Dancing in the Pale Moonlight Pt. 01

"Guess they know better den to mess with you, huh, boss? That guy was all like, no, but then...BANG! Right in the dick. Oh, man that was beautiful, boss...Absolutely beautiful and that song he sang for us when you blew his Johnny off was so beautiful that it brought me to tears."

"The hell are you talking about?" The biggest of Harley's henchmen inquired, "no one got their cock shot off, you sadist."

"Let me dream, you asshole."

"Ya got a fetish with blown off dicks or somethin', Benny boy?" Inquired Harley with an arched brow and a puzzled look.

'Benny', as he was called, the only one who had any facial hair, a carefully trimmed goatee to be exact, and evident scar under his left eye, shrugged his shoulders without giving a definitive answer to the other two.

The two stopped their approach when they spotted me, and 'Benny' quickly reached into his trench coat without a second to spare and drew out a Tommy gun, pointed it at me, and held it in his hands steadily with a fierce look in his eyes.

"Looks like we got another one to take down."

"Just kill him and get it over with before Batman wises up and somehow finds out that we just blew the brains out of nearly everyone in the bank."

Fire was about to commence, but Harley, a huge bag of money slung over her shoulder, quickly stopped Benny and put her hand over his weapon to stop the firearm.

"No, leave him." She said. "He ain't worth waistin' yer bullets on an' it ain't like he saw anythin', right?"

"Grrr...F--fine...I'll let the vermin live if that's your orders, boss...You know what you're doin, after all..."

"Listen here," Harley approached me; one hand reaching towards my face and lifting my chin then taking a forceful squeeze on it, "you didn't see nothin', didn't hear nothin', got it? I'll let you live, but ya go tah tha cops, tell B-Man or somethin', an' you can say goodbye tah ya nuts, undastand?"

"S--sure..." What was I agreeing to?

"Smart boy. You be good now, 'kay?" Her threatening words were masked by the sweet smile she had on her face, but I knew that she meant every single word that she had just spoken; she wasn't joking around.

Patting my cheek; she smiled wider and then she and her goons began to walk away with Harley happily humming some tune to herself.

I placed a hand over my beating heart and sighed in relief at the event that just took place; relieved that I didn't end up one of Harley's unfortunate victims who never uttered a single word again after being unlucky enough to cross paths with her.

I just watched them as they walked off but then turned around and started on my way to pay a visit to Lily before a final stop to the store before heading home.

"Hey, Lily," I gently ran my hand up and down the top of the marble, "I almost didn't come see you. I'm sorry. I hope you don't hold that against me."

I ran my eyes over the tombstone, then sat down on the grass and folded my legs into a cross.

"A lot's happened within the past few weeks. You'll never guess this, but you know what happened? You still remember Mr. Craigson, right? He used to come over and visit us a lot when we were little kids and sometimes he'd even let us play horsey on his back and came to all our Thanksgiving dinners with Mrs. Craigson. Well...At work, there was some kind of an attack, I didn't see who it was, because they threw a smoke bomb and I passed out...But...Well, he died during the attack."

My head slumped down, and I slowly shook it at the mere mention of the events that took place.

"I don't have a job now. We all got laid off and I really don't know what's going to happen now, because without a job, how am I supposed to pay rent or keep food on the table? I don't want to get kicked out of my apartment and end up like the unfortunate souls of Gotham."

The wind brushed across my back, and oddly, at that very moment, it almost seemed like there was another presence with me; I almost thought I heard something, but I realized all I heard was the wind.

I turned my head back, looking into the direction of the wind and I briefly felt a faint track of warmth against my back...Rather odd, since it was so cold and freezing out here.

"Thank you, Lily.." I quietly muttered to myself.

"Damn it!" I punched my dusts into the ground. "I just can't believe this. He never did anything to anyone to deserve something like this...He was always so kind and gentle, and he gets offed in his own store? What the hell is wrong with this world, anyways? It's disgusting!"

I took a deep breath, but then exhaled it sharply in release and reached a hand to her tombstone and just rested my hand there while my rage and frustration finally calmed down.

"Sometimes I wonder wonder what it's like where you are. I know that the place you've probably gone to is a nice and peaceful place... I kind of want to leave here, but not only am I not sure where I'd go, but what about you, mom and dad? Visiting here every night just makes me feel so much better and at ease."

That was true.

I wasn't sure how I'd be able to live in a place that I couldn't come to pay a nightly visit to the tombstones of my loved ones.

"Lily, do you think I'll go to the same place, too, when this is all over with?"

I smiled to myself, but then lowered my eye brows.

"They say Metropolis isn't that much better, though..Heh, hard to believe any place could could come close to being the hellhole that Gotham is."

Honestly, nowhere sounded safe, but I guess that's just the way that life worked; violence, murder and mayhem were just something that was at every city.

"I've been thinking about you. I miss the old times, you know? Me, you, mom and dad...Just going out and enjoying ourselves, the picnics we used to have where mom always made deviled eggs for everyone to eat, and dad and me would play with Spot while you and mom flew kites."

To think those days were so long ago, and yet, they seemed so recent and not nearly as distant as they were; it seemed like it was only yesterday that I enjoyed these things, childhood and nothing but fun.

"So, anyways," I lightly scratched the back of my head, "now I'm supposed to be looking for a new job. The only problem with that, finding a new one, is...I don't know where to even begin looking, you know? I mean, the wholesale foods store was the only job I really wanted and enjoyed, I guess because that was the kind of line of work that dad was in."

I sighed. "It just feels weird looking for some other place to work..."

"I always thought working a fisherman's job would he a pretty fun job, and who doesn't love fish, right? And look how much of it we are growing up. Surprised we never got tired of eating it continuing how regular it was in our diet."

"You remember Rosemary? She was the dog we got after Spot died of old age. Well, you'll never guess what she did: Last week the mailman was coming by to deliver the mail and I let her off the leash and she ran full blast towards him and chomped down right on his butt; tearing his pants."

I nearly doubled over.

"It was really funny because she's a sweet dog and she's never attacked anyone and has only been aggressive to a few people that I came across."

I spent the remainder of my time speaking to my mother and father, but then it came time to leave and I closed the gate behind me and headed downtown.

Stopping in front of the rectangular shaped grocery store, my eyes slowly lifted up to the neon-lit sign that perfectly accommodated the illuminated yellow windows. Walking up to the store, I slowly pushed the glass doors open and walked inside; the jingle of a bell entering my ears once I had opened the door.

"Chicory, how ya doing?" Called out a zestful voice.

"Mr. Benson. Good, and you?"

"Perfect. Business has been doing great."

"What've you been up to, Chicory? I heard the sad news about Mr. Craigson's passing...A crying shame since he was such a swell guy."

"I hope you're not too upset." I said. "I know you and him go pretty far back since you both met in Jr. High."

Mr. Benson's smile faded gradually while our eyes retained contact and soon, his gaze seemed to be reluctant and he strained our gazes apart until his face was turned towards the wall that had photographs of his wife and his kids strewn all over them.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say that I wasn't deeply grieved by the loss of James...And although I despise the scum who did this, with my very being, I realize that miracles no linger exist and my faith in a higher power in a hellish place like this, was lost a great many years ago."

"I'm sorry." I frowned. "I can't help but think that if I...That, I mean; there must have been something that I could have done to stop the whole thing."

"What exactly did happen? I was told that the store was ransacked but no one really saw the perpetrator."

"I can't say for sure. I was getting a crate of bananas for a customer when a smoke bomb came rolling towards me and I passed out after inhaling the smoke. I couldn't see anyone through the smoke before I blacked out, but I heard multiple footsteps as if there were multiple people in the room."

"Then, blaming yourself is pointless. There was nothing you could have done if this truly was the case."

"I just feel guilty. Those are two people who died that I could have protected."

"Two?"

I dropped my eyes and stared at the floor clenching my hands tightly into fists.

"Little Lily.." He somberly concluded.

"Chicory," his voice grew stern, "you must realize that there are things in this world that people can't control. The death of James was not your fault, and there was no way you could have known what happened that day with little Lily and Billy. Stop blaming yourself and torturing yourself for things that are beyond your control."

The tone in his voice caused me to look up at him.

"Things happen for unknown reasons and some of those reasons we aren't meant to know.

But beating yourself up over them won't do you any good, either."

He was right. I was so quick to blame myself for everything that happened, and it wasn't good nor was it healthy.

"Cheer up, now," he turned to face me with a jolly grin on his wrinkled face, "you here to buy, or are you here to buy? There's no room for sad faces in this store."

"R--right! You're absolutely right, it's even on the fine print, right here." I thumped my finger against a framed piece of paper engaged behind glass that had a set of rules, but 'No room for sad faces' was written in bold print.

Grabbing a shopping cart and beginning to walk around the store, I began to question myself: When did I end up like this? I used to be so much stronger and so resilient, compared to now. But I already knew that answer.

I looked around the aisles of neatly aligned goods, grabbing a loaf of bread and then a box of corn flakes. Continuing the aisles, I lifted a six-pack of Coca Colas and carefully placed them in the basket, in front of the bread and continued my shopping.

I soon had entered the checkout area once my shopping cart had a fair enough amount of groceries in it. I paid for my food and then headed home to prepare supper for myself before the night grew any later than what it already was.

Home sweet home, I thought, as I stepped foot into my apartment and carried as many bagged groceries at once as I could and set them down on the counters before rushing back down the stairs to grab the last load and then come back up and put those on the counters as well.

"Rosemary." I began to make kissing sounds to call her.

I heard her jump off the couch and pitter-patter into the kitchen, stop, wag her tail and then start jumping up and down in excitement; barking excitedly upon seeing me.

"Hey, pretty girl. How are you? Do you still want to go to the park for a little while before bed time?"

Her response was running to me and jumping up.

"I'll take that as a yes." I caught her and patted her head for a few moments.

I sat her back down and started to sort all the food out, putting the sodas in the ice box, then the ham and turkey, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and pickles and fish and then put the bread, corn flakes and peanut butter up and closed the pantry.

"Ready to go?"

Rosemary ran around in circles and jumped up again onto my legs, then jumped down and rushed towards the door, only to sit down, wag her tail and look at me; patiently waiting for me to go get her leash so we could get out the door and head on out into the park.

I went and grabbed her leash from inside my nightstand and returned to the living room, put her leash on her and then headed grabbed the the doorknob, twisted and turned it and then pulled it open, and then walked out with Rosemary, closing and locking the door carefully behind me.

Taking her on her walk, I returned back home and fell asleep.