“Have you ever done coke before?” Brad asks her.
“No,” Kim says truthfully, neglecting to mention that the cocaine on the glass table in front of them had once been taped to her torso.
Brad does a line, then Kim does a line, and it isn’t long before she lets him maneuver her into one of the bedrooms as if it were his idea. When they shut the door, he starts to undress her, but she pushes him away.
And then undresses herself.
She peels off the black dress and stands in front of him in her black bra and panties, knowing that she’s a vision. She lets him look for a few seconds, then reaches behind her and unsnaps her bra.
Brad smiles, kicks off his shoes, and hurries out of his slacks and Jockey shorts. He picks her up and then drops her onto the bed. Then he nudges her legs apart, kneels between them, and reaches for her panties.
Her hand blocks him.
She looks into his eyes, smiles, and says, “No, Brad. If you want this, you’ll have to marry it.”
No one comes into Kim’s room.
Without paying.
104
Coked out of his skull
Stan takes inventory.
Takes a long look at the Bread and Marigolds store and the merchandise they’re trying to sell to a diminishing customer base and decides that it’s over.
Sees himself in his shabby denim and feels stupid.
Less than.
Who?
John?
Doc?
Diane?
Bread and marigolds, he thinks.
Jesus.
The place is a fire trap, anyway
It only takes a little kerosene and a match.
The fire this time.
105
“Your boyfriend is pretty ripped,” Doc says to Kim.
She looks over and sees Brad slumped on a sofa, his eyes glassy from coke and booze. He’ll be out cold any second.
“My fiance,” she corrects.
“You’re going to marry that stiff?” Doc asks.
“For a while,” she answers.
“Come on,” Doc says, taking her hands.
“Where are we going?”
“You know.”
In his bedroom he says, “Take them off, Kim.”
“Take what off?”
“The pretty clothes.”
She does and stands in front of him.
Pirouettes.
“My God,” Doc says.
He admires her perfect body for several seconds and then lays her down on the bed.
“Look at that, ” he says.
She puts her hand over herself and says, “No, Doc, if you want this, you’ll have to-”
He laughs.
Long time coming, this rendezvous.
She wraps her arms around his broad back.
Remembers lying in a cave hearing him with her mother.
Soon it’s like she’s tumbling over a waterfall, and she holds him tighter.
Turns her head and sees the Charles Jourdans.
Her pretty shoes.
106
John pulls on his slacks and walks back into the living room.
He’s fucked out.
Taylor wasn’t a ride, she was the whole amusement park.
Six Flags.
Magic Mountain.
Knott’s Pussy Farm.
That girl Kim, the mule, is on the couch next to a life-size Ken doll who looks like he just had his head handed to him.
She’s sitting there like there isn’t a drug-crazed orgy going on all around her, like there’s not a pistol on the coffee table at her demure knees. Like she’s about to answer questions from Miss America judges and then twirl fire batons while singing a medley from Oklahoma! but whatever, because speaking of fire there is one.
Outside, the sky is on fire.
107
The Bread and Marigolds Bookstore is, as they say, engulfed in flame.
They all stand across the street and watch as the fire department pretty much lets it go, trying only to contain the fire and keep it from spreading to buildings they don’t consider a public nuisance.
Their faces red in the reflection of flame, they stand and watch Doc
Kim
John
Stan and Diane, arms around each other’s shoulders
Doc asks, “Anyone have marshmallows?”
They laugh, even Stan.
They are
Stardust
Golden
