The Peculiar Case of: Thomas Manning's Justice Part two of two parts

Garbage Pit

Thomas Manning now lay face down in the back ally with the garbage. If anything, whom ever knocked on the door, did it just in time, surely them pool sticks were to be used should that knock on that door not have occurred; it would had been too tempting not to use them at the high point of the battle, especially after he messed up all three of the men, or was it four, possible five men [? he may have even broke the arm of one of the guys, he heard something crack, I mean a big crack. Nonetheless, Thomas was in bad shape, having three ribs broken, and his nose, and burses all over his body. He felt like he was beaten with a tire iron.

Said a voice to Thomas, a blur shadow in the back doorway, it looked similar to Henry: If you get up, the voice said, and make it out of here, dont ever come back unless you want more of what you just got; His voice was stern and implacable, like the voice of a king. His opponents did not come out looking for him, nor evidently cared to even see the damage they had done.

He heard the sound of an ambulance coming; it must be for the boy he thought. Then when it arrived, someone said, Ha, look back there, a mans on the ground, looks in bad shape. This was displeasing for Henry, but he stayed in the bar and said nothing as they took Thomas in the same ambulance the boy was in. And two fellows took their own cars to go to the hospitalcarrying one person who was gasping for air, everyone but Henry and two others were in bad shape.

4

The Hospital/Jail

You need to arrest these men, Manning panted to the investigating officer at the hospital. But as the officer questioned the other men, getting a different story, it was not the same story Thomas gave; Thomas started to look guiltier by the minute and was thereafter taken to jail along with the two men who had their ribs broken and nose busted. The young lad was left in the hospital as was the one gasping for air, and another man showed up later with a broken arm from the brawl, as it was framed to be by all the bar participates but Thomas, even Henry showed up at the hospital to add his statement to the report. Matter-of-fact, there was a complaint added to the report that he [he being: Thomas Manning was a karate expertafter they had discover he knew itand thus took advantage of the situation, that is, until, until Henry came to the rescue of his customers at the bar, and thus got a big thank you from the owner.

Hence, they all waited three days in the jail in downtown St. Paul, and the others went back to the bar to discuss the situation at hand, for the court date was soon to arrive.

5

Court

Thomas Manning was especially downtrodden, and angry during his time in jail, but it gave him time to think and to gain his composure for court. Besides he had made the local news on TV, saying in essence: he was the cause of the trouble at Murphys bar down on Wabasha Str eet, and luckily the barkeep came to rescue of the customers, lest they all end up in the hospital. His mother was also a bit disturbed from all this notoriety and Manning just wanted it to be over with.

And so the court day came, and the Prosecuting Attorney stood up and the judge came in to hear the case, Judge Rosenbom, and Thomas who had an old friend, Mr. Dudley for his lawyer, stood up and the court procedures started.

For the most part, it was his word against everyone elses; and the judge seeing broken ribs from both sides of the this case, and broken noses as well, and realizing Mr. Manning was not a tax paying Minnesotan and elections were coming up soon, he made his statement, as he did, saying: In all fairness, Mr. Manning, it has not been proven, yet you claim to have been abused, taken advantage of. Yet in a bar, a recovering alcoholic of which you areso you claim, why I ask you why are you even in a bar, and a fighter as well, a skilled fighter at that, it is hard to believe you were not looking for trouble, found it, and, and well: just look at the four men you beat up. The sight was not to his advantage, yet he showed some battle wounds also.

Before he could say another word, the judge gave him a hard look, added Dont say a word Mr. Manning, not one word and then dismissed the case in no ones favor; both sides being equally to blame, You best stay out of bars like you say you have, and I dont want to see any of you folks back here again, and that includes you Henry Farmington, bartender! having said that, he motioned for the next case.

6

Poetic Justice

Life goes on, murmured Thomas as he looked back at this whole experience. Possibly this might be a good lesson he told himself and a story for the future he thought. Let bygones, be bygones, he chatted to himself, and caught a train back to New Orleans. His mother had once said, when he was but eight years old, in a similar fight when he cam e running home beaten by five boys, Next time run faster or learn how to fight, and so he learned both, but she forgot to tell him: stay out of the bars. You neednt look for trouble there, it comes your way automatically.

[Thomas Manning It was a brisk morning in the spring of 1982, two years had passed, or thereabouts, since that event had taken place in the St. Paul bar. He was inspecting in his cellar the inventory one of his bartenders had taken. He owned a hotel, and below it was a bar and restaurant; along with several other properties in New Orleans. The counts of the bottles of wine were correct, so he left the cellar and walked up the stairs, where the door went into the hallway where the bathrooms were.

As he walked through the door he noticed a familiar back of a man, or so it seemed recognizable, but couldnt quite make it out completely, he was holding a key to one of the his rooms in the hotel; evidently he was a vacationer. It had his emblem on t he key-ring anyhow; the nightclubs emblem that is. As the man sat up at the bar and started to finish his drink, his profile was viewing more clearly now, Thomas couldnt believe what he was seeing, it was Henry, Henry Farmington, the same, the one and only Henry from Murphys bar. How fate plays its poetic games, if not poetic justice. He quickly grabbed the phone next to the mens bathroom and called the barkeep, instructing him in some manner; at which time, the barkeep motioned to the busboy to lock the front doors, Henry seeing the busboy, paid little attention to him being in the back of him, or his activities. At the same time the boy asked one of the patrons to leaveIm not sure how he said it but it was in a quiet approach and he did leave. Then some music came over the loud speakers, Manning had told the waitress to make sure it was noisy in the bar area.

Now Thomas Manning walked slowly behind the bar as the bartender walked the other way to gather the othe r men in the bar, and they started to form a horseshoe around the backside of Henry, up to this point, he paid no attention to his surroundings. Then as he looked up, having been in thought for a moment and looking down upon the mahogany bar, he saw Thomas, he opened his eyes surprisingly wide, paused for a moment to collect his belief, thinking he was the new bartender, they were face to face now, only the bar separating them. Henry put up his hand, right hand, as if to say peace, What a surprise Mr. Manning, he said, adding with a choked up voice, yet not noticing the men behind him yet, Oh yes, we all got punched-up that day didnt we, I hope there is no hard feelings; incidentally, where is your boss?

I own the place, he said with a smile, and then added, Henry you never did get messed up, just everyone else did. But I think today is my lucky day; you will get your turn. You see, you should not have come into the bar in the first place looking for trouble.

< p>But he never had time to finish that sentence, or the second word, whatever that was going to be, because Manning had punched him so hard, square in the face, between his chin and nose, he split his lip, crack two teeth out of place with his two upper nickels on his right hand, he flew off the stool right into the horseshoe on his back, and the boots of the men started to break ribs, you could hear them crack: one, two, three, and his nose was displaced by a forth kick. One man grabbed a pool stick, but Manning told him to put it down, it wasnt called for, but he said to Henry, as they carried him to the garbage pit area in the back of the building,

Should you come back, I will not be so friendly, and allow the pool sticks to be used. Henry couldnt talk he just gasped for air and trembled, shaking his head as if to say yes, yes, I understand. He didnt want anymore of what he dished out at Murphys that was for sure.

The police came, and the story that was gi ven was that he had come into the bar drunk, and started a fight. The busboy was asked by the police to be a witness, likewise the five men in the bar were asked for their version of what happened, as was the owner, all put nicely on a report, and they all agreed he was a trouble maker, and he hit two of the men first, and so they had to protect themselves: Henry, and so that was that. To make things even better, one of the two men had taken some of Henrys blood and smeared it on his face and shirt to make it look like Henry was a fighter, which he wasnt, and even tore his shirt to make it look good; of course Mr. Manning paid for itthe shirt that is. And unfortunately, it never even made it to court; he never showed up to file a complaint.

Dennis Siluk is the author of 29-books, three of which are of short stories; this short story may be included in his 30-book of short stories and poetry.The author lives in Minnesota and Peru. his site: http://dennissiluk.tripod .com

Author:: Dennis Siluk
Keywords:: Short Story
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