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and she was yelling.
right there in the middle of the street.
it was 3pm.
and damn hot.
so i closed my doors and turned on the AC.
start writing.
editing.
and Ellroy's ears perk up.
twitch in his muzzle...
at the door, a young man.
hispanic, i think.
'vigilante,' stenciled on his shirt. shaved head, carrying a clipboard.
i kept the metal screen door closed and locked.
he said i owed him ten bucks.
the hell i did.
said he painted my address on the curb.
said he put a flyer on my door and if i didn't want my address painted on the curb i was supposed to annotate that on the flyer.
he didn't say "annotate, " though.
told him i was broke.
didn't have any money.
and he seemed angry.
didn't care i was broke.
like i offended his manhood as a major player in the curb stenciling world.
i suggested he join the Army.
"whateva," he said.
and he walked down the steps mumbling some other shit i couldn't understand.
just another product of the Los Angeles Unified School District, I thought.
nearly every night shenanigans.
last night -- car squeals wildly.
seconds later -- BOOM!
Ellroy up and out, barking like a madman.
then the ghetto bird.
WHOOMP! WHOOMP! WHOOMP!
close.
real close.
shook the house.
spotlight shining bright and the chickens went ape.
it was 4am.
few nights earlier i hear something.
kids.
kids in baggy white t-shirts and shaved heads, up to no good.
and sure as shit,
SMASH!
abandoned truck across the street looses it's driver-side window.
kids run off.
that was 12am.
they discard bags of 'flaming hot cheetos' and mcdonalds napkins on the lawn my gramps seeded over 60 years ago.
Ellroy was walking and found a hypodermic needle.
few used condoms.
and a thing called a "dental dam."
for the curious:
