Riding the Loa

Cassandra

He took off the crappy headphones and without any preamble said, “Tell me again. I want to hear it from the beginning.”

Several people turned around in their seats and glared at the two men. Starsky held his hands up in apology and turned back to his partner. In a lower voice this time: “C’mon, I want to hear it again.”

Hutch glared at him. “Why? I’ve been over it with you already. More than once.”

Starsky glared right back. “Yeah, you have. Probably enough times to get your story perfect, but it ain’t the truth. You’re keeping something from me. I wanna know what it is.”

In the dim light the shadows under Hutch’s eyes looked black. He looked mad, but he also looked beaten, and that worried Starsky. And the scene in the room that morning, that kept circling in Starsky’s head like a film loop from hell.

It was gonna be bad, but he couldn’t back off.

Starsky took a deep breath and dropped his eyes. “Something happened, something I can’t remember.”

Hutch sighed. “I told you what happened. We got to the top of the hill. You attacked me. We both went over the edge into the water. You came out of the trance or whatever it was. You had a cramp and went under, and I had to drag you back up onto the rocks and bring you back around. You remember the rest, right?”

Starsky shook his head. “It’s not a bad story, and God knows how much I want to believe it. We’ve heard a lot worse over the years, but for one thing, Hutch, I wasn’t coughing up water when I came around. You realize that, doncha? And what the hell was all over me, Hutch? What was that greasy shit?”

Hutch shot him an incredulous look that would have been a lot more convincing if it hadn’t taken a couple of seconds to arrange over his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re imagining things.”

Starsky pressed his point against Hutch’s weak defense. “Am I imagining that you’re acting like a head case? After we got back to the top of that hill, you were way off your game. Yeah, you got the job done, but you were off. How long would you have tried to wrestle the gun outa that guy’s hand? Little things like that. Things that are usually like breathing to you.” Starsky’s voice got louder again. “And ever since then you’ve been a jerk, you won’t look at me, you’re all, all tucked up, like, inside yourself and shutting me out.” He was almost yelling now. “And one more thing. I saw you in the bathroom this morning, heard you too. So don’t tell me nothing happened.”

A woman across the aisle holding a sleeping infant whipped around, looking at the two of them. “Shhhhhhh!”

Starsky looked at her sheepishly and put his finger over his lips. She curled her lip at him and turned back in her seat. Starsky turned back and Hutch was sitting there staring at Starsky like he’d just stabbed him in the gut.

“You didn’t see anything. You had a dream, that’s all.”

Starsky wasn’t buying it. “No dream, Blondie. I know what I saw, I know what I heard, and I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Hutch looked around the crowded plane. “Let’s not do this here, Starsk. I don’t want to do this, okay, but we absolutely can’t do it here.”

Hutch was right. This didn’t belong in public. “Fine. We can’t do it here, but I’m not dropping it, Hutch. You’ve never kept anything from me before. I’m not gonna let you start now. We are going to talk about this. Soon.”

Hutch looked at him a moment longer then turned back to his book without saying another word. Starsky felt dismissed.

Putting his headphones back on he said, “Remember to turn the page every once in a while if you’re gonna keep pretendin’ to read.”

Hutch ignored him, slumping farther down in his seat, eyes fastened on his book like it was the most fascinating tale ever written instead of just a cheap paperback purchased at random in an airport. He was obviously miserable. Starsky felt bad about the crack, but it was just so damn frustrating.

He tried to get interested in the movie, but the headphones were just as bad now as before, the sound a mere tinny echo. Rodan versus Godzilla played out in front of him but he didn’t see it, watching instead the memory of that morning in his head.