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We get up from where we’ve been eating on the floor and I put on my jacket. I’m very aware of its weight on my body. Nervousness is all about heightened senses.
Traven is the closest to me. I shake his hand and he nods. Vidocq grabs me in a massive bear hug.
“No good-byes. I’ll see you soon.”
“Sooner than that.”
Allegra comes over and pecks me on the cheek. It’s sweet and she means it, but I don’t think she’s ever quite forgiven me for working for Lucifer a couple of months ago.
Candy loops her arm in mine and walks me to the door.
“Do you want me to walk with you to the car?”
“You should stay here with the others. From here on out, I need to not be Stark. I need to be Sandman Slim and a very bad person.”
“You mean more so.”
“Yeah. That’s what I mean.”
Candy puts the plastic rabbit in my hand and we kiss.
Before I go outside, I look at Kasabian. He’s gone back to the beginning of the DVD and the opening credits for The Wizard of Oz are playing.
“See you soon, Alfredo Garcia.”
He doesn’t look up.
“Shut up. The movie’s starting.”
I open the door and look at Candy.
“Three days.”
She nods.
“Three days.”
I close the door and get out the car keys.
TRAVEN’S KEYS ARE for a Geo Metro, a glass-enclosed gum wad of fiberglass that’s like a car the same way movie-theater nachos are like food. Holding the keys out in front of me like the world’s most pathetic magic wand, I push the lock button. Something a few cars up chirps. The Geo is exactly like the kind of car that a preacher’s mother would drive. It’s blue and looks like something that should come free with a kid’s meal at a burger joint. This isn’t how I imagined I’d be leaving this world, but I don’t have time to hunt and kill a real car. The only thing worse than driving a car like this is having someone see you driving a car like this. Naturally, that’s when I see Medea Bava strolling over from across the street. I already have the door open, so I can’t even pretend I was going to steal something else. I get the Maledictions out and light one. Going back to Hell may be the worst thing I ever do, but at least I’ll be able to get decent cigarettes.
“Why are you bugging me, Medea? I’m leaving town and may not be coming back. Go buy yourself a new crown of thorns. You win.”
Medea stops in the street so that cars have to drive around her. She just looks at me, her face sweeping through the phases of the moon, turning her from a beautiful young woman to an old crone and back again.
“You’re as constant as the stars in a few things, Sandman Slim. For example, your stupidity and selfishness.”
“I also steal cable. What’s your point?”
“What you’re planning is reckless beyond belief. War is coming from below and above. And you plan on inserting yourself into the middle of it? And for what? A personal vendetta. You’ve even involved the Kissi. That alone has made the situation a thousand times worse.”
“What I’m doing is a lot more than a vendetta.”
A minivan full of frat boys goes around her, hooting and flipping her off. Medea flicks her head at them and the van’s windows explode inward. You can hear the frat boys screaming as the van rolls to a stop at the corner.
“The last time we met, who were you with? Ah yes, the Czech whore.”
“Watch your mouth. Her name is Brigitte and the proper term you’re looking for is ‘porn star.’ You’re just jealous of her because you never had a three-way with a cosmonaut.”
