Matt & Mariko - A Serialized Novel - 4.14

CHAPTER 1

     The two ice cubes clickety-clacked across the gray sidewalk and then came to rest, barely visible under the soft glow of the street light. If they'd been dice, Matt would've wanted to see the numbers.

     He had a sticker showing a pair of dice on the rear windshield of his '65 Mustang, which he had just parked in front of the Riverside Arms apartments. He'd emptied the ice cubes from the Big Gulp he bought on the way over. If the ice cubes had been dice and he'd rolled snake eyes, maybe he would've gone back to his girlfriend Mariko's house and forgotten about this job.

     He was supposed to be the electrician on this shoot. Nobody had said anything about driving the actress to work in the morning.

     But Rico told him to pick up Aileen on the way in, so that's what he was doing. He pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on, then realized the sun hadn't come up yet and took them off again. A strong wind had blown from the east the night before, leaving big palm leaves here and there along the street.

     He walked into the Riverside Arms front gate, past the small pool and up a staircase to No. 18, Aileen's place, and knocked on the door. No answer.

     Rico had given him the key and he'd stuck it in an envelope in his glove compartment. But he hadn't remembered to take it with him, so he tried turning the doorknob. Aileen hadn't locked her door the night before, so the walk back to the Mustang would've been a waste of time and energy.

     Aileen was dead out, sleeping the sleep of the wasted on a sofa-bed in the living room. She was stretched out next to a guy with thinning hair and two days of stubble across his cheeks. As Matt sat down on the sofa-bed next to Aileen, the guy woke momentarily, blinked his eyes at Matt, then conked right out again.

     "Honey," Matt said softly to Aileen. "It's time to wake up."

     No response. He gently shook her shoulder.

     "Honey," he repeated. "Wake up time."

     "Shut up," she said. "Go away."

     Matt picked up Aileen's naked body and carried her into the bathroom, placed her in the tub and turned on the shower. She shouted and cursed, but by the time he turned the water off, she was asleep again.

     So he went out into her living room, found a small carrying case with her makeup in it, picked a dress out of her closet and stuffed it inside. He went back into the bathroom, wrapped Aileen in a towel he found hanging from the shower curtain and carried her and the case down to the Mustang.

     A breeze tousled his hair, a last gust from the windstorm of the night before. Matt looked up at a noise above his head. It was a squirrel climbing across a telephone wire, like a tightrope walker. The squirrel stopped halfway, and chattered maniacally for its own reasons, then scampered across the wire toward the next pole.

     Matt put Aileen on the back seat and stuck the carrying case on the floor, got into the driver's seat and turned on the ignition. He pulled out and passed the street light as it shut for the day. The two ice cubes were quickly melting on the sidewalk in the warmth of the spring morning.