21

’And who were they? Those instructors on how you were to answer my question?,' asked V, ‘Federals? The guys that grabbed you at the Cabin?’

‘Those were not feds but security guys from the Firm I’m working for, and the enterprise has nothing to do with the government.’

‘Then who’s the Firm working for?’

‘For some global structure superimposed over all of the world governments.’

‘Really? Again? Is there a hope we’ll ever drop ruminating the old drab cud about Masons? Another variation of Conspiracy Theory for high school kids, huh? O, give us peace with the stuff.’

‘Blown your steam off? Take it easy, there’d no questions on the shit in examination papers,’ Lex got seated onto the coach. ‘May I ask for a glass of water?’

V fetched from the fridge a bottle of mineral water. His guest sipped a couple of gulps and screwed the cap back.

‘If you allow a question, V, not quite comfortable... But I’ve been keeping it back for too long and just can’t help taking a shot at. Beg your pardon in advance, for the sake’s sake, you know.’

‘I be fucked if it’s old Lex speaking. You’ve sunk me to the bottom of the grimmest suspicion, is it you, my friend? Fire it off, you are pardoned for the sake’s sake.’

‘Well, now… damn! It’s hard… I wanna ask why you split. It was clear to anyone that you were in… well, so to special for each other.’

‘Once upon a time it was called “love”, young boy. Yes, I loved and I was loved. Splitting was not my idea. Supposedly, she wanted to have another moment of inexpressible happiness for which purpose she needs setting someone free. If that one is Fluffy or me makes no difference.’

‘I can’t get a flake of it. Who’s Fluffy? Are you high?’

‘Forget it. My fault, just a slip of tongue. How are you, by the by?’

‘Wanna know how I am? Huh? Thank you. Everything is just fine except for a weeny trifle that there is no Lex any more, neither Alex Taylor Jr. can be met anymore. How am I? Ha! You’ve asked for it. Now watch for yourself!’

He rose on his feet and—a bit careening—yanked apart the skirts of his unzipped windbreaker and uplifted them kinda spreading wings in a Batman-like move.

Icy cold grip of primeval horror made V’s blood freeze in its vessels at the terrible sight exposed so ruthlessly. Instead of the jovial plump sybarite he knew for years, a sullen skeleton stood before him in a tartan shirt hanging loosely down from his rigid skinny collar-bones.

‘’Surprise!’ croaked Lex. He grabbed with his hands the only bump under the shirt fabric, like, a pound of grain poured into an empty checkered sack (the argyle pattern of McGuire clan) pending under his waist and gave it a clockwise twirl and then, after a heavy sigh, wobbled back in the counterclockwise direction.

‘O, no!’ cried V out guessing in dismay that the sack contained the surplus skin which had not yet contracted, that very skin which a couple of months back covered the wide stomach of his gourmet friend, ‘How could it be? Tell me, bro! Tell me all’

‘All? It would be painful, man. Yes, it would.’

‘Don’t you mind, I’m not squeamish.’

‘I cannot eat. Deprived of the foremost function of a human. Well, technically—chewing, gulping down—it’s still there, I’m able to stuff my stomach but I don’t feel anything, not a drop of joy that made me so happy at the dinner table. So, why eating? Yeah, I can nibble on this or that, a hot-dog or burger during a day, when I remember. Where are they gone to? My lustful raids to the fridge in the dead of night? I have neither appetite nor hunger.’

‘Oboy! O, poor, poor,dear Lex! But why?’

‘Because of all the shocks, I reckon, which I had to live thru.’

Unable to hide the vestiges of hesitation still lingering about him, Lex gave out a nervous cough and anchored his look in the corner before to proceed:

’I meat her a year after you broke up. A chance running into each other, in the street. She suggested dropping into a cafe. Who’d say “no” to such a gorgeous woman? So, there we sat chatting when all of a sudden I saw – she’s flirting! Vamping in earnest.

Well, what’s there to tell, we’re all from the same pod… when you can’t really see whether it’s hot or too tight… Some whooping throb in my head and I am gabbling the most helpless hooey.

‘Once upon a time in old good Japan,’ sez I, ‘any poor devil of a penniless vagrant samurai could arrange a date with the top-notch geisha on credit, paying in the morning with his harakiri by her gate.’

‘I’m not so versed in Japanese history,’ sez she.‘How about paying for a one-night stand with a friendly favor?’

‘Which favor?’

‘The details can wait till the morning after.’

‘So, well… when the morning came she wanted me to run an errand and pass her message to you:“V’s been the best lover of my life”’.

‘And then?’

’Then I saw her just twice. The first time in a week after... well, after fulfilling the request. In the same cafe she thanked me for keeping up to the deal and suggested I would apply for a job in an Institution I never heard of… She said the employees were well paid there. I refused to believe the salary she mentioned, were the employees there senators or something?. It turned out she was not kidding…

The second meeting was two months ago in the office of Ritter. Security boss in the Firm. I was instructed to pass you a memory card of those which we’re dealing with there. I was told it’s not a breach of regulations, simply there was a need to skirt around some clumsy regulations for the sake of general benefit.’

‘So your arrest was a rehearsed action?’

‘Yep.’

‘And later you warned me on Ritter’s phone?’

‘Exactly… Then I was told to move to a new location and change my vehicle. That’s all.’

‘And now you’ve been instructed to feed this tall story to me?’

‘No, man! I was looking for you of my own accord! I knew your habits, favorite places to hang out... Then I followed you to this place… I can’t describe what a relief it is to have all that off my chest.’

Now Lex was looking straight in V’s face. No evasive eye-wiggling. His breath was audible, the chest pumped visibly like accordion bellows under the open windbreaker.

‘Hey, V! I can’t believe it! Looks like I’m hungry. I swear! I can feel it! Wow! Any chow in your fridge?’