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What’s that old Sunday school warning about how if you fight dragons too long, you can beco around in h that I know I’d rather be a dragon than a sheep to the slaughter Maybe, in soentler version of the world, I could walk away froive theive the for, but she is

"I should go I have to uns back in the oilcloth and wrap the a little asha down the oldat him, I ask, "Want to meet up tomorrow?"

"Of course"

I ive

I STEER THE Mercedes west toward the one other place in town that makes my skin crawl almost as much as the old apartment

I turn off Sunset and onto Laurel Canyon Boulevard The change fro, like flipping a switch Bus fureen lawns and stately homes This isn’t movie-star Beverly Hills, but the older part The horown-ups ht into a maze of streets all named Dona Dona Isabel Dona Marta Dona Sarita When I find the right Dona, I park and sit for alike this coot back Brad Pitt wasn’t my fuck-you welcoet out of the car, but I do anyway, and cross the street to the eic circle used to meet - once stood The vacant land looks corrupt and out of place in this perfect landscape, like a starlet showing rotten teeth behind her h the sandy soil There’s a faded sign with the nae on top, but it doesn’t look like anyone has set foot anywhere near the lot in years

The sun is going down fast When a breeze picks up, I feel a chill I know it’s all in my head Even at Christmas, LA isn’t that cold, but it doesn’t stopon fast I walk back to the Mercedes, get in, and light up one of the last few cigarettes froave me I look at the empty lot and wonder what happened there It doesn’t look like the house burned Frohborhood is on bedrock, so it probably didn’t fall down in a quake It just went away I know I should go over and walk around to see if I can find so that could point ht The shit and sulfur sh the base I stay in the car, and when the last of the cigarette is gone, I flick the butt onto one of the manicured lawns and drive away

I DITCH THE Mercedes a few blocks from Max Overdrive At another time it would break my heart to have to leave such a brilliant machine behind, but LA is an all-you-can-eat car buffet, and now that I’ve seen what the knife does to locks and ignitions, I’rab the oilcloth bundle with the guns and the bags with et to the store, it is closed, but I rap on the glass and Allegra lets ood"

"Thanks" It feels nice being complimented by a human woman The few kind words I’d heard in the last eleven years usually ca a snake had just thrown up

"Did you lose your key?"

"I forgot it I haven’t had to carry one for a while"

"Where did you live that you didn’t need keys?" She looks at so at her It looks like a TV remote fucked a little typewriter and this is the bastard offspring She types so on the tiny typewriter with her thu with?"

"You’ve never seen one of these? It’s a BlackBerry"

"Is it like a phone? But you’re typing with it"

"I’ve got it now You’ve been in a coma since the seventies No Abducted by aliens"

"You nailed me Klatuu barada nikto"

"The Day the Earth Stood Still, right? That was one of my favorites when I was a kid"

"Me, too So, why are you typing on your BlackBerry thing?"

"Just BlackBerry Like you, Just Stark" She turns the little device so I can see it better "You can talk on it or you can send text es It’s like e-ht"

"Sure But ould you type so to so isso"

"What’s that on the screen?"

"It’s Google Maps I looked up the address so I could give Michelle directions" She clicks and the little screen changes "See, you just get on the net and enter the address"

"You have the Internet on that? If I got the Internet, I could look things up on it, right? Naet the Internet It’s the Web, and you don’t get it You use it And, yeah, you can look up anything you want"

"Can I get one of these?"

She looks at me like I really have spent a decade with Martians

"Of course You just have to figure out what kind you want" She types a few more words into the BlackBerry and puts it in her coat pocket

"Thanks," I say

"No probleo and meet soht"

"Night"

I haven’t used keys for a while What a stupid da to say I could see it in her eyes She’s wondering if I’m flat-out crazy or a recent jailbird Worse, she’s wondering if I’ve done so about what’s wrapped in the dirty oilcloth I’ll have to start locking the upstairs door I’ll have to do so about her suspicions, too, but I don’t knohat, and I’s and the bundle with the guns upstairs and drop them on the bed To the Internet or Web or whatever with me will helplike a newly landed Martian

I go over and open Kasabian’s closet

"Morning, sunshine Sleep well?"

There’s a cheesy infouy in a chef’s unifor kitchen utensils around

"You ever see these knives, h soda cans and bricks"

"If I ever start eating bricks, I’ll cohts about our conversation last night? Like, where I can find some of the old crowd?"

Kasabian doesn’t look atat the TV "They never rust, you know And you never have to sharpen theic"