Dhalgren

“That’s one name for it.”

Her eyes came up again; even in the shadow their green was bright between his fingers barring her face.

“Terribly, terribly sweet, mainly.”

“And how are you?”

“Mmmmm.” She closed her eyes and smiled.

“You know what he did this morning?”

“What?”

“He dragged me in here and said he was going to blow me, and then he got that girl in here.”

She opened her eyes. “Oh, is that how it happened.” He felt her eyebrows lift. “Well, I guess turnabout is fair play.”

“I dig that scene—”

“So I noticed. You’re sweet too.”

“—but she was sort of fu

“So I gathered. Also he’s a little boy, isn’t he? Or is he another baby face like you?”

“He’s fifteen. She’s seventeen. I think.”

Lanya sighed. “Then perhaps you just have to give them time to grow into their own perversions. And by the way, how are you?”

“Fine.” Kid gri

And laughing, she pushed her face toward his.

Hands scrabbled on Kid’s belly; De

An elbow hit Kid’s stomach. A knee hit his knee.

“Hey, watch it,” Lanya said.

“I’m sorry,” De

The scent of De

“Oof,” Lanya said. “Would you please tell me what your name is?”

“De

“Lanya Colson.”

“You’re the Kid’s old lady, huh?”

“When he remembers who I am.” Her hand on Kid’s wrist squeezed.

Kid rubbed the back of De

“You like this?”

Lanya laughed and moved her arms farther around De

“Up here, where I live.” De

They watched him hunker on the blankets. The side of Kid’s thigh on hers was warm. The top, where De

“You can’t stand up,” Lanya said. “But it must be good for sitting and thinking.”

“I stay up here a lot,” De

“What is it?” Lanya asked and leaned forward.

“It’s a shirt.” De

Kid looked too.

Beneath the plastic cover, and over green satin, gold strings tangled: the fringe was attached to the velveteen yoke. Velveteen cuffs sported gilt and green glass links.

“I found it in a store.” De

Silver thread elaborately embossed the black.

“Those were the two I liked,” De

Kid scratched the hair between his legs and drew away a little.

Lanya had leaned closer. “They are pretty!”

“What is that one made of?” Kid asked.

Lanya pressed the plastic covering with her palm. “It’s crepe.”

“And I have these.” De

When the lid clicked off the plastic box, the cubes inside bounced.

“It’s a game,” De

Lanya picked up one of the green blocks. On each face was an embossed gold letter: p,q,r,s,o,i…

De

She turned it in her fingers a long time, till Kid’s awareness of De

“Put it back,” Kid said, quietly.

She did, quickly.

“And this.” De

“Escher!” Lanya exclaimed. “They certainly are.”

Kid reached over her arm to turn the page.

“Where did you get those?” Lanya asked.

“In another…store.” (Kid wondered idly at the hesitation but didn’t look up.) “In somebody’s house,” De

“Um-hm.” Lanya nodded.

Kid turned another page of etched perspective imploded on itself and put back together inside out. Lanya bent to look now.

“This!” De

They both looked. And Kid took the book from Lanya and handed it back to De

“I wonder if they do anything,” Lanya said.

“That one says the ‘volume’,” De

“Like the shirts,” she said. “When you go someplace else, you’ll have something nice.”

“If we go someplace else,” De

“I meant somewhere outside the…” Kid watched her realize that De

Suddenly she touched the radio. “It isn’t square!” she a

Kid leaned close to her and kneaded the inside of his thighs. He’d laid the Escher against his calf. The corner of the book nicked; he didn’t move it.

“You seen these pictures too?” De

Lanya said: “Let me see.”

She turned over the first page and frowned.

“…Um, did Boucher ever paint religious pictures?” Kid ventured.

“Not,” Lanya said, “for three-dimensional, laminated-plastic dioramas.”

“I think 3-D pictures are great,” De

“These are strange.” Lanya turned another page.

A crowned woman in blue stood one foot on a crescent moon while below her two naked men cowered in a rowboat. Ghosts of the same picture at other angles haunted the striated plastic.

“What’s the next…” Lanya asked.

A man who looked like a classical Jesus, in a loincloth, limped on a single crutch, one hand, with stigma, extended.

“Spanish…?” she mused.

“Puerto Rican,” Kid suggested.

Lanya glanced at him. “It doesn’t have any writing anywhere.”

A woman, perhaps the virgin, as likely an empress, rode on a tiger. “The rocks and moss and water in the background, that’s lifted from da Vinci.” Lanya turned to the next. “These are really…” She closed the book to a white cover on which was a crowned and bleeding heart behind a cross. “You can’t tell me those are Christian. Did you find this in somebody’s house too?”

“In a store,” De

In his cupped hands were three glass cubes set with glittering stones.

“Dice?” Kid asked.

“I had four of them,” De

Three, two, and six: counting the top numbers was difficult because of pips on other faces.

“You’re really into collecting pretty things.” Lanya picked up a cube.

De