Liko flipped on the bathroom light as Dalaja hid her face under the comforter with a groan. He opened the closet door and walked his fingers through a stack of neatly folded t-shirts, picking a tent-sized black one with silver skulls flying across it. He pulled on his shirt and pants and sat on the edge of the bed to put on his socks and boots. It groaned under his weight and Dalaja rolled into the dip he created and rubbed his back hair under the t-shirt.
“I also received the inhalable anesthesia yesterday. It’s in my trunk,” Dalaja said.
“Oh, fucking awesome babe,” he said and planted a firm kiss on her lips. She tried to pull him back into bed, reaching out from under the covers to rub the front of his pants. He let her win a little before shoving her playfully back into the pillow. “Call you later,” he said. He grabbed his phone, his pistol, and his wallet, gave her a kiss on her forehead, and left.
Dalaja stretched under the covers and ran her hands between her legs, enjoying her still tumescent sex. Making love with Liko was a completely unfamiliar and stirring experience for Dalaja. Not only had she no past experiences to calibrate against, nor girlfriends to corroborate with, but Liko had also taken her far beyond the dirty places insinuated in her secret indulgence romance novels.
Dalaja smiled as she tried to imagine the fit of derisive rage her mother would unleash if she knew about the things Liko did…or about the novels in her nightstand.
Her NYU roommate, Petra, had left them lying around their apartment and Dalaja had been intrigued by the covers as they reminded her of Bollywood movie posters. Any such trash would have been completely forbidden in her home and Dalaja felt filthy just reading the back covers. Petra found that hilarious and joked that she was Dalaja’s gateway drug to American culture.
Dalaja often wondered how Petra could manage to get good marks as she was out socializing with boys most nights, read books just for pleasure, and watched a lot of TV.
Dalaja was up late one night, studying on their couch as Petra stumbled into the apartment. She was glowing from alcohol and smelled of sweet smoke. She belched into the back of her hand, said goodnight, and grabbed one of the books from the end table before padding off to bed.
Later, as Dalaja was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, she heard a huffing noise from Petra’s room. She grabbed the waste bucket and peered around her roommate’s open doorway. Petra’s bedside light was on and she was propped up on her pillows. She was wearing her glasses and holding the book open with one hand. Petra was naked, with the covers pushed down below her knees. With her other hand she was furiously rubbing her sex. Dalaja moved back into the shadow of the hallway but could not turn away. She had never seen another adult woman naked. She noticed with fascination that Petra had shaved her pubic hair into a very small strip that ran vertically.
Why? Dalaja wondered, and almost whispered out loud before catching herself. Petra continued to touch herself for a long while, modifying her finger movements while she arched and stretched like a cat. Dalaja fought to move away. She knew she should go back to her room. She had always been very mindful of her roommate’s privacy, but she was transfixed. She fought and tried to push herself back to bed but she could not take her eyes off Petra, who never looked up from the book and never turned the page. It occurred to Dalaja that Petra must be reading the same passage over and over again. Then all at once Petra convulsed and opened her mouth in a silent gasp, throwing her head back as the cords in her neck stood out. A few moments later she closed the book, slowly turned on her side and drew into ball. Dalaja could see her wet fingers sticking through her closed legs, and her roommate continued slowly rubbing herself for several long minutes. Petra then reached up to turn out the light as she pulled up the covers.
Dalaja stayed there for a long while before she went to bed. The next day she noticed Petra had tossed that book onto her bottom bookshelf where she kept her other finished books. That night Dalaja snuck the book into her room and read it cover to cover, stopping to masturbate furiously at the more scintillating passages. She never returned that book to Petra’s shelf, and now she always kept at least one romance novel in her nightstand.
She wore a scarf over her head and sunglasses whenever she bought one, and always went to a grocery store a few towns away. Even though she was careful to mix it in with her dry goods she was sure everyone in the store stared as she hurried out of the door.
Liko had taken her virginity the night of the party. From that first night he continued pushing her limits, and she didn’t know enough to have any boundaries. She had been very drunk and a little fuzzy with the details but recalled he was very gentle the first time that night, and it was wonderful. She had cuddled up to him afterwards and started to drift off when he put her hand on his newly solid hardness. She had never held one and he showed her how to stroke it while they kissed. He finished into her hand and she was initially horrified, but his calm nature was contagious and he just got up and tossed her a towel. Again they cuddled and again he woke her up some time later. Afterwards he asked her to get up and get the towel, instructing her to only wet one corner with warm water. Their lovemaking continued the next morning and she did as instructed, including cleaning him up afterwards. She had returned to the bathroom with the soiled hand cloth and looked at herself in the mirror, thinking she now understood the tousled hair portrayed on the covers of her secret novels.
Liko tossed the three boxes of inhalable anesthesia into the back of his SUV and sped out of the condo parking lot. He headed for town as he put on his wraparound sunglasses. He rolled through the local radio stations for a while, said, “All fucking country shit,” and turned to the China Today Channel on satellite radio.
He screamed into the convenient store parking lot and grabbed his wallet from the dashboard. As he pushed open the doors and walked into the store a cute teen walked out from the hallway that led to the ladies room. Liko stopped and raised his sunglasses, and when the girl looked at him Liko ran his tongue over his lips. The girl shook her head and walked up to the kid manning the counter.
She put a hand on her cocked hip and said, “The bathroom’s like disgusting, and out of tee pee,” while tapping her foot.
Liko stared at her hips and smiled.
The kid behind the counter never looked up from his phone. “I’ll get right on that,” he said, “good afternoon.”
The girl left with a huff and Liko watched her ass wiggle as she walked out. “Damn,” he said, and then grabbed a bag of Cape Cod Sea Salt and Vinegar chips and a two liter bottle of diet Mountain Dew. Liko leaned his considerable bulk against the counter as he put the snacks down. The kid barely looked up and rang up the items. Liko tapped his ring on the glass countertop and whistled a little tune while he used his free hand to help himself to a tree shaped air freshener hanging on a spinning display next to the register. He slipped it into his pocket, along with a handful of beef jerky as the kid dropped his change on the counter.
“Good afternoon,” he said, never looking up.
“I don’t need a bag,” Liko said before he left.
He tore out of the parking lot and blew through both lights, barely slowing. He smiled as he passed the huge red and white sign hanging in front of the Chinese restaurant touting the ‘SPECIAL SPECIAL’.
“Fucking right,” Liko said and lowered his window to wave at a cook sweeping up a pile of glass on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. One of the large windows had broken and a sheet of plywood was bolted over it. The cook waved back.
Liko fired up his e-cig and thumbed down to Doug’s number on his cell.
Doug croaked in his ear, “Uhh?”
“Dude, what the fuck?” Liko laughed, “You sound like my girl’s asshole feels.”
“Sick,” was all Doug could muster.
“Oh no killer, there is no sick allowed,” Liko said. “We gotta big day ahead of us. I’m on my way over and that little bitch of yours better have my shit ready. I have a present for you.”
�
�Uh huh,” Doug said.
“Seriously, get the fuck up,” Liko said, “If I have to keep up my end by romancing that pig doctor of yours you two fuckers need to keep up your end. I’ll be there in five.”
Liko heard a woman’s scream in the background and Doug cut the connection. Liko laughed and turned up the radio as he thought, Crazy skank, what the fuck was he thinking putting a ring on that?
Chapter 27
Mimi shouted from the kitchen window, “Ben! Where are the pups?”
Ben sat upright on the lawn and looked around him.
The pups weren’t there.
He panicked, jumped to his feet and spun around a few times, looking down and then widening his view with each pass. They were not in the back yard, at least not on the grass anywhere. Mimi came through the open kitchen door and joined him in the driveway. They were both spinning around, searching.
“Did you fall asleep?” she asked.
She was agitated but reminded herself he was just a boy and he had been running on little sleep. She also kicked herself for letting him go out with the pups without supervision. You daft old bird, she thought, but the truth of it was she was tired too and had zoned out while reading the paper. She shot a glance at the microwave clock as she was running out the door and it had only been fifteen minutes since Ben went outside. She wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep or when the pups had wandered off, but it wasn’t so bad. She hoped.
“I’m sorry Mimi,” Ben said, starting to cry, “I must have. I can’t believe I lost them, rats!” He kicked the gravel before dropping to look under the Wagoneer and the bushes along the side of the driveway.
“Okay, okay,” she said, “They have wee legs, they can’t have gone far,” but she remembered how they had run behind him earlier and covered a surprising amount of ground with those little paws. “You go round that way and I’ll go this way,” she said, “We’ll meet on the other side of the house.”
They did, calling out for the pups and whistling as they went but there was no sign of the little dogs.
Ben had called for them to come for the first time just the day before. The pups came wagging in sync immediately from across the room as soon as he cooed for them. They also found out that soft whistles worked equally as well. Mimi realized they were yelling now, and whistling loudly. If the pups where hiding close by they may be scaring them, but if they had gotten lost in the woods she was afraid they wouldn’t hear softer calls. She was getting upset and wasn’t sure what to do. They widened the search area and did another slow circle around the house.
Two acres of grass surrounded Mimi’s house, the large barn, and the goat pen. Around that was another hundred yards of scattered trees with a carpet of pine needles before the real thick New England woods started. Papa had kept the woods trimmed back so he could get a shot off to scare the coyotes when needed.
Mimi and Ben had looked everywhere around the house. Still nothing. They walked down the long driveway all the way to the end, calling for the pups and worrying about the road.
Mimi’s driveway started as a large circular parking area in front of the barn, the goat pen, and the house, and then sloped in a gentle curve a half mile down to the road. The last hundred yards passed through thick woods with a canopy of overhanging trees. There were small stone walls on each side of the entrance, and a mailbox that Papa had built to look like a Royal Mail post box.
Thankfully, there was nothing in the road that shouldn’t be there. They came back to the house and were getting really nervous. Mimi tried to keep a stiff upper lip but she started to tear up a bit, thinking, Where’d you get off to you wee buggers?
Mimi had a thought and charged into the house, calling behind her, “Bloody hell, we never looked in their box!”
Ben caught up to her in the kitchen. The box was empty, and so was the rest of the house. They walked slowly back out into the driveway, deflated. They did another round of yelling for the pups and they were starting to get a little hoarse. Mimi put her arms around Ben as he sniffled into her chest and she looked out to the woods. A tear rolled down her cheek. It was two in the afternoon and Aila and Dan would be there in an hour to help search, but it would get dark a few hours after that.
Chapter 28
After waving to Liko, Gan brought the broom inside and headed for the kitchen storage area. As he passed the hostess desk a short Asian woman was talking on the phone. To the handset she said, “One moment preez,” and pushed a button on the phone.
To Gan she asked, “Was that Liko?”
“Liku jaiyu,” Gan said with a slight bow.
“Speak English for fuck sakes,” the woman snapped at him under her breath as she waved at regulars who had walked into the lobby.
“Yes, mram,” Gan said and bowed again, “rat was Liko.”
The woman frowned and said, “Have Helen vacuum again, I can still see glass in the lobby.”
She waved him away. As he slinked off towards the kitchen she pushed the button on the phone again and said, “Ah, Miss Ronnie, hello to you. Two Special Special yes, derivery, raht?” she listened and said, “Oh you too kind, thank you thank you.” She confirmed the phone number and said, “Okay, twenty minah.”
The phone rang as soon as she hung it up. To a young waitress she said, “Come take this call.” There were three phones at the long hostess desk, and all three were in use by the young Asian staff.
The woman strolled through the busy lunch crowd, waving and smiling. She stopped to chat up a few regulars and welcome any new customers she didn’t recognize before pushing through the double doors into the kitchen. The smile dropped and a scowl appeared as she walked past the dishwashing station. Two middle aged men in aprons carrying trays of glassware took note and immediately descended on the pile of dirty dishes. She watched a line of young girls scooping rice from steaming cookers into long trays, and then moved past them to the line cooks as a small elderly man carrying trays of shredded cabbage dodged around her. The short woman had to bob up to see over the tipped lips of the sizzling woks lined up at the cooks’ stations. She scanned the meat and vegetables going into them. She nodded at a sweating young man using a scale to measure the portions. He tossed a clump of stringy red meat into the searing heat of his meter-wide black pan. She continued on, pausing at each station with her sharp eyes constantly darting and missing no small detail.
The kitchen was hopping with lunch in full swing, but there was even more activity in the new prep area in the back. She pushed through the hanging plastic slats and stood at the first of three long stainless steel tables that were lined up in rows. The tightly packed workers at each table were wearing white smocks and hairnets, and there was barely enough room between the tables for them to turn around. They were moving with lightning speed, slicing vegetables, cutting raw meat, assembling take out boxes, and mixing brightly colored sauces. The last table held metal trays with steaming meat quickly being deboned by flying hands.
Gan had finished putting away the broom and appeared beside her.
“How many can we finish?” she said as she scrutinized the trays of meat and the workers who were avoiding her stare.
“Three hundred,” he replied.
Her brow bunched and she turned and walked out of the room. She crossed the kitchen, pausing to eyeball the men who had slowed their dishwashing speed and had not noticed her approach. One nudged the other and they returned to her preferred pace before she slipped into the small office located behind the bar. She tapped the door closed with her foot as she picked up the phone and hit a speed-dial button.
“We need more,” she said without saying hello, “We had six hundred orders in two days, and we only have enough left for half of that.”
She listened, and after a moment she said, “Are you seriously that stupid? No, you can’t just stretch the recipe. It has to be made exactly as indicated or we’ll lose our customers overnight, or worse. How many times do I need to explain this to you?”
She l
istened and nodded, and then said, “Yes, several other shops had broken windows as well. A group of young people went a little wild last night according to the hardware store guy.” She looked at a notepad on her desk and said, “There are two more things. Your labor calculations were incorrect. There are twenty open shifts, not ten.” She held the phone slightly away from her ear and waited until the yelling subsided. “Yes, I am sure,” she said, “and they don’t know enough English. I don’t care what your cousin told you, the next ones need to be able to read English, not just barely speak it. I’m not going to double label everything in this fucking place.”
She listened for another minute, and before hanging up she said, “And the other location is almost ready, so fucking get on it.”
Chapter 29
Mimi and Ben decided to do one big loop of the woods before calling his parents. Mimi would take the path to the north towards Morgan Road. Ben would head south to the river, then east up to the knoll and back north again. They would meet somewhere along Morgan Road and cut back home.
Mimi handed Ben an Easter basket as they walked out of the house. They both had one lined with a dish towels to carry the pups home in. They split up, and as Mimi hurried past the goat pen Mr. Watt startled her with a loud bleat.
“Away and boil your head,” Mimi said as she clutched her chest, “you huddy old goat.”
Ben turned around at the entrance to the south trail. He stared at the pen for a moment, and noticed something was wrong. All of the chickens and goats were inside the shed, and Mr. Watt was standing guard at the door.
He dropped his basket and ran for the pen. Mimi looked back when she heard his feet pounding across the driveway. They met at the gate, and shared a nervous, hopeful smile. Under Mr. Watt’s watchful eye they walked into the pen and Ben dropped to his belly in front of the shed, oblivious to the little piles of chicken and goat crap he was laying in. Mimi knelt down next to him and gave him a pat on the rump and a nod. He scrambled forward until just his head and shoulders were under the shed.
Spot and Smudge - Book One Page 11