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Jason opened the door at 4:40 AM, bleary-eyed and bruised I sat rigid on the couch, awake as a year of coffee, ers around the doorjamb, I blurted out:
“Reaganomics saved this country!”
I burst into tears
Jason knocked over the coffee table trying to get to me faster than a person can actually move He kissed me, stroked ist
“Oh shit, oh shit, Sam, I’m so sorry I didn’t know he even knew about you When did you see hiive you a business card? Where did he find you? What else did he say?”
I explained in sobs and gulps, fishing the card out of my pocket Jason yanked it out of my hand, threw it in the sink, and lit the corner with ait stonily until it burned totally to ash
“What the fuck? Jason, what the shit? I need that! He’s going to give rant”
Jason’s jaw clenched His face went hard and cold “You know, the weird thing is he probably would He’s a man of his word” Jason sat down next to“That man you met todayhe’s like me He has powers He’s after the Avant Garde and we’re after hi, and when you shake on it, he tells you what he wants in return, which would be fine except you have to do it within twenty-four hours or the despair will ure”
I couldn’t get ht me a new shirt As I pulled it over ures than that”
“I think he was just a uy when he started out Now he runs the city, and he wants more He’s the real deal Way beyond that fresh Evil Like Satan-in-the-Monsanto-building-in-whaleskin-boots evil Did you tell him where we live?”
I shook my head “I’m supposed to meet him, after my birthday At his office Jason, what about the card? You didn’t have to burn it”
Jason griives you cancer If you hold on to it long enough He’s been handing them out all over town I told you Evil”
It was a long time till we slept MacArthur kneaded the bedcovers and snored softly between us Just as I was finally drifting off, Jason whispered:
“After your birthday, you should go visit my parents I know they suck, but they live in Kentucky Six Figure wouldn’t be caught dead”
“Sure, darling,” I sighed, and then I was eating white cheese and white wine in a gallery full of white hippos in Jacobean collars and I was asleep