See this previous post for a communication to any who would join me in writing.  For a thought on David Lynch, see this article.  And see this article to read the story from the beginning.  Meanwhile…

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The time of Morcheeba had ended, and now it was time for all the jams au courant.  The DJ spun faster, boosted the bass.  Spines shook, muscles tensed and released and tensed again.  Josefina was already down to the bikini top and pants, twirling and bouncing to the music.  Her body was not the most exciting thing going – small breasts, a bit soft but nothing outrageous – just gentle slopes and the relatively smooth, unblemished skin of the young.

For many that was enough – a young lady showing skin – and she wasn’t unloved on the dance floor.  But still, Noise haunted her steps.  It was a strange routine.  When Josefina would find herself in a moment dancing alone, Noise would lurch out of the crowd, getting somebody’s attention.  She’d point at Josie, point at her victim, and make lurid faces.  Checka this out, buddy.  Wanna piece of that?  If the person took the bait and danced with Josefina, Noise would lurk like a strip club patron, shaking invisible dollars at the edge of the stage.

In moments where she avoided her weird friend, she’d dance past the dealer man, giving him a chance to join, but also trying not to be too obvious.  How could shyness even find her strung out on drugs and half naked in a crowd?  The first two times she tried the maneuver, he didn’t bite.

At last, she a strong hand touch her bare side, and looked up to find herself in the man’s grip.  By then, the night was reaching a climax.  The crowd surged; security was unable to keep track of anything happening inside the club.  The lazy engineer had flicked a switch to get lights reeling and spinning.  Every breath was hot vapor, every glancing brush past a stranger was hot sex.  Josefina felt like she was in the whirling heart of a pansexual orgy, and personal attention from the handsome stranger was the thing to bring that to a perfect crescendo.

She let her eyes keeps spinning, not wanting his eyes to find them.  She took in the details she preferred – the shape of his ear, of his shoulder, the texture of his hair, the scratch of light stubble on his chin, the shape of his mouth… Unless he was saying something.  God, don’t let him be saying something.

He was saying something, felt more than heard under the tumult in the air.  take it off, girl.

No.  Josefina felt her breasts brush against his chest, the fabric of the bikini threatening to slip off the nipples that held it in place.  She backed away but was immediately caught up on somebody from the crowd.  Noise was behind her.

“Yeah,” she cackled, “Take it off!  Woo!”  Her face was that of a harpy, pink and beaked and framed with wild yellow wisps of hair.  She shook a chubby fist in the air.

Josefina bounced back against the man and he breathed into her mind, take if off, Josefina.  His eyes were American Psycho, his teeth were a primate threat signal.  But she couldn’t deny as she felt her flesh pressed against his tight body, sweat a salty ocean between them, that she did kinda wanna take it off.

No, it was too dangerous.  There was some kind of cruel electricity racing through the crowd, turning the touches from sex into pain.  Laughing eyes with champing piranha teeth for lashes.  Get away.  Now.  She called out, voiceless, “Peace?”  He could not be seen.  Again, it was Noise’s face she beheld.

“Take it off, Josie!  Wooo!”

Suddenly she grabbed that Del Taco T-shirt in her tiny fists and looked into her beady snake eyes, and yelled into her open mouth, “How can you do this to me?  Let me go!”

Noise looked confused, like Are you for real?, and made no move to get out of the way.  Josefina scrambled past her with thrashing limbs, smearing sweat all over the white girl, and tumbling away into darkness.

The club breathed, the soundproofing and lights and the flesh closing in and then breathing out.  Fingers grasped in the void.  Collapse was a definite possibility, until her hand sunk into the gentle mass of a big belly.

“Oof,” said Peace.

“Peace?  Oh God I need that water now.”  She was still blind, pawing at his limbs and clothing until she felt the surface of a plastic bottle, and hastily got into it.

“You get too high?  Gotta cool down, somewhere less wild?”

“It wasn’t no bunk,” she whimpered.

“This place has a basement.  I just think they store extra junk in it.  Nothing valuable, so they don’t care if people find it.”

“Really?”

She heard Noise’s cackle from somewhere in the light behind, and squeezed her eyes shut.  “That sounds great.  Take me to it, Brosefina.”

He pinched her nose.  How he found it in the dark was anybody’s guess.  “Got your Nosefina.  C’mon.”  He found her hand and led her further into the void.  She had seen Razzmatazz before with the lights on, and did not remember there being this much space.  She must have gotten turned around, ended up in a different corner than she thought.

Josefina’s sweat immediately began to dry in the cool dusty recesses of the building.  The high end of the music fell away, leaving only bass.  A dull glow ahead bloomed into buzzing fluorescents over exactly what he had described.  Racks of ambiguous junk.  It was all just terrain – canyons and valleys in an artificial world, no meaning to any of it.  They found a smaller bench, with room for only two, and crowded into it.

Josie said, “Peace, I wish you were there, when I was feeling bad.”

“But then you wouldn’t’ve felt bad, and I’d be there for nothin’.”

“Huh.  Well where were you?”

“Findin’ out about this place.  Though it’s kind of a waste of a good high for us to be down here.”

She shook her head.  “It ain’t good if it’s too much.  I hafta cool down.  This is perfect.  You’re the best.”  She leaned on his shoulder and put a naked arm around his back.  His long hair bunched around her face.

His breathing became a little erratic.  “Umm, Josie.  I wish you wouldn’t be so snuggly with me right now.”

She winced, her tired eyes disappearing.  “Too much like love?”

“Yeah.  I can’t be in love with you.  It would be too hard.”

She respected his request, withdrawing arms, folding hands in her lap.  “I forget.  Why do you say that?”

“You know I’m not enough for you.  It would make me too sad.”

“Aww.  You know that doesn’t mean nothin’.  All the people I dance with.”

“It feels like it means somethin’.”

She shivered, finally cooling down.  “Shit, where’s my hoodie?”

“Was your wallet in it?”

“No.”

“Easy come, easy go.  Don’t worry about it.”

“HEY!  Heyeee,” Noise came bustling down the stairs – the pusher close behind her.

“Oh no,” Josefina said.

The man affected a look of bashful charm – very badly, looking all the more like American Psycho Bale.  “I thought we were getting along, Josefina.  What’s the matter, boo?”

“You don’t know me, bro.”  She folded her arms over the bikini top.

Noise said, “C’moooon, he’s way hot.  What was so bad up there?  We’re just trying to have fun.”

He said, “This is the fun place.  I’m fun people.”

Noise added, “Yeah!  And check out his V-shape.”  She grabbed his side and shoved his pelvis forward, the tank top riding up to show the form of his muscles there.  Was he commando?

She shook her head.  “No!  Peace, I– Peace?”  He was gone.  “Jesus Christ, he was just here.”

“We’re both here for you,” said Noise.

“I am too,” the pusher said.

“Not you, Mac,” Noise said.  “I’m sayin’ Peace and me, we brought you here.  Together.  We’re both here for you.”

Josefina stood in a huff and waved them off.  “I need to find Peace.  Where the hell could he have gone?”  She looked at the far end of the room from where she came in, and it seemed there were stairs going down another level.  A sub-basement?

“Hey,” the dealer said, “Don’t turn me on and leave me hangin’!  Fuck I got feelings, y’know?”

Josefina ran to the stairs down, crying softly.

He was about to come after her, when Noise blocked him with a thick arm.  “Sorry Mac, time for you to fuck off.”

“Bitch!  Bitches.”

Noise went after Josefina.

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