Good ol' Billy

            Bill was an honest man. He done told his wife every time he smoked his pipe. (Three times in the last year.) He arrived to work twenty minutes early every day for a good ol’ conversation. He just liked to make people feel good. Bill quit his drinkin’ and smokin’ in his late twenties as a promise to his wife and best friend Bertha. They did everything together. They even ran a soup kitchen for a number of years. Brought in many a nice men and women who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and trying to get back on track. Sure some of these folks took advantage of the old couple here and there but Bill and Bertha only gave second chances anytime somethin' turned up missin'. Bill was raised in the southern church and thanked the Lord for every waking moment. He knew better than to let the material world bring him down. He would lend ya his bib overalls if you was in a bind. They had a small get together every Friday night at their house servin’ only the finest steaks and potatoes. There was plenty uh cards and games to be played before the pickin’ rounded out the night. Bill was such a handsome and good-hearted fella that you couldn’t help but fall in love with him. That’s why it hurts even more when things started to go downhill for good ol’ Bill and Bertha.
            It all started in a rainstorm; Bill was riding the good ol’ milk wagon down the road in late April and it was comin’ down so hard he didn’t have enough time to slow down. Damn rain sent poor old Bill straight into the ditch. It wouldn’t a been so bad if only the engine hadn’t caught fire while Bill was stuck inside. Back in them days, we didn’t have the modern convenience of only havin’ to wait seven or ten minutes for the ambulance to show up. Bill somehow managed to fight his way outta the wreck. They say he was probably layin in the grass out there for a good hour in a state a shock. Thank god a good samaritan drivin’ past saw him lying out there in the grass through the pourin’ rain. They got Billy to the nearest doctor but of course the worst had been over already. He suffered some serious burns to his arms and legs. It was gonna take some time before he could get back to the good ol’ days. They brought him to the nearest hospital which was close to an hour away.  I could only imagine all the pain poor Billy was goin through.
            When they got to the hospital, Bill needed quite a bit of skin. His body was burned in most places so a skin graft from any of his other parts was out of the question. Around that time a new experimental procedure was bein’ developed where they took the skin off a dead body and used it to temporarily heal a person sufferin’ from severe burns.  I couldn’t’ be for certain but I think they referred to it as an all-a-graft. They said it was normal for the body to reject the graft but they never saw someone react to it quite like Billy did. He seemed fine for a few hours and even caught some shuteye but when he woke up somethin’ was definitely wrong. They said he couldn’t stop drooling and was a little bit delirious. He couldn’t remember names, dates, or times. They gave him some more of them sleepin’ pills and let im rest a lil’ longer. When the nurse checked on him the next mornin’ it was probably the worst mistake she ever made. Good ol’ Bill had ripped out his catheter and began stranglin’ the poor old girl. When the doctor came around, she was as dead as a doorknob with a face bluer than the July sky. The doctor knew he was in trouble so he locked ol’ Billy in the room and threw a filin cabinet in front uh the door. I heard that even Doc had to take a few days off to develop a drinkin’ habit that he still has to this day.
            Believe it or not, word got around pretty fast. Pretty soon there was a knock on Bertha’s door. She had been sittin’ and knittin’ and cryin’ all night. She got up from her chair to answer the door and knew what to expect. She got dressed, put on as best makeup as she could, and hopped in the cruiser.
            All the folks important to Bill (even some of the hobos) showed up together outside of his room and watched him through the window. His violence was out of control and the room was torn to pieces. Sheriff had no choice. Bertha pressed her face up to the glass with the best of her mascara runnin’ down her cheeks. For a moment Bill and Bertha were locked in a gaze that only a beautiful relationship such as there’s was to hold. Bill put his hand up to tha window to meet hers. The police kicked in the door and tied his arms behind his back. Everyone looked away as the loudest POP rang through the corridor. An odd silence filled the room and the lives of Bill’s closest friends for years. Bertha came to passin’ a few days later peacefully in her sleep. She missed Billy a whole hell of a lot. We all did.
            Come to find out a few weeks later that the skin graft was from a fresh dead convict, Teddy Jetson. He was servin’ a life sentence at the prison for rape and murder of a small child. He robbed a few banks while on the run. As they strapped his sorry a*s to the gurney he yelled his final words:
            “YOU’LL SEE ME AGAIN”

Reviews

[Dean Kuch®]

Hah, I guess they did, see him again, I mean. I enjoyed the perspective you told this story from, and you never wavered from it. That's hard to do sometimes. A very entertaining read, I recommend it!