CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT - Let's Go Away for Awhile
"LOCAL GYM EMPLOYEE KILLED IN HOSTAGE RESCUE" - Bobby Reed, a 19 year-old Assistant Manager of the "Buff and Beautiful" gym, was murdered in an otherwise successful hostage rescue operation. It was reported Reed deliberately gave up his life to alleviate the danger for the two hostages, Det. Eddie Robinson and adult film star George Richard Binghamton, otherwise known as "Dickie Biggs", as well as Det. Michael Batzinger, aka Mike Batz PI.
EDDIE WAS STARING AT THE NEWSPAPER CLIPPING HE'D CUT AND PASTED INTO THE SCRAPBOOK HE KEPT OF MIKE ALL THESE YEARS. HE SAW IT ONLY FITTING THAT ALL HEROES OCCUPY THIS TOME.
MIKE - I walked into the kitchen one morning and Eddie's sittin' there. I says "hi ya, kiddo", and he comes up to me and gives me such a kiss and looks deep into my eyes, "hi ya, Boss-man". Outta the corner of my eyes, I see the scrapbook he keeps and what looks like Bobby's obit.
EDDIE - A huge smile comes over Mike's face when he spots the clipping I saved of Bobby. "Aw, kid, that's real sweet - REAL sweet." "He was somethin' special, wasn't he?"
MIKE - Then Eddie sits back down and starts gettin' all thinkin' and stuff. He says to me, "Hey, Mike, are we the good guys?" I'm tooken by surprise by this - ARE WE THE GOOD GUYS - I didn't know what to say to that, 'cept the truth, that is. "Why d'ya ask?" "well, I figure with all the rotten stuff that happens to us" "Nothin' rotten happens to us" "What about the kidnappin', shootin', stuff like that - we almost get killed ev'ry time". I sat down next to him, put one arm around him and take his hand with my other one. I look deeply into his eyes and say, "okay, I'll give it to ya straight. We got a good home, got a good job, we eat good, me-n-you are okay. The other stuff, the stuff we go through is all just a bump in the road. See, when ya go out for somethin' ya want, there's always a price to pay. Me-n-you are on the side of good and we wanna protect that - but sometimes we gotta pay a little somethin'. A bullet in the arm, a sock in the gut, a rope 'round the wrist, a gag in the mouth, that's what we gotta take to get what we want, and we always get it. The bad guys wanna wipe us out and take over these parts, and what they gotta pay is a lot harder, toss the troublemakers in the tank for a whole lotta years. If ya want somethin' for good, the price ain't that high, but if ya want somethin' for bad, ya pay til ya drop. Ya with me so far?" Eddie seemed to be. But he says, "when I was chained up in the basement, I started to wonder if maybe we were doin' the wrong thing, he kept gettin' at me that I gotta pay for my sins and all that. Why would he keep pumpin' me like that if he didn't think it was true?" "Cuz it ain't - that's the first giveaway. Guys like that don't want ya to think anything other than what they are. Now, listen up, I'm glad you asked me about all of this, 'cuz that's what I'm good at. Good and evil is my job - I know all about it. Right, so ya wonder if you did somethin' to be punished for - who sent ya to me in that back alley? Who sent me to you in that closet? Whp put the idea in your head that I was okay? Who put the idea in my head that I'd be nuts if I blew ya off and just took ya back home and never saw ya again? The Man Upstairs, that's who. Now, would he give us all what we'd been gettin' so far if He didn't think we were okay? Naw, not at all. If he didn't want us together and to stay that way, youda been somewhere else that day and I woulda been cremated. Our union is an act of God, it's an act of love. Yeah, I know I was tempted by Bobby, but when I was really weak, God stepped in and got Bobby to tell me this wasn't it. What my ex-boss did to ya was outta hate, he wanted ya to fall apart and get away from me. He's no man of God, he just uses His name like a puppet to drive other people nuts. Now, you gotta notice our whole lives are built on love and that's what keeps it goin'. Our love of doin' good, people out there - their love for us 'cuz we do our job so good, and none of that woulda been possible if it weren't for my love for you and your love for me. Take away ev'rything on the outside, what's goin' on is that me an' you are what's good. You cheer me up when I'm down, you're very kindhearted, you care about so many people and so many things. Your smile brightens my heart, your kisses are soothing and reassuring. You're sexy and that's great and all, but that was just to get me to look at ya long enough to know your mind, your heart and your soul. If we were in any other job - we could be bean counters, shysters, anything, you name it - you would still be the love of my life because ours is truly a gift from God."
EDDIE - This was unreal. I couldn't believe I was hearin' stuff like this from Mike. I been with this guy for a while now, but this was like I was meetin' the real him for the first time. He wasn't Mike Batz PI right now. He was Michael Batzinger. "Mike, I - I never knew ya felt that way about me." "Ya never knew how much I loved ya?" "No, it's not that. I know how ya feel about me, but I never really knew how deep it went before. Did you?" "I always knew I couldn't do without ya and I never wanted to think about it, but with you gone missin' for that week, I went through ev'rything. I cried, I threw stuff, I shouted, I felt really ripped apart, and I was, too, 'cuz you weren't there. My boy was missin', my boy was in trouble, my boy wasn't here by my side." He started cryin', his eyes got red and wet and his mouth stated shakin'. He stood up and took my hand and stood me up, too, and then he wrapped his arms around me, "oh, Eddie, you're my life. I hope nothin'like this happens again. To think I mighta never seen ya again, I can't..." I stroked the back of his head and lightly kissed his cheek a few times, "it's okay, Mike, I'm here. I love you. I always have and always will." Then I put his head back a little 'cuz I wanted to see his face, and I wanted him to see mine. "Ya know, when you rescued me, anything coulda happened. My life coulda been anything, 'cuz I was just a kid back then. But the thing was was that I was alive for whatever it woulda been. I think it was God tellin' me to go help ya out there in the alley. I'd been drawn to ya all them years. As handsome as you are, and were back then, too, what I fell in love with was a man who really cared about me. I kinda wanted ya to take me home that day - to your home. I wanted ya to be my new dad. I'm glad that didn't happen 'cuz we woulda missed out on all-a that great sex, but it's like you said, you're one of the good guys, the best darn good-guy I ever knew. I love you with all my heart, even more than what I got in me. I love your voice, your face, the way you strut your stuff, the way ya get all heated up when we're on a case, the way ya dress, when ya call me "kiddo". I look at ya when ya drive." "Huh?" "Yeah, you sit so upright behind the wheel with that dogged determination on your face, when you make a left turn, I love how your arms go up and sweep across your body, then I look at your stomach, your lap, your legs and I can't take my eyes off any of that, because a really good man is underneath all that. You don't like it when someone's hurtin' and ya really wanna make it go away 'cuz ya just want ev'rything to be okay. Ya just wanted that nightclub owner to get his business back, 'cuz he wanted it. Ya wanted to get Dickie away from them thugs 'cuz he and his boss wanted it. When that mobster's girlfriend told ya there was a contract out on her, ya still stood by her even when it meant she had to kill you. Ya risked your life just so she could have hers back. Ya know it's strange, ya got all uptight when your boss turned into a Christian, but you've always been 10 times the Christian he ever said he was, and what's really beautiful about you is you've never even known it." "Ya stood right there and took it in the ribs, too. Remember?" "I just wanted to walk the path you were walkin', 'cuz it was good." Then the two of us just looked at each other for a little bit. "Eddie, I got an idea" "What's that?" "Ever been to Canada?" "No." "Would ya like to?" "Sure, what's up there?" "Gay marriage is okay up there." Aw, man I was stunned. The Boss-man wanted to make it legal. "You wanna marry me? Ya wanna spend the rest of your life with me?" "I want ya with me always. I wanna tell ya ev'rything I said to ya here in front of a JP, put our names on a piece of paper that says it all. Eddie Robinson, will you marry me?" I started gettin' teary-eyed, too, all I could do was take a real heavy breath and say, "yes".
Long and short of it, me and Eddie went up to Toronto and got hitched. Went to the JP's office, did all the papers and stuff and made it official. Now I know there's a bunch of ya guys out there who don't really think ya need it, but I gotta tell ya - you're livin' in some real nice place and ya know it, this-n-that, you're drivin' a real nice car, etc., but when ya look at that registration, ya look at that lease and see your name on it, and it tells ya ev'ry time ya read it that it's true. Pride of ownership, pride that ya wake up next to someone special ev'ry day, pride that the best thing that God ever did for ya was right next to ya, ridin' shotgun, watchin' ya drive.
After we tied the knot, I thought it'd be good to do a honeymoon. Neither of us been to Miami Beach before, so we thought why not! But, hey, I gotta tell ya, - hoo, boy! - ya won't believe what happens to us down there! Catch ya next time.