“Keep it to yourself.”
“Hawaii’s not dead. She vaporized same as Missy.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’m blackmailing Hawaii. She doesn’t know it’s me, but I’m blackmailing her.”
“Huh? Wait… what?”
“Everyone has something private that if exposed will ruin them. It didn’t take long to figure out the ghost in Hawaii’s closet. I charged her weekly installments. I did it all through Kuroneko. She’s not my birth mother. She sponsored me for a visa and helped me out when I first came to New York. She needs money to keep the sauna up and running. I am forever indebted to her, so I took an interest in it.”
“Hawaii didn’t resist?”
“I didn’t even think she’d make the first payment, but she just kept on paying. I wasn’t sure how she got the money. I could only guess that she was taking it from Percy. Somehow she was shaking him down for much more than I was taking. Hawaii and Percy both thought Monika was behind this. I had Kuroneko drop hints to help them figure it out. For some reason, I was invisible to them. I’d be lying if I didn’t realize this from the beginning. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t use this to my advantage. Farrow I’m starting to fall for you and I’ve already hurt you so much. You can never love me after what I did. How will you be able to love me now that you know the truth?” The sound of the sewer water boiling was faint and recognizable.
A giant monogrammed Louis Vuitton duffle bag led to the stench of a million or so in cash that was stashed away dreaming with the rats and roaches. Kuroneko stared at Kiko hoping she could psychically guide her mind to a more narcissistic scheme.
{XXXIX}
HOPPING ONTO THE MOPED, KURONEKO pulled up the back of her reformatory school skirt to flash me a little fur.
“Forget something?” I tied and twisted the leather strap of the overloaded bag around my arm several times, settling in behind her.
“Don’t worry Farrow I won’t be the only naked pussy on the road.” The bike kicked as we blasted out of the alley, her skirt fluttering up and down, teasing the cars beside us with the powder white lines of her thighs. From what I understood the plan was to wave the money in front of Hawaii’s nose until she gave up Missy’s location. Nobody said much about it. It was hard to believe the girls would risk losing that kind of money, but Kiko was calling the shots and by some crazy fortune: I fell into her palm
Streaks of reckless acceleration through the sunshower, Kuroneko took her hands from the handlebars one at a time, grabbing mine, and sliding them below her skirt. Her hips were familiar territory.
“Hold my purse. Don’t let go.” Kuroneko slid a little, repositioning and I squeezed tight enough to make her body jerk.
“Find some honesty in the world you created.” Kuroneko leaned back on me as Queensboro Plaza closed in on us.
“If money was my thing…” Rusty limbs on the scratch paper sky.
“If money was your thing you could take off running.”
“But I won’t.”
“And that’s why I suspect you’re a slow runner.”
“Farrow something’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“I mean with my body. I can’t stop coming.” Missy was crying and laughing at the same time. “It feels good, but I’m scared. I’m scared to feel so good.”
Voodoo drums in the rainforest, the wheels were still spinning when I hopped off the moped. I could hear Kuroneko quickly pull over and drop the bike. I didn’t look back, but an image of her stressed out greedy face cracked me up as I sprinted up the stairs leading to the elevated station. The crowd got thick in the tunnel bridge. No room to run. Kuroneko blatantly tugged at the bag like a gypsy pickpocket in front of a tour bus. We moved prehistoric, mostly with shoulders and hips. Way beyond the imagination of the everyday suckers caught up in their daily struggle, they were all getting smacked with a million in cash without knowing it.
{XL}
SKYLINE AT OUR BACKS, THE platform was shaking. All the trains were coming in at the same time. The sun cut through our eyelids. I didn’t realize until I bent over…
Missy fainted here. Smashed her skull on the concrete with a hollow thud. She had a slight seizure. Blood ran from her head like a kicked over bucket of red paint. I begged for someone to get an ambulance. In the back I knew every answer to the paramedics questions. At the emergency room I got the third degree. They assumed I knocked her out. I waited in the lobby for six hours. They finally let me see her, minutes before she was released. She was talking on the phone to somebody. I didn’t know she had her phone with her. I tried calling it several times from the waiting room, but just got the voicemail.
“I’ll try Percy. I’ll try.” She whispered in a soft voice that I pretended not to hear.
“Money Farrow. Money.” I followed the pasty legs up to the short shorts until I was damn sure it was Hawaii.
“This is my little girl we’re talking about.” I was screaming at Hawaii. Studying her neck to know just where I would place my thumbs, if it came to that.
“Chill Farrow chill.” Kuroneko patted down her face with a handkerchief, trying not to let the sweat mix with the thin layer of powder. Everyone else around us tried not to act shocked, but it was bothering them. Like it or not, we were packed together. The exhausted workers in their dirty clothes scrunched up at the sound of a man lashing a woman in broad daylight. The words “money” and “little girl” hung in the air. A spray that everyone could understand. A mist that transforms a situation into a disaster. A grumbling that elevates a disaster into a tragedy. A hoard of rats started rising from the tracks. They seemed bothered. Like they knew something we didn’t. Just as the family dog can smell the storm before the first drop hits.
“Farrow I’m sorry. Farrow I know.”
“What do you know?”
Kuroneko took off running. Of course she did. Hawaii went next. And I was standing there staring at the faces of strangers as the possibilities faded. Fuck that, like hell I was.
{XLI}
SCREAMS OF AWE AND HORROR, Kuroneko’s feet hit the open tracks completely blowing minds. She ran so hard with her skirt stuck up in the back, ass exposed, pushing her body to the limit like an angel-dusted thoroughbred. The crazy powder white mare with the black mane took the curve towards Astoria trying to make it to 39th Ave before the next N or Q to Manhattan. It was a fucked up gamble.
Kill the brain. I wanted to throw up a lifetime of meals when my feet hit the stilted tracks. Mandatory perfection found its infancy. Every step of the sprint had to bless the slats. I heard Hawaii’s voice yell back, “Farrow focus.”
Kuroneko already made her way around the curve leaving the plaza. Northern turned into 31st Street. It was a straight shot to the next station. A few blocks away.
“Faster.” Hawaii panted, frozen with fear. Another train heading into the city chugged dead into us. It was rare to get two so close back to back. It just wasn’t our day.