Elephant Gerald holds his
microphone close to the ground, recording pebbles rolling beneath
Godfrey's body as they drag him to the pool. Fast Eddy casts Godfrey's
suitcase full of drugs into the water, concocting the strongest chemical
cocktail. Beachside lots on the Love Canal. Hay wire Lilliputians on the
diving board, they mummify woe with their bed sheets. Socco buckles
Godfrey's head to the diving board with his belt. Then he saws the board
in half. Godfrey splashes into glittering ripples reflecting Christmas.
Oreste slaps Socco proudly on the back, knocking him into the water,
capsizing their enemy. Apparently I am innocent of murder--if not
conspiracy to commit murder--because bubbles rise from the buckled lips of
Hannibal's best swimmer since Huckleberry Finn.Watch the air
bubbles for a while and walk. Ariel and Ada Lightbody peep at the pagan
ritual of death through dusty venetian blinds. They hold hands and pray
for snow. The moon rises through twinkling silt drifting downwind from the
dump. Reggie shivers, half asleep at the shallow end. Paintbrushes cross
his yawn. Socco kneels dripping on the amputated diving board and his
bewitching prayer echoes over the moonlit murder. At the courtyard beneath
the basketball hoop Pretty Mary's eyes float in tears. The night air
breaks with her heart. The Blue Motel shudders. Security sits bolt upright
in his bed and makes a memo: