Outside the Gates of Eden by Lewis Shiner

Author:Lewis Shiner [Shiner, Lewis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2019-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

*

A haze of clouds had lightened the early afternoon sky to the palest of blues. As she and Cole stumbled blinking into daylight, Laramie said, “I need to go to the tepee for a while. If I don’t shower and clean up, I’m going to get a yeast infection.”

“That’s cool. I could use a shower too.”

She shook her head. “I’ll meet you here in a couple of hours. Okay?”

“You’ll need a pass to get in.”

She smiled. “No I won’t. And if they give me any trouble, I’ll have them come get you.”

“Laramie…” He didn’t like the sudden darkness that had come over her mood and he didn’t want them to separate. At the same time, if she needed space, he had to give it to her.

She leaned into him and kissed him sweetly. “I’ll see you in a while.”

As she walked away, he waited for her to turn and look at him one more time, telling himself that if she did, everything would be okay. She just kept walking, past the guard at the fence, disappearing into the crowd at the side of the stage.

Cole wandered over to the performers’ pavilion and froze when he saw Lenny fishing out a Coke by the buffet table. Lenny saw him and waved him over.

Lenny was like Cole, verbal and not a fighter, but the day had already proved that all bets were off. Cole approached him warily.

“I was looking for you,” Lenny said.

Cole nodded.

“I don’t know what happened out there this morning,” Lenny said. “I only know that I hated being up there, as much as I ever hated anything. Small clubs are okay, but even at the Fillmore I was really scared. I’ve been fighting this for a long time and today… today it blew up in my face.”

Cole had no idea what to say, so he nodded again.

“Being in the studio, man, that was great. If I fucked up, I could do it over, I could make it perfect. I loved that. It only made it worse playing for big crowds. So…” He took a deep breath. “So I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Cole said. “I was really shitty to you out there.”

“It doesn’t matter. Because I’ve been thinking, and I need to quit the group.”

“You can’t quit,” Cole said. “There is no group without you.” During the set, the idea of firing Lenny had passed through Cole’s head and he had immediately dismissed it. Lenny had started the band, Lenny was the better guitarist, Lenny was the one who never lost his cool. “You don’t want to make this kind of decision on the spur of the moment anyway. When we get back, we’ll talk it over—”

Lenny shook his head. “As soon as I decided, it was like one minute I was drowning and the next I was standing up on dry land and I could breathe again. I know it’s right.” Unexpectedly, Lenny hugged him. “I’m sorry,” he said again, and he walked, almost running, toward the helicopter landing zone.

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