“Okay, Junie. It’s better if we talk in the morning once you sober up. I’ll be in the guest room. Again. And by the way, Dr. Carter called. She says you need to get over there.”
Judith Jiminez (aka Lady Lava) looked tiny in the cold, white, refrigerated bed Juniper had recently had custom-installed in her bedroom. This woman who had made a giant lens out of Jones Beach sand, who had incinerated an asteroid that would have wiped out Cleveland, who had heated a city block that had lost power during a blizzard.
When Juniper took her mother’s hand, it was almost too hot for her to hold.
“Mom.”
“My sweet, sweet Junie,” she in a voice that was shrunken, too. Steam rose from around her eyes. “I missed you.”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I—”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. It looks like I almost went supernova! Imagine what would happen then!”
“I don’t want to. Dr. Carter says your temperature is coming down slowly. You’ll be all right.”
“I better be. I just finished writing my cookbook—Lady Lava’s Spicy Cajun Secrets! It’s too bad my agent won’t return my calls.”
“Maybe he knows you can’t cook.”
“Like that matters. Look at Diamond Girl. She writes self-help books and she needs more help than anybody!”
They laughed together at his, Judith’s laugh a little raspier, a little wheezier than ever.
“So. Tell me,” Judith said, “what happened with Aqua-Bella? Want to talk about it?”
“I don’t know, Mom. My powers just up and went away.”
“Oh that’s happened to me plenty of times.”
“Really? You never told me.”
“It was usually just nerves or something. One time I had no powers for three days because I ate some bad hollandaise.”
“But they came back?”
“Sometimes quite suddenly. One time, I hadn’t been able to flame on for a week and Gary—you remember Gary—he and I were in bed, and, well, poor man had to get skin grafts.”
Juniper laughed. “I’ve just never felt anything like this before.” She leaned on the pillow next to her mother, feeling the heat radiate off of her.
“Let me ask you this, honey,” Judith said, stroking her daughter’s hair, straightening each curl with each stroke like she used to do when Juniper was a teen. “Are things all right with Hector?”
“Hector is Hector.”
“Well, crimefighting is tough on a relationship. Look at me.”
Judith had married the reformed Max Fleischmann, aka, Mr. Suave. He had a radioactively-enhanced knack for playing cards, especially pinochle, and so was rich with money and women, but he’d gotten jealous of Judith’s late nights in her skimpy costume. Her second husband—Juniper’s father—had no superpowers at all. Bill Jiminez worked as a civil engineer, and Juniper remembered him as a tall, diffident man. One of her mom’s lesser villains, The Bird Nerd, had sussed her secret identity and confronted the couple. Fearing for his life, Lady Lava told Bill to leave town. He smiled at that, saying there was no reason a villain would harm him, and, he’d said, “You’d come and rescue me anyway.” The next day, while Lady Lava was stopping terrorists across town, Bill was shot and killed. She considered revenge, dismissed it. Anyway, soon after the Bird Nerd was killed by his own mutant canary.
“Oh, Mom. The thing is, I’ve been thinking about it. I honestly don’t feel too bad about being normal. I mean, commuting is a pain. But it’s nice, not having to worry about other people’s problems, not having to come in and save the day.”
“Oh, Junie! Don’t you think that’s a bit selfish? You’re not like everybody else. You have an obligation. You know when I first got these powers, I didn’t want them. I mean, of all the powers for a Latina! You know, I stopped that volcano from erupting, and the next day, what do the newspapers call me? ‘Spitfire!’”
“I remember. You told me.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to be their ‘Spitfire.’ Even though, yes, I could literally spit fire. So I had a press conference. I named myself. ‘Lady Lava.’ But once I did that I couldn’t back down. I made a stand. I built a legend, sweetheart, and you were born part of it. Face it. We’re heroes. We’re role models. And after I sizzle away, it’s up to you to keep it going.”
“Please don’t say that. Don’t talk about that.”
“I was a lot of things, sweetie—the Blazing Beauty, the Wildfire Woman, the Countess of Conflagration—but I’m no eternal flame. You need to get used to that.”
That night, Juniper found herself at Tim Riley’s Bar & Grille again. At the same table as before Roger was staring with adoration at Bella, who reflected the dark liquid in the bottom of her glass.
“Sam!” she said when Juniper approached the table. “It’s great to see you!”
They hugged. She didn’t know why, but she was happy to see her.
“Sit down and have a drink,” Bella said.
“Good times. Tickly drinks,” Roger said.
Three rounds in, Bella said, “Now, Sam. I don’t think you told us: What do you do for a living, sweetheart?”
“Me? Um, schoolteacher.”
“No supplies,” said Roger. “No respect.”
“Of course!” Bella said. “Pretty and smart and understanding as you are. With a little fetish for the super-life.”
“Me? What? No.”
“Darling, what else would you be doing here? It can’t be the atmosphere.”
“But I—”
“Don’t worry. It’s not like you’re married, are you? Doesn’t matter. Not our business. But Roger and I have been talking. We like you,” said Bella. “We really like you.”
“Then I like her, too,” said a deep voice, someone suddenly standing by the table. It was Javier. Finally.
He was in costume: a shiny green leotard with an X across the chest, large, bulbous shades, and a pair of transparent wings. The LatinX Fly (formerly the Latin@ Fly, formerly the Latino Fly, formerly the Hispanic Fly, formerly the Latin Fly, formerly the Spanish Fly, all of which made him older than he looked). Considered an antihero, quick to switch sides (every kind of side), he was said to be able to seduce anyone, anything. He greeted Bella with a quick kiss on each cheek, and then he kissed Juniper slowly on both checks. He had a perfectly sculpted mustache and beard, and his breath smelled of pizza and cigarettes.
“Of course, you’re not going to let me dance alone?” he said to Juniper.
Aqua-Bella told her: “You better watch out for Javier, sweetheart. He’s been the ruin of many a good girl.”
Javier was already lifting her from her seat and leading her to the dance floor. The jukebox played a cheesy ’80s rock ballad Juniper used to hate but found herself suddenly loving. He spun her around and the world sparkled with joy and color and freedom.
On the dance floor, Javier held her close, crushing their crotches together and firmly grabbing her rear end. “What are you doing here? And with your archenemy. You came looking for me, didn’t you, baby?”
Juniper giggled—half at his lines, but half at the attention. The Fly smelled good, damned good. She knew in the back of her mind that he might be using a chemical aphrodisiac but she didn’t care. All she could think about was bouncing on his thick muscular thighs.
Ten minutes later they were in the back alley behind the bar. His goggles had flown off and she could see his perfectly sculpted eyebrows.
She felt dirty, she felt alive, she felt on fire—and not in the ten-thousand-degree La Volcana way, but better. Better.
Juniper was trying to find a cab, her head still buzzing, when Hector pulled up in his car in front of her.
“I thought I’d save you the cab fare.”
Surprised, embarrassed, wasted, she silently slumped into the car.
“Seatbelt,” Hector said.
She watched the buildings go by, the signposts on the expressway. She wiped away tears and snot fr
om her face.
“You know it’s too bad you’re not a supervillain,” Hector said. “We could be living the good life.”
“I’m sure it’s not as easy as you think,” she managed to say.
“I don’t know, I’m not a supervillain. I’m not super-anything…”
She groaned, waiting for the old joke.
“…except super-handsome. But you, you’re really super. Maybe that’s why you’re hanging out with those new friends of yours. What? You don’t think it’s easy to keep track of you? Don’t worry. You know me, I’m not the jealous type. But once I found out about them, about all of them, I said to myself, ‘Self, maybe Junie’s planning something. Maybe she has been thinking about our bills. And if she’s found a way to make our bills go away, you have to support her one hundred percent.’”
She turned to face him, and her voice gurgled in her throat. “You’re crazy. First of all, how dare you fucking spy on me? Second, I’m not planning anything. I’m just having fun, for the first time in a long time. For the first time in a long time, I feel like myself!”
He stopped the car in front of a motel. A blinking sign read, “La Vista Inn: We now have wifi!” He turned and got a duffle bag from the backseat.
“How nice for you. I appreciate your calmly explaining that to me. It’s better than our first fight, when you burned a Mohawk on me, remember? By the way, you’re staying here tonight. And for the duration. Not because I’m jealous, of course, but because you need to solidify your cover.”
“What cover? What are you—”
“Here’s the way it will go. You find out when Aqua-Bella’s next job is. You tag along with her and her crew, sign up, become a Bell, get a uniform, whole works. And when they’ve got their backs turned, you take it all from them. And like that, all our troubles are done and forgotten.”
“Hector. First of all, don’t you listen? My powers—”
“—are gone. Yeah, I heard you. But you’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out. And—before you open your mouth again—you’ll do it because I can be on the news in a minute with pictures of you and that Fly guy humping like dogs in the alley. It’ll break your mother’s heart and destroy her legacy and any legacy you were planning. So sleep well, sweetheart! Don’t let the bed bugs bite. Because that’s what the reviews say about this place. Tomorrow you start your new career!”
Juniper stayed in the motel room, which wasn’t that bad. There was hot water, and the bed was comfy and bug free. For the first few days, she was hiccup-crying, convulsing-crying, drooling-crying, and then she realized that of course Javier had just been using her, had used his mojo on her and of course she had become addicted. She had been going through withdrawal. She slept, ate junk food, watched TV, let her nails become horrible to look at.
At the end of the week, she still felt shaky as she walked back to a convenience store to buy more cookies, chifles, and Coco Rico than she would have ever allowed herself as La Volcana.
Right outside of the store was a little girl, about ten years old, sitting on a concrete parking bumper, with her head on her folded arms across her knees. Even though the girl was folded in half, it was easy to see what she was wearing.
“Is that a La Volcana costume?” Juniper said, sitting down next to her.
“Uh huh,” the girl said, not lifting her head.
“Are you sad about something?”
“Mommy said she wasn’t going to get me candy because I was lazy.”
“Lazy?”
“I didn’t clean the clothes.”
“Your mother sounds like my husband. Actually, she sounds like my mother. My mother used to make me work very hard. I had to practice every day, all the time. I couldn’t date, couldn’t go to parties. Discipline and obligation and control, that was all that mattered. But that didn’t make me happy. I can see that now.”
“My mommy hits me.”
“My mother said if I didn’t listen to her she would rain enough fire down on me to turn me into smoke.”
The little girl raised her head and blinked at her. “Whaaat?”
“Um, anyway, sometimes it’s important to do things on your own, for yourself. To find your own path.”
“Uh huh.”
Juniper got up, ready to go back in the store and get the girl some candy. She said, “So, you like La Volcana, huh?”
“Not really. My Diamond Girl costume is dirty.”
“That’s too bad, kid,” she said and went back to the motel.
In her room, Juniper called her mother to see how she was doing, to have a good talk with Lady Lava about the future of La Volcana. Dr. Carter answered the phone and told her to come right away. Her mother had fallen into a coma.
Jupiter rushed to her mother’s house. A fully-equipped hospital would’ve been better, but her mother insisted on maintaining her secret identity until the end.
As Juniper looked on, her mother had a massive seizure that melted the refrigerated bed to the concrete floor. By the time it was over, Judith Jiminez was dead of heart failure.
Months before, Juniper had visited her mother, flying down through a human-sized chimney. Judith’s home was decorated with trophies and souvenirs and smelled of lavender and burned toast.
When Juniper had walked in, she found her mother in her usual spot, reclining on her fire-engine red chaise lounge. Judith chatted on the phone, watched TV, and tossed frozen bon-bons into her mouth, where they would disintegrate upon her tongue. Which was why she said it was fine for her to eat so many, against doctor’s orders.
“Happy birthday, Mom. Here, I got you this,” Juniper said, pulling a box out of a shopping bag.
Judith unwrapped the present: a vase shaped like a flame. “This is beautiful! What is it?”
“A vase. I fired it myself. It’s for your bathroom.”
“I’ll love looking at it when I poo!” Judith said. “But, say, this would make a great urn.”
“Don’t say that.”
“When the time comes, I want to be cremated, I want you to do it.”
“What?! Mom, that is sick, so sick! I can’t believe you’d ask me to do that.”
“Just listen to your mother. It would be beautiful, it’s who we are, and it’s what I want. Be a good girl, be a good superhero, and do what your mother says.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll do it. So sick.”
But when the time came, Juniper couldn’t do it. The casket was wheeled up to a dark opening in a wall and fed in. Juniper walked to an interior room. The casket stood on a gurney, dull and silent. Juniper put her hands on the cold surface of the casket and concentrated. Nothing happened. She pulled her hands away and saw her palms had left moisture on the lid that quickly evaporated.
She turned and there was Nikki and she crumpled into her arms.
“It’s okay, girl,” Nikki said, “let it go.”
Behind Nikki, Juniper saw Hector, his hair recently frosted. He came up to them, and Nikki surrendered Juniper to her.
As he hugged her, he whispered, “Do you have any idea how much this funeral is going to cost? You better hurry.”
“I do this, Hector, and that’s it. You’ll have nothing on me, and you get out of my life.”
“Whatever you like. But get that money, honey.”
“Where’s Roger?” Juniper said.
The archvillainess was tinted and small—clearly drunk—sitting at her table. “Casing our next set-up. Sit down! We haven’t seen you in a while. You look th—” Bella starting coughing, sending waves and waves through her body.
“You okay? Can I get you some water?”
Aqua-Bella threw back her head—so fast that droplets landed on the wall behind her—and laughed. “Oh, Sam, you are funny.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know what—”
“I’m fine. Fine! Hey, you missed the big news. Roger and I are planning a big score. It’s going to be big! And we talked it over: We think you could be
a Diving Bell. And this is a chance to get your feet wet.” She laughed and coughed at that.
Juniper patted her back, watching the ripples they made. “I’m—I’m not sure.”
“Not sure? Hon, I can see something’s troubling you. It’s all over your face. And you didn’t drag yourself back to a place like this for no reason. You’re looking for something, something dangerous. Well, take it from an old lady: You have an obligation to yourself to be happy, don’t you think? Don’t you deserve to be happy?”
Juniper didn’t know why she was hesitating. This was all she needed. Aqua-Bella was making it easy for her. Do this, and she could dump Hector, forget La Volcana and her legacy, and get on with her life.
“Yes.” Juniper smiled. “Yes.”
“Hurray! You’re in the gang!”
“I can’t—I can’t think of anything I want more.”
Roger showed up soon in a loud shirt with fish sticks on it. He kissed Juniper on the check and then went around and wedged in next to Bella.
“All set,” he set. “Three days from today.”
“You think it’ll go easy?” Bella said.
“As an easy chair,” Roger said. “As an ocean breeze.”
“Good. We just need to keep clear of La Volcana.”
At the mention of her name, Juniper felt her stomach turn.
“Not to worry,” Roger said, waving for the bartender. “Seems like she’s on vacation.”
“I’ll tell you who could use a vacation,” Bella said. “I could use a vacation, that’s who.”
“Sun. Sand. Citrus,” Roger said.
“Why don’t you?” Juniper said. “Why don’t you just…stop? Now, before anything bad happens. Retire. Write a book.”
“Hah! That’s exactly why we need this caper. When we get this, we’ll have enough to get out of this crummy business. I mean, Roger and I are no spring chickens.”
“You are an ever-running spring,” he said.
“Charmer,” Bella said to him. “I’ll tell you where I want to retire to. Somewhere tropical, where there’s an immense ocean, and I’ll have one last cigarette and one last drink, and then wade in, melt in to the big, blue ocean, and sayonara.”
Noiryorican Page 16