Penny Dreadful Read Free Page B

tap. Now my mouth felt a little better, but I was lonely.
    On the table was a menu and twenty dollars, and I felt my spirits lift a little. Eve wanted to feed me, it seemed. Therefore, she was not trying to kill me. I smiled and licked my teeth, which felt mossy. How long had I been sleeping.
    Be nice, I muttered. Be fucking nice.
    I wandered back to the living room.
    I’m going to order some food, I said. Are you guys hungry?
    Chrome sighed. He sat on the couch now, his left boot resting on the blanket I had so recently slept with. And I have to say I was fairly aroused, my senses jangling. I felt sick, too. I concentrated on the fist of hunger in my belly. I stared at Chrome and I was confident that he was well aware of the effect he had on men and women. That he saw other humans as amusing toys. Everyone who ever came near him must want to fuck him or kill him or both. He had dark swollen lips that any supermodel would die for and blue eyes like seawater in the sun. And he smelled like metal, like salt and gasoline.
    He was a tease, a torturer. Nothing more, nothing more.
    Chrome stared back at me, smiling now.
    The man-boy was busily examining the rest of my clothing. He sniffed a boot delicately, then licked the heel. He pressed the socks and shirt to his face.
    What do they smell like? I said.
    The man-boy grinned. Like a summer breeze, he said. Like chemical detergent.
    Chrome spat. I assume Goo laundered them, he said. She is such a woman, sometimes.
    I looked at Chrome’s throat and wondered where the hell my knife was.
    The man-boy grunted. The boots, however, taste of blood and feces. They taste of Louisiana. He glanced up at me. You have come from Louisiana, have you not?
    Yes, I said. I was there last week. And I laughed, weirdly pleased by his cleverness. Meanwhile, my bowels felt like they were slowly stretching.
    I lived there as a child, said the man-boy. My name is Mingus the Breather.
    Well. I rubbed at my eyes and could think of nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s nice to meet you, I said.
    Perhaps you would like us to call you Fred, said Chrome. Because you will be going to see Elvis, soon.
    What? I said.
    And then we can say: Poor Fred. He was a friend of mine.
    That’s not true, said Mingus. He won’t see Elvis, necessarily.
    I’m sorry, said Chrome with a sigh. But the man does not look well.
    Nothing has been decided, said Mingus. No one’s fate is sealed.
    Spare me, said Chrome.
    I smiled benevolently. As if I wanted to be nothing more than a gracious host. I picked up the phone and dialed the Silver Frog. My vision was swimming and I calmly ordered mu shu, dumplings, fried rice and eggdrop soup. Then hung up the phone and helped myself to another of Chrome’s nasty French cigarettes. I blew a pretty sorry smoke ring and handed the cigarette to Chrome.
    Our hands touched. Our eyes slipped over opposing flesh.
    I laughed out loud. The tension between us was absurd, cartoonish. I might as well ask the man to choose a weapon.
    Chrome merely yawned. Enchantez de faire votre connaissance.
    I pulled on my boots and stood there, feeling awkward and clumsy, as if my limbs were suddenly too large for my body. I watched as Mingus patiently repaired a hole in my freshly washed shirt with a needle and a length of black thread. It was a maddeningly slow process, sewing. No wonder I never learned to do it. My mother had been no good at it either and as a boy my socks were always full of holes. Jesus fucking. My mind was about to crash into itself. I chewed at my thumb and wished they would leave. Otherwise I was going to jump out a window any minute now. The silence rose like water, swirling. Chrome stared and stared at me.
    Do you like to hunt? said Chrome.
    What do you mean. Like ducks? I said.
    Yes, said Chrome. Exactly like ducks.
    Goo:
    She walked along a deserted street through shadows so soft she was tempted to grab at them, to pull them to her face. These were the dark sisters of