| The static that came
roaring out of the Mercedes's four speakers this
time seemed as loud as a jet fighter's engine
Even with my palm over one ear, it ripped through
my headI thought I heard Wireman yell, but I
wasn't sure
Jack pushed the power button again and the hellish
blizzard of noise cut out"I think we should skip
the tunes," he said
"Wireman? All right?" My voice seemed to be coming
from far away, through a steady low ringing noise
ix
Jack might have made it a little way beyond the
point where Ilse got sick; maybe notIt was hard
to tell once the growth got highThe road
narrowed to a stripe, its surface humped and
buckled by the roots running beneath itThe
foliage had interlaced above us, blotting out most
of the skyIt was like being in a living chanel shopping purse tunnel
936
The windows were rolled up, but even so, the car
was filling with a green and fecund jungle smell
Jack tested the old Mercedes's springs on a
particularly egregious pothole, thumped up over a
ridge in the pavement on the far side, then
slammed to a stop and put the transmission in PARK
"I'm sorry," he saidHis mouth was quivering and
his eyes were too big"I'm-"
I knew perfectly well what he was
Jack fumbled open the door, leaned out, and
vomitedI'd thought the smell of the jungle
(that's what it was once you were a mile past El
Palacio) was strong in the car, but what came
rolling in with the door open was ten times
headier, thick and green and viciously aliveYet
I did not hear a single bird calling in that mass
of junk foliageThe only sound was Jack cheap mulberry handbags losing
his breakfastAt last he collapsed back against
the seatHe thought I looked like a snowbird
again? That was sort of funny, because on that
early afternoon in mid-April, Jack Cantori was as
pale as March in MinnesotaInstead of twenty-one,
he looked a sickly forty-fiveIt must have been
937
the tuna salad, Ilse had said, but it hadn't been
the tunaSomething from the sea, all right, but
not the tuna
"I'm sorry," he said"I don't know what's wrong
with meThe smell, I guess - that rotten jungle
smell-" His chest hitched, he made a gurk sound
deep in his throat, and leaned out the door again
That time he missed his hold on the steering wheel,
and if I hadn't grabbed him by the collar and
yanked him back, he would have gone sprawling
face-first into his own whoop
He women gucci handbags leaned back, eyes closed, face wet with sweat,
panting rapidly
"We better take him back to El Palacio," Wireman
said"I don't like to lose the time - hell, I
don't like to lose him - but this **** ain't
right
"As far as Perse's concerned, it's exactly right,"
I saidNow my bad leg was itching almost as much
as my armIt felt like electricity"It's her
little poison beltHow about you, Wireman? How's
your gut?"
938
"Fine, but my bad eye - the one that used to be
bad - is itching like a bastard, and my head's
kind of hummingProbably from that damn radio
"It's not the radioAnd the reason it's getting
to Jack and not to us is because we've beenSort of ironic, isn't
it?"
Behind the wheel, Jack groaned
"What can you do for him, muchacho? Anything?"
"I think so
I had my hermes birkin 35cm pads on my lap and my pencils and erasers
in a belt-packNow I flipped to the picture of
Jack and found one of my art-gum erasersI took
away his mouth and the lower arcs of his eyes, all
the way up to the cornersThe itching in my right
arm was fiercer than ever, and I actually had no
doubt that what I planned to do would workI
summoned up the memory of Jack's smile in my
kitchen - the one I'd asked him to give me while
thinking of something particularly good - and drew
it quickly with my Midnight Blue pencilIt took
no more than thirty seconds (the eyes were really
the key, when it comes to smiles, they always are),
939
but those few lines changed the whole idea of Jack
Cantori's face
And I got something I hadn't expectedAs I drew,
I saw him kissing a girl in a louis vuitton diaper bag tote biki |