Bad Love

mug to me, as if it were a microphone. 'And why was that, Contestant Number One? Why, for the washer-dryer and the trip to Hawaii, did a sweet young thing from Sierra Madre besmirch herself?'

I didn't speak.

'Buzz,' she said. 'Sorry, Number One, that's not quick enough. The correct answer is: poor self-esteem. Twentieth-century root of all evil, right? I was fourteen and could barely read, so instead, I learned to give dynamite blow jobs.'

I looked down at my coffee.

'Oh, look, I've embarrassed him- don't worry, I'm okay. Damn proud of my blow jobs. You work with what you've got.' Her grin was huge but hard to gauge.

'One fateful morning, Mommy discovered strange, yucky stains on my junior high prom dress. Mommy consulted with learned Doctor Daddy and the two of them threw a joint shit-fit. The day school ended I was shipped off to the wild and woolly hills of Santa Barbara. Little brown uniforms, ugly shoes, girls' bunks separated from the boys' bunks by a scuzzy vegetable garden. Dr. Botch stroking his little goatee and telling us this could turn out to be the best summer we ever had.'

She hid her mouth behind her mug, broke off a piece of muffin, and let it crumble between her fingers.

'I couldn't read, so they sent me to Buchenwald-on-the-Pacific. There's juvenile justice for you.'

'Did de Bosch ever diagnose your dyslexia?' I said.

'You kidding? All he did was throw this Freudian shit at me: I was frustrated because Mommy had Daddy and I wanted him. So I was trying to be a woman, rather than a girl- acting out-in order to displace her.'

She laughed. 'Believe me, I knew what I wanted, and it wasn't Daddy. It was lean, young, well-hung bodies and James Dean faces. And I had the power to get it all back then. I believed in myself until Botch botched me up.'

All at once her face changed, loosening and paling. She put the mug down hard, shook her hair like a wet puppy, and rubbed her temples.

'What did he do to you?' I said.

'Tore my soul out,' she said glibly. But as she spoke she brought strands of hair forward and hid her face.

Long silence.

'Shit,' she said finally. 'This is harder than I thought it would be. How did he mess me up? Subtly. Nothing he could go to jail for, darling. So tell your police pals to go back to giving parking tickets, you'll never pin him. Besides, he must be ancient by now. Who's going to drag a poor old fart into court?'

'He's dead.'

The hair fell away. Her eyes were very still. 'Oh… well, that's okay by me, pal. Was it long and painful, by any chance?'

'He killed himself. He'd been sick for a while. Multiple strokes.'

'Killed himself how?'

'Pills.'

'When?'

'Nineteen-eighty.'

The eyes tightened. 'Eighty? So what's all this b.s. about an investigation?'

Her arm shot forward and she grabbed my wrist. Big, strong woman. 'Fess up, psych-man: Who are you and what's all this really about?'

A few heads turned. She let go of my arm.

I pulled out ID, showed it to her, and said, 'I've told you the truth, and what it's about is revenge.'

I summarized the 'bad love' murders, throwing out names of victims.

When I finished, she was smiling.

'Well, I'm sorry for those others, but…'

'But what?'

'Bad love,' she said. 'Turning his own crap against him. I like that.'

'Bad love was something he did?'

'Oh, yeah,' she said, through clenched jaws. 'Bad love meant you were a worthless piece of shit who deserved to be mistreated. Bad love for bad little children-like psychological acupuncture, these tiny little needles, jabbing, twisting.'

Her wrists rotated. Jewelry flashed. 'But no scars. No, we didn't want to leave any marks on the beautiful little children.'

'What did he actually do?'

'He bounced us. Good love one day, bad love the next. Publicly- when we were all together, in the lunch room, at an assembly- he was Joe Jolly. When visitors came, too. Joe Jolly. Laughing, telling jokes, lots of jokes. Tousling our hair, joining in our games- he was old but athletic. Used to like to play tether ball. When someone hurt their hand on the knob, he'd make a big show of cuddling them and kissing the boo-boo. Mister Compassionate- Doctor Compassionate. Telling us we were the most beautiful children in the world, the school was the most beautiful school, the teachers the most beautiful teachers. The goddamn vegetable garden was beautiful, even though the stuff we planted always came out stringy and we had to eat it anyway. We were one big happy, global family, a real sixties kind of thing- sometimes he even wore these puka shells around his neck, over his pukey tie.'

'That was good love,' I said.

She nodded and gave a small, ugly laugh. 'One big family- but if you got on his bad side- if you acted out, then he gave you a private session. And all of a sudden you weren't beautiful anymore, all of a sudden the world turned real ugly.'

She sniffed and used her napkin to wipe her nose. Thinking of her Colombian coffee comment, I wondered if she'd fortified herself for our appointment. She cut me off midthought:

'Don't worry, it's not nasal candy, it's plain old emotion. And the emotion I feel for that bastard, even with his being dead, is pure hatred. Isn't that amazing- after all these years? I'm surprising myself with how much I hate him. Because he made me hate myself-it took years to get out from under his fucking bad love.'

'The private sessions,' I said.

'Real private… he hit me where it counted. I didn't need anyone tearing down my self-esteem- I was already fucked up enough, not able to read at thirteen. Everyone blaming me, me blaming myself… my sisters were all A students. I got D's. I was a premature baby. Difficult labor. Must have affected my brain- the dyslexia, my other prob-'

She threw up her hands and fluttered her fingers.

'So now it's out,' she said, smiling. 'I have yet another problem. Want a shot at that diagnosis, Contestant Number One?'

I shook my head.

'Not a gambler? Oh, well, there's no reason I should be ashamed, it's all chemistry- that was my point, wasn't it? Bipolar affective disorder. Your basic, garden variety manic-depressive maniac. You tell people you're manic and they say, oh yeah, I'm feeling really manic, too. And you say, no, no, no, this is different. This is real, my little pretties.'

'Are you on lithium?'

Nod. 'Unless the work piles up and I need the extra push. I finally found a psychiatrist who knew what the hell he was doing. All the others were ignorant assholes like Dr. Botch. Analyzing me, blaming me. Botch nearly convinced me I did want to fuck Daddy. He totally convinced me I was bad.'

'With bad love?'

She stood suddenly and snatched up her purse. She was six feet tall, with a tiny waist, narrow hips, and long legs under a charcoal-colored silk miniskirt. The skirt had ridden up, revealing sleek thigh. If she realized it, she didn't choose to fix it.

'He's worried I'm leaving.' She laughed. 'Mellow out, son. Just going to pee.'

She made an abrupt about-face and sashayed toward the rear of the restaurant. A few moments later, I got up