A murmur of curiosity ran through those assembled, but his instructions were carried out. Jake stood his ground, until Cooper looked at him and waved him off to join the others walking away. Jake stared back at him, harrumphed his shoulders, and stomped off.
“I have a proposal that is going to be shocking to some. All I ask is that you hear me out because my idea is aimed at preventing other attacks like today. Can everyone agree to that?” A chorus of nodding heads and calls of “yes” and “sure” resounded.
“Good. The best way to dissuade others from taking on our neighborhood is to show that we’re organized, ready, and not defenseless. We’ve done that with our barricades. However, we can move that to another level by showing everyone that we’re neither afraid nor incapable of using our weapons.” He paused for a moment until he saw a lot of nodding heads in the audience.
“We can show this by incinerating the bodies of those who…”
“Wait! You want to burn them?!” Michelle called, incredulous.
Cooper planted his feet firmly on the metal hood, “Let me clear, I don’t want to do anything except sit at home and read to my boy. But, I think we should burn the bodies of those who killed our neighbors and display the remains in front of our barricades. It will make anyone think twice before attacking us again.”
“That’s barbaric,” Michelle shouted with shock.
“Tell me one thing, Michelle: if I had told you two weeks ago that a gang of armed men would drive into our neighborhood and kill Antonio Aguilar and Leroy Johnson, wouldn’t you have said that was barbaric?” He paused and silence hung in the air. “The fact is, we live in a new world. The same rules, the same conventions, from before don’t always apply anymore.”
Unconvinced, Michelle crossed her arms, took a step back, and remained wordless. He could hear others murmuring around her.
“Won’t this just attract the police’s attention?” asked Gus.
Cooper wanted to laugh, but Calvin answered for him, “I don’t know. But, I haven’t seen a police car in days and the 911 lines just say they are busy all the time. I think we’re on our own for the time being and we need to focus on what’s the best for us to do, right now.”
“What will everyone else think of us? When this is all over, I don’t want to be known as the neighborhood that put dead bodies on display,” asked a woman from the group whom Cooper didn’t recognize.
Cooper’s patience was wearing thin. He readied himself to answer. Before he could, Lily Stott rapped her cane on the hood of the Buick. Clanging metal brought rippled silence to the group.
She spoke softly. The crowd grew even quieter and he saw heads lean in, straining to hear her. Quieter than normal, the sly woman! “You all know, I’m a Southern lady and it is in my blood to be polite and respect traditions and the law,” her voice gathered strength. “But, let’s stop all this fussin’. We’re livin’ in dangerous times. We have to do whatever we need to do to survive. I don’t care how unsightly it might be,” she turned to the person who had asked the last question, her voice rising to crescendo, “I tell you what I will tell any simpering neighbor who comes to ask. I will tell them I did what I thought best to protect my family and neighbors and then ask them if they did the same.”
Someone started clapping and soon the whole group was, including Michelle and Gus. Hoots of “You tell ‘em!” and “Right on!” filled the night’s gathering air.
Mark stepped in, “All in favor of Cooper’s plan, say ‘Hell yeah!’!” The sound was deafening.
“Any opposed, say ‘Nay’.”
A lone voice declared an emphatic, “Nay!” In disbelief, Cooper looked down and saw that it was Lily Stott. She realized all eyes were on her.
She gave a dismissive wave to the crowd, “Don’t get me wrong, I support this. But, I cast my vote ‘Nay’ so that none of us forget that we should do this with reluctance and regret of its necessity. We hold onto our morality that way.” She gripped her cane fiercely as she finished and jabbed it onto the black asphalt. Without awaiting a response, she began ambling back towards her home.
Cooper, and most of the crowd, shook their heads and grinned at old Lily Stott as she walked home.
Cooper knew he had to personally carry out what they had just decided to do since it was his idea. He and Dranko piled the bodies together. The dead men looked ridiculous. Colored hair, body piercings, and leathers might look tough while you were alive, but they became comical in death.
Cooper grabbed the gas can that Dranko had brought and began dousing the bodies liberally with the acrid smelling liquid. He took a final look down the street to ensure the children had all been moved much further away. About a dozen people remained behind to witness the gruesome act. Their eyes looked at him pensively, unsure how to act. We’re crossing the Rubicon now, a giant step away from how we’ve all been raised.
He struck the match and tossed it onto the middle of the pile. The gasoline lit up immediately, the flames licking among and between the bodies. Cooper refused to watch the sizzling flesh; he knew the smell and sound would be enough to haunt him.
Within seconds, the strong sweet-sick smell of burning flesh, and the stink of petroleum as polyester and faux leather went up in flames, assaulted his nose. His hand sprung to cover his mouth and nose, but it offered scant defense. His mouth wrinkled in disgust. I hope this is worth it and wards off anyone else from trying to mess with us.
He heard the clatter of wood banging against wood and turned to see Dranko tossing scrap pieces of lumber onto the burning bodies. He kept his arm sleeve over his mouth and nose but shouted over the din of the flames, “What’re you doing?”
Dranko had a wet handkerchief plastered over his mouth, “Making the fire burn hotter. It’ll be better to have them burnt down to the bone. You don’t want to try hauling around bodies only partly burned.” Cooper could only imagine the matter-of-fact expression underneath the mask as he detailed such a macabre fact.
Cooper found himself shaking his head in wonder as he moved around the bodies to begin helping Dranko, “You think of everything, you son of a bitch!”
“Someone’s got to around here; otherwise your arse wouldn’t get wiped!”
Cooper playfully hit him in the back with a length of 2x4 he had just picked up, “I’ll grant you’re the expert on burning bodies!” He tossed the wood onto the pile of bodies, his lips turning downward as he did so.
By the time they’d finished, they were both covered in sweat from the heat and the exertion. They had built a large bonfire over the bodies with flames leaping eight feet into the air.
Dranko broke the silence first, “You go on home and be with Jake. I’ll take care of the rest. I’ll keep this fire going long enough.”
“Thanks. We can move the bodies into position at first light, after they’ve cooled.”
Dranko nodded. Cooper turned to leave and realized the group that had stayed behind were all still standing there, transfixed, gazing at the gruesome scene of bodies burning in the street near their homes.
“You all go home now. We’ve had enough unpleasantness today. There’s no reason to watch more of it.”
His words sparked them into action and they slowly ambled off in different directions.
He made his way to where Jake was playing a game of tag with three other children in the street. They were out of view of the fire and, thankfully, upwind as well.
The quartet of children raced to and fro, lost in the sheer joy of child’s play.
Cooper hung back, not wishing to disturb them by his presence. He leaned back against an early budding cherry tree and lowered himself into a squatting position.
The contrast of the scene before him with the grisly work he had just performed shook him to his core. The innocence of watching his son play some invented game that looked like a cross between tag and dodge ball was a joy for Cooper. He hadn’t seen Jake smile like this in days. He drank it in like a welcome tonic. It washed away the stench and grisliness of what he’d just done.