The Last Chance Ballet

THE LAST CHANCE BALLET

P.S.

         Red lights flashed from every direction, bouncing off the walls and ceiling of the emergency room as ambulances came to a screaming halt just outside of Lower Bucks County Hospital. Shouting attendants rushed here and there trying to direct the flow of shuttling gurneys into the already crowded medical facility. A policeman sat weeping in a corner unnoticed by the hustling mob of men and women in white coats. Sobbing to himself, all he could be heard to say over and over again was, "...dear God..that was ....the worst... damn thing..." before breaking down once more. There were flecks of dried blood covering his face and hands. A nurse finally noticing his shaken condition in the corner pulls herself from the steady stream of human wreckage to pour a cop of coffee and put it into his hands. He looks up still talking to no one in particular. His eyes are not focused and the nurse realizes he is in shock and badly in need of medical attention.
         "Dailey...DAILEY...DAILEY!!!", she shouted across the tossing sea of confused humanity. An attendant hearing his name called out over the din of the ER searches for its source and makes eye contact with head nurse Eileen Warner. She quickly motions him toward her.
         "Dailey, this officer needs attention badly. I can't be sure if he's injured, but I'm certain he doesn't know where he is. See if you can get him washed up and checked over."
Bill Dailey looked around bewildered, a hint of fear coming into his voice.
         "Where.....is it all coming from?!"
         "The water tower over at Cobalt Ridge." Eileen answered in a hushed tone.
         "Wha...why?" he trailed off.
         "The Chief told me a guy went off at a local bar. The customers said he went out to his car and brandished an Intratech 9mm. They said he then took off in the direction of the tower threatening to take out the whole neighborhood. He's got the entire subdivision along with all of Middletown Township police department pinned down. They're getting his family together to try and talk him down right now."
         "Where we gonna put'em all?" Dailey asked, a stupefied look settling over his features.
         "Don't shut down on me now, Billy boy, this is gonna be an all-nighter!".
She wrung her hands and quickly started to make her way through the morass of carnage, taking and IV bottle from the hands of and incoming ambulance attendant and shouting directives to several orderlies standing by struck dumb with horror.
         The colors for the evening were red and white, red and white, red and white.

                                                           **********************

         Along the edge of Oxford Valley Road countless police cars were arrayed in barrier fashion. The road, the field leading up to the base of the tower and the surrounding men, vehicles and houses dotting the landscape were bathed in a continuously alternating red and blue, red and blue, red and blue. Weak and pathetic moans could occasionally be heard near the base of the water tower. Suddenly, a woman's high pitched hysterical scream rang out over the rooftops of the nearby subdivision directly behind the massive structure, which loomed above the tiny houses like some vast mechanical monster threatening to reek havoc on a small fishing village. Captain Doug Alexander held the bullhorn in a grip slippery with sweat as he tried to calm the weeping woman sitting in the back seat of the open squad car.
         "Please, Theresa, let's try one more time to get your husband down off of there. If what you say is true, then he should be a little sober by now and probably more apt to listen to reason."
A Lieutenant ran up breathing hard and words started tumbling out of his face so fast Doug had to grab his shoulder and shake him slightly.
         "Tommy...easy! What is it? Start at the beginning, Tom. Who's got what?!"
         "Captain, we got that high powered amp in place and the snipes too!"
Suddenly, Doug Alexander shoved the startled officer toward the trunk of the squad car out of earshot of the distraught woman inside. Spitting at him in a low, forceful hissing he said in his ear,
         "Shut up, you lame brain, that's his wife in the back seat! Listen carefully and don't get any of this wrong. Instruct the snipers that when I say 'last chance', to squeeze off their shot, until that time keep him in their sights. We're going to give him one more try at coming down, but after five dead and eleven seriously wounded I'm not going to play around with him much longer!!!"
The lieutenant turned and trotted off as the Captain walked back toward the open door of his car. Leaning in he saw that Theresa had regained a measure of her composure and was ready to help out with the next step in their attempt to get Billy Payne to come peacefully and willingly down off the deadly tower.

                                                           *****************

         The revolving red warning light at the top of the municipal water tower was all that filled Billy's vision as he tried to focus his eyes. The world was red...red...red. Where on Earth was this, he thought. A sneaking suspicion was that this was not where he had started out. As his vision cleared and he took in more of his surroundings a shock like electricity ran up his back and slammed into the base of his skull. He was high up, way up there! He started shaking. Slowly he tried to get to his feet, but the curved surface of the tower dome and his residual drunkenness made it an impossible task. He lay flat and scooted along on his belly, his face inches from the cold metal surface. As he neared the outer rim of the tower's top he came upon four empty clips from his Intratech automatic rifle. An involuntary shudder passed down his body. A gnawing fear leapt into his mind when he found his 9mm lying on the dome's periphery, a half spent clip still locked in. When finally he ventured a glance over the precipice his shock at the scene below nearly tumbled him over the side. One would have thought that the carnival and rides had come to town. Billy Payne knew better and the intensity of the sinking feeling in his stomach almost made him wretch. Now he was scared, stone cold, blitheringly frightened. What had he done?! God, there was an army down there! He rolled over on his back trying to piece together the last few hours. His breathing became rapid and he felt faint as blood rushed to his head. His recall was fragmented as he had passed in and out of black out due to the amount of alcohol he had consumed over the past eight hours.
         Earlier there had been a terrible fight with his wife, their worst ever. He became aware of the dull throbbing in his shoulder as he saw again in his mind's eye the scissors his wife wielded against him plunging downward. He could feel his heart breaking all over again as the picture of his infant daughter's screaming face flashed in his memory. The small, frightened visage streaked with blood from her mother's mouth where he had punched her in anger for stabbing him. He began crying convulsively.
         The booming loudspeaker jerked him back to reality.
         "William Payne, this is Captain Douglas Alexander of the Middletown Township police department. We've got men seriously wounded down on the ground if you will just allow us to get to them. No one will hurt you if you'll just give yourself up and come down peacefully. Put down your weapon and come down at my signal as a sign of your willingness to cooperate!"
         Billy hadn't heard the last half of that offer as he was drowning in a sea of pain that was washing over his soul. He saw himself get in the car and drive off to the bar in a fit of anger to throw away all the years of sobriety he had worked so hard to attain. His past marched before him, an endless string of failures and attempts at getting off the bottle. Just when he would get time under his belt and find some balance in life, boom, he was thrown somehow and found himself drunk off his rocker again. It seemed the cycle would never end, the binges, the fights, the jails and the misery. He felt the hopelessness and frustration overwhelming him in wave upon wave until he couldn't stand it any longer. Jumping up suddenly with fists clenched he shook them in rage at the darkened heavens shouting with all his might.
         "NNNOOOOOOOOOO.....MMMMOOOOOOORRRREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
         He was oblivious to his foot kicking the 9mm over the side of the tower's rim. He didn't see it hit the lip of the catwalk running around the outside of the tower tank. Neither was he aware of the rifle spinning wildly, spraying bullets in every direction as it traveled through the air to the ground. He couldn't see the men below scurrying for cover beneath cars and bushes. Nor was he even remotely conscious of the last words he would ever hear when their verdict came blasting out of the amplifier.
         "O.K., PAYNE, THAT'S YOUR LAST CHANCE!!!"

                                                                     The End