Jack O'Connell - Wireless

“Yeah, well, even hedonists need a paycheck.”

“Move in with me,” Flynn says. “We’ll set up a remote at my place. You can broadcast from the bed. Give the show a real edge.”

“I think the show has enough of an edge already.”

She turns and heads for the shower and yells back, “You want to join me in here?”

He swings his legs off the mattress and says, “And on top of everything else she’s a mind reader.”

Ronnie has one of those yellow plastic waterproof radios hanging by a black plastic strap from the neck of the shower nozzle. As Flynn climbs into the tub, she turns on WQSG. Flynn moves in and hugs her around the waist and they step under the spray of water. Ronnie takes an orange bar of soap from the dish and hands it over her shoulder to Flynn and he goes to work on her back. She closes her eyes, points her face up at the jet of water, and listens to the radio. Ray Todd is in standard form.

Hello, Quinsigamond, and welcome back to our final hour of City Soapbox . I am your host, of course, Raymond Todd, and God willing, we may just make it through an entire program without being assaulted and knocked into limbo by the lawless degenerates who’ve been trying so desperately to grab some headlines the past few weeks. If you’ve just joined us, please be advised that we’re not taking any calls for the next thirty minutes. This is a memorial segment of sorts, an interview taped shortly before the tragic and violent demise of Father Andre Todorov. As will soon become apparent to you, I am not a supporter or follower of the late Father Todorov. At best, I would have to call him a sadly misguided figure, bamboozled by a misreading of history and an excessive ego. I’m afraid his horrid death cannot and will not alter my assessment. I broadcast this interview simply as a glaring warning, a piercingly clear example of the apocalyptic dangers inherent in the humanistic ideology. Whether the savage animals who hideously murdered this confused man will ever be apprehended matters very little in the end. Because, and hear me now, they are a minute manifestation of the coming evils. How ironic that Father Todorov contributed to the plague that caused his own demise. How pathetic. If the engineer will roll the tape, let’s listen to the sounds of our own doom.

There’s a second of air hiss and then a mechanical-sounding run of musical scales.

… My guest in the studio tonight is himself no stranger to local headlines. If you’ve been following the series of Spy articles over the past year or so, you’re certainly familiar with Father Andre Todorov, associate pastor of St. Brendan’s Cathedral in the heart of downtown. In the year since Father Todorov has been installed in his position at the cathedral, he’s been relentless in his well-publicized dedication to what he calls “social action with the emphasis on action.” The good father is the founder of the Calvary Peace Coalition and the Assisi Shelter down on LaBran Avenue. But the past few month have seen Father Todorov turn his energies to the growing gang problem that’s descended on our city. Before the break, Father, you’d begun to correct some of my misconceptions about the gang menace. Let’s explore the facts a bit, as I like to say. How many established gangs are there currently in the city?

That’s difficult to say, Ray. We know, of course, about the top two. The Granada Street Popes, mainly from the Colombian community. And their growing rival, the Angkor Hyenas, comprised of Cambodian refugees. There are certainly three other smaller clubs that have emerged on the borders of Bangkok Park.

And they are?

The Tonton Loas, who seem to have a strong Haitian tradition, the Castlebar Road Boys, who define themselves as an Irish fraternal organization, and the Sal Mineos—

The Pecci family’s errand boys.

Please, Mr. Todd—

’Scuse me, Father. Can you tell us, which have you had the most contact with?

I am equally available to all the rival factions. We’re not here tonight to provoke any group by negating their importance in the overall peace.

Peace being the main objective in your ministry among these gangs?

Of course. I don’t see—

Would you agree, Father, without delving into the requisite sociological causes, that the main activity of these gangs, indeed, their very reason for being, is criminal—

Now, wait a minute, Mr. Todd. These are youths from a blighted landscape. They turn to the gang life as a matter of survival, a system for living where there is no other system.

But let’s be clear and honest here, Father Todorov. That system is comprised of thievery, drug dealing, arms dealing, extortion, and the general, wholesale spreading of terror—

You’re making very provocative remarks about an extremely complicated problem—

There was nothing complicated about the firebombing of the New Ponce Bodega last week—

That incident has not been proven to be gang-related, Mr. Todd.

I think what confuses most people, Father, is your insistence on devoting your time and effort to an element with very little respect for law and life—

We have to start somewhere. As Christ said, it’s the sick man who needs the doctor. These young people have to be taught other skills—

Blame everything on ignorance, yes? Tell me, Father, what about these radio jammers who’ve begun to prey on us? Clearly these aren’t ignorant savages.

I didn’t say … I’m here to talk about the gang problem. I don’t know anything about these jammers.

Just what you read in the papers, I’m sure.

I don’t see—

I’m curious, when you venture down to Bangkok town, do you wear the collar, Father?

Not always, no. The idea is to first establish a rapport. And I’ve found if I dress in street clothes, it’s a sign … I find it’s the first step toward intimacy. It helps to remove the threat of my a priori role as an authority figure.

You do acknowledge, however, that you are, in fact, an authority figure. Correct, Father?

I’m perceived this way. The image of the adult, white, male priest. The force of the historical image is a powerful, stubborn symbol to overcome. I—

Do these gang members ever confess their crimes to you, Father?

Well, first, Ray, as you well know, we confess sins, not crimes. And secondly, most of the gangs are not Catholic.

Most?

Well, the Granada Street Popes are. And the new one out of Ireland — the Castlebar Road Boys.

And these two, they claim to be members of the Church?

What I mean is, they were raised in the tradition. Their native cultures are—

Could you briefly distinguish between crime and sin for me, Father?

Excuse me?

Crime versus sin. Please.

[Pause] Well, I mean, it appears obvious to me. A crime is a violation of a man-made law—

And a sin—

Would be an affront to, a disruption of, one’s individual conscience. I don’t see—

Now, last month there, when you and your little coalition drove down Route 63 to the industrial park and poured human blood all over the lobby of the Gibson Tech corporate office. Would that there be a sin or a crime?

I don’t see how this concerns the gang issue. I thought we were here to discuss—

And so we are. Which brings me to my question, did one of those street scum gangboys supply you people with the blood? “ Lucky day, Father T. Got a big red barrel full of B negative from a little grandmother we just gutted .”

[Yelling] Mr. Todd, for God’s sake—

[Yelling] And you’ve got a hell of a nerve invoking the name of God, you Marxist insult to Rome—

[noise of microphone coming loose]

… is ridiculous … despicable …

[Yelling] Keep walking, you liberal humanist fraud. Your days are numbered, you—