Rabbit Ears
Carl Faiella
I almost spent the night with the blonde and her cocaine when the police came for her
I was about to say goodbye when her ex-husband called
both of them screaming something about 75 grand he owed some douchebag for coke that he should've sold but went up his nose instead
now they wanted to whack him and Come on, babe, I swear there's something wrong with the gas main in my house I can't stay here.
It's rude business it's a cocaine corporation a rude addiction
I'd just finished wiping her kid's ass when he started in about death following mommy around the apartment whenever she picked up her pipe Death lived in the apartment with them he said he looked like Skeletor from He-Man and he said Skeletor followed daddy before he died I said Your daddy's on the phone he said Daddy died a long time ago and so did mommy
and now I want to die
I noticed the blonde and her cocaine weren't too good looking anymore.
She used to dance
studied in NYC with this guy she said was once the understudy for Baryshnikov she so badly wanted to be a Gelsy Kirkland she fantasized about landing on her feet
On stage her father in the audience with her in the American Ballet Theatre but she knew he never would have come anyway
she used to dance
she said but then her nose fell apart was just too ugly to audition
and when the doctor put the thing together again she was good enough for Balachine she said she was happy and promised herself
new nose, no coke.
She came into the bathroom, her jeans around her ankles as I was pulling her kid's pants up and she pushed him out and sat on the john, with this gargoyle face carved into her flesh like it was done with a hunting knife by a guy with the DT's
I looked into the mirror heard her grown she had the runs and I thought of her face when I first met her right after the operation all
clean
she said she was off drugs used to do smack too but no more just a little blow
I remember sitting up with her when she called me the night she rode the horse again she was really scared she said Haven't done smack in so long I don't know why I'm sorry please come over I love you I'm sorry I love you
She was crying I was chainsmoking and I remember this tear falling onto one of my cigarettes the paper turning gray there and I smoked it a blend of choice Turkish tobaccos and her, the stupid junkie
When I turned to look at her she had the same gargoyle face on only blood running over her lips from her nose now and she used the back of her hand to wipe it away it just smeared the humor like lipstick over her mouth.
Her hand shook as she tried to wipe it away but her nose kept bleeding and salt tear rivulets made brushstrokes of pink watercolor through the new red oils
She didn't make a noise
when I cleaned up her face with a hand towel she just sat there on the john - she wasn't through yet - but started to moan with little breaths making staccato rests till it was a sounding like the cantor from the temple she was married at, age fifteen years before the borrowed money the stolen grams the coke and Valium addiction.
A week later I called to see what was going on but her number just rang and rang and finally someone answered this elderly voice she said She don't live here no more this elderly voice probably a retiree said I hung up.
The last time I saw her she was on her couch most of the blood off her face but some Rorshacked on her white t shirt. Her tight black jeans unbuttoned I could see one of her sharp hipbones her soft stomach with the Caesarian scar and the top of her black lace panties. Her eyes were only half open but they didn't blink at all as she turned channels with the remote control from static to static we never did get good reception.
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