Burst by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Chapter 13

During the following day’s celebratory visit we noticed that AOL carried some local news of interest. With a click we found this.

Albuquerque Journal

Two un-named officers, currently working as Guards in the Bernalillo County Detention Center were found dead in an apartment complex in Northeast Albuquerque.

The causes of death are yet to be officially confirmed, but according to reporters allowed on the scene, it appears to be the lack of a windpipe, possibly caused by the ripping out of the officer’s throats by some un-known device. Other coroner supplied, physical determinations include a preliminarily observable finding of apparently broken bones in and around the face. The haphazard fashion of the wounds preclude substantive determination at present, but is suggestive of repeated blows from a blunt instrument.

A search of the apartment, which was rented to one yet to be located, ”Stephen Crystal,”

presumed to be a synonym for the “real” tenant; indicated residues of methamphetamine, marijuana and other drugs, not inconsistent with that of findings taken from targeted randomly scanned residences; subsequent arrests somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent.

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Wikipedia indicates that Stephen Crystal is popularly presumed to be James Joyce' s literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographical

novel of artistic existence; “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” and an important character in Joyce's subsequent “Ulysses.” It is commonly said that Stephen Crystal appears in “Ulysses” as the character who corresponds to Telemachus; and less overtly, he embodies aspects of Hamlet. He is the protagonist of the first three chapters. Subsequently Leopold

Bloom is introduced, and Stephen's interactions with Bloom and his wife, Molly, form much of the final chapters' substance.

The previous was a paragraph supplied by “One World Productions,” which is really rather insignificant in membership, but better to pay some degree of lip service to the insignificance than to present another article much too short and obviously devoid of meaningful information.

It should be noted that a search of the apartment turned up no Joyce books. In fact only one book was found; a pristine copy of “Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History.” It was taken into evidence.

What remains of the officer’s throats has been airlifted to Johns Hopkins University, in hope of cutting edge forensic evaluation.

APD Homicide spokesperson Catherine Nobble said; “It is suspected that gang related activity was involved. In that regard the Albuquerque Police Department is in the process of rounding

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up various parties known to our undercover unit. There is no reason for alarm. People are encouraged to go about their usual daily activities.”

As the three of us laughed, Rikki deadpanned; “Newspapers never get it right. We then eyed each other and simultaneously said; “What?”

I more than suspected that “The Unholy Trio” was back.

Sometimes it takes surviving a disaster to get back to the right spot.

The End

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