Dhalgren

Kid decided not to ask what Pepper had done.

“Go on,” Pepper said. “Sit down. On the couch. That’s where I sleep, so it’s okay. She sleeps in there.”

“My boudoir.” Bu

Kid sat.

“Oh, there’ve been a few times—but you were probably too high to remember those—when you’ve turned into quite a tiger. Pepper, darling, you shouldn’t be so concerned about what other people think.”

“If I cared what he thought, I wouldn’t ’a brung him in here,” Pepper said. “You want some more wine, Kid, just take it. Bu

“Actually—” Bu

“I don’t talk about doin’ anybody I ain’t never done,” Pepper said, “which is more’n I can say for you. Why don’t you lay off?”

From the couch, Kid said: “I just came around to see if somebody was in Teddy’s. I want to—”

“Well, take a look, if you like.” Bu

Wondering, Kid got up and walked past Bu

“In there.”

Kid stepped around a grubby, white vinyl hassock (everything had speckles of silver glitter on it) and pushed back black velvet.

Through cage bars, he saw upturned stools clustering the counter. Under a skylight he had never noticed before—this was the first time he had seen the place during the day—the empty booths and tables looked far more rickety: the whole room seemed larger and shabbier.

“Is the bartender there?” Bu

“No.”

“Then they aren’t even open.”

Kid dropped the curtain.

“Isn’t that convenient? I just run right out there and do my thing, then run right back in here, and am shut of you all. Come on back inside. Don’t run away.” Bu

“Nightmare.”

“Fascinating boy.” Bu

“I told him to get it when he wants it.”

“I’ll get it for him, Pepper. You may not be a gentleman, but I am a lady.” Bu

Kid sat down on the couch beside Pepper.

Bu

“I’m not a scorpion.”

“You mean you just like to dress up that way? And wear a shield around your neck? Mmmm?”

“Somebody gave me these clothes when I got my others messed up.” Kid took the jar and picked up his projector at the end of its chain. “This doesn’t have a battery or something. I just found it.”

“Ah, then you’re not really a scorpion yet. Like Pepper, right? Pepper used to be a scorpion. But his battery’s run down.”

“I guess that’s what it is.” Pepper rattled the links of his shield among his other chains. “I gotta get hold of another one and see.”

“Pepper used to be the most charming bird of paradise. Red, yellow, and green plumes—one could almost ignore its relation to the common parrot. Then he began to flicker, more and more, sputter, grow dim. Finally—” Bu

“Where could you pick up one? A battery, I mean.”

“Radio store,” Pepper said. “Only the guys have about stripped all the places around here. A department store, maybe. Or maybe somebody’s got an extra one. Nightmare’s got a lot, I bet.”

“How exciting, to anticipate your glowing aspect, to puzzle over what you’ll turn out to be.”

“Inside here—” Pepper snapped his shield apart—“they got a little thing in here that’s supposed to be what it is. But it just looks like a whole lot of colored dots to me. The battery goes in there.” He picked at the mechanism with a grey nail—“This one…”—and pried loose a red and white striped oblong with blue lettering: 26½ Volts D. C., below a colophon of gathered lightning. “This one ain’t worth shit.” He flipped it across the room.

“Not on the floor, Pepper love.” Bu

“A girl. Lanya. You know her: You spoke to her one night in the bar when George Harrison was there.”

“Oh, yes: She-who-must-be-obeyed. And you were with her. Now I do remember you. That was the night they made George the new moon, wasn’t it? The way that poor man has driven all those silly dinge-queens out of their flippy little minds is just terrible!”

Kid turned his jar. “He has a pretty heavy fan club.”

“More power to him, I say.” Bu

Pepper loosed his consumptive giggle.

“I want to go out and look for her,” Kid said. “If she comes into Teddy’s after it opens, will you give her a message for—”

“I can’t think of any reason why I should. She has a much easier time getting hers than I do getting mine. What do you want me to tell her?”

“Huh? Just that I was around looking for her, and that I’ll be back.”

“Smile.”

“What?”

“Grin. Like this.” Bu

Kid twisted his lips back quickly and decided this was his last politeness.

To Kid’s leer, Bu