The Chosen

except getting it on. I didn’t even know who I was while I was on the shit.”

Vera paused. Paul had said essentially the same thing.

“It was probably some new designer dope, wish I could get my hands on more,” the blonde said. “Anyway, back to the story. Me and the redhead go to the bar and sure enough, there’s this Paul guy sitting there by himself. So we start talking, drinking, and all that, and after a while we put the make on him.”

The knots of Vera’s confusion tightened maddeningly. All right, the girls put the make on him, she thought. But that was still no excuse, was it? “And he obviously went along with it.”

The blonde lit another cigarette, glancing at her watch. “No, actually he didn’t. I mean, me and the trannie were working this guy over pretty good, but he wasn’t biting. Said he was engaged, he just wanted to talk to people, wasn’t interested in any partying.”

This, too, made even less sense. It infuriated Vera. “Yeah, well he must’ve changed his mind real fast, because what I saw going on on the bed looked like one hell of a party.”

“You got that right. But let me tell you how it happened. It was the trannie. This guy Paul wasn’t going for it, says he wants to be faithful to his fiance or some shit. So the guy gets up to take a piss, and the trannie says to me “After I hit him with some of this, he’ll forget all about his fucking fiance.”

Vera felt numb. “I still don’t understand,” she croaked, but part of her thought she was beginning to.

“The trannie spiked his drink,” the blonde said.

“You mean—”

“That’s right. While he was taking a piss, she put some of that blow into his beer, and after that he did anything we told him to do.”

— | — | —

^{CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX}

“Vera, you’re being ridiculous,” Donna attested.

Vera sat nervously on the edge of Donna’s bed; she was biting her nails. “It’s not ridiculous,” she insisted between bites. “My God, I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

Donna fussed with her hair in the mirror as she continued to tear Vera’s fears apart. “You’re too impressionable. It’s too far-fetched to even consider, and you know it.”

“Donna, everything Paul said was verified by the blonde. Every last detail! Sure, I thought it was bullshit too when Paul said it, but the blonde?”

Donna’s reflection frowned back. “Listen to what you’re saying, Vera. Just because Paul and some street junkie had the same story doesn’t mean it’s true. Look at the sources, for God’s sake. Paul obviously instructed the blonde to tell you the same shit he told you at the apartment.”

“Oh, that’s impossible. How could Paul have known I’d see the blonde on the street? He didn’t know I was going downtown after I left.”

“Vera, you’re being so naive I can’t believe it. Paul and the hooker probably followed you, then he dropped her off at a corner he knew you’d have to pass to leave town. He knew you’d see her, he knew you’d remember her, and he knew you’d stop and ask her about what happened that night. Then she took it from there. You’re letting these people make a fool of you. Christ, you were supposed to tell Paul off to get him out of your system, and now look what’s happened. You’re worse off than before you went.” Donna, next, began to change lace bras in the mirror, appraising each one. What she wore down below were scarlet