The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 32~33

Thirty-twoCatfish and Es circulateeThat was a serious guitar, Catfish said. He had his blazonry around Estelle, who had pressed her face to his chest when the monster attacked Winston Krauss.I didnt realize, Estelle said. I didnt think it would do that.Catfish stroked her hair. That was a good political machine too. That car neer broke.Estelle pushed Catfish away and looked in his eyes. You knew, didnt you?What I knew is that boy wanted to get up close to a sea monster and thats what he got. Case you didnt notice, he was happy when it happened.What now?I think we ought to get you home, girl. You got some paintings gonna come out of this.Home? Are you coming with me?I aint got no car to go anyw present. I guess I am.Youre going to stay? Youre not afraid of losing the Blues and getting content?Catfish grinned, and there was that g hoar tooth with the eighth strain cut in it, glistening in the morning sunshine. Dragon d sensation ate my car, my guitar, my amp girl, I got me enoug h Blues to last a good long time. Im thinkin Ill write me some new songs while you makin your paintings.Id ilk that, Estelle said. Id standardized to paint the Blues.Long as you dont go cuttin your ear off like old Vincent. A man finds a one-e bed woman stone unattractive.Estelle pulled him tight. Ill do my best.Course, there was a woman I knowed down Memphis way, name of Sally, had only one leg. Called her integrity Leg SallyI dont want to hear it.What you wanna hear?I want to hear the door closing behind us, the fire crackleware in the stove, and the teakettle on the dot coming to a whistle while my lovin man picks out Walkin Mans Blues on a National steel guitar.You easy, Catfish said.I intellection you liked that, she said, and she took his spidery hand in hers and led him up all over the bluff to find a ride home.Theo and MollyTheo had never felt quite so overwhelmed in his entire life. He sensed that the excitement and the danger of it all was over, but he still felt as if a animal every bit as intimidating as the one that had retributory sunk into the sea was looming over him. He didnt know if he had a job, or for that matter a home, since his cabin had been part of his pay. He didnt even do his bong collection and victory garden to crawl into. He was confused and scare by what had just happened, but not relieved that it was over. He stood there, not ten feet from where Molly Michon was standing in the surf, and he had no idea what the oddment of his life had to offer him.Hey, he called. You okay?He watched her nod without turning around. The waves were breaking in front of her and foam and sea-weed was splashing up over her thighs, to that extent she stood there solid, staring out to sea.You going to be okay?Without turning, she said, I havent been okay for years. Ask anybody.Matter of opinion. I think youre okay.Now she looked over her berm at him, her hair in a tangle from the wind, tear tracks down her face. Really?Im a huge fan.You had never heard of my movies until you came to my trailer, had you?Nope. Im a huge fan, though.She moody and walked out of the surf toward him, and a pull a face was breaking there on her face. A smile with too much history to it, but a smile nonetheless.The narrator says you did good, she said.The narrator? Theo found himself smiling too, as close to crying as he had come since his father had died, but smiling nonetheless.Yeah, its this voice I hear when I dont take my meds for a while. Hes kind of a prick, but hes got a better sense of judgment than I do.She was right there in front of him now looking up at him, a hand on her hip, a challenge in that movie-star smile looking to a greater extent like Kendra the Warrior Babe than she ever had in the posters, the five-inch-long scar standing glorious over her left breast, sea urine and grime streaking her body, a look in her eyes that comes from ceremonial your future get nuked repeatedly. She took his breath away.Do you think the three of us could go out to dinner sometime?Im on the rebound, you know?His heart sank. I understand.She walked around him and started up the bluff. He followed her, understanding for the first time how the pilgrims had felt following the ocean Beast to the cave.I didnt say no, Molly said. I just thought you ought to know. The narrator is warning me not to talk about my ex over dinner.His heart soared. I think a lot of people are going to be talking about your ex.Youre not intimidated?Of course. But not by him.The narrator says its a bad idea. Says the two of us purge together might make one good loser.Wow, he is a prick.Ill get some meds from Dr. Val and hell go away.Youre sure thats good idea?Yeah, she said, turning pricker to him again before climbing up to where the pilgrims waited. Id like to be alone with you.SkinnerWhat the man in the drivers seat didnt seem to understand was that as far-off as this Mercedes was concerned, Skinner was the alpha male. The man smelled of fear and anger and aggression, as well as gunpowder and sweat, and Skinner didnt like him from the moment he got into the car Skinners new mobile territory. So Skinner had to show him, and he did so in the traditional way, by clamping his jaws over the Challengers throat and postponement for him to take a submissive posture. The man had struggled and even hit Skinner, but hadnt said bad-dog, bad-dog, so Skinner just growled and tightened his jaws until he tasted blood and the man was still.Skinner was still waiting for the Challenger to submit when the Tall computerized tomography opened the car door.Good dog, Skinner. Good dog, Theo said.Get this fucking animal off me, the Challenger said.Skinner wagged his bathroom and tightened his jaws until the Challenger made a gurgling sound. The Tall Guy scratched his ears and put some metal on the Challengers paws.Let go now, Skinner, the Tall Guy said. Ive got him.Skinner allow go and licked Theos face before the const fit dragged the sheriff out onto the ground and stood on the back of his neck with one foot.The Tall Guy tasted like lizard spit. That was strange. Skinner considered it a moment, indeed his pooch attention span ran out and he bounded out of the car to go see what the Food Guy was doing in the back of the truck. The Tall Guys female was breaking out the back window of the truck with a metal stick. Skinner barked at her, trying to tell her not to hurt the Food Guy.Good GuysIs the creature still there? Gabe asked Molly as he climbed out of the back of the Suburban. Skinner was frisking and jumping on him, and with the handcuffs he couldnt ward off the damp affection. Down, boy. Down.No, hes gone, Molly said as she helped Val and Howard out of the Suburban. She nodded to Val. Hi, Doc. I think Ive had an episode or something. Youll have to debrief me in session or something.Valerie Riordan nodded. Ill check my calendar.Theo came around the back of the Mercedes. You guys okay?You have your key? Gab e asked, turning his back to Theo to show the handcuffs.We heard shots, Val said. Did?One of the SWAT team is dead. Burton shot him. A few of your patients are scraped and bruised, but theyll be okay. Winston Krauss was eaten.Eaten? The color ran out of Vals face.Long story, Val, Theo said. Mavis set it all up after you guys left. Catfish and Estelle came in and drew the monster out. Winston was sort of the bait.Oh my god Val said. She said something about my not being in trouble.Theo held his finger to his lips to shush her, then nodded to where Sheriff Burton lay on the ground. It never happened, Val. None of it. I dont know a thing. He spun her around and unlocked her handcuffs. Then did the same for Gabe and Howard.The gaunt restaurateur seemed more morose than usual. I had really hoped to lay eyes on the creature.Me too, said Gabe, putting his arm around Valerie.Sorry, Theo said. To Val he said, The reporters from those helicopters are going to be here in a few minutes. If I we re you, Id get out of here. He handed her the keys to the Mercedes. The district attorney is sending a deputy to pick up Burton, so Im going to stay here. Will you give Molly a ride back into town?Of course, Val said. What are you going to tell the reporters?I dont know, Theo said. traverse everything, I guess. It depends on what they ask and what they got on tape. Having lived most my life in denial, I may be perfectly suited for dealing with them.Im sorry I was Im sorry I doubted your abilities, Theo.So did I, Val. Ill call you guys and let you know whats going on.Gabe called Skinner and they loaded into the Mercedes, leaving Theo and Molly facing each other. Theo looked at his shoes. I guess Ill be seeing you.She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. Then without a word she crawled into the back of the Mercedes with Howard and Skinner and closed the door.Theo watched them back away, then turn and chieftain across the pasture and out of the cattle gate.Youre going down with me, Crowe Burton screamed from the ground.Theo spotted something shiny lying in the grass near the back of the Suburban and went over to it. It was Mollys broadsword. He felt a smile breaking out as he picked it up and went over to where Burton was lying.You have the right to remain silent, Theo said. I bespeak you exercise that right. Immediately. Theo plunged the sword into the ground half an inch from Burtons face and watched the sheriffs eyes go wide.Thirty-threeWinterWinter in Pine Cove is a pause, a timeout, an extended coffee break. A slowness comes over the town and people stop their cars in the street to talk with a passing neighbor without curse about a tourist honking his horn so he can get on with his relaxing vacation (damn it). Waiters and hotel clerks go to part-time shifts and money slows to a creep. Couples spend their nights at home in front of the fireplace as the smell of rain-washed wood smoke fills the air, and single people resolve to move someplace where life is a full-time sport.Winter near the shore is cold. The wind kicks up a salty mist and elephant seals come to shore to trumpet and vallecula and birth their pups. Retired people put sweaters on their lap dogs and drag them down the street on retractable leashes in a nightly parade of doggie humiliation. Surfers don their wetsuits against the chill of storm waves and white sharks adjust their diets to in-clude shrink-wrapped dude-snacks on fiberglass crackers. But the chill is crisp and forgiving and settles in a way so that the towns collective metab-olism can slow into semihibernation without a shock.At least thats the way it is most winters. later the coming of the Sea Beast, winter was a juggernaut, a party, an wrath and a windfall. News footage from the helicopters was beamed out over satellites and Pine Cove displaced Roswell, New Mexico, as the number one crackpot travel destination. There wasnt much on the tapes, just a crowd of people gathered on the shore and the fuz zy image of something large in the water, but with the footprints and the eyewitness accounts, it was enough. Shops filled with cheesy ser-pent souvenirs and H.P.s coffee shop added to the menu a sandwich called the Theosaurus, which was the official scientific name of the Sea Beast (coined by biologist Gabriel Fenton). The hotels filled, the streets congested, and Mavis Sand actually had to hire a second bartender to help serve the im-ported wackos.Estelle Boyet opened her own gallery on Cypress Street where she sold her new series of paintings enigmatically authorize Steve, as well as the new Catfish Jefferson CD entitled The What Do I Do Now That Im Happy? Blues.As the story of the Sea Beast spread and was sensationalized, interest rose in an obscure B-movie actress named Molly Michon. Discs and videocassettes of the Warrior Babe series were remastered and rereleased to an enthusiastic audience, and the Screen Actors Guild came down on the producers like an avenging accountant angel to capture a piece of the profits for Molly.Valerie Riordans practice stabilized as she struck a balance between therapy and medication and she was able to schedule a sabbatical to join her fianc?, Gabe Fenton, on an oceanographic expedition aboard a Scripps vessel to look for evidence of the Theosaurus in the deep trenches off California.After he testified against John Burton, putting him away for life, winter settled on Theophilus Crowe like a warm blessing. In the second month of his recovery, he know that his addiction to marijuana had been nothing more than a response to boredom. Like the child who whines away a summer day because theres nothing to do, but makes no effort to actually do anything, Theo had simply lacked the ambition to entertain himself. Sharing his life with Molly solved the problem, and Theo found that although he was often exhausted by the demands of his job and his lover, he was never bored. Mollys trailer was moved to the edge of the ranch by his cab in. Every morning they shared a hearty breakfast pizza at her place. In the evening, they ate dinner on his cable spool table. She answered his calls while he was at work, and he ran interference with the geeky fans who were rabid enough to want her out at the ranch. Not a day passed that he did not tell Molly how special she was to him, and as time passed, the narrator in her doubtfulness fell silent and never spoke again.There was no winter in the deep submarine trench off California, two miles down. Everything was as it had been a dark pressurized sameness where the Sea Beast lay by his black smoker, grieving for love lost. He stopped grazing on deep water worms that grew on the rocks and his great body began to waste away under the weight of the water and the years. He had resolved never to move again to lie there until his great heart stopped and with it the throb of heartbreak when sensor cells along his flanks picked up a signal. Something he had not felt for half a centu ry, the sense of touch of a creature he thought he would never feel again. He flipped his tail and shook off the crust of loneliness that had settled over him, and that organ buried deep beneath his reptile brain picked up a message coming from the female. Roughly translated, it said, Hey, sailor, want to get lucky?