Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43 | 44-45 | 46 | 47 | 48-49A | 49B | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57A | 57B | 58-59| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68-69 | 70A | 70B | 71A | 71B | 72 | 73 | 74A | 74B | 75 | 76-77A | 77B | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85-87 | 88A | 88B | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94A | 94B | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98-99 | 100 | 101
PART V
MIRACLES
102
ALBRIGHT WAS SITTING at the bar nursing what was probably a sarsaparilla and chatting with Vern when Trey stormed into 1520 Main straight off the train. It was early. No one else was about.
“Boy, you are a pain in my ass!” he barked.
Trey rolled his eyes. “I got bigger problems than your ass.”
“Yeah, you do. Go see your cook.”
Trey’s spine tingled and he looked at Albright, then Vern, who cocked his head toward the stairs. “G’on.”
He raced up the stairs. Ida’s door was open and Gio was kneeling on the floor in front of her carefully wrapping her hand—missing the two middle fingers—with gauze. She was softly weeping.
“Oh, God,” Trey whispered and rushed in to sit beside his little cook and wrap his arm around her. He pressed her close and kissed her temple. She started to sob.
“She’s got enough laudanum in her to kill a horse and it still hurts,” Gio muttered. “Fortunately, it was her left hand and Albright did the surgery. It’s healing. Slowly.”
“Who was it, Ida? Tell me.”
“I do—don—don’t—know.”
“They said something about an eye for an eye, don’t stick your nose in somebody else’s business, and trespassing on someone else’s territory,” Gio said. “Over on the East side.”
Trey’s teeth ground. “Goddammit.”
“What’d you do?”
“A favor for a friend. Popped some kneecaps of somebody connected, but I don’t know to who.”
“Why?”
“Cat terrorizing a new bride while her husband’s at work.”
“Are you go—go—going to, to, to fire me?” Ida hiccuped.
“God, no, doll!” Trey gasped, horrified. “Don’t you know me better than that by now?”
She sniffled.
“What I am gonna do is send you to stay with Marina.”
Gio’s head snapped up and Ida stiffened.
“I’m’a fire you all and torch the place,” he said tightly. “Stalkin’ innocent women. Cuttin’ fingers off a defenseless girl. Tryin’a kill a woman an’ baby. ’Stead’a comin’ straight for me. Fuckin’ cowards.”
“Good luck getting us to leave,” Gio growled.
“I promised Marina I was going to get out from under this place. That starts with firing you all, kicking out the tenants, and blowing it up.”
“You won’t blow it up with all of us in it. This is our home, Trey. You’re our … something. I don’t know what.”
“Your boss,” he sneered. “I’m your boss and I say you go.”
“You’re gonna cut and run in front of some two-bit low-life? Destroy your own place for … what? Revenge? Whoever it is—they’ll crow.”
That gave Trey pause.
In the constellation of sins Trey had committed against Marina, breaking his promise to get out from under 1520 was middling. She was safe. Ida was going to be in Minneapolis. Trey’s girls could handle themselves in a gunfight. Brody, Vern, and the rest of his tiny army would back Gio.
Trey untangled himself from Ida and headed to Brody’s room and pounded on the door. “Get your ass up and get dressed. I got an errand for you to run.”
103
ONCE BRODY HAD finished moving Ida in with Marina and gone back to Kansas City, Marina sat down to the letter he had brought from Trey. It had only been three days since Trey left and she had received no telegrams. She hadn’t expected any. It was too easy to bribe someone for the information in a telegram.
Thus, she sat numb and unblinking at the wall of her little bedroom once she finished reading it. Her little home with Trey wasn’t gone, she had been happy to hear. Only the front bay window of the parlor had been blown open and no one had been hurt. Trey had gotten all their undamaged possessions into storage (including their lovely sleigh bed), and was arranging for the house to be fixed up, at which point he intended to sell it.
She would never be able to go back to her sweet little home, and this apartment was never going to be home as long as Trey wasn’t in it. To keep her tears at bay, she re-read the rest of his letter, which contained lists of reminders, things to do, things and people to watch out for, when to go out and when not to go out, how not to get into any scrapes—written as if she were a child. She was irritated, but she could also hear the panic in his words. He was terrified for her, and he had every reason to be. He’d said it would take a few months to get himself out of the Machine and he had no idea how to do it, but he would. He promised.
She was so deep in sorrow and irritation that she didn’t respond when Susanna came toddling into her room demanding her attention, poking her finger toward the tiny parlor. “Mama! Mama! Sad. Mama! Sad.”
Ida certainly had far more to be sad about than Marina did, even if Marina’s parlor had been blown open. Marina had a sweet family and good friends. Ida had no one, having been tossed in the street when she came up in the family way—never mind she’d been raped to get that way. Then she had been nabbed and had her fingers chopped off.
Suddenly a sickening feeling washed over her.
Marina was … a spoiled brat.
It is what it is. Does why matter?
Sometimes, and it was the sometimes that got you.
But why had an expiration date, and it was long past time for Marina to stop avoiding happiness because she was afraid of being unhappy. Susanna was almost a year old. Marina wanted to stay with Trey forever and not because she had to because she was a good wife.
Even, she had to admit, being an ignorant but well-provided-for servant to an old woman was better than being Ida. After all, old women died, and Marina hadn’t known what she hadn’t known.
She looked down at the toddler, aching to realize that “sad” was one of Susanna’s first words. Marina worked up a happy smile, then pulled her up into her lap. “Mama’s happy, Button. Happy, see?” She pulled the baby’s face into a smile, which made her giggle. “That lady’s name is Ida. She has an owie and is going to be sad for a while. Do you think you can help her smile a little? Happy? Say ‘happy’?”
“Mphf!” she agreed happily, then toddled back into the other room and began babbling at Ida and patting her knee.
Marina found paper and pen and began to write.
Dearest Trey, Don’t worry about me or S. or I. I’m happy. S. is always happy. We will make I. happy if we can. Thank you for all you do for us, and thank you for being you. We will miss you. Stay safe. I can’t bear it if we can’t grow old and fat together. And even though it’s only been three days, I already miss our extra-long hugs. Your best pal forever, Marina.
• • •
Trey hadn’t cried since his mother died.
Best pal forever.
It was enough to make him put his forehead on his desk and let the wood darken with moisture.
102-103
If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.
Donations can be made here, if you so desire.
Poor Ida.
Low end tater tots?
*snort*
Legit ore-ida products are terrible.
🍾 🥂
Very good!
Thanks Moj
Now we wait to see what revenge Trey can inflict. It ain’t gonna be good for the other team.
Susie is a talkative and mobile kiddo for being less that a year old.
I dunno. I had my last kid 18 years ago and I’ve slept since then, so I don’t remember shit. I swear to you, I had to go on YouTubes to figure out when kids walk and talk.
…and how soon after that you’re allowed to tell them to sit down and shut up.
Hi
🤭
Trey needs to remember that revenge is best served cold (and calculated).
Enlifting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aVI-5oZbDA
Great work as always, MJ!
I didn’t get the job. Feeling despondent.
Oh, well, off to bed, then onwards and upwards tomorrow.
Well, at least I don’t have to eat my friends, so that’s a positive!
Well, at least from their perspectives. A couple of them have a high fat content, and would probably grill up nicely.
Long pig #ftw!
Sorry about the job.
I’m sorry about the job. I didn’t realize there were employment opportunities in cannibalism, but I think it’s just as well that didn’t pan out.
Seriously (or as serious as I get,) best of luck!
And and upward and off to find god…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYsrF3dRMHA
Friday Funbags After Dark.
https://archive.is/k4PkR
You’re right. Those are fun!
Three is up my alley.
Checking on the timestamps, I apparently posted my Wall of text well after this dropped.
Mountain time isn’t as bad as pacific, but I’m still off regarding the release schedule.
Mountain time is wild.
It’s too late at night for slow music, I’d fall asleep.
You say that as if it’s a bad thing. You can always mute it and enjoy the scenery.
Trump has an undisciplined view of the 2nd Amendment but just last week Harris said ‘nah I’m a gun owner and no I am not coming for your guns’
Then proceeds to call for ‘assault’ weapons ban…probably why independents didn’t believe the debate
I don’t suppose there was ever any mention of what she thinks constitutes an “assault weapon.”
“Is it in government hands? No? It’s an assault weapon!”
Her puppeteers want a do-over of the USSR. She is fully onboard with that. Right now she is just saying whatever to get elected. Once that nuisance is out of the way it will be full steam ahead with what she has always said she wants. Yeah, she is gonna come for our guns.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/kamala-harris-assault-weapons-ban-tax-relief-pennsylvania
Harris also reiterated that she and Walz are gun owners and believe that they can respect the second amendment while pushing for and implementing long-asked-for policies like a ban on so-called assault weapons and universal background checks on gun purchases. “We are not taking anybody’s guns away,” she said.
“I feel very strongly that it’s consistent with the second amendment to say we need an assault weapons ban. They’re literally tools of war they were literally designed to kill a lot of people quickly.”
Gun bans are consistent with the Second Amendment, especially if the gun is effective at self defense.
Gun grabbers lie. Every word out of their mouths is calculated to deceive in some way. In this case that is some stunning double speak/cognitive dissonance.
2ndA: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
For clarification James Madison and later George Mason – the authors of the amendment – both clarified what it meant.
“Who you ask are the Militia? They are the body of the people, every person capable of bearing arms.”
First, I dont believe she or Walz are ‘gun owners’ in the sense that it is meant to imply. ‘Assault weapon’ is an arbitrary and nebulous term which, one increment at a time, will include all firearms, air guns and eventually knives. In England, a model these evil fuckheads envy, common every day tools or even any object one has possession of such as a rolled up newspaper can be considered a ‘weapon’.
Second, consistent with ‘shall not be infringed’ is not infringing. Instead she openly states she want to transgress or exceed the limits of; violate. to defeat; invalidate, to encroach on someone or something; engage in trespassing – the very definition of Infringe.
“We’re not taking anyone’s guns away” is not consistent with banning guns. Mandatory buybacks, which she intends to implement initially, is couching seizing guns in soft terms to disguise what it really is. If they are buying my property do I get to set the price? No? It is mandatory at the price they set? She is making a distinction without a difference between her wormtongue phrase and ‘taking away’.
Most importantly, No one wants to make you helpless for your own good. They have plans for us that go far beyond disarming us. The disarming is just the first step in total enslavement. Every country that has ever done that proves that. It is clear they dont care about crime, they want us disarmed so we cant resist them.
Remember the Chinese woman whom David Hogg suggested they have a discussion about gun control? Her response was that she grew up in China and has seen first hand what gun control is all about and she will not, under any circumstances, give up her guns. So there, she said, ” We just had a discussion”.
Recent history of gun control: https://imgur.com/Qagc1qn. – caption says “We will protect you”
pairs nicely with : https://historyheist.com/wp-content/uploads/1918/10/ussr-gun-confiscation-400×400.jpg
Shorter Harris: “I am going to disarm you, crush you, murder you and enslave you.” I dont know how that could be more clear.
Also, has anyone clearly defined ‘universal background checks’? From practice in the various states it means only the favored elite can own guns. Everyone else ‘fuck. you’. Same as red flag laws.
All of everything discussed here are ‘infringements’ and the very reason for the 2ndA.
The Dems attack on the 1A is no less overt or aggressive. These people cannot be allowed to have power.
Well, she won’t be the one that comes to your house to seize them.
because he’s an obvious moron. I would rather my least favorite Glib were ruler of the universe than Trump be reelected.
I ain’t voting for either of these clowns, so I don’t need reminding that Demzbad.
The Republicans absolutely deserve to lose this election for nominating him. If the Republicans ever nominate a freedom-loving, small government, I will use all my power to get him elected.
But this guy is a mental and moral midget.
Good morning all you project 2025 stooges.
🍳☕😁
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-voZou1JllY
🎶🎶
Mornin’, reprobates!
Morning.
It’s wifey’s birthday today.
Getting a nanny to watch the kids this morning and having a day out together. Wish me luck.
Happy birthday to the missus 🎂🎈
Happy birthday to Mrs. L.!
Wish the nanny luck.
Good morning, TAFKALack, Sean, ‘patzie, Ted’S., and Roat, and happy birthday to Mrs. TAFKALack!
…and good morning, Grumble and Suthen!
Good Luck, we are all counting on you.
Thanks all. 🙂