CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Suzi finished her work on at the prison and got her stuff together to drive back to Seattle. She hadn’t had a chance to even turn her iPhone on all day and when she did, she had four emails from Gretchen. The subject lines ranged from ‘WTF?’ to ‘U R insane’, so she figured that Marie had played her the song. She tried to call Gretchen to smooth things over.
“Hey Gretch, it’s me. Don’t hate me because I’m pretty,” she said to Gretchen’s voicemail. “Hate me because I am consumed by my art. I still love you.”
If that didn’t make her feel better, maybe a dinner at her favorite Thai restaurant would do the trick. She called back and this time Gretchen picked up.
“Hello? Suzi, the insane one?” Gretchen asked.
“Hi sweetie. Phad thai and deep fried tofu, on me?” Suzi asked in a girly voice.
“OK. I love you too,” Gretchen said.
“Seven, straight up at Ayuthaya. How ‘bout that?”
“Now you’re my favorite person.”
“I know. We can’t let little things spoil our big thing, can we?”
“I’ve got a book for you to read. I’ll be there,” Gretchen said, hanging up.
It was only three o’clock, so Suzi decided to take the scenic route home. She went into Tacoma and took the little ferry to Vashon Island. She drove up the island to the other ferry dock and then took the larger boat to the Fauntleroy dock, which was only six blocks from her house in West Seattle.
While she was waiting in her car for the ferry to finish pushing into the dock, she saw a seagull spiral out of the sky and land in the parking lot. She kept her eyes on the pile of feathers, tapping on her steering wheel until they waved her off the boat. She pulled over to the side of the dock and ran over to the bird, which was dead. She scooped it up and threw it into the trunk of her car and drove home as quickly as she could.
“Fast taxidermy is clean taxidermy,” was something that her instructor always said to the class that she was in at the vocational school.
When she started gutting the seagull in her basement, the bird was still warm. She kept looking at the clock while she tried to get the bird prepped so she could store it until she got back from dinner.
Finally, she knew she had to leave. Gretchen hated it when people were late. Suzi plopped the seagull in a stainless steel bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and threw it in the fridge. She looked in the mirror and decided that she didn’t need to change. She raced up to Capitol Hill and when she crested the hill on Pike Street, she saw Suzi waiting outside the restaurant. It was 7:01.
She pulled over into the loading zone and rolled down the window, “Hey, I need to park.”
“Let me come with you,” Gretchen said as she pulled the door open and sat down.
Gretchen scrunched down in the seat and moved her head so she could look back down the sidewalk in the rear view mirror. Suzi pulled out and started circling the block.
“Why are you trying to hide?”Suzi asked.
“I was in the sex shop, looking at some vibrators and other things and this dyke kept winking at me. She started making lewd expressions with the butt plugs so I left,” Gretchen said, looking over at Suzi. “Oh my god! What happened?!?”
Suzi slammed on the brakes in the middle of the street, looking around, “What?!”
“What happened? There is blood all over your pants!”
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HumorThe drivers at Quack City thought their jobs were safe until one of them ends of floating face down in Salmon Bay. Steven is obsessed with Seattle serial killers and keeps rounding up odd jobs to make ends meet. He's a bouncer, a bartender and woul...
