The Three Dollar Phoenix by Walt Sautter (rooftoppers .txt) 📖

through the gate at the left side of the field. A lone figure stood at the fifty yard line. He raised the bullhorn he held to his mouth and his voice resounded throughout the stands, over the dying drum beats of the exiting marchers.
“Ladies and gentlemen” he began.
“I have an extremely important announcement to make. Please give me your full attention. This is very important” he repeated.
Instinctively, the cameras shot into a tight close up. Ed’s profile filled the monitor screen in the broadcast booth as he fired his words out over the crowd.
“Who the hell is that?” cried Ray.
“What’s he doing? Nobody told me about this!”
Charlie watched with a stunned gaze. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“This stadium is contaminated. The very ground upon which it stands is lethal.”
The phone on the desk rang. Ray snatched it from its cradle before the sound of its first ring left the air.
“Right.”
“OK” and he slammed the receiver back into its place.
“Better get ready for your first half time show Charlie. That was Gilrain. He said we may have to fill a little time while they get rid of that nut down there” said Ray pointing to Ed’s picture on the monitor.
Within seconds, the stadium’s powerful speakers vibrated with the pounding rhythm of the week’s number one song, drowning Ed’s words in its deluge of sound. Several blazer clad security men vaulted the fence surrounding the playing area and raced towards him.
Ed stood motionless vainly attempting to continue his message over the thundering music. When they reached him they firmly escorted him away without a struggle. The cameras followed them to the edge of the field as Charlie and Ray sat watching.
The director’s signal suddenly interrupted their silent entrancement. The red light of the booth camera flicked on.
“Well, we’re back. A little excitement here while you were gone on commercial. A man with a bullhorn tried to deliver some kind of protest statement from the fifty yard line. Security has him now and I guess everything’s under control.
This is the first time I’ve seen this kind of thing. There’s going to be a brief delay before we start the second half just to make sure everything’s OK.
What was he trying to say? I couldn’t quite hear it?” Ray asked Charlie.
The camera shifted to Charlie, awaiting his reply. As his mouth opened to respond, he wasn’t sure what would come out.
He knew full well what Ed was saying. He felt himself divided between logic and loyalty. Why did Ed do this to him and to himself? He never expected so rash an act, not even from him.
“Before the cock crows thrice.”
The words flashed through his mind. He couldn’t be sure what they meant, but they raced over and over through his head.
He looked out through the windows of the booth at the cheering crowd and his mind’s eye saw gaping emptiness. The seats were vacant and a cold wind lofted floating scrapes of paper skyward. The crash of a wrecking ball broke the silent void as it burst through the walls of the stadium in the distance. The very spot were he sat quivered more violently with each impact of the ball as it moved steadily closer. He knew that his next few words could make all that he saw in his mind’s eye, reality.
He’d played in this stadium and he felt fine and all the guys he played with were fine. He only knew of two people who got sick and maybe, just maybe it had nothing to do with any radioactivity. It could have just happened. Sometimes people just get sick.
He respected Ed. He admired him. He had guts but there’s a fine line between courage, conviction and foolishness he reasoned.
“Charlie!”
“Are you OK?”
Rays words came crashing in like the wrecking ball he had imagined, shaking him from his thought filled stupor.
“I guess this whole thing caught you by surprise too” continued Ray in an effort to cover Charlie’s apparent inattention.
“Yes, you’re right” he replied as he straightened himself upright in his seat.
“I couldn’t really hear anything either” Charlie replied.
“There was too much noise” he added convincingly .
Ray stopped and listened while he pressed the small ear plug more tightly into his ear.
“Just a minute folks.
We’ve just been informed that the man in custody claims that he was sent to save us from the devil’s evil within the earth. Needless to say, he’s being held for observation” he said with a smirk.
“We have eighty thousand people here for each game and I guess we have to expect that kind of thing once in a while. Now that we’re sure there’s no serious problem, the second half should begin shortly.”
Ray turned toward Charlie and spoke.
“Thank you for helping us fill in and we’ll be looking for you next week on your new show. Good luck” said Ray as he again shook Charlie’s hand while the camera faded.

Chapter XX

“Put it right over there” she instructed the movers.
The muffled pounding of hammer and nails issued from the back room. Workmen paraded back and forth carrying lumber and sheetrock.
“It’s starting to look real good.”
“It’s a thousand times better than the old place” he remarked as he walked through the door less entrance.
“Hi Mike.”
“We’ll be able to do a thousand times more now too with this new equipment” Rita replied.
“We should be ready to open in a week or so.
Mike, this is a good friend of mine who’s going to work here at the clinic with me.
Mike, this is Larry” she said as they extended their hands towards each other.
“Considering the shape of this place when you left it, this is a real miracle” said Mike.
“The miracle is that we ever came back at all” she replied.
“The people down here need us and with some luck and the financial backing we have now, the miracle is just starting for them” she continued.
Rita motioned again to several other workmen who entered carrying still more crates.
“I heard you’ve just got quite a funding increase for your agency. I also heard you’re getting married. You’ll have to bring the lucky girl over to meet us” she continued.
“Yeah, a little salary increase is helping to make that happen sooner than I thought” he replied.
“And for the first time I can remember we can hire all the clerical and research people we’ve always needed.”
There was a silence.
Mike and Rita looked at each other, both fully aware of the others thoughts and each waiting for the other to speak.
“How is Ed?”
“Do you have any word?”
“He’s at Caramore. Melinda sees him once in a while. She’s been up there two or three times. She say’s he’s OK. She doesn’t hold anything against us. She understands and so does he” replied Mike.
“What’s going to happen to him? House promised me he wouldn’t be hurt” said Rita.”
“I don’t think he was lying to you. As soon as all the big boys can unload their bonds on the public, they’ll let him out. They really won’t care any more then what happens to the stadium.
Interest rates are on the way down now, so if they sell, they’ll be in for giant profits, so it will probably be real soon.”
“I hope you’re right” Rita said sincerely.
“I’m sure I am. I’m going to go up to see him this weekend. It’s not going to be easy” he said.
“When you see him, tell him a man named Wright was here looking for him. He said he was supposed to talk with Ed a couple of months ago, but he was in a serious car accident and was in the hospital.”
“He wouldn’t say where he was from or what he wanted to talk to him about.
He was real eager to see him. He said he had been looking for him for the past two weeks and had been told that I might be able to help. I didn’t tell him anything, I just said I hadn’t seen Ed in months and that is the truth.
I figured he has enough trouble and I didn’t want to send him more.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him” promised Mike.

END

Epilogue
Where are they now?

Migs – he was killed by police during a drug raid in downtown Newark.

Hollar and Mercer – both were convicted of stealing drug evidence from the police compound. Both were sentenced to ten years in state prison. Mercer was murdered in prison before his term was completed. Hollar served eight years and was paroled.

Angie – she remarried and had two children but never forgot Al. She still visits his grave frequently.

Wright – has retired from his position as Deputy Undersecretary of the U.S. Bureau of Environment Protection.

House – he sold Caramore to an HMO holding company for fifteen million dollars and retired to Boca. He died of a heart attack on his yacht in 2001.

Sam – continued to live in the hood and became an important community organizer until being afflicted with Alzheimer’s in 2004.

Charles – retired from the paper and writes a weekly blog attempting to expose the wheeling and dealing of government officials and wealthy investors. So far, his writings have had little impact.

Charlie – he continued to be an announcer for pro football. He completed his announcing career hosting a radio sports talk show. His leg never did heal correctly and he continues to walk with a cane to this day.

Larry – he moved in with Rita and they ran the clinic for several years. They split in 1989.

Rita – she closed the clinic shortly after she and Larry separated. She is now in private practice and still regrets ‘selling out’ Ed.

Mike – went on to open a successful private law practice with many wealthy clients referrals by prominent politicians.

Melinda – still looks great and lives with Ed in Newark and helps care for her aged father Sam.

Ed – having been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, received numerous ECTs (electroconvulsive “shock” treatments) and was released from Caramore after two years.
He remains medicated as required by his release agreement. He works as a lab tech in a local downtown hospital.
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Publication Date: 03-12-2011

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