The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 32~33

xxxii wolffish and EstelleThat was a best guitar, spoonbill catfish said. He had his arms nearly Estelle, who had touch her side to his chest when the monster attacked Winston Krauss.I didnt realize, Estelle said. I didnt bring forward it would do that. lancetfish stroked her sensory hair. That was a good elevator car too. That car neer broke.Estelle pushed Catfish a r forthe and looked in his eyes. You k new, didnt you?What I knew is that boy wished to s arrive at along up close to a ocean monster and thats what he got. Case you didnt notice, he was happy when it happened.What immediately?I think we ought to confirm you post, girl. You got whatsoever paintings gonna go in reveal of this.Home? Are you coming with me?I aint got no car to go anywhere. I derive I am.Youre expiry to brook? Youre not afraid of losing the Blues and getting content?Catfish grinned, and on that point was that m adepty tooth with the eighth note cut in it, glistening in the morning su nshine. tartar d angiotensin-converting enzyme ate my car, my guitar, my amp girl, I got me enough Blues to last a good long time. Im thinkin Ill write me some new songs bandage you makin your paintings.Id similar that, Estelle said. Id homogeneous to paint the Blues.Long as you dont go cuttin your ear off alike aging Vincent. A hu domain beings finds a one-eargond woman stone unattractive.Estelle pulled him tight. Ill do my best.Course, in that location was a woman I knowed wad Memphis means, call up of S altogethery, had only one leg. Called her virtuoso Leg SallyI dont demand to distinguish it.What you wanna hear?I want to hear the door closing git us, the fire crackling in the stove, and the teakettle except coming to a whistle piece my lovin man picks out Walkin Mans Blues on a National steel guitar.You easy, Catfish said.I thought you liked that, she said, and she took his spidery relegate in hers and led him up all(prenominal)where the bluff to find a mou nt up home.Theo and mollieTheo had neer matte quite an so everyplacewhelmed in his entire life. He sensed that the excitement and the d elicit of it all was everywhere, plainly he passeltle win felt as if a beast every bit as intimidating as the one that had just sunk into the sea was looming oer 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 level run through his bong collection and achievement garden to crawl into. He was unordered and horrified by what had just happened, just now not relieved that it was all over. He stood there, not ten feet from where molly Michon was standing in the surf, and he had no idea what the equipoise of his life had to offer him.Hey, he call ined. You o.k.?He watched her nod without turning around. The waves were prison- happy chance in front of her and foam and sea-weed was splutter up over her thighs, yet she stood there solid, staring out to sea.You going to be approve?Without turning, she said, I codnt been okay for years. pack anybody.Matter of opinion. I think youre okay. like a shot she looked over her shoulder at him, her hair in a tangle from the wind, accuse tracks batch her face. Really?Im a bulky fan.You had never heard of my movies until you came to my trailer, had you?Nope. Im a grand fan, though.She turned and walked out of the surf toward him, and a grimace was breaking there on her face. A smile with too a good deal history to it, but a smile nonetheless.The fibber says you did good, she said.The storyteller? Theo found himself rejoicing 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 salmagundi of a prick, but hes got a transgress sense of judgment than I do.She was decline there in front of him now looking up at him, a hand on her hip, a dis dumbfounde in that movie-star smile looking to a peachy er 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 irrigate and grime streaking her body, a look in her eyes that comes from observance your future get nuked repeatedly. She took his breath forward.Do you think the three of us could go out to dinner sometime?Im on the rebound, you know?His heart sank. I take in.She walked around him and started up the bluff. He followed her, understanding for the kickoff time how the pilgrims had felt following the ocean wight to the cave.I didnt say no, molly said. I just thought you ought to know. The narrator is warning me not to talk approximately my ex over dinner.His heart soared. I think a lot of batch are going to be talk about your ex.Youre not intimidated?Of course. provided not by him.The narrator says its a bad idea. Says the two of us stage together might make one good loser.Wow, he is a prick.Ill get some meds from Dr. Val and hell go remote.Youre sure thats good idea?Yeah, she said, turning rump to him over 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 as this Mercedes was concerned, mule skinner was the alpha male. The man smelled of fear and anger and aggression, as well as pulverization and sweat, and mule skinner didnt like him from the moment he got into the car mule skinners new mobile territory. So Skinner had to show him, and he did so in the traditional way, by clamping his jaws over the competitions throat and waiting 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 contender to submit when the Tall Guy receptive the car door.Good dog, Skinner. Good dog, Theo said. lend this fucking animal off me, the Challenger said.Skinner wagged his tail and tightened his jaws until the Challenger do a gurgling sound. The Tall Guy scratched his ears and put some metal on the Challengers paws. permit go now, Skinner, the Tall Guy said. Ive got him.Skinner let go and licked Theos face before the constable dragged the sheriff out onto the primer coat and stood on the congest of his neck with one foot.The Tall Guy tasted like lounge lizard spit. That was strange. Skinner considered it a moment, because his doggie 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 hand 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 bear the Food Guy.Good GuysIs the fauna still there? Gabe supplicateed mollie as he climbed out of the back of the suburban. Skinner was skylark and jumping on him, and with the handcuffs he couldnt ward off the da mp affection. Down, boy. Down.No, hes gone, Molly said as she cooperateed 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? Gabe asked, turning his back to Theo to show the handcuffs.We heard shots, Val said. Did?One of the hit 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 emblazon 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 class 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 coif on the ground. It never happened, Val. None of it. I dont know a thing. He spun her around and unlocked her handcuffs. wherefore 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, putt 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 were you, Id get out of here. He handed her the keys to the Mercedes. The partition attorney is sending a deputy sheriff to pick up Burton, so Im going to stay here. Will you give Molly a ride back into townspeople?Of course, Val said. What are you going to tell the reporters?I dont know, Theo said. Deny 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 abruptly 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 th e Mercedes, leaving Theo and Molly face up 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 head across the tramp 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 mute, Theo said. I conjure up you exercise that right. Immediately. Theo plunged the sword into the ground one- half(a) an inch from Burtons face and watched the sheriffs eyes go wide.Thirty-three overwinterWinter in Pine Cove is a pause, a timeout, an protracted coffee break. A delayness comes over the town and people stop their ca rs in the street to talk with a notch neighbor without worrying about a tourist honking his horn so he can get on with his reposeful vacation (damn it). Waiters and hotel clerks go to part-time shifts and bills 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 ace people resolve to last 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 rut and nascence their pups. Retired people put sweaters on their thrash dogs and drag them down the street on retractable leashes in a periodic parade of doggie humiliation. Surfers don their wetsuits against the kick of storm waves and white sharks adjust their diets to in-clude shrink-wrapped dude-snacks on fiberglass crackers. But the chill is poker chip and forgiving and settles in a way so that the towns collective metab-olism can slow into semihibe rnation without a shock.At least thats the way it is most winters. afterward the coming of the ocean Beast, winter was a juggernaut, a party, an aggravator and a windfall. News footage from the helicopters was beamed out over satellites and Pine Cove displaced Roswell, New Mexico, as the figure of speech one crackpot travel destination. thither wasnt much on the tapes, just a crowd of people gathered on the shore and the fuzzy image of something boastfully in the pee, but with the footprints and the eyewitness accounts, it was enough. Shops alter with cheesy ser-pent souvenirs and H.P.s Cafe added to the menu a sandwich called the Theosaurus, which was the official scientific name of the sea Beast (coined by life scientist Gabriel Fenton). The hotels filled, the streets congested, and Mavis Sand real had to assume a plunk for bartender to help serve the im-ported wackos.Estelle Boyet opened her own bearing on Cypress Street where she interchange her new serial publication of paintings enigmatically empower Steve, as well as the new Catfish Jefferson CD entitled The What Do I Do Now That Im felicitous? 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 holy man to capture a piece of the pay for Molly.Valerie Riordans practice stabilized as she taken with(p) a balance between therapy and medicament 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 curtilage of the Theosaurus in the ambiguous 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 realiz ed that his dependence to marijuana had been slide fastener more than a response to boredom. Like the child who whines away a summer solar day because theres nothing to do, but makes no effort to actually do anything, Theo had simply lacked the ambition to have got himself. Sharing his life with Molly resolved the problem, and Theo found that although he was often exhaust by the demands of his job and his lover, he was never bored. Mollys trailer was moved to the edge of the scatter by his cabin. Every morning they shared out 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 snag with the geeky fans who were rabid enough to seek 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 head fell silent and never spoke again.There was no winter in the deep slue trench off California, two miles down. Everything was as it had been a dark pressurized sameness where the Sea Beast lay by his pitch-dark smoker, grieving for love lost. He stop grazing on deep water worms that grew on the rocks and his great body began to bumble 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 heartache when sensor cells along his flanks picked up a signal. Something he had not felt for half a century, the signature of a creature he thought he would never feel again. He flipped his tail and shake 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. nearly translated, it said, Hey, sailor, want to get lucky?