Family Ties by Richard Risemberg

Author:Richard Risemberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, literary, gay, family, small town, novel, hippies, mafia, bikers, missing person
Publisher: Richard Risemberg

17.

The assistant showed up fifteen minutes later, time Denise and I filled talking over the social and physical geography of Nirvana, and speculating further on where Bullet and Tracer might fit in. Denise stuck to her contention that they were "Outlands types, definitely. Younger versions of the old farts who huddle in their cabins getting angry at every thing that reminds them of the world moving on and leaving them behind. I met a lot of those when I was looking for people with tattoos to photograph. You know, a lot of people think of tattoos as cutting edge and radical, but they're really not, when you think about it. I think they lock you into the opinions and aesthetics you had when you made the decision to get one. Because you can't really take them off, can you? I mean, I know there's some medical procedure—believe me, I checked before I got mine—but it's really expensive and it doesn't work all that well. Mine doesn’t show in the ordinary course of events. And I know I'll probably regret it in twenty years or so, but it will be a very private regret, shared only with a select few. A story to tell of youthful indiscretion. Maybe a little distraction from the way I'll be growing older." She smiled. "At least that's my rationalization. Actually, I had been to that awful bar across the street and was a little drunk, and I thought of it as a partial seduction…Skull painting my breast, you know. But I think it was just a job to him. In fact, I think he was pretty stoned himself. But at least he did a good job…."

The front door unlocked itself, and the assistant walked in. She was a bustling, colorless sort who barely greeted Denise and ignored me entirely. She sat herself at a desk, and Denise spoke to her for a few minutes, then nodded to me, and we went out into the streets of Nirvana. She put on dark glasses as we stepped out, which only enhanced the ant-head effect.

It was two blocks to the main street where the movie crew was at work.

"Actually," Denise said, "I'm a bit surprised that someone as straight-arrow as you would even ask me such a depraved favor." She was smiling as she said it. I think she liked to consider herself depraved rather than merely tinged with lust.

"And I’m almost surprised," I answered, "that you'd even consider it. In spite of your rather off-the-cuff offer of intimacy a few minutes ago."

"Maybe it was your turn to surprise me," she smiled. "I like surprises. At least when they're not the sort you find in the proverbial dark alley."

"And if this kidnapper of mine turns out to be a dark-alley sort of fellow?"

"You didn't see his expression as he watched his girlfriend studying the tattoo series in my gallery. He was definitely uncomfortable, and the images aren't all that hard in comparison to what Witkin and others are doing.

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