Jamie Brodie 01 - Cited to Death

to answer, which they would write up and turn in by the end of class. I told them that I’d decided that they didn’t have to present their findings tonight. As soon as each one was finished, they could leave and turn in their reports online by tomorrow morning. They were delighted to hear that and jumped right in to work. The last one was done and out the door by 8:15. I packed up and headed for the bus stop.
    It was dusk, but not completely dark. I was thinking while I walked and not paying attention to anything around me. That was my mistake. I was in the shadows, about halfway between the library and the bus stop, when someone bumped into me from behind. I turned, a little off balance, and got sucker punched. I staggered, and someone else grabbed me from behind. There were two of them. The first guy punched me again in the side of the head, then in the gut. I folded, and the second guy grabbed my computer bag and tossed it out of the way. The first guy then proceeded to hit me five or six times, mostly in the face, once more in the gut. I tasted blood and went down. I heard running steps, then silence.
    It all took about ten seconds. Neither one of them had said a word.
    I rolled to my side and sat up. Blood was streaming down my face, my jaw felt out of place, and my eyes were rapidly swelling. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called 911.
    It didn't take long for the UCLA police and EMTs to get to me. As soon as I told the cop what had happened, he took off in the direction I thought my assailants had run. The EMTs picked me up off the ground and set me on the back of the ambulance. They made me answer some questions - name, rank, and serial number, who was the president, what day was it, that kind of thing. Then they started mopping up the blood. I had a fat lip, cuts on both cheekbones and above my left eye, a bloody nose, and a pair of rapidly developing black eyes. They thought I should get an X-ray of my jaw, but I didn’t want to go to the hospital. The EMTs put a couple of butterfly bandages on my face and gave me two ice packs. I needed three, but I only had two hands. By the time they'd accomplished all that, the cop was back.
    "Are you an employee of the university, sir?”
    I nodded. “Lib’ry.” Oh, it hurt to talk.
    “Okay. What happened here?"
    I steeled myself to try to form words. "Mugged." It came out more like "mm-ugggd."
    "Mugged? By who?"
    I shrugged and held up two fingers.
    "Two? Men?"
    "Mmm hmm."
    "Did you get a look at them?"
    "Unh unh. Ski masks." It came out "ssski musk."
    "Ski masks. What else were they wearing?"
    "Black. Gloves." Gluffs .
    "Could you see any identifying characteristics? Race, height, weight?"
    "Bod’ whi’. Saw arms." I indicated the space right above my wrists.
    "Okay. What size guys were they?"
    "Big. One daller, one shorder but...beefy." Bff-i .
    "Which direction did they go?"
    I pointed to the east. “Off campus."
    The cop grimaced and got on his radio. One of the EMTs got in front of me and ran me through some neurological tests - follow his finger with my eyes, touch his finger then my nose, reflexes. The other was trying to mop up some of the blood. “Sir, when was your last tetanus shot?”
    I shrugged. He started preparing one.
    The cop returned. "Did they take anything?"
    "Unh unh."
    "They just beat you up."
    "Mmm hmm."
    The cop paused, regarding me for a second. "Any idea who's got it in for you?"
    "Unh unh." That wasn't entirely correct, but I wasn't going to go through the whole story again. It would be easier to tell Kevin’s partner Tim about it.
    Tim and Kevin were the next to arrive. Tim and the university cop talked off to the side for a few minutes; Kevin sat down beside me on the ambulance bumper. The EMT gave me the tetanus shot and two new ice packs; Kevin took one and held it on my jaw, gently. His voice was soft. "You gonna live?"
    "Mmm hmm." I looked over at him. ""M okay."
    Kevin's eyes got damp. "You don't look okay, I gotta tell ya."
    "D'anks so mush."
    He laughed, sniffed and wiped his nose. "Dad's gonna kill me."
    "F'r whu’?"
    "Not keeping an eye on you. Letting this happen." He bit his lip. "I'm the big brother. I'm supposed to watch out for you."
    I tried to make a face at him; I'm sure it looked suitably disgusted. And disgusting. "Not y'r day to wa’zh me."
    He shook his head and put his arm around my shoulders. I leaned into him, grateful to be able to lean on something. "Gonna fi’d back."
    "How's