Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 19~20

Chapter 19Judys Delicate causalityFor the first few weeks Tommy was uncomfortable having a dead guy in the freezer, nevertheless by and by a while the dead guy became a fixture, a familiar frosty baptismal font with all(prenominal) TV dinner. Tommy learnd him Peary after a nonher arctic explorer.During the day, after he came home from work and before he crawled into neverthelesstocks with Jody, Tommy puttered around the loft talking first to himself, whence, when he became comfortable with the idea, to Peary.You fill out, Peary, Tommy tell ace morning after he had pounded by two pages of a short story on his type author, I am having a little trouble witnessing my voice in this story. When I write about the little lift girl in Georgia walking barefoot to school on the dirt road, I salubrious bid Harper Lee, but when I write about her poor father, un yetly sentenced to a twine gang for stealing bread for his family, I push by dint of to run a little like rig Twain . But when the little girl grows up to become a Mafia don, Im falling into more than(prenominal) of a Sydney Collins Krantz style. What should I do?Peary, safe with his lid uno save and his light off, did not answer.And how am I supposed to concentrate on literature when Im recitation all these vampire books for Jody? She doesnt chthonic jump out that a writer is a special creature that Im different from everyone else. Im not secerning Im superior to other people, just more sensitive, I pass judgment. And did you notice that she never does whatsoever of the shopping? What does she do all iniquity while Im at work?Tommy was making an effort to at a lower placestand Jodys situation, and had even devised a series of experiments from his reading to quiz and check the limitations of her new situation. In the evening when they woke, after they shared a shower and a tumble or two, the scientific process would begin.Go ahead, honey, give it a try, Tommy said, shortly after he d read Dracula.I am trying, Jody said. I dont know what Im supposed to try to do.Concentrate, Tommy said. Push.What do you mean, push? Im not giving birth, Tommy. What am I supposed to push on?Try to grow fur. Try to shake your arm change into wings.Jody closed her eyes and concentrated strained, even and Tommy thought a little color came into her face.Finally she said, This is ridiculous. And it was determined that Jody could not turn into a bat.Mist, Tommy said. Try to turn into mist. If you for adhere your key manytime, you tin just ooze under the door to desexualise in.Its not work.Keep trying. You know how your hair gathers in the shower drain? Well, if it gets clogged, you can just flow cut out there and dig out the clog.Theres some motivation.Give it a try.She tried and true and failed and the next day Tommy brought some Drano home from the livestock instead.But I could take you to the park and omit a Frisbee for you.I know, but I cant.Ill buy you all kinds of chew toys a squeaky immerge if you wish.Im sorry, Tommy, but I cant turn into a wolf.In the book, Dracula climbs down the castle wall face down.Good for him.You could try it on our building. Its unless ternary stories.Thats soothe a long way to fall.You wont fall. He doesnt fall in the book.And he levitates in the book, doesnt he?Yeah.And we tried that, didnt we?Well, yeah.Then Id say that the book is fiction, wouldnt you?Lets try something else Ill get the list.Mind reading. Project your thoughts into my mind.Okay, Im projecting. What am I thinking?I can tell by the smelling on your face.You might be wrong, what am I thinking?Youd like me to stop agony you with these experiments.And?You want me to take our clothes to the launderette.And?Thats all Im getting.I want you to stop rubbing garlic on me while Im sleeping.You can read thoughtsNo, Tommy, but I woke up this evening smelling like a pizza joint. Stop it with the garlic.So you dont know about the crucifix?You touched me with a crucifix?You werent in any(prenominal) danger. I had a fire extinguisher right there in case you kick downstairs into flames.I dont think its very nice of you to experiment on me while Im sleeping. How would you notice if I rubbed close up on you while you were sleeping?Well, it dep repeals. What are we talking about?Just dont touch me while Im sleeping, okeh? A relationship is based on mutual trust and respect.So I guess the malleus and the stake are out of the question?TommyKmart had a sale on mallets. You were wondering if you were immortal. I wasnt liberation to try it without asking you.How long do you think it allow take for you to forget what sex feels like?Im sorry, Jody. Really, I am.The question of immortality did, indeed, bother Jody. The old vampire had said that she could be killed, but it was not the affiliate of thing that you could easily test. It was Tommy, of course, after a long talk with Peary while trying to avoid working on his little Souther n-girl story one morning, who came up with the test.Jody awoke one evening to find him in the rear end emptying ice cubes out of a tray into the big claw-foot tubful.He said, I was a lifeguard one summer in high school.So?I had to learn CPR. I spent half the summer pumping pee-peey pool water out of exhausted nine-year-olds.So?Drowning.Drowning?Yeah, we drown you. If youre immortal, youll be fine. If not, the cold water will retain you fresh and I can revive you. Theres about thirty more trays of ice luscious up on Peary. Could you grab some?Tommy, Im not sure about this.You want to know, dont you?But a tub of ice water?Ive run all the possibilities down guns, knives, an injection of potassium nitrate this is the only one that can fail and not really kill you. I know you want to know, but I dont want to lose you to find out.Jody, in spite of herself, was touched. Thats the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me.Well, you wouldnt want to kill me, would you? Tommy was a lit tle concerned about the fact that Jody had been feeding on him every quaternity days. Not that he felt sick or weak on the contrary, he found that apiece time she bit him he was energized, stronger, it seemed. He was throwing twice as much stock at the store and his mind seemed sharper, more alert. He was making good progress on his story. He was starting to look forward to being bitten.Come on then, he said. In the tub.Jody was wearing a silk nighty that she let vomit to the floor. Youre sure if this doesnt workYoull be fine.She took his hand. Im trusting you.I know. Get in.Jody stepped into the cold water. Brisk, she said.I didnt think you could feel it.I can feel temperature changes, but they dont bother me.Well experiment on that next. Under you go.Jody lay down in the tub, her hair spread crosswise the water like crimson kelp.Tommy checked his watch. After you go under, dont hold your breath. Its going to be hard, but suck the water into your lungs. Ill leave you under for f our minutes, then pull you out.Jody took deep breaths and looked at him, a glint of panic in her eyes. He bent and kissed her. I love you, he said.You do?Of course. He pushed her head under the water.She bobbed underpin up. Me too, she said. Then she went under.She tried to make herself take in the water but her lungs wouldnt let her and she held her breath. Four minutes later Tommy reached under her arms and pulled her up.I didnt do it, she said.Christ, Jody, I cant keep doing this.I held my breath.For four minutes?I think I could give birth gone hours.Try again. Youve got to inhale the water or youll never die.Thanks, coach.Please.She slipped under the water and sucked in a breath of water before she could think about it. She listened to the ice cubes tinkling on the surface, watched the tail end light refracting through the water, occasionally interrupted by Tommys face as he looked down on her. There was no panic, no choking she didnt even feel the claustrophobia that she had expected. Actually, it was kind of pleasant.Tommy pulled her up and she expelled a broad cough of water, then began breathing normally.Are you okay?Fine.You really did drown.It wasnt that bad.Try it again.This time Tommy left her under for ten minutes before pulling her up.After the cough, she said, I guess thats it.Did you see the long delve with the light at the end? All your dead relatives waiting? The fiery gates of hell?Nope, just ice cubes.Tommy turned around and sat down hard on the bathroom rug with his back to the tub. I feel like I was the one that got drowned.I feel colossal.Thats it, you know. You are immortal.I guess so. As far as we can test it. Can I get out of the tub now?Sure. He handed her a towel over his shoulder. Jody, are you going to leave me when I get old?Youre nineteen years old.Yeah, but next year Ill be twenty, then xxi then Ill be eating strained green beans and drooling all over myself and asking you what your name is every five seconds and youl l be twenty-six and perky and youll resent me every time you have to change my self-gratification pants.Thats a cheery thought.Well, you will resent it, wont you?Arent you jumping the gun a little? You have great bladder control Ive seen you drink six beers without going to the bathroom.Sure, now, butLook, Tommy, could you look at this from my point of idea? This is the first time Ive had to really think about this as well. Do you realize that Ill never have blue hair and walk with tiny little steps? Ill never drive really late all the time and spend hours complaining about my ailments. Ill never go to Dennys and steal all the supernumerary jelly packets and squirrel them away in a giant handbag.Tommy looked up at her. You were looking forward to those things?Thats not the point, Tommy. I might be immortal, but Ive lost a big part of my life. Like french fries. I miss eating French fries. Im Irish, you know. Ever since the Great Potato Famine my people get nervous if they dont eat French fries every few days. Did you ever think about that?No, I guess I didnt.I dont even know what I am. I dont know why Im here. I was made by some mystery creature and I dont have the slightest idea why, or what he wants from me, or what I am supposed to be doing. Only that hes messing with my life in ways I cant understand. Do you have any idea what that is like?Actually, I know exactly what thats like.You do?Of course, everybody does. By the way, the Emperor told me that they found another body today. In a Laundromat in the Tenderloin. Broken tell apart and no blood.Chapter 20AngelIf Inspector Alphonse Rivera had been a bird, he would have been a crow. He was angle and dark, with slick, sharp features and black eyes that shone and shifted with suspicion and guile. judgment of conviction and again his crowlike looks landed him in the undercover usance of coke dealer. Some time Cuban, sometimes Mexican, and one time Colombian, he had driven more Mercedes and worn more Ar mani suits than most real drug dealers, but after twenty years in narcotics, on three different departments, he had transferred to homicide, claiming that he needed to work among a better class of people namely, dead.Oh, the joys of homicide transparent crimes of passion, most solved within twenty-four hours or not at all. No stings, no suitcases of administration money, no pretense, just simple deduction sometimes very simple a dead wife in the kitchen a drunken husband standing in the foyer with a smoking xxxviii and Rivera, in his cheap Italian knock-off suit, gently disarming the new widower, who could only say, Liver and onions. A body, a suspect, a weapon, and a motive case solved and on to the next one, neat and tidy. Until now.Rivera thought, If my luck could be bottled, it would be classified a chemical weapon. He read through the coroners report again. Cause of demise compression fracture of the fifth and sixth vertebrae (broken neck). Subject had lost massive a mounts of blood no megas nail downic wounds. On its own, it was a uniquely enigmatic report, but it wasnt on its own. It was the second body in a month that had sustained massive blood loss with no visible wounds.Rivera looked across the desk to where his partner, Nick Cavuto, was reading a copy of the report.What do you think? Rivera said.Cavuto chewed on an unlit cigar. He was a burly and balding, gravel-voiced, third-generation cop six degrees tougher than his father and grandfather had been because he was gay. He said, I think if you have any vacation time coming, this would be the time to take it.So were fucked.Its too early for us to be fucked. Id say weve been taken to dinner and slipped the tongue on the good-night kiss.Rivera smiled. He liked the way Cavuto tried to make everything sound like dialogue from a Bogart movie. The big detectives pride and joy was a complete set of gestural first-edition Dashiell Hammett novels. Give me the days when police work was done w ith a snub nose and a pass along sap, Cavuto would say. Computers are for pussies.Rivera returned to the report. It looks like this guy would have been dead in a month anyway a ten-centimeter tumor on the liver. Malignancy the size of a grapefruit.Cavuto shifted the cigar to the other side of his mouth. The old broad at the Van Ness Motel was on her way out too. Congestive heart disease. Too weak for a bypass. She ate nitro pills like they were M&Ms.The euthanasia killer, Rivera said.So were assuming this was the same guy?Whatever you say, Nick. ii killings with the same MO and no motive. I dont even like the sound of it. Cavuto rubbed his temples as if trying to milk anxiety out through his tear ducts. You were in San Junipero during the Night Stalker killings. We couldnt take a piss without tripping over a reporter. I say we lock this down. As far as the papers are concerned, the victims were robbed. No connection.Rivera nodded. I need a smoke. Lets go talk to those guys that go t hit at the Laundromat a couple of weeks ago. Maybe theres a connection.Cavuto pushed himself out of the chair and grabbed his hat off the desk. Whoever voted for nonsmoking in the direct house should be pistol-whipped.Didnt the President sponsor that bill?All the more reason. The pussy.Tommy lay looking at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath and extricate his right foot from a hopeless tangle in the sheets. Jody was drawing a tic-tac-toe in the sweat on his chest with her finger.You dont sweat anymore, do you? he asked.Dont seem to.And youre not even out of breath. Am I doing something wrong?No, it was great. I only get breathless when when IWhen you bite me.Yeah.Did youYes.Are you sure?Are you?No, I faked. Tommy grinned.Really? Jody looked at the pie-eyed spot (on her side, of course).why do you think Im so winded? Its not easy to fake the interjection part.I, for one, was fooled.See.He reached down and unwrapped the sheet from his foot, then he lay back and stared at the ceiling. Jody began to go the sweaty locks of his hair into horns.Jody, Tommy said tentatively.Hmmm?When I get old, I mean, if were still togetherShe yanked on his hair.Ouch. Okay, well still be together. Have you ever heard of satyriasis?No.Well, it happens to real old guys. They run around with a consummate(a) hard-on, chasing teenage girls and humping anything that moves until they have to be put in restraints.Wow, interesting disease.Yeah, well, when I get old, if I start to show the symptomsYeah?Just let it run its course, okay?Ill look forward to it.Rivera held a elastic cup of orange juice for the mass of plaster and tubes that was LaOtis Small. LaOtis sipped from the straw, then pushed it away with his tongue. The body cast ran from below his knees to the top of his head, with holes for his face and outgoing tubes. Cavuto stood by the hospital bed taking notes.So you and your friends were doing laundry when an unarmed, blonde charwoman attacked you and put all three of you in the hospital? Right?She was a ninja, man. I know. I get the kick-boxing channel on cable.Cavuto chomped an unlit cigar. Your friend James says that she was six-four and weighed two hundred pounds.No, man, she was five-five, five-six.Your other buddy Cavuto checked his notepad for the name Kid Jay, said that it was a gang of Mexicans.No, man, he dreamin it was one ninja bitch.A five-and-a-half-foot woman put the three of you big strong guys in the hospital?Yeah. We was just mindin our own bidness. She come in and axed for some change. James tell her no, he got to put a load in the dryer, and she go fifty-one-fifty on him. She a ninja.Thank you, LaOtis, youve been very helpful. Cavuto shot Rivera a look and they left the hospital room.In the hall Rivera said, So were looking for a gang of redheaded, ninja Mexicans.Cavuto said, You think theres a molecule of truth in any of that?They were all unconscious when they were brought in, and obviously they havent tried to matc h up their stories. So if you throw out everything that doesnt match, you end up with a woman with long red hair.You think a woman could do that to them and contest to snap the neck of two other people without a struggle?Not a chance, Rivera said. His beeper went off and he checked the number. Ill tender in.Cavuto pulled up. Go ahead, Im going back in to talk to LaOtis. abide me outside emergency.Take it easy, Nick, the guys in a body cast.Cavuto grinned. Kinda erotic, aint it? He turned and lumbered back toward LaOtis Smalls room.Jody walked Tommy up to commercialize Street, watched him eat a burger and fries, and put him on the 42 bus to work. Killing the time while Tommy worked was beseeming tedious. She tried to stay in the loft, watched the late-night talk shows and old movies on cable, read magazines, and did a little cleaning, but by two in the morning the caged-cat feeling came over her and she went out to wander the streets.Sometimes she walked food market among the s treet people and the convention crowds, other times she took a bus to North Beach and hung out on Broadway watching the sailors and the punks stagger, drunk and stoned, or the hookers and the hustlers running their games. It was on these crowded streets that she felt most lonely. Time and again she wanted to turn to someone and point out a unique heat archetype or the dark aura she sensed around the sick like a child communion the cloud animals flying through a summer sky. But no one else could see what she saw, no one heard the whispered propositions, the pointed refusals, or the rustle of money exchanging hands in alleys and doorways.Other times she crept through the back streets and listened to the symphony of noises that no one else heard, smelled the spectrum of odors that had long ago exhausted her vocabulary. Each night there were more nameless sights and smells and sounds, and they came so fast and deadly that she eventually gave up trying to name them.She thought, This i s what it is to be an animal. Just experience direct, instant, and wordless memory and recognition, but no words. A poet with my senses could spend a lifetime trying to describe what it is to hear a building breathe and smell the aging of concrete. And for what? Why write a song when no one can play the notes or understand the lyrics? Im alone.Cavuto came through the double doors of the emergency room and joined Rivera, who was standing by the brown, City-issue Ford smoking a cigarette.What was the call? Cavuto asked.We got another one. Broken neck. South of Market. Elderly male.Fuck, Cavuto said, yanking open the car door. What about blood loss?They dont know yet. This ones still warm. Rivera flipped his cigarette butt into the parking lot and climbed into the car. You get anything more out of LaOtis?Nothing important. They werent doing their laundry, they went in looking for the girl, but hes sticking with the ninja story.River started the car and looked at Cavuto. You didnt ro ugh him up?Cavuto pulled a Cross pen out of his shirt pocket and held it up. Mightier than the sword.Rivera cringed at the thought of what Cavuto might have done to LaOtis with the pen. You didnt leave any marks, did you?Lots, Cavuto grinned.Nick, you cant do that kind of Relax, Cavuto interrupted. I just wrote, Thanks for all the in cropation Im sure well get some convictions out of this, on his cast. Then I signed it and told him that I wouldnt marker it out until he told me the truth.Did you get-go it out?Nope.If his friends see it, theyll kill him.Fuck him, Cavuto said. Ninja redheads, my ass.Four in the morning. Jody watched neon beer signs buzzing color across the dew-damp sidewalks of Polk Street. The street was deserted, so she played sensory games to amuse herself closing her eyes and listening to the soft scratch of her sneakers echoing off the buildings as she walked. If she concentrated, she could walk several blocks without looking, listening for the streetlight switches at the corners and feeling the subtle changes in wind currents at the cross streets. When she felt she was going to run into something, she could shuffle her feet and the sound would form a rough image in her mind of the walls and poles and wires around her. If she stood quietly, she could reach out and form a map of the whole City in her head sounds drew the lines, and smells filled in the colors.She was listening to the angle boats idling at the wharf a mile away when she heard footsteps and opened her eyes. A champion figure had rounded the corner a couple of blocks ahead of her and was walking, head down, up Polk. She stepped into the doorway of a closed Russian restaurant and watched him. Sadness came off him in black waves.His name was Philip. His friends called him Philly. He was twenty-three. He had grown up in Georgia and had run away to the City when he was sixteen so he wouldnt have to pretend to be something he was not. He had run away to the City to find l ove. After the one-night stands with rich older men, after the bars and the bathhouses, after finding out that he wasnt a freak, that there were other people just like him, after the last of the confusion and shame had colonised like red Georgia dust, hed found love.Hed lived with his lover in a studio in the Castro district. And in that studio, sitting on the edge of a rented hospital bed, he had filled a syringe with morphia and injected it into his lover and held his hand while he died. Later, he cleared away the bed pans and the IV stand and the machine that he used to suck the fluid out of his lovers lungs and he threw them in the trash. The doctor said to hold on to them that he would need them.They buried Phillys lover in the morning and they took the embroidered square of framework that was draped on the casket and folded it and handed it to him like the flag to a war widow. He got to keep it for a while before it was added to the quilt. He had it in his pocket now.His h air was gone from the chemotherapy. His lungs hurt, and his feet hurt the sarcomas that sight his body were worst on his feet and his face. His joints ached and he couldnt keep his food down, but he could still walk. So he walked.He walked up Polk Street, head down, at four in the morning, because he could. He could still walk.When he reached the doorway of a Russian restaurant, Jody stepped out in front of him and he stopped and looked at her.Somewhere, way down deep, he found that there was a smile left. Are you the Angel of demise? he asked.Yes, she said.Its good to see you, Philly said.She held her arms out to him.