storefront which proclaimed that this would shortly be the site of a
new Biddenbrooks Coffee Emporium. It featured a happy couple
holding up mugs of steaming richness. Underneath, a caption read,
“I’ll Drink to That!”
Colin held up his bottle of Wild Turkey. “I’ll drink to that,” he
said. He handed the bottle to Roy. Roy drank to it too.
“Hey, you put a dent in my truck,” the driver said. Every article
of his clothing was festooned with Biddenbrooks logos.
Colin brandished his bottle like a weapon. “Back off fuckhead,”
he said, “or I’ll put a dent in your skull.”
The driver shuffled quickly away.
About to drive away, he noticed a pink parking ticket on his
windshield. He glanced around, wondering how the cops had had the
time to cite him. Grumbling, he stuffed it in his shirt pocket and the
two drove back off down the street, a street zoned only for
pedestrians. A homeless man walking very slowly blocked their path.
The driver honked his horn. The homeless man turned around and
gave him the finger.
A pair of fit middle-aged women strolled by in white tracksuits,
on their way to Martin’s gymnasium.
“Another Biddenbrooks,” one said.
“But there’s already one just a few blocks away!” the other said.
“Have you tried the Zapuccino? It’s got three times the caffeine,
bee pollen and an extract from bull testicles. Gives you a real kick in
the poo-poo.”
“I like the Sexpresso.”
“Ha! You would!”
They both laughed. Roy sat down on the concrete. Sprout sat
down next to him.
The others decided to leave them alone and returned to
Undergrounds. The world around Roy seemed suddenly very quiet.
He wondered if perhaps Bidden had indeed shot him that day and
that everything afterwards had just been a long comatose dream.
That would be nice. Perhaps he would just sit there on the sidewalk
and wait around for a medical miracle.
“Are you angry with me?” Sprout said.
Roy looked over at her widely-set eyes. They were heat-seeking
missiles those eyes. On your every move, promising both attraction
and annihilation. He tried to look away.
“I guess I just thought that what we had was special,” he
ABYSSINIA
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