SWNOVELS Chapter 16.
16. Is penn’d up in the corner strait!
Dolores Ortiz kept her plans secret from any of Zombanity. Unbeknownst to Harry his cousin’s strange business card Moe Rrain was a declaration of his transgendered escape from the closet but the idea that Michael had something that resembled a conscience and thought his mother might try to acquire a McGill device. More Rain…something written by Harry’s cousin…Michael Ortiz had hoped he could convey this message of a coming attack against the Z and the Mapimi Kamazotz sanctuary.
It was 1991 before the creation of the Zombie Protected Zone and Gravity Generator technology wasn’t even a twinkle in the eye of the imagination of David Estrada. Five Vulture, Benedict Habban, was praying the Holy Rosary on the third day of Hanukkah.
A pious man had two sons. Benedict may have met this family in passing. This pious man convinced his wife, the mother of his children, and as far as he could fathom his true love to buy their twin sons each Chevrolet Blazers. This family celebrates Hanukkah. This family whose patriarch is also the Rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom. There were conditions to these gifts. Their father asked of them to maintain their Temple as they might maintain their own home. And like any teenage boy, they were excited about having a car of their own…as a Hanukkah gift. They weren’t braggarts but they were excited and spoke about their gifts at school. They spoke about cleaning the Temple. They spoke about painting…cleaning the kitchen…putting in new tile and wood flooring…
These two boys began their second year at North Salem High School. This family lived over fifty miles from Lincoln City where on the night of December fourth, 1991 Benedict Habban was at home praying the Holy Rosary, as his mom, Maryann, walked through the door with the Colonel…buckets of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and gravy.
The Rabbi’s sons spoke without regard that antisemitic classmates heard and became jealous enough to ruin something they had worked for and was something their family could see they deserved.
They spoke about these Chevy Blazer’s…
Chevy Blazer’s…
And the jealousy and hatred in White Supremacist classmates’ hearts grew…
Blazers…
Chevy Blazer’s…
Became flaming faggot’s…
Became Flamers…
Five Vulture had read about this hate crime in the newspaper as he wrapped and prepared his newspapers for his delivery route. Benedict saw the news report on the radio as his mom made eggs…some hash browned potatoes…some sausage and bacon…
Ben remembered…
And the Vulture sat above the Rabbi’s home like a Medieval gargoyle…
Ben lived in Lincoln City with his mom and Salem Oregon was more than an hour’s drive to the east. Ben’s mom sat him down a day or two later when more of the details were released about this hate crime.
“Do you know what a Hate Crime is…?” She began.
Ben hadn’t a clue what to say but he knew the concept.
“Unless you have wings, Benny, I know you couldn’t have done such a thing.” This statement reverberates each time he takes flight as the Vulture.
Ben began to nod and became teary-eyed at the concept of destroying someone’s holiday gifts regardless of their faith.
“No one should be treated that way because they are different.” Ben’s mom, Maryann Habban, picked him up like he was a toddler but he was almost twelve years old. Although Ben’s mom sent him to a Catholic School, she had converted to Christianity from her upbringing in a Jewish family who worshipped at that temple in Salem Oregon. Ben was very aware of this as since his father disappeared his grandparents spent many weekends or weeks during the summertime. Later that week he had a similar conversation with Sister Magdalena before they prayed the Holy Rosary together.