July 26, 1969…2009…The Beginning…

Bobby and the girls got Gary to the kitchen where Sadie took some dental floss and a sterilized needle and gingerly sewed up Gary’s ear after soaking the wound in rubbing alcohol. Gary flinched and cried out in pain but Bobby ordered him to Man-Up and shut up, all the while Mary pacing the floor in a kind of a silent stupor, handing when asked by Sadie, cotton baton and bandages that were affixed to the wound still dripping with blood.
They all took hits from the pot Gary had stashed in the VW but no dulling affect was evident with the heavy reality at hand.
Once done, Bobby took Gary back to the living room and got him laid out on the couch, an olive-drab throw pillow behind Gary’s bleeding head.
“What the F---, Bob? What are you guys tryin’ to do, kill me? I don’t have any extra cash. I’ve signed over the cars over to ya already, so why don’t you get the Hell outta here so I can call an ambulance and get proper treatment? I’m still bleeding here.” said Gary, on the verge of tears but too angry to cry.
Sitting on the armrest, his feet firmly planted at the end of couch, Bobby leaned over and put his elbows on his knees, and with an insistent tone, faced Gary and said, “Listen Gary, Charlie gave me orders to take you over to Spahn’s with the cars when you’re up to moving. Sadie did ya up real good but Charlie will probably call that doc he uses for the group’s clap, to professionally sew up your wounds tomorrow. So how ‘bout it? Are ya ready to leave with us?” asked Bobby, silently praying that Gary would agree to all this.
“No goddamned way, Bob, am I leavin’ with you guys, now, or anytime, ever! I need to go to Emergency tonight and I f---ing need to call the cops on old Charlie. He’s gone way too far this time and you know it.” said Gary, adjusting the pillow under his head in a fruitless attempt to quell the pain.
“Okay. Fine. I’m with you on all that. But hey, don’t go to the hospital, Man, cuz with a wound like that they’re bound to ask questions we don’t want to answer, ya know. And as for the fuzz, Gary, geez, none of us need that bother. You think they won’t end up searching your house. You got drug-making paraphernalia all over the basement, Man. Get that thought right outta your head. Anyways, Charlie will drop this hit on you, on me, sure as shit, and you know I had nothin’ to do with it. Sadie called Charlie on the phone when you and I were outside grabbing the pink slips. She told him you got the gun from her. It’s because of your smart-ass move that all this has come down in the first place. I was ready to split before you decided to be a big shot.” explained Bobby.
Gary shook his head in silence, determined to ignore Bobby’s pleas.
So Bobby got up from the couch and went back into the kitchen, and did the only thing he could think of doing and called Charlie at the ranch, hoping he’d have a better idea.
  He walked over to the wall phone, picked up the receiver and dialled the ranch. As the phone rang, he tried to think of what to say to Charlie.
“Spahn Ranch.” a woman’s voice, sounding like Squeaky’s, answered.
“Yeah, Charlie, please.” was all Bobby said, as he heard the receiver being dropped at the other end.
After a few minutes, Bobby could hear the receiver being picked up once more and this time a man’s voice spoke.
“Charlie here, what’s your pleasure?!”
“Charlie it’s me, Cupid. He’s pretty fired up. He wants a doc and to call the fuzz ‘cause of what you did. What should I do, Man? He refuses to come to the ranch, too.” Bob whispered into the receiver so Gary wouldn’t know he was snitching to Charlie.
“Okay, look, stay with him there for the night and get him calmed down. He’ll probably feel better in the morning. Just watch him for the night so he don’t go callin’ on nobody, you dig?” ordered Charlie.
“Yeah, okay. We’ll stay the night with him. I think I’ll be able to put him off the rest ‘til morning.”. And with that last sentence, Bobby heard a click in the receiver, knowing that Charlie never liked to say too much on the phone or stay on long enough for the cops to tap his conversations. He was, after all the recent events, quite a paranoid little f---!
The night grew into the wee hours of the morning, and in the time Bobby had been on the phone, Gary had fallen asleep with some dope the girls had given him to calm his nerves and relieve the pain. That got Bobby off the hook for now.
He explained the situation to the girls and they all dug in for the night. Bobby decided to stay awake and stay next to Gary in the living room to make sure he didn’t wake up and try to leave the house. The girls each gave Bobby a kiss and slowly padded up the stairs to Gary’s two bedrooms, emotionally exhausted themselves.
The night was quiet, still and uncomfortably muggy. No one slept very well, including Gary, who never woke to but did his fair share of moaning throughout the night. Bobby sat there in the dark, in the armchair next, to Gary on the couch, hoping that the musician would make it through the night alive, as he had had quite a shock and lost allot of blood.
The lights over the piano and the kitchen stove were off now, and as Bobby gazed out the two picture-framed windows, he could see the twinkling of lights and odd sounds of music and horns honking from down the Canyon, where people were partying and undoubtedly having fun.
As he gazed down at the automatic in his hand, Bobby knew he wasn’t having fun and wondered how everything that had been so much fun and easy now was so horrible and difficult. Gary groaned in his sleep but offered no answer.
The clock on the far bookcase showed 3:43 a.m., July 26, 1969…2009…