NINETEEN

Friday night I convened with Spike on her porch. I split a tab of Life with her. It was late, past midnight. Moonlight shellacked the leaves of the malnourished avocado tree in the front yard. Each leaf was alone in the light, apart from its mates. A shooting star, rarely seen over the city, arced in the sky, passing too fast to make a wish on.

I shut my eyes and visualized the radioactive elements that channeled through my blood. Cesium, plutonium, and strontium. How I kept testing negative, I didn’t know. Spike held my left hand. Gently, not too tight. Her palm was soft, fingers warm. I addressed her, unable to sugarcoat the future.

“The cops are gonna come here soon.”

“To do what?”

“Take back these houses.”

“That’s crap. Nobody wants this street. I’m safe out here. And I need this place. Don’t you?”

“Oracles don’t have homes.”

“Don’t be an asshole. Everyone needs a home.”

The wind was singing in the telephone lines. I smelled the exhaust from the cars on Geneva Avenue. I heard distant gunshots near Mission Street, peppering the spaces where there wasn’t any wind or cars.

The Hondurans’ bungalow was illuminated from within by hydro lamps leaking orange-white light into the street with the aplomb of a Halloween pumpkin. The rest of Guadalupe Terrace was scrolled in wearied blackness.

The bullet turned in my brain, something that had begun in the morning, indicating the Haldol was quickly wearing off. My oracular tendencies were resurgent, on the upswing.

Then Spike turned and kissed me. I didn’t see that coming. It was the last thing I expected from anyone in the universe. I opened my mouth a tad and cemented my lips to hers, the kiss absolving me of the loneliness I’d felt since Vivian Raleigh. To her credit, Spike didn’t complain about my insane breath.

The half tab of Life kicked in. My toes were numb, my sphincter was tight. Spike fluttered her hands, buzzed on the vaccine. “I’m seeing colors and patterns.” In a few hours tomorrow would come like a woman telling a man their love affair was the best thing that’d ever happened to her.