Doc's Place

Chapter 12 | Part 4

Sunday, October 7, 1984

Floating lazily on the currents, my wings spread wide. My belly is full so I ignore movements on the ground. Watch over my dominion for challenges to the rigid authority I maintain below me. Watch for other hawks.

Awake confused because it feels like morning. Watch Bruno as he hits the call button and informs me that it is Sunday morning. Says I slept all day and all night.

What?

A nurse walks in with a bedpan and orders Bruno out of the room. She slides it under me and I goddamn near fill the thing. As she efficiently cleans me and changes my bed linen, I ask her why I slept so long. She tells me about the drugs injected via the intravenous drip.

Sons of bitches drugged my ass. Ask, "When is the doctor coming?"

"He'll make his hospital rounds after church services and breakfast with his family," says the nurse. "He usually arrives about eleven a.m. or so. He'll see you first, Ms. Price."

"Call me Jill," I tell her. "No more drugs, okay?"

"The doctor authorized another dose for your pain, Jill. Don't your wounds hurt?"

"I can live with the pain," I tell her. "What I can't live with is sleeping so much. I'll take all the antibiotics the doc prescribes but no more painkillers or sedatives of any kind. Okay?"

"Okay," she says. "How about something to eat?"

"Sure," I tell her. "What do you have?"

She brings in Bruno and a tray, saying she'll be back to check on me in a little while.

Take one look at what's on the tray and push it away. "Dial this number and give me the phone, Sweetie." When he holds the phone to my ear, I tell the counterman at Carter's my order—a big one—and tell him someone will pick it up.

"I can't leave the hospital," Bruno says and calls Don. He listens for a moment and hangs up. "Don got drunk last night," he says. "Be a while before he's up and moving."

Tell him Le's number. When he holds the phone to my ear again, I tell Le that I'm in the hospital.

"Right," she says. "SIA has secured your floor in that wing and checked out the staff."

"Would you ask someone to bring over my order from Carter's? I'm hungry."

"Ah, hospital food, of course," she says. "Okay, I'm on my way. Who's there with you?"

"Bruno."

"Be nice, Jill," she says and hangs up.

What does she mean, `Be nice'? I'm always nice.

Bruno says, "I'll run to the cafeteria for some fresh fruit and be right back."

Doze a couple minutes I guess because he suddenly returns with his shirttail out and breaking a light sweat. He is carrying two bananas, four plums, a peach and two apples. "Okay," he gasps, panting and sets the fruit on my bed table.

Peel a banana and eat it while I twist apart the peach. Removing the pit, I eat the peach while I pick up a plum. "Would you hand me that knife?" I ask Bruno.

He sets it beside me, steps back and watches me, fascinated.

Cut and eat the plums and apples, and then peel and eat the other banana. "Was that all the fruit they had?" I ask politely.

"Yes," Bruno says, gathering the detritus and dumping it in the trash. "I'm sure Le will be here in just a moment." He stares into my eyes for a moment. "Thought about going home? You'll need assistance for a while until you can return to work."

"You're right, Sweetie," I tell him. A nurse, a therapist. . . .

"And protection," he adds.

Bruno's right. I need a bodyguard too. Jesus, I'd better call my folks and make sure they don't try to come over here. It's too dangerous, even for Bruno. He may be the best in the West as a detective but he's no bodyguard.

"I can do it," says Bruno. "Plenty of time off coming."

"Give me time to think about this, Bruno," I tell him.

Suddenly, Le pushes through the door carrying three bags. She sets one on the floor and the other two on the bedside table. Help her open the boxes inside the bag with my left hand as the nurse walks in.

"I'm sorry, but you cannot bring food into the hospital, Jill," says the nurse, and begins reaching for the boxes.

Take her hand with my left, turning and lifting it so her face is near mine as she leans across the table. She stares at me wide-eyed. Le and Bruno are staring as well. "Touch my food again," I rasp, "and I will toss your ass right out that window. Understand?"

"Yes," she gasps, unable to move.

Shove her into Bruno, who hustles her out of the room while Le helps me open the boxes.

Some time later, Le and Bruno are sitting with me, talking as I eat. Offer them some of the delicious food from Carter's, but they decline. It's just as well because I eat it all anyway. Look at the bag on the floor but Le shakes her head.

Bruno and Le begin to clean up as I sit back, almost purring with contentment when the doctor walks in. "Hey Doc, I've been looking forward to your visit," I tell him.

"Well Jill, now none of the nurses will set foot in here," says the doc. "How can we provide you with care if you threaten the staff?"

"She tried to take my food."

"I see," he says. "Is your aggression a sign that you're feeling better today?"

"I am but no more drugs. Slept all goddamn day yesterday."

He inspects my shoulder and then my leg, removing the restraint. "I imagine you are experiencing significant pain, especially in your shoulder."

"I love pain, especially compared to alternatives like sleeping all day or dead."

"How about antibiotics?"

"Fine."

He sighs, and says, "Look, Jill, the hospital is just not a safe place for . . . you and the hospital staff, what with these assassination attempts and so on. You are in superior physical condition so you will heal quickly but you need care and you can't stay here."

"Send me home," I tell him. "I'll get a nurse." Turning to Le, I say, "Le, call the guards and tell them to ask Soji Imaizumi if he will come to my house."

"You want a guard to nurse you?" asks Le.

"Soji is my masseur at the dojo," I tell her. "He can provide both care and protection. Call them, Le." Watch her pick up the phone and call.

The doc begins removing my intravenous drip. "Okay, I'll give you a booster and send you home today with a prescription that you need to begin taking tonight. I want you to finish the whole thing. Alright?"

"Roger that."

"And I want you in my office on Wednesday for a follow-up. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Alright," he says, patting my arm now that he has disconnected the drip. "I'll prepare that injection and tell the staff to prepare your paperwork. Be ready in an hour." He walks out, closing the door behind him.

"Soji says he'll be home when we get there," says Le, hanging up the phone, "Did you know that he lives alone, the poor man? He's looking forward to taking care of you, Jill."

"Plenty of space," I tell her. "It's a five-bedroom house. He can move in for all I care." Strip off my hospital gown and toss the sheets aside with my left hand. Naked as a baby on the bed, I look at Bruno and Le and ask, "One of you going to hand over my clothes or do I have to get them myself?"

"What clothes?" says Bruno. "They cut `em off you Friday." He pulls out a police radio he must have borrowed from the Reno PD and calls in, probably to let them know I'm heading home.

"I brought sweatpants, underwear and a sweatshirt," says Le, picking up the bag she had dropped on the floor. She helps me into the underpants and then the rest of the clothes. Once I'm dressed, Le asks, "Have you called your family or friends yet, Jill?"

"No," I tell her, "and I need to do that before one of them hears about this and tries to come over and help. It's too dangerous."

She opens her notebook, picks up the receiver on the room phone and dials.

Try lifting my arm to take the phone, but the pain stops me.

"Just lie back and relax," says Le. "I'll hold the phone to your ear while you talk."

When I tell my parents about taking two bullets, they volunteer to catch a flight to Reno immediately but I tell them no. I have arranged for a bodyguard and a nurse. Stay away. Tell Susan, my best friend in Montana, the same thing. When I finish and Le hangs up, she asks, "Anyone else?"

"Oh damn," I say. "KMark and I have tickets for the Raiders game in LA today."

"I'll take him," says Bruno. "How were you planning to get down there?"

"His mother's corporate jet," I tell him. "Call Ume and she'll have a limo pick you up and take you to the airport with KMark and his bodyguards. When you drop them off tonight, just tell the flight crew to take you to Salt Lake. Is your car at the airport?"

"Yes," says Bruno. "Where are the game tickets?"

"Will call," I say. "Thanks for doing this, Sweetie." Try swinging both feet off the bed about the time the doc comes in, accompanied by a slim and beautiful woman pushing a wheelchair. I remember her—Gina, I think—from the health club. Suddenly, I realize that the room is spinning.

The doc helps Le catch me before I fall. "Whoa, Jill. It's a little early in your recovery to stand on your own." He turns me to face the bed, leans me against it, tugs down my pants and swabs my ass for the needle.

Look at the woman as the doctor sticks me in the ass.

"You're Gina, aren't you? Don't you work at the health club on Matley?"

"That's right, Ms. Price. Actually, I'm one of the owners of the club. I'll help get you home this morning so we can work out a regimen of physical therapy for you," says Gina, helping me sit in the wheelchair. "Is someone staying with you?" She glances at Le and Bruno.

"Call me Jill. We've been talking about that, Gina," I tell her. "When we get home, you'll meet Soji. He's my masseur, so he'll make a fine physical therapist as well."

"Good enough," says Gina, pushing me into the hallway. "I already have the doctor's recommendations. Who's driving you home, Jill?"

"I am," says Bruno. "I have a car out back. The feds want to chat briefly once we get there, Jill."

Wave my hand. Whatever.

"I'll take care of signing Jill out and getting her prescription filled," says Le.

"Not unless you have her power of attorney," says the doc.

"I do," says Le.

"Okay," says the doc, placing a hand gently on my shoulder, "Then I'm going to make my rounds. Jill, I'll see you on Wednesday?"

"Right," I tell him, touching his hand. "Thanks for everything, Doc."

He smiles and walks away.

"Go ahead and pull the car up to the curb, sir," says Gina to Bruno. "We'll meet you down there." Bruno hurries away. Gina says, "He looks big and scary enough to be your bodyguard."

"Bruno?" I say. "Naw, he's my baby. He's only here until I make arrangements."

Gina glances at me, shrugs and pushes me to the nurses' station where Le begins signing forms. I see only one woman behind the counter. "Where is everybody?" I ask.

"Probably hiding until you leave," murmurs Le.

Glance up at her from my wheelchair, feeling a little fuzzy around the edges.

"You killed one nurse and physically threatened another. Trust me, nurses don't like that shit," says Le. She finishes signing forms, pushes them across the counter and accepts copies from the woman, thanking her.

Everything seems padded in cotton, must be fading again.

Gina moves me quickly down the hallway as Le walks beside me, looking about us. She holds a pistol—looks like a Browning—in her hand, beside her leg. Off to my right, three young Japanese women are chatting as they keep pace with us. From the bulges in their clothing, I guess they're here to protect me as well. No doubt Le would shoot to kill if necessary, but I feel too vulnerable at this moment, despite the protection. Shake my head and blink several times, trying to stay alert. Goddamn drugs.

Down the elevator and out the front door passes in a blur. Three plain Fords are idling out front. The car in the middle has one rear door open. Bruno helps me into the rear seat. Fade immediately.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Doc's Place Chat
© 2008, Michel Grover.
Chapter 12 | Part 4
Early Winter 2008

Lucia :

Mic has posted in the left frame paragraphs from Doc's Place, one of his copyrighted stories. I'm moderating chat here in the right frame. I post every day, but I don't post everything. I have formed a secondary group from which I may also post comments.

Doug :

Now that Jill has wiped out the remaining assassin, she has plenty of protection.

Maria :

We've already discussed the issue of Jill's protection, Doug. Let it go.

I've always understood that it's difficult for your body to heal when you're in pain, Jill. I can understand your refusing sedatives but why object to the doctor's treatment if it helps assure your rapid recovery?

Benny :

Maria is right, Jill. Pain heightens cellular stress response and diminishes autonomic, somatic and endocrine reflexes, resulting in protein breakdown, platelet aggregation, nausea, ileus and a suppressed immune system.

Jules :

I can figure out most of that Benny, but what is ileus?

Benny :

Ileus is bowel blockage.

Jules :

Ugh. That's reason enough for me ingest vast quantities of morphine right there.

Jill :

First, this is 1984. The general availability and use of non-opioid analgesics and patient-controlled analgesia delivery systems hasn't occurred yet. Second, opioid analgesics cause drowsiness as well as many of the same symptoms attributed to pain. For whatever reasons, I am hypersensitive to opioids so they cause heightened symptoms in me. Third, I know that I must begin ingesting liquids and solid foods, become ambulatory as soon as possible to enhance oxygenation and have someone change my dressings often. In fact, that is what I intended to do and exactly what I did do as you will learn in the story.

Benny :

How did you manage secondary hyperalgesia or wind up, as some call it?

Jules :

Damn it, Benny, what in the hell is that?

Benny :

Primary hyperalgesia is perception of even small stimuli as pain in wounded tissue. Secondary hyperalgesia is sensitivity to stimulation in nearby tissues that the injured person perceives as pain. Some in the medical community call it wind up.

Jill :

Having recovered from much more general and significant tissue damage while still in the military, I already knew how to manage primary and secondary hyperalgesia.

Cyril :

You received the Purple Heart for this injury?

Jill :

Yes

Doug :

Let me guess. That is part of another story. Right?

Jill :

Yes

Benny :

Are you still managing chronic pain from either or both injuries?

Jill :

Yes

Benny :

Still avoiding analgesics?

Jill :

Yes

Benny :

How's that working for you?

Jill :

Fine

Benny :

I don't believe you.

Jill :

So?

Amalie :

Stop it, Jill. You're hurting him. Can't you understand that Benny loves you?

Jill :

He can stop asking me questions about it then.

Amalie :

He's only 12. Why don't you pick on someone closer to your own age?

Benny :

Take it easy, Amalie. I'm okay.

Jill :

You, for instance, Amalie?

Amalie :

Yes, rip into me, you sanctimonious bitch. I dare you. You piss me off with your managing your primary and secondary hyperalgesia. You revel in pain because you despise yourself for what happened at age 14. Of course you won't tell us or anyone else about it because you would rather embrace your pain like some saint scourging herself for sin.

Jill :

Do tell.

Amalie :

Fuck you, your sin and your pain.

Alan :

Well, Marcus, Amalie appears to have taken over the criticizing Jill department.

Marcus :

Amalie, dear, are you okay? Do you have someone with you?

Lizzie :

Amalie's mother, Ume and I are all here. She is sobbing in Ume's arms at the moment. She'll be okay in a while. All of us have experienced rage against this woman. It's like a purging we go through—a rite of passage.

Marcus :

How about you, Benny?

Benny :

I don't know what the fuss is. Jill and I are chatting and all of a sudden, Amalie goes off. What is it with women?

Cyril :

Can't help you much there, Benny. Perhaps Amalie was not talking about you. When Amalie told Jill that she was hurting you, maybe Amalie was talking about her feelings.

Benny :

So, when she asked Jill if she understood that I love her, she also meant that she loves Jill?

Cyril :

Perhaps, and if you understand that, you are wise beyond your years regarding affaires du coeur, mon ami.

Benny :

I don't get it and it sounds weird. Hope it never happens to me.

Cyril :

It's part of growing up, young man.

Benny :

An affair of the heart is a love affair. So, is Amalie saying that she is in love with Jill and wants to have sex with her?

Cyril :

Ask Amalie.

Benny :

Are you afraid to say because you may hurt Amalie's feelings?

Cyril :

No one knows your heart as you do, Benny. Human emotions are often too complex for one person to speak in behalf of another. The same applies to Amalie.

Maria :

Did you finish questioning Jill, Benny?

Benny :

I'm interested in your ability to cope with pain, Jill. Can you tell me how you negotiate the forest in your mind when you're experiencing pain?

Jill :

Sure, Benny. Pain becomes a cunning and determined but non-sentient predator in my forest. After an injury, the predator has just arrived and has begun marking its territory. I don't know how it senses me or detects my presence, so it seems to be everywhere to the point that it seems to be pursuing me. Since I can't reason with it and I have no wish to kill it, I learn its pursuit and hunting skills and patterns so I can avoid it as much as possible. With experience, I grow familiar with its patterns of hunting and pursuit as well as its limitations so I can avoid it with skill and cunning of my own.

The trick is vigilance, Benny. Don't try to ignore pain because it may catch you unaware. Suddenly, it's on your back, teeth in your neck. Watch for it but don't dwell on it.

Carlo :

Sounds like the tyrannosaur or the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.

Jill :

Pain is an injured rogue male bear or cougar—territorial and perpetually pissed off but predictable and avoidable, dangerous but manageable.

Benny :

I don't have experience with large predatory animals but I do understand the street—gangs, bullies and wannabes.

Carlo :

Those are people, Benny, so they're sentient. As such, they are much more dangerous than even the most cunning non-sentient predator. Besides, why are you interested in managing pain?

Benny :

Yes, they're sentient but they're the only predators I know. To answer your question, Carlo, Jill's method of managing pain may apply to the nomadic tribes of the future. During the transition decades as the cities die, the nomadic tribes will have to deal with sentient predators in the form of roving gangs.

Carlo :

Ah, as usual, you bring up a good point, Benny. How has Pere planned for the nomadic tribes to deal with the vicious gangs from the cities, Avani?

Avani :

I don't know because I haven't analyzed the data set for transitional periods.

Benny :

Compare how Jill manages pain to the gangs' strengths as well as their weaknesses and limitations. Once we consider all the indicators, I'm afraid we'll discover that human predators will destroy all of settled humanity, eventually assuring their own destruction. The nomadic tribes will survive this predation because they will avoid the gangs. Once you consider the data, Avani, I'm certain you'll find that it also supports this thesis.

Suze :

Why do you have such a gloomy outlook, Benny? Humanity has survived marauding pirates and predatory gangs in previous ages.

Benny :

Human history has never known such predators as society produces now. Technologically skilled, they will equip themselves with global positioning system receivers, maps and guidebooks. They will have enough vehicles, spare parts, fuel, weapons and ammunition to locate and destroy every human community that exists. The human gang will become the superior predatory group on the planet. Without a force in nature to mitigate or balance their predation, they will wipe out humanity within a few decades.

Minnie :

Gangs are city dwellers who live by looting and produce nothing. Perhaps a strong, visionary gang leader can persuade his gang to plant crops and tend them until harvest but they're still at risk from other gangs. Their greatest weakness, therefore, is that they cannot last as long as the nomadic tribes, who do produce and do cooperate. At least, I assume they do. Avani?

Avani :

Yes, the nomadic tribes cooperate extensively so that everyone on the planet may eat well and thrive for generations. Depending upon the season and locale, they prepare the ground, sow, care for the crops, harvest and store them for others to consume. The instructions for learning and doing these activities are readily accessible on the neural network. They also care for domesticated herds of cattle, flocks of chickens and so on, protecting them from predators and inoculating them against diseases where necessary.

Alice :

One major limitation of gangs is that they're not on the neural network so they cannot find the tribes, who are not only on the network, but know where the gangs are at all times so the tribes can avoid them.

Raj :

Gangs also grew up in the cities. They have no idea how to survive in the wild, where the nomadic tribes wander. In fact, they probably fear the wild more than they fear rival gangs and the night because the wild is unknown. Humans fear the unknown. The marauding gangs will stay on the roads as they hunt for villages, towns and small communities.

Doug :

Raj brings up a good point. The tribes can avoid these sentient, urban predators simply by avoiding cities, highways and roads. After all, we're only talking about a few decades. Gangs have little or no regard for childbearing women or children except for exploitation. In <50yrs, the gangs will be dead and gone. Unfortunately, all of the people in villages and towns will be just as gone.

Cyril :

No doubt the cities will be hazardous for a century or more because of improvised explosive devices—IEDs—as well as toxic spills, poisonous dumps and the like.

Annie :

Small, tightly knit communities may survive the city gangs. I'm thinking of religious, rural villages like the Amish in Pennsylvania and other such rural districts throughout the world where people band together to sustain their way of life against the ways of the city dwellers, whom they consider to be wicked. They justify their way of life using such scripture as 2 Corinthians 6:17, which states, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." Other rural communities may not be religious-based but will survive in remote areas of the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. Civilization may thrive for generations as well on islands such as Hawaii, the Polynesians and so on.

Benny :

Avani, does your data set imply the existence of such islands of civilization once the cities begin to die?

Avani :

Yes, it does, Benny, but I never noticed it until Annie raised the issue. My analysis of the data indicates that the nomadic tribes will respect the life chosen by the rural communities that Annie mentions. In fact, the tribes will probably stop now and then to assist such communities and even socialize with them, if they are amenable. The tribes have medical and other scientific knowledge that rural villages throughout the world will have lost or perhaps never had.

However, my analysis of this same data indicates that most rural villages in coastal and island regions will not survive the inevitable hurricanes, typhoons, storm surges and tsunamis as well as volcanic and earthquake activity. Other remote villages eventually will succumb to disease, severe fires and storms. Those who survive such natural disasters will fall prey to pirates who will take their food, destroy their buildings and enslave or kill everyone.

Even though the data indicate that most inland remote communities will survive natural disasters, my analysis indicates that they will not survive predation from urban gangs. As Benny said, the gangs will use technology as well as the highways and other roads to find rural communities and raid them. Like the pirates, these gangs will steal the villagers' food stores, destroy their houses and barns and leave no one alive.

Unfortunately, Benny and Doug appear to be correct. A hasty analysis of this data indicates that within 50yrs, the last of the pirates and gangs will have died off, having wiped out every pocket of civilization. All that remains of humanity will be the nomadic tribes.

Suze :

Won't the pirates and gangs hear of the nomadic tribes from the villages they plunder? Won't the gangs come looking for them?

Alan :

Perhaps so but where do they look? They can fly over the increasingly wild and ever-growing wilderness with planes, helicopters and even drones, but that's not productive. Last summer, experienced search-and-rescue teams spent weeks searching a small wilderness area for missing hikers and never saw a soul. The wilderness is too big and the gangs have no experience searching such areas. Besides, the nomadic tribes will use camouflage and other tricks to avoid detection.

Carlo :

Gangs might use dogs but they can't provide clothing or material with a scent that the dogs can track. The gangs must also enter the wilderness and perhaps stay overnight. With no training and little experience, the gangs wouldn't last long. We also must assume that the nomadic tribes will defend themselves. Can you find data on the tribes' use of defensive weapons or tactics, Avani?

Avani :

No, but with access to the neural network and their knowledge of the terrain and the weather, the tribes would have the most effective tactics at their disposal within minutes. However, the tribes' best assets are their nomadic lives and the lack of evidence that they exist. Eventually, with no one left to loot, intimidate or kill, the gangs will turn on one another and that will be the end. Besides, analysis indicates that the tribes survive while the gangs and pirates do not.

Suze :

Why doesn't the government or the police or even the army prevent this from happening?

Minnie :

The situation we're discussing is that, for unknown reasons, government and the rule of law breaks down. It could be a cataclysmic event or a combination of events. We don't know. At least, I believe that's true. What was it that Lizzie said last session?

Lucia :

She said, "They die of old age, disease, famine, war, and so on—the results that we have learned to expect of overpopulation, overspecialization, nationalism and other human ills." This indicates natural and not-so-natural causes—disease, famine and war, for example—brought on by human ills. After hearing of Benny's suspicions about how well-equipped the gangs may be, I wonder if some of the gang members are ex-military or deserters. Perhaps highly-trained factions in the military or the police, such as Spec Ops or SWAT teams, decide to take matters into their own hands.

Minnie :

We don't know but if circumstances combine to cause a breakdown in military or police discipline, it could happen, Lucia. It has happened here and there in recent centuries and in the USA during the War Between the States. Avani, do the data provide any indication as to what may enable criminal elements to gain such dominance over society?

Avani :

The data show no such indication. However, settled villagers quickly develop a deep distrust of anyone who appears to roam or wander. The villagers require years upon years to trust the nomadic tribes, for instance, which serves them little purpose in the end.

Eventually, the tribes find all such villages and small communities in ruin, the residents dead or gone. A few months or perhaps generations later, no one remains but the nomadic tribes—not villagers, gangs or pirates. Over time, all evidence of the villages and towns disappear in the growing wilderness. Finally, the cities themselves disappear. Earth becomes a vast wilderness with relatively few nomadic inhabitants, wandering over and under the surface. As I mentioned, they advance in knowledge, communication and technology and they become one with nature.

Suze :

What will become of them?

Avani :

Only the future can tell. As Lizzie said last session, "Humans will figure out how to adapt and thrive. If they don't, then nature will select them for extinction and the coyotes or cockroaches will take over and run things for a while." Personally, I think humans will flourish and evolve—into whom or what, I do not know.

Doug :

Hate to rain on everyone's parade, but this entire concept of nomadic tribes may not be the future of humanity at all. Pere has cooked it up and is trying to nudge humanity in that direction, but humanity may not follow this recipe at all. Something completely different may happen. I'm not saying that the data are flawed or that Avani's analysis is off. I'm just saying that in the future, people are going to do whatever they're going to do despite Pere's efforts or Avani's analysis.

Lucia :

Compare the statement you just made to Benny's earlier statement that the "human gang will become the superior predatory group on the planet." Which outcome has the strongest probability of success—Benny's or any other outcome imaginable?

Doug :

Put it that way, Benny's.