Alice & Dorothy (19 page)

“He was talkin,” Alice said slowly. “He said he was gonna kill me.”

“No he wasn’t,” Dorothy said. “
You
were.”

“Do up your seat belt,” Alice said. When the buckle snapped into place, Alice fired the engine, and they pulled away from the curb. Dorothy watched Rabbit’s grandmother’s house in the rearview mirror until Alice turned a corner. Then she buried her head in her hands and cried.

They drove for a while, not talking, Alice seething behind the wheel. Her head felt like a giant, pulsing bruise. The blood on her face felt like syrup on her skin, a distracting irritant. The Hater was mumbling somewhere in the corner of her mind, and that was also distracting.

Dorothy had her face buried in the sleeves of the sweater she was wearing. She hadn’t looked up since they left Rabbit’s house. She was turned away from Alice, curled up against the passenger door. Occasionally she let out a whimper or a little sob; Alice would have assumed her asleep otherwise.
Or dead
.

Alice turned on the radio to fill silence. The song was
Prison Sex
by Tool, and she flicked it off after the first chorus. There was a gas station on the right side of the road and Alice pulled into it. She skipped past the gas bar and went around to the side of the building. There was a rusted and broken air machine for pumping tires and two steel blue doors marked as bathrooms. In the space between the doors was a little white and blue sign politely requesting that those wishing to use the bathroom facilities would need to track down an attendant and get the keys.

“Wait here,” Alice said. She looked at her bloodied, puffy face in the mirror and decided there was no use attempting to hide it. “I’ll get the keys. Then we can wash up a bit.”

Dorothy didn’t respond, and after a moment of silence Alice shut the door and walked into the gas station.

Thankfully it was empty. She threw the glass door open and was hit with the smell of hot coffee and chemical cleaners. The store was a big blue and white rectangle lit by yellow striplights that flickered on unsteady power. There were cockroaches inside them; they fluttered and scrabbled on the plastic covers. Near the coffee machines and the slushie dispensers was a rack of fruit, blackened and rotting. Lazy flies droned in the updraft of two industrial sized fans hanging from the ceiling. The fan blades looked like they were coated in shit, and they were spattering the walls with filth. There was an attendant behind the counter, but his face was covered with smoke.

Alice looked around, confused.
What the fuck is going on here?

“Can I help you?” the attendant said. Alice blinked, and the smoke was gone. The store was clean and bright.

It was a mistake,
she thought.
I was confused
.

The attendant balked when their eyes met. “Jesus
Christ
. What happened?” He was tall and thin, and had the dark eyes of a stoner. Video games, pot and pizza.

Alice knew the type.
Men my age were all boys still.
“I fell off my bike and landed on my face,” she lied. “It’s worse than it looks. Hurts like a bitch.” She’d screwed that up. Gotten it backwards. The clerk didn’t seem to notice though, so she didn’t bother correcting herself.

“I’ll call an ambulance if you want,” the clerk said. They’ll be here in like five minutes probably. The hospital isn’t that far away.”

“No thanks,” Alice said. “Four hundred bucks for them to tell me to be more careful next time and give me a band aid? I just need the keys to the washroom so I can clean up.”

“You got it,” the clerk said. “We have bandages in aisle two there, beside the motor oil and stationary.”

Alice walked to the section containing pharmacy supplies. From the rows of cold medicine, lip balm and energy supplements she grabbed two tubes of
Polysporin
, a roll of gauze, and a small box of rubber bandages. She also grabbed two Cokes and a bag of chips. When she got to the counter she checked her pockets and realized she had no money.
These are Rabbit’s clothes, that’s why. Everything I own is in the hospital still.
“Ahh, shit. I think I have some cash in the car.”

“It’s alright,” the clerk said. “Just take it. Go get cleaned up.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” the clerk said. My boss is a fuckin’ prick anyway. I don’t give a shit about this job; I’m going to school. And you look like you might need your cash for more important shit.”

“Thanks,” Alice said. She even managed a smile.

“Don’t mention it,” he said. As Alice left the store, he added, “I hope whoever did that to you is lying in a ditch somewhere.”

Alice went back out to the car. She knocked on Dorothy’s window and got the girl moving. She dropped the Cokes and chips into the passenger seat and kicked the door shut, then went over and opened the bathroom door for Dorothy. The room was a small concrete cube illuminated by a flickering yellow light. It was clean, though, with a white sink and toilet along one wall and a sign on the other.

ANY DAMAGE TO PREMISES WILL RESULT IN CHARGES BEING LAID.

“Friendly,” Alice said. Dorothy stepped into the bathroom and Alice slammed the door shut. It automatically locked the moment it closed. Alice stripped off her clothes, but Dorothy stood mute. Watching.

“Come on,” Alice said. She had already taken her shirt off and was in the middle of undoing her pants. She stopped when she noticed Dorothy wasn’t moving. “What’s wrong? If you’re shy, I can turn around.”

Dorothy scowled at her. She crossed her arms. Her eyes wandered down to Alice’s breasts and then she looked away.

“Okay,” Alice said. She stepped very close to the girl. “It’s alright.” her voice was a whisper. “Here, lift your arms up.”

Dorothy stared at Alice for a moment, as though she was trying to decide if she was walking into a trap or not. Then she relented and lifted her arms. Alice pulled the sweater up over her head. Dorothy immediately covered herself again. Alice smiled.

“Now I’m just going to get a little warm water,” Alice said. “It’s going to be okay, really. I’ve had my ass kicked before. Rabbit tried to do something to you, but you have to remember that he
didn’t
do it. You’re okay now.” She opened the gauze with her teeth, ran a part of it under the steaming water in the sink, and then applied it to Dorothy’s face.

She closed her eyes and sighed and the heat touched her skin. Alice moved slowly, allowing the hot water to do the work so she wouldn’t have to scrub the girl’s flesh. Dorothy’s face was badly bruised, but not as bad as Alice’s own face.

She’s soft. She’s not used to being hit by men
. It was possible that Dorothy had
never
been hit by a man before. Judging by how the girl froze in terror in the doorway while Alice and Rabbit were fighting, Alice thought it was possible Dorothy had never even been in a fight before today. And now here she was, standing quietly and biting her bottom lip while Alice wiped blood off the freckle-kissed skin of her face.

Alice felt Dorothy’s hands on her hips. She responded by wiping the blood from around Dorothy’s lips. The girl sighed and leaned in to Alice’s touch. Their breasts touched; Alice felt the heat of her body as she leaned close. Under the metal scent of blood Dorothy smelled like lavender and poppies.

Dorothy planted a kiss on Alice’s lips.

“Stop,” Alice said, smiling. “I’m covered in blood.”

Dorothy looked into her eyes, her emerald irises blazing. “I don’t care.” She brushed her lips against Alice once, and then again, before opening her mouth and licking the girl’s bottom lip.

They kissed like that, mouths open, tongues dancing, and Alice tried to wipe the blood from her mouth but eventually gave up. Dorothy’s hands were everywhere. They grabbed at Alice’s hips and breasts; she traced lines with her knuckles across Alice’s belly. She ran her fingertips down Alice’s spine, across her ribs, up under her chin and over her neck. They held each others’ faces and Alice ran her tongue along Dorothy’s chin, down across her neck and shoulders.

Alice checked herself in the mirror. She looked like she’d been washing her face in strawberries. She clucked her tongue, ran the water extra hot and soaked the guaze before using it to scrub her face clean. She sipped from the tap and spit bloody water back into the sink.

“It’s disgusting,” Alice said.

“Thanks,” Dorothy said, miffed.

“Not you,” she said, playfully elbowing Dorothy in the side. The girl responded by cupping her hands under the tap and bringing hot water to her face. She scrubbed herself clean with her fingers, and then wiped her face on the hoodie they’d taken from Rabbit’s house.

Once they were both clean Alice applied
Polysporin
to both their wounds. Dorothy received a bandage across the top of her nose. Alice put one on a cut under her eye, but it wouldn’t stay put and she ended up rolling the bandage into a ball and flicking it into a corner of the bathroom. Dorothy’s eye was in bad shape, but when the swelling went down it would be fine again. The bruise followed the hollow of her eye to the line of her nose and halfway down her cheek.

“We can have whatever you want,” Alice said. “We can
do
whatever you want.”

Dorothy leaned up and planted a kiss on Alice’s lips.

“I like the sound of that,” she said.

The girls walked arm in arm out of the bathroom a little while later, shivering in the cool air but happy. Their arrival caught the amused stares of several young guys getting gas. Dorothy caught their eyes and smiled flirtatiously and Alice laughed.

“Even all banged up your hot as hell,” she said, and kissed Dorothy’s cheek. They got in their car, Alice started it up and hit the gas, and the two of them were on their way.

The black bag from Rabbit’s toilet was at Dorothy’s feet. She flicked on the car radio then reached down and scooped it up in her hands. She looked over at Alice and motioned for her to open it.

“Go ahead,” Alice said. “You be in charge of seeing how rich we are, I’ll be in charge of the driving.”

“Deal,” Dorothy said. She ripped into the bag with her fingers and tore it open along the side. Her face lit up. She clucked her tongue, then reached into the bag and pulled out a wad of folded twenty dollar bills. “Holy shit!”

“Umm...” Dorothy said, the smile on her face replaced with a puzzled, slightly cautious look. She pulled the black bag away so the contents were more visible. “Alice?”

Alice looked over and her smile suffered a stroke; it melted into a frown.

“Shit,” she said through her teeth. Dorothy was holding what looked like a block of powdered cinnamon wrapped tightly in cellophane. It was a perfect rectangular brick, two pounds or so. The bag wasn’t full of money. At least, not the kind of money Alice and Dorothy could easily spend on a motel room. It was filled with dangerous money. Blood money. The kind that could get them both killed if they weren’t careful about it. The brick caused the back of Alice’s brain to itch slightly, the soft whisper of a warm lover calling her back to bed.

“What is it?” Dorothy asked again.

“It’s junk,” Alice finally said, forcing her eyes back onto the road. “Heroin.”

Rabbit came back to the world with a pounding headache and the taste of blood. He lay on his back, on the floor, not moving, as reality pushed itself out of the dark and slowly came to the forefront. The bottom half of his face was numb and sticky. He could feel the electric bite of exposed nerves in his mouth, cracked and chipped teeth whining and threatening to erupt in screams. He ran his tongue over the sharpest parts of his mouth, his heart sinking as he felt each splinter. The shattered bits in his mouth were like the candy shell of broken M&M’s. He resisted the urge to bite down. He was afraid to bring his splintered teeth together; afraid of the ball of pain humming in there. He opened his eyes, wincing at the influx of unwelcome light. He brought his hand up and felt the numb, sticky parts of his face. There was a metallic smell in the room, like live wires and ozone. There was blood.