Fish Farm by Walt Sautter (top rated books of all time TXT) 📕

/> Well, you guys think about it and if you want those guns there right here for yas. And if you need my help, I’ll even come down and give ya a hand at teachin’ these pricks a lesson. Just gimme a call.”
With that he pulled a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and lit up.
“Now, let’s do some fishin’. Grab those poles over there.”
They left the house and walked towards the lake. As they walked they passed several large ponds teeming with fish. With every step the fish rushed to bank beside them.
“Look at these guys. They look like piranha without the teeth. There’s hundreds of them.”
“Oh, they think their getting’ fed. Every time you come near the pond they think it’s dinner time.”
“What do you feed them?”
“Use ta be liver but that got kinda expensive and messy, so now we use a commercial food. Dried stuff. It’s a lot cleaner and cheaper.
But, they’ll eat anything that you throw in there”, and with that Larry threw his cigarette butt into the pond.
The water churned as dozens of fish rushed towards the tasty morsel and instantly devoured it.
“See what I mean!”
They continued to walk towards the lake.
“Here, we gotta go this way”, and he pointed to the roadway branching to the left.
“It’s shorter the other way but I got all my equipment blocking the other road. Tryin’ clean the brush away from the bank over there so there’s more fishin’ room.
That reminds me, I gotta tell Ned about that pile of wood chips. He’s the guy a couple of houses up the road. Whenever I get a big pile, he comes down and picks ‘em up.”
“What’s he do with them?”
“Don’t really know, I think landscaping stuff. I know his son’s in the business, I‘m not really sure. Never asked. I don’t really care as long as he gets ‘em out of here.”
“Why don’t you feed them to the fish?”
They all laughed and continue to the lake.
The ride home sure seemed longer than the ride up, but all in all it was a great day. Jack actually caught seven fish and Petey six. They were in the trunk, packed in the ice they brought with the beer.
“Wonder if I remember how to cook them.”
“Nothin’ to it”, replied Petey.
“Larry already cleaned and filleted them for us. All you gotta do is put some butter in the pan and fry ‘em up. And there you have it. A great fish dinner.”
“Yeah, Larry was a cool guy, kinda rustic but cool.”
“Sure is. He’d do anything to help ya. You know when he was talkin’ about the guns and comin’ down and helpin’ out, he wasn’t just shittin’. He’d do it.
I was with him in Nam one time and he got into it with three guys. They beat the livin’ shit out of him. Two days later, he was back with a bat and took on all three again and this time gave all three a good old ass kickin’. Larry never was into takin’ a lot shit from anybody. He didn’t care who, what or where he wasn’t about to suck it down and he hasn’t changed a bit.”
The sun was just going down when they got home. Petey dropped him off in front of the apartment. There was a small crowd milling around outside the building, with a cop and ambulance sitting across the street, lights flashing.
Jack’s heart sank.
“Jesus Christ, I bet they found the bag”, he thought to himself as he left the car.
“Jack, here’s Larry’s number. Remember you asked me for it before”.
Petey handed Jack a scrap of paper. He stuffed it into his pocket as he closed the door.
“Thanks, Petey”, he, replied in a hollow voice while staring at the crowd.
“Oh, Jack – get you fish out of the trunk”, and he popped the deck lid.
“Oh yeah, sure – thanks”.
He walked to the rear of the car in zombie like fashion still staring at the crowd and straining to see if the lights where on in the old lady’s apartment.
He took the fish and walked slowly towards the building.
“What’s going on?”, he asked one of the bystanders.
“I think it’s an old lady”, was the replied.
“What about the old lady?”
“Think she had a heart attack. They found her in the hallway.
Here, they’re bringing her out now.”
Two men carefully carried the gurney from the stairs to the front doorway. Jack walked over to the ambulance and awaited their arrival.
“Mrs. Murray. What happened?”
“I don’t know Jack I just passed out and next thing I knew these men were here. They said I had a heart attack but I don’t really remember.”
“Excuse me Sir. We’ve got to get her to the hospital”, and they pushed the gurney into the ambulance.
“Well, how is she?”
“We think she’s going to be okay but that’s for the doctors to decide”.
And with that they shut the ambulance door and drove away.
“Thank God”, he muttered as he sighed in relieve.
He didn’t want to see the old with a heart attack but it was certainly better than the body being found.
He had to get rid of it. Another incident like this and he’d have a heart attack.
He walked up the stairs and into the old lady’s apartment and opened the closet door. It was still there just as it was the last time and the time before and the time before that. No smell either, just the moth flakes.
He went up to his apartment, got out the fry pan and started cooking the fish.
It was good, a welcome change from frozen dinners and microwave heat ups. He walked into his bedroom. Some of her things were on the dresser and he carefully pushed them aside. Tonight, at least he’d be in his own bed. Maybe that would give him a better night’s sleep.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, keys and the crumpled piece of paper with Larry’s number on it. He carried it over to the lamp to make sure that he could read it. It was faint but legible. He flattened out the scrap and slid it into his wallet, undressed himself and fell onto the bed. He laid there staring at the ceiling.
“What a sick thought”, he mumbled to himself.
“Sick, but probably the best idea I’ve had yet”, he thought.
“Got to do something. Can’t keep going down to the closet every other minute and just hoping it would disappear”.
He sat up in bed and thought about it some more. He reached for his wallet and took Larry’s number from it.
Would Larry really go for it? He said he would do what ever he had to, to help out and this was going to be a big help out, that was for sure. Hopefully, not too big!
“Okay, what the hell. The worst that would happen is he wouldn’t do it”, he thought as he reached for the phone.
He began to dial the phone. As he was about to push the final button he shut off the phone. What was he going to say when Larry answered?
“Let’s see. ‘Larry, I got this body in the downstairs closet and I want your help to get rid of it’. Was that it?
There must be a more subtle way to put it?
How about, ‘Larry, you said you would help out if we needed you.’
Yeah, that’s a little better. I’ll start that way”, he thought.
He redialed number.
“Hello”
“Hello – Larry – this is Jack”
“What’s the matter. Ya forget something or ya just wanta come back tomorrow for some more fishin’?”
“No Larry that’s not really it.
Remember this morning when we where talking about our problem here with this gang and you said you’d help out if you could?
Did you really mean it?”
“I don’t never say nothin’ I don’t really mean unless I’m jokin’ and that wasn’t no joke this morning. I hate to see anybody get abused by those shit bags, especially when their friends of mine bein’ abused”.
“Well, I got this problem – “
The conversation went on for ten minutes.
“Okay then , I’ll see you tomorrow if you can get Petey to drive you back up. Call me before you come so I can more sure I don’t have any customers around and I can get everything ready.”
“Thanks again Larry. See ya tomorrow”, he hung up the phone and dialed Petey.
“Petey, this is Jack.
Can you do me a favor tomorrow, really two favors.”
“Sure Jack. What is it?”
“First I need you to drive down to the store on Hastings Street, where they sell those big screen TVs and get me an empty box for one of those sets. A big one.
Bring it over here. I want to get rid of an old TV. It plays good but I just want to get rid of it. I want you to help me carry it out and I want to put it in a box so just in case we drop it, the glass doesn’t fly all over.
Then I wanta take it up to Larry. I talked to him about it when we were up there yesterday and he said he’d be glad to have it. I just called him and to make sure and he still wants it.
What do you think?”
“Sure Jack, I’ll be over tomorrow as soon as I get the box, morning”.
In the morning, Jack arose early and continually peeked out the front window for Petey’s arrival. When he pulled up, Jack raced down the stairs to meet him at the curb.
“Is this the kind you wanted?”, as he pointed the box protruding from the trunk.
“Yeah, perfect”.
Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill.
“Listen, go over to the Dunkin Donuts on Haynes Street and get us some coffee and donuts for the ride up to Larry’s.
And Petey, make sure you get Dunkin Donuts coffee. That other stuff tastes like piss.”
“Okay. But don’t ya need some help with the TV?”
“Yeah, to get it down the stairs. I’ll go up and load it into the box while you get the coffee”.
Jack lifted the empty box out of the car’s trunk, closed the deck lid and carried it to the second floor and into Mrs. Murray’s bedroom.
He knew would be gone for at least twenty minutes or so. He purposely sent him to the Dunkin Donuts Shop and he knew that it was about fifteen blocks away.
He laid the box on its side, opened the closet door, dragged the bag out and rolled it into the box. It fix perfectly. He then, tilted the box upright and stuffed wads of newspaper around the bag to keep it in place. He packed the top tightly and closed the lid. He bound the box with several loops of packing tape and then secured it with heavy cord. He dragged the box into the hallway and awaited Petey’s return.
Petey return in just about the time he expected, twenty minutes.
“Let’s get it down these stairs and into the car. I’ll take the bottom “.
They lifted the box and Jack backed slowly towards the steps.
“God damn, this is some heavy TV”, remarked Petey as they lifted the box.
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to. The old ones like this were heavy okay”, replied Jack as they jockeyed it down the stair well and into the trunk