Vigilantes of Love

Vigilantes of Love Read Free Page B

Book: Vigilantes of Love Read Free
Author: John Everson
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Horror
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screened front windows and put my hands out in askance.
    “What?”
    She smiled sadly and shook her head. “Tell me about your little Chinese girl. Will you take her out again?”
    In fact, I did take her out again. And again. And two weeks later, I introduced her to Eva.
    “This is Soo Lee,” I said, beaming with pride. Slurring with pride too; we’d just come from Happy Hour.
    “Would you like some tea?” Eva invited, but I declined.
    “We’re off to Perrone’s for dinner.”
    Perrone’s was just a diner, but for me it was living high. As Soo Lee stepped down from the porch, Eva pressed a ten dollar bill into my hand.
    “Get her whatever she wants,” she said. “And you… stay off the wine tonight.”
    I knew better than to argue.
    That night, as I walked Soo Lee home by the light of the moon, I felt a touch on my shoulders once again. This time though, it wasn’t a push, but a cool caress along my neck and shoulder blades.
    At first I thought it was Soo Lee’s fingers running down my back, but then I realized her hand was in mine. I shivered in the night breeze. She smiled at me, her eyes dark with compassion. “You are chilled?”
    “No,” I said, glancing behind me. “Your hand keeps me warm.”
    She kissed me on the cheek and it was so.
    The next morning, the hill to Eva’s house seemed flat as Ohio. I was as jaunty as a boy after his first date, and I longed to share my story with Eva, the woman who’d made it all possible.
    I was early with her coffee, but I couldn’t wait. Her shutters were already open as I vaulted up the steps and called inside.
    “Eva? Coffee Boy.”
    I’d called myself Coffee Boy since the first week of bringing her this morning treat, though I looked farther from a boy every day.
    There was no answer.
    I tried the latch. The door was open, so I stepped inside. I set the coffee down on the table, saw a paper with my name on it. I unfolded it and read the cramped, tiny script addressed to me.
    It was the first note I had received in years. And the worst ever.
        
Drink the coffee, Antonio. It’s yours. Tonight I will sleep with the shutters undone. She has called me for too long. I must answer.
         My daughter is gone before me, my son is a world away. And you… you are my finest child. But you do not need me any longer. Already I can feel her pulling me to the windows, and it is only eight o’clock. She barely wakes.
         Drink the coffee, Antonio. And bring your bride to live in my home. You’ll find, in my will, that it is yours now.   Aren’t you glad you painted it pink? Now you may repaint it blue if you like! Or purple! I have only one request: close the shutters on the night of the moon and hold your Soo Lee tight then. The moon has called you once, and she will never forget you. Nor will I.
    -Eva
    “Eva?” I called again, but it came out as a whispered croak.
    The morning light was climbing with heavy orange fingers through the front room, and sliding down the walls in her bedroom. I didn’t have to move much to look across the hallway and see that her bed was still made, and the white stockinged foot atop it lay still and silent.
    I couldn’t go into her room then. Instead, I sat down at her table, and slowly, with tremulous slurps, drank her coffee.
 
    ~*~
     

LOVESONG
    “I’ve seen a lot of broken hearts in time
and I’ve had my share as well
Every story’s different
but the pain’s the same, they tell.”
–Industrial Disease, “Why Fall In Love?”
     
    She worked at the Record Stop and her name was Lissa.   

I write this down because they’re both gone now. Something should remain, even if it’s only the fragment of my memory. Call this my love story to Lissa. And the Stop. I do miss them both. Maybe you do, too.
    Of course, the first time I tried to get her attention, I was looking at her name badge sideways and I got it wrong. I called out “Hey Lisa,” and her manager cranked his head sideways and gave me a

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