[5] Roach Town

[5]

Talking shop to Siobhan apparently meant asking more and more personal questions until Zone became so uncomfortable that for once in his fucked up, and booze-soaked life he actually didn't feel like drinking. That didn't stop him though, in fact, he took that opposite approach; he would drink all [italics] of the booze. But even that backfired. As much as a good bartender was with regard to talking to people, she was the worst at reading the situation. Zone would get a drink. Suck it down while Siobhan asked him question after question about his personal life, and then when he would respond in short, curt answers, she would spend five minutes telling them some anecdote from her personal life that applied to the question she had asked Zone in the first place. Which meant that Zone would have to sit there with an empty glass while she blathered on. Playing with the pint glass. Making motions for her to refill it, but she did not refill it, she would keep blathering. Zone would look over at Gagger, slowly sipping on his glass of beer. Smiling, pretending like it was the best beer he had ever drank. Zone would frown at him. Then, like the dick that he was, Gagger would ask a question like:

"And how does that make you feel, Siobhan? It can't be easy for you, right?" And Siobhan would double down on the story she was telling, adding new details, details the contradicted her original details. She didn't mind. She loved every moment she spent with these two. She would even go so far as to get another drink order, fill it, right in front of them, look at Zone's empty glass, then say:

"Now, where was I? Oh, the ex. It is hard, you know, Here I am raising these kids all alone and I am going to the emergency room because I got bit by a tick and I got Lyme disease and my ex, who isn't even returning my phone calls at this point is serving me papers, and I don't want to go home with all of these emotions, so I take a spend a couple hours letting off steam at D's, I mean, it is just a few beers, and suddenly my phone rings and he is like, 'What? Are you drunk? I thought you were picking the kids up from school?' And I'm like, 'No! I am not drunk, and you can politely mind your fucking business!' And then he fucking hangs up on me! After all this time! Gagger, where are my manners? Would you like another? Okay." She would pour the beer. Ignoring Zone. Go back to her story, "Now, where was I?" Zone felt like he was imprisoned in hell. He wanted to reach over and pour himself a drink. He wondered if Siobhan would even notice if he did this. But he was afraid his arms would somehow get trapped again. Or that Siobhan would grab his arms like some sort of penance and say something like "Op, you little bad boy, with your roaming hands, you're trapped now! Oh, such large hands. I can tell you are good with tools." Then she would wink at him, heave her gigantic baby fountains at him and start playing with his fingers.

A beer did finally land in Zone's hands. Or more like the bar in front of him. This time though, he did not suck it down. His plan had been thwarted, and the only person that got drunk was Gagger. Who, it was hard to tell with Gagger. Like Zone, he almost always seemed kind of drunk. Even when dead sober. So when he tipped, he tipped hard. He tipped hard and then he got sleepy. And when he decided to sleep, that was it. There was no turning back. He would just lay down wherever he was and check out. There was a brief moment though, Zone had noticed, when Gagger was at the tipping point when he could be revived. It always involved drugs. There was no other way. They could be drinking, Gagger would tip, Zone would say "Let's go." And Gagger would make it to the cruiser and that would be it. Or they could be drinking and Gagger would tip and Zone would say "Let's go." And they would get on a train and Gagger would check out. You could wake him up again, but he would be useless. His body would work, but his brain was mush. But if at that moment, when Gagger tipped, you were able to include some drugs in the mix, there would be a different outcome. Zone knew this. He knew this all too well, and at this moment, this very moment, when Gagger was tipping, this sent Zone into a moment of panic. It was not the time for Gagger to check out. He needed him. Zone did. For a couple reasons. One was Siobhan, and the other was the state police, who were more than likely heading their way. Zone didn't want to have to work with them alone. The work would be tedious and exhausting, and without Gagger there, he wasn't sure what he would do. As much as Gagger was problematic, he was also a ballast to Zone's proclivities. Which included saying things that were not the right things to say, which included not being able to make himself be understood, which included a distraction from what Zone represented to Society, which was not a welcome thing, Zone was very much not a productive member of Society, but Gagger was somehow both better and worse. Gagger could be ignored, Zone on the other hand, without Gagger, he was not really welcome where he went. Zone alone, was the vulture that he looked like. Without the grizzly bear that was Gagger, Zone was sketchy as hell. Gagger somehow gave him gravity. In the mind's of other people. I suppose, if people actually understood what was happening and how things worked they wouldn't think that, but appearances make up 99% of all things, so even if that 1% of reality was to dictate protocol, it wouldn't matter, because Zone would still look like something somebody pulled out of a gutter and was given a gun and a badge and access to the crime scene. Credibility. That is what Gagger gave Zone. And since neither of them knew the Vermont State Police, Zone needed Gagger more than ever. He said:

"Siobhan." Siobhan nearly squealed. She said:

"Man! I love the way you say my name." Zone wasn't sure but he thought he heard her squirt from behind the bar. She was probably wearing a skirt without panties. He definitely heard water dripping on slip mats. He said:

"You got any drugs? Our friend here is fading." Siobhan and Zone looked over at Gagger, his eyes were closing. His giant lug-frame was swaying in the breeze. He was about to tip over and fall to the floor. At that point there was nothing to do aside from dragging the lug out the door and letting him sleep it out until dawn when he would wake up confused and somehow manage to go find a tasty breakfast somewhere. Like an adult Tom Sawyer. Siobhan panicked. She said:

"Oh my god!" Zone thought this was a little dramatic, but it didn't matter what he thought because Siobhan ran over to some area in the bar and came back with a pill bottle. She dumped a bunch of pills into her hand and gave them to Zone. She took one and broke it into four quarters. The pills were orange. Zone knew what they were. Orange Sunshine. Modern coke. Legal meth. She handed a quarter to Zone. Gagger took two. Siobhan took the last one. She said:

"Don't take those full. They are too strong. Break them up like that." The suggestion that you shouldn't take them full made Zone nearly put a full one in his mouth, but he reconsidered. He took his wallet out and dumped the pills in the part with the cash. He put his wallet back in his front pocket. A thing he learned to do living in the City. You never put your wallet in your back pocket in the City. It is a very simple way to keep yourself from being pick-pocketed. He knew this. Everyone in the City knew this. Gagger didn't know this because he didn't have a wallet, but that didn't matter, he just held cash in his front pockets as it were. He might have actually known this, but it really didn't matter. Gagger had his reasons, and his reasons were good enough.

The next ten minutes were kind of stressful. Zone was drinking his beer and watching Gagger fade. Siobhan was trying to engage Zone, but he was distracted, so she was pushing kind of hard. She kept doing boob maneuvers. Thinking that would get his attention. Then she started offering shots. Which did get his attention. But then suddenly Zone was feeling drunk. So he did a sneaky thing and managed to get a pill out of his wallet on the down low. He broke it in half and ate half of it. But now the first quarter pill was kicking in and he was suddenly worried that he had taken too much. He didn't feel drunk anymore. His mind was starting to go into overdrive. He was watching things unfold extremely clearly. And on a very minute scale. He was starting to really notice everything. From the mustache Siobhan had that you could only see when she turned into the light just right, to the little bumps where her nipples were on her gigantic breasts. To the way her mouth moved when she said the word "Essentially." The hairs on Zone's arms started standing up. He thought about that turkey sandwich that had clogged his pipes a day ago. It was ready to come out now. Everything was ready to come out now. From the base of his mouth to the end pipe, he was ready to evacuate. He looked over to his left, for some reason, thinking there was a group of people there. But there was nobody there. He was just hearing something new. That thing turned out to be the kitchen. He had ignored this thing all night. But now he couldn't get it out of his mind. He stood up mid-conversation and walked over to the bathroom. Siobhan switched from harassing Zone to harassing the now, un-tipped Gagger, who was drinking another beer. Zone went inside the bathroom. Did waste to the turkey sandwich. He felt like a new man. Empty and ready for battle. He wiped, stood up, looked down. He was proud of himself. He did his pants up real nice. Flushed. Washed his hands. Wondered about the stench. Didn't know what he could do about it. Shrugged. Left the bathroom. Went back to the bar. Siobhan and Gagger were talking. Things were exactly different now. Gagger was back on track. Siobhan was now distracted by other things. Her loins for Zone had seemed to have dried up. Gagger and Siobhan were talking business. Zone sat down, not worrying about his arms getting trapped anymore. He held onto his beer now like a normal person. Gagger said:

"Siobhan has the ins, man. All we have to do is ask." Siobhan, suddenly not so horny that she would fuck a tree trunk said:

"I'm here whenever, I got the stuff, or whatever. I mean, if you guys want to come over and barbeque or something, that would be cool too, I can burn you some steaks, I am not a good cook, but I have been known to burn things." Maybe she wasn't dried up. Maybe she was still horny. Squirting on the slip mats. Zone considered this. A good ol' Vermont-style double teamer, that might be pretty alright. It wouldn't be the first for Zone and Gagger, maybe in Vermont it would be the first, but in general, it wouldn't be the first. But then, because he was Zone, because he was a detective, because of who Siobhan seemed to be, the logistics of the thing seemed almost impossible. The kids and the ex and all the baggage that Siobhan seemed to be carrying. It seemed like trouble. And not because the bonin' would be hard, but because the fall-out would be massive. Zone thought about the aftermath. About the next couple of rubes that got caught in her trap at this bar, how she would talk about them in the same way. About the cycle of Society. It didn't seem worth it, not really, but if it happened. Zone was kind of into it. But at the same time, maybe he wasn't. Zone asked:

"What time is it?" Siobhan squealed again. She really had a thing for Zone. She said:

"The way you talk! I love it!" She looked over at some clock that nobody but she could see. She said "8:45." Zone said:

"Shit!" Then he looked around. Not knowing what to do. The looking around didn't help anything. He said "Gag, we gotta go!" Gagger, who was still drunk, but hadn't tipped said:

"I gotta slash." Zone said:

"Make it quick. What do we owe you?" Siobhan face went blank. She had no idea. She was a great bartender in some ways, but was the worst in other ways. How she kept this job was confusing to Zone. If it was his bar, she would be the first to be fired. It's one thing to get people to drink, it's another thing to not pay attention to their drinking. She said:

"Um, I don't know, for you guys? Forty bucks." Zone took his wallet out. Made sure the drugs were safe and handed her $60 dollars. She took the money. She was about to put it in her gigantic cleaved juggernauts, but stopped herself. The extra twenty dollar bill confused her. She turned around to think. Standing at the cash register. At that moment Gagger came back. The two detectives yelled:

"Thanks, Siobhan! Next time!" They were out the door before she even noticed. Gagger lit a smoke and handed it to Zone. He was high and drunk now. The cigarette really hit the spot. Gagger lit one for himself. They had fifteen minutes to get across the Town Square and get back inside Park House before they locked the doors. They walked slowly. Smoking. The State Police would have to find them there. At the Park House. Which was fine. But at the moment they were regretting their decision to leave the bar. Zone said:

"Shit. Man, what do we do now? I mean, what? We wait it out in our rooms? I don't feel like going back there at all." Gagger said:

"I don't know, I could sleep." Zone was regretting sneaking that extra half-pill. He was more awake than a donkey in an rhubarb patch. He was full of sugars or something. Pith, I guess. But there was nothing to do about it. They were taking the cure, and these were the rules. The idea of just sitting around on the grass until the State Police showed up was nonsense. And even then, to what end would that get them? If they went back to Park House now, at least they could get a little bit of rest, right? Even if, as Zone knew, and Gagger supposed, Bonny would sneak into the rooms and try and bone Gagger and Zone wouldn't sleep, he would just hang out in the Sitting Room reading, or something, because he had fucked himself, maybe he would sneak around the kitchen looking for booze. Wishing he could smoke inside. It didn't matter though. They would find out soon enough. They got to the front door of Park House just as Bonny was going to lock it up. She came outside and said:

"Just in time." She could see that they were drunk. She didn't suspect drugs were involved. She was still embarrassed from before, but that was wearing off. She wanted to jump Gagger's bones again. The first time had put a hook in her. Not only that, but she had been dealing with the grandmas since the two detectives had left, so she was glad to have something new to deal with. She said "No cops?" Gagger said:

"Hey, pretty." Zone gave Gagger a look of sorts. Bonny blushed. Zone said:

"Not yet. I suppose they will be here soon enough." Bonny said:

"I can show you to your rooms or whatever." Zone was annoyed, but there was no stopping what was about to happen. He said:

"I'm fine. I'll be in the Sitting Room." Bonny locked the door behind them. She and a very drunk and high, Gagger walked up the stairs. They made disgusting noises as they went up the stairs. Zone sighed. He walked into the Sitting Room. The lights were off. He sat down in one of the cushioned rocking chairs to do some very profound thinking.