Cal.E."s Corner

C.: Hey, d.c., are you busy?

d.: yes, Cal.E. I am looking at the chart of my one patient for tomorrow. He thinks he is sweating too much.

C.: He thinks he is sweating too much, in an un-air-conditioned dorm, in August, in Houston? Are you looking to see if he has mental health problems, d.c.?

d.: No, Cal.E. A lot of inmates use excuses like this to get out of work assignments they don’t care for. I know I said that we would write the blog together. I suppose that is why you are calling. I will be done in about fifteen minutes or so. In the meantime, read this to keep your brain occupied.

C.: What is it about?

d.: It is about the world's tiniest vigilante, Nadine Vasquez. Nadine, who weighs 99.5lbs. However, as a former special forces soldier, she is charged with protecting her friends when they stow away on an ancient steamer that is carrying illegal drugs from the eastern to the western hemisphere. They boarded the steamer to escape from an uncharted island after being stranded there for an undetermined period.

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Nadine was awakened by Larry’s desperate pleas for her to wake up. When she did, she felt the cold steel of the pistol that she had just acquired from the crewman. The original owner of the .45 was now standing over her, unsteady on his feet. He had the barrel of the gun pressed to Nadine’s head. Larry, unsure of what to do in this situation, tried to warn Nadine before the crewman was able to secure the handgun. Nadine was too much at peace to heed Larry’s warning. She did not awaken until she felt the barrel of the gun pressed to her head.

As suddenly as she had awakened, though, Nadine swiftly grabbed the pistol and twisted it out of the crewman’s hand in one motion with one of her hands. This action twisted the crewman’s wrist badly and broke his trigger finger. The man tried to scream in pain, but Nadine covered his mouth with her other hand, stifling the agonizing plea for help. She then held the gun to the crewman’s head and looked him in the eye.

“If you move or say anything at all, I will blow your head off! If you think that I will not do it, try me. You will NOT be the first person that I have killed. I know how to do it quickly, and I know how to do it slowly and painfully. The way I see it, you have three choices. You can die quickly, by trying to scream like a child for help. That would be less painful than if you tried to take this gun back from me. I will then make you wish you died in your mother’s arms when you were a small child. Fortunately for you, you have a third choice. You can remain silent and help us survive this trip. That choice will keep you alive, as long as you do not tell ANYONE that we are down here. THAT would be your best choice, but it is up to you. Which choice do you make, choice number one, two, or three?”

As the crewman started to open his mouth and yell for someone to join him, Larry snuck up behind him and wrapped his long left arm around the crewman’s neck. He covered his mouth with his massive right hand. When the crewman tried to bite his hand so that he could yell, Larry tightened his hold on the man’s neck, cutting off circulation to his brain. The crewman passed out as Larry dropped him to the ship’s deck. Larry then put one of his size seventeen feet against the crewman’s neck and began to apply pressure, until the crewman’s face turned blue from a lack of oxygen. He raised his hands, indicating that he would not cause any more trouble. Larry kept his foot on the man’s neck, applying enough pressure to keep the man from talking but loosening his hold enough so that the man could breathe.

Nadine pointed the gun at the man’s head and began, “Luckily for you, my friend just saved your life. You are too drunk and high to think clearly. If you made enough noise to attract attention, what would have stopped me from opening fire? The sound of the gun would not matter, because you would have already attracted attention. You would have been dead, even if you called someone to help you. Now, I have only one bullet in this gun. If you do not help us, that bullet will end your life. You have seen how adept at protecting ourselves that my large friend and I can be. There are more of us. I will not tell you how many. Just suffice it to say that there are enough of us to overpower you and your drunken crewmates. Make no mistake, though, I can end every one of you by myself. All I need is an excuse. If you do not believe me, try me. I was trained to be the equivalent of fifty fighting men while I was deployed in Iraq as an Army Ranger.”

The man raised his arms, admitting defeat. He was not brave (or stupid) enough to challenge what Nadine said. He already experienced her prowess firsthand. He did not wish to endanger his or his crewmates’ lives. “What do you want?” The crewman was subdued enough to cooperate. As fearful as he was of what Nadine could do to him, he also had a growing respect for Larry. The behemoth developed hard, defined muscles while performing hard physical labor on the island of Pishon. The calisthenics Larry did on a daily basis to fight boredom was also beneficial when it came to increasing his muscles' size.

The crewman also experienced how useful those large muscles could be when used to defend both himself and his (obvious) love interest. The crewman feared what Larry might do to him if he DID survive a confrontation with Nadine. He had no desire to find out how powerful either of the duo could be.