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Description
A Long Evening

A short story by Justin White

I duck a haymaker that whistles over my head and clips the top of my hat, knocking it off into the gray snow. I lunge in with a left, Darwin drops his elbow down and I get a fistful of bone. The impact rings through my arm in the cold, but I know his is hurting more.  Darwin Finn steps back, shaking his right arm. Good, that one counted.

Delilah is covering him with her .45, she told me she was coming with me tonight, and in Delilah fashion refused to take no for an answer.  Darwin Finn is a small fish, but he knows where Patty is. Unfortunately, he also knows I want him alive.

"Oh, just let me shoot him once or twice! I'm tired of watching you two dance, it's dreadfully boring!" I'm about to say something when I catch a face full of dirty snow. Something large barrels into me and knocks me sprawling! A weight crashes down on my chest and I barely get my arms up in time to stop the blows raining down on me. I grab blindly until I feel my hands close on a thick wrist, and then I yank as hard as I can and roll to my right, dislodging Darwin and buying myself time to wipe my face clear.  I'm up and on my feet, but he's up quicker and already charging.

Darwin's a small fish but he's a damn tough small fish. Dee's right, it'd be easier to shoot him but that puts me no closer to Patty O'Shaughnessy.  He's in mid bull rush when he slips on the frozen concrete, I bring my knee up hard into his breadbasket! He lets out a groan as the air vacates his lungs and he collapses to his hands and knees, gasping in the filthy snow of the secluded back alley.

"I don't like her."

I'm about to launch a kick into Darwin's ribs but I pause in mid strike.

"Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

"That Russian tart you've been tomcatting around with! I don't like her one bit! I see how she fawns over you!" Is this actually happening to me?

"Dee, we gotta do this now?" Darwin kicks out at my left leg and I feel is buckle under me. Over I go once again. This time Darwin turns to run, but I just manage to flail out an arm and trip him up once again. I am already tired of this fight. Darwin is up, quick as a cat and coming at me again! He launches another vicious right but this time I'm ready. I grab his wrist with my left hand, turn into his arm and smash my right elbow into his nose with the full force of his charge and all my bodyweight behind it! His eyes roll up in his head over the wreck that was his nose and he falls straight back as soon as I let go of his wrist. Bill taught me that trick; apparently he learned it from his time in Japan.  They don't fight fair over there.

"Well why didn't you just do that to start with? You'd think you weren't trying to win! The way you dilly-dally, honestly!" She slips the .45 back into her new fur coat. I think it's new, it's not the one she had on the last time I saw her.

"It gets easier if someone doesn't keep distracting me." I retrieve my hat and brush the grey snow off of it. "Or God forbid you could have actually helped me."

"And ruin my new mink? You are a crazy one, darling! I did offer to shoot him!" She shrugs at me and gives me that, Oh well, what can you do, look. "You're getting off topic. I don't like her one bit!"

"Well, in her defense" I groan as I hoist the unconscious Finn up to his feet. He's a big boy and hauling him to the car so we can take him someplace private won't be easy. "She actually saved my life recently, unlike some other ladies I might name. Could you at least give me a hand hauling this guy?"

"New mink!" she exclaims, favoring me with a look that proclaims me the single most foolish man on the planet. "We've been over this a dozen times, none of that counts! I simply cannot fathom why you insist on bringing that up over and over!"

"Sure, ok, that's fine." I drag Darwin out of the alley; the street is deserted thank God. "For one thing, it was hardly tomcatting; I owed her family a favor since she very kindly kept a murder rap off my back."

"Oh, he's going to bleed all over my upholstery!" Delilah has got the back door to her new sedan open for me as I slide Darwin's unconscious form in.

"I told you to bring the plastic sheeting." I finish shoving Darwin into the sedan and slam the door shut.

"If you weren't so sloppy we wouldn't have needed it!"  We both get in and she turns the engine over. "I've seen you fight before, you're usually much better than that! I bet if your new Russian girlfriend were here you'd have put on a much better show!"

"Just drive Dee." I pull my hat down low over my eyes. This is going to be a long evening.

Description
A Long Evening

A short story by Justin White

I duck a haymaker that whistles over my head and clips the top of my hat, knocking it off into the gray snow. I lunge in with a left, Darwin drops his elbow down and I get a fistful of bone. The impact rings through my arm in the cold, but I know his is hurting more.  Darwin Finn steps back, shaking his right arm. Good, that one counted.

Delilah is covering him with her .45, she told me she was coming with me tonight, and in Delilah fashion refused to take no for an answer.  Darwin Finn is a small fish, but he knows where Patty is. Unfortunately, he also knows I want him alive.

"Oh, just let me shoot him once or twice! I'm tired of watching you two dance, it's dreadfully boring!" I'm about to say something when I catch a face full of dirty snow. Something large barrels into me and knocks me sprawling! A weight crashes down on my chest and I barely get my arms up in time to stop the blows raining down on me. I grab blindly until I feel my hands close on a thick wrist, and then I yank as hard as I can and roll to my right, dislodging Darwin and buying myself time to wipe my face clear.  I'm up and on my feet, but he's up quicker and already charging.

Darwin's a small fish but he's a damn tough small fish. Dee's right, it'd be easier to shoot him but that puts me no closer to Patty O'Shaughnessy.  He's in mid bull rush when he slips on the frozen concrete, I bring my knee up hard into his breadbasket! He lets out a groan as the air vacates his lungs and he collapses to his hands and knees, gasping in the filthy snow of the secluded back alley.

"I don't like her."

I'm about to launch a kick into Darwin's ribs but I pause in mid strike.

"Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

"That Russian tart you've been tomcatting around with! I don't like her one bit! I see how she fawns over you!" Is this actually happening to me?

"Dee, we gotta do this now?" Darwin kicks out at my left leg and I feel is buckle under me. Over I go once again. This time Darwin turns to run, but I just manage to flail out an arm and trip him up once again. I am already tired of this fight. Darwin is up, quick as a cat and coming at me again! He launches another vicious right but this time I'm ready. I grab his wrist with my left hand, turn into his arm and smash my right elbow into his nose with the full force of his charge and all my bodyweight behind it! His eyes roll up in his head over the wreck that was his nose and he falls straight back as soon as I let go of his wrist. Bill taught me that trick; apparently he learned it from his time in Japan.  They don't fight fair over there.

"Well why didn't you just do that to start with? You'd think you weren't trying to win! The way you dilly-dally, honestly!" She slips the .45 back into her new fur coat. I think it's new, it's not the one she had on the last time I saw her.

"It gets easier if someone doesn't keep distracting me." I retrieve my hat and brush the grey snow off of it. "Or God forbid you could have actually helped me."

"And ruin my new mink? You are a crazy one, darling! I did offer to shoot him!" She shrugs at me and gives me that, Oh well, what can you do, look. "You're getting off topic. I don't like her one bit!"

"Well, in her defense" I groan as I hoist the unconscious Finn up to his feet. He's a big boy and hauling him to the car so we can take him someplace private won't be easy. "She actually saved my life recently, unlike some other ladies I might name. Could you at least give me a hand hauling this guy?"

"New mink!" she exclaims, favoring me with a look that proclaims me the single most foolish man on the planet. "We've been over this a dozen times, none of that counts! I simply cannot fathom why you insist on bringing that up over and over!"

"Sure, ok, that's fine." I drag Darwin out of the alley; the street is deserted thank God. "For one thing, it was hardly tomcatting; I owed her family a favor since she very kindly kept a murder rap off my back."

"Oh, he's going to bleed all over my upholstery!" Delilah has got the back door to her new sedan open for me as I slide Darwin's unconscious form in.

"I told you to bring the plastic sheeting." I finish shoving Darwin into the sedan and slam the door shut.

"If you weren't so sloppy we wouldn't have needed it!"  We both get in and she turns the engine over. "I've seen you fight before, you're usually much better than that! I bet if your new Russian girlfriend were here you'd have put on a much better show!"

"Just drive Dee." I pull my hat down low over my eyes. This is going to be a long evening.