Chapter 2 – Part 4

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I turned to look at Rain blushing; the door opened a crack stopped by a thick security chain.

“Yea what is it?” Said a pair of dark eyes.

“Marla open this fuckin door, I really need to come in!” Rain screamed, pounding on the door. Had they followed us?

“Shit. Hi Rain. Wait a second; I need to put on some cloths.”

The sound of someone walking around was followed shortly by the soft metal slide of the chain being removed.

Marla opened the door and let us into her small apartment. It was cave like inside, the walls covered with dark tapestries interspersed with Type O Negative, Tool, and VNV Nation posters. The windows had been covered with foil.

Marla stood before us, one hip cocked out, hands on her midsection. She was dressed in an extra large white zombie t-shirt and little else. A cartoon zombie with a large X burned into its head stared back at us. Her bare legs where covered to mid thigh by the long black t-shirt. Her coal black hair, a series of thin dread locks, was pulled back into a single large tendril. Both arms were as covered with tattoos like Rain’s, I noticed several pieces that could have been by the same artist. Marla was the kind of girl that shaved off her eyebrows and drew them back on.

I stood awkwardly to one side as Rain explained why we were there.

“Fuck girl, you in some serious shit. Them Irish guys don’t fuck around when it comes to lending out money, especially now-n-days.” When she talked I could see that she had split her tongue. I had seen that on a website once. The tongue is split down the middle so that the end looks like a snake tongue.

“What the fuck is he staring at?” I looked down quickly, blushing even harder than I had before.

“Marla, Quentin, Quentin this is Marla.” Rain introduced us. “It’s a long story; can we stay at your place for a couple hours till things blow over?”

“Sure honey, you know you’re always welcome here.” She smiled.

Marla was apparently into the color black. Most things in her apartment were black, or a deep blood red. I sat on a black couch trying to stay awake. The stress of our flight from the Irish mob had worn me out.

Marla got us some water; mine came in a tiny mug with Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas on it. His skeletal arm made up the handle. She turned on the Television and handed me the remote. I turned to the local news channel. The main story was the fact that 4 hurricanes were currently in the Atlantic at the same time. They were all expected to hit the east coast in the next couple of days. There was no news about a couple of people forcefully kicking there way into any local apartments.

Rain and Marla talked about Rain’s problems. Marla didn’t seem to notice or care that when she sat down her black lace underwear showed. Her legs had long stitched tattooed along the outside, like she was a giant doll held together with string. I made sure to keep my attention on the news.

“I can’t go back to work. If they could find me at my place they will know where I work.”

“Maybe you can get out of town, your cousin in Cali?”

“Have you seen the price of a bus ticket? Now that gas is so expensive, I can’t afford that shit.”

“You have your bike”

CNN had stories about the likelihood that hurricane Martha, Ned, Ophelia, and Peter would slam into the entire east coast from Florida, to Maine all at once. They had graphics that looked like a bar graph, with the paths of each storm lined up in nice lines set to run into land in an orderly pattern. I flipped through the channels, Fox news was running a special on the “Terrorists in Our Midst” they were currently highlighting a couple of ELF members that had set a bunch of Hummers on fire in Oregon.

“I left it at the apartment, and besides what am I going to do ride to fuckin California?”

“Shit, girl I seen how you ride, you could do it.”

“Thanks, but there has got to be a way to reason with these people, maybe I could get them some of the money and then they would let me pay the rest back slowly…”

“How long are you overdue?” Marla placed a hand on Rain’s leg.

The home shopping network was selling air filter masks with hello kitty patterns on them. Seems yet another mega-fire was ravaging the west. No reason to look unfashionable when dealing with elevated air particulates.

“They said I had till the end of the month to pay them back, I guess they wanted it early.” Rain said putting her head into her hands.

Discovery was running shark week again. Great whites leaping out of the air with seals in their mouths, the announcer explained that the shark attacked from below and the leaping broke the seals back so that the shark could swallow it easier.

“Well girl you have to do something, don’t worry we will figure it out.” Marla used her other hand to gently rub Rains back.

Click. Soap opera, yes he really was the twin. Click. Commercial for the new 5 dollar menu at Burger King. Only five dollars! What a deal. Click. Trade in your car for a scooter, at Bobs scooter world “stop paying high gas prices, scoot in style at Bob’s.” Click. The Russian rocket powered train was capable of speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Click. Another shooting in Dorchester. Flip. 200 killed in suicide bombing in Iraq. Click. The house debating the water distribution act of 2007 on CSPAN. Click. Click. Click. I couldn’t stop, Marla had over 50 channels and I had to watch them all, preferably at the same time. My thumb had ceased taking order from my brain. All systems were on full autopilot. The familiar itch started in my frontal lobes.

“What’s wrong with him? ADHD?” Marla said looking up.

“I am not sure.” Rain stood and they both looked at me.

Rain placed her hand carefully but firmly onto the remote and pulled it from my hands. My eyes had gone blank and my mouth hung open, my thumb continued to press buttons that were no longer there.

“We have to get out of Boston.” Each word took my entire strength to get out.

That’s when I began to scream.