“Farrow… I’m sick of aiming off into the darkness.” I heard her call out before she fired off yet another round. I didn’t say anything.
“Give me a target.” Blam! Blam! The sergeant’s tone was playful. Every sentence followed by a bullet or two. I did my all to blend into the beach’s soft slopes. I pointed the gun at the moon directly above me. I had no bullets and an out of range target. Raising the burner to the heavens, I pulled the trigger. The slight click from my weapon led to another pair of bullets striking the sand beside me. Then a click of her own. Her gun was empty. I felt the darkness around me… the suffocating summer air didn’t let up even in the middle night… it just kept choking you… tearing you open… I could feel my heart fighting to escape my chest… I was about to attempt one last mad dash when a pair of woman’s nails dug into my skin. Pale as the moon, Kiko held onto me, aggression surging. Her body wrapped over mine. Programmed gallant, I rolled over on top of the strange woman. The tide slowly made its way up our legs. We stayed this way listening closely for a sign that death was closing in on us. I was still holding the gun. The tide continued to approach until it was at our necks.
{XIV}
“I DREAMT OF A KNIFE Farrow. I dreamt of a knife!” Seized by demons, Kiko woke up in a frenzy. We were lying in the dunes. She was trembling, sweating out her nightmares at sunrise. I quickly scanned the apocalyptic beach for Sgt. Bethany Powers, but it was deserted. The empty gun was at my side.
“Why’d she set her sights on you?”
“How do I know?”
“She wants you dead.”
“It seems that way, but then why’d she leave me alive.”
“She probably thinks you know Percy and Monika’s killer.”
“You don’t think she thinks I’m the one?”
“If it’s not you… it’s definitely someone you know.”
“It’s not me. I’ve been chipping away at my new book. I haven’t seen anyone I know for the past year.”
“Only person I really spent time with was Gloom.”
“How’d you run into her?”
“I worked for a men’s magazine in Shinjuku. We were both featured in the same article. Her story shared the same page as my breasts squeezed purple in a rope dress.”
“What?”
“I didn’t think anything of it, until I saw it in print. I felt like somehow her words covered me… protected me… kept me warm. Or maybe they just immobilized me.” Kiko turned her back on me as we made our way off the beach and back onto the barren Rockaway streets.
“So you like to read?”
“I love books. I often imagine that I am nothing more than a character within a book… my fate controlled by an anonymous writer.
“And now you’re in New York.”
“Wasn’t easy. Each time I tried to leave they begged and bribed me for one more shoot. Paid me this, gave me that, until they finally lit me on fire. Dousing me with pesticide, the cocksuckers laughed like children, calling me a whore, a bedbug, an insect. They threw cigars and candles at me. I woke up in a hospital and left immediately, without waiting for some bullshit doctor to tell me if I was okay or not. Emptied my savings full speed and bought my way into America.” Kiko rolled down her tights, grabbing my hand to slide it over the scarred flesh of her thigh.
Too far to make a bandit’s run for the Mexican border, our only viable options see-sawed between confrontation and chameleon.
“Take a look from the outside Farrow. Nobody has a better reason to kill Featherton than you. The guy really fucked your life up. If I were standing where you are right now: Revenge wouldn’t be out of the question.”
“He didn’t fuck my life up. I did.”
“Farrow don’t take all the blame. It’s just the way it goes. Sometimes people make you into what you are. You might not like it, but that’s what they do.”
“Nobody made me into anything.” I fell into her trap, inhaling the second-hand smoke of her abstruse cancer stick.
“People kill each other for nothing in this world. It’s definitely cheaper to hire a hitman than it is to take a cab from here back to the village.” Kiko’s eyes looked mad and deranged. Her small size seemed to amplify the effect as she got more and more worked up.
“I didn’t kill Percy.” It was crucial to be clear and concise. Nowadays, I was always on the stand.
Burly brick buildings made way for rows of boarded-up bungalows. We spotted a yellow cab parked in a driveway overrun by tall weeds. With a look of madness in her eyes, Kiko marched right up to the door, banging until the owner came out in a red velvet robe with a matching towel head wrap.
“That your cab in the driveway?” Kiko got right in the scruffy cabbie’s face, half-flirting, half-demanding.
“Yeah. Whose do you think it is?” My stomach dropped when I got a good look at the madame of the taxi, who did a silent double-take when he saw me leaning on her cab.
“We’re going to 6th Avenue and Minetta Lane. Take the Williamsburg Bridge.”
“You know what time it is? I just got home a couple hours ago.” Five borough fortuity, I guessed the cabbie spent his life moving in circles. Covering the same ground many times over. Maybe we all did.
“Hundred bucks even.”
“Whatever the meter says we’ll pay.” Kiko attempted to barter mid-yawn.
“Meter stays off.”
“Taxi Poems.” I tried to catch the cabbie’s eye, but only got a weird look from Kiko.
{XV}
“NOW THE ONLY WAY I can relax is to fill my mouth with your cock.” Kiko rubbed the bulge in my pants, slowly unzipping my fly. Reality defiled. I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things. Rewind. “That’s no cabbie. That’s a cop.”
“Say what?”
Rain strafed Cross Bay Boulevard. A dragstrip through the weeds. My face fell onto the back of Kiko’s head. She was already unfastening my jeans with her teeth. Giant drops piercing Jamaica Bay. Kisses landing below. Leaning over, her skirt ran up to the very top of her thighs, ass bulging at the sides. The cabbie gazed in the rear view, swerving a little, and looking away. Kiko kept eye contact as she gently pecked at me. Moving with an illusion of love that for the moment I needed to believe in. The slobbering became louder. I reached into her shirt pulling her breasts out. We stopped short at a red light. The driver blew us kisses through the rearview. Kiko took me down to the bottom of her throat. The sound of her slight gags made me sink deeper in the weathered seat.
“Who is she?” Hysterical, Missy shook the laptop a few times before flinging it against the wall.
“What’s your problem?” I had clean hands, so the accusation disintegrated on impact.
“The girl in your book. I knew I couldn’t trust you.”
“Which one?”
“Which one? The slut that’s which one, you son of a bitch. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill them all. Whores!”
System shocked, I dragged my face out of her hair. Time was advancing. All three of us were waiting for the same thing. Kiko pulled herself to the surface. Her presence was a relief… not as much as an ocean liner into an iceberg… or a concord into the sun… I guess if it was a space shuttle I would just hope it would keep going. Face painted, her lips were dripping and she wanted me to take a good look before she stuck her tongue down my throat.