Part 21 (1/2)

Lucy's head twitched-it might have been a nod-and she compressed her lips. The college boys stared at me in wonderment. They had, I thought, taken me for a relative or some kind of neutered loser. The taxi girls were transfixed, hanging on Riel's every word.

”It's because I'm beautiful, I feel that way, I think. Mitch always told me I was beautiful. Lately he wasn't being honest, but he believed it once upon a time. Now, with you guys . . .” She smiled at Lucy and me. ”I'm this exotic country you've traveled to. Like Cambodia. I'm a lot like Cambodia. The land of beautiful women.” She waved at the taxi girls. ”You're absolutely perfect. You are. You've got these perfect t.i.tties. So firm, I don't have to touch them to know.”

Sean's girl blushed; he gaped at Riel.

”Mine are too soft.” She glanced at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. ”Don't you think?”

Lucy and I answered at the same time, her saying, ”No,” and me saying, ”They're fine.”

This, the implication that the three of us were in a relations.h.i.+p, provoked Mike to say delightedly, ”f.u.c.k!”

”Could I have another drink?” asked Riel, and, turning to Dan: ”Maybe you could bring me a drink?”

He hesitated, but Mike said, ”Yeah, get us all one, man,” and he went off with our drink order; the door opening allowed a gust of music inside.

Lucy started to speak, but Riel cut in line and said to me, ”Mitch wanted to sell me to other men, but I wouldn't let him. I wonder if that's why he left.”

”Beats me,” I said.

”You wouldn't sell me, would you, Tom?”

I had a pretty fair buzz going, but nevertheless I noted that this was another disturbing resonance between my life and The Tea Forest The Tea Forest. ”There's no need,” I said. ”I'm rich.”

With a finger, Riel broke the circle of moisture her gla.s.s had made on the table. ”I don't guess it matters. Someone's always using you.”

”Oh, for heaven's sake! I am fed up with your dreary p.r.o.nouncements!” Lucy put the back of one hand against her brow, a move suitable to an actress in a silent film, and imitated Riel's fey voice: ”It's all so morbidly ba.n.a.l!” She dropped the impersonation and said angrily, ”If you reduced your drug intake, you might have a sunnier outlook.”

Unruffled, Riel said, ”You're not where I am yet. You'll have to increase your drug intake to catch up.”

Sean and Mike glanced at each other. I could almost see a word balloon with two downward spikes above their heads, saying in thought italics: This is way cool! This is way cool! The taxi girls lost interest and idly fondled their new best friends; but their interest was restored when Riel asked Mike if he planned to have s.e.x with his girl there in the room. The taxi girls lost interest and idly fondled their new best friends; but their interest was restored when Riel asked Mike if he planned to have s.e.x with his girl there in the room.

”If you'll have s.e.x with Tom and Lucy,” he said.

”No,” I said.

”Why not, man? We're all friends.”

”Little orgy action. Yeah,” said Sean, and had a toke off a joint that his taxi girl held to his lips.

”You haven't even introduced us to your dates,” I said to Mike. ”That's not very friendly.”

”Hey, f.u.c.k yourself, dude,” said Sean, suddenly gone surly, no doubt due to some critical level of THC having been surpa.s.sed.

Mike said, ”Oh-oh! You don't want to be getting Sean upset. My man's third team All American. He's a beast.”

Sean glared at him. ”f.u.c.k you, too.”

”Really?” I leaned back and crossed my legs. ”What position do you play? No, let me guess. You're an offensive offensive lineman, right?” lineman, right?”

Lucy put a cautioning hand on my knee.

”Nose guard,” said Sean, unmindful of the emphasis I'd placed on the word offensive. offensive.

Riel started singing, a breathy, wordless tune that drew everyone's notice, and then broke it off to say, ”Your friend's been gone a long time.”

”It's nuts out there,” said Mike. ”He's probably still trying to get served.”

”Or hooking up with another wh.o.r.e.” Sean extended a hand to Mike, who slapped him five but did so listlessly, as though out of obligation.

The door flew inward, and a diminutive Cambodian, one of the gold watch/silk s.h.i.+rt crowd, with a high polish to his hair and an inconsequential mustache, burst into the room, along with the pumping beat of a Madonna song. He shouted at the taxi girls. Behind him was an older man whose eyes ranged the room. Lucy caught at my hand. The taxi girls, too, shouted; their shrill voices mixed incoherently with that of the younger man. Sean dumped his taxi girl onto the floor and stood, his face a beefy caricature of disdain. The older man produced an automatic pistol from behind his back, aimed it at Sean, and spoke to him sharply in Khmer.

”Get down!” Lucy said. ”He's telling you to get on your knees!”

Looking dumfounded, Sean obeyed. The taxi girl scrambled up, confronting the young man. They both began to yell, and then he punched her flush in the face, knocking her to the floor. Sean said something, I wasn't sure what. The older man b.u.t.t-ended him, and he slumped across the taxi girl's legs. She sat against the wall, dazed and bleeding from the mouth. The other taxi girl was still shouting, but the shouts seemed remote, as did the sight of Mike frozen in his chair. The shock I had felt when the incident began had evolved into the kind of fright that grips you when your car spins out of control on an icy road; everything slowed to a crawl. Lucy sheltering against my arm, Riel gazing with mild interest at the gun, Sean moaning and clutching his head-all that was in focus, remarkably clear, yet it was like a child's puzzle with a very few pieces that I couldn't solve. I had the knowledge that whatever was going to happen would happen, and I would die in that little icy black room with Madonna woodling about love and a hooting, arm-waving, hip-shaking crowd attempting to cover up the unappetizing facts of their existence with celebration.

The young man (he couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen) strode to the center of the room. I was half-hidden behind Lucy, pressed back into the cus.h.i.+ons, and until then I don't think he had been able to see me unimpeded. He did not look my way at first-he plainly wanted to strut, to bask in his dominance; but when his eyes fell on me, his prideful expression dissolved. He put his hands together, fingers and palms touching as if in prayer, and inclined his head and jabbered in Khmer.

Bewildered, Lucy said, ”He's apologizing to you. He's begging you not to tell his father and asking your forgiveness.”

I gawked at her.

”Say something,” she said sotto voce. ”Act in control.”

It had been years since I smoked, but I needed a cigarette to marshal my wits. I reached for the pack on the table and lit one. ”How can I forgive him when this animal is holding a gun on us? Ask him that.”

Lucy spoke to the young man, and he snapped at the bodyguard, who lowered the gun and withdrew. The young man then rea.s.sumed his prayerful posture.

”Tell him he can go,” I said. ”If he leaves immediately, I won't tell his father.”

She relayed the message, and the young man backed toward the door, bowing all the while.

”Wait!” I said, and Lucy echoed me in Khmer.

The young man stopped, holding his pose. I let him stew in his own juices, and his hands began to tremble-his fright increased my spirits more than was natural.

”Tell him to take care of our bill before he goes,” I said. ”And have them turn the music down.”

”Jesus f.u.c.k!” Mike said once he had gone. ”I thought we were dead! What the f.u.c.k just happened?”

Sean struggled up into a sitting position. His taxi girl tried to minister to him, but he brushed her away.

”s.h.i.+t!” said Mike, and then repeated the word.

The other taxi girl kneeled beside her friend and mopped blood from her mouth and chin.

Lucy, regaining her poise and said to me, ”He must have mistaken you for someone else.”

”Who the f.u.c.k are you, guy?” Mike asked. ”Some kind of f.u.c.king . . . ?” His imagination failed him and he said again, ”s.h.i.+t!”