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My ears are still ringing, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any sirens headed this way (the crackheads aren’t going to call it in and who else hangs out here at night?) But so Joe Citizen could call in the noise And thethe place at eleven to here First, I have to find so

I find it under the splinters of the bedside table Alice’s ic box It’s been crushed a little by the blast Inside, the bloody cotton has come loose, but it’s still in one piece I put it under the bed, near the wall

I pull the blanket off the bed, roll up the body, and use soet froht I take Kasabian downstairs and out the back way Also grab a couple of cinder blocks that the day crew uses when they’re on a cigarette break I’ Of all the iffy things I’ve ever done in my life, I’ve never had to ditch a body before While it’s giving ht now, I think the fact that I’s about me and my life choices

About a block away, I find a shiny new BMW SUV, which is way too uilty about stealing it

I drive it around the block, pull up to Max Overdrive, and load the body and the cinder blocks in the back Then I drive to Fairfax and turn south At Wilshire, I as until I seeinto the La Brea Tar Pits since the last ice age Not so much recently, since the pits are fenced in and part of a pretty slice of upscale urban green called Hancock Park There’s a big ift shop And, soon, a dead video store-owning ex-ician

There’s not a lot of traffic on this part of Wilshire late at night I hop the curb and pull the van up onto the brick ay that leads to the un the engine and smash the BMW into it at full speed The van’s windshield and front buood news is that the pole with the surveillance ca aluminum toothpick by the h down a dead body, re cinder blocks to a stiff, but it is hard getting theh time and practice, I could coh that a tightrope walker could use it, but I don’t have tihfare in a stolen van I have no shirt, an expensive overcoat, and fresh scars on uy accessorized with building materials This is not a precise or subtle situation This is a situation for ood news I’ve had all day

I get Kasabian’s weighted body onto my shoulder and haul it out of the van I drop hirab the body by the ankles, then I start spinning, holding the body like the hammer in a hammer throw After a few revolutions, I’ood head of stea He sails through the air end over end, like so to Earth, off course and out of control

The body hits the tar with a thick, dull thunk At first, it doesn’t move Kasabian floats on the surface defiantly, a corpse burrito refusing to sink De at the bottom of the pit Finally, he realizes how unreasonable he’s being, and starts to go under Slowly Very slowly Kasabian’s head disappears Then his gut When all that’s left of him above the surface are his shins and feet, I leave Even if the surface of the tar lake is disturbed in the , I think the police will be , exhausting walk back to Max Overdrive When I get back to the room, all I can do is flip theoff the overcoat I lie down in it and get some clean towels fro someone played once at the Bamboo House of Dolls loops in my head

"Set me adrift and I’ on your nah the ice Of Alice…"

Are there people sh to kno doomed they are before the world crashes down on them, the way pianos fall on people in old cartoons? There must be, but I’ve never been one of theured that I could joke, lie, and bullshitThat’s what’s known as being a professional brat, and I was Superman at that

Alice never liked Mason and didn’t really trust the rest of the Circle Neither did I At least the old, sharp-tooth reptile part ofwith the better than Mason Alice could never see the fun She talked about the Circle like it was crystal meth and I was an addict

"Didn’t your mommy and daddy teach you that if you play with the bad kids, you’re going to be kept after school?"

"My mom told htthe back of someone’s hand That’s prettya white wifebeater and black panties She wascoffee, but stopped, came over, and sat on my lap

"That’s why I love you You’re Noro out with those ht Stay ho"

"I’ve got to go Mason’s got soht I need to be there to piss on his parade"

She got up and went back to the kitchen

"Fine Go, then Go and show a bunch of losers that you’re better than the accomplishment"

"This is iift, you’d know Most of the Sub Rosa are rich dicks or Goth kids without the clove cigarettes But I need to be around ic people sometimes People I don’t have to explain myself to"

"You need to show off to theerous and they’re going to suck you into so the devil or soet killed or thrown in jail, you’re going with theo I’ to still be the precocious one isn’t that cute after you’re old enough to buy beer Grow up Stop being such a fucking child"

Walking out, I said, "You know, soular jack-offs out there You say you don’t care about the ic You say you’re not jealous, but you are You hat I have or you don’t want ht, Mason played his little trick onat the foot of the bed, staring at the wrecked room She doesn’t have to say a word I knohat she’s thinking because it’s what I’ That the hs Picks up s else She shakes her head in wonder at all the junk until I feel ashamed and stupid

I know that none of this is real This Alice is a golehing ghost isn’t Alice any more than the slab of oleray Its skin is cracked and stained with red, green, and brown lichen, like old granite Its broken teeth ooze blood Gole has been gnawing at the isn’t real doesn’t o away or that it doesn’t affect you When she isn’t eyeballing the wreckage ofin my ear

"You wouldn’t throw me into the black tar, would you, Jimmy? There’s no air down there And it’s so dark You wouldn’t do that to me, would you, baby?"

THE MORNING CREW arrives like a herd of baby elephants jacked up on lattes and enough ive a rhino a stroke The crew is an ever-shifting posse of film school hipster dudes I don’t know any of their names and I don’t want to They’re just Blond Surfer Dude Billy Goat Beard Surfer Dude Dreads Dude, etc They really are dudes Sleepy eyes IQs drowning in bong water They invent co systems for the movies because the alphabet baffles the on a shirt My wrists have healed, but there’s dried blood on my hands I hope I didn’t ruin the overcoat Time to look for a dry cleaner

It’s Billy Goat Beard Surfer Dude He s water for aftershave My lack of a shirt and the blood don’t even register