14

Joseph Lee watched the sun go down with Zala Lechnen sitting beside him. Together they watched the world turn from a dusty red to a murky gray before a blackness enveloped the skies. Riso had disappeared inside the house during the red dusk. While Lee and Zala contemplated the burning skies and the phrase red sky at night sailors’ delight, red sky in the morning sailors’ warning with their usual lighthearted humor, Riso was getting showered and ready.

Lee had noticed an odd change in Riso after the phone call. He seemed distant and preoccupied. He was still his ever-pleasant self, but for once Lee noticed a fault in that pleasantness. His niceties seemed fake and transparent, his kind words scripted, spoken by a man who knew what to say and how to behave but had more important things to worry about.

When Riso stepped into the garden, he was wearing a padded jacket and swinging a set of car keys around his forefinger and thumb. “Well, I must get going,” he declared to the two night watchers.

Zala turned half-heartedly toward him. “I told you not to wear that,” she studied his appearance with revulsion.

Riso looked down at his coat. “Why not? I only have two coats and this is the warmest.” He continued to swing the car keys as he spoke.

“It’s a padded jacket!”

“So?”

“You’re already padded. You look like the Michelin Man.”

Riso shrugged off the comment and turned his attention to Lee, who was staring at his attire with a smirk on his face. “I will probably see you sometime next week. I’ll let you get some rest before we finish off the garden.” His voice was warm, but his expression was distant.

“Okay.” Lee was relieved that Riso hadn’t asked to finish things the next day.

“Don’t forget, we have your garden to do, as well,” he reminded him, taking away most of Lee’s relief. “Look after yourself.” He winked at him, kissed his wife on the cheek, and then walked back through the house, waving at them with the back of his hand.

“What car does he drive?” Lee wondered as he waited for the sound of a car engine to spark into life. “Doesn’t he drive the Merc?”

“No,” Zala said, her voice was so gentle it almost disappeared in the wind. “We have a little Ford in the garage. It does most of the running around.” She sighed pleasantly, a soft yawn escaping her lips.

Sitting up straight on the chair, she rested her arms and elbows on the table before laying her head on top of them. “I’m sorry he had to leave.”

“That’s okay. I’ll have to go myself soon. I’ve never been so tired.” He rubbed his hands as he spoke; the stinging in his extremities had disappeared. Flecks of hardened skin and small blisters were breaking through the red.

Zala smiled. “Do you want me to get you any painkillers? You’re looking a bit stiff.”

“No, thanks, I have some codeine in the house.”

“How did you manage to get them?”

“I got a bunch a while ago for a dental problem … barely used them.”

“What was wrong?” Zala wondered.

“I was in agony, that’s about all I know,” Lee confessed. “One tooth was driving me mad.” He pushed his index finger into his mouth and pointed to a line of teeth at the back—a clear and evident gap exposed itself at the tip of his finger.

“Did they pull it out?” Zala asked, unable to hide a look of distaste.

“No. I did.” He grinned sadistically, anticipating her reaction.

Zala cringed and quickly lifted her head. “You pulled it out yourself?”

Lee nodded. “It all happened during …” he paused, not sure how to phrase his words. “The awkward time.” He settled upon. “I wasn’t leaving the house much so I had no intention of going to the dentist. I wasn’t really in touch with my doctor and didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting another one so I ordered some painkillers online. I think I had about five orders, all for different opiate painkillers. I’m not up on the drugs culture, but I figured if I had five strong painkillers, one of them was bound to do the trick. As it turned out, four of the sites scammed me and I only ended up with one of the prescriptions.”

“The Internet is a haven for con artists and scammers,” Zala noted plainly.

“Yep. I think I had an inkling, but I was still suckered. Worth the risk anyway.”

“That’s a big risk though, isn’t it? They could have taken your credit card and run, all for some painkillers?”

“They didn’t have my credit card details. It was a third-party thing, online payment providing … services …” he said, stumbling. “Or whatever they call them.”

Zala nodded in recognition. “So what happened, what did you do?” Her curiosity had taken hold.

“I took the codeine they sent me,” Lee recalled. “Just one dose knocked back with a few glasses of whisky. Before long, I was as happy as Larry and high as a kite.”

“I thought you could only be one or the other,” Zala said wryly.

“I was every uplifting phrase in the book, and after I ripped my tooth out I was hopping mad and dancing on the ceiling before I was sleeping like a log.”

Zala grinned. “How did you pull it out?”

“Pliers,” Lee said abruptly, bringing a look of revulsion to Zala’s face.

She made a noise of empathetic pain and disgust. “How did you manage? The back teeth go really deep, don’t they? You can’t just rip it out … can you? I mean they have huge roots, just as big as the teeth … don’t they?” The questions were spat like gunfire.

“I found that out after I started.” He cringed at the memory. “I was tugging at it for about ten minutes. I had to yank it back and forth to get leverage. I tried yanking it straight out but the pliers slipped. I lost control, they flew upward and I busted my nose on one of the handles. After a good amount of twisting and pulling, it popped out.”

“Oh my god.” Zala’s face was a picture of horror.

“It cracked and chipped a lot on the way out,” Lee continued, grinning at Zala’s reaction and feeling a desire to disgust her further. “I was spitting blood and saliva and little bits of enamel. I used up a full bag of cotton buds getting rid of the blood. I was practically eating them toward the end.”

Zala had her hand around her mouth as if she was feeling the same pain. “Did you pass out? Were you okay?”

“I was fine,” Lee said pleasantly. “The painkillers and the alcohol took the pain away. I was a little put off by all the blood but other than that I was fine.” He recalled something else and almost shuddered at the memory. “The morning after was a nightmare, though. I woke up on a blood-smeared pillow feeling like my mouth was on fire. I swallowed some codeine, waited for them to kick in, and then fell asleep again.”

“Have you been to see a dentist since?” Zala wondered. The revulsion was fading but she still had a hand over her mouth, as if the problem was infectious and her hand was a barrier against the disease.

Lee merely shook his head.

“You’re crazy.”

Lee grinned. “So are you,” he said with a wide smile that purposely exposed the toothless hole. “That’s why we get along so well.”