The Apocalypse Reader

by Justin Taylor (Editor)

  Josh studies the psychic for a second then laughs and starts pouring the quote-unquote dope out on this little mirror he always carries around in his pocket just in case.

  JOSH: You're good. I mean you're really, really good. Okay, you win. What are you into?

  PSYCHIC: I'm into you not knowing what to expect. Okay, I'm into rimming and fist fucking. But do that dope first. I like my whores brain-dead.

  Josh is already dividing the quote-unquote dope into lines with this razorblade he also carries with him.

  JOSH: (distractedly) Sounds good. I mean whatever you said.

  PSYCHIC: In Afghanistan, there's very famous canyon called Khakistarikhan. It's the deepest canyon in all the world. When I'm through with you, I'm going to enter your ass in the Khak- istarikan lookalike contest. It's a big event in Islam, and you'll definitely win.

  JOSH: (to Mackerel) If you'd ever been fist fucked, you'd be so turned on right now.

  MACKEREL: No, I wouldn't.

  PSYCHIC: (to Mackerel) You should develop your gift. Let me have sex with your dead buddy here. Then I'll lend you a book.

  MACKEREL: According to you, I won't have time to read it.

  PSYCHIC: That's true, but don't make me laugh. I'll lose my focus. Here, junkie. Use this capitalist prop.

  He hands Josh a hundred-dollar bill. Josh rolls the bill into a straw, then leans over and snorts up all the quote-unquote dope.

  JOSH: Tell me more about this canyon. I mean more about me.

  PSYCHIC: Once a year, a huge prehistoric creature that lives deep in the canyon comes to the surface and does a little dance. He looks exactly like my forearm.

  JOSH: Whatever that means. Wow, this is killer heroin. I mean literally. I can feel the legend.

  Josh has started to look too relaxed to be around a Middle Easterner in this political climate.

  MACKEREL: (to Josh) Don't you see what he's doing? This is how the whole 9/11 bullshit happened. He just told you that himself.

  PSYCHIC: (to Mackerel) He's beyond you. Besides, you love it.

  MACKEREL: That could be true. I'd have to think about it.

  PSYCHIC: (to Mackerel) Don't you realize it yet? You're the one who wants a sixteen-year-old corpse. I'm just a nice guy.

  MACKEREL: You're wrong.

  He points down at the bulge in his blue jeans.

  MACKEREL: This hard-on is bullshit. I just have this whole thing about overdosing on heroin. You started it. Sex is just like whatever. Dying is sex to me.

  PSYCHIC: You're too good for this world. As opposed to that corpse or impending corpse over there. You knew him. So you tell me. Dead or not dead?

  Mackerel glances at josh and sees an ugly whitish color that has to mean death's in the mix. He starts rubbing his crotch to help counteract the unsexiness of his moral dilemma.

  MACKEREL: (somberly) He's history. We're like historians now.

  PSYCHIC: Now I'll tell you the truth. I'm not just a psychic. I'm an Al Qaeda operative. He's my mission. It's all about semantics. Do you want to hear the story? It'll curl your toes.

  MACKEREL: They already are. Maybe I'm psychic, because I already know what you're going to say.

  PSYCHIC: I'm listening.

  MACKEREL: If I tell you, you'll lose your hard-on. But you're a stalker. How's that for proof?

  PSYCHIC: I love him. That's where our cultural differences get in the way. In my culture, this is love if you're gay. We're not fancy about it. You think we live in caves because we like to live in caves? It's a metaphor. We live together in caves until we find our own caves and fly away. I searched your country coast to coast, and this junkie's ass is mine. Wait'll you see it.

  MACKEREL: Like you've seen it.

  PSYCHIC: I didn't have to. That's just your literal American thinking. Don't even try to understand it.

  MACKEREL: You're big on words and concepts. If I were gay, I'd say God is sex, and seducing straight boys like me is the prayer. Josh told me his boyfriend had to rob a bank to make him gay. He said before then he was just another guy who couldn't make the football team and turned into a stoner. Maybe he was lying, I don't know. The past isn't my thing. So I question your story. How's that for being psychic?

  PSYCHIC: Maybe if I knew myself better, I'd agree. Your freedoms are intimidating. How's that for honesty?

  MACKEREL: No offense. All I'm saying is your quest is nothing special. You and him are just porn. Death is sex. I mean my death, not his.

  PSYCHIC: So I should murder you too? I'm confused.

  MACKEREL: No, I'm just saying we should film it. Let's say, hypothetically, I film you doing gay stuff to him. Then we upload the video onto a Web site, and charge guys to watch. They jack off and imagine they're you and all that. Then at the end of the tape we put a little text that says, "Oh, by the way, the boy you just saw getting fucked and et cetera was dead, ha ha ha. You're a necrophiliac. Busted." It might be like flying a plane into the World Trade Center, except a lot more profitable for us.

  The psychic scrunches up his face in concentration for a moment.

  PSYCHIC: (laughing) I wonder who would win in a debate, Bin Laden or you? I'll always wonder that.

  MACKEREL: You really need to chill on the Bin Laden thing. I mean if you guys over there in Afghanistan really want to be like the West.

  PSYCHIC: I sort of wish he was alive. I mean the) unkie, not Bin Laden. Don't get your hopes up. I just mean I wish he knew how much his ass will change the world. But I'm into S&M, so fuck him.

  MACKEREL: Not to disappoint you, but his ass is kind of hairy. Not that I've seen it. You could shave it, I guess. We do that a lot over here.

  PSYCHIC: (angrily) That's so typically nihilistic of your culture.

  MACKEREL: Here, I'll show you. It's not a trick. You could do it too, for future reference.

  Mackerel tugs on one of the legs of josh's jeans until there's a naked foot of calf, and rubs one finger gently through its modest thicket of blondishbrown hairs.

  MACKEREL: See that? That's how you know.

  PSYCHIC: I don't believe you. You're just superstitious. I know all about superstition. When you're poor and live in the desert you think all kinds of crazy shit.

  MACKEREL: You want to bet? You'll lose, though.

  PSYCHIC: (laughing) Sometimes I forget you're only thirteen years old. Sure, I'll bet. What's the wager?

  MACKEREL: Okay, if it's hairy, there's no God. And if it's smooth, there is.

  PSYCHIC: How about if it's smooth, you can rim him for a second. It had better be. In Afghanistan, it's a sea of hairy asses. That's why we're all pedophiles.

  MACKEREL: Maybe I'm wrong, but with these calves, it would be a miracle. Anyway, to us a hairy sixteen-year-old ass is exotic. I've never even seen one.

  PSYCHIC: Wait, what's the bet again?

  MACKEREL: If I'm right, you'll give me enough of that heroin to kill me, and if I'm wrong, there's no God. But let's just do this fucking thing and move on to something else that we agree on, like my future.

  They lay Josh on his back, grab his blue jeans by the belt loops and yank them down over his knees, dragging a pair of jockey shorts along with them. Then they roll him over ceremoniously.

  MACKEREL: Okay, that's weird. It's not only smooth. It's also perfectly shaped if one knows anything about physics. I wasn't just wrong. I'm also gay, or gay for him, or gay for it. I don't know about him yet.

  PSYCHIC: Stop apologizing and pray.

  He kneels down, spreads Josh's cheeks, and starts licking and chewing dead ass crazily like he's a lion and it's attached to some gazelle.

  MACKEREL: FYI, we call that rimming in the States because we know God is bullshit. But don't stop.

  PSYCHIC: That's strange. We call this praying in Afghanistan because we know God is shit. Let me clarify. His shit. Or rather guys who look like him's shit. You'd qualify.

  MACKEREL: That's your fucked-up trip. I'm still at the being rimmed stage. Shit's for grown-ups.

  PSYCHIC: Did yo
u ever know this boy Steve? Blond, nineteen, quit school, converted to Islam, joined the Taliban, blah blah blah?

  MACKEREL: Why would I? Unless he tried to turn me on to pot once. Read my mind, but keep rimming him too. Can you do that? We can.

  The psychic shuts his eyes and concentrates.

  PSYCHIC: That's him. Now read mine.

  Mackerel shuts his eyes and concentrates.

  MACKEREL: Jesus, I'm so gay. That's Steve Rosenberg, all right. What a great fucking ass. It makes mine seem like the Titanic.

  PSYCHIC: Steve's ass even turned the great Bin Laden gay for an hour. Don't be so hard on yourself. In Afghanistan, Steve's ass is a national icon.

  MACKEREL: And I could have had him. I'm an idiot. Tell me everything about Steve's ass, but keep rimming the dead guy.

  PSYCHIC: In Afghanistan, when you want to give a cook the highest compliment there is, you use a phrase. I can't translate it. But it's something like, Thank you for letting Steve sit on my face. Don't quote me.

  MACKEREL: Your thoughts are terrorism.

  PSYCHIC: Well, this junkie's ass makes Steve's ass taste irrelevant. And it's already cold. Imagine if I hadn't overdosed him. I'm such a rush-to-judgment type.

  MACKEREL: Fine, Jesus, then scooch over a little.

  He kneels beside the psychic, and starts rimming josh too. His technique is a lot more romantic.

  MACKEREL: Can you believe I've never done this?

  PSYCHIC: No.

  MACKEREL: I wonder how I'd rate? I mean if my ass was this ass, and you were me or whatever.

  PSYCHIC: Some things are too beautiful to know. That's why I've never read Proust.

  MACKEREL: So how was Steve compared to Proust?

  PSYCHIC: I can only speculate. I'll just say that this writer friend of mine who rimmed Steve is called the Proust of Afghanistan by our literary establishment, such as it is. Before my friend had Steve, he wrote thrillers.

  MACKEREL: I want to be rimmed. I mean again. I mean by Bin Laden or you.

  PSYCHIC: Like I said.

  MACKEREL: You and Steve seem like you were really good friends. But I'm gay so I don't care about friendship anymore. It's lame. Rimming is the truth. Hold his asscrack wider open so I can really eat his hole.

  The psychic spreads josh's dead ass cheeks helpfully and leans back to observe.

  PSYCHIC: I could watch you do that all day.

  MACKEREL: Me too, if I could.

  PSYCHIC: By the way, this is jihad, if you care. You guys thought it was those planes. If Bin Laden is astral projecting himself into my body right this second-and if he isn't dead, he is-he'll be seriously digging what we're doing. I'm so going to heaven.

  MACKEREL: That's debatable.

  PSYCHIC: No, it's not. Anyway, it's been a second.

  He knocks Mackerel out of the way, and goes down hard on josh's ass.

  MACKEREL: (angrily) Friends don't do that. So we aren't friends. I don't know what to call this, though. We like categories over here.

  PSYCHIC: So do we, but our categories are gigantic.

  MACKEREL: See, we respect death too much. That's the only category that's gigantic over here. We're not like you.

  PSYCHIC: So now you know.

  He starts eating josh out even more hungrily than before. The ass starts shaking and rocking side to side and inflating and deflating like lungs.

  MACKEREL: I'm bored.

  PSYCHIC: I don't know that term.

  MACKEREL: Boredom is what we call knowledge over here. The idea is that you never quite quote-unquote know, you just stop caring if you quote-unquote know. That's when you know.

  PSYCHIC: Sounds interesting.

  He lifts his head up for a moment and looks sincerely at Mackerel.

  PSYCHIC: I mean that. You're a beautiful kid. I'm just-

  MACKEREL: I know. I have to get out of here anyway. I've got a date with that wannabe cannibal guy. I just wanted to see you fist fuck him. It's so notorious.

  PSYCHIC: I'll page you.

  MACKEREL: Yeah, if I'm not food by then.

  He crosses his fingers.

  PSYCHIC: Page me when you're food. If I don't page you first. Or put paging me in your will. I'm just saying I care about you.

  MACKEREL: (angrily) Then give me some heroin. Jesus Christ, what does it fucking take?

  A HALF HOUR later, Mackerel is sitting cross-legged on some grass in the town's little central park talking directly to you readers. He still isn't stoned, and there's a vibe of desperation in his voice.

  MACKEREL: (dourly) Hey, you want the cutest piece of ass you've ever had in your lives? I mean cutest for you, not for me. I happen to hate my good looks in a complicated way. Anyway, I'll trade you.

  You: Thanks for spending time with us. You're God, et cetera, and we love your stupid Arkansas accent. Meaning yes.

  MACKEREL: I even scream with an Arkansas accent. You'll love that too.

  You: What's the trade? We're so damned horny.

  MACKEREL: Don't rush me. I'm not like josh. I need to get to know things before I do them.

  You: At least take off your shirt.

  MACKEREL: There's a trick to being me. It's called "who the fuck are you to ask?" When I'm shirtless, you'll know it.

  You: Then make us hard.

  MACKEREL: You already are. All it takes is my face. I think my haircut helps too. Long hair's back. But I guess when you're a pedophile, any kid is porn. Correct me if I'm wrong.

  You: What do you like to do in bed? We mean what is "fuck" to you?

  MACKEREL: Shooting heroin. Next?

  You: Junkies are so boring. If you weren't thirteen, we wouldn't be here. We'd be in Thailand.

  MACKEREL: (laughing) Next. This is awesome. I was never loved when I was straight. So I'm drunk on your gayness. If you weren't here, I'd be in school or prison.

  You: The world's a bar when we're with you. If you were old enough to be officially gay, you'd realize that's gay for "we love you." A thirteen-year-old skinny blond boy drunk in an Arkansas gay bar, Jesus. Let's play truth or dare.

  MACKEREL: Cool. I like you so far. Okay, you earned it.

  He whips off his T-shirt, and hurls it away.

  You: Truth. By the way, you have the world's most perfect little ashtrays ... we mean nipples.

  MACKEREL: Okay, do you have any heroin? And before you say that's cheating, Kant says truth lies in the question one asks in pursuit of the truth. Actually, Buddha said that too. So now you know me. Oh, and thanks for the compliment, you liars. Dare.

  You: We dare you to explain your intellect. You're thirteen. You quit school at eleven. Your foster parents chained you to a bunk bed at night. You're dyslexic. You're cute. So how the hell do you do it?

  MACKEREL: I'm like a parrot. Literally, it's a serious condition. Parrot syndrome. Look it up. Plus I'm psychic and you're not. Truth.

  You: Okay, we have enough heroin in our pockets to kill you a hundred times over. And clean works.

  MACKEREL: Duh.

  He points to his temple.

  MACKEREL: I'm a psychic, you remember? But don't you wish this were a loaded gun?

  You: (thoughtfully) Hm.

  MACKEREL: (anxiously) I don't like the sound of that.

  You: Us neither. Even thirteen-year-olds get old apparently. Who'd have thought?

  MACKEREL: Then give me all your heroin. God, I hate fags. We're all manipulative and shit. You have fifteen seconds to hand it over.

  He looks at his watch.

  You: And we can eat you out?

  MACKEREL: Yes.

  You: And fist fuck you? Bondage, torture, videotape it, kill you when we're done with you?

  MACKEREL: Yes, yes, yes. Jesus Christ, are you deaf?

  MACKEREL TAKES ALL your heroin and works, then runs away without keeping his part of the bargain. Because you exist in the rational world, you have to watch his perfect ass fade away into the background and form a disconsolate circle jerk. The sky over Arkansas picks up on your vibes
and grows silvery dark like one-way glass. On the other side of it, God's jerking off. The hicks think weather abnormalities are a sign that Armaggedon has arrived and decide to rape their kids before they die. Mackerel rides his bike through streets filled with children's lustful screams. He eventually stops at Josh's boyfriend's house and falls into your trap. You're on the phone with josh's boyfriend when Mackerel rings his front doorbell, so you let him go on one condition. Josh's boyfriend is short and ugly, but has clearly spent time in a gym, so he's hot to other gay guys.

  JOSH'S BOYFRIEND: (startled) Hey, I know you. Or maybe I wish I knew you. I don't know if you're gay, but crystal meth will do that.

  MACKEREL: I just turned gay a few minutes ago, so don't ask me. Gee, Josh said you were even uglier, not that I care.

  JOSH'S BOYFRIEND: I get uglier during sex. But thank God for what you see. Guess how old I am? Seriously, take a guess.

  MACKEREL: Headwise, I'd say, oh, mid-fifties, and bodywise, oh ... late thirties tops. We gay guys have it all figured out, don't we?

  JOSH'S BOYFRIEND: Being gay myself, it's impossible to say. One hears tales, though. My neighbor's super ugly, unless you like them fat and straight.

  MACKEREL: I love everyone equally. Thank the shitload of heroin somewhere in your house. If it weren't there, you'd be alone. Oh, your boyfriend's dead, by the way. I forgot. I'm the new guy.

  JOSH'S BOYFRIEND: (thoughtfully) Okay, here's being gay in a nutshell. I should reject you out of grief, thereby proving gay love is an authentic force for good. But the fact of the matter is every gay piece of meat is just a sketch for the next piece of meat, although you're just unbelievably cute, bitch. Did I already say that?

  MACKEREL: I'm definitely it, dude. The buck stops here. Well, more specifically, here.

  He gives his ass a playful slap.

  MACKEREL: And, even more specifically, after heroin's in my system, if you're catching my drift.

  Josh's boyfriend immediately pulls a big packet of nice-looking dope out of his pocket.

  JOSH'S BOYFRIEND: Deal. I love hicks.

  MACKEREL: So I heard.

  Josh's boyfriend holds out the packet, then seems to have a realization of some sort, and pulls it back.

  JOSH'S BOYFRIEND: Wait, did you say josh is dead? Let me guess, or did you already tell me?