Another Turning

I tried touching the wires together again, but nothing happened. I couldn't even get them to spark like sometimes happens. I thought maybe if they were a little moist they might have a better chance of having some conductivity, but I only had a couple of ways of getting them wet, and neither one seemed like a very healthy option for me. I left the wires dry for the moment.

“Scrape 'em together, more 'like,” said Teazer, making a scraping motion with his chubby little hands. “Make like yer' gonna' scrape something off 'em. 'Know what I mean?”

I knew exactly what he meant, but I didn't want to pay any attention to that little chubster. He was so damn dumb, and I didn't have any time for him. Never had, never would, for that chubster. I held both wires in my left hand and went fishing around in my pocket for some of that tape that I usually carry, but I realized I had left it behind. I was going to have to work with something else, and that meant just the wire nuts that I had in my mouth. Hell, I thought, those are moist already, 'cause I got my spit all over them.

“C'mon, just get those damn wires t'gether, OK? I wanna' get back. I wanna' get some supper.” Teazer was starting to pace and I didn't know why I had brought him in the first place. He was never very helpful, except as a lookout, and even then he tended to be somewhat distracted. His chubby little fingers were no good in doing fine work, either – he couldn't wire for shit.

I almost reached out with my right hand to twist the ends of the wire together and at the last second remembered that the one was hot. Damn. That was too careless. I took a wire nut out of my mouth, spit a little extra into it and wiped the outside of it on my pants leg. I kind of wiggled the two wires together and began twisting them inside the nut. It felt like the threads grabbed, and the twisting got slower. When it seemed tight enough I gave it a little tug, and it seemed to hold.

“I'm doin' this next time,” said Teazer, “yer' too slow. C'mon...I'm hungry. Can't you go any faster?”

I pressed the wires down as far as I could into the box and then slowly and carefully slid the whole thing under the tarp. I started to gently put handfuls of the dry, loose soil on top of the tarp when I heard the shot ring out. I swear I saw a puff of pink mist out of the corner of my eye and I felt Teazer's full weight fall right over me and knock me to the ground. I felt him dripping on me. I wiped a bunch of him off my face and neck, and pushed him to the side. I felt pale and everything was spinning.

I got behind that wall before they could get off another shot, and then I ran all the way here. I'm not going back to get his body. You couldn't pay me to do that. I'm just going to stay here. I want to get some supper.