FROM BAD TO WORSE!

Later that morning, at the Periwinkle Village General Store, the customers are shocked to see a video of the exchange that took place a few days earlier between Tyler and the biker.

"The fact that several summer residents took some abuse from Mr. Callahan is of great concern to us all," says the narrator, "especially when he chewed out a mentally retarded couple from Connecticut  who were visiting their parents this weekend."

And what do you know? Tyler is making the 'rounds around town and he's walking into the store.

"Hey, Callahan," the counterman says.  "What's this about you making snide remarks to the vacationers?"

"It's very simple!" he replies.  "Every year for 18 weeks, people come into town and turn this into a mess!"

"That's no excuse!" the counterman shouts.

"Don't take it out on me, Sean," Tyler tells the counterman.  "Take it out on that fucking bastard and the dicks at the doctor's office."

"Oh, great," Sean Harrigan, the the guy who runs the General Store, says.  "You shouldn't be cussing them out; they're doing you a public service."

"Well, those bimbos at the nursing home took my wife out yesterday," Tyler continues, "against my own wishes.  You can blame my brother Gene for that!"

"And I heard that you hit a Chinese woman in the jaw," Sean retorts.  "Why'd you do that?"

"I wasn't trying to hit her," Tyler responds, "I was trying to hit Gene.  It was his idea, which I was against from the start.  I can take care of her with my own devices."

Suddenly, that Chinese woman he threw the rock at yesterday comes into the market and throws the same rock at him.  This time, she's dressed in a white blouse and a pleated red skirt.

"You bastard!" she shouts.  "You had no right to do that!"  The rock hits him in the stomach and causes him to collapse to the floor.

"I can't breathe!" Tyler yells.  "I can't breathe!"

"That's it, Miss Liu," Sean yells.  "You're getting busted!  Someone call the cops!"

Miss Liu tries to escape, but 2 of the customers throw her down and tie her up, while the counterman calls for the cops and an ambulance.

"You bullies!" Miss Liu yells. "Why are you taking it out on me?  He should be the one who should be tied up, not me!"

"And you, miss, had no right hitting him like that.," Sean yells.  This dismays her and causes her to spit in his face.  The counterman tries to take a pot shot at her, but another customer yanks him away. She screams at the top of her lungs, but someone stuffs a scarf into her mouth to shut her up. Meanwhile, Tyler has managed to get his breathing under control.  Seconds later, the cops arrest Miss Liu and take her away while Tyler is taken out on a stretcher and whisked away to the hospital.

Meanwhile, the TV is on a commercial:

"Sing praise for Pampers!
Sing praise for Pampers!
Sing praise for Pampers!
Sing praise for Pampers!
Pampers."

And then the announcer says sweetly:

"Pampers!  The best friend a baby ever had."

Suddenly, a man dressed as Dan Cupid bursts out of the screen.  His mood is angry and stern.  As his face comes to the screen, it hits it head on, causing it to break into pieces.   Blood gushes out of his face, staining the already broken screen.  To the viewers' horror, the face descends down the screen, making it bloodier than before.

And worse of all, the screen explodes while the man dressed as Cupid plunges to his doom.  The screen goes black and the newscaster comes back on.

"Sorry about that, folks," he smiles.  "The asshole who's running the commercial deck here in the studio today has been sacked."


On the way to the hospital, Tyler suffers a mild heart attack.  He is quickly rushed into surgery, but he comes out of it all right.  Meanwhile, Miss Liu is being booked at the Periwinkle Village police station on charges of assault with intention to murder.  She ends up making her $1,000 bail and is out free by the time Tyler's moved into the ICU at the hospital.

Back at her aunt's house, Miss Liu is still tied up; the cops releasing her have told her not to untie her for the night. She is ungagged but remains bound. As she sits down, she bows her head saying, "I accept full responsibility."

"And well you should, Quiquoi," her aunt responds.  "There's no excuse for your outburst.  You're not in China anymore; you're in America.  You're not in the Army anymore, you know.  Even so, the jerks at the store should not have tied you up like that."

"I beg your forgiveness, Aunt," Miss Liu says.

"And that you shall have," her aunt says, hugging her.  "I'm sorry I have to leave you tied up like this."

"You are not to blame.  I am and must learn from it."

"Even so," her aunt adds, "that man should never have thrown that rock into your jaw in the first place.  I promise you will have satisfaction."


To be continued...