If one was bored with how one's life was going, it was found that to interrupt Willy Creech from his enjoyment of listening to Miss Freda Payne, would bring a jolt of excitement to satisfy two lifetimes! At Renell's, a pool hall on Dillard, or as it had been known to several generations of Cool Folk,Hot Dill Drag. It had an atmosphere thick enough to repel a howitzer shell fired point blank. That particular summer Saturday night, Willy, his running "podnuhs", 'Savage' Sam Magnum, James Lee, and Sidney Cortly, were engaged in playing pool and eating the best damn fried gizzards in the nation. On the jukebox, Miss Payne sang to the lucky fool " I Get Carried Away" and Willy felt it was for him that she had cut that tune. Measuring his shot, providing " his" Freda backup hums, he was about to take it, when a Bored One got loud. " Naw, fool! I'm tellin' you straight up, Mickey Kent dunit! I wuz there!" James Lee about to put another hot sauce drenched delicacy into his mouth, shook his head at the loudmouth's self-important blabbing. " Mo muthafukkas wind up dead or in lockdown, cuz somebody said somethin' they shouldn't have," James' Grandfather Henry said, while drinking his favorite beer, in his favorite recliner.
James eyes went to Willy. He was slowly thawing from the shock of someone loud talking over Freda! Sam, who had been winning, looked over at the Bored One, trying to register if he was anyone he knew. Sidney, short, heavyset, yet not yet fat, a maple syrup colored teen, the youngest of the group, mouthed "Uh Oh!" James looked to see what style San Remos Willy was wearing. Slip ons: meant a beat down was coming. laceups: a shooting. Willy had on his dried mustard tan slip ons , matching his outfit that night. The Bored One continued unaware. Louder in fact. "Mickey,he came up on tha muthafukka, and bust the bottle upside the nigga's head!" He pantomimed the action. The one being shouted- told the information received his gizzards with onions, and two bottles of cold beer Renell's didn't have the license any longer to sell.
"Why he do it?" he asked the shouter, putting hot sauce on his gizzards. He spoke lower. Bored didn't get the hint. " Cuz him and Mickey wuz afta Carlotta Tyson's big azz!" He gestured with his hands as if explaining to a slow child. Willy took off his shoes, and with poolstick in hand, gunfighter walked over to the pair. Sam smiled and placed his stick back in the rack then leaned over the table. Sam had a .32. Sidney rocked back on his stool to get a better view. Sidney wasn't carrying a gun. He had a sawed off 12 gauge in the trunk of the car they rode up in. The hall's regulars acted as if things were normal, but went through the motions slowly. Duck and cover originated in a poolhall.
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