“I have no idea. You know I hate crosswords.”
“ ‘Genocide,’ ” she says, and fills in the squares.
“What?? 1C;What01D;
She doesn’t look up.
“How about a five-letter word for ‘Pinocchio’s kin’?”
“I don’t know.”
“ ‘Sheol.’ ”
I leave the coffee and walk over to the sofa.
“What kind of a crossword is that?”
“ ‘Saints’ bones.’ Seven letters. ‘Armageddon.’ ”
I sit down next to her. On the TV, a dominatrix version of the Mad Hatter is coming on to cartoon Alice.
My Alice looks up, smiles, and kisses me lightly on the lips.
“Here’s one that’s two words for ‘a makeshift mantra.’ ”
I look over her shoulder at the puzzle. It’s completely normal except that she’s filling in all the answers in strange runes or pictograms I’ve never seen before.
“ ‘Orphee.’ ”
“Is this a dream?” I ask her.
She shrugs.
“You tell me. This is in your head. Would you be more comfortable if I was a dancing midget?”
“In another dream, before the Drifters hit the city, you warned me about something that was going to happen to me. Is this one of those dreams?”
“What’s a five-letter word for ‘banker’s holiday’?”
The X song starts up again. She must have it set on loop.
Go to hell see if you like it
Then come home with me
Tomorrow night may be too late
The world’s a mess it’s in my kiss
“ ‘HOLOCAUST,&/font>
“I’m going to make this right, you know. I’m going to make Mason pay for what he did to you and me.”
Alice finishes the puzzle and sets it on the coffee table. I can see it better now. Even though she was coming up with different answers, the puzzle is filled in with the same seven symbols, over and over again.
She leans over and puts her arms around me. Rests her head on my shoulder, watching the TV.
“That’s one fucked-up movie,” she says.
“I don’t know why I picked it.”
“Yeah, why would you possibly pick Alice in Wonderland?”
“Oh. Right.”
She pulls me closer.
“You know I love you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you need to stop goddamn obsessing all the time. I’m dead. Boo-hoo. You’re Sandman Slim. Boo-hoo. The universe is a lot bigger than us.”
I shake my head. Reach for a cigarette. She lets go so I can lean forward and grab the lighter.
“I know all that. But a lot of little stuff still hurts like Hell.”
“You’re telling me? I’m the one who got a knife in the back.”
She says it right after I light up. I try to move away, but she holds on to me.
“That’s really what happened?”
“Yeah. You’ve got to give Mason credit for that. Sending Parker to do it fast. The guy knew how to do it. I hardly felt a thing.”
“If you know that, then this isn’t a dream.”
“Maybe not a hundred percent. But it’s still a dream.”
“For a long time I was afraid of knowing what happened to you.”
“Gee, I hadn’t noticed. Now you do know. It’s time to get your ass past it.”
