I was enjoying a quiet night in the dayroom at Fort Benning, Georgia, watching TV. I had to get up early the next day because I was scheduled to drive for the post Central Confinement Facility (CCF). One of the guys came running into the dayroom looking for me and said, “Yo, Wright. There’s a telephone call for you.” I thought to myself, “That’s odd. Who in the hell would be calling me?” So, I got up and grabbed my beer and headed out the door to answer the phone. When I reached the phone at the end of the hall on the first floor of the barracks, I answered, “Hello. This is specialist Masters.” I immediately recognized the voice at the other end of the line. “Hello, Wright? This is Mary. You know. Chains. Are you busy right now?” Replied Chains. “No. Not really. I was just cooling my Jets and watching TV. Drinking some beer and shit. You know. The usual.” “Can I meet you at the Highway 27 turn off for Harmony Church?” “Sure babe. Just give me about 10 or 15 minutes to scoot on up there.” “All right.” I wondered what was up. I wasn’t even expecting Chains or my biker friends to be in town this week. Last weekend, they had mentioned something about a bike rally up in Charleston, South Carolina, that they were going to attend. They also mentioned heading out to Myrtle Beach for a few days. With that kind of schedule, I expected them to be raising hell in South Carolina. Another thing that really puzzled me was that Chains had used both her given name, Mary, and my given name, Wright. That was really bizarre. Hmmm. Something was up. A few minutes later, I was on my rice burner headed up to the Harmony Church turn off for Highway 27. I was not really sure where Chains was coming from. I guess I would find out when I saw her. About 15 minutes later, I arrived at the turn off. I pulled off to the side of the road and shut off my bike and waited for her. I had to wait for Chains for about 15 or 20 minutes. That kinda answered my question about where she was coming from. I guess she was coming from Columbus. Maybe even from Someplace Else. When Chains arrived, she parked her bike beside mine and got off. She walked over to me and we hugged briefly. Then I asked, “What’s going on? I really didn’t expect you to be here. I thought the whole gang went to South Carolina. What’s up with that?” She replied, “Oh, the rest of the guys went, all right. But I stayed back. The fact of the matter is that I may not be in the gang anymore.” “Why? What in the hell happened? I thought you would want to have fun too. Especially since they were going to Myrtle Beach. And what you mean, you may not be in the gang anymore?” “That’s why I wanted to see you. Something happened, Wright.” “What do you mean, something happened?” “Do you promise you won’t get mad?” I noticed that she was getting more and more emotional as time went on. Something bad must have happened. “I promise I won’t get mad, Mary. Please tell me what happened,” I said. “I told everybody that you couldn’t go with us to the rally and to the beach because we would be gone for more than a week,” Chains replied. “Which is true because I didn’t have any leave time available.” “Anyway, one of the other guys tried to put the moves on me. He said I was going to have to shack with him during the rally and the beach trip. He said I was going to be his new bitch.” “And nobody said anything, after all the shit we’ve been through together?” “That’s just it. Nobody said shit. Not even the big boss man. When the big boss man didn’t say anything, I threw down on the guy who was trying to put the moves on me. And I beat the living shit out of him. I hurt him bad, Wright.” “How bad is bad?” “They called the cops on me, and he had to go to the hospital.” “Yeah. That’s pretty bad. I’m guessing that you didn’t turn yourself in to the police, either. Huh?” “Are you high? The cops would send me up the river for at least 30 to 90 days for assault. I don’t think I deserve to go to jail. Do you?” “Which guy was he? Was he bigger than you?” “It was Greaser.” “Greaser?!? He’s huge. And you hurt him bad enough to put him in the hospital?!?” “I told you. I was upset. He made me angry. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him.” “Man, oh man. I guess not. Okay. Here is what we got to do. Can you be absolutely quiet for a day or two?” “Why?” “Well, I don’t have a roommate right now. So, you could stay in my room with me tonight and tomorrow night. We can get you some food tonight. Then, I can get you some food again tomorrow night. I am duty driver for CCF tomorrow, so nobody will come around my room. During the day, you can sneak to the bathroom between nine and 11 and again between two and four in the afternoon. I have the following day off. We can go down to Columbus and turn you in, after we talk with a lawyer. I think you’ll be able to get a really light sentence for probation because you’re a girl, and because of Greaser’s size.” “Do you really think so?” “Yeah. I really do.” I just hoped I could sell that bullshit to a judge and a lawyer. But I knew that she couldn’t run. There is no place to run that the law wouldn’t catch up to her sooner or later. We would deal with Mary’s ‘chain’ of exercises in futility now and worry about rejoining the bike gang later.
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