Smell the fire. Hear the whir, the almost crash. See the bystanders leap past and out the way. Transox car mos crash in the big pony, the yoyo poyo. Duck, having heard the doppler whirl into yr skull. Feel the smell the hair on the nape of your close-cropped neck. This is Bob's town.
wen pimlico thuth de, chAz.
y.
y. yawzgUdaim, gUd taim.
patrigO?
nO, IsteyOm. lUkaft th kidz.
Bob awoke early morning, turned away from wife and toward the dressing table. There took a small piece of tissue which he folded square. Pressed the square to sneeze to chest just where his suit jacket and tie wouldn't hide it. Tape over square. Doesn't shower.
Bob pulled out the fridge a small container containing last night's meal. Filet of sole with bananas. His wife, no lusty Latin hearthrob rather small Asian woman, royal descent, who had an ingratiatingly cute English tongue, held a skipped "Marxian" diploma and tended to early Black Flag and Erik Satie, experimented last night's repast. Which Bob today felt the perfect meal.
Elena spoke with authority. On the first, Bob got yayo nosebleed and date painted a bloody smiley face on transdermal patch above left breast beside throat cradle.
...that bastrd jAn
wut wzI thInking?
hI wznt, anaftraispinAlat muniyAnthat koksukinkOt.
dOn, lafrIk, hiyain wirth yr taim much lisyrmunI.
P is for patois. Four girls eighteen or so walking down talking otherwise mostly Korean though two aren't even they're Hindi and think a Jew. Thin cute shoes. Not that it matters anymore. Car rushed past and left lithe bodies bathed in blue haze. Sure.
Why not?
The Transox reaction process generates only a sweet floral bouquet. The scientists of Transox Polyglobal have worked for years to bring you this new wonder car. This car that cleans the world. Exhaust fumes actually generate semibiological substances that safely detoxify your everyday environment. Every alley, highway, bypass, parking garage and shopping mall parking lot.
And soon those very same scientists will bring you the dream of the last 50 years. The great return. Imagine a metropolis reanimated to former glory. Cars pulsing through every roadway, swiftly removing contaminated debris and taking back a city for us all. Someday soon that dream will become reality thanks to the hard working women and men of the Transox Corporation. Transox and you, working towards a better tomorrow, working for the Empire State.
Dirty bombs choked all. Girl smoke wrapped Bob and slowly started to process his epidermis, his hair, his fingernails and trachea, polyfiber Gap jacket. The image struck Bob momentarily of a breathless derelict being constantly consumed and recycled by the dirty jackets and newspapers and the crap under their fingernails. Maybe that's why they collect all that shit in shopping carts.
Up the way.
aidOnunderstan waiyUwOn dUwz rait.
I just can't anymore. It hurts me more than not.
dOnyUdOnyUluvmI. dOnyUdOnyUluvadamanpAlIyan?
Everybody except you and me.
Thanatol by Transox Polychemical. Marketed originally to the PTSD crowd after the big bangs. A difficult and troublesome chemical brew. Seratogenic, epi and some speed, good measure. A carefully polyolyox'd combination of psychoactive compounds that like Hector held the city, one united, one against all. Bob's wife took Thanatol; kids, too. Managed Alcibiades' ADD/HD and Cassandra's schizoaffective disorders.
Bob took Thanatol for a short time. Rendered him impotent, but that didn't really matter to Bob, who found his newly found asexuality bliss. Entered sweet reveries of remembrance of loves.
I never met him, I'll never forget him
beep beep meet me at the turnstyle
fade away, radiate
They both rolled, rolled together, back in the dizay, as Elena was wont to say before saying something, something that, under the influence, seemed to Bob needlessly foul and overly descriptive of the humidity of Elena's crotch. Bob, incidentally, tended to Debussy, particularly Children's Corner as Dr. Gradus stepped to Parnassus.
hebAb sup g, houzit hangin.
jusfain, rik, houz wIkin?
AusumdUd, tOtalI Ausum. mIanth misz wAch frnzAn dIvIdiyaal wiikind, fukIng laik rabits haion pIcIpI. he, aiwz thinking about yU thuther de as am draiving doun charlz. houwz pimlico?
doesn't that hurt the rabbits?
wut?
nevermind. se, sIyU at thu mIting leder, rik riksun. i hIralix that karaktr alixz sumthing sik wrkdup.
Little bulge beside Daffy Duck's trademarked appearance on Rick's tie. That joker Rick.
Up the elevator into the office. Bob laid his black satchel by the door. Taking a slip and pen he wrote.
I felt the lack and the sweet hope and the lack of sweet hope.
Alicibiades' Transox PowerModeller 2085 Torch Bob cut a square neat. Careless of life he pushed the glass. Thought of a day, the words the peace of the lord passed. Smile crossed lips and he left, fell.