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The Veritas is about two inches wide, silver and heavy Around the edge in Hellion script it says home sweet home Good It’s awake and snotty as ever

One side of the coin is sta star-Lucifer-and on the other side is a round, many-petaled flower sort of like a chrysanthemum It’s an asphodel, a Hellion word that translates as "evensong" The flowers sing hy in Heaven After belting out off-key hosannas all day, getting all the words wrong, they strangle the and die The next day, they resurrect and start all over again This has been going on down there for probably a million years and most Hellions still think it’s a knee-slapper Hellion humor doesn’t travel well Plus, except for Lucifer and his generals, most of Hell’s troops onquin Roundtable

Holding the big coin on , Hollywood or home? The Veritas comes down asphodel side up That’s it, then The Veritas never lies and gives better advice than most people I know I put it back on its chain and turn north for Hollywood

It’s over a et there, and the payoff isn’t exactly what I was hoping for Soone, Hollywood Boulevard had a nervous breakdown Vacant storefronts Trash dissolving in the street Nothing but ghosts here - shadows of runaways and dealers huddled in padlocked doorways I re queens,for more than their next fix Now the place looks like a whipped dog

I’s and I’ in Brad Pitt’s jacket I should have taken the idiot’s car I could have left it on the Boulevard, safe and sound Though, more likely, I’d have tossed to keys to one of the street kids slouched against the buildings, just to see if there was any life left inside so deeper into Hollywood, I pass Ivar Avenue and see a funny sign flanked by burning tiki torches, bamboo house of dolls, it says I re fu movie with a women-in-prison twist I sahen I was Don The devil steals cable Who knew?

The Bamboo House of Dolls is cool and dilasses without wanting to faint There are old Iggy and Circle Jerks posters on the black-painted walls, but behind the bar it’s all palirls, and coconut bowls for the peanuts There’s no one in the place except for the bartender and rab the stool at the end of the bar, farthest fro up liive ht hand That other part ofhioatee He looks big under his Hawaiian shirt An ex-football player Maybe a boxer He realizes I’ at him

"Nice jacket," he says

"Thanks"

"Too bad the rest of you looks like you just dropped out of the devil’s asshole"

Suddenly I’ if this is soun or ives rin and I know that he was kidding

"Relax, man," he says "Bad joke Looks like you had a shitty day What are you drinking?"

I’ for water that sos of limestone caves under Pandeia, a kind of high-octane red wine el’s blood and herbs that ia tasted like cayenne pepper and gasoline, but it was there and I could hold it down

"Jack Daniel’s"

"On the house," says the bartender, and pours a double

There’s strangeodd and tropical, with fake bird chirps every now and then There’s a CD case on the bar A Hawaiian sunset on the cover and the name "martin denny" I put the chewed Black Black in a cocktail napkin and sip the JD It tastes strange, like soht actually drink It washes the last of the garbage taste away