Ashes of Yesterday

Chapter 40

"Wake up! Wake up!"

It was Phalen. He was shaking Flix's shoulder, moving the sleeping corpse like an earthquake. Sleeping corpse. Those were the perfect words describing how Flix felt. Had he dreamed that awful nightmare of Sato and Albany?

The empty whiskey bottle and the discarded glass told Flix that he had not. His eyes had not lied. It was only his heart that was begging them to.

"What in the hell is it?" Flix said, gruffly.

"Look at this!"

"Phalen," Flix said, "my eyes hardly focus well enough to see you. There's no way I can begin to read the papers this morning. Maybe later. After the poison's worn off."

"DaneValley's killed herself!"

"God, no," Flix said, grabbing the paper and scanning the words like a starving man peeping through a restaurant window.

"She electrocuted herself with her electric toaster," said Phalen. "It front page news. Wet hands and electric current the papers say."

"Easy enough to do," said Flix. "What a horrible way to meet your Maker."

"I guess things were just too much for her," said Phalen.

"Losing a child is a monumental tragedy," said Flix. "Some people can never recover such a loss."

"Plus, nobody would hire her. She was a leper at any studio she applied," said Phalen. "Tom Steele said it made him sick the way the bosses treated them. But there was nothing he could do to help Dane."

"She was on her own," said Flix.

"Abandoned. Alone. It was like she'd been orphaned."

"She was pushed beyond her limit. And it was just too much for her to stand," Flix said. "What a shame. What a crying shame."

"Yeah," said Phalen. "I guess Oswall Buck will be dancing in the streets. He's been proven right, again. The vices of Hollywood lead only to destruction."

"Something like that," said Flix.

"Where are you going?" Phalen asked.

"To vomit," said Flix. "This is the worst hangover I've ever had in my life."