Jimmy Franks stabbed me in the leg last year. It was a Friday night and we were both at Reno\u2019s Icehouse, this bar on the outskirts of Newell, because a mutual friend of ours, Becky Fielder, was singing there. She does cover songs, mostly old country stuff\u2014Loretta, Dolly, Jessi. Becky\u2019s not the best singer in the world, but she does a good job, and she usually would draw 30, 40 people when she played there, which was a lot for a place that small. Made it really cramped, which is why I got stabbed.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t even wanted to go out that night. It\u2019d been a long day at the plant and all I really wanted to do was crack open a Coors and watch the Astros on the couch. But Shelley really wanted to go, and Reno\u2019s wasn\u2019t the kind of place you went alone. Lot of bikers there. Usually would be a fight every other weekend.<\/p>\n
We got there a little after 8, so we missed Becky\u2019s first few songs. That was fine though, because she usually played all the good ones twice. She was halfway through Kitty Wells\u2019 \u201cIt Wasn\u2019t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels\u201d when we sat down at the bar and ordered a pitcher of beer. For the next two hours, we drank and listened to her sing and we drank some more, and when she came over on her break, she drank some with us too.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 10:30 or so, when Shelley and I thought we\u2019d pop outside for a quick smoke. Like I said, it was a crowded night at Reno\u2019s, and as we were making our way toward the door, I bumped into Jimmy Franks. And when I say \u201cbumped,\u201d I don\u2019t just mean that I saw him. I mean I physically bumped into him, which knocked the beer bottle out of his hands, shattering it across the floor. It wasn\u2019t on purpose, but Jimmy Franks is a real piece of shit, so I\u2019m not sorry it happened either. If I was gonna break anyone\u2019s beer bottle, I\u2019m glad it was his. Well, in the abstract, at least.<\/p>\n
See, what happened next was Jimmy pulled a knife out of his pocket and lunged at me. We\u2019d had a few issues in the past\u2014I used to date one of his exes, like 25 years ago\u2014but I didn\u2019t think they were the kind of issues you get stabbed over. But there the motherfucker was, coming at me with a knife, yelling, \u201cI\u2019ll kill you, Larry.\u201d I put my leg up to try kicking him away and he plunged the blade right into my shin. Hard, too\u2014it got stuck in there. The whole bar screamed and everyone cleared out. Cops showed up and took Jimmy in for the night, but I told \u2018em the next morning I didn\u2019t want to press charges, so they let him out. He\u2019d been plastered when it happened and I guess I technically started it, so whatever\u2014I didn\u2019t have time to go testify in court, and Jimmy had kids to feed.<\/p>\n
But I kept the knife. It was a really good knife\u2014the handle was made from camel bone and it had Jimmy grandfather\u2019s initials carved into it. Same knife that I used to remember the old man whittling with back when we were kids, when I\u2019d hang out with the Frank boys on occasion. It was a family heirloom, and that was why I kept it, because I figured that if you\u2019re gonna get stabbed, you might as well get something out of it.<\/p>\n
Anyway, that\u2019s not the story here. The story\u2019s what happened two nights ago when I ran into Jimmy\u2019s brother Arnold at the new Buffalo Wild Wings out in Boonestra. It was Boneless Thursday, which meant buy-one-get-one-free boneless wings, so Shelley and I went down there since we both love a good deal, even though a 30-minute drive for dinner\u2019s a bit of a hike these days. I\u2019ve mostly stopped going out since the stabbing. I was really paranoid for a while about not wanting to get stabbed again, since that shit hurt.<\/p>\n
Ever since that night, I\u2019d kept the knife with me\u2014a memento, a badge of honor, something. It was always in my front pocket and I never planned to use it or anything, but it just felt better, having it with me.<\/p>\n
We were getting ready to pay our tab when Arnold Franks walked in the door. He got seated right beside us. I don\u2019t know Arnold like I knew Jimmy, but we knew who each other were, so I kicked Shelley\u2019s leg and mouthed \u201clet\u2019s get going.\u201d But it was too late: Arnold had turned his chair around to face me the moment he sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s the knife?\u201d he asked. Straight to the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne your brother got me with?\u201d I said. \u201cRight here.\u201d I dramatically pat my leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s easy enough. Can I get it back?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo way. It\u2019s mine now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, that\u2019s got sentimental value. Paw-Paw had it custom-made like 60 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your brother hadn\u2019t pulled it on me, he\u2019d still have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy was having a bad night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, well I had a pretty bad night myself after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we have to do this the hard way?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean? You going to stab me too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, but we can go outside and settle this with our fists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have put your goddamn brother in the slammer if I wanted to. I\u2019m the one in the right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care who\u2019s right. I just want my Paw-Paw\u2019s knife.\u201d<\/p>\n
I lifted up my pant leg and pointed to the scar, which took up most of my shin. \u201cMaybe if this ever goes away, I\u2019ll think about giving it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShit, Jimmy didn\u2019t say it was that bad. Okay, forget the whole fighting shit. But it\u2019s still sentimental, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you really wanted the knife back, y\u2019all\u2019ve known this whole time how to reach me. Hard to believe you\u2019re sincere when you accost me and my wife in a fucking B-Dubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus, man. I\u2019m sorry. It\u2019s just that it\u2019s an heirloom and I don\u2019t think my brother being a dumb ass should make the rest of the family suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow \u2018bout I will it to you when you die. Or your kid, if you\u2019re dead by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really ain\u2019t giving me the knife?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI really ain\u2019t giving you the knife.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arnold Franks looked like he was about to cry, which is weird to see because no one\u2019s ever seen a Franks cry. They all have this tough guy demeanor. I started to think that maybe the right thing to do was to forgive. Let him have the knife back. It wasn\u2019t Arnold who stabbed me. I put my hand in my jeans for a second, hovering over the knife, about to pull it out, give it back, end this whole damn mess. But just as my hand touched the handle, I saw a smile come across Arnold\u2019s face, like he knew he was about to get one over on me. I pulled my hand back out. The waitress brought my credit card back and then, without a word, I stood up. Shelley followed, and without a word, we walked out of Buffalo Wild Wings. I didn\u2019t look back to see what Arnold Franks was doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It wasn\u2019t on purpose, but Jimmy Franks is a real piece of shit, so I\u2019m not sorry it happened either. If I was gonna break anyone\u2019s beer bottle, I\u2019m glad it was his. Well, in the abstract, at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[141,3249,3248,91],"class_list":["post-18856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-bar-fights","tag-dive-bar","tag-knife","tag-revenge","writer-justin-carter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19576,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856\/revisions\/19576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}