Oliver Benjamin
road.”
Tears began to wend their way down his cheeks. They tasted like
the ocean. Sprout held him. He shuddered like an man and she loved
him like the sea, only in these very human arms he could not drown
and he would not die.
A sea-change came over the crowd as well. These characters were
not killers. They seemed more like figures from some improbable
comic fable. Behind them stood the false building backdrop, painted
as it was with refuse and retribution. The stark white edifice had been
painted black and many felt bad for besmirching it.
“We’ve got to clean this up,” the formerly angry man said. “Or
we’re just as bad as the bombers.”
“We didn’t kill anyone,” somebody else insisted.
“So what,” he said. “The kid’s right. In our hearts we’re just as
bad.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“He’s right,” somebody else said, “We’ve got to clean this up.”
“We’ll all do it. But first,” Roy proposed, pointing a finger
towards the sky, “Why don’t we all have a cup of coffee together?”
This proved to be a welcome suggestion. None of them had had
their coffee yet. It had been too dangerous.
Heck tore the yellow police line do not crosstape and turned the
key in the lock. The entire crowd streamed into the capacious white
lobby. Once inside they were all struck by an aria of blood-curdling
screams.
“Dios mío!” Bennie gasped, “Somebody’s getting murdered.”
The braver among them ran to see the source of the noise:
somewhere behind the large, oval counter. But the only thing getting
killed off was Colin’s childhood. They found him mounted upon the
Crystal Ship manager. He peered up at the faces that she could not
see from her position, merrily humping away while she screamed
herself deaf.
“It’s okay,” he announced to everyone, “She’s yelling at me
because she likes it. We’ve been doing this all day.”
“What? What did you say Colin?” she said in strained voice.
From her position, she could not see the assembled crowd.
“I was just talking to my friends,” he said, his belly slapping
against her pale, exposed rump, “Everybody, this is Polly.”
The woman turned her body sideways and looked up at fifty
surprised faces. Then, she really started to scream.
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