A 20 second conversation at the Hilton parking garage 2002

Narration from an unfinished novel:

"Eat this," I heard as I caught a glimpse of a very large set of knuckles approach my face. Just as I registered the significance of the image, a sudden explosion of white impinged upon my senses. I felt my nose crunch and flatten to the right, the cartilage too compressed for my satisfaction. As I reeled back, tripping, I caught another glimpse. This time it was the floor out of the corner of my eye. I bounced a bit off the floor, not too high, but high enough to notice that someone was wearing very nice shoes. A kind of brogan. Very shiny - apparently recently polished and very nicely buffed - burgundy in color, and gray pinstriped trousers, probably a wool blend of some kind with an expensive appearance, with a cuff, about an inch just breaking over the tops of the shoes. I bounced once more, this time noticing the concrete floor. Gray patches of an enamel paint were beginning to loosen along the edges and there was a definite smell of old oil and industrial dust. On my second contact with the ground, I could feel that dust and oily mix forced up the one nostril I could still sense. By this time, maybe 5 seconds after our conversation started, I had been hit once and had hitthe floor twice. The white sensation was pretty much gone now, but I could feel a warmness on my cheek and mouth where the blood from my nose was moving.

"I told you to stay away from her" that same voice continued. "She’s my wife and I’m the only one who f**** her." "That’s what you think," I didn’t say. Sensing the logic of his postulate, I muttered, spewing dusty oil from my nose, "OK, OK, how was I supposed to know. She wasn’t wearing a ring or anything." Then, apparently for emphasis, one of those very nice shoes accelerated toward my midsection. I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to hit my ribs or my belly, but before I could decide my preference, the decision was made. I felt by bottom rib on my right side snap, although I couldn’t be sure it was a clean break or a fracture. And then I noticed all the remaining oily dust that had clogged my nostril go shooting outward in the direction my new nose was pointing as all the air in my lungs was immediately evacuated. Unlike the earlier white sensation, with the very bright spots, this was more of a black-out situation. My vision went dark, and for a moment I couldn’t hear anything. I felt myself convulsing for several seconds before I heard a very unusual sound - like some one with the dry heaves, really bad dry heaves. Then I realized that sound was me gasping for air. Fortunately I noticed the shoes walking away from me, apparently satisfied with my explanation. "Good," I thought, "I’ve had it with this conversation."

Trying to remember where I was, I pulled myself up, and noticed a really sharp pain in my rib cage. "Oh shit," I thought. My nose hurt too. There was a lot more of it visible through my right eye than normal. I didn’t think that was a good sign. I was now sitting down on an oily dirty concrete floor and looking around. Unless I was mistaken, it appeared that I was about to exit the parking garage by the Omaha Hilton Hotel when I was interrupted by the gentleman with whom I had just conversed.

It occurred to me that he wasn’t really a pleasant conversationalist and we hadn’t really gotten to know each other very well. Perhaps another day. I glanced at my watch, and through the grease I could see it was about 9:30 p.m. Now what, I thought.