Oliver Benjamin
astronomical, affection of any kind often came at a very high price.
Affectation, on the other hand, remained extremely affordable. It
grew on trees. It rotted in the groves. It was easily mistaken for that
which it strove to replace.
3. Indus
Roy returned that evening to an unexpected welcome: his friends had
decided to cheer him up by sprucing up Undergrounds. Though only
cosmetic, their makeover touched him to the quick. They had
rededicated his temple.
Leona, the resident artiste, ran the show. Everyone had been
hard at work on a new marquee, a florid display with which
reclaimed refuse was arranged to spell out “Undergrounds” in garish
candywrapper colors. Dense strings of Christmas lights outlined the
curves of the letters, imparting all the grandeur of a high holiday in
hell.
“Welcome Sire!” Colin cried from the roof. He and Bennie were
positioning the sign over the doorway with the aid of ropes. “What do
you think, royal heinous?”
“It’s certainly a sign of the times,” said Roy, admiringly.
“Go on in,” suggested Bennie. “There’s more.”
Roy bent down low, only to surface into a twilit daydream. It
wasn’t that the room was so dim, but the walls had been painted so
lushly and indoor plants arranged so thickly that one might have
mistaken Undergrounds for a fabulous pagan wood. Leona was
crouched in the corner painting leaves, twigs, branches and ferns on
the walls. When she saw Roy she stood up quickly, luxuriant flesh
sagging slightly behind the bone. She shifted her weight and crossed
and uncrossed her arms. Roy’s silvery smile assured her that it was
all right. It was all very, very all right.
“I don’t know what to say. Honestly, Leona.”
“It was sort of an impulse,” she smirked, “The ambulance came
and took those two this morning, and afterwards when you didn’t
come back there was this thick emptiness, a real dead air here. It was
like the place was starting to lose its grip. We wanted to breathe some
new life into it, so we sat around and talked about what to do.”
“Colin suggested a big screen TV.”
“Topless waitresses. But Bennie thought of this instead. He told
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