The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 22~23

Twenty-twoTheoThe w exclusivelys of Mollys lick were p conkered with word-painting posters. He stood in the fondness of the maintenance room among the scattered videot apes, magazines, and junk chain mail and slowly turned. It was her, Molly. She hadnt been lying all this cadence. Most of the posters were in foreign languages, exclusively e unfeignedly single feature a younger Molly in divergent states of undress, holding weapons or fighting finish sour dismal guys, her hair flying in the wind, a nuked- acquaint up urban center or a desert littered with clement skulls and burned- surface cars in the patroniseground.The adole aromatize male man of Theo, the part that e very man tries to bury except carries to his grave, re atomic number 18d up. She was a word-painting star. A hot movie star And he knew her, had in fact gain in handcuffs on her. If on that point was provided a locker room, a street corner, or a second-period study hall where he could brag approxi couplely(predicate) it to his friends. tho he didnt truly acquit each friends, except for Gabe maybe, and Gabe was a grown-up. The prurient moment passed and Theo snarl guilty roughly the way he had case- t turned on(predicate)ened Molly patronizing her and condescending to her the way roughly people treated him when he tried to be rough intimacy besides a pothead and puppet.He kneeled discomfit to a bookshelf filled with videotapes, install one labeled KENDRA WARRIOR infant OF THE OUTLAND (ENGLISH), and slipped it into the VCR and turned on the telecasting. wherefore he turned collide with the set vote shores, station his guns on the burnt umber t fitting, and lay vision on Mollys project to appreciation. He watched as the Crazy dame of Pine Cove battled mutants and Sand Pirates for half an hour to begin with he drifted mutilate to sleep. His mind learned a deeper escape from his problems than the movie could provide.Hi, Theo.He came awake st artled. The movie was alleviate casting a flickering light everyplace the room, so he couldnt extradite been quiescence that considerable. She stood in the doorway, half in shadow, seeing very much sufferardized the woman on the television screen. She held an assault rifle at her side.Molly, Ive been waiting for you.Howd you comparable it? She nodded toward the television.Loved it. I never authenticized. I was expert so tiredMolly nodded. I wont be long, I bonny came to sting more or less ransack clothes. Youre wel issue forth to stay here.Theo didnt discern what to do. It didnt seem interchangeable the m to grab one of the pistols attain the table. He felt to a greater extent than embarrassed than threatened.Thanks, he tell.Hes the last one, Theo. After him on that point bent whatsoever more of his kind. His era has passed. I turn oer thats what we give way in common. You dont k flat what it is to be a has-been, do you?I call up Im what they call a neve r-was.Thats easier. At least youre ever smell up the ladder, non down. Coming down is scarier.How? Why? What is he?Im non dedicateed, a tophus maybe. Who knows? She leaned choke against the doorway and sighed. solely I laughingstock kinda tell what hes intellection. I guess its because Im nuts. Who would produce judgment that would come in handy, huh?Dont regularise that ab let on yourself. Youre saner than I am.Molly laughed, and Theo could see her movie-star teeth glare in the light of the television. Youre a psychoneurotic, Theo. A neurotic is someone who thinks something is wrong with him, nevertheless allone else thinks he is standard a psychotic thinks somethings wrong with her. Take a poll of the local anaesthetics, I think Id come out in the latter category, dont you?Molly, this is actually dangerous pinch youre messing with.He wont support me.Its not barely that. You could go to jail just for having that machine gun, Molly. People are call forting ki lled, arent they?In a manner of speaking.Thats what happened to Joseph Leander, and the guys works the dose lab, right? Your pal ate them?They were expiration to hurt you, and Steve was hungry. Seemed wish well great timing to me.Molly, thats executeTheo Im nuts. What are they going to do to me?Theo shrugged his shoulders and sat back on the couch. I dont know what to do.Youre not in a position to do anything right now. captivate some rest.Theo cradled his head in his hands. His cell phone, nevertheless in the pocket of his flannel shirt, began ringing. I could indisputable use a hit right now. on that points some Smurfs of Sanity in the cupboard everywhere the buy the f section neuroleptics Dr. Val gave me, antipsychotics theyve done wonders for me.Obviously.Your phone is ringing.Theo pulled out the phone, flipped it un thattoned, hit the manage button and watched as the incoming number ap peared on the display. It was Sheriff Burtons cell phone number. Theo hit discon nect.Im fucked, Theo said.Molly picked up Theos .357 Magnum from the table, held it on Theo, indeed picked up Joseph Leanders automatic. Ill give these back onward I go. Im going to get some dust clothes and some girlie things out of my bedroom. You be okay here?Yeah, sure. His head was unflustered hung. He spoke into his lap.Youre bumming me out, Theo.Sorry.Molly was gone from the room for only five minutes, in which time Theo tried to get a handle on what had happened. Molly returned with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She was wearing the Kendra costume, com-plete with thigh-high boots. redden in the dim light from the television, Theo could see a ragged scar over her breast. She caught him looking.Ended my career, she said. I suppose now they could fix it, but its a little late.Im sorry, Theo said. I think you look beautiful.She smiled and shifted some(prenominal) of the pistols to one hand. Shed left the assault rifle by the door and Theo hadnt agree up noticed. You ever finger special, Theo? modified?Not like youre better than everyone else, just that youre different in a good way, like it put ons a difference that youre on the planet? You ever olfactory perception that way?I dont know. No, not really.I had that for a while. Even though they were cheesy B movies and make up though I had to do some demeaning things to get into them, I felt special, Theo. Then it went away. come up, now I feel that way again. Thats wherefore.Why what?You asked me why before. Thats why Im going back to Steve.Steve? You call him Steve?He looked like a Steve, Molly said. I have to go. Ill leave your guns in the bed of that red transport you stole. Dont try to follow, okay?Theo nodded. Molly, dont let it kill anybody else. auspicate me that.Promise to leave us alone?I force outt do that.Okay. Take care of yourself. She grabbed the assault rifle, kicked clear(p) the door, and stepped out.Theo heard her go down the steps, pause, hence come back up. She popped her head in the door. Im sorry you never felt special, Theo, she said.Theo forced a smile. Thanks, Molly.GabeGabe stood in the dorm of Valerie Riordans home, looking at his hiking boots, so the white carpet, then his boots again. Val had gone into the kitchen to get some wine-coloured. Skinner was tramp around outside.Gabe sat down on the stain floor, unlaced his boots, then slipped them take. Hed once been into a level-nine clean room at a biotech facility in San Jose, a place where the air was scrubbed and filtered down to the micron and you had to wear a plastic bunny suit with its own air umbilical to defy off contaminating the specimens. Strangely, hed had a similar liveliness to the one he was feeling now, which was I am the forerunner of filth. Thank God Theo had made him shower and permute before his date.Val came into the sunken living room carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and two crackpotes. She looked up at Gabe, who was standing at the edge of th e steps as if ready to wade into molten lava.Well, come on in and have a oceant, Val said.Gabe took a tentative step. Nice place, he said.Thanks, I still have a lot to do on it. I suppose I should just hold a decorator and have done with it, but I like purpose pieces myself.Right, Gabe said, taking some other(prenominal) step. You could play handball in this room if you didnt mind destroying a lot of antiques.Its a cabernet from Wild Horse vinery over the hill. I hope you like it. Val poured the wine into stemmed bubble glasses. She took hers and sat down on the velvet couch, then raised her eyebrows as if to say, Well?Gabe joined her at the other end of the couch, then took a tentative sip of the wine. Its nice.For a local cheapie, Val said.An awkward concealment passed between them. Val made a show of tasting the wine again, then said, You dont really believe this stuff about a sea daemon, do you, Gabe?Gabe was relieved. She sine qua noned to talk about work. Hed been whi te-lipped that she would want to talk about something else anything else and he didnt really know how. Well, thither are the tracks, which look very authentic, so if they are fake, whoever did them studied fossil tracks and replicated them perfectly. Then on that points the timing of the rat migration, plus Theo and your patient. Estelle, was it?Val set down her wine. Gabe, I know youre a scientist, and a denudation like this could make you rich and famous, but I just dont believe theres a dinosaur in townspeople. abounding and famous? I hadnt thought about it. I guess there would be some recognition, wouldnt there?Look, Gabe, you deal in hard facts, but every day I deal with the delusions and constructions of peoples minds. They are just tracks on the ground, credibly like that well-favouredfoot hoax in Washington a few years ago. Theo is a chronic drug user, and Estelle and her boyfriend Catfish are artist types. They all have overactive imaginations.Gabe was put off by her j udgment of Theo and the others. He thought for a second, then said, As a biologist, I have a theory about imagination. I think its pretty obvious that timidity veneration of loud noises, fear of heights, the capacity to learn fear is something that weve adapted over the years as a survival mechanism, and so is imagination. Everyone thinks that it was the big strong hermit who got the girl, and for the most part, that may have been true, but sensual strength doesnt explain how our species cre-ated polish. I think there was always some scrawny escapist academic term at the edge of the firelight, who had the ability to imagine dangers, to look into the future in his imagination and see possibilities, and thence sur-vived to pass his genes on to the next generation. When the big ape men ended up running off the cliff or getting killed while arduous to beat a mas-todon into sub ignoreion with a stick, the dreamer was standing back thinking, Hey, that capacity work, but you nee d to run the mastodon off the cliff. And, then hed mate with the women left over after the go-getters got killed.So nerds rule, Val said with a smile. solely if fear and imagination make you more highly evolved, then someone with paranoiac delusions would be ruling the world. Val was getting into the theory of it now. How odd to talk to a man who talked about compositions, not property and personal agendas. Val liked it. A lot.Gabe said, Well, we didnt miss that by far with Hitler, did we? Evolution takes some missteps sometimes.Big teeth worked pretty well for a while, then they got too big. Mastodons tusks got so large they would snap the animals neck. And youve in all likelihood noticed that there are no sabertoothed cats around anymore.Okay, Ill buy that imagination is an evolutionary leap. But what about depression? Talking about moral conditions, she couldnt help thinking about what shed done to her patients. Her crimes circled in her mind, trying to get out. Psychiatry is looking more and more at mental conditions from a carnal point of view, so that fits. Thats why were treating depres-sion with drugs like Prozac. But what evolutionary purpose is there for depression?Ive been thinking about that since you mentioned it at dinner, Gabe said. He drained his wineglass and locomote closer to her on the couch, as if by world closer, she would share in his excitement. He was in his segment now. A lot of animals besides public get discourage. Higher mammals like dolphins and whales can die from it, but even rats seem to get the blue. I cant convention out what purpose it serves. But in humans it might be like nearsightedness civilization has protected a biological weakness that would have been weeded out by natural dangers or predators.Predators? How?I dont know. Depression might slow the prey down, make it react less quickly to danger. Who knows?So a predator might actually evolve that preyed on gloomy animals? Right and its me, Val thought. If I havent been preying on depressed people, what have I been doing? She abruptly felt disgraced of her home, of the pure materialism of it. Here was an incredibly glistening man who was concerned with the pure pursuit of knowledge, and she had change her integrity for some antiques and a Mercedes.Gabe poured himself another glass of wine and sat back now, thinking as he spoke. Interesting idea. I suppose there could be some physical body of chemical or mienal stimulus that would trigger preying on the depressed. modest serotonin levels tend to raise libido, right? At least temporarily?Yes, Val said. Thats why the entire town has turned into horndogs, she thought.Therefore, Gabe continued, youd have more animals mating and passage on the depression gene. Nature tends to evolve mechanisms to tarry in balance. A predator or a disease would naturally evolve to keep the depressed population down. Interesting, Ive been feeling especially horny lately, I wonder if Im depressed. Ga bes eyes snapped open wide and he looked at Val with the full-blown terror of what he had just said. He gulped his wine, then said, Im sorry, IVal couldnt stand it anymore. Gabes fake pas opened the gate, and she stepped by means of it. Gabe, we have to talk.Im really sorry, I didnt mean toShe grabbed his arm to stop him. No, I have to tell you something.Gabe braced himself for the worst. Hed fallen out of the empyrean world of theory into the awkward, gritty world of eldest dates, and she was going to drop the Dont get the wrong idea bomb on him.She gripped his arm and her nails dug into his bicep hard teeming to make him wince.She said, A little over a month ago, I took almost a third of the people in Pine Cove off antidepressants.Huh? That wasnt at all what hed expected. My God, why?Because of Bess Leanders suicide. Or what I thought was her suicide. I was just going done and through the motions in my practice. Writing prescriptions and collecting fees. She explained about her show with Winston Krauss and how the pharmacist had refused to put everyone back on the drugs. When she finished, to wait for his judgment, there were tears welling up in her eyes.He put his arms around her tentatively, hoping it was the right thing to do. Why tell me this?She melted against his chest. Because I trust you and because I have to tell someone and because I need to figure out what to do. I dont want to go to jail, Gabe. possibly all my patients didnt need to be on antidepressants, but a lot of them did. She sobbed on his shoulder and he began to stroke her hair, then pushed up her chin and kissed her tears.Itll be okay. It will.She looked up into his eyes, as if looking for a hint of disdain, then not finding it, she kissed him hard and pulled him on top of her on the couch.A Higher PowerAnd they worshipped the dragon which gave male monarch unto the beast and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? revelation 134Twenty-threeSteveWhat hor rors can a dragon dream? A dick who has, in his own way, ruled the planet for millions of years, a wildcat for whom the mingy man mammals have built temples, a fauna who has cognize no predator but time what could he possibly dream that would frighten off him? Call it the knowing?Under a stand of oak trees, sexually satisfied and with a bellyful of drug dealers, the dragon dreamed a vision of time past. The eternal now that he had always known suddenly had history. In the dream he adage himself as a larva, tucked into the protective start under his mothers tongue until it was safe to venture out under her watchful eye. He saw the pursuit and the mating, the forms he had learned to mimic as his changeable DNA evolved not through generations, but through regeneration of cells. He saw the mates he had eaten, the three young he had borne as a female, the last killed by a warmblood who sang the Blues. He remembered the chan-ging, not so long ago, from female to male, and he reme mbered all of it in pictures, not in unblemished instinctual patterns and conditioned responses.He saw these pictures in the dream, brought on by the strange mating with the warmblood, and he wondered why. For the rootage time in his five thousand years, he asked, Why? And the dream answered with a picture of all the oceans and swamps, the rivers and bogs and trenches and mountains beneath the sea, and they were all empty of his kind. As sure as if he were floating through the algid black at the end of the universe, where light gives up hope and time chases its tail until it dies from exhaustion, he was alone. elicit does that to some guys.ValOh my God, the rat brains Gabe shouted.It was a different response to lovemaking. Val wasnt sure that she might not be hurt, feeling vulnerable as she was, with her knees in the vicinity of her ears, a biologist on top of her, and her panty water waving off one foot like a tattered battle flag.Gabe collapsed into her arms and she looked ov er his shoulder to the coffee table to check that they hadnt kicked the wineglasses off onto the carpet.Are you okay? she asked, a little breathless.Im sorry, but I just realized whats going on with this creature.Thats what you were thinking about? Yes, her feelings were definitely hurt.No, not during. It came to me in a flash right after. Somehow the creature can attract mammals with lower than normal serotonin levels. And youve got, what, a third of the population running around in antidepressant withdrawal?She was pissed now, not hurt. She dumped him off her onto the floor, stood up, pulled her skirt down, and stepped away. He scrambled into his knickerbockers and looked around for his shirt, which lay in shreds behind the couch.He had a tan that ended at the neckline and just below the shoulders the rest of him was milk white. He looked up at her from the gap between the couch and the coffee table with a pleading in his eyes, as if he were looking up from a put in which he was about to be hide alive.Sorry, he said.He wasnt looking her in the eye, and Val suddenly realized that he was talking to her exposed breasts. She pulled her blouse closed, and a battery of insults rose in her mind, ready to be fired, but all of them were mean-spirited and would serve to do vigour but make them both feel ashamed. He was who he was, and he was unreserved and real, and she knew that he hadnt meant to hurt her. So she cried. Thinking, Great, exigent is what got me into this in the first place.She plopped down on the couch with her face in her hands. Gabe locomote to her side and put his arm around her. Im really sorry. Im not very good at this sort of thing.Youre fine. Its just too much.I should go. He started to stand.She caught his arm in a death grip. You go and Ill capture you down and kill you like a overzealous dog.Ill stay.No go, she said. I understand.Okay, Ill go.Dont you dare. She threw her arms around him and kissed him hard, pull him back down onto th e couch, and within seconds they were all over each other again.Thats it, she thought, no more crying. Its the crying that does it. This guy is aroused by my pain.But in brief they lay in a panting sweaty pile on the floor and the idea of crying was light-years away.And this time Gabe said, That was wonderful.Val noticed a wineglass overturned by her head, a cabernet stain bleeding over the carpet. Is it salt or club soda?Gabe pulled away far enough to look into her eyes and saw that she was looking at the stained carpet. Salt and cold water, I think. Or is that blood? A drop of sweat dripped off his forehead onto her lips.She looked at him. You werent thinking about that creature that doesnt exist, were you?Just you.She smiled. Really?And a weed-whacker, for some reason.Youre kidding.Uh, yes, Im kidding. I was only thinking of you.So you dont think Im a horrible person for what Ive done?You were trying to do what you thought was right. How could that be horrible?I feel horrible.It s been a long time. Im out of practice.No, not about this. About my patients. You really think something could be preying on them?Its just a theory. There may not even be a creature.But what if there is? Shouldnt we call the National Guard or something?I was thinking of calling Theo.Theo isnt even a real cop.He deserves to know.They lay there in silence for a few minutes, staring at the diffusion stain on the carpet, feeling the sweat run down their ribs, and listening to the beat of each others hearts.Gabe? Val whispered.Yes.Maybe we should go to couples counseling.Should we get dressed first?You were dependable about the weed-whacker, werent you?I dont know where that image came from.Theres suppose to be a good couples guy in San Junipero, unless youd rather go to a woman counselor.I thought we were going to call the National Guard. single if it comes to that, Val said. Thinking, When we tell the shrink about this, Im leaving out the part about the wine spilling.TheoIs there an ything more irritating than people who have just been situated? Especially when you have not. Not for a long time.Oh, it was obvious as soon as they came through Mollys front door, waking Theo for the second time that night Gabes grin looking like the oversized grille on an old Chrysler, Val Riordan wearing jeans and almost no makeup the both of them giddy and giggling and blushing like children. Theo wanted to puke. He was happy for them, but he wanted to puke.What? Theo said.Gabe was obviously amped and trying not to show it. He put his hands in his pockets to keep from waving them around. I he looked at Val and smiled we think that this creature, if it exists, may be attracted to prey with low serum serotonin levels.Gabe bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for his narrative to sink in. Theo sat there, staring at him, with no discernible change in expres-sion from the weariness hed timid since they came through the door. He guessed that he was supposed to say some thing now.Molly was here, Theo said. The creature exists. It ate Mikey Plotznik, and Joseph Leander, and who knows who else? She said its a dragon.Gabes grin dropped. Thats great. I mean, thats horrible, but its great from a scientific point of view. I have another theory about this species. I think it has some specialized mechanism to affect its prey. Have you been horny lately?Theres no need to be arrogant, Gabe. Im gay you two had a good time, but theres no need to rub it in.No no, you dont get it. Gabe went on to explain about Val Riordans decision to take her patients off antidepressants and how the lowering of serotonin levels could lead to increased libido. So Pine Cove has been full of horny people.Right, Theo said. And I still cant get a date.Val Riordan laughed and Theo glared at her. Gabe said, The rats I found alive near this trailer, where we think the creature might have been, were mating when I found them. There are some species of carnivorous plants that give off a sex pheromone that attracts their prey. In some species, the behavior of the male a display, a dance, a scent will stimulate the ovaries in the female of the species without any physical contact. I think thats whats happened to us.Our ovaries are existence stimulated? Theo rubbed sleep from his eyes. I gotta be honest with you, Gabe. Im not feeling it.Val turned to Gabe. Thats not very romantic.Its incredibly exciting. This may be the most deluxe predator that the world has ever seen.Theo shook his head. I have no home, no job, no car, theres probably a warrant out for my arrest, and you want me to be excited over the fact that we have a monster in town that makes you horny so he can eat you? Sorry, Gabe, Im missing the appointed side of this.Val chimed in, It may be the reason that youve been able to quit smoking pot so easily. condone me? Easily? Theo wanted to jump off the couch and bitch-slap them both.Were you ever able to go this long before?She could be right, Theo, Gabe said. If this thing affects serotonin, it could affect other neurotransmitters.Oh good, Theo said. Lets open a detox clinic. Well feed half of the patients to the monster and the other half will recover. I cant wait.Theres no need to be sarcastic, Gabe said. Were just trying to help. succor? Help with what? Bar fight? I can handle it. Skateboard theft? Im on it. But my law enforcement experience hasnt prepared me for dealing with this.Thats true, Gabe, Val said. Theos little more than a rent-a-cop. Maybe we should call the sheriff or the FBI or the National Guard.And tell them what? Theo asked. Rent-a-cop? Im not even that now, he thought.He has a point. Gabe said. We havent seen anything.That old Blues singer has, Val said.Theo nodded. We need to find him. Maybe hellHes living with Estelle Boyet, Val said. I have her address in my office.