I’m starting to get worried about the light in L.A…. it’s never really night anymore. The bleed from the streets washes far past the moon and I’m losing hold of all those things the cover of darkness bore… like dreams unburdened by light.
Now It’s ten past midnight, the sky’s an orangey haze, the streets are littered with grease trucks selling street hip croquettes and fusion moles but I’m so freaked about what I thought last night that all I want is the comfort of a can of Old El Paso frijoles… with a pile of cheddar melted on top.. But Teddy wants two hundred words on these hipster roach coaches so I’m back on the boulevard, full stop. But I can’t stop thinking…
Ten minutes into a twenty minute line to buy a fried polenta pocket stuffed with peaches, laced with maple cream, I remembered the dream. Now maybe it’s the sputtering neon mist that passes for night that’s altered my reason, but damn if I didn’t think my idea to buy a girl was good… and that this means to an end wasn’t treason.
I paid two bucks too much for the polenta peach pocket, though it was worth about fifty words; I got a chili feta pupusa at the truck parked a block away and two raisin empanadas at the one parked on third… I ate them fast, jotted down notes then headed to the Sunset Food For Less. I got my El Paso frijoles, a hunk of Kroger cheddar and a six pack of Tecate, to temper the mess.
Back home, as the hot cheese folded into creamy beans, and the cold beer went down a treat, I focused in on the task at hand and I hope I didn’t cheat: To buy one of the girls I’d need to know, first how to get one, who to ask? Then, how much do they cost? I couldn’t ask Myrna, she hated me and Panama would either lie or laugh… and I didn’t want to tip him off in case his innocence was a mask. Besides, he might prove useful down the line. Then I remembered, Anna Sakuri would know all… and I knew where she dined.
I slept, then, deep through L.A.’s darkest hours until dawn crept in, barely lighter than this night… and I felt the flurry of my sister’s wings leaving my window in flight. She’d been watching me.
Sure hope she agreed.
Rhea.