Work in Progress - Vanessa - Chu and the Creature Part I
She has a name, but Chu doesn't want to remember it. He calls her Officer and then Ma'am. Ma'am reminds him of his grandmother, who used to put vanilla in his milk to help him sleep.
Chu tells Ma'am he saw his girlfriend's name on one of the giant dots above his head, and he reached for it. He doesn't want to tell the policewoman he was high in front of his mom, but he does. It's easier than saying the other things he remembers about the night. And he wishes his memories were blurry the way they usually are after he's been hungover and wonders if the creature inside his belly is the reason he isn't so fogged up in the head? But this isn't the stuff that scares him, though if he thinks about it long enough, the thing inside his stomach, cop asking him questions about what happened to his dead friend, he is terrified. And what he saw happen to Emily makes his heart rate jump on the monitor at the hospital. He would like to tell someone, Ma'am even, but he doesn't dare.
"It was an uneventful ride," he says.
Mrs. Dennis complemented his tie.
"Why are you bringing a leash?" Chu asked.
"None of your business," she said.
Fine, Chu thought.
His head was hungover from the night before. What had he done? Someone said, Smoke this. He didn't care what it was. His mind wandered - he wasn't sure he was going to arrive on time to pick "leash lady" up this morning, and she lived in his neighborhood. She is like another kind of background noise besides the radio. They had come to an easy peace about that, at least. "Whatever you want," she said.
Chu turned on the eighties and listened to her go on about her dog, Millie (who he guessed the leash was for - maybe they were going to the vet instead)? He didn't know, but what did it matter. Roberto is indifferent to the dog's cancer, she said. It started out benignly, as cysts.
"Cysts?" He was trying to remember what he smoked the night before and whether Paul drove him home or if he drove alone and just got lucky not to run the car off the road and into the Everglades. It would have been his fortune to get eaten by an alligator. "Did Paul call Uber?" He wondered out loud.
"I have cancer too," Mrs. Dennis said. She didn't tell him this was the reason for seeing the doctor that morning or if this trip was for the dog, and maybe they were picking up the dog, and he wasn't told about that. He didn't get the chance to ask. Delucca Dennis chatted on about the surgery to remove ovaries, but when she talked about the dog, it sounded as if she meant herself, her ovaries, her cancer. And then she stopped. It was as if the TV show playing in the background with some crazy lady playing all the parts of the show, the guest, the interviewer, even the applause from some invisible audience (at times during the ride, Delucca would slap her hand down on the empty seat next to her and guffaw as if she were having a kind of private joke) went silent.
The eighties music played. Chu heard ads for summer getaway cruises, discount cell phones, and cheap Internet. He wanted to know if Delucca's face changed back to normal, or if she still saw the black and white patches of the border collie puppet head in place of her own every time she gazes too long into a mirror. "Did Millie die?" Chu asked.
Chu doesn't explain this conversation to Ma'am. He tells her about the air-conditioner in the Small Village van. "It broke," he said. "Too hot and I had a fever." He explains about the cold medicine he took when he got home and how he went to the party anyway and had a couple of beers. When Ma'am gets quiet the same way Delucca did in the van, he says, "okay, more than a couple." (Chu says it was this that contributed to his seeing those Twister dots on the stairs and trying to descend on one of them). Reckless behavior and drunkenness are the least of his concerns.
"Anything else?" Ma'am asks.
Chu tells her no, there isn't, absolutely nothing.
Chu tells Ma'am he saw his girlfriend's name on one of the giant dots above his head, and he reached for it. He doesn't want to tell the policewoman he was high in front of his mom, but he does. It's easier than saying the other things he remembers about the night. And he wishes his memories were blurry the way they usually are after he's been hungover and wonders if the creature inside his belly is the reason he isn't so fogged up in the head? But this isn't the stuff that scares him, though if he thinks about it long enough, the thing inside his stomach, cop asking him questions about what happened to his dead friend, he is terrified. And what he saw happen to Emily makes his heart rate jump on the monitor at the hospital. He would like to tell someone, Ma'am even, but he doesn't dare.
"It was an uneventful ride," he says.
Mrs. Dennis complemented his tie.
"Why are you bringing a leash?" Chu asked.
"None of your business," she said.
Fine, Chu thought.
His head was hungover from the night before. What had he done? Someone said, Smoke this. He didn't care what it was. His mind wandered - he wasn't sure he was going to arrive on time to pick "leash lady" up this morning, and she lived in his neighborhood. She is like another kind of background noise besides the radio. They had come to an easy peace about that, at least. "Whatever you want," she said.
Chu turned on the eighties and listened to her go on about her dog, Millie (who he guessed the leash was for - maybe they were going to the vet instead)? He didn't know, but what did it matter. Roberto is indifferent to the dog's cancer, she said. It started out benignly, as cysts.
"Cysts?" He was trying to remember what he smoked the night before and whether Paul drove him home or if he drove alone and just got lucky not to run the car off the road and into the Everglades. It would have been his fortune to get eaten by an alligator. "Did Paul call Uber?" He wondered out loud.
"I have cancer too," Mrs. Dennis said. She didn't tell him this was the reason for seeing the doctor that morning or if this trip was for the dog, and maybe they were picking up the dog, and he wasn't told about that. He didn't get the chance to ask. Delucca Dennis chatted on about the surgery to remove ovaries, but when she talked about the dog, it sounded as if she meant herself, her ovaries, her cancer. And then she stopped. It was as if the TV show playing in the background with some crazy lady playing all the parts of the show, the guest, the interviewer, even the applause from some invisible audience (at times during the ride, Delucca would slap her hand down on the empty seat next to her and guffaw as if she were having a kind of private joke) went silent.
The eighties music played. Chu heard ads for summer getaway cruises, discount cell phones, and cheap Internet. He wanted to know if Delucca's face changed back to normal, or if she still saw the black and white patches of the border collie puppet head in place of her own every time she gazes too long into a mirror. "Did Millie die?" Chu asked.
Chu doesn't explain this conversation to Ma'am. He tells her about the air-conditioner in the Small Village van. "It broke," he said. "Too hot and I had a fever." He explains about the cold medicine he took when he got home and how he went to the party anyway and had a couple of beers. When Ma'am gets quiet the same way Delucca did in the van, he says, "okay, more than a couple." (Chu says it was this that contributed to his seeing those Twister dots on the stairs and trying to descend on one of them). Reckless behavior and drunkenness are the least of his concerns.
"Anything else?" Ma'am asks.
Chu tells her no, there isn't, absolutely nothing.
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