CHAPTER 16, EXCERPT 2
Frank pushed open the door and it complained with a rusty moan. He got out and stood on the sidewalk as Waverly flicked his head from side to side and checked the rearview mirror. Watching the Olds roll slowly away down the avenue, Frank was thinking Good luck, man, always an adventure crossing the bridge at this time of night.
Then Frank looked across the street and saw Jesus staring at him. Shit, it was just a statue in front of the ancient St. John’s Catholic Church. But, man, the eyes did seem accusing.
Frank averted his gaze and crossed Fourth Street, starting up the hill with the rustle of wings at his back. He wasn’t sure what he’d do once he got to the apartment building, only knew he had to go there. He was back to being a drone, a robot, Judy’s clown, the dirty, feathered creature pushing him along. His torment, his obsession, and his madness, were penetrating the layers of alcoholic insulation and tearing at him, making him sting. She owned him. Had his balls in her hand. And he couldn’t stand the pain of it—the shame.
The short walk up the hill didn’t sober him up much, if at all. The neighborhood was mostly dark, streetlights out to accommodate crime it seemed, only the rare porch light or window glowing. Judy’s building loomed ahead of him now, large in the corner lot, the two-story brick structure reaching all the way back to the alley above Fifth Street.
Frank lumbered up the hill and stepped into the alley across the avenue from Judy’s building, his heart thumping like a train pushing up a steep grade and his armpits squeezing out foul, cold sweat. He could see a light in the same top floor window as the last time he was here. Fighting against rising nausea and the weight of the booze pulling at his head, he took deep breaths and leaned against the side of a tiny box of a house abutting the alley, a light mist reviving him somewhat. He could hear loud voices coming from the far end of the block and the thumping of a stereo. Party tonight. Party every night. Gazing up he detected movement behind the gauzy curtain of Judy’s high window, a silhouette behind the glass. As it lingered there for just an instant, he got that familiar spiky heat shooting along his spine.
That old black magic got you under my skin.
Fuck it, he was going in.
(End of Chapter 16)
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