Golden Throat

by James P. Alsphert

  I also called the Sir Francis Drake and spoke to Dr. Penn briefly. I caught him up on whatever I could make sound believable. I left out details like shape-shifting, transcending my physical body, visiting the Cave of the Seven Truths and being revealed the seven secrets, having tantric sex with an ageless Chinese virgin and discovering the whereabouts of the Fen de Fuqin. He asked me to drop in and see him, but I told him I would be taking the Daylight Limited south in the morning and needed the shut-eye. He said he understood and we’d re-connect when I needed him.

  Land of the Extra-Terrestrials

  Every once in a while people hear of strange stories about aliens, the non-terrestrial kind, showing up in faraway deserts on a starry night, or an encounter by a person who at best may be of questionable character. But since my very bizarre and other worldly experience with Lei-tao, I was beginning to change my tune. It made sense when you really thought about it. How could so vast a universe only be populated with a single species of odd, war-like creatures bent on destroying each other—a kind of intelligent life form that bred ceaselessly and lived divided by culture, language, religious belief, politics and ethnic differences? No, there had to be more. There had to be advanced civilizations out there somewhere, whizzing around in spacecraft, that would prove Einstein’s space-time theory, that light and velocity could be altered so that maybe beings and inter-stellar spaceships could go from one point to another in a blip of time. I still couldn’t explain how I left my physical body and traveled with the beautiful Red Dragon Lady to a dimension certainly not in my local neighborhood. I recalled I was twenty when I began to read about the laws of relativity. Something in the whole thing made sense, that gravity creatures might somehow be electronically capable of overcoming the limitations of three-dimensions and find a means of travel that easily transcended taking the Southern Pacific Daylight for fourteen grueling hours over a couple of steel tracks traveling at top speeds of maybe seventy miles an hour.

  Speaking of which, I got back to Los Angeles safe and sound from one of the most bizarre experiences of my life only to find the pedestrian existence in the police force a farce. Once I had a taste of the Incredible with a capital “I”, everything else seemed boring. Well, almost everything else. As soon as I got back, Sergeant O’Flaherty scheduled me for regular daytime patrol duty with Mario. I called Honey, but she had been hired for a bit part and was tied up in a picture show rehearsal, but would be back singing at the Bella Notte the following night. So I called Adora to make sure she was okay and she told me she was very happy I was back safe, missed me terribly and she had a bad cold and I had best stay away for a few days until she was well enough, although she was anxious to see me as soon as possible.

  After my first shift with Mario, I told him I was bored with the whole police business and that my trip to San Francisco was an eye-opener. I didn’t say anything more, but what I was really thinking about was a way to get hold of this William Randolph Hearst character and find a way to penetrate the hallways of Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which seemed about eight hours by car from L.A., according to my California map. I was about to leave the station after I had said good-night to Mario when a familiar face with a cute little body came down the hallway toward me. “Hello, Cable. Did you get my note? I thought you might call me at my aunt’s.”

  “Ginny—Ginny Fullerton, my little Big Bear Lake love affair, how are you?”

  “I wish…love affair…you don’t even know I exist now, do you?” she admonished me. “Did you forget everything I might have meant to you?”

  “Tell you the truth, kid, I was in Frisco for a few days. On business, for the police department. You okay?”

  “I have to go back in two or three days. I was hoping we could get together and you’d show me the Los Angeles you know. So far what my Aunt Alice has shown me is b-o-r-i-n-g, and I hate hospitals.”

  “I—I don’t think you’d like my part of the city, Ginny. Besides, I’m sorry but your timing isn’t the best. You see, I’m on this sort of special assignment and it’s gonna take up most of my time.”

  She put her head down and seemed genuinely disappointed. “I’m—I’m sorry. I was really hoping—”

  “Well, the least I can do is take you out for a hot dog and milk shake and take you back to your aunt’s place.”

  She perked up a bit. “That’d be nice. Thanks. Where can we go?”

  I took her to a little joint at West 1st Street and Figueroa. It was one of those stainless steel jobs with white paint inside and stools at a long counter. We sat and ordered. All the time Ginny was looking at me in that manner a young inexperienced woman sizes up a man. “You did read my letter, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, sure, kid. It was nice. I’m sorry I’m just so damn busy now.”

  “Well, it’s still the same for me, Cable. I really can’t get you out of my mind. I don’t mind telling you, because I know you prefer the truth. And that’s the truth. There’s nothing I can do about it. I know you have a girlfriend and all, but I’m stuck on you.” She blushed. “There…I said it…and I’m not ashamed I said it.”

  I looked at the attractive little lady sitting next to me. “How old are you now, Ginny? Seems you were going to have a birthday pretty soon…21?”

  “No, twenty-two pretty soon. I turned twenty-one a long time ago, remember, it’s going to be 1929 pretty soon.”

  I lifted my milkshake and toasted her. “Well, happy birthday then, Ginny,” I said, smiling at this little gal who had traveled so far to see me. “Many more—and may you know only happy ones.”

  “They’d be happier with you—I mean, if you weren’t with someone and all. I so enjoyed the time together in that little cabin near the lake. Remember me smoking your cigarettes—and drinking gin for the first time? That was so much fun. I was hoping we’d do it again sometime.”

  “I’d better get you home pretty soon. It’s getting dark and if I remember right, your aunt doesn’t live in the ritziest neighborhood.”

  She leaned over to my ear and whispered. “Will you take me to a hotel?”

  I looked at her in amazement. “Ginny! Did I hear you right?”

  “Just for a few hours. My aunt is a nurse and works until midnight. She doesn’t even get home until after one in the morning. We could even go to her place. I have my own bedroom. I stole some of her French Champagne, just in case we got together, you know.”

  “Now, Ginny, you know I think the world of you, but—”

  “—please! Just once! I promise, I’ll never ask you again. If you don’t want me to love you, I guess I’ll find a way talk myself out of it. But my body isn’t as agreeable and I know you can’t feel it, but I’m trembling inside right now she wants you so bad.”

  “She?”

  “My body…she has a mind of her own. When she gets restless, I sort of have to take care of myself, you know—”

  “—I don’t think I wanna know anymore, Ginny. Now, tell you what. I’ll pay the tab and take you home on a streetcar. Then, once I know you’re safe and sound, I’ll leave. Is that clear?”

  She was a stubborn young woman. “I’m twenty-one, Cable, for God’s sake, am I not desirable or something?”

  I didn’t say anymore but paid the bill and we took a streetcar up to and along Temple to Alvarado. The house was on Clinton Avenue, near Queen of Angels Hospital where Ginny’s Aunt worked. We walked along old picket fences and ramshackle housing until we finally came to one Ginny turned into at 2147 Clinton. We walked down a driveway to the rear of the house. She went to the back door, took a key from under a mat and opened the door. “Please, Cable, at least come in and see where I’ve been living these past few days thinking about you.”

  I followed her in the little house. She led me to a tiny bedroom with a single bed and little brown painted dresser with a mirror. “So…this is where you live?

  “Yep, nurses don’t get paid very much. My Uncle Charlie died three years ago in a car wreck. He
drank a lot.”

  “I’m sorry. Does your aunt get lonely?”

  “I don’t think she has the time.” She came to me and tip toed up to my chin and kissed it. “Please…have one drink of my aunt’s Champagne with me? I think it’s before Prohibition, like 1919 or something.”

  I looked directly into Ginny’s pretty blue eyes. “Kid, I’m a police officer, I know the law and I could get tossed in the hoosegow for even being alone with you in this house, let alone drinking with a minor.”

  “Cable, where have you been? As I said, I’ll be twenty-two soon. I’m just as much a woman now as I’ll ever be, here, wanna see?” She opened her blouse and exposed her wonderful young breasts to me. “And if you’re interested in the rest, that’s just as grown up, too.” She lifted her skirt and showed me a pair of yellow panties through which I could see her dark, inviting womanhood.

  “What are you trying to do, Ginny? I mean, I really like you. But you’re putting me on the spot here.”

  “That’s exactly what I want to do. Don’t you see, you’ll probably never want to see me again as long as you live. And you don’t have to live with me, but I do. And I wouldn’t want to live with me without knowing that I’d had you—even just once.”

  I sat on her little neatly made single bed. “I can’t do this, kid. Whoever taught you that when a guy says ‘no’ he doesn’t mean it?”

  She came and sat on the bed next to me. “Because some things are meant to be, Cable. And this is one of them.” She got up and fetched the Champagne from another room, came back with the green bottle.

  “Here…will you open it? I’ll be right back.”

  Reluctantly I opened the bottle slowly. Warm champagne is especially volatile, so I grabbed part of the bottom sheet to the bed and when the cork popped off, some of it bubbled into the sheet. I took a swig out of frustration and desperation. Then Ginny came bouncing back into the room. Only this time she was without her clothes and a bath towel hung around her, barely covering her breasts and pussy. She approached me and reached for the bottle, and as she did so, the towel dropped to the floor, revealing her clean, white young woman’s body. “Do you know what happens to young women when they have unprotected sex?” I asked, my own manhood beginning to stir, as if it had given up the battle to refuse this charming young thing.

  “Not to worry…I just finished my monthly time two days ago. My aunt told me years ago that it’s somewhere in the middle of my cycle that I can get pregnant. Heck, I wouldn’t even mind that—if it were your baby.”

  A shudder went through me as I imagined being stuck in the hinterlands with a cute little thing and a papoose in her arms bawling away the night. I was thinking of a new song that came out last year. My Blue Heaven had lyrics that were enough to put the heebie-jeebies into any red- blooded American male. ‘Just Molly and me, and baby makes three, are happy in my Blue Heaven…’ “How about just fooling around a little? You know, some good making out like a Saturday night date in your little Studebaker.”

  She pulled me up from off the bed and then went to her knees as she undid my trousers, reached into my boxers and took my already rigid manhood into both her hands, caressed it and began to lick it in long strokes with her warm tongue. Soon it was in her mouth and she was moaning about the pleasure it gave both of us. I could feel the nerves in my lower back bring chills to my buttocks and I knew things were happening I would be hard put to control. I tossed off my shirt, took off my shoes and britches. I lowered Ginny onto the bed, spread her legs and put my head between them as I repaid her affection with my own brand of tongue language. She writhed and moaned below me with that ecstatic look of pain such a pleasure bestowed. Slowly I moved my tongue up her soft, young skin, up past her belly button, stopping at her tight warm breasts. Her nipples were stiff and hard and as I massaged them with my fingers, I moved my mouth to her lips. It felt damn good as this infatuated young woman darted her tongue into my mouth and soon I was astride her. She let out a short cry as I entered her, but from that point on she seemed to be in some sexual delirium that captured both of us and sucked us both into a state of excited pleasure. I worked her until I could feel she could take no more without exploding, so I grabbed her buttocks and thrust my male member as deep as I could into her. She let go with a fevered yell and I soon followed as we consummated a delicious moment in the frenzy of that wild, primal instinct.

  For several minutes afterward we lay together in complete silence. As my manhood began to deflate, I could feel the warmth of our wet juices pour out the sides of her vagina. My ear was by her mouth as she spoke. “God, Cable, I never had a climax before. I heard about them, but—but it’s nothing like my girlfriends described to me. It’s so…so incredible with you I don’t want it to ever stop. If I move to Los Angeles to live with my aunt, can we see each other? I mean it. I know about your girlfriend and all—”

  “—it can’t happen, Ginny,” I said, a little sad for both of us. I kissed her. “It’s not that you aren’t wonderful, little lady, you are—but I’ve got so much crap on my plate just now, including Honey. Try to understand, my plate’s full, Ginny Fullerton. It’s bad enough you talked me into doing this tonight.”

  “You didn’t like it? I finally got to feel that magic place you told me about in Big Bear that night we danced, remember?”

  “I loved it, babe. And I sure hope you’re right about your period. The last thing I need right now is to worry about you being—”

  “—it’s fine, Cable! Trust me. I know my body pretty well…even better after tonight. Do you realize the only other sex I’d ever had was with Ronnie Dunlap forcing his way into me—and it lasting for less than a minute before he came all over himself?”

  I chuckled. “Well, sometimes teenagers have to, uh, kinda ‘kick-start’ their love making skills. It takes time. Even I was clumsy in the beginning.”

  We unglued from each other and she pushed me onto my back and started licking me off. “So you won’t forget me, Cable…” she said with a mischievous smile.

  “Oh, I won’t forget you, Ginny. You can count on that.”

  “Good. Because I’m going to move to L.A. anyway.”

  That night was a restless one. Mario had been staying more and more with Rosalie Elena and since she was expecting their first-born soon, I assumed he’d probably give up our little ramshackle apartment in the not too far distant future. Ginny Fullerton invaded my space for a while as I reflected on a very erotic evening with a sexually hungry young woman. But she was a good person and I had enjoyed her refreshing personality and more than abundant womanhood. What a lucky guy I was in this life, I ruminated. Over and over again, beautiful dames with great bodies and desire for me came into my life and all I had to do was be there, at the right place at the right time and open my mouth with a few words that told them who I was to the best of my ability.

  But what was really haunting me was the unsolved mystery that began with the golden throat of a strange dead creature named Blinthe. According to Lei-tao he was one of the other-dimensional bad guys who helped steal the Fen de Fuqin, and never really existed on this three-dimensional world of ours. But how could he be when Mario and I saw his dissected golden throat floating around in that jar in Sandor’s little room of anatomic horrors? And that’s not to mention that little body lying there in the morgue without a navel or fingerprints! But as I drifted into a fitful sleep, I felt Lei-tao’s wonderful presence and she was telling me about something when this little gnome of a creature shows up and starts talking to me. He told me that as soon as I got the Fen de Fuqin to him he’d fashion a vibrationally equivalent duplicate. Of course he didn’t mention how I’d gain access to Hearst Castle and find the medieval knight’s armor and all.

  I awoke with the alarm clock clanging away in my brain. I washed and showed up at the station in time to see Mario drag himself in. We exchanged nods and got our uniforms on, grabbed a cup of java and a cigarette and slid into our Model-T for the day’
s workload. It was one of those stupid days when everyone in L.A. seemed to be in a fender-bender as more and more automobiles filled the already smoky, clogged streets of the city. Gasoline engines produced a kind of blue-black exhaust that smelled half of burnt cylinders and half raw gasoline.

  Mom and Apple Pie

  Thanksgiving was in a couple of days and I had called my mom to tell her I’d spend the day with her. Honey had promised to journey to her folks in Willits, but I couldn’t afford the days off, so she was going by herself. Tonight would be the last night to see her for a while and she had been gone from the Bella Notte because of a film shoot she’d been doing. Tonight she would be returning and I knew the mob that controlled the restaurant would be anxious to have her back. When I told her about the untimely death of Frank Laggore she actually seemed relieved but knew there was a lot more to the story than I was telling her. There were a lot of strangers on that train. There was Adora Moreno, also the now deceased Anne Banning, Laggore’s horror of a sidekick, Crank Sotto, and the coincidentally convenient Dr. Jedediah Penn and his German caretaker, Polly Parker.

  I walked into the Bella Notte about nine-thirty. It was packed with late night diners and boozing, noisy celebrants. Honey was singing The Man I Love and although she couldn’t see me, I could feel she was talking about the ideal man she wanted me to be. ‘He’ll look at me and smile, I’ll understand. Then in a little while, he’ll take my hand…and though it seems absurd, I know we both won’t say a word…’ When she finished I walked up to her. She grabbed my hand and led me backstage, grabbed a tissue out of her purse, wiped off her lips and threw them onto mine. She kissed me deeply and passionately, and just like the song, never said a word. Finally I had to speak up. “Hey, babe, glad to see you.”