BBOYS T-CO AND FLEA ROCK (SKILL METHODZ) GET ARRESTED IN VENICE FOR NO APPARENT REASON

By now most everyone in our community has seen the video of T-Co(Florida Bboy) and Flea Rock (Skill Methodz) getting arrested in the middle of their performance in Venice Beach California. The question is WHY? WHAT DID THEY DO TO DESERVE SUCH TREATMENT? WHY DID THEY GET SINGLED OUT WHEN YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE OTHER PERFORMERS IN THE BACKGROUND THAT NEVER GOT QUESTIONED OR ARRESTED.

(Listen to this while reading)

Kiley had grown used to the emptiness. Not being able to talk to them. Maddie, her spunk, her take no bullshit attitude. Hester, the inappropriate jokes they would make and the books she would send him that he'd never read. Nate, everything about him, the asshole. He missed him. Bonnie's shenanigans. Veda... she'd been the anchor that keep him from drifting out into nothing, she'd been his whole life. So here he was. 

"You're doin' just fine, Hutch..." He drawled softly, casting his gaze over the woman in the hospital bed. There was no telling if she could hear him, but he would continue to speak, because he could. Kiley had lost friends over the years, everyone came to pass in good time, but this time, this time it was different. To see the woman whom he'd sworn to follow through hell, who he loved like a mother, who he remembered as strong and proud, triumphant smile when they survived the shelling, who held his hand, who'd done the best she could in the absolute worst circumstances, to see that woman fading away, flickering out into the dark, was heart wrenching. Kilian closed his eyes, in his mind Major Ailidh Hutchinson, for she would always be Major Hutch to him, was still that young woman from seventy years past. She was not small and feeble, wrapped in pale white sheets and blue hospital gown. She did not have soft niveous curls that whisped around her worn and wrinkled face. No. She was still dirty, and blood stained in her fatigues, she was still strong and resilient, she was still his Major. She she was still so full of life. 

"You don't need t'keep hangin' on, s'okay..."

So small, helpless. Connected to all sorts of IVs and tubes, machines to monitor her heart, keep her breathing, force her to hold out just that little bit longer. Thin skin, spotted and pale. Succumbing to it all.

It wasn't that she was dying that brought tears to his eyes. It was that age was a ruiner. That she had come to this. He'd always sworn he'd protect her, and he had. He'd protected her from all he could, as long as he could, but age was the one thing he couldn't stop. Seventy five years after the fact, and he'd never stopped trying. Time had snuck on by. It did what no man with a gun ever could. Time made itself comfortable in their lives. It brought them families, and children. It made its home on their faces and in their brittle bones. By the time he'd realized what had happened, there was nothing to be done.

It was the same as ever. He was still the guard dog, he was still watching for her. 

Killian rarely left her side, he stayed long after visiting hours were through, he stayed when the others went to wander the halls, he stayed when she slept, and when she woke. He only left to give her and Rob privacy when it was called for.

So here they were, sitting in a hospital room. Stark white walls, linoleum floors, the gentle purring of the air conditioner. Rob was on the other side, sitting in a chair. God, it killed to watch him. How strong he wanted to be for her, the way the man smiled so as not to cry in front of her. The way Robert watched her with those same eyes he had in Paris, and held her withered hand; his own, knotted and gnarled. A sad, tired smile quirked over Kiley's lips while watching them, time had stolen their youth, stolen their friends, stolen all. It twisted and tired the young unwavering Sargeant he'd met in 1943 into a hunched old man, who needed to narrow his eyes just to focus on the woman he loved  through eyeglasses with lenses as thick as glass Coca-Cola bottles.

But still, there was Rob, still by her side after all this time. 

The monitor started to beep, something was going wrong, not enough air. Ailidh had hung on through everything, through shellings and through fire fights, through patrols gone wrong, through having seven children, but now she was just quietly letting go. Letting it all slide.

"It's okay Hutch..." Kiley murmured, reaching out to hold her other hand, but he couldn't.

"Nurse! Nurse- do something-!" Rob looked up, horrified, he knew what was coming. He'd known a long time, but that didn't mean he'd accepted it. Hospital personel, all dressed in pastel scrubs and tennis shoes, nothing like the nurses Kiley could remember in crisp white dresses, flooded the room. They were checking machines, checking her clipboard, checking Hutch. Robert was helpless to do anything. He looked broken, lost, empty, bereft. Thousands of words couldn't describe the look upon his face. 

Flatline. 

"What are they all doing?" A familiar, warm, inquisitive voice beside Kiley asked. He glanced to look at her, and smiled brightly. Hutchinson. She was young again, she stood straight, gone were the lines of time past etched upon her face. The moment her eyes fell upon Kiley, they widened, her jaw fell open in slight shock.

"Kiley? What- what are you doing here, Sugar?!" Her voice cracked slightly. Kiley. Ki. Kiles. Corporal Killian Ratzinger had died in 2004. He had an enlarged heart. After years and years, it just gave out. Kiley had given in. How was he standing next to her? Messy blonde waves tousled every which way, a cheeky, crooked, gap toothed grin fixed upon his face. He was young again. He was 19, so full of swagger and kick. That  He was alive. Tears began to well up in her eyes. He was okay. "How'd you get here?"

"Ah was jus' waitin' for you this whole time," He grinned, pulling her into the tightest hug in the world. A hug years over due. Arms that felt familiar, warm, and safe. It felt like coming home after life in the hospital, if that was what one could call it. "Y'sure fought it.. but thas okay, Ah'd a wanted to stay longer too..."

"Sug, What do you..-?" Hutch gently pried herself away from him, gazing over the scene in around them. There she was, in the hospital bed, tears were streaming down Rob's face. "Oh my God... Robbie..." She murmured, lighting over to him, reaching out to brush hair long gone gray from his face. Her fingers merely ghosted through him.

"Kiley- what do we do?" Her voice trembled.

"We wait..." He took her hand in his and squeezed it. They would wait. But at least they could wait together. Wait for everyone to catch up. Wait for Duncan, for Veda, for Maddie, for Hes and for Bonnie, for Nate. 

Until When We Are Ghosts, A Nathaniel Ludell and Estelle Bianchi Mix

1. Falling Slowly, The Frames. 

Falling slowly, eyes that know me, And I can't go back, Moods that take me and erase me, And I'm painted black, You have suffered enough, And warred with yourself. It's time that you won.

2. The Dress Looks Nice on You, Sufjan Stevens.

I can see a lot of life in you. I can see a lot of bright in you. And I think the dress looks nice on you. I can see a lot of life in you.

3. Close Every Valve to Your Bleeding Heart, Ha Ha Tonka.

You better bet, we’re gonna tie one on tonight, you never left even though you’d said that you might, I come back here to remember what it was like. Only Dostoevsky would dream up a pair like us; Thick skinned, hard headed, better off, you’re closing every valve to your bleeding heart. Does it hurt too much? Are you just fed up? Or is it something else entirely?

4. Passion Play, William Fitzsimmons.

I should not have hid where my heart can't follow, cause this grace gets so far and too hard to swallow. I don't know how you stand when you've got no floor, or how you can breathe with your hands on boards.

5. She Just Wept, Starsailor.

I knew who she was, But I don't anymore. She just cried To the ruins of time That kept us apart, We were doing just fine. She just wept, She was put to the test Those that she loved She had learned to detest.

6. Naked as We Came (Our Endless Numbered Days), Iron & Wine.

SGT. Maddie Harr