Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here once again to introduce my blog. This past week found me once again at the groomers. This is always a most horrific experience. But presently I look fantastic and feel great, especially since today I am presenting to you the final chapter of What I Found in the Trunk. And I must say it is a most riveting conclusion. Next week my novelist will be taking over the blog to discuss the upcoming Emmy Awards. After that I will be bringing you a new story which is much different from my last. I must warn you the lead is a rather polarizing individual which you may come to adore or despise depending on your point of view. So, without further ado here is the grand finale to What I Found in the Trunk. Enjoy!

What I Found in the Trunk

by

Gigi the Parti Poodle

Chapter Twenty-Four

Durwin squirmed his way out of David’s headlock and slammed his foot into the back of his brother’s knees causing David to collapse like a folding chair.

Rune grabbed the rope and hung on with one hand as she lifted the item off the neck of the grotesque and looped the attached lariat over her head. She tied the rope around her waist and tugged it signaling Rusty. Rusty secured the rope and started pulling her up. He was the first to hear Gary banging on the door and shouting.

“Open the door, Gary!” Rusty yelled.

“I can’t!” Gary yelled back. “It’s locked!” David’s molls grabbed Gary and started pulling him back down the stairs. “Help!”

“Rune, hurry!” Rusty called down to her. “They’ve got Gary!”

Rune struggled to pull herself up the rope as Rusty hoisted her. She reached the balcony and tumbled over the ledge breathing heavy and rubbing her arms.

“A little help here!” Durwin called to Rusty as he struggled to keep David pinned.

“Get the door!” Rusty told Rune as he ran over and helped hold David down.

Rune struggled to her feet and stumbled over to the door. She unlocked it, pulled it open and saw David’s guys dragging Gary down the stairs. “Gary!” she yelled reaching out and grabbing his arms.

Suddenly, Bennet, near naked and barefoot plodded up the steps and grabbed ahold of one of the moll’s legs. All five of them struggled on the steps when the door flew open, and a bedraggled David stood above them in the doorway.

“Left your rope behind there, baby!” he jeered. “So, I decided to make use of it!”

David clutched Rune’s ankles and broke her hold on Gary. He dragged her kicking and screaming backwards through the door and onto the balcony.

Thinking fast Bennet tied both of David’s guys shoelaces together. “Gary, run!” he shouted.

Gary dove for the door and burst out onto the roof as the guys rose to chase him and tripped over their laces. Gary saw David struggling to rip the lanyard off Rune’s neck.

“Give it to me!” David snarled as Rune struggled to break his hold.

Gary rushed over and wedged between them pushing Rune away. She stumbled backwards in the opposite direction of the ledge.

Durwin, meanwhile, was tied up with the turquoise rope Rusty had used to rescue Rune. He tried to loosen it, but he and David had been boy scouts and his twin had secured the knots well.

“That’s how you want to play it?!” David roared before he landed a karate chop on the bridge of Gary’s nose.

Pain seared Gary’s face as he fought to land a punch and caught David on the chin. David kicked Gary’s legs out from under him. Gary landed on his hip. He knew he couldn’t get up fast enough and flipped on his side and slammed the sole of his shoe into David’s shin. It wasn’t enough to put David on the ground, but it gave Gary enough time to hop back on his feet. He grabbed David by his right ear and smashed his foot into David’s right knee. David buckled and dropped.

Rune realized she didn’t see Rusty. She darted to the ledge and looked over. He was hanging onto the grotesque of the man wearing glasses and hugging books. “Rusty!” she called down.

“Help!” Durwin called out to her as he struggled with the rope.

“Hang on, Rusty!”

Rune rushed over to help Durwin untie himself. “Good grief!” she said when she tried to loosen the knots.

“There’s a switchblade in my back pocket but I can’t reach it,” he told her. 

Durwin leaned forwards and Rune slipped her hand into the back pocket of his jeans. She grabbed the knife, opened it, and attempted to cut the rope. “We need to help Rusty!” 

The balcony door broke open, and David’s two guys burst through. One of them was limping and dragging the quasi-nude Bennet on his leg.

“Hurry!” Durwin barked at Rune as she fought to cut through the twine. David’s molls advanced on Gary just as the rope gave way. Durwin jumped to his feet and charged at them as Rune grabbed the largest piece of the rope. She scrambled to the ledge and threw one of the ends down to Rusty.

“Let go of him!” Durwin told Bennet who released his grip on the guy’s leg and got to his feet. Durwin tackled one guy and Bennet tackled the other.

Gary fought to keep David pinned down. But David leveraged his foot and flipped Gary over. Gary tried to trip him, but David was wilier and in moments had his opponent pinned down.

Rune did not have the strength to pull Rusty back to the balcony. But she was able to sit down and keep the rope anchored allowing Rusty to shimmy up. As he reached the top, he hoisted himself over the ledge and hugged Rune.

“Gary,” she said.

With Bennet and Durwin having pinned David’s guys down, Rusty gathered his nerves and charged towards David and Gary knocking David to the ground. Gary hopped to his feet and helped Rusty secure David.

The door burst open again and the third guy came in hauling Larry. Everyone watched as he dragged Larry over to the ledge.

“Give us what we came for or I’ll shove the old guy over!” he warned.

“Let my dad go!” Gary said.

“Let David up!”

Rusty looked at Gary. Gary nodded and they reluctantly released their hold on David. David sneered and faked a punch at Gary who stepped back. David sauntered up to Rune. “Hand it over,” he told her.

“Not till you let Gary’s dad go,” she said.

“Not till you hand it over.”

Rune scowled at him and removed the lanyard from around her neck. She looked at it and gave it to David. “Now let his dad go.”

“Do you know how valuable this is?” he said holding up the pen drive on the end of the lanyard. “With this I could print thousands if not millions of dollars in counterfeit money. This, baby, is the blueprint to financial freedom.”

“You got what you wanted. Now let Larry go.”

“You know what, Rune? I’m in the mood to teach you a lesson.” Then he turned to his buddy and said, “Throw the old man over the side.”

“Old man?!” Larry exclaimed.

“Toss him!”

“No!” Gary yelled rushing towards his father.

Suddenly, Bennet ripped off his last strip of dignity and ran around screaming “I’m naked! I’m naked!”

This allowed for enough distraction for Larry to break loose from his captor, run over and shove David over the side of the balcony.

David screamed an unearthly sound as everyone ran to the ledge.

“My legs!” David yelled from the ground below. “My legs are broken!”

“That’s how my generation rolls, bitch!” Larry yelled down. “Old man, my ass!”

The campus police hauled David’s three guys off in handcuffs as David was put on a stretcher and read his rights. Bennet sat on the grass with a blanket wrapped around him trying to get warm as the officers were taking Durwin’s statement.

“I’m giving you a raise,” Larry told Rusty.

“Thank you, sir,” Rusty said puffing his chest.

“And I’m hiring another security guard to help you out.”

Rusty looked crestfallen. “Don’t you trust me to keep guarding your dealership by myself?”

“No. But you’ll have seniority.”

“Looks like you might be able to catch that evening train back to Leavenworth,” Gary said to Rune.

“I really should apologize for involving you,” Rune said. “I was desperate for money and short on time.”

“It made for an interesting week…do you need a ride to King Street Station?”

Rune looked over where David lay prone on the gurney. “You know,” she said. “I think I might change my travel plans and stick around Seattle for a while. Maybe find a new apartment. By the way, I heard you might know a place where I could get a good deal on a car.”

The End

My Books

You can check out my books Chicane and the five installments in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!!!

HOW INDEPENDENT FILMS SHOULD BE

STREAM OF THE WEEK: DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (2002)-HBO Max

This film is not for the faint of heart. Steven Knight received a much-deserved Oscar nod for his riveting highly original screenplay about illegal immigrants in London. The film should have also received Oscar Nods for best lead actor, best supporting actress and best supporting actor. Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is from Nigeria. He drives a cab by day and works as a hotel clerk at night. He shares an apartment with the young innocent Seney (Audrey Tautou) who is from Turkey and works as a maid at the same hotel. Though not romantically involved the two roommates care for and protect each other from forces that would deport them. One day the frequenting prostitute Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) alerts Okwe of a clogged toilet in the hotel room where she has just turned her last trick in. Okwe goes up to fix the plumbing and finds a human heart clogging up the pipe. Okwe, as it turns out, is no ordinary immigrant. He is a trained surgeon who clearly recognizes the heart is healthy and begins to put the pieces together about what really goes on in the hotel rooms and how they connect to his boss Sergi Juan (villainously played by Sergi López) as his friendship with Seney grows more and more strained.