Poisonous Pretenders

I curse rapid repetition while Diesel configures a comb from manipulating a toothbrush. Seven yellow plantains ripen alongside a center window ledge; jar honey rests inside a dark cupboard marinating lengthwise splits. Three glasses of water condensate underneath blue fluorescent lampshade; I drink three fourths of two. A door slams around the corner; our neighbors discuss oblivion and deceit. Pookah works at Elbow's Bakery; I watch a street light intersect the shadow.

"Sun!"

"......yeah?"

"Fucking greasy hamburgers sitting there catching dust particles!"

"What?"

"...you better tell them..."

"Tell them what?"

"That lady wants to get rid of them."

"Who?"

".....I can't see them."

"Neither can I."

"There's six of them."

"What?"

"....yeah."

"Oh."

"Not those things though."

"What things?"

".......mortals inside that scab box with you."

"How many are there of them?"

"Only those and their twins."

"Twins?"

"Yeah but they don't count for their disposition."

"What does?"

".....remember we talked about the disk people?"

"Yeah?"

"....they don't get anything from them.....no signals except for they don't know which one is them when they're sick or talking...but when they pull the trigger they know it's them...they are the only ones with the black hand...he eats that shit?"

"What are you saying man?"

"I'm saying that those people in there are it."

"What about me?"

"No you got lots to deal with."

".....why are you dreaming this now?"

"So you remember."

"...I miss Pookah."

"She'll come back."

"What am I supposed to tell them?"

"The lady wants them dead!"

"Then he does too and so does that other one you said."

"The old acting lady with paper skin."

"Yeah..."

"You don't believe me."

"Dude if I remember this shit I will think I made it up or something."

"Anyways it has to do with touching something that gets passed around a circle."

"What about it?"

"It's cyanide they get from an air conditioner repairman."

"Who is he?"

"Some guy you dislike and watch a lot."

".....he lives close by?"

"Yeah."

"What is he?"

".....they know."

"How do I get them not to touch it?"

"Tell them!"

"How?"

"You'll figure it out."

"I can't even go there and talk to them. They won't know what the fuck I'm talking about or which one they are....then there's me and all the people I got to deal with........I will think about you every day and suffer the same."

"I can't wait until they get what's coming to them."

"If they ever do. I know the moment everything comes out in the open if ever I will look for you."

"That's why."

"How do I find you?"

".....the air conditioner repairman knows what happened."

"How do I get it out of him?"

"That cool thing you didn't make for me."

"Okay...I'm fucking crazy."

"....damn those people are the worst people you could imagine. Some of those idiots pay them to get rid of their neighbors too....three hundred and eighteen."

"Where?"

"Some place by a strip bar."

"....naked ladies?"

"Yeah they go in there sometimes."

"....I hate them."

"They love them."

"Who?"

"...the police."

"Why?"

".....they suck their dicks."

"What?"

".....Sunny they get down on their hands and knees and..."

"Okay Diesel do you mean they perform sexual acts?"

"...if you can call that whatever that is that they do...yuck."

"...what's going to happen?"

"You will cry and cry and cry and be miserable and hate them and be alone."

".....okay........."

"You can't touch them. You don't even talk to them....I don't even think you know they are around...except the sounds are annoying...the smell is bad...their voices remind you of dogs barking...stupid ones that are inbred...the ones they kill and make fur out of...you know."

"What am I crying about?"

"Being alone and all the pain they cause. You cry about how fucked up that place is and how nobody does anything at all."

"What about you?"

"I am going to start a bunch of shit in jail and act like hell."

"...why?"

"I won't know who I am."

"How will you remember me?"

"Somebody is going to say your name."

"Why?"

"Something about a newspaper."

Four hundred degrees for three hundred nervous foot taps; I oven mit a purple pyrex plantain platter. Honey caramel bubbles resin crystals over orange sun banana cousins. I search for soy milk but the carton is empty. I blend a few almonds inside a rice liquid pitcher; grey pudding clouds surround eight curvy symmetrical pieces. We munch four then refrigerate the rest.

"I'm going to be some crazy prisoner nobody wants to be around."

".....why am I in the newspaper?"

"Huh?"

"You said..."

"Oh....I don't know maybe it's just the name."

"You won't remember me until then?"

Pookah unwraps a foil triangle, three blue sweet potato bread loaves steam vapor spirals; she heartily chews while waving her right hand.

"Hi. I didn't hear you."

"Pookah's going to be a good one."

"....really......"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"...they need to be careful what they feed you."

"Huh?"

"You're like a little boy."

"....yeah....what?"

"Your metabolism."

"...okay.....what's wrong with it?"

"You go to the bathroom a lot."

"What's wrong with that?"

"....doesn't stay in you very long...you don't need to eat much."

"....Pookah is eating."

"I'm done."

"Do you want some water?"

"I'll drink from yours."

"What should I eat then?"

".....what they give you."

"Okay."

"You know it comes from them right?"

"Who?"

"The people with pink marks all over them."

"Where do they get those from?"

"...well.....you scratch them."

"What?"

"Those hologram things..."

"Oh."

"Why do they do that?"

"Varushna got that shit wired to fake fighting back."

"Why?"

"I don't know but when you figure it out this shit is going to stop."

"I got spider fingers."

"That damn gun thing stops the digital clock."

"....where do I go when they do that?"

".....you just gone when they do that."

"Where is Varu?"

"Far away."

"How do I get her to come?"

"....I don't know."

"Will it ever end Diesel?"

"Sunny..."

"Pookah?"

".....will you remember me?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Will you remember me?"

"No."

"...damn it."

"They will die but you can't wait for it."

"...what do I do til then?"

"...keep to yourself."

"What about my daughter?"

"I will remember her."

"How are you going to remember her when you never met her?"

"You haven't met her yet either!"

"...what year is it?"

"Something like a clock without Roman numerals."

"......"

"I will remember her because of the pink pill."

"What pink pill?"

"The one they give me for my headaches!"

"Don't take it!"

"I got to."

"Why?"

"To play like a prisoner."

"Where are you going to be?"

"....something close to water."

"How do I see you again?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know what she looks like?"

"No."

"How will you know about her?"

"....that lady."

"What lady?"

"Some white hair lady."

"What about her?"

"She goes there for killing somebody."

"Who?"

"....some lady who didn't give you a chance."

"Shit."

"You can't save her.."

"Will I know about it?"

"No."

"....."

"Sunny you got to chill out."

"You sound like my Naddy."

"Nadia?"

"Yeah. Why does the lady kill her?"

"...cause you weren't there."

"What does that have to do with my daughter?"

"....she goes in there for something then that's how it starts."

"What does she go there for?"

"Same thing you went there for but you won't remember going there."

"Okay."

"She's some lady who acts really normal."

"That's a serial killer."

"Sure the fuck is."

"Yeah.....that's how they act."

"That's how they get away with shit."

"Crazy people never hurt anybody."

".....yeah."

"Try not to spend any money."

"Why?"

".....you won't have that much of it."

"....I never do."

"You won't have much of it at all."

"........why not?"

"You don't want it because of those people."

"Purple thing."

"What?"

"Yeah that thing is crazy."

"What?"

"How did he get Darkwing?"

"I don't know."

"...huh.....he's inside of him."

"It's different. It's his orchestra."

"How do I become real again?"

"....you don't."

"You never were."

"You were always with him it's just that when you surrendered he decided to be a bat again."

"Then we're separate?"

".....yeah but you hang out."

"As one dude."

"........what about you guys?"

"We don't get bats."

"Yeah!"

"I don't get that."

"Well the black fractals..."

"Yeah but they are not like Darkwing."

"Why is he different?"

"....."

"....."

".....??"

"He's a person."

"Yours are not?"

"They are wild and everywhere."

"Do I get those too?"

"Yeah but they chill with Darkwing."

"How's come I get a main man?"

"You can't stop the feeling though."

"Why?"

"Darkwing."

"....you can?"

"We won't feel anything except whatever is going on."

"...damn it..."

"We will when Darkwing finds us though."

".....oh."

"He harmonizes our frequency."

"Oh."

I cuddle a pillow for seventy-three tears while Pook and Diesel discuss their dreams.

"Zen where are we?"

"Inside a conversion thing Thad made to dress us up as characters."

"Who am I?"

"....somebody named Eddie."

"What does he do?"

"...I think he's supposed to be my adolescent curious nature."

"...damn it."

"I got to be some girl you meet at a conventional college."

"Damn it."

"I wonder if we will ever digitally compose."

"What's your bat's name?"

"...Mistress."

"......I love you."

"I love you too."

The machine virtually reinforces anatomical recreations while electrodes simulate chemical response; we experience physicality however our bodies remain still. Thaddeus warns confusion and mental distress.

"Mom I got to be your sad moment of realization from stressful relationships."

"How?"

"Some woman that does nasty fuck things."

"....with me?"

"......they used a synthetic vein recollection...you'll remember a lot of it but won't feel anything...Chester said that is how you will remember me through a stressful journey of discovery...it's psychological."

"There's going to be a lot of shit like that."

"You got to be my first time."

"Doing what?"

"....something gross."

"...is that how you remember me?"

"Yeah from looking at pictures on the computer."

"What are you looking for?"

"....something about music and cameras capturing effects.."

"Will you come to me?"

"If I live."

"I feel the same way."

Kevinya surrenders after digesting sixteen ounces of gin.

"I tried to kill her twenty occasions."

"That makes four hundred and twenty."

"...you did it too?"

"We all did."

"Does she know?"

"I do now."

"....oh well."

"Your house smells like cigarette smoke and bacon."

"...........what else?"

"There's a bunch of electronic stuff like recorders, players, screens, and timers."

"...does he have a television?"

"Yeah why?"

"I want him to see me."

"...are you going to know all those people are her Kevin?"

".....no."

"Why not?"

"...I'll remember you from the noodles that looks like spiral curls."

"Will you come for me?"

"......"

"He would kill those people."

"Steph....what is that thing?"

"Some high rise thing Tex made up before he decided to disperse."

"What does it do?"

"...make people jealous."

"Of what?"

"Money."

"Do they buy him food and leave him alone?"

"...yeah he's adopted."

"Is he from another place?"

"...I forgot that part. I think they get him from a local orphanage some kind of church."

"....okay....what does he do?"

"He goes to college."

"I won't do that."

"Do it for a while at least."

"Will they get angry when I stop?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"They depend on him for stuff."

"Does he have a job?"

"No."

"....does he go to jail?"

"Like all of you?"

"....damn.....yes does he?"

"No he doesn't."

"Strange."

"He's got enough problems as it is."

"How will he find me?"

"....I don't know."

"I need him."

"I need you too."

"I need a vacation."

"....Steph how does he find me?"

".....that house he stays at is going to get fucked up."

"How?"

"It's in a bad weather location."

"Near low elevation?"

"The lowest on the graph and there is a warm water lake nearby."

"A lake?"

"There's a few by there..."

"Kevinya did you hear that?"

"That's what I wanted."

"Your house is near a lot of electrical lines and drainage ports."

"Snakes and lightning?"

"Basically yes."

"....."

"I will sleep the whole duration."

"He smokes weed."

"I will do that too."

"They don't care if he does though."

"How does he get money?"

"She gives it to him."

"....save it Kevin."

"I will."

"Smoke it for me too."

"I will."

"What is that in your hand?"

"....the ring you gave me."

"What are you doing with it?"

"I want them to put it inside the graph."

"Okay."

Eight black pulses center an oval turquoise stone; silver prongs double loop into a ring.

White haired man expected much worse however play friend suffers more than expected. He thinks nobody knows what he is going through and we will always feel this way. Time cycles so fast yet when we wait every moment is miserable. We desire freedom for all and we desire the truth no matter the circumstance even if this digital existence is jeopardized.