach her or help her she’d been the only one that had become the jack of all trades around the house for her mother.
Her father, also a policeman, had died when she had been three years old-shot by a drunk he had gone to help. She checked the ignition harness and then each spark plug in turn, jiggling the leads to test for their security to the plug attached.
“Turn the ignition on.” She said to him. “Don’t start it-just turn it on. In fact, turn it on and then come back here. That way you won’t start it accidentally and cut me up.”
“It won’t start.” Jamie said defeated, but he did as he was told. Then he returned to stand on the opposite side of the engine bay-the side where he’d installed the kill switch.
He leaned in with her, her face only a foot or so away from his. He knew what she was going to do and got ready. His heart thumped like a drum against his ribs. She was going to hot-start it.
And he would let her make the contact. But when she wasn’t expecting it, after she had tried and it failed to start, yet while she still held the contact wire on the starter solenoid he would trip the kill switch on an off very quickly-just enough to shock and startle her conscious mind with something entirely unexpected.
At that precise moment, when her the critical factor of her conscious mind had been bypassed with the sudden grunting of the engine, and her subconscious mind having no program to follow for the situation for that instant, he would reach over and jerk her arm forcefully toward him, further deepening her overall mental and physical imbalance.
Again her subconscious mind could not give her conscious mind a program to follow for that situation. She simply hadn’t been in it before. Then he would fire in the first of several trigger commands to her subconscious mind that would be sure to recognise and follow right at that moment.
Chico was going to hot wire the thing. If it was going to start that would do it. If it didn’t, it was dead, like the man said. And when a car is dead, it’s dead, and that’s that. Have a nice life, to his friggin’ car and him as well. ‘She’ didn’t need this shit in ‘her’ life either.
“Watch your hands, Homey!” She snapped at him. “If it does start they’ll be calling you ‘lefty’!”
Dumb-ass friggin’ Homey! Chico thought to herself as she made the connection and hoped for the best. Nothing happened. She tried again, rubbing the wire round and round for a better connection. Nothing. She tried again and again. Nothing. It was dead. That was that.
She relaxed and hung her head a little, easing the strain on her neck from holding her head tensed and on a sideways angle, although still holding the live hot-wire connection in place. She had tried. That was that.
Jamie sensed the timing was right before he consciously thought of it. He flipped the switch on and off. The Transam engine fired once then stopped. The policewoman shrieked, instantly shocked and startled and immediately tense. He reached over instantly and grabbed her right upper arm, jerking it roughly downward and shouting in his loudest voice right into her ear as he leaned into her;
‘FREEZE!” He yelled loudly into her left ear.
Chico’s thoughts froze on nothing. Everything was frozen. She couldn’t think and didn’t know what to do even if she could. Her reason fought desperately for control. All of her police instincts roared into life, but remained stifled.
All of her senses that had been trying to warn her over the last two weeks surfaced and washed over her from head to toe, but left no clearing illumination in their wake. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. She could only feel herself frozen from head to toe.
Jamie wasted no time with the second trigger. Her conscious and subconscious mind were used to taking orders as a policewoman. He had to follow up the first command trigger and keep her psychologically off balance and unconsciously responding to his trigger commands before her analytical and reasoning mind got back into the act.
He then bypassed her critical factor once again with his next planned trigger command.
“RELAX! NOW!” Jamie shouted just as loudly into her left ear.
Chico wanted to fight, yet she wanted to relax and then instantly felt herself do the latter, from the top of her head to the tip of her toes, and she didn’t decide to do it. It was as if another part of her was watching what was happening without interfering in any way and simply allowing it. She just did it, or her body did.
Her mind was a complete blank, but her awareness continued to scream alarm bells left, right and centre. He was the stalker! She knew it, but did nothing-was aware of nothing but the fact that she couldn’t move and didn’t want to. She wanted to relax, to watch and not fight now, but attempt somehow to regain control. Consciously she was not there. Unconsciously she was, but her mind was numb. Time seemed to be standing still in a frozen moment.
Again Jamie saw her instant relaxation response and acted again with yet another planned trigger command that her unconscious mind would be sure to recognise and follow. He hoped also that she’d had a hard day and was tired anyway.
“SLEEP! NOW!” Jamie barked into her left ear, then again to drive the trigger command home deeply into her subconscious mind without her consciousness getting a look in this time. “SLEEP! NOW!”
Chico felt the tension leave her mind and body in a huge wave that felt so good. She had been so tense for some reason. Warning bells sounded all throughout her awareness, but her head sank a little and her eyes closed down and she sighed. It felt so good.
She was so tired all of a sudden. What was she doing anyway? She was in immediate danger, but she didn’t care now. She felt so drained, all she wanted to do was sleep forever.
She breathed deeply and sighed, feeling her mind and body relax even more so, while her immediate awareness continued to sound every alarm bell she had. To sleep, to relax. It was wonderful.
She was aware that she was watching everything that was happening and should be doing something to help herself, but she also knew she agreed with herself that she desperately needed to sleep. Everything was quiet and still. Her mind was calm. Her breathing was deep and restful.
Jamie knew he wasn’t home yet. He was almost there, but not quite yet. He had to be sure and chose the moment when she seemed to be the most relaxed to fire in his last trigger command set. He couldn’t see her face, but from the happenings of her body he ‘could’ see he knew her subconscious mind was following so far.
“OBEY! Sleep! OBEY! Sleep! OBEY! Sleep! OBEY! And sleep! OBEY! And sleep! Now! OBEY! And sleep! Now!”
The final set of good guy-bad guy tone of voice commands-of loud triggers then soft forceful commands repeated should have her agreeing with ‘all’ of her mind on the connection and reward between the two-if she obeyed, she would sleep.
Chico was confused and then she wasn’t. She knew she was in danger-that he was the one who had been stalking her, but she had to obey and sleep. She wanted to sleep. She needed to sleep. She knew how to obey-to obey was to sleep. Sleep and obey.
No! She was in danger-terrible danger, but she had to obey and sleep. Then everything would be all right. But how could it be? She was in danger! Then the confusion became too much, and then it suddenly didn’t.
Something snapped-something aligned-something realigned that somehow made everything all right. She ‘needed’ it to be all right. She was ‘so’ tired. If she obeyed she would sleep, and she ‘wanted’ to sleep. She would obey. It was suddenly as clear as her own name-obey and sleep.
Jamie saw the end of her mental confusional conflict between her rational thinking mind and her subconscious feeling mind. Her head dipped a little lower and her back and spine relaxed more deeply onto the front support metal of the car’s engine bay. Then he grinned, knowing which part of her mind had won the final conflict. But to him there had never been any doubt.
His pulse raced and his heart thumped, but he felt great! He reached down and tripped the kill switch off. The Transam’s engine suddenly burst into life. He jumped back from under the hood and panicked, knowing instantly that she must be still holding the connection.
He needn’t have worried. She didn’t stir from the position she held of leaning into and over the engine bay.
“Back up and straighten up, then relax!” He commanded her forcefully. “Sleep later!”
Chico understood the order. She didn’t want to obey, but she did and knew she would. She backed up and straightened up, feeling herself relax as she did so. She could sleep later, her mind told her. No more warning bells. She agreed. She felt peaceful, waiting for her next order and then she could sleep later.
Now for the acid test, Jamie thought as he gathered up all of his courage and hypnosis instincts.
“Get in your car! Start your engine and turn your lights on!” He barked commandingly at her left ear. “Then follow me so you can sleep later! Follow my car and don’t lose it! Then sleep later! Understand?”
Chico understood and nodded her head slowly. She could sleep later-follow him and sleep later. Something was wrong, but it wasn’t. God, she wanted to sleep so badly.
She had never felt so tired in all her life. Soon she would sleep-follow him and don’t lose him and then sleep later. Lose him? She wouldn’t lose him. She was a policewoman. She had never lost a surveillance-never. She could successfully tail anyone.
“Do it now!” Jamie barked at her.
He watched as she turned slowly and walked to her car. She got in and fired the engine into life. Then her lights came on. He got into the Transam, backed up and then turned around in front of her. Then he drove slowly forward, smiling when he saw her lights fall in behind him.
The sun had just about gone. Dusk had arrived. And so, he thought, as he mentally congratulated himself on her capture, had her time. Yes. Her time had ‘definitely’ now arrived.