Oregon
Literary
Review
Vol. 3, No. 1

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Sheri Reda
CAL EMBRACES THE DEATH PENALTY


 

And then Linda got car trouble the other night.

Yeah, she was coming up from the South Side on the Dan Ryan

and her car started to act up.

And these two guys come over to her car,

“Hey, you got car trouble? Let me in. Let me see if I can fix it.

Let me in there. Heyyyy . . .”

 

You know what I want to get her, I mean, if I don't break up with her?

I want to get her one of those stun guns you can get at WalMart

you know the ones, they shoot a beam of electrical energy,

and it doesn't kill 'em, it just zaps 'em with a thousand or so

volts of electricity and bam! They're out cold.

‘Cause if she killed anyone, you know, she'd go to jail.

This is ridiculous. Let's go to the station and get the guy.

But she doesn't want to leave her car.

 

“O.K., you go to the station, and I'll wait here with your car.”

But she says no, she'll be O.K.

So I'm just about getting ready to go.

Then two more guys show up: What's up, car trouble?

They wanna push the car with their car.

I don't know, I don't think it's the greatest idea, on the Ryan.

But we get to the gas station; everything's fine, they're gonna work on Linda's car.

Thanks a lot for your help and everything

“This ain't gonna cut it.”

What?

“This isn't gonna cut it.”

So I go in my wallet and give him twenty more.

“Hey, man . .  .”

Listen, you lowlife. You just made forty bucks doin' something you shoulda done free.

I mean, don't you think?

I mean, I woulda. If I just saw someone on the road like that, especially if it was a woman, hah!

Any one of my friends woulda done that. For free. And—any one of 'em.

What's the matter with people now?

Like I said, I said, You just made forty bucks doin' something you shoulda done for free. You asshole. You get out of my face before I beat the shit outa you. 

That’s why I believe in the death penalty.