Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 25

Part IIIHuntersChapter 25All Dressed Up gobblermy stormed round the loft collecting beer cans and breakfast plates and carrying them to the kitchen. Bitch he verbalize to Peary. Shark-faced cunt. Its non exchangeable I gear up under ones skin any experience at this. Its not like thithers Cosmo articles on how to cook c be of a vampire. Bloodsucking, day-sleeping, turtle-hating, creepy-crawling, no-toilet-paper-buying, inconsiderate bitchHe slammed an armload of dishes into the sink. I didnt ask for this. A few friends come tout ensemble over for breakfast and she goes baste-shit. Did I make a fuss when her mother came over with no notice? Did I say a word when she brought a dead guy home and shoved him under the bed? No glumense, Peary. Do I complain about her weird hours? Her eating habits? No, I asknt utter a word.Its not like I came to the city saying, Oh, I cant require to find a fair sexhoodhood whose only joy in action is sucking out my bodily fluids. Okay, well, maybe I did, however I didnt mean this.Tommy tied up a trash foundation near of beer cans and threw it in the corner. The crash reverberated through his head, reminding him of his hangover. He cradled his throbbing temples and went to the bath dwell, where he heaved until he position his stomach would turn inside out. He pushed himself up from the pealing and wiped his eyes. Two snapping turtles regarded him from the tub.What are you guys come alonging at?Scotts jaw dropped o indite and he hissed. Zelda ducked under the foot of fouled water and swam against the corner of the tub.I invite a squander. You guys are going to have to roam rough for a while.Tommy found a towel and w resideled the turtles out of the tub, then stepped in and ran the visuali follow upr until the water went cold. As he dressed to kill(p) he watched Scott and Zelda wandering around the bedroom, bumping into w completelys, then behinding up and slumping mop up until they hit another wall.Yo u guys are miserable here, arent you? No one appreciates you? Well, it doesnt look like Jodys going to engross you. Whoever heard of a vampire with a weak stomach? Theres no reason for all of us to be miserable.Tommy had been using the milk crates hed carried Scott and Zelda in as laundry baskets. He dumped the dirty laundry on the story and lined the crates with damp towels. Lets go, guys. Were going to the park.He put Scott in a crate and carried him cumulation the steps to the sidewalk. Then went back up for Zelda and called a taxicab. When he re glum to the street, one of the biker/sculptors was standing outside of the foundry, blotting sweat out of his rim with a bandanna.You live upstairs, right? The sculptor was about thirty-five, long-haired and bearded, habiliment grimy jeans and a denim seat with no shirt. His beer belly protruded from the vest and hung over his belt like a great hairy bag of pudding.Yeah, Im Tom Flood. Tommy set the crate on the sidewalk and makeer ed his hand. The sculptor clamped down on it until Tommy winced with pain.Im brusk. My partners Monk. Hes inside.Monk?Short for Monkey. We work in brass.Tommy massaged his crushed hand. I dont get it.Balls on a brass monkey.Oh, Tommy say, nodding as if he unders withald.Whats with the turtles? frank asked.Pets, Tommy said. Theyre getting too big for our place, so Im going to take a cab over to Golden Gate Park and let them go in the pond.That why your old lady left all pissed off?Yeah, she doesnt necessity them in the house anymore.Fucking women, Frank said in sympathy. My last old lady was always on me about keeping my scooter in the living room. I unruffled have the scooter.Obviously, in Franks eyes, Tommy should be carrying Jody out in a crate. Frank thought he was a wimp. No big deal, Tommy said with a shrug, they were hers. I dont really care.I could use a couple of turtles, if you inadequacy to save cab fare.Really? Tommy hadnt relished the idea of loading the crates int o a cab anyway. You wouldnt eat them, would you? I mean, I dont care, but No fucking way, man.A blue cab pulled up and stopped. Tommy signaled to the driver, then turned back to Frank. Ive been ply them hamburger.Cool, Frank said. Im on it.I have to go. Tommy opened the cab entre and looked back at Frank. Can I visit them?Any clipping, Frank said. Later. He bent and picked up the crate containing Zelda.Tommy got in the cab. Marina Safeway, he said. He would be a couple of hours early for work, but he didnt want to hang on at the loft and risk another tirade if Jody returned. He could scratch off the while reading or nearwhatthing.As the cab pulled away he looked out the back window and watched Frank carrying the second crate inside. Tommy felt up as if he had just aban through with(p)d his children.Jody thought, I guess not ein truththing changed when I changed. Without realizing how she got there, Jody found herself at Macys in Union Square. It was as if close to(preno minal) instinctual navigator, activated by conflict with men, had guided her there. A dozen propagation in the past she had found herself here, arriving with a purse full of tear-smeared Kleenex and a handful of credit cards tilted toward their limit. It was a common, and very human, response. She sight other women doing the same thing flipping through racks, testing fabrics, checking prices, fighting back tears and anger, and actually believing salespeople who told them that they looked stunning.Jody wondered if department stores k saucily what percentage of their profits came from domestic help unrest. As she passed a display of indecently expensive cosmetics, she espy a sign that read Melange Youth Cream Because hell neer assure why youre worth it. Yep, they k recent. The righteous and the wronged shall find solace in a sale at Macys.It was two weeks until Christmas and the stores in Union Square were staying open late into the evening. Tinsel and lights were festooned a cross every aisle, and every item not marked for sale was decorated with fake evergreen, red and green ribbon, and mingled plastic approximations of snow. Droves of package-laden shoppers trudged through the aisles like the chorus line of the cheerful, sleigh-bell version of the Bataan dying March, ever careful to keep moving lest some ambitious window dresser mistake them for mannequins and spray them down with aerosol snow.Jody watched the heat trails of the lights, respire deep the aroma of fudge and candy and a thousand mingled colognes and deodorants, listened to the whizz of the motors that animated electric elves and reindeer under the cloak of Muzak-mellowed Christmas carols and she want it.Christmas is correct as a vampire, she thought.The crowds apply to twainer her, but now they happenmed like like cattle harmless and unaware. To her predator side, even the women wearing fur, who used to grate on her nerves, seemed not only harmless, but even teach in this he ightened sensual world.Id like to roll naked on mink, she thought. She frowned to herself. non with Tommy, though. Not for a while, anyway.She found herself scanning the crowds, looking at for the dark strain that betrayed the dying-prey then caught herself and shivered. She looked over their heads, like an elevator rider avoiding eye contact, and the glare of black caught her eye.It was a cocktail dress, minimally displayed on an emaciated Venus de milo maize mannequin in a Santa hat. The LBD, Little Black Dress the mood equivalent of nuclear weapons public lingerie effective not because of what it was, but what it wasnt. You had to have the legs and the body to wear an LBD. Jody did. But you also had to have the confidence, and that shed never been able to muster. Jody looked down at her jeans and sweatshirt, then at the dress, then at her tennis shoes. She pushed her way through the crowd to the dress.A rotund, tastefully dressed sales char adult female approached Jody f rom behind. May I help you?Jodys gaze was trained on the dress as if it were the Star of Bethlehem and she was overstocked with frankincense and myrrh. I need to see that dress in a three.Very good, the woman said. Ill remove you a five and a seven as well.Jody looked at the woman for the archetypal time and saw the woman looking at her sweatshirt as if it would fritter away tentacles and strangle her at any moment.A three will be fine, Jody said.A three might be a bit snug, the woman said.Thats the idea, Jody said. She smiled politely, imagining herself snatching out handfuls of the womans tastefully tinted hair.Now lets get the item number off of that, the woman said, making a show of holding the tag so that Jody could see the price. She sneaked a look for Jodys reaction.Hes paying, Jody said, just to be irritating. Its a gift.Oh, how nice, the woman said, labeling to brighten, but obviously disgusted. Jody understood. Six months ago she would have detested the kind of woman she was pretending to be. The woman said, This will be benignant for holiday parties.Actually, its for a funeral. Jody couldnt remember having this much fun while shopping.Oh, Im sorry. The woman looked apologetic and held her hands to her heart in sympathy.Its okay I didnt bonk the deceased very well.I see, the woman said.Jody lowered her eyes. His wife, she said. Ill get the dress, the woman said, turning and hurrying away.Tommy had only been in the Safeway once before when it was slake open the day he applied for the job. Now it seemed entirely too active and entirely too quiet without the Stones or Pearl compaction blasting over the speakers. He felt that his territory had been somehow break by strangers. He resented the customers who ruined the Animals work by taking things off the shelves.As he passed the office he nodded to the manager and headed to the breakroom to kill time until it was time to go to work. The breakroom was a windowless room behind the meat department, equipt with molded plastic chairs, a Formica folding table, a coffee tree machine, and a variety of safety posters. Tommy brushed some crumbs off a chair, found a coffee-stained Readers compendium under an opened package of pass water bear claws, and sat down to read and sulk.He read A Bears Got Mom Drama in Real Life and I Am Joes Duodenum and he was beginning to feel a pull toward the bathroom and the Midwest, both things he associated with Readers Digest, when he flipped to an article entitled Bats Our Wild and goofy Winged Friends and felt his duodenum quiver with interest.Someone entered the breakroom, and without looking up, Tommy said, Did you know that if the brownish bat fed on humans instead of insects, that one bat could eat the entire population of Minneapolis in one night?I didnt know that, said a womans voice.Tommy looked up from the magazine to see the new cashier, Mara, pulling a chair out from the table. She was tall and a miniscule thin, but large-breasted a blue-eyed blonde of about twenty. Tommy had been expecting one of the calamity boys and he stared at her for a second while he changed gears. Oh, hi. Im Tom Flood. Im on the night crew.Ive seen you, she said. Im Mara. Im new.Tommy smiled. Nice to meet you. I came in a little early to catch up on some paperwork.Readers Digest? She raised an eyebrow.Oh, this? No, I dont normally read it. I just spotted this article on bats and decided to check it out. Theyre our wild and barmy winged friends, you know? He looked at the page as if to verify his interest. For instance, did you know that the vampire bat is the only mammal that has been successfully nippy and thawed out alive?Im sorry, bats give me the creeps.Me too, Tommy said, throwing the magazine aside. Do you read?Ive been reading the Beats. I just moved here and I want to get a feeling for the Citys literature.Youre kidding. Ive only been here a few months myself. Its a great city.I havent had a chance to look around much. Movi ng and everything. I left a bad concomitant back home and Ive been trying to adjust.She didnt look at him when she talked. Tommy assumed at initiatory that it was because she found him disgusting, but after studying her he completed that she was just shy.Have you been to North Beach? The Beats all lived there in the fifties.No, I dont know my way around yet.Oh, you have to go to City Lights Books, and Enricos. And the bars up there all have pictures of Kerouac and Ginsberg on the walls. You can almost hear the jazz playing.Mara finally looked up at him and smiled. Youre interested in the Beats? Her eyes were wide, bright, and crystal-blue. He liked her.Im a writer, Tommy said. It was his turn to look away. I mean, I want to be a writer. I used to live in Chinatown, its right adjacent to North Beach.Maybe you could give me directions to some of the hot spots.I could show you, Tommy said. As soon as he said it he cute to retract the offer. Jody would kill him.That would be wonder ful, if you wouldnt mind. I dont know anyone in the City except the other cashiers, and they all have home lives.Tommy was confused. The manager had said that she had recently lost a child. He assumed that she was married. He didnt want it to appear that he was trying to make a move on her. He didnt really want to make a move on her. But if he were still single, unattachedNo, Jody wouldnt understand. Having never had a girlfriend before, hed never been tempted to stray. He had no idea how to deal with it. He said, I could show you and your husband around a little and the two of you could have a night on the town.Im divorced, Mara said. I wasnt married very long.Im sorry, Tommy said.Mara shook her head as if to dismiss his sympathy. Its a poor story. I got pregnant and we got married. The baby died and he left. She said it without feeling, as if she had distanced herself emotionally from the experience as if it had happened to someone else. Im trying to make a new start. She che cked her watch. Id better get back up front. Ill see you.She stood and started to throw the room.Mara, Tommy called and she turned. Id love to show you around if youd like.Id like that. Thanks. Im working days for the rest of the week.No problem, Tommy said. How about tomorrow night? I dont have a car, but we can meet in North Beach at Enricos if you want.Write down the address. She took a slip of paper and a pen from her purse and handed it to him. He scribbled the address and handed it back to her.What time? she asked.Seven, I guess.Seven it is, she said, and left the breakroom.Tommy thought Im a dead man.Jody turned in front of the mirror, admiring the way the LED fit. It was cut down to the olive-sized of her back and had a neckline that plunged to the sternum, but was held together at her cleavage with a transparent black mesh. The saleswoman stood beside her, frowning, holding larger sizes of the same dress. are you sure you dont want to try the five, dear?Jody said, No, thi s one is fine. Ill need some sheer black nylons to go with it.The saleswoman fought down a grimace and managed a professional smile. And do you have shoes to scoff?Suggestions? Jody asked, not looking away from her reflection. She thought, I wouldnt have been caught dead in something like this a few months ago. Oh hell, Im caught dead in everything now.Jody laughed at the thought and the saleswoman took it personally and dropped her polite smile. An edge of disgust in her voice, she said, I suppose you could complete the look with a pair of Italian fuck-me pumps and some maroon lipstick.Jody turned to the frumpish woman and gave her a knowing smile. Youve done this before, havent you?After a visit to the shoe department, Jody found herself at the cosmetics respond where an ebullient gay man talked her into doing her colors on the computer. He stared at the screen in disbelief.Oh my goodness. This is exciting.What? Jody said impatiently. She just wanted to buy some lipstick and ge t out. Shed satisfied her shopping Jones by reducing the woman in evening wear to tears.Youre my first winter, said Maurice. (His name was Maurice it said so on his badge.) You know, Ive done a thousand autumns, and I get springs out the yin-yang, but a winter We are going to have funMaurice began piling samples of eye shadow, lipstick, mascara, and powder on the rejoinder conterminous to the winter color palette. He opened a tube of mascara and held it succeeding(a) to Jodys face. This ones called Elm Blight, it approximates the color of dead trees in the snow. It complements your eyes wonderfully. Go ahead, dear, try it.While Jody brushed the mascara onto her lashes, using the magnifying mirror on the counter, Maurice read from the winter Womans profile.The pass Woman is as wild as a blizzard, as fresh as new snow. While some see her as cold, she has a fiery heart under that ice-queen exterior. She likes the stark simplicity of Nipponese art and the daring complexity of Russi an literature. She prefers sharp to flowing lines, worry to pouting, and rock and roll to country and western. Her drink is vodka, her car is German, her analgesic is Advil. The Winter Woman likes her men weak and her coffee strong. She is prone to anemia, hysteria, and suicide. Maurice stepped back from the counter and took a deep bow, as if he had just finished a dramatic reading.Jody looked up from the mirror and blinked, the lashes on her right eye describing a starlike Clockwork Orange pattern against her pale skin. They can tell all of that from my coloring?Maurice nodded and brandished a sable brush. Here, dear, lets try some of this blush to bring up those cheekbones. Its called American Rust, it emulates the color of a 63 Rambler that has been driven on salted roads. Very winter.Jody leaned on the counter to allow Maurice access to her cheeks.A half hour later she looked in the mirror, rotated now to the non-magnified side, and pursed her lips. For the first time she real ly looked like a vampire.I wish we had a camera, Maurice gushed. You are a winter masterpiece. He handed her a dinky bag filled with cosmetics. That will be three hundred dollars.Jody paying him. Is there somewhere I can change? Id like to see how I look with my new outfit.Maurice pointed across the store. Theres a changing room over there. And dont forget your free gift, dear, the Needless Notions Lotion Collection, a fifty-dollar value. Maurice held up a plastic faux-Gucci gym bag full of bottles.Thanks. Jody took the bag and sulked off toward the changing room. Halfway across the store she picked up the sound of the dowdy saleswoman from evening wear and turned to see her talking to Maurice. Jody cerebrate and could hear what they were saying over the crowd and Christmas Muzak.How did it go? asked the woman.Maurice grinned. She went away looking like a Donner Party Barbie.The woman and Maurice exchanged a exulting high five.Bitches, Jody thought.