Tropical Stones

Tiga a twenty seven year old man with short black hair sits half asleep in the back of a moving cab. "West Haven and step on it."
Cabby, "You got it."
Tiga thinks to himself. "Another driver who’s soul has been dead for fifteen years. Day four still no sleep." He checks his GLOCK. A full deck. Sun glistens off the loaded bullets. Steam rises off of harbor oil stations.
Cabby, "Where to in West Haven?"
Tiga, "Give him the address."
Michael age thirty one with freshly cut hair and weighs a buck eighty. "What are we picking up?"
Tiga, "The boss needs a pig’s head."
Michael, "For what?"
Tiga "I do not know." "Connecticut. This state is dead. I cannot believe I am still here."
Michael checks his ankle piece. "Are you still thinking about going to the Bahamas?"
Tiga, "Everyday. As soon as I get enough funds I am sayonara." He swipes his hand to the sky. "I am gone." A state cop pulls over an early speeder.
Michael, "Here is our exit."
Tiga smells the pig shit as the taxi drives down an empty road. Two men in clean suits wait outside and smoke cigarettes. Pigs grunt and squeal in the distance. Michael eyes the men smoking cigarettes.
The Owner a fat Italian man in his early fifties stares at the waiting taxi from a window. "How can I help you?"
Tiga, "We are here for a pig’s head."
Owner, "Well we have all types."
Tiga, "The sun sets on the east of Mona Lisa."
Owner, "Well. Why did you not say so?"
The owner signals to his apprentice. Michael turns and sees the clean men outside blocking the door. The store is silent. A creek comes from behind a wooden storage closet. Tiga and Michael secretly stare at each other for a quick second.
Owner, "Here you go one Da Vinci."
Tiga hands the owner a manila envelope. The owner checks the cash and nods to his apprentice. Michael accepts the wrapped pig’s head. Tiga gets a cold feeling of paranoia. Bullets rip out from the storage closet. Tiga and Michael roll on the floor. Michael takes out his ankle piece and fires at the closet. The shooters gun falls on the floor. The owner pulls out a shotgun and pumps it empty. Tiga and Michael run for the back door.
Owner, "You are mine now baby."
Tiga takes out his GLOCK and hides behind a wall. One of the guards holds his gun as he creeps passed the doorway. Tiga grabs the guard’s gun and elbows him to the ground. The second guard fires a pistol. He holds the top of the first guard’s gun as he turns and shoots the second guard. Bullets ricochet off metal ceiling fans. Tiga stares into the struggling first guard and uppercuts his GLOCK into his stomach. The guard falls motionless onto a stack of hay. The apprentice fires a MAC-10. Tiga runs and fires at the apprentice. Michael dives and reloads. The apprentice shoots into pig stalls. Michael sprints and shoots the apprentice. The owner pumps his shotgun and shoots Michael. Tiga rolls out and fires into the owner as he walks hard without hesitation. Tiga bends over Michael and checks his pulse. He shuts Michael’s eyes and puts a cross necklace on his chest. Tiga grabs the pig head package and takes the cash.
Tiga exits the farm and enters the taxi. "JFK. If you stop the cab you are dead."
The cabby peels off. Tiga takes out a bag from the pig’s head. Beautiful diamonds glisten in his palm. Tiga throws the pig head out the window as the taxi makes for the sun.

Quarter Moon

Sarah age sixteen has long brown hair, thin with thick glasses is socially awkward with no experience with boys and keeps to herself. She walks cautiously through the crowded halls of Quarter Moon highschool with her books tight to her chest.
Alice, "Sarah look it is smelly Sarah." Alice age eighteen with short black hair is a senior bombshell who’s social status over rides her feelings for others. She laughs at Sarah with her popular friends. She grabs Sarah’s books and makes a pig face. "Oink. Oink. Look I am smelly Sarah."
Sarah begins to cry.
Alice, "Look she is crying. Run girl run. Cry poor girl cry."
Popular friend, "Alice I love your earrings."
Alice, "Thanks I got them from Derek." She shows off her blue woman mambo dancing earrings.
Sarah and her younger brother Andy age fourteen walk home from school on a path in the woods. Andy scrawny, 5’4 with parted brown hair is a young timed nerd with no older brother guidance on how to behave.
Derek age eighteen is good looking with blond hair, a varsity football player jock afraid of the future so he tries to control the present blocks the path with his football teammates. "Where you going little Andy?" Derek swipes Andy’s books and pushes him down. "Andy the picker. He picks his nose all day during class." Derek’s teammates hold Sarah down.
Sarah, "Let me go."
Derek, "You are the poorest kid in school Andy the picker."
Sarah, "Get off of him."
Derek, "Get ready for highschool. You are in for a real treat."
Andy and Sarah sit in a white secluded barn on a lake and discuss the matters at hand.
Andy, "It is the anniversary of the lake murders."
Sarah, "Legend has it if you light a pig’s head and bury it on the anniversary he comes back.
Andy, "I do not believe you. You do not have what it takes. You would chicken out.
Sarah, "I know a farm where we can buy one.
Empty diet Dr. Pepper bottles lie under their feet. The taxi smells like strawberry Bubble Tape. Dead marsh weeds sway in the wind. The Cuban driver with salt and pepper short hair drives slowly passed a black sign reading Latella and Sons piggery.
Sarah, "It is tricky. It is up here on the right."
Dead cars and empty barns surround the farm. Sarah and Andy open a dirty stained glass door to the headquarters of the farm. Two obese Italian men fill a six by six foot office. The Owner a three hundred pound Vietnam veteren in his early fifties has a pound of cheese covering his heart as he sits at a makeshift desk. His partner has white hair wrapped around a tan bald head as he sits in a half recliner facing all who enter. Andy stares at a buck’s head on the wall.
Sarah, "How much is a pig’s head?"
Owner, "Fourteen dollars." Sarah hands the owner cash.
Andy, "Do you eat the pig’s head?"
Owner, "Of course. What are you going to do with this one?"
Sarah, "We must be going. Thanks. Bye now."
Owner, "Hey kids be safe out there. Beware of the quarter moon."
The night whispers down sarah's neck as she sets the pig head on fire and puts it in a freshly dug ditch.
Andy speaks to the stars, "Let the flames invoke the spirit. As for the lake we offer the pig."
Andy and Sarah pour dirt over the burning pig head. The quarter moon rests peacefully in the sky.
Andy, "I still cannot believe everyone thinks that Dad killed all those people."
Sarah, "Dad was a drunk and he left us Andy. It was no mystery."
Andy, "No note or anything he just vanished the same time the killings started happening."
Sarah, "Look how beautiful the quarter moon is tonight." Andy and Sarah fall asleep on one another. "Andy wake up we are going to be late for school." Andy wakes up sober from the dream wish.
After school Andy runs down the path to the lake and finds a bloody varsity jacket. The name Derek is stitched on the front. He drops it. The sun sets on the Lake shore. Sarah stares into the lake and sees something shiny. She reaches in and pulls out Alice’s blue woman mambo dancing earrings. Alice’s books are scattered in the woods. Andy and Sarah meet at the lake shore and dig up the spot where they buried the pig head.
Andy, "The pig head is gone."
Sarah, "How can that be?"
Andy, "It is dark out here."
An owl’s heart races as it hoots to the moon. Andy and Sarah run home. They enter the back-door of a white rugged house and run up the stairs to their mother’s room. Their mother lies in a pink rose spotted nightgown.
Sarah, "Mom. I have to tell you something." Sarah sits on the edge of the bed behind her still mother in the darkness. "Mom I just wanted to say I love you." Sarah tucks her mother in and pulls up the sheets. She holds her hands up in the moonlight. Blood stains her palms. Andy shakes standing in the doorway. "Mom?" Sarah turns her dead mother over and screams. The TV downstairs turns on loudly. Sarah and Andy look at each other and cautiously walk down the stairs.
Andy sees the back of his dad’s head sitting on the couch. "Dad."
Sarah and Andy run to their father. Their father turns with a tire marked and corroded death face and laughs. The TV shuts off abruptly.

The Blue Castle Club

Martin age twenty seven skinny with a scruffy beard has short black hair. Liz age twenty four has a bubbly personality and blond hair to her shoulders. They walk on a crowded sidewalk.
Liz, "Martin why are we picking up a pig head?"
Martin, "My economics professor needs it for a party or a seance."
Liz, "I knew it. He always looked like a creep." Martin opens a taxi door for Liz.
Cabby, "Where are we going?" The taxi smells like grape bubble gum. Empty Coke zero bottles rattle on the floor.
Martin, "Latella and Sons farm in West Haven. Here is the address." Martin’s red Hawaiian shirt loses buttons by Liz throwing herself on him. The cabby stares at the new lovers.
Liz, "I love you so much."
Martin, "I now you do sour patch."
Liz puts Martin’s Elvis shades on.
Liz, "What are we doing after?"
Martin, "The Blue Castle club baby. Drinks are half off and dancing lasts till the sun comes up."
Liz, "Ow. You know I love to dance with you Martin."
Martin, "You shake those hips till the men die in their dreams."
Liz, "I love the twilight hour. When the sun hits the hoods of the cars making a path of light from the sea to the road." Dead marsh weeds blow in the wind. The taxi stops.
Liz, "Wait baby." Liz kisses Martin on the cheek as he tries to leave the taxi. Lipstick smears on his skin.
Twilight hits the empty barns and dead cars surrounding the quiet farm. Martin opens a barely recognizable door to the headquarters. A mounted buck head stares at Martin. Pictures of fat Italian men and a dry erase board with the weekly animal slaughters hang on the wall. Two obese Italian men fill a six by six foot office. The owner in his early fifties wears a black leg splint and weighs three hundred pounds as he sits at a makeshift desk. His partner has white hair wrapped around a tan bald head and sits in a half recliner facing all who enter.
Martin, "Do you sell pig heads?"
Owner, "What do you want one for?"
Martin, "To eat. You know I am starving and nothing kills the pain like good old fashioned pig brain."
The owner gets on a walkie-talkie. "Have Juan bring me out a pig’s head."
Martin stares at the taxi.
Owner, "Sixteen dollars."
Martin hands the owner a twenty. "I have got to be on my way." He exits the farm headquarters.
Liz, "Martin my legs are thriving to dance."
Martin, "I have got it baby time to roll."
The cab speeds off down the hill.
Martin, "I just have to drop this off to my professor’s building." The cab pulls up to a Brownstone.
Martin holds Liz’s hand as they walk up the steps of the professor's brownstone.
Liz, "I can feel the electricity of the moon baby." Martin knocks on the door. The Professor in his late forties has thin build with grey hair and seductive eyes for taking advantage of young students in exchang for higher grades opens the door. A man wearing a jester mask and a brown robe passes by the hall.
Liz, "Baby something just does not feel right."
Martin, "No it is okay he is going to pay me then we are dancing till the moon falls asleep."
Professor, "Martin back here."
Liz, "Is there a bathroom I can use?"
Professor, "Right down that hallway."
Liz, "Thanks."
Professor, "Diamond girls last forever."
Martin, "They do. They do."
Professor, "Martin I am glad we have a chance to talk."
Martin stares at a burning candle.
Professor, "Nitrous makes the royal clowns dance like swans."
Martin, "What?" "Baby let’s roll."
Professor, "The ides of March are watching us. Have a sip." The professor holds out a goblet of wine.
Martin, "No thank you. I am fine."
Professor, "Martin."
Martin exits the kitchen. "Baby where are you?" Martin opens a cold door. A dwarf wearing the pig head crawls on the floor. Men in jester masks hold down Liz. An ancient pentagram is on the wall. Candles burn as jesters breathe in nitrous balloons. Liz screams. Martin tackles a jester and knocks over burning candles. The dwarf snorts as he invokes the pig spirit. The professor holds a knife to Martin. Liz throws a heavy candle holder at the professor. A jester hits Liz in the mouth. Martin punches the jester and kicks a man wearing a gold mask in the chest. The pig headed dwarf squeals in the night. Jesters try to break down the hall door. The professor pets the pig headed dwarf. The fallen candles begin to ignite the room. Martin grabs Liz’s hand and runs out of the brownstone. Liz’s mouth is bleeding as her shirt is hanging off her shoulder. Martin puts on his Elvis shades and signals a taxi.
Martin opens the door. "The Blue Castle club."
Martin and Liz kiss each other in the back window of the taxi.

Impressum

Texte: Daniel Blum
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 20.05.2012

Alle Rechte vorbehalten