AN INDEFINITE ENSEMBLE OF THE TRUTH
A CREATURE OF REMEMBRANCE
Happy as a clam That Little Jim Doherty had shot himself. I found great pleasure in that being as he was very large, very strong, and very mean person. He even turned and struck me head on in the face busting my nose for the first time spraying blood everywhere across the room. It just so happened to be the end of the 3rd morning quarter biology class where I sat next to him that day.
I can’t remember if the seats were assigned or even how it was that I ended up directly behind him considering that I was one row to his right and the desk/chair combination that they used in High School during those days. ( I don’t know if they even do but I’m pretty sure they do.) that opened to the left and I was seated to his right. Any way, long story short, the teacher asked if I wanted to press charges and I declined.
Later I heard that he had beaten someone severely because he loved to fight and then defecated on the man as he lay there bleeding. His downfall? A stupid older girl friend who introduced him to cocaine at such a young age and failed to explain the rules of the drug community. The ones right next to, “There are no rules, and its winner take all in the drug business.
Same as with the gambling. He didn’t realize that he had fallen in love with a coke addict with a craving for younger men. So I’m guessing she enjoyed that little tidbit of information as much as I did. I even got to attend the funeral and see him lying there. Dead. With that same stu pid looking smirk upon his face and seeing that bullet hole in the side of his head was just icing on the cake.
In fact, I enjoyed every little minute of it thorough ly before leaving with out the conclusion of being a pal bearer or anything like that. I just hopped on my bike and road my ass home. That has got to be one of my top ten favorite memories of all time. I mean it was sweet! That meant that the suicide rate was pretty high all things considered in this tumble weed town still only known as Wendover.
The strange thing is, people from that era and part of town still seem to be getting bumped off one by one in the strangest of ways. Like the two sisters who’s first names will not be revealed but they both ended up in the same car that got into an accidental crashed their car just outside of town after finishing a road trip.
It was the older sister and the younger sister by not much who somehow swerved off of the highway, over-corrected and rolled the car however many times it takes to roll a car of that type traveling at that speed would flip out in the wide open country of mostly sage and strange rock formations of one type or another.
The first, older sister survived, but the youngest. the prettiest, the one with the least amount of baggage and the most potential for the one with ambition and intentions of going to college of which she had been grooming herself for, for years. At least 9 years in the making or something crazy like that.
Another West Wendover Jim’s Trailer Park resi dents of my own age who just so happened to be a girl Vicki Carson who lived kitty corner from our lot. A young girl who was killed some how some where in a rumor that was true just not full of all the facts of another car accident.
The truth was. ”She was gone for good and there was no getting her back either.” No matter how minuscule it might seem to be at the time. It’s just not something that you can penetrate clean through to the other side.
Unless, of course you were dead also. A place that we hear so much about but have never been to, seen any pictures of or shown any roads or sign posts to it’s location along the way. Just a general idea about where you go when you get there with a rendition that you get from people who’ve been living there before.
Or at least I guess have been there before anyway. My points buy the way is that, “The suicide, and death rate among the children of that trailer park was in my mind, pretty high! Cursed by the ground that they walked on. Nobody really knows what happened to the airforce base that was left over form WWII on the east side of the Utah state line and its extensive state of decay.
They did keep the same very large tarmac and a few hangers left over of many. Some of an extremely large cal iber in good condition but most of what was left over from the WWII era was destroyed in the making of the film, “The Philadelphia Experiment” where they blew the whole place up!
Several Movies had been partially filmed in the dead end town of Wendover. Nicolas Cage showed up for ConAir, as I mentioned they destroyed the airforce base in, “The Philadelphia Experiment”, and probably a few others that I’ve failed to mention along the way likes of Will Smith in “Independence Day” which brought such attention to the big screen. The one that I find to be the most sticking of them all was the, “B” flick movie named, “Money Plays” that starred Roy Scheider, (The man from, “Jaws”), Sonia Braga, and a few people that I know personally. One by the name of John Buchanan.
Or, at least that’s what everybody knew of him around town thought his name was, and of course, the kicker, Teddy Castanzo. The same Teddy Castanzo who had his 16 year old daughter, “Mickey Costanzo” who was murdered in cold blood back in 2012 by some other High School Students Kody Patten, serving life without parole. Right along with his cohort and fiancée’ Toni Fratto.
A supposed, “Beauty Queen!” around town. Fact was, I worked in close quarters with Teddy Castanzo on several different jobs over several different years. I even paid him $200 dollars to go to his school to teach people how to deal the game of craps because Teddy was the most prolific craps dealer that I ever met. The absolute best. He tried to teach me some tricks but when it came right down to it he actually thew me to the wolves.
Instead of having some practice time learning to play the game he shoved me into the deep end and watched me drawn. That never bothered me too much after the fact that I had escaped that entire mess but Donald? He was the lead detective on the case which came with headlines on shows like, “Deadly Women” and also on, “Date Line” Why he couldn’t handle it is still a mystery to me in my book because he had everything anyone could ask for. But, I guess he decided to railroad his carrier by sleeping wit the office staff and, of course drinking.
Something of which Donald could not control. Not in the sense that he couldn’t stop for a while but more along the lines that he couldn’t handle his alcohol. Which brings me back to that day up at Angel Lake where he was incredibly insulting to a friend of his that he had brought along as a fishing buddy from the fire department. The things that my brother was saying to this man would’ve sent most men over the edge and punched him in the mouth but this guy? This guy was a young oriental gentleman who held his tough and played it off as if it were all a big joke or something. That’s when I realized that my brothers drinking problem wasn’t about quantity but more along the lines of quality. Truth is, “He couldn’t handle his liqueur which, between the lovers triangle, his job and retirement, and now finally the right moment and having a gun by his side at the right time while being drunk. He pulled the trigger without any thought for any of us who loved him so much. Just for those who got what they wanted.