John Locke - Wish List

Richie is visibly shaken. Not by the noose, but by the couple standing before him. He screams, “What are you doing ? This was never discussed! This was never part of the deal!” The goon behind him stuffs a ball in Richie’s mouth and wraps tape around his head to hold it in place. Richie is still screaming, but his words are muffled and garbled. The gangster pushes Richie several feet forward, directly in front of the couple. The goon standing with the couple says, “This is him.”

Richie screams something and shakes his head from side to side as if shouting “No!” His eyes are wide with terror.

The young man’s face is twisted with rage. He says, “Are you absolutely certain?”

“One hundred percent.”

The young man looks at me and says, “Who’s he?”

Rudy says, “He’s not involved. But this one, Richie, he’s your guy.”

The young man stares at Richie. “Do you have proof?”

Rudy walks over to the couple and hands them an envelope. “I found these in his desk drawer.”

Richie screams and shakes his head again.

The young man and woman open the envelope and look at the photographs. I have no idea what they’re seeing, but as the photos fall to the ground, the man lunges at Richie, who lets out a yelp and tries to run away. But Goon Number Two, the one behind Richie, grabs him and holds him while the young man punches his face again and again. I have no idea what’s going on, and I’m still on the ground, but I try to work my way over to them. Goon Number One, standing next to the woman, points a gun at me and tells me to stay put.

When Richie’s body goes slack, the young man finally stops hitting him. Then he falls to his knees and sobs. The woman puts her hand on his shoulder. Ten second later, Richie starts coming to. The young woman walks up to him, slaps him hard, and spits in his face. Then Goon Two walks Richie over to the noose and slips it around his neck. Richie’s face is so full of blood it’s hard to make out his facial features. Rudy tightens the rope to the point that Richie is standing on tiptoes to keep from being strangled. At this moment, God help me, an old joke goes through my depraved mind, and I hear my internal voice ask if maybe one of Richie’s wishes was to be well hung.

I hate myself for having made that connection, but it’s weird how the mind works when subjected to horrific violence. My friend is crying out in fear. Goon One leads the couple over to the tree. As Rudy keeps the rope taut, Goon Two pulls Richie’s pants and underwear down to his ankles. He hands the young man a scalpel and says, “You still want to cut off his dick, now’s a good time.”

Richie screams and kicks the air with his right leg, trying to keep them away. He’s sobbing and yelling and the scene is so terrifying I start to wretch.

The young man looks at the scalpel a long time, and finally says, “No.”

Goon Two looks at the young woman and says, “How about you?”

She shakes her head.

Rudy says, “You still want us to hang him, though, right?”

The young couple look at each other. She says, “It won’t bring Tracy back, but…yes. It will keep him from hurting some other child.”

The man says, “Just do it quickly. We don’t want him to suffer unduly. We just want justice for Tracy.”

Rudy says, “We can hang him now, or after you leave. Depends on if you want to watch. One thing I’ll say, it’s not a pretty thing, watching a man hang. On the one hand, it might make you feel better. On the other, it might make you feel worse. He’ll be dead in five minutes either way. But it’s your wish. You make the call.”

They speak to each other softly, and then embrace. The young man says, “We’ll watch from a distance as long as we can. Then, if someone will walk us back to the car, we’d be grateful.”

Rudy nods to the two goons, and they pick up lanterns and escort the couple to the edge of the clearing. As Richie and I scream, Rudy pulls the rope and Richie’s feet come off the ground. He manages one blood-curdling scream but the noose chokes off any additional sounds. Richie is still alive and kicking the air. His eyes bug out and his face looks ghoulish. When he shits himself, the young man and woman can’t take any more. They turn their backs to him, and the goons escort them away.

Rudy immediately releases the rope, and Richie falls to the ground. Rudy removes the rope from Richie’s neck, and I start rolling across the ground toward them.

Chapter 25

We’re back in my car, heading home. Having soiled his own clothes, Richie’s wearing the extra underwear and pants I brought. He’s looking out the window again, crying softly.

“Did you do it?” I said.

I slap the back of his head. “Answer me, you son of a bitch!”

I think about the obscene comment and gesture he made about Lissie last Sunday, when all this wish business started. What he’d said, and the way he said it while grabbing his crotch, had pissed Mike off.

Mike.

For a split second I wonder what’s become of our friend. He was the first to fill out the list. I can only hope he’s okay. But I can’t concentrate on Mike right now. The idea of Richie being a child molester is too repulsive to allow me to focus on anything else.

“Tell me the truth, Richie. Did you do something to their little girl? I’ve known you twenty years.”

“Relax, pipsqueak,” Rudy says from the back seat. “He’s never been within ten miles of their little girl.”

“What? Then why—”

“Sally and Tom made a wish that their daughter’s killer would be caught and hung from a tree. Of course, Tom wanted to cut his dick off, as well.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We took the wish and found the guy, but too late. He’d already killed himself, hours earlier. Richie owed us a payment, so we decided to let him step in for the guy.”

“He could’ve been killed!”

“He could’ve been run over by a bus while crossing the street this morning.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Why, you think I can’t get a bus?”

I blink my eyes in horror. “You’re playing with people’s lives!”

“I wouldn’t call it playing.”

“What if that guy had cut off Richie’s dick?”

“Tell you the truth, I thought he would.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I were you, I’d dial it down. You don’t hear Richie bitching about it.”

He’s right, I don’t hear Richie bitching about it, and wonder why. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t recall Richie making a sound until the other goons showed up with Sally and Tom.

“Richie,” I say. “What’s going on here?”

“He’s not much of a talker these days,” Rudy says.

“What have you done to him?”

“We gave him three tasks.”

“But you nearly killed him tonight. Hasn’t he done enough?”

“Normally he’d be done by now. But he refused to honor the second one.”

I drive in silence a few minutes. Then I ask, “What did he refuse to do?”

Rudy pauses a moment. “Normally I wouldn’t say. But now I’m thinking it might be a teaching opportunity. This gets a little tricky, so pay attention. Like I said, we got a wish list from Tom and Sally, to find the man who killed their daughter. The killer was Robby Billups. But we also got a wish list from Robby’s mother, Margot.”

“This is insane!”

“It’s not such a big coincidence. Margot’s first wish was that Robby would get professional help. Her second was that Tracy’s parents would die.”

“Why would you grant a wish like that?”

“Look at it this way: when we get a wish from someone to kill a grieving couple like Sally and Tom, we figure there has to be a connection to their little girl, Tracy.”