The Kindred Spirits by Melvin A. Taylor

Author:Melvin A. Taylor [Taylor, Melvin A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462030828
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2011-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

River lets out a long exhale as he begins his account. “It didn’t hurt much, not for long anyway.”

Zoey tenses, bracing herself for what she’s about to hear. River shakes his head. I can tell he needs to share this as much, if not more, than they want to hear it. He wants to get it out, to unburden himself. He starts again.

“It was late, and I was going to meet Santos down by the South Street Seaport. When I got there, the bus stop we were supposed to meet at was empty. He was usually late, so I didn’t really think about it too much. I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t anything at all.

“I heard footsteps, but I didn’t think anything of it. Now I remember how loud they sounded in the stillness of the night. I was standing under the streetlight near the newsstand, just waiting. It wasn’t even that late. It was only ten o’clock or so.

“I felt it before I heard it. The bullet. I felt it go into my body. It hit a rib as it went through, and I felt it shatter. It just felt hot… not painful, not really. Then I heard the gunshot echoing. I looked down and saw the blood starting to stain my shirt. I remember thinking that it was a shame to ruin such a good shirt. That was a weird thing to think.

“My legs gave out, and I collapsed on the sidewalk.” Zoey’s cries are muffled against her chest; she is sobbing and shaking. “It wasn’t that bad, love. Let me finish, and then you’ll understand.” He squeezes her shoulders.

“I lay there on the sidewalk, looking up at the streetlight. I could feel my heartbeat in every part of my body, and it seemed to get louder, more intense, instead of slowing down. I expected it to slow down, to stop, but it didn’t. It got louder, pounding in my ears, faster and faster. Even the light above me seemed to throb until it felt like the whole universe was one giant heartbeat, everything beating together, the rhythm getting so fast that it was a blur, like one heartbeat stretching out into infinity.

“I saw shadows moving above me, across the streetlight, and I knew men were standing over me, looking down. I could see their faces. I felt very calm and somehow detached from everything, as if nothing mattered but that great universal heartbeat.

“Then I sort of let go as if I had been holding onto something my whole life without knowing it, and I just sort of relaxed and the feeling was incredible, and I drifted away from the pain and the noise that was in my body. I seemed to float very slowly up towards the streetlight and then I turned, as if it were in slow motion in a film, and I was looking down again. I could see my body, sprawled on the sidewalk, with two men standing over it under the streetlight. My

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