The Chicken Zoo, part 5: The bar (a non-fiction novel)

[This story is based on my experiences as a reporter for The Delaware State News from 1990-93. Some names and dates have been changed. This was part of my unpublished novel, "The Chicken Zoo," that I wrote five years ago.]

Morning came, and I got up the minute my eyes opened and the sunlight popped through the shade in his bedroom. My brain, however, was still focused on the dream I just had.

In it, Evan – the 7-year-old from Driftwood Beach – and a band of pit bulls attacked me in a forest, tore off my clothes and chewed him to bits. They left me bloodied amid a pile of leaves and tree stumps, and tree branches fell and slammed on my stomach. I screamed for help but all I heard was laughter.

Then I saw a group of children holding hands as they danced in a circle around my naked body. While they did, a photographer snapped pictures, and the light of the flash burned my eyes. The children laughed harder.

I was bleeding, I was sick and I was cold. But what finally woke me up was when I looked at my reporter’s notebook, and it was still empty. That’s what I really cared about. And that’s when I woke up.

I got dressed, and went to work. I was exhausted, still, so I floated through the day. Thankfully, he thought, Jenny stayed in her office nearly the whole time. When she finally did appear, I disappeared into the bathroom.

The bathroom was my favorite place. I always liked to hide in the stall. Nobody could bother me there. It was like the demilitarized zone. When they did come looking for me, I could always pick my feet up.

On this day, however, I was greeted by somebody the minute he swung open the stall’s metal door.

“Who the fuck are you?” the guy said.

“Tom Davis,” I said. “Who the fuck are you?”

“You don’t know me? What kind of reporter are you?”

“I’m OK,” I said. “But you’re not making a very good impression with me.”

He extended his hand. “I’m John Matlack, from New York,” he said. “I used to be an editor here, but the fuckheads demoted me.”

“John Matlack? Wasn’t he a pitcher for the Mets?”

“Everybody knows that, you schmuck,” John said. “He’s my favorite fucking Met – outside of Seav-uh, Nails and Mookie.”

“I’m a Mets fan, too,” I said.

“Yeah, I hear you’re from fucking Jersey,” John said. “We may be the only ones from civilization here.”

“Ever see the Mets play?”

“What kind of stupid question is that, you fuckhead,” John said. “Look, I don’t have time to hold your hand right now. I’m doing a story on Joe Biden right now that’s going to win me the fucking Pullitzer….After this one comes out, they’re going to fucking nail him to the cross…”

“Cool,” I said.

“I’m getting this in the can around 6 p.m.,” John said. “Then we’re going to go out and fucking celebrate…You with us?”

“Sounds good.”

“Good,” John said. “Meet us at Blather’s, on Governor’s Avenue, around 7 p.m. Got it?”



I got it, and showed up an hour late. I walked in, and immediately thought: Am I in another state?

I marveled at the 200-year-old bar with chandeliers that dangled from on ropes, stretching four feet down from the old, cracked roof. The floor was as flimsy as the bottom of a tree house. Paint from what appeared to be George Washington’s time was chipping everywhere, and pieces were falling on the floor and creating a fine dust. No one ever swept it, it seemed.

I noticed, however, that the patrons didn’t match the age of the place. Long-legged women with tan bodies, each of them bright, beautiful and young – and with perfect teeth – seemed to fill every seat at the bar. Crash Tokyo was there, and rocking. And with each pounding beat, the crowd either pounded their fists in the air or knocked back a beer or two.

There, I instantly found John and a rather large assortment of State News reporters and editors milling near the bar. Some of them had drinks sitting on the wooden surface of the bar; others clutched their beer bottles and held them up to their chests.

I drifted closer to the group, and John rose up from the window sill he was learning on. “What’s up, Dink?” John said, rousting him a bit.

“Dink?” I said. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. You just seem like a Dink,” John said.

“What is a Dink?”

“A dummy.”

“Thanks, pal.”

“Well, think about it,” John said. “Who would claim to be a Mets fan but not know who Jon Matlack is?”

“Whatever,” I said. “Where do you get beer here?”

“See,” John said. “That’s what I’m talking about. Only a Dink would openly question how to order a beer when he’s only inches away from the bar.”

“Just shut up.”

“OK, OK,” John aid. “I’m done beating up on ya. I’ll get you a beer.”

John squeezed between two women at the bar, and ordered two Buds. He returned, smiling.

“So I heard you were hanging around with the Microwave,” John said.

“Who’s the Microwave?” I said.

“Nikki.”

“Nikki?” I said. “How did you know that?”

“I know everything,” John said. “Because I’m fucking good.”

“Why do you call her the Microwave?”

“Because she heats up fast…”

“My God,” I said.

“So they got you covering the murder, huh?” John said.

“Yeah,” I said. “And I’m getting nowhere…”

“That’s because they’ve got you talking to people like Nikki…”

“Well, doesn’t that make sense?”

John took a swig of his beer. His smile disappeared.

“Come over here,” John said.

“Where?”

“To the bathroom. C’mon.”

They walked through the crowd, squeezing in-between the drunks. I waited patiently for John, who was a bit on the chubby side and had difficulty maneauvering.

They found a wall and leaned against it.

“Basically, Nikki and I had a thing, and then I ignored her.”

“OK,” I said. “Then what?”

“Then what? What, are you fucking stupid or something?”

“Do you know any other words besides ‘fucking?’”

John learned against the wall, and look out toward the crowd. He drank from his beer, and gulped it slowly. His eyes were blank.

“Well, you know, when she started flopping with anything that moved, it was kind of funny at first,” John said. “But then it got fucking scary. You’re fucking next.”

“How so?”

“You’ll find out,” he said. “I mean, I feel bad about what happened. That was back when I was an editor, and eventually, everything caught up to me. They found out what I did to Nikki, and those fucks were afraid that she’d slap a sexual harassment case against me.”

“So what did they do?”

“They fucking demoted me back to being a reporter, just to shut everybody up,” John said. “It was the most humiliating day of my fucking life. It made me think about everything. I mean, I know I’m an asshole, but I fucking try, okay? I gotta fucking heart. But I knew then that I was going to far, that I had to do something. I had to show people that I wasn’t some freak, that deep down, I’m a good person. I really believe that.”

“I suppose….”

“I even went back to Nikki and tried to apologize, but she wouldn’t have it,” John said. “So now I’m like, well, fuck you, if you don’t want to be fucking open-minded, and hear me out, then screw you. I almost think that maybe this whole suicide-fucking thing she did was a ruse, and she’s just fucking playing with people. You know what I mean, Dink?”

“I’m trying to figure it out,” I said.

“Nikki and me, we’d have these knock-down, drag-outs in the office,” John said. “Everybody fucking watched them. Everybody knew our fucking business. People wasted so much time listening to this shit, and it even divided up the newsroom, with people taking sides. Fucking Theresa Barton was having a fucking field day. That fucking redneck.”

“Who’s Theresa Barton?”

“Who’s Theresa Barton?” John said. “Christ, you really don’t know anything…let’s just say that you’ll know Theresa Barton when you’ll see her.”

“Right.”

“And then we got all these fucking memos banning ‘fraternization.’ It was fucking ridiculous,” John said. “I mean, I don’t even know what the fuck that means. All I know is, ever since then, I’ve had to watch my ass.”’

Just then, a tall black man walked in. He had a cigarette dangling from his lips, and he was struggling to light it. He was so thin, I thought, that he didn’t have to squeeze through the crowd. He cozied up next to John.

“Hey Dink, let me introduce you to somebody,” John said. “Tom Davis, meet Dan Curtis…”

“What up, dude?” Dan said. They shook hands.

“How’s it going?”

“You need somebody to help you? This is the guy,” John said. “He used to work at the State News, but he got fired. He knows everybody and anybody. I wouldn’t fucking doubt it if he partied with the killer.”

“Well, I hope not…” Dan said.

“If you’ve partied at Uncle Tom’s,” John said, “then you’ve partied with killers…”

Dan laughed, and John slapped him in the back.

“I’ll leave you to shitheads alone,” John said. “I’ll order more beer.”

“Hey, can you give me a couple bucks?” Dan said.

“You are so pathetic,” John said. “Fuck it. I’ll just add it to your tab…”

John stormed off.

“So you used to work for the State News?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Dan said. “You’re covering the murder?”

“Christ, why does everybody know what I’m doing?”

“It’s OK,” Dan said. “Let’s just say that I have an interest in what you’re doing…”

“How’s that?”

“I worked there a lot of years – 12, to be exact,” Dan said, puffing on a cigarette. “My first assignment was the Jim Jones massacre.”

“No way!”

“Yeah, I was pretty young, About 22 I think,” Dan said. “I worked with Jenny…”

“Jenny? Really?”

“Yeah,” Dan said. “We were contemporaries…”

“Ooh,” I said. “So that explains everything..”

“I'm glad you could make it,” Dan said. “What's going on at the Chicken Zoo?"

“The Chicken Zoo?”

“Yeah,” Dan said, taking his beer from John. He balanced the bottle in one hand, and pinched smoldering cigarette in the other. “Well, we do call it the Chicken Fart, too. You’ve got ask yourself, what the hell is a ‘Delaware State News?’ and that’s what we came up with. But you know how jokes are – the name totally morphed into something else. ‘Zoo’ seems more appropriate.”

John re-emerged, holding his own beer. “Hey Dan,” he said. “My dick is so big, I need to send up a satellite just to trace it!”

“My dick is so big, I’m its bitch!” Dan said.

John slapped Dan in the back, again. They laughed, hard. But their mouth formed frowns as soon as a small, pudgy woman walked up to the bar.

“Oh, fuck,” John said.

“Who is that?”

“That’s fucking Theresa Barton.”

It seemed like Theresa was about to introduce herself. But her eyes popped upward, distracted by the television screen that was suspended over John’s head.

“Look at them people!” she yelled.

“Theresa, what the fuck are you talking about?” John said.

John and I checked out to the television, while Dan hung close to the bar rail. It was a commercial for “Do the Right Thing,” which was coming out on video.

“I can’t believe them people,” Barton said. “Can you believe it? I tell you, too many of them got TV shows. Every time you turn on the television, it’s black this, black that. When are white people going to get shows? Why you got all these Cosby look-a-likes all over the fucking television nowadays?”

“Theresa—” John said.

“It’s like everything is some ‘In Living Color’ bullshit or something,” she said. “You know what that is – that’s just the colored version of Saturday Night Live. They should just call it ‘Dark Night,’ because that’s all it is.”

“Hey Theresa,” John said. “Hold your fucking fire, you dumb shit. Dan’s here.”

I looked over at Dan. He was quiet, staring at the top of his beer, and taking occasional puffs on his cigarette.

“See,” Barton said. “He don’t mind.”

“Hey,” John said, “you gonna help find Anan’s killer or what?”

“I ain’t gotta do shit,” she said. “He’s the one getting all the big fucking bucks. Let him do that shit.”

Theresa walked away, and slipped into the crowd.

“Who the hell was that?” I asked.

“She’s the fucking cops reporter,” John said.

“What crawled up her ass?” I asked, again.
“Two words,” John said. “West Virginia.”

“Oh.”

“She came out here to be closer to the city,” John said. “Or, as she says, ceee-ty.”

John and I laughed, and they even managed to get a chuckle from Dan. He finally broke his silence.




The drinking and the laughs continued, for hours. I never had this much fun south of the Mason-Dixon Line before. By 11 p.m., he had a cool buzz, and he was ready to go home.

By chance, I looked up and saw something he didn’t want to see. It had curly blonde hair, and it was bubbly. It was Nikki, carrying a shot glass in her hand. Her legs seemed as wobbly as the legs of the 200-year-old tables.

“Oh shit,” I said.

“What?” John said.

“Nikki’s here.”

“Where?”

“Right over there.”

“Well, whatever,” John said. “Just keep you’re fucking distance.”


In the background, Crash Tokyo was playing its last set, and the calls for “Butt Steak” were beginning. Dan was digging in his pockets, and doing it loudly.

“Everything OK there, Dan?” I asked.

“Hey,” Dan said. “You gotta a couple bucks?”

“OK.”

I reached in his wallet and pulled out $2.

“Not just a couple,” Dan said. “I need five.”

I shook his head, and pulled out a $5 bill. John noticed.

“What the fuck, are you working on him now?” John said. “I’m going to have to take out a collection plate for you.”



By this time, Nikki was hovering around the room like a helicopter. Dan walked over to her, and put his hand on her shoulder. “You okay, Nikki?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m having a good time. Where’s John?”

“John? You mean John Matlack?”

“Yeah, isn’t he here?”

“He’s over there, with Tom..”

Nikki’s face turned white. She dropped her shot glass, which smashed on the floor. She then fell toward a seat, prompting another person to rush across the room and pull it under her.

She turned to John, who – despite his rugged, Irish looks – sat there in what appeared to be obvious fright. For a second or two, Nikki stared at him, and he stared back. Then she sucked back into her throat, and spit at John – right between the eyes.

“Are you fucking crazy!” John e yelled, wiping it from his face. “What the fuck do you want from me? How many fucking times do I have to say I’m sorry? You need fucking help!”

Then she faced me. I was, at this point, hiding behind John and keeping my distance.

“How could you do this to me?!?” she yelled at him. “How could you do this to me?!?”

I brought her to the bathroom. “Okay, look, if you feel sick just let it out right here,” I said. “Don’t be embarrassed or anything. Just get it out of your system.”

Nikki showed little patience with his orders. “But I’ve never thrown up before,” she said.

“There’s a first for everything,” he said. “Now, c’mon, concentrate.”

“But I CAN’T do it!!” she screamed, her voice scratchy and weak. “I just can’t do it!”

“Concentrate!”

“I can’t,” Nikki said in a low-pitch mumble. “Just get the fuck out of here.”

“But…….”

“I said, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!”

I did, pushing on the swinging door and walking out.


I walked back to the bar, where John and Dan remained. Everyone else looked on, curiously, but I wouldn’t acknowledge them.

“So give us the update, Dink?” John said.

“I was just helping her….”

“Helping her?” John said. “She’s beyond help.”


Fifteen minutes passed, and I nervously sipped on his beer.

“Hey Dink,” John called out. “You’re going to join us for Oyster Shuck this year, right?”

“Okay, someone is throwing their guts up in the bathroom,” I said, incredulously. “And you want to talk about an ‘Oyster Shuck?’ ”

“Yes!” John said. “In fact, this is the best time to talk about it!”

“Okay, okay,” I said, conceding. “What the hell is the ‘Oyster Shuck?’ ”

John shot him an impatient look. “You’ve never heard of the Oyster Shuck?”

“No,” I said.

John slurped the last few drops of his mug, and slid it back to the bartender.

“In the spring, the rednecks in Sussex County do this thing where they invite people from all over the fucking place,” he said. “Fat rednecks go to this barn and just shuck oysters all day, and get fucked up.”

“Sounds like a gas….”

“Yeah. It’s even better than the ‘Pumpkin Chunkin,’ ” John said. “Plenty of beer at that one, too.”

“What is a ‘Pumpkin Chunkin?’ ”

“That’s another redneck event,” John said. “Big fat rednecks go to this barn in Millsboro where the floor is made of dirt and hay. They bring these giant slingshots and – I kid you not – sling pumpkins from them as far as they can.”

“They sling pumpkins?”

“Yeah, no lie. They bring these little catapults and they dress them up so they look like NASCAR.”

“You’re not pulling a fast one on me, are you?” I said, chuckling a bit. It was the first time he laughed in more than an hour. “People go to a bar to see smashing pumpkins?”

“It’s not the pumpkins that attracts people, idiot,” John said. “It’s the food and the booze. The rednecks bring truckloads of steamers and pour them into buckets and give them away for free. Then they bring in trucks, stick taps in ’em, and the beer flows endlessly.”

The talking was stopped by a woman looking for me.

“Excuse me—do you know the woman in the bathroom?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“You’d better go in there right now…”

I pushed through chairs, tables and people who crowded the bar floor. I scrambled so quickly that he kicked over glasses and ashtrays, and didn’t even notice them smashing on the floor.

I entered the bathroom and saw Nikki. She was strung out and limp, her eyes dull and dim.

“Oh my God!” I said, running out of the bathroom and pleading to the people at the bar. “Somebody call 911!”

“911?” one woman said. “What’s that?”

“Call emergency, goddammit!” I yelled at her. “Get the police here! Get an ambulance! Hurry the hell up!”

“Okay! Stop yelling at me!” she said, angrily. “Jeez. You must be from Wilmington or something!”


In the ambulance, five or six tubes poured stuff into Nikki’s veins. A 250-pound paramedic tended to her while I sat next to her, and watched.

I sighed and looked at Nikki. She tried to manage a smile. He then leaned over and scratched her head. “Do they have good food at this hospital?” I asked.

Nikki, fading in and out of sleep, managed a small grin. I smiled, too, and then clutched her hand and rubbed her thumb.

“Nikki, are you awake?” I asked.

“Mmmmm. Maybe.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, now near tears himself. “I am so sorry.”

But her eyes shut too quickly, and she never heard it.




Later, they arrived at the emergency room, where the paramedics quickly whisked Nikki out. I followed behind, but he was soon stopped by another large man. He laid his big hand on I’s chest.

“Sorry, can’t go any further.”

“But I’m with her,” I said.

“Are you a family member?”

“No.”

“Then you’re going to have to wait in the waiting room, like everyone else.”

“Well, can you tell me what’s happening in there?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t reveal that information.”

“Look. I’m afraid she’s not going to make it without me.”

“Are you a doctor?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Put your faith in us,” the guy said. “That’s why we’re here.”

I slumped over to a chair, my energy completely sapped. I pulled out a Time magazine and leafed through the pages. He did this for nearly a half-hour, half-reading the articles before a man in a white coat finally walked out.

“Are you Tom?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“She’s doing well. We just pumped her stomach, and she’s resting comfortably,” the man said. “We’re going to keep her overnight for observation, so there’s no need for you to hang around.”

“I’d like to visit her.”

“Well, actually, her parents are going to be here. Do you know them?”

“I know of them.”

“Oh. Well, it was requested by her parents that all Delaware State News people should stay far away from her,” the man said. “Do you work for the Delaware State News?”

“Well, uh, yeah.”

“Well, I think it’s in the best interests of the patient that you leave, because her parents are going to be here any minute.”

“Fine, fine. Whatever’s best for her,” I said.

“I just want to avoid a confrontation that may not be beneficial to the patient.”

The doctor walked away, and I walked out. It was late, and it was dark. I
stood on the grass, and scanned the checkerboard of lighted rooms that were scattered on the side of the facility. I made one last attempt to look for Nikki – a foot, a head or any other signs of life peeping out of the windows. I found nothing.

I turned around, reluctantly, and walked, shoving my hands in my pockets. The walk made me sweat, so I stopped, rolled up my sleeves and wiped sweat from my brow. Only another person emerged, this time from the parking lot. His feet were pounding on the pavement, and his pockets were jiggling.

It was John.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

“Just lay the fuck off,” John said. “I just wanted to see what’s going on here.”

“On the contrary,” I said, smiling. “I think this is your way of saying that you do have a caring bone in your body. Well, I’m flattered.”

“Well whatever,” John said. “How the fuck is she doing?”

“Well, it’s hard for me to say. They won’t let me in.”

“They won’t let you in? They can’t fucking do that.”

“Well, I guess they’re getting away with it, because I’m out here, and she’s in there.”

“Well, fuck that.”

“And now I feel terribly guilty, even regretful about the whole thing.”

“Well, don’t,” John said. “Hey, now you can understand how I feel. Open your eyes, man. You got by her without getting in too much deep shit. As Springsteen said, ‘Say goodbye. This is your independence day.’ ”

“I guess so…”

“See, that’s what you gotta understand, Dink,” John said. “That’s why I was put on Earth, to remind you of what life is all about.”

“How’s that?”

“Remember this: You may be totally sane, but everybody else is crazy. It’s not the other way around. That’s how I get through life. So you just gotta deal with whatever cards you’re dealt with, and go from there.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Never fucking mind it,” John said. “Let’s go home…”