Remember that time I threw a Coke machine at that big Maori guy? I do. I wish I would have grabbed myself a Coke before I did that. Out of everything I miss about home, I think what I miss most is Coca-Cola. Right now anyway. Why don’t they have Coke in Madripoor? Isn’t it a worldwide brand? Maybe they do in the nicer parts of town but I don’t remember seeing it even in Touristville. There’s just something about an ice cold Coke. At this moment it’s the thing I want most in the world. More than a cigarette even. More than a stiff drink. More than a big fat greasy bacon cheeseburger.
If he didn’t speak English, he’d still be alive. Isn’t that a kick in the head? My main problems in Madripoor is that I can’t communicate with most people and the one time I run into someone that can speak English this is what happens. He’d still be alive if the meeting was someplace normal instead of on a god damn roof. I’m not trying to say this is anyone else’s fault but my own, but your mind keeps turning it over and over – this only happened because everything was exactly the way it was. One little thing is different and none of this happens. That’s not an excuse, I just can’t stop thinking about it. I guess that’s natural when something goes haywire, you just keep thinking about how it could have been different.
For a very overweight man who was barely five and a half feet tall he didn’t look half bad, a lot of that was probably the suit though – which was killer. He had a shaved head which normally I don’t like, but it looked good on him. The only thing that was really gross about him was his skin – he was shiny like he was covered with olive oil. He didn’t even have a flesh-crawling pimp-leer like I expected. I thought he might be eyeballing me like a heifer at the county fair but he was just normal. He was just a man conducting business.
I think that’s what did it. I’m not even sure why I was there because no one was translating for me. Dan and Kalenkor and a third guy who I didn’t know were doing all the talking. That’s another way this could have not happened, if I wasn’t there. There really wasn’t any reason for me to be there since I couldn’t understand what was being said.
What I could understand was the tone of the conversation – it was just business. Like a woman’s life being bought and sold was no big deal. Like they were talking about splitting up a bill after dinner. Did you have the soup? Who ordered the breadsticks? How many drinks did you have? All I had was the ham salad so I’m not paying for this dessert! Maybe the fact that I couldn’t understand it just made it worse? Hard to say.
All I know is that I was sitting at that table while three men bartered over a human life and I got madder and madder. I was told afterwards that the deal had been done, that the details had been worked out already when I did what I did. Maybe if I knew that it would have changed things. Maybe not. It was the casualness of the whole thing that I couldn’t let go. It clearly meant nothing to Kalenkor or his partner, I’m not sure it even mattered much to Dan.
I’m not sure if I believe in temporary insanity, but one minute I was sitting there picking at a crispy noodle dish and the next minute I just snapped. I dragged the big man in his fancy suit with his bald head out of his chair and over to the side of the roof. I guess the guy with him wasn’t the NBH bodyguard that I heard about because he didn’t try to do anything about it. He just looked scared.
Blue told me to stop. He told me not to let him go. And I wouldn’t have. He brought me to my senses. I wasn’t going to drop him. But then he looked me in the eye and spoke in English. His accent was so thick I didn’t catch most of it, but I understood “stupid bitch”. I could tell that he wasn’t scared at all. His voice was completely calm – it was saying “I know what you are, I know you can’t touch me”. And so I let go.
Blue lunged and caught him by the shoulder of his jacket but it ripped. I wonder if he grabbed his tie if that would have held him. How strong are ties? Since he was hanging over the side of the building he probably “only” fell thirty-six feet or so. I think I read somewhere that if you fall out of a fourth story window you have a fifty percent chance of dying. So it seems like there would be a decent chance you could survive a thirty-six foot fall. But thirty six feet was all it took to spell the end for the king of Madripoor’s middle range pimps. He actually got up for a second after he fell and then dropped right back down and was stone dead.
In retaliation, the Paper Boys killed Dan. That pissed me off. I’m the one that killed Kalenkor. Why didn’t they come after me? How does killing Dan make any damn sense? Blue said that I should try and lay low for a while because Xu probably will try to kill me. Since she was in love with Dan and I got him killed.
You know what really scares me though? Killing him bothers me, but it doesn’t bother me that much. Honestly what it feels like is when you break up with a guy and you end up being mean about it when you didn’t intend to. You feel shitty about it, and you feel bad for the guy because you hurt him for no real reason, but it’s over and you don’t really care that much. You know you did something wrong and you wish that you had handled it better but you’re not tearing yourself up about it.
That’s what scares me. I killed a man. And even though he had it coming, by any rational measure it was still wrong. And I don’t feel all that bad about it.
I’ll go back to the CS someday. Back to Saint Louis. But I’m never going home. I realize that now. Home isn’t a place. Not really. It’s who you are. And I’m something different now. A killer.
Rocket Cat 