Lucky's Dream

LUCKY’S DREAM LUCKY’S DREAM A ovel by Butch Mandatta Ponzio For Robert A. Clark, Jr. (1943 — 1998) On the night I turned 50 years old, I awoke from a startling dream, one that rocked me awake with its intensity, demanding my full attention. In the dream I was a criminal defense investigator once more, sitting in a Vermont courtroom at the defendant’s table, beating out a rhythm to which my homicide client — who up to this point had been mute with fear — began rapping his story. As he wove his captivating tale, the courtroom was stunned into silence. Lucky’s Dream is that tale told as a crime novel in the tradition of Leonard Elmore. As such it entertains and titillates, yet unexpectedly moves to deeper levels for two reasons: first, because of a series of myths mysteriously woven into the story, and, second, because of the American Buddhist teachings of a principal character. The story itself revolves around the flight from Vermont by Jimmy St. John, a public defense investigator whose fledgling love affair with his married boss has gone awry. Fleeing her house during the first snowstorm of the season, St. John rescues Lucky, his new homicide client, from a wrecked sheriff’s car, discovering in the process that the police had tortured Lucky. Accompanying the fugitives is St. John’s closest friend Odysea, who is traveling to the deathbed of her first woman lover. During their three-day journey to the Hill Country of Texas, these unusual characters share their secret pasts, providing insider looks into such diverse subcultures as sixties revolutionaries, nineties lap dancers, millennial lesbians. Their personal stories introduce a level of social awareness unusual in conventional mysteries or crime stories. Because the novel contains adult themes, including eroticism and violence, it is not appropriate for young readers. Moreover, though I have drawn upon my own life experiences and those of family, friends, LUCKY’S DREAM and comrades, the characters and places you are about to encounter are fictitious or used fictitiously, being a product of my imagination and my dream. © 1999 by Robert M. Ponzio Contents Coyote the Trickster One: Waiting 1. The Dog 2. Lucky 3. The Lawyer 4. The Defendant Two: Wanting Moondance 5. Diane 6. The Husband 7. The Accident 8. The Witch Three: eeding Beyond the Garden 9. Odysea 10. Escape Four: Taking The Birth of Good and Evil and Their Sister 11. Chains 12. Maddogs 13. Silence LUCKY’S DREAM Five: Giving Lucky’s Dream 14. Interstates 15. Little Lori 16. Lone Star 17. West Texas 18. Final Secrets 19. Revolution! 20. Lost Six: Being Ending 21. Grieving 22. Loving 23. Girding 24. Fighting 25. Witnessing 26. Beginning Lucky’s Dream LUCKY’S DREAM Coyote the Trickster Coyote the Trickster yawned in perfect boredom, and out of his gaping mouth tumbled the blue Earth wrapped in an old black Blanket. When Coyote saw what he had done, he said aloud, “Good joke,” then laughed uproariously at his own cleverness. Coyote’s words resounded like thunder beneath the Blanket and his laughter fell as rain upon the Earth, making slimy green puddles from which Everything-that-is grew. Even the First People came from the puddles. They crawled out of them on their bellies, then stood up beneath the old black Blanket and feared. When he saw the People’s dark confusion, Coyote chuckled for a moment, then snapped his white-tipped tail like a whip across the sky, leaving behind a Story that looked just like the Sun. “Ahh!” the First People exclaimed, for now they could see their own shadows, which they studied in fascination. Soon they forgot the Story that lit up the Earth and ended their confusion. Coyote howled in dismay because the People were so foolish. His howl echoed in the Canyons many times over until the People thought the echoes were the First Story. Coyote tried to laugh at their new foolishness, but nothing came out of him but dismay, which the People called Death. Then Coyote couldn’t stop laughing. He grabbed his sides and rolled across the world in a fit of glee. LUCKY’S DREAM Finally he reached the hills where Dog was curled up in a ball. “You wouldn’t believe what I just did,” he bragged, then told her in great detail of his exploits. She listened attentively and nodded at all the right moments, for she knew it would be her turn when Coyote was done. “You wouldn’t believe what I just did,” Dog announced, then held up each pup she had given birth to while Coyote was off playing. Coyote gasped in amazement, then noticed that one of them had a white-tipped tail exactly like his own. “You shall fly between worlds,” he told that pup. “The world of the foolish People with little memory shall be your home, while the world of the Story shall be your salvation.” I was that pup. This is that Story. LUCKY’S DREAM PART OE: WAITIG “[A]ll the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” Job 14:14 1. The Dog The first time I saw the Dog he was trussed in chains and locked behind two sets of steel bars. He stood rigidly in the holding cell, his pale hands crossed at the wrists, staring at something only he could see. I couldn’t tell if he were a simpleton or a farm boy who’d had too much to drink and forgotten his own name. Then he stared straight at me through the bars, gave me a doleful look, threw back his head and howled, baying like a coon dog running in the night. I cringed, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It was after six p.m. and I should have been sucking down my first Catamount Amber Ale instead of watching a human dog perform behind steel bars; but at exactly 5:57, just as I had been leaving the office, the phone had rung. I don’t know what it is about ringing phones, but I can’t let sleeping dogs lie or ringing phones go unanswered. “Public Defender Office,” I had answered automatically, my mind already out the door and in the pub across the street. “Jimmy?” It was Diane, the public defender and my boss. I could tell by her voice that something big was going down. I could feel the tension that ran through the telephone lines directly from her to me. Was it then the warning LUCKY’S DREAM bells first sounded in the back of my mind? Get ready, Jimmy, your life’s about to change . “What’s wrong?” “I’m at the courthouse. Judge Stone just appointed us to the Dog Case.” The Dog Case is what the press had tagged a gruesome homicide of a six-month-old baby whose mother had left her asleep in a car seat while she ran inside the Mobil mini-mart to pay for her gas. Why Dog? Because when they finally found the baby’s body in the hills five miles away, it had been shaken apart from the limbs the way some canines worry their prey. My stomach turned over just thinking about it. “Does that mean they’ve got the Dog?” “The suspect is at the jail right now. I want you to go over there and stay with him until the sheriffs transport him to the courthouse. It shouldn’t be long.” “What’s his name?” “John Doe for now. Apparently he won’t talk to the cops.” “Won’t or can’t?” “That’s what I want you to find out.” “No problem.” I was about to hang up when I heard her say something I didn’t catch. I yanked the receiver back to my ear. “What was that?” “If he talks to you, make sure no one overhears the conversation.” LUCKY’S DREAM “Give me a break, Diane.” My voice was brittle with scorn. I bristle whenever she plays lawyer with me. Every so often I’ve got to remind her that it was me who trained her, not the other way around. A year ago when she had walked through the doors of this office for the first time, Diane was six months out of Vermont Law School. She had just passed the Bar exam and finished her clerkship at a small private firm that made its money on real estate. One Friday she’s doing title searches in Stowe, the next Monday she’s handling arraignments in St. Johnsbury. The morning of those first arraignments I could hear her losing her breakfast behind the glass-paneled door of the Ladies Room. I didn’t mention it, but stayed close to her throughout the morning. I sat directly behind the defense table in the Caledonia County District Court and watched her knees shake uncontrollably every time she stood up to address the court. But her voice never even quavered, and that made me think she might actually make a decent public defender. “And Jimmy . .” “Yeah?” “Be careful. There’s something very weird about this case.” “There usually is,” I said in exaggeration, which broke the tension and made her laugh. Diane has this bubbly laugh that tickles me every time I hear it. “See you shortly,” I added, then gently put the receiver back into its blue plastic cradle. I heard the church bells on Main Street strike six times. I could be at the jail in five minutes if I hurried.

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