Sweet smoke stung Ravi’s eyes,
and the city lights cascaded like diamonds in his teardrops. He
snatched the roach from his lips as its rough end popped. Sparks
showered his face. Tripping over a low hedge, he landed on his back
in spongy grass.
Warm air shook the cherry
blossoms, and glittering star points flashed in the rolling clouds
above. With the starlight came the EEGs of a stranger and feelings
that used words as vents. Something wonderful caused him to stand up
and embrace the velvety darkness. Two moons vibrated and became one,
and then a delicious odor of baked goods touched him.
He looked across the yard and the
condominium complex looked back with a hungry jumble of bright alien
eyes. His stomach growled, shaking angry juices. He decided to buy
some munchies and go upstairs. Moving in the purple night toward a
side door, he thought, “Why contemplate an overdose again? It could
be worse, like I could be a maniac or something instead of just an
unemployed loser.”
A porcine security guard with a
lazy stare was slumped on the desk. Ravi strolled out of the
concourse, passed the guard, and crossed the painfully bright lobby
clutching a paper sack of munchies against his chest. A potato-chip
autumn blew in his mind, drool and fangs were in his stomach, but
like a wild beast, he needed privacy while devouring his meal.
A blond woman, her hips tilted
sweetly, stood by the elevators. He slowed abruptly, and his eyes
shone like lanterns, taking in the creamy skin of her thighs and
shoulders. Her little red summer dress set his brain smoldering, and
he bit his lip as he pictured her naked beneath a tree fern. She
glanced at him, and he forced a smile over his grimace, looking like
the stereotype of a weirdo as he came to a stumbling halt.
The word TART was written on her
face in layers of thick makeup. “Hey, guy,” she said with the
forwardness of a hooker. “You been drinking poison or something?”
“I never drink anything cheap. It
was just a flashback of my ex-wife's face.”
“Think you're cool stuff, huh?”
“I wish I thought that way.”
Her eyes were innocent blue, but
they cut into his heart. He knew she could see he was a faker and
nothing more. What would be left of his ego tomorrow? - the elevator
rattled open - maybe just a pile of scraps on the elevator floor,
and people would carefully step over him like always.
Her body language sucked him into
the elevator, and she hit button fifteen. “I'm on thirteen,” he
said, pressing button 13. “Only two floors from you. Quite a
coincidence, eh?”
She looked at him icily, in the
way women look at the dirtier half of the living dead, and she was
about to say something when the elevator began to bounce up and down
like a sardine can Zeus was shaking. It settled, and the door banged
open, revealing an earthen pit filled with boards and junk. A rat
was about to board. She screamed, and he spilled bags of popcorn and
chips as he hit the close button.
“What in the hell! - We're at the
bottom of the shaft,” he said, and then his mouth fell open as he
watched her breasts swell with a deep breath. He hit the numbers
again, and the elevator began to bounce its way back up.
The elevator steadied and inched
on up the shaft like a beetle. The lady had her arms crossed, and
she looked panicky. He wanted to say something reassuring, but his
brain was meatloaf, then the lights blinked out. The car stopped on
a dime, and a hum dropped down the shaft. Total silence remained.
Screaming took over. His groceries were knocked out of his hands,
razor-sharp nails slashed at him, and he fell against the side wall,
sliding to the floor under the force of the assault. Mustering his
strength, he tackled the woman and forced her down. He gripped her
wrists. She squirmed for a moment, and then she began to weep.
“I'm terrified of elevators,” she
choked.
“Don't be frightened. I won't
hurt you. I've been smoking dope.”
“Get me off this bullshit
elevator!”
“Hey, you all right in there!”
yelled a man with a gravely voice.
“No, we're stuck!” she hollered
back.
“Sorry, but I can't help you -
it's a blackout. I gotta guard my store downstairs. I'll see if I
can find someone to get you out.”
“Wait, you can't leave us here!”
she sputtered. When there was no reply, she sighed out a shivering
ghost and collapsed.
“Oh great,” Ravi muttered. “A
blackout. It could last all night if not longer.” Deciding it
wouldn't hurt to be comfortable, he pulled her against him and let
her head rest on his chest. He found a chocolate bar next to him and
ripped away the wrapper with his teeth. He took a bite, and as he
chewed on the sticky caramel, fear grew in his mind. “Maybe it's
more than a blackout; maybe it's nuclear war.” Demonic apparitions
peppered him with howls as they whirled in the darkness. “The big
one and nuclear winter,” he mumbled as the wicked apparitions mocked
him and burst into hellish flames. Fire burned on ice, and he could
see vicious new species of rats, flies, and roaches swarming through
drifting poison gas and endless mounds of charred corpses.
Wide-eyed, he took another bite of his chocolate bar. Suddenly, the
woman snorted loudly and stirred.
She snapped to an upright
posture. “Oh-no!” she exclaimed.
“Oh-yes,” he said.
Somewhat adapted to dark
confinement, she moved back beside him. “So are we being rescued or
what?”
“No word yet.”
“You're single, aren't you?” she
said softly, rubbing the inside of his leg.
“Sort of - the wife took off a
year ago. What about you?”
“My husband's criminally insane;
he'll never be released. A thing about body parts. He once brought
me a--”
“It's terrible to be alone,” Ravi
said, clenching his fists. “When women reject me I feel like - feel
like --” He succumbed to her kisses.
Time slipped pleasantly by, then
a man laughed - his voice was gravely. “Hey, what's goin’ on in
there? I could use some of that.”
There was some hasty movement in
the elevator. “Did you find help?” the woman asked in a hopeful
tone.
“Yeah, I ran across some Joe
helping people next door with his pry bar. He doesn't talk much, but
I'm sure he can force the door. I gotta get back to my store. I'll
leave the lantern, and Joe can get to work.”
He was sorry about getting out;
he let his mind fall into the darkness, and his hand wandered on her
thigh. A loud hammering on the door made them both jump. “Joe,” he
said. “You're supposed to force it open, not hammer it down.”
“I hope this guy knows what he's
doing,” the woman said.
Loud creaking replaced the
hammering, and a crack of flickering light showed as the metal
groaned and gave way. Joe had the strength of an ox, but he didn't
know how to apply a lever. He put big gashes in the outer door; he
was like a moron opening a can with a screwdriver.
Finally, Joe got brighter,
slipped his pry bar in the crack, and forced the door halfway open.
They ducked out quickly and turned to thank him. The woman gasped.
In the lantern light, Joe looked like a creature from the bottom of
a mineshaft. He was a squat, lumpy guy with swollen blue lips and a
porous red-veined bump for a nose. Lifeless hair hung like cobwebs
from a head checkered with bald patches. His eyes were like little
black olives in pools of moldy margarine, and he grinned witlessly,
showing crooked yellow teeth.
“Darling,” the woman said, almost
choking. “How did you get out?”
“You mean that guy's your mad
husband?”
Joe's grin widened. “The electric
fence, the electric fence - no power,” he blubbered. “Look.” He set
the pry bar down and reached for an enormous dent-covered toolbox.
Loosening up some snaps, he lifted out something large and held it
up in the lantern light. It was a heavy meat hook, a human foot hung
from it - blood dripped to the carpet from the toe of a nylon
stocking. “For you, for you,” he said feverishly.
They took a step back, turned,
and fled into the dark stairwell. They were down a few flights
before they heard Joe's heavy boots ringing above. His crazed voice
echoed, “Paint the town red, paint it black and blue!”
The woman threw the side door
open, and they raced off under the cherry blossoms. An apparition of
a ghastly head swinging on a meat hook vanished in the moonlight as
Joe appeared. He looked around, but they were gone, dashing into a
lovers' darkness he would never find.
---The End ---
