Kissyman is one of my favorite characters. I’ve taken two really nasty things — Nazis and hit men — and tried to create a person you still feel for. He’s got a job to do. He could do other things for a living, sure, but this is what he’s really good at. He’s been in the business long enough to know that if someone wants you dead, you’re dead — if he doesn’t take the contract, someone else will. Although he tries for the most humane death possible, Kissyman doesn’t even bother to justify his actions; he takes the jobs that are offered.
The character is vile and repulsive not because of his past, but because he has given up on the concept of right or wrong. He has to eat. Food costs money. Someone has to pay him that money. If that money comes for doing a job that’s going to get done anyway, he might as well be the one to do it.
As for Marquesa, I listened to Nina Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl” on repeat as I wrote this story. To me, that’s what Marquesa sang to Kissyman. It makes me sad to read this story as it reminds me of people I know. These people are amazingly talented, usually hard-working, but they get caught up in the details of life and manage to derail themselves with bad decisions. They focus on things that could just be ignored. They remember slights and insults, real or imagined, instead of ignoring the douchebags and reveling in friends and family—the people who enjoy their talent and the people who want to help them.
We’re all a little self-destructive. Some more than others. Marquesa made the wrong choices with the wrong people, choices that led her to a kiss on the forehead.
But as Kissyman said, at least she didn’t suffer.