A Tear in the Veil Read online

  “Holy shit, girl! Where’d all this stuff come from?!”

  From down the hall Audrey says, “Uh-uh. Tisk-tisk, naughty boy.”

  “Oh, sorry. The magical family fundage.”

  “Hey, maybe you should quit asking questions and try it out!”

  Felix raises his eyebrows.

  Why not?

  He sees a remote for the TV and a wireless controller for each system on the coffee table. He turns on the TV then the PS3. The game list in the menu shows some downloadable titles like Flower and Journey. He’s wanted to check those out. These games are already old or at least familiar for the gaming community but it’s all new to him.

  The disc in right now is Portal 2. Tempting, but he played through it three times on his crappy PC already due to Source being optimized for broad specs. He goes with Flower.

  It loads up and Felix is flying in the breeze as a stream of flower petals in no time. It’s soothing. Like a Zen flight simulator.

  Felix is so pulled in by the game he’s actually leaning back and forth on the couch and also doesn’t see Audrey standing in the living room entryway.

  “Surprise,” she says.

  Felix looks over, half-hoping for lingerie or something. She’s still fully clothed but she’s holding a decent sized box covered in wrapping paper. She walks over and sits next to him on the couch.

  He pauses the game and sets down the controller. She hands him the box and he quickly unwraps it.

  It’s a new HD camcorder. Not an HDV-426, but basically the Panasonic equivalent.

  “Oh wow! You didn’t have to do that. Really.”

  “You busted your ass to get that camera. What with selling all those cool video games you couldn’t even play and moving big, heavy boxes of ‘em and… dusting and stuff. No, but seriously, you worked for it.”

  “Okay, listen now. These things are not to be seen as rewards for… strange behavior. I just wanted to make you more comfortable in my evil web. Plus, that TV was pretty much done,” she chuckles.

  You are adorable. Worse, though… you are gorgeous.

  She sees the look in his eyes and winks at him.

  “I think you’re gonna get it,” Felix says. He sets the camera box down on the coffee table and lets the wrapping fall to the floor.

  “Really? Are you sure it’ll still work with all that medicine in you?” she taunts playfully.

  “Oh, it’ll work.”

  “It better.”

  They kiss. Gently at first, then more insistent. He kisses up her jaw line to her ear and lingers there, letting his breath gently flow into it. Just enough, then he nibbles and kisses her earlobe a bit before sliding down to her neck for the same. She moans as they kiss and touch each other all over.

  Needless to say, pretty soon they start on the couch. Hilarity ensues and after round one, they decide to move to the bedroom. They almost make it but there’s a mini-round upright in the hallway. When they finally make it to the bed, there’s not a dry eye in the house. Sherbet, laughter, and exercise and it’s fun for all involved. After a highly respectable amount of time and effort, they collapse together, panting, sweat slick, and utterly satisfied.

  Still catching her breath, Audrey says, “Missed you.”

  “Missed you too.”

  “I could tell.”

  She giggles and they cuddle.

  “Feel better, baby?” Audrey asks.

  “Yeah… I feel a lot better.”

  “Good. So, you just keep taking that medicine and we can do this again sometime,” Audrey jokes but Felix gathers it’s not entirely facetious.

  “That’s the plan,” Felix says and half smiles.

  Part 2

  12

  “Did you take your medicine, baby?” Audrey asks from the bed.

  Felix stops brushing his teeth and leans on the sink, brush still in his mouth. The mirrored medicine cabinet door is propped open so he stares at pill bottles, Audrey’s razors, cotton balls, and nail clippers while he shakes his head. He’s happy she can’t see all of him at this angle across the hallway in the toilet room.

  It’s been almost three months since I got out and she asks me every night.

  Everything else has been great. Better than before even. They’ve been doing more fun stuff out of the house like they used to like going to friend’s band and art shows, the movies, zoo, Marine World, hiking, swimming, bowling, going on long drives in the Swede, etc. plus watching a lot of movies and playing board and video games. Not to mention their other indoor sports, which are better than ever.

  Felix has even been sneaking to dance lessons here and there. Lindy Hop, Swing, Fox Trot. He hates it and sucks really bad but he’s trying. Just once he wants to impress Audrey instead of the other way around. Sweep her off her feet let’s say.

  Things have been awesome and he hasn’t seen anything strange. Not once. But this medicine question bothers the shit out of him.

  Felix understands that what happened was serious and he needs to take the medicine; he just hates being harped on.

  I’m an adult.

  Well, an adult that jumped out of a moving car because I thought my girlfriend was a psychedelic space demon out to get me… but still.

  Yeah, she has the right, he decides grudgingly.

  He takes the toothbrush out of his mouth, leans back so she can see him from the bed, and says, “Yep,” which is the truth.

  The next evening, Felix gets home from another glamorous day at Gamestop and, after he tears Audrey away from the 16mm flatbed editor in her work room, they start making dinner.

  Felix slices tomatoes for tomato sandwiches. Salt and pepper the slices, thin mayo on good gummy white bread. Try it, it’s grub. He learned that simple comfort food from Isidora. She rarely eats meat and it’s one of her favorite snacks.

  He thinks about her and Walter. They kind of went dark after he got out. Felix called them once and had another short, kind of weird talk with Isidora. Then he called again and the message said they were on a travel vacation they hadn’t mentioned. Felix knows that having his dad’s condition must bother them after how that went down, but this is not the stance he expected. They’ve always been there for him.

  Oh well, I have Audrey now and she’s all I need if that’s how they’re gonna be.

  Audrey stirs her homemade crab bisque. Felix loves that stuff. She watches Felix slicing. He’s trying to do the tucked finger thing she showed him and almost pulling it off. He notices that she’s watching and he makes a funny face. She makes one back and they focus on what they were doing again. The doorbell makes a sound like a string of wind chimes.

  Felix looks at Audrey. She acts like she didn’t hear it.

  “Expecting someone?” he asks.

  She makes an exaggerated “not me” face and shakes her head slowly.

  “You’re full of it.”

  He shakes his head and sets the knife down, wipes his hands on a towel, and walks toward the hallway.

  In a cute, playfully mocking voice, Audrey says, “Let me just… finish these… so there’s no… blood in them… when we… eat… yeah,” each pause stepping a tiny bit closer to the tomatoes.

  “Whatever,” he says and chuckles. He walks down the hallway to the front door. He reaches for the handle–

  Something slams into the small glass windows set high in the door. Felix flinches and looks up.

  It’s an adorable baby blue stuffed plush octopus.

  Through the door and muffled, Felix hears someone say, “Let me in! I want to touch your nipples!”

  Felix laughs and opens the door to see Hirofumi and Kaori crouched down on the doorstep holding stuffed shopping bags and smiling and Oscar and Yevgeny crouched behind them. Hirofumi is wearing a big foam visor of the Disney character Goofy’s head which contrasts comically with his Japanese Johnny Rotten/Vivian from The Young Ones ensemble.

  Hiro loves Old Disney. Most anime and manga leave him cold but Disney is magical to him. Hirofumi and Kaori
go down to Disneyland a few times a year just to soak it in.

  Hiro also adores vintage Jughead comics and Homer Price books; comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, The Far Side; and British comic book anthology mag 2000 A.D. He digs Judge Dredd, of course, but he’s more into Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog.

  When Felix first met H&K, he was struck by what he narrow- mindedly saw as strange: young Japanese people not obsessed with all the cool stuff Japan has to offer? Then it occurred to Felix that he isn’t into a great deal of the creative output of the US and he could easily immerse himself in it at the source the way Hiro could in Japan. Hirofumi is as into vintage Americana as Felix is weird/cute/disturbing Japanese stuff and he matches Felix’s modest Japanophilia with his own modern Anglophilia. He aspires to retire to the English countryside.

  Hirofumi pushes the octopus doll into Felix’s chest and rubs it around. “Ooooh! Tasty nipple meat!”

  Felix laughs and says, “You’re gonna get me all worked up and then what’ll you do?”

  Hirofumi moans and says, “Whatever I want!”

  Yevgeny says, “I’m already disgusted,” and laughs.

  Audrey pops her head out of the kitchen and laughs at the silly display.

  “And you get one too!” Kaori holds up a pink plush octopus and smiles big. Audrey says, “Thanks, sweet tea!”

  Felix pushes the blue doll away from his chest and they all laugh. They both give him a big hug and he lets them step in past him.

  Felix slaps and pounds Yevgeny and Oscar’s hands as they step in.

  Hirofumi sees the “I love you,” sign in the hallway ceiling and hurries down to it. Audrey turns it on and Hirofumi and Kaori both make distinctly Japanese exhale sounds of amazement and then approval.

  He rubs the octopus against the glowing sign.

  “I love you too, Felix-kun!” Hirofumi proclaims.

  Kaori says, “Sometimes I think Hiro only stayed with me because Felix likes girls.”

  “No doubt in my mind,” Audrey responds gleefully.

  “So, how was it?” Felix asks.

  Hirofumi says, “Fucking awesome!”

  Oscar says, “Yeah, they got us going as a free-to-play where you buy full skins, parts, accessories like different backpacks, and tricked out shopping carts with different ornaments and stuff. Customizable stuff too. Fuckin’ funny shit, man.”

  “I made one with Weyland-Yutani symbol wheels and motion tracker installed on the handlebar even,” Yevgeny says, smiling big.

  Oscars chuckles and says, “This fool even made a colonial marines helmet for his hobo. Ob-sessed, homie.”

  Hirofumi steers it back with, “It’s true. We are doing well with home/free so far and the trip was real fun.”

  “Hiro just likes drinking too much in different countries,” Kaori says. Hirofumi says, “You too!” and they all laugh. Then he says, “Speaking of which…”

  He stuffs the octopus in his big bag and pulls out a sealed bottle of Suntory Yamazaki eighteen year single malt whisky.

  My favorite!

  He makes a big “O” with his mouth and says, “You didn’t!”

  Kaori does the same, pulling out a big pint bottle of Russian Baltika No. 6 “porter.”

  She rubs it up and down on the side of her face, makes her eyes real big, shakes her head slowly, and says, “Why did we get so many beeeeeers?!”

  Food consumed. Whisky sipped and shot. Bowls sparked. Beer imbibed. Terrible straight to streaming horror movie Vacuum Cleaner Killer thoroughly mocked and enjoyed. More of every consumable consumed.

  “That’s why ALIENS is best movie ever. Alien is a masterpiece for sure… but it’s more like best feelm ever. Three was great potential, too much interference. Alien and ALIENS, both masterpieces,” Yevgeny concludes.

  Yevgeny’s favorite movies are the first three Alien films. He’s like that super-obsessed Star Wars or Star Trek person a lot of people know… just with Alien movies. Also the Dark Horse comics, alternate film scripts, original novels, etc. I know way more about those movies than I ever would on my own. They’re great but… damn.

  Felix and Hirofumi sit on big black beanbags near the TV. Kaori and Audrey are on the couch. Oscar is sitting cross-legged near Hirofumi and Yevgeny is sitting on the floor with his back against the couch by Kaori’s legs.

  Audrey jokes, “I’m glad we got that settled.”

  They all chuckle.

  Yevgeny says, “I’m just saying. Master-works.”

  Oscar says, “Yeah, Seamus really likes ALIENS too. He was making Vazquez jokes about this diesel girl at church one time–”

  Yevgeny interrupts, “See… I still don’t understand this. How you can be such a faithful, practicing Catholic and so gay?”

  “I don’t see the conflict. I believe in God as the Trinity of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I just think They… or He, I guess, made me gay.”

  “So weird,” Yevgeny says, shaking his head.

  “It’s kind of like how you’re a Jewish atheist,” Felix quips.

  Yevgeny scrunches up his face and says, “What? No it’s not. For me, being Jewish… It’s culture and family thing. Oscar lets himself believe that his vengeful, crazed God will be okay with him because he wants to think He-Three is nice and fluffy and won’t mind that he likes boys.”

  Oscar responds, “That’s not true.” He lets that sink in for timing’s sake and says, “I like men.”

  Everyone but Yevgeny laughs. He just shakes his head and scoffs lightly. Kaori hits a glass color-changing bong and passes it to Yevgeny like it’s a peace pipe. He takes a hit and hands it to Oscar. Oscar hits it then stretches and gives it back to Kaori.

  Audrey and Hirofumi are playing “Nazi Zombies” on Shi No Numa, the swamp level. Audrey has that space pistol but gets swarmed and goes down while reloading.

  Felix says, “See, you have to stick together and cover each other.”

  “She’s better than you are, bitch,” Hirofumi says with a smile.

  Audrey says, “Ha!”

  “Maybe,” Felix responds.

  Now alone, Hirofumi runs for it, kiting the swarm in a long trail behind him and turning to fire on them at choke points before kiting away again. Audrey hands the controller to Kaori in exchange for the bong.

  Hirofumi eventually whittles the zombie hoard all the way down and the other character comes back to life, now with Kaori in control.

  Hirofumi says, “Hey, man.”

  “Yeah?” Felix responds.

  “We were thinking maybe–” He sucks air through his teeth while narrowly evading zombie clutches as he stabs through the boarded windows. “We were thinking maybe you could work with us on home/free.”

  Audrey says, “Finally.”

  Felix frowns and says, “I thought you didn’t want my style. Too dark or whatever.”

  “You could do more general work at first. Maybe not major designs, but we are planning to make it bigger… expand. There are some new ideas we have that could be good for your style.”

  Felix watches the screen and thinks. He balances his slight bitterness at their longtime stance on him working with them and the excitement of actually working on a creative new project with good friends. Doesn’t hurt that home/free is really cool, but…

  “Can I think about it?” Felix asks.

  Too high and buzzed to hold back her mildly snobbish nature, Audrey says, “Do you even have to? GameStop is–”

  Felix looks back at her, just short of a glare and she stops mid-sentence. Having succeeded at silencing her, he looks back at the TV. Mostly silenced. She murmurs something about him being talented and wasting it.

  Hirofumi makes an annoyed face like he didn’t expect any hesitation.

  Oscar looks back at Yevgeny and raises his eyebrows. Yevgeny fishes in his back pocket and shakes his head as he hands Oscar a crumpled five dollar bill.

  Kaori preemptively says, “Of course you can.”

  “Cool. I’ll let yo
u know,” Felix says.

  Kaori isn’t paying enough attention and she’s brought down by the brain eaters.

  Felix stretches for the controller and says, “Alright now. Next spawn let’s see who’s better at killin’ zambeez.”

  The next day, Felix eats at Sushi Boat on his lunch break. He watches the little wooden boats drifting steadily in their endless rounded rectangle of a river and can’t help but hear Ride of the Valkyries in his head. He grabs a couple more unagi rolls, salmon nigiri, a cucumber roll to lighten it up, and inari to finish it off. He places a small ball of wasabi on a piece of the salmon with his chopsticks, spreads it around, dabs the fish side in the soy sauce in its little, flat bowl, and slowly puts it in his mouth. He savors it, chewing slowly.

  Felix loves sushi. Sushi Boat isn’t the best, but it’s pretty tasty for the prices. Sushi’s different here in the states but at the right places it’s still great. He’s not really into some of the hardcore, old school stuff like squid and octopus anyway, so–

  His phone is vibrating. He takes it out of his pocket. It’s not a number he knows and there’s no name from his contact list. He usually doesn’t answer those.

  He watches the little sushi boats float down their river.

  Felix presses “ACCEPT.”

  “Hello?”

  “Felix Andreas Brewer. You didn’t drown yet?”

  “Rudy? I didn’t give you my number.”

  “You didn’t tell me your middle name either, genius. I’m a journalist, remembah?”

  “Whatever. What the fuck do you want?”

  “I got another four-two-six.”

  “And you pressed the little button and saw absolutely nothing because you were on meds, right?” Felix asks sarcastically.