Sandra inched along the wall, the beam of the flashlight trembling because her fingers were trembling because her body was shaking because she was afraid to find something she didn't want to find.
“Rickie?” Sandra whispered. “Rickie??”
What if the light would show her... a body? What if the light wouldn't show her the body and she would step on it? What if… Sandra raised the flashlight. What if the light... She raised it higher. What if it would show a face?
It showed a face.
It was close, it was pale - pale like the face of somebody dead.
Sandra's brain decided it would be helpful to shriek. “Iiiiiieeeeeek!”
A light blinded her.
“I thought we don't want to be skittish?” Rickie said.
Sandra remembered to breathe again. “You look as if you are dead.”
Rickie frowned. “That's just the light. Gives that white, bloodless dead-for-a-thousand-years look. Makes those hollow eye sockets and sunken cheeks like a skull...”
“Stop it!” Sandra panted. She leaned against the wall, regretting it a second later because it was sort of grimy.
Ricky tried to brush away the dirt from Sandra's dress. “Did you find anything?”
“Like what?”
Rickie shrugged. “A body?”
Sandra inhaled deeply. “You know what?”
Rickie stopped brushing. “Why are you whispering?”
“You know what?”
“What?”
“The body...”
Rickie clenched her fingers around the Maglite. Talking about bodies in a whisper was kind of unnerving. “The body?”
“I'm... standing on a body...”
Rickie stared into Sandra's eyes. “That supposed to be funny?”
“I'm...”
Rickie pointed the flashlight beam to the floor.
Sandra, against better judgment, pointed her flashlight to floor, too.
“Iiiiiiieeeeeeek!”
The face was pale, pale like the face of a dead guy, dead for a long, long while.
“Spare a dollar, girls?” the dead guy said, looking from Sandra to Rickie and back to Sandra.
Rickie and Sandra switched off the flashlights. Darkness was better than that.
Rickie gulped. “I think I’m gonna get sick.” She staggered away.
“DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” Sandra screamed.
“There's something sniffing at my feet”, the dead guy said.
The cat’s voice came out of the darkness. “That's not a dead body. That's Terence.”
Sandra switched on the light.
The cat walked along the guy's leg, eyes gleaming in the light, tail twitching. It chewed on something which looked like the back end of... Sandra didn't want know. She closed her eyes.
“You...” Sandra cleared her throat. “You know him?”
“He lives here”, the cat said. “Hi, Terence.”
“Hi. How are things?”
“So–so”, the cat said.
Sandra gaped. “He can hear you??”
“He's dead-drunk.”
“I can hear you! And I'm not dead-drunk!” Sandra hissed.
The cat swallowed the back end of what Sandra didn't want to know. “Funny, isn't it?”
Rickie came back, still shaky. She wiped her mouth.
“Feeling better?”
Rickie steadied herself against the wall. “Don’t ask!” She turned to Terence, pointing the Maglite like a gun. “Hey! Did you kill Michelle?”
Terence made an effort, he was thinking hard. Sandra stared at him, the cat stared, too. Rickie glared, tapping her foot. Sandra leaned forward, holding her breath. The cat held it's breath, too. Rickie glared, tapping.
Terence opened his mouth. “What does she look like?”
“Gawd!!” Rickie turned away.
Sandra inhaled with a sob.
The cat was disappointed.
Sandra's phone buzzed.
“The police”, the cat said, elated. “They found her body.” It rubbed against Rickie's leg.
Satanichia Kurumizawa McDowell appeared on phone's screen. “Shelley... SHELLEY???”
Rickie was tickling the cat. “She's alive?”
“Shit.” The cat was back to 'disappointed'.
“Shelley!! What happened?”
Shelley's voice was almost blanked out by static. “I've so much to tell you!!!”
Terence tugged at Sandra's dress. “She gonna come here, too? Ask her to bring a bottle. Or better two!”
Sandra tried to get away. “Where are you?? You okay??”
“Tell her about the bottle!” Terence insisted.
Rickie rolled her eyes. “Gawd!”
“Ignore them”, the cat said. “ Go on tickling my tummy.”
“He's so... You know...” Shelley shouted into her phone and Sandra couldn't tell if it was static or Shelley's excitement which put such a heavy load on the phone line that it was close to blackout.
“Where are you?? I have to see you, now!!” Sandra was shouting, too.
Rickie frowned. “This supposed to be it? Our date, I mean.”
Sandra covered her phone. “I'm so sorry. But... we don't really have a date, right?”
The cat was still on its back. “Oh yes we do. Come on, do some more tickling.”
Shelley seemed to be far away, somehow moving into outer space, stretching the phone line to the breaking point. “He' so... romantic.”
“Romantic?? A guy who dates you in a dark underground parking??”
Terence tugged at Sandra's dress. “What's wrong with underground parking?”
Shelley's voice had now the squeaky astronaut-talking-to-ground-control quality. “Cool, isn't it? We sat in his car...”
“You got into his car??”
Rickie shook her head. “She stupid or what?”
“Stupid needs a brain”, the cat said. “We are talking no brain here.”
“Shut up!” Sandra pointed a trembling finger at the cat. “This is serious. And stop this ridiculous tickling business!”
The cat squirmed with delight. “Yeah! Let's be ridiculous together!”
Terence tugged at Rickie's jeans. “I don’t think I can stand tickling right now. With all the stuff I drank, you know…”
Rickie stared at the ceiling. “Gawd!!”
Sandra received the latest update from Shelley-the-satellite. “It was... big, and sleek, and...”
It took Sandra a moment to realize that she was talking about the car. “Tell me you're okay!! Tell me he didn't do anything... bad!”
Rickie managed to pull the leg of her Jeans from Terence' grip. “I don't believe all this!”
“Better believe it”, Terence said. “There’s paradise in girls' arms and insanity in their eyes…”
The cat fully agreed. “You tell them, man! You tell them!”
Shelley-the-squeaky-astronaut came from far away: “It was so intense. We were so close...”
“On an underground parking deck??” Sandra thought that Terence was right at least about the insanity part.
“No, we drove to the river.”
“The river???”
Terence slapped the floor. “That’s a good idea. Haven’t been down there for a while. Let's go!” He made an effort to get up but failed.
“Shelley… Shelley??” The line was fading. “Shelley???” Sandra walked away trying to find a better signal.
Terence nudged the cat and pointed at Rickie. “That's James Dean.”
“No, Alain Delon”, the cat said.
“Shelley?? Shelley??” Sandra was wandering into the dark.
Terence tugged at Rickie's jeans. “I thought you died in a car crash in 1955, James.”
“Shelley?? Shelley?” Only the light of Sandra's phone screen showed where she was.
Rickie took a very deep breath. “I can't believe this!”
“Shelley?? Can you hear me??” Sandra came back.
Rickie grabbed Sandra's arm when she passed by. “Come on, let's go. The guy’s dead-drunk.”
Terence was offended. “Course I am! You'd be as well if you had to live in a place like this!”
The cat sniffed at the empty bottles. “A bottle of premium vodka in one go. Lesser men would be dead.”
Terence modestly lowered his eyes. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“So... have to move along.” The cat stretched. “See you, Terence.”
“See you.” Terence turned to the girls. “Say – you don't have a dollar to spare?”
“Shelley??” Sandra held up the phone.
Rickie dug into the pocket of her windbreaker and threw a handful of bucks into Terence' hat. “Let's get out of here.” She pulled Sandra with her.
Terence tried to get hold of Rickie's jeans. “What about an autograph, James?”
Rickie rolled her eyes.
***
A while ago Rickie had disappeared through the glass doors of the gas station. Sandra leaned back in the passenger seat of Rickie's car. It was small but nice and she felt… safe and comfortable and...
“So you're into girls”, the cat said. It was rolled up in the cat cage and enjoyed the sun which came through the back window.
Sandra sat bolt upright. “I’M NOT INTO GIRLS! It's Shelley's fault! The stupid bitch sent the pitch to the wrong part of the dating site! I could kill her!”
“So you're gonna tell her that you're not into girls...”
Sandra suddenly felt very uncomfortable. “Of course I'll tell her.”
The cat's eyes turned into dark slits. “No, you won't.”
“Why not?”
“She's so nice. So pretty. And she smells so good.”
“Awwwww! Come on!” Sandra squeezed her eyes shut, hoping for a second that everything would be back to normal when she opened them again. “I have to tell her!”
“You'll hurt her. You'll break her little heart!” The cat's tail twitched. “You'll ruin her life! People shouldn't do that to each other. They should take care of each other, try to make the world a better place, and if only for a while...”
“What the hell you're talking about??” Sandra opened her eyes and nothing was back to normal. She slowly turned towards the cat. “You've been watching this stupid soap opera again!!!”
“Mrs Delgado's TV is on all the time...”
Sandra was outraged. “...where the two girls adopted a litter of kittens... MRS DELGADO?? I told you NOT to hang out at Mrs Delgado's place while I'm at work!”
“They are so cute. They say all those beautiful things about making the world a better place. And they are so nice to cats. There's tickling all the time, and food...”
“Stop watching this shit!” Sandra tried to point a finger at the cat' but the car was so small that she couldn't quite turn around. “It's so sugar-sweet it makes me puke!!”
“What's wrong with tickling? I mean there's you. And there's she. And there's a cat... which can talk, and...”
Now Sandra really made an effort to turn around. “ARE YOU CRAZY???”
Rickie opened the driver's door. She slipped into the seat then squeezed the tray with the two to-go cups between dashboard and front screen. She unwrapped a candy bar and gave it to the cat. “Sorry, they didn't have treats for cats, so...” She stopped and gaped because the bar was no longer there.
The cat licked its nose. “Don't worry. It's okay. Why didn't you bring two? Or three?”
“Coffee for us.” Ricky took one of the cups, gave it to Sandra. “Hey...” She looked at Sandra's face. “Hang on.” She took a paper napkin and before Sandra could do anything she started to wipe away something from Sandra's cheek. “That's better. We don't want to make people wonder if you had been crawling around in dark, dirty places.”
Sandra blushed. “Thanks.” She blushed even deeper. “For... all you did.”
Rickie gently touched the tip of Sandra's nose. “You're welcome.”
Sandra took a deep breath. Tell her, she thought. Now. “I'm sorry”, she started because that was always a good start, like a side door through which she could sneak away. “I didn't mean to ruin the date. I didn't mean to hurt you...” She stopped, couldn't believe it: she really was sorry! She really didn't want to hurt Rickie and couldn't stand the thought to make a nice girl sad. A girl with such dimples...
Rickie smiled. “It was better than a date.”
“Better?”
Rickie's smile deepened and her dimples were just gorgeous. “It was... fun!”
“Look at that smile!” the cat hissed. “If you tell her you'll break her heart!”
Sandra turned around. “Shut up!” she mouthed.
“And I like your cat.” Rickie put a finger through the wire mesh and began to tickle the cat.
“You'll ruin her life!” The cat said.
“And I like... you”, Rickie said to Sandra.
“And I like you, too”, the cat said to Rickie.
“I like you, too”, Sandra said cursing herself because she sounded more and more like a mere echo of what Rickie and the cat had to say. She felt as if sliding down a slope and unable to do anything about it.
“So that's settled”, the cat said. “Why don' we go to her place and do some more tickling?”
Sandra pushed herself up, turned towards the backseat and pulled the cover over the carrier.
The cat's voice was muffled. “That's not fair! I want to see her kiss you!”
Sandra adjusted the cover. “Dream on”, she hissed. “Over my dead body.”
“Perhaps we can see each other again...” Rickie helped her with the cover and their cheeks suddenly touched in the small car.
“Sure we can!” The cat's muffled voice sounded enthusiastic.
Sandra felt Rickie's warm skin brush against hers. She cleared her throat. “Yeah. That would be nice.”
“Good decision, to be into girls from now on”, the cat said. “So we can see a lot more of each other and the world will be a better place and so on...”
Sandra was about to bang her fist on the carrier.
“You mind?” Rickie said and Sandra stopped.
“Mind what?”
Rickie's lips were even softer than her skin and Sandra involuntarily closed her eyes when Rickie kissed her.
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