Dana
After our late lunch we strolled along the streets of Hamilton, modern shops and cafes across the street from old colonial government buildings, cars both new and old streaming down the boulevard in both directions. We strolled down the street, Blu clinging to Hutch while I walked along on her other side.
I asked Blu, “Is this the furthest you’ve ever been from home?” Blu nodded but said nothing, so I suggested, “I guess you wouldn’t mind going home?” Blu shook her head, Hutch and I sharing a chuckle. “Sorry you’re not having a good time.”
But I couldn’t help but smile. “I am ... ‘cause of you.” I couldn’t help but blush and look away, and for the life of me I couldn’t come up with a reasonable response. I’d been bowled over by a nine-year-old! But I didn’t have long to enjoy it.
The mugger hit me hard from behind, but his focus was sharp and on my purse, hanging over my right shoulder between me and the shops, Hutch and Blu on my other side. Before I knew what exactly was happening, my memory flashed with images from Hector’s dream; my body crumpled on the ground, Hutch standing nearby. Is this it, I wondered, is this how I’m going to die? Is today the day? Was Hector right?
The man was running, so I stumbled forward, away from Hutch and Blu and barely remaining on my feet, and the pull of the man as he tried to wrench my purse free pulled me even further forward. Pedestrians around us jumped back aghast, their eyes round, mouths open. But nobody had time to react. The mugger pulled hard, snapping the purse strap at the joint. The strap slipped easily out of my fist as he ran, a burning line in my palm, the brass buckle banging against the side of my hand before disappearing as the man made his getaway.
Hutch acted almost as quickly. He thrust Blu into my arms, and I was just about at her shoulder level. The poor girl was screaming in a high-pitched, shrill cry of panic, her little arms wrapping around me and mine around her. But both of our attentions were fixed on Hutch, who was just then catching up to my mugger about three car-lengths away. Blu and I clung to each other and could only look on at the spectacle; we couldn’t join in to help, yet we couldn’t look away.
Hutch grabbed the guy by the shirt collar and yanked him back. He was tall, lean, very dark-skinned, hair shorn almost to the scalp. He flipped backward and threw a wild punch, managing to land a blow square on Hutch’s perfect face.
I screamed his name, but instantly regretted it, pulling Blu close to somehow soothe us both.
But soothing was the last thing on Hutch’s mind. The blow snapped his head back, but from the shoulders down Hutch was still fully in control. His long, powerful legs were splayed, giving him an immovable stance, turning at that slender waist to deliver a fast, hard shot of his own into the mugger’s gut. The man’s feet left the ground with the force of the blow, a gasp spilling out of his mouth as he bent forward. A second and a third blow rendered the man a crumpled mess.
But Hutch didn’t stop there. I saw a certain fire in his eyes I hadn’t seen in them yet, a fury that was one year brewing and getting stronger everyday. I could see the pent-up frustration, the sense of helplessness at the loss of his wife, the outrage at the violence of a world that would threaten him or his family, which at that moment included me.
This was yet another facet of the amazing Preston Hutchinson that I hadn’t seen; the primitive beast, the natural man, hunter and gatherer, protecting his tribe, acting out of instinct and drawing on a raw, masculine power that was his to wield. This was an attacker without the laws of man, and that made him subject to the laws of the wild, with Hutch there to dole out the justice in an impassioned and almost lethal barrage.
“Hutch,” I called out, not willing to leave Blu’s side, “stop it, Hutch! Stop!”
A crowd gathered around them. The mugger made a stupid move and took another random swing at Hutch, inviting another flurry of punches, these to the face. Hutch held him up by the collar with one hand and pummeled him to the ground with the other, each punch inspiring a furious grunt, bloodied teeth spilling out onto the sidewalk.
I called out again, “Hutch, please, he’s had enough!”
His senses seemed to return to Hutch, a lapse of reason drawing to a slow and bloody close. He looked at that immobile man beneath him, only Hutch’s own fist keeping the man from laying facedown in a pool of his own blood. Soon enough, he let go, the man hitting the concrete with a wet thud. But it was at that moment when the local constables arrived, white uniforms and whistles, the crowd parting for them as they surrounded Hutch, grabbing his arms.
Blu screamed again, even worse than before, holding her little hand out to Hutch.
“Take it easy,” I said to her before turning my attention to the police, voice louder and more commanding. “It’s the guy on the ground you want, he stole my purse. That man is this girl’s father, he only wanted to get my purse back.”
One constable spat back, “By beating this man to death?”
“What if he’d grabbed ... ” But Hutch glanced at Blu and stopped himself. “Anyway, I don’t deny what happened.”
The constable glanced at his white-uniformed cohorts, then back at Hutch. “We’ll have to go to the station house, see what all this is about.”
“I already told you what it was about,” I was too quick to say.
“It’s okay, Dana,” Hutch said, “I can handle this.”
“Hutch, are you sure? Do you have a lawyer, somebody I can call?”
“Won’t need it,” Hutch said, turning back to the lead officer. “How long will this take?”
The constable shrugged. “Hard to say, sir. A few hours, a few days ... who knows?”
Blu started to panic, her breath shortening in her narrow ribcage, her face pressing into mine, slender arms showing the amazing strength of rising panic.
Hutch said to us, “I want you two to go back to the ship and wait for me.”
“No, Daddy, no!”
“Yes, Blu,” he said in his very authoritative tone.
But I had to say, “Hutch, I know you’ve rented the cruise for the whole week, but the ship’s still on a time-table. It has to leave here tomorrow and be back in Miami on time. I don’t think any amount of money is going to change that ... or being anybody’s daughter either.”
Hutch looked around, lips tight over his teeth as he reasoned things out. He turned to the officer. “Is there a good hotel near the station?”
“Across the street,” he said with a shrug.
“You’ll let me check them in first?” The constable thought about it, then finally nodded. Hutch turned to us and tried to smile. We tried to smile back, and we all headed off with the police, who dragged the enfeebled mugger behind us.
*
The room at The Hamilton Arms hotel was the best they had, and it was perfectly lovely, with big, open windows and magnificent views of the capital city and the ocean beyond.
But our attention was on that police building station across the street, Blu and I sitting on the bed. The girl leaned heavily against me and I rocked her gently, my arms around her.
“I’m just so sorry you had to see that. But y’know, that guy, all he wanted was my money. And if he’d gotten that, it wouldn’t have been that big a loss.”
“But ... what if he wanted more than that?” I wanted to ask her to elaborate, but I didn’t need to. Her tighter embrace was all the elaboration she could give.
“Well, you saw your father. My gosh, I’ve never seen a man fight like that, have you?” Blu shook her head. “Whatever that guy wanted, I don’t think he was gonna get it. Do you?” Blu shook her head, burying her face in my side. “I mean, all those punches and stuff. And you saw the way that guy punched your dad, he hardly even noticed! That was really something, don’t you think?” Blu pulled her little face away and looked up at me with dewy eyes and a little nod. “So I’d say that, as long as your father is around, nobody who’s with him has very much to worry about, right? I mean, that was the scariest thing that’s happened to me in a while, but he was right there and he took care of it.”
“But now he’s gonna go to jail!” Blu started crying, pushing her face deeper into my shoulder.
“No, Blu, no, I guarantee he won’t.”
“But you can’t promise that, you can’t!”
I didn’t want to get into the politics of the situation, or the power of money among small and corrupt police departments, but I did want to calm the girl’s worries, which I did think were unfounded. “But he didn’t do anything wrong, Blu, and people who didn’t do anything wrong really don’t have to worry about going to jail. That makes sense, doesn’t it?” She couldn’t disagree, and that was all the opening I needed. “But I’ll be right here with you, right by your side, no matter what. As long as we stick together, we’re going to be just fine.”
“But ... you said the boat’s gotta go home tomorrow.”
“The ship,” I said out of pure habit, chuckling at myself. “Anyway, let it go. We’ll be here ‘til your dad gets out and then we’ll all go home together.”
“Together ... like a family?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I’d like that, Blu.” Blu’s face brightened, but it wasn’t just because of my sweet sentiment. I followed her line of sight to see Hutch strolling out of the police station, looking both ways before crossing the street toward the hotel.
I was relieved, a lingering concern vanishing to be replaced with a flush of warmth, a rush of gladness as Blu and I clung to one another and ran to abandon our rented room and meet Hutch in the lobby. But part of the sorrow of our stay clung to me, made even worse by my new glee. It only brought home the sorrow I’d be feeling when Hutch and Blu left the ship, and me, behind. And that was only a few days away from happening.