Piecemeal June (4 page)

Smell was horrible. Simon shook the skin flaps like strips of bacon and then tossed them to his friend. What color? Steven preferred pale skin with deep wrinkles. A little tan. Sorry, all I had. Ah, its alright. Thanks. Theyll go nicely in my collection. He draped the strips over his face and inhaled. They smell dirty. Nice. Very nice. He giggled. Simon walked over to the bar and motioned to the bartender for a drink: a cocktail of fermented squid and toothfruit. He turned to Steven. Is Latrina around? Steven shrugged. I havent seen her today. Should be coming in, though. You staying around till she gets here? He took the skin off of his face and put them into his pocket. I might. I dont know. He sipped his drink. Whys this place so empty? Business is usually good this time of day. Steven shrugged. Dont know. I mean, we havent had a good show in a while. The fighters weve had are all old-timers. The last time we had any new fighters they turned out to just be booze-hounds, hoping to score a few free drinks after they got destroyed in the ring. So whatre you going to do? Add something else? A titty-show? Simon laughed. One of the times he had tapped into the First World he had witnessed a quant strip club performance and the image had always stuck with him. Women on a stage shaking their breasts (only two of them!) while men drooled and hollered. Steven giggled again, thinking of bouncing breasts in the boxing ring. We werent really thinking about it. Why? Got any 32 Piecemeal June ideas? Simon looked down into his drink. He thought he saw something more than the usual squid remains and toothfruit roots. It looked like the face of his first and only love. It looked like the face of June. No, I dont know. I guess theres not much you can do until someone comes along who can put on a good show. Steven laughed. How about you? I havent fought for years and even then I could muster up the anger to put on a good fight. Im really just a gentle soul at heart, you know, despite my reputation. Simon gently shook his glass, hoping to dispel the vision of June. No such luck. Yeah, you were always a calm bastard. Oh, Steven pointed to the door, There she is. Latrina, in her long red robe, walked into the Orange Dukkha and immediately smiled when she saw Simon standing at the bar. Your holiness, how nice of you to grace us with your presence! She bowed with mocking reverence. Simon chuckled. Oh, youre too kind, my lady, too kind. He stood up and gave Latrina a brief but tight hug. She kissed him on the cheek. Can we talk in the back? Latrina nodded, patted Steven on the shoulder, and followed Simon into the backroom where her divinations usually took place. Huge paintings depicting scatological battle scenes covered all four walls. Most of the scenes were historical and most were of some relative of Simons. His father was painted on the west wall, showing him in a gritty conflict with the Klootzak Army. Because Om-Am never had a standing military force, Simons father had to rely solely on his harem to assist him in times of need. After three brutal months of fighting, there was victory for Om-Am and the Klootzak Army was dismembered and used as feed for the animals. Whenever Simon saw that painting, he felt a strong sense of pride not only in his father but also in the harem 33 Jordan Krall members. These were beings that could have very well refused to do anything but instead they stepped up to the task of defending their home. It often made Simon a bit teary-eyed. Latrina offered Simon a seat. Can I offer you another drink? No, no thanks. I dont like what I saw in the first one. Simon laughed and rolled his eyes. Whats on your mind? She fixed herself a drink, a simple concoction of lemon juice and sweat. You usually dont look so ... tense. Simons eyes dropped to his hands which were tapping on the marble table in front of them. He gave a half-smile that came out looking like a nervous twitch. I had another dream. About June. Oh. Latrina put her drink down and took both of Simons hands into her own. How longs it been? Almost a year? She didnt belong here and you know that. Her face drooped causing wrinkles that reminded Simon of those on the soles of feet. Just because I know something doesnt make the reality of that fact any easier to take. Weve been through this before and I know its probably futile but can I look? One more time? He held Latrinas hands tightly. She shook her head. Youre going to see what youve always seen. Nothing. Shes gone. Gone back to where she belongs. Simon pulled his hands away. I just feel like somethings different. Like shes coming back into my life even though nothings changed. He got up from his seat. Im going to talk to Steven. His divination isnt as accurate as yours but Ill make due. He walked out sulking like a child. Latrina threw her head back in frustration. Idiot. 34 CHAPTER SIX After calling out sick from work for the second day in a row, Kevin went to the store to buy superglue. When he got home, he started attaching the sex doll parts. During this task, he felt the pieces sweat, felt the tiny hairs on the legs and armpits. The weirdness didnt deter him but instead just brought him that much closer to the obsessive goal of recreating this woman, his woman. He reasoned with himself. Im not a fucking weirdo, I know that. Okay, so its a little weird but still. Ive been doing this sort of things for years. Kevin remembered assembling model airplanes as a child. For hours he would lock himself in his room and glue plane after plane together while inhaling the fumes of the glue. In hindsight, he realized that there was a sexual element in his pleasure as if attaching each piece of the plane was like connecting two sex organs together. He remembered when he was ten years old he was putting together a F6F Hellcat and the fumes became too much for him. As he stumbled up from his bed he fainted on top of a magazine. The feature article was on the sitcom Diffrent Strokes and when Kevin awoke, actress Dana Plato was staring up at him. That was the day he got his first erection. He tried masturbating for the first time, one hand on his penis and one on his model plane as his eyes devoured Dana Plato. Kevin remembered that day as he glued together his newly 35 Jordan Krall found friend while Mithra ran around the apartment, chasing imaginary insects. God, whatever happened to Dana Plato? She died, right? Was she murdered? Wait, didnt she kill herself in a porno? Or she was in a porno or something. Wait, she was a lesbian, yeah, I think so. For a second, he imagined her face on the sex dolls body. The image slightly horrified him. A whiff of underarm sweat wafted up to his nostrils. Kevin smelt his own armpits. Its not me, he thought, so...He put his nose to the armpit of the doll and was shocked to find that it stank like it belonged to a woman who just ran three miles in ninety-degree heat. Putting his nose deeper into the armpit, he fondled himself. The body started to tremble. Kevin jumped back from the bed in shock. What the fuck! He had glued together most of the pieces; only the breasts reminded unattached and the vagina was the only piece missing. Every bit of the thing was shaking, convulsing like an epileptic. Kevin got closer to it and noticed that it was sweating as if fevered. Its okay, its okay.. He babbled and started to rub the arms of the thing, wiping the sweat off onto the bed sheet. Getting the crazy glue, he noticed that he was trembling himself. He grabbed the left breast, slowly applied the glue, and put it into place on the chest of the doll. Kevin repeated the same process with the right breast. The body stopped shaking. Kevin let his face fall onto the sweaty thigh of the doll. God, I cant believe this. This isnt real, this isnt fucking real. He massaged his temples and tried coming up with reasonable explanations for what just happened. Every time he came up with something he just couldnt accept it as a possibility. He had the window open so it couldnt be the fumes affecting his brain. He had never dropped acid so it couldnt be a flashback. The only thing that he thought it could be was a dream but after pinching 36 Piecemeal June and scratching himself, Kevin concluded that he wasnt sleeping. Fuck. Me. The sweating he had accepted. If he was asked, he wouldnt have been able to give a valid reason why he had accepted that so easily. The shaking, however, was something he couldnt put his mind around. But when all was said and done, he was strangely excited. Picking himself up off the floor, he looked to the sex dolls face. The eyes stared up at the ceiling not with the deadness that was expected but with an odd form of awareness, as if the doll was preoccupied with a daydream. Mithra came running into the room with something in his mouth. It was a vagina, cleanly shaven and made of latex, the lips bulbous and perfectly shaped. Kevin picked up the glue and assembled the last piece of the puzzle. Admiring his handiwork, he sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for something to happen, anything. After fifteen minutes, he gave up and threw the glue tube across the room. Then he smelt it: the musky-fishy smell of a female. The doll sat up and the mouth opened. Hi, my names June St. clair. Whats yours? 37 CHAPTER SEVEN Max walked into the porn shop with his Hawaiian shirt wide open revealing a bushy layer of grayish chest and belly hair. The shirt was one that he wore almost every day. He had gotten it on the island of Toidi in the South Pacific while on vacation with his first wife, Samantha. Despite the gorgeous beaches and native beauty, all that Max remembers from that trip is buying the shirt and watching a tribe of dwarves dance around a fire holding long ropes of cheese. The heat made the ropes give off the stink of sweaty feet and Max recalled that smell along with the salty-sweet breeze that came off of the ocean. Those dwarves were fucking ridiculous, Max remembered. One minute they dance around with cheese and the next minute theyre swallowing fish whole. What a vacation, what a goddamn vacation. Thank god we didnt go to Disney World. He spotted something on the VHS discount rack and stopped. It was one of his old soft-core movies. Girls Against Girls #4. Max remembered it well on account that he had almost landed has-been actress Dana Plato for one of the scenes. She died, however, before he could secure the deal. Nevertheless, he was a bit miffed to find one of his movies in the bargain section. His eyes scanned the store and landed on Gregory Garglestock. Hey, whats up with this? Max held up the video. Gregory shrugged and gave an exaggerated frown. I gotta 38 Piecemeal June do that with the videos that havent sold in a while. Besides, DVD is the new thing, you know that. Yeah, whatever. Max put Girls Against Girls #4 back on the shelf, hiding it behind a copy of Head of David #7. You know Im not here to fucking shop so go in the back and bring her the hell out. Whatever you say, asshole. Gregory whispered the last word, not wanting to anger Max. He made his way into the backroom and started digging around. A layer of sweat developed on his forehead as he searched box after box. Which one was it in? Shit! I thought it was this one.. Shit, shit, shit!! Things got even more tense when Max appeared in the doorway. Is there a problem? A deep frown framed the bottom of his face. Gregory swallowed. No, not at all. I rearranged some shit yesterday. Its around here somewhere. Dont worry about it. Oh, Im not the one who should be worried, pal. Just find her. Max walked back into the shop, thinking about her, the sex doll replica of June St. clair, one of the stars from his past movies. This doll was special; he had only one made since the process and ritual was far too complex for him to complete a second time. Besides, he hadnt had permission to create another one and so he didnt. Gregory walked out of the backroom, sweaty and babbling. Listen, I must have brought the box to the basement. I know it was in there, I saw it last week. Ill have it for your tomorrow, Max, I swear. Max grunted. You bet your ass Ill be back tomorrow and I wont be alone. I ask you to do one goddamn favor for me and this is what happens? Shit, man, you shouldnt fuck with me. He walked out of the store but not before grabbing a copy of Leg Show. Put it on my tab, he shouted, already on the sidewalk. 39 Jordan Krall * * * Three old, purple women danced in front of Pop Crowley. They pranced and jiggled, shaking their drooping breasts in circles. Pop shook his head to the music that blasted from the stereo: Captain Beefhearts Blabber N Smoke. Then the telephone rang. He turned down the volume. Hold on, ladies, Ill be right with you. He put his hand over the phone and wiggled his fingers, his normal ritual for answering the phone. The purple women dissolved into blurry mist and were replaced by three piles of purple imported Malaysian rice. Hello? Pop sang into the phone. Pop, its Max. Whats going on? The piles of rice bubbled and popped like corn and then melted into one big pile of cheese. Pops nostrils twitched. Smells like feet. What do you want, motherfucker? Im busy. Pop kept his eyes on the bubbling cheese that was stringy like mozzarella but had holes like Swiss. I need you tomorrow. Ill pick you up at noon. Got it? What? Yeah, whatever. We doing a shoot? Pop thought about the last time he made a movie for Max. Cherry-O-Gasm #2. He got to plug two eighteen year old girls. They werent too happy about it, he knew that. He had a realistic self-image and knew most women, especially younger ones, would find him butt-ugly. But Pop was a fifty year old beer-bellied biker and proud of it. And anyway, he took what he could get. No, just a pick up. Some asshole lost some of my shit. I just want you there for the intimidation factor. But Im probably bringing the boys, too. I havent decided yet. Yeah, alright. Noon, then. Pop hung up. His eyes had been on the cheese the entire time. Now the pile swirled into shapes: elbows, knees, tropical fish, wagon wheels, derringer pis- 40 Piecemeal June tols, talking hats. Pop needed a drink. Pop walked to the fifty-gallon salt-water fish tank that sat in the corner of his living room. Ill be back in a couple ahours. Ill feed you guys when I get back. Pop gently tapped the glass, blew kisses to the fish and then left his apartment. 41 CHAPTER EIGHT Kevin never knew fucking a sex doll would be so soul-shattering. Hed fucked girls before, sure, but it had never been like this. The girls he had screwed, well, there was always a sort of awkwardness as if each partner was worried about their own performance. They would both be holding back, never really reaching that peak of sexual and spiritual ecstasy. But this had been different. It was forty-five minutes of sweaty, rhythmic bliss. Kevin was surprised that it wasnt porn-sex considering the fact that his partner was a sex
doll. There was only the subtlest hint of filthiness; it was mostly heart-pounding passion. Well, at least on his end. He wasnt so sure she even had a real, blood-pumping heart. What he did know, however, was that June St. clair, piece-meal sex doll, was the sweetest woman hed ever met. It was weird how things worked out. For the past few months, Kevin had lamented the fact that he didnt have a girlfriend. He even stooped so low as to be jealous of Ryan. At least he had someone even if it was an emotionally disturbed student. Now, after spending time with June, Kevin had the urge to call his friend on the phone and brag. Brag about what, Kevin wasnt sure. Hey, I got this living, breathing sex doll and shes, like, really hot and smart and you should meet her. We should all go to the movies. Kevin turned over in the bed. June was next to him, star- 42 Piecemeal June ing up at the ceiling with her eyes half-opened. She had told him that she cant experience real sleep like he does. Instead, she sleeps like a cat, getting rest here and there rather than one long slumber. It wasnt until they fucked several times that he finally decided to pop the question. June ... what the hell are you? He knew as soon as it came out of his mouth that it wasnt the most delicate way he could have phrased the question but it was the simplest. Beating around the bush was the last thing he wanted to do at this point in time. As bizarre as it sounded, he was ready to make a commitment. Junes eyes opened and she turned to him. Her eyes, though made of glass, looked no faker than anyone elses, Kevin had decided. They were beautiful and displayed such life, such awareness. A heavy sigh escaped from her plastic lips.