XIV. KINDNESS IN KANEOHE

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A WHORE'S WOUNDS ARE BOUND

HER AFFLICTIONS, THOUGH, ARE MANY

An All-Night Drugstore Can Only Do So Much

(Part Fourteen; Part One is HERE.)


"YOU FAHKKAH!" Why you left me back dere???!!!"

"I didn't leave you. I just had to check something down the road. I came right back."

"You left me for the goddam menehunes! They almost got me! They were all over me!"

"There's no such thing as menehunes. They're like fairies or elves. It's just a story."

"Ho, just one story wen' BIT me li' dat???!!!" She showed her bare arm. It was covered with welts and insect bites.

"Looks like mosquito bites, and marks from the grass and trees. What the Hell were you doing out there?"

"I was doing what you TOLD me to do! I try for catch one menehune! But den dey catch me!"

"OK, whatever. We'll fix you up."

"Jus' take me back home."

"You want to go back to my house?"

"No, I like go Chinatown."

"You don't want to go back there. That's no place for you. You don't even have a place to sleep, or shower."

"Yeah, well, you don't even have a place for smoke crack, or buy some, or get money for buy."

"Exactly. You don't need that."

"I do."

"No you don't. You've been clean for almost four days now. Almost all detoxed. Give it one or two more days, and you'll be OK."

"An' den? Wot I gonna do den?"

"Whatever you want. Get a job, go to school, go back to your family, have a life again."

"Hah! One life! My family! My faddah f**k me, my maddah no care."

"OK. OK, that sucks. Well, you can make your own family. Your friends, people who care about you."

"Nobody cares about me. I'm just a ho."

"You're not just a whore."

"A ho, not a whore. That's worse. That's what the other girls call you when they really don't like you. Shit. Nobody likes me. No wonder. I look like sh*t, I feel like sh*t, I am sh*t, just like my father says." Holly was crying helplessly now.

"You're not shit. Stop saying that. You're a beautiful, smart, resourceful young girl. You're street-wise and tough and you can survive anything. You just need to give yourself a break. A fresh start."

"So, you like me?"

"Of course I like you. Why else would I feed you to the menehuines?"

Holly laughed. "You DID, you fahkkah! Look at me! Dey wen' almos' eat me all up."

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't think. I forgot you were so tasty. Come on, we'll go in Wong's Drugs and get you fixed up, OK?"

"OK. Can I get make-up?"

"You got make-up. It's in the trunk. We'll get you a compact, so you can put it on. That's the thing with the mirror, right?"

"Yeah. OK. How come you know so much about girl's stuff, hunh?"

"My little sister."

"Is she here?"

"No. Not any more."

"What you mean, not any more."

"I don't want to talk about that."

"Huh. OK. I can get candy?"

"Sure. You can get candy."

Holly got her candy and make-up and a People magazine, and washed up in the bathroom. They got Bactine and Calamine Lotion and Band-Aids and cotton and alcohol and iodine. They sat outside of Wong's on a bench, and Kris gently ministered to Holly's many minor wounds, mostly mosquito bites and welts from the branches she'd run into.

"There. All better."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Kris?"

"Hm?"

"Will you take care of me?"

"I just did take care of you."

"I know. I like that. Will you take care of me, like, all the time?"

"How do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Keep me off the street. Help me stay clean. Make me get my life back together."

"I can't make you. I can help you..."

"--You will?"

"Sure. If you'll try, I'll try."

"OK. I'll try. If you'll try."

"Deal."

"Deal."


[ PART FIFTEEN TOMORROW copyright 2008 Cosa Nostradamus.]
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