Into the Light

Book Three: Chapter 28

Book Three: Revelations. Chapter: 28

And mutual fear brings peace

Till the selfish loves increase

Then cruelty knits a snare

And spreads his baits with care.

The Human Abstract by William Blake

In the motel room, Blake washes his face with soap after patting it down with alcohol wipes and on the phone Stiggy makes plans with Darius for that night, after his book signing at the Megastore, to go to a new club he heard about called Seventh Hell. Blake wets his face with lukewarm water to soften the pores. The contaminants pour away with the dead cells. The steam rises from the faucet and fogs both his eyes and the mirror. He looks in the mirror thinking perhaps his face might change. Nothing. A splash of witch hazel completes the cleansing. While wiping his face with a stiff towel, he wonders if Amesha was really his nurse.

A lunch of beef and bean burritos is delivered and Stiggy inspects the food with a meticulous eye. He pays but the tip is low. After a bowel of onion soup is slurped down, he begins to research places to rent in central Pennsylvania near Maryland and West Virginia per Blake's' request.

Clark basks in the sun on the busy beach wide with heat and tourists carrying knickknacks in sacks they bought just to stop a seaside hustler form pestering them. A vision of the sea falling off world fills Clark's thoughts. He pulls out his phone and texts Stiggy. B careful. Nothing is as it seems. Farewell.

Five-dollar flip flops are kicked off his feet and Clark tiptoes over the white, hot sand just a few degrees from becoming glass. Stiggy gets the message but does not open it. Clark forges a path into the surf and as he reaches waist deep water he hurls his phone into the turbulent waves. He plods through the surf and gets to shoulder depth. His face turns up to the thin clouds above. The next wave comes and then the next one.

A news bulletin is read over regularly scheduled programming on the TV in Blake's motel room.

"Fire at theater kills two children but most of all the gala event of the evening is postponed and moved to a theatre in Santa Barbara. The President is still being charged with, wait, the event is going to be at seven at the renovated theater in a week says producer Roman English if they can get the proper security."

The TV is turned off and Blake gets Stiggy to go to electronics store, a hardware store, and an Army/Navy store. Meanwhile, Darius gets them all on the list at Seventh Hell that evening with a call to an agent friend.

Thousands of dollars are spent that afternoon and back at the room, which now smells of musk, Blake organizes the tools and weapons into easily concealed carrying cases. The bundles are put in the trunk of the Mazda and locked. The autumn in LA isn't chilly but night comes early just like everywhere else and Stiggy paces as Blake showers until the water goes cold.

A few wads of cash, wrinkled and faded, are tossed onto the freshly made bed and puts on his black pinstripe jacket as if he were still in NYC. The lapels are straightened as he looks at his reflection in the TV black screen and thinks the glamour capital. Fuck. At least, I have my note pad but I have to start putting it in a Word doc.

Darius finishes up his last bag of cashews as he wades through the throngs of aspiring rock bands in hoodies wandering the boulevards passing out fliers to shows at the Rainbow Room, The Troubadour, and the Whiskey. He gets through the sidewalk crowd and to the club's façade. Polished black marble veneer outlines the entrance, a thin polished aluminum door surrounded by security and flanked by a line of eager club hoppers willing to wait. None shall pass if they are not on the list or don't have a hot chick with them. He glides up to the thick doorman who stands below a pitchfork sign that reads 7.