Regina

 

“Well – isn’t this sweet?”  Scarlotti said.  “He’s got it.  She’s got it.  He ain’t got it.  Why don’t we all just play ring-around-the-rosy or something?” He leaned forward on his desk and glowered at McKenna.  “I don’t care who’s got it.  I want it.”

“I-I don’t know where it is!”

Scarlotti leaned back in his chair sighing in exasperation.  He turned to Vinny.  “Is Dr. Mike still here?”

“Yes sir.  He’s down in the kitchen stuffing his face.”

“Well get him up here and tell him to bring his test cases along.  We got some prime subjects up here just aching to help him out.”

“Right away Mr. Scarlotti.”

“Test cases?  What are you talking about?”  Regina’s father said.

“Well we’re all going to find out exactly where the crack is and go get it tonight.  Dr. Mike is a friend of mine who likes to think up new and improved formulas for having a good time.  He’s kind of a high-class chemist you see.  He’s got some fancy title, he’s a – a.”  He snapped his fingers.  “A pharmacologist.  That’s it.  That’s what they call him.  The only problem is – he’s against animal research, so we help him out once in a while by using human volunteers whenever possible.”  He pointed his finger at Regina’s father.  “And you guys just volunteered.”

“What kind of drug research?  New formulas for crack?”

“All kinds of drugs.  Crack, spice, dust, blue skies, cherries, skippers, hoppers, you name it.  None of them tested before so you never know exactly what it’s going to do to you.  Sometimes it gives you the sweetest little high you ever had.”  He shrugged.  “But then again, sometimes – it does other things.”

A man with a beard and pipe entered Scarlotti’s office carrying a brief case.  He smiled kindly at Regina and Tim like a teacher or high school counselor.  “These are our volunteers?”  He asked setting his brief case down on Scarlotti’s desk.

“Unless any of them wants to tell me where the crack is.”

“Regina!”  Mr. McKenna squirmed in his chair.  “Tell him!”

Dr. Mike opened the brief case that had a Styrofoam inner lining, with row after row of syringes.  Each syringe was half full of a clear liquid and had numbers on the barrel.

Tim looked at Regina.  She shook her head slightly and her eyes pleaded with him to keep her secret.

“Any takers?”  Scarlotti shrugged, noticing Regina’s glance at Tim.  “Okay.  Let’s start with the kid over here.”

“No!”  Tim started to come up out of his chair, but Vinny and another stocky thug pushed him roughly back down again.  They held onto his arms and rolled up his sleeves.  “No!  Regina!”

“Something you want to say?”  Scarlotti held his hands out.

Tim looked at Regina.  “I know where the stuff’s at.”  He sighed, defeated.

“See what I mean?”  Regina’s father nodded.  “He’s the one who took it.”

“Where is it, kid?”

“It’s in my car.  I hid it in the trunk.”

“So, where’s your car?”

“Over at the Junior High – in the parking lot.”

“That’s good kid.  We’ll make sure to get it and you’ll get a nice little reward for your cooperation.  Go ahead Doc.”  Scarlotti said.

“But I told you where it was!”  Tim squirmed as the doctor took out one of the syringes and held it up to the light, tapping it gently with his finger, squirting up a small amount in the air.  “I thought you were going to give me a reward!”

“We are.”  Scarlotti sneered.  “Best little high you ever had in your life.”

Dr. Mike looked closely at the numbers on the barrel.  “Lot number twenty-three-seventy-six-a.”  He wrote in his journal.

“Stop!  No!  Don’t!”  Tim struggled with the two thugs holding his arms.  “Regina!”

“Don’t worry kid.”  The doctor came at him with the needle, smiling pleasantly.  “It’ll be like Christmas morning, your birthday and the Fourth of July all rolled up into one.”

Doctor Mike injected the syringe into one of the veins in Tim’s arm.  Almost immediately Tim felt very strange.   He didn’t care anymore that he just had an untested drug injected into his body.  He didn’t care about anything at all.  He giggled as the room melted into thousands of beautiful colors, rainbows and sparkling lights.  There were butterflies and sounds and an almost overwhelming feeling of well-being.

Then things changed.  The colors and sparkling lights continued, but the feeling of euphoria waned rapidly and was replaced by feelings of dread, of impending doom and then – nausea.  Tim threw up violently into the wastebasket.

“Aw great.”  Scarlotti scowled.  “So, what happened with that one?”

Doctor Mike shrugged and made a few notes in his journal as he puffed on his pipe.  “Too much hallucinogen, not enough euphoric,” he mumbled, preoccupied.  “It’s fixable.”

“Well, I hope so.  It ain’t no good the way it is.”

Doctor Mike continued to make some notes, while Tim threw up again in the wastebasket.  He sighed finally and picked up the next syringe, writing down its numbers.  “Lot number twenty-two, twenty-eight-c,” he said.

“Wait!”  Regina’s father started to come up out of the chair.  “That’s enough!  He already told you where it was.  You don’t have to do anymore!”

“Sure, we do.”  Scarlotti grinned.  “Maybe next time, you’ll keep better track on the national political scene and make the right career changes ahead of time.  Do the girl next.”

“No!”  Regina’s father stood up rapidly and hit Vinny with his fist, shoving him aside from Regina as she struggled with the muscular thug holding her down.  Vinny shook it off and hit McKenna back hard enough that he staggered backward, hitting his head against the wall.  He slid down to the floor, his eyes glazed.

“Daddy!” Regina screamed, kicking and struggling.  The syringe came at her.  She screamed in terror.

Doctor Mike injected the syringe into her left arm and the thugs let her go.

“Oh,” Regina’s head dropped and then she brought it back up again slowly, giggling.  “Oh,” she sighed in ecstasy.  Her head continued to roll, but then she stiffened suddenly and began to tremble violently all over with her eyes rolled back.  She stood up.  “Oh!”  She called out, bringing her hands up to the sides of her head.  “Oh!  What’s happening?” She started to pull at her hair frantically, breathing heavily.  She screamed.

“Regina.”  Tim groaned, looking up from the wastebasket in between waves of vomit.

Oh, my God!”  Regina shrieked and then crumpled to the floor, like someone shut off a switch someplace.

“Regina!”  Her father groaned, trying to get up.

Vinny went over to her and felt her neck.  “She’s gone, Mr. Scarlotti,” he said matter-of-factly like he was announcing some mundane every-day occurrence.

“So, what happened now?” Scarlotti looked at Doctor Mike.

“Too many trans isomers in the evaporating solution.”

“So, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Means it’s still a useful chemotherapy agent.”

“Yeah?  How?”

“Somebody you don’t like.  Not even the most skillful coroner in the world can prove that it wasn’t a drug overdose done by the person themselves.”

“Yeah?”  Scarlotti looked at Regina’s father.  “Well, give the rest of it to him then.”

Tim began to slowly crawl to the side of Scarlotti’s desk, where there was a window open to the woods alongside the river.  He put down the wastebasket and with a sudden leap jumped through the window, knocking out the screen.  He rolled down onto the lawn just below Scarlotti’s window.

“Get him!” Scarlotti shouted as the thugs followed Tim through the window and down onto the manicured lawn.

In a blind panic, Tim held onto his churning stomach and ran headlong blundering into the dark woods, where crickets chirped loudly and frogs croaked.  Red and purple palm trees sparkled and disappeared.  He dodged smiling quarterbacks and through the haze, he could hear Scarlotti’s men coming after him.  He stepped onto a log that moved and a lavender alligator roared up, snapping at him as he ran further into the woods.  Scarlotti’s men followed behind him with flashlights.  He could hear them all scream as they encountered the now thoroughly aroused alligator and the shimmering rainbow colored flashlights scattered off into the woods in a panic.