Editing Getting the Band Together (section)

==='''Eddie and Waldo’s Conversation'''===
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Eddie stepped outside, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag. The cool night air was a welcome relief after the heat and noise of the jam session. After a few moments, Waldo and Savage, Gadget’s other dog, joined him. Savage disappeared into the night, running off to patrol the area, while Waldo leaned against the wall, lighting a joint. He took a hit and passed it to Eddie.

“Trombone,” Waldo said suddenly, his voice low and gravelly.

Eddie looked surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah. Long arms, ya know. Big sax some. And… tuba.”

Eddie nodded, passing the joint back. “Well, damn, Waldo!”

“It’s Earnest Bluebonnet Pavlovich. Mom called me ''Ernie''; Dad called me ''Pasha''. I like Waldo better, but it was Wart’s idea. Ya know… ‘Where’s Waldo? Go get me some smokes, Waldo…’ I had to make my own way among Wart’s guys. I was never one of his favorites. Got cut out of everything. That probably saved my life because I never touched Cali, and she knows I argued with Wart about her. I got beat down twice telling him to let her go. Gadget killed him, didn’t she?”

Eddie looked at him hard, his cigarette dangling from his lips. “Why do you think that?”

“I tried to tax her that last time Wart got you all. She put me down hard. Like, *hard*, man. I’m a big fucking guy, and she put me down like I was a toddler. Called herself an ‘apex predator monster.’ I had to look that up online to know what she meant. Later… I met Wrecker and Reggy before I came around you guys. They work for her, you know, not the other way around. There’s something just not right about her. Those guys, they’re hard men. Bad hard, like nothing Wart ever was, more like the Blind Reapers were. The Reapers were mean, cruel… killers. Wrecker and Reggy, though? They’re terrifying. And they answer to your bassist. Just so you know, man; there’s something seriously dangerous-crazy about her.”

Eddie nodded, taking another drag of his cigarette. He knew firsthand how right Waldo was. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I know.”

“You saw the Station a couple times while Wart used it. It was a pit. I’m not saying it was clean when we got here, but I lived there. It was a slum-filled torture house out of a movie. Her tied down back there. The place smelled like… you know. It was professionally cleaned, then made to look dirty so *we* could clean it. Dirty, messy, but not Andy Gump, cumdump, rotted meat, sweaty dirty. It was cleaned and staged, man.”

The two stood in silence for a while, the joint passing back and forth between them as the night stretched on. Somewhere in the distance, Savage howled, a long, mournful sound that echoed through the darkness.

“Then there are the dogs,” Waldo said, breaking the silence.

Eddie shivered. “Brute and Savage? I thought you liked them?”

Waldo nodded. “I do. A lot. I had a big dog when I was a kid. My dad killed it. But it’s not just them.”

“Huh?”

“Dude, this is dog land. Wart never left the place except in a group, and he killed more than a few dogs coming and going till they left him alone. I also got around pretty good, but I knew when to walk and where to run. And there were hundreds of them, ya know. The cops stayed out of this area. The city abandoned it. Wart said some guy named Kane told him the owners of the buildings around here were all dead or corporations that everyone had given up on. Cheaper to let them fall apart than tear them down.”

“So the dogs owned the place. Where are they now? We’ve been coming and going for weeks now. I’ve seen a few here and there. You heard Savage a few seconds ago. He wasn’t alone. He had more howling with him. Why aren’t they here? It’s fucking weird. Creepy. Like horror-show creepy. Like in the movie where the group decides to split up and you howl at the screen to stick together creepy. Am I the only one who noticed?”

Eddie looked around, as if for the first time. “Maybe… I never thought about it. I guess I thought Wart had handled them…”

“Look,” Waldo said softly, “I like Gadget. Hell, she saved my life, so I may love her, and I’m grateful. But there’s something just fuckin’ weird about her. That’s all I’m saying, dude.”

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Waldo nodded and went back inside, leaving Eddie alone with his troubled thoughts and his last cigarette.