Televisions compete to drive
away the boogie shadows in the halls. 
Muriel tried
altering the sets so they played the same channel, but that caused no end
of anguish. The guests are attached to programs more than friends or
family. The pay phone is crowded for so early in the evening. Dudley is
alone when the voice on the other end screams that Shirley has been dead
for three years. Behind him someone whines. Fast Eddy is about to piss his
pants. Louie massages a crystal ball with short cropped hair. Pants gone,
facts trapped by scrambled access, he slaps legs for getting bare. Fast
Eddy smashes the phone against the one-way glass and it melts like snow
screeching through his eyes. He used to park cars at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
Now he is taking 40 milligrams of Valium a day and drinking all the Burgie
beer he can get his hands on. Vicks inhalers with cheap booze calms the
nerves.Richard arrives with hot dogs and soft bananas from the
alley. Don't even have cinders. His wool army jacket carries a man-size
comb in the pocket, so when Richard sneezes it pokes him in the eye. Since
he has asthma, the right eye is always closed. The left eye flutters like
a moth escaping Richard's face. But he was born an Air Force brat so he
has to comb his hair. A 707 flying overhead is the voice of bombers above
his crib. The needle is a life raft floating on a lazy sea. An album on
the sill resembles Salvador Dali's pocket watch. We skirt a universe every
20 feet.