Under Ground: part 85

Chapter 45 continues

The story so far: Moose comes to Anton's place, gunning for a fight.

In one fluid motion, Anton bent down and pulled a knife from his boot. He didn't aim the knife at anyone; he just held it in his hand, almost leisurely, as if he were about to cut a bit of salami. He spoke slowly. "I ain't done nothing illegal. I don't aim to cause no harm or make no trouble. But I am a man. And where I come from, see, a man don't let another man take something that is rightfully his. This bar is mine. My body is mine. You got rights to neither."

"Drop the knife," Deputy Logan said.

"Or what?"

"In the name of the law, Deputy Jackson will blow your brains out."

"Moose ain't no more the law than I am!" Anton said. "He's a criminal. Just like you!" Moose reached across the bar and grabbed Anton's hand. He slammed it down on the bar until Anton dropped his knife. Then he lifted Anton up as if he were a cornhusk doll and threw him to the ground on the other side of the bar. Anton's head hit the wooden floor with a thunk and blood spilled from his temple. Logan grabbed the knife. Anton mumbled something unintelligible.

"Reckon you boys ought to help us drag old Anton out. You'll do that, won't you?" Moose said.

Old Joe glared at him and said nothing.

Moose aimed his Luger and shot Old Joe once in the leg. Old Joe screamed, "You bastards!" Restraint, exercised as a survival tactic by the miners during the whole of the strike, evaporated. Samo and Dusca ran toward Moose and tackled him. Their fists became weapons fueled by the injustice of unearned power. Old Joe dragged himself along the floor, tracking blood along the way. He grabbed hold of a barstool and managed to swing it across the back of one of the armed deputies, just as the thug was about to shoot Samo. Anton lay silently on the floor.

Lily entered the room from the dining room. She said nothing, staring in disbelief. But baby Gregor, who was attached to her body with a sling cloth, began to wail. The cry of the child had an unusual impact on both the miners and the deputies. Perhaps they were simply surprised. Movement stopped and everyone stared at the mother and child who did not seem, even remotely, to belong in this turbulent setting.

Moose Jackson, who had been pummeling Andy the soda pop distributer, dropped him to the ground. He walked toward Lily. "Well," he said, "if it ain't the lovely Mrs. Kovich. How nice to see you."