BY LINDEN DARLING
The ground a watery green, the sky misty grey. Shards of thought swirl like a wirlpool and plunge like a wave....I see feet, mine. Look up. A counter. An ugly chinese lady. Pardon? Just food, thanks. Look down, grey vinyl floor. Look behind: chair, table, window - nothing outside. Seated, waiting. SHOUT!......
What a wierd dream! Strange but real?
Oh! My head! What was I on last night? Where am I?
Yawn.
Home.
Lex was never an early riser. He couldn't get up before one in the afternoon even if he tried. His brain needed at least nine hours to re-orientate and regrow enough cells to pull itself and his body out of unconsciousness. Especially after a night like last night. What was it? Bottle of tequila and a fair quantity of heroine. It was worth it, though.
Thud! Thud!
AGONY! Headache!
"Oh, well. Nothing a coffee couldn't fix," he said aloud.
THUD! THUD!
I wish I hadn't said that.
Lex brought himself out of his dirty little bed, stood for a moment, shuffled his feet across his vomit and tobacco stained carpet, pulled the curtains, and opened a window. The heat hit him like a road-train at two hundred kilometers an hour, the smell of mown grass intoxicated his nose, and the suns rays of pain sizzled the backs of his eyes. For Lex and his puny, drug-wrecked brain the day had just begun, but for the world and the rest of it's inhabitants it was well under way.
Having washed his face and slicked back his greasy, black hair in his bathroom, which could only have been descirbed as looking like the substance it was invented for, Lex slipped into his ragged pair of jeans, chucked on his leather jacket, raced across the living room/kitchen/bedroom of his flat to grab his keys and some money, and left.
Lex was very tough and streetwise. He had grown up in one of the roughest parts of Sydney, he, along with most of his friends, had left school at around the age of fifteen, he had been in an infinite number of fights, in school and on the street, and had many, many 'friends', which was very handy in his line of business. As a matter-of-fact, Lex was off to meet one of his 'friends' this fine, sunny day, and with him he was taking around $600.
His journey took him down the road and around the corner to another, equally squalid, block of flats. Five stories up Lex was inside his 'friend's' apartment buying a half ounce of heroin.
Strolling the humid streets of industrial Sydney with drug laiden pockets, prowling on the young to survive was Lex's ideal life. He was good at it, too. One of the best. He knew just what to say, whether to be agressive or kind. It was this unique ability which, on this day, transformed his feeble $600 into a whopping $2500.
With this sudden cash flow Lex decided that he would celebrate tonight as he had the night before, but first it was time for some lunch.
Lex found himself a nice little chinese milk-bar on the corner of the main road in this area of Sydney and a narrow, nameless raod of houses. He opened the door and strolled in, looking at his feet. In any other part of the city the inhabitants of a local milk-bar would watch Lex with stereotyping eyes, but here he was, just a local.
Lex moved toward the counter and the ugly chinese lady behind it.
"Wehdtahkoafouw," said the lady."
Lex thought..."What?"
"What....do...you....want?" she repeated.
"Oh, just a hamburger with the lot."
Having placed his order, Lex moved back and seated himself at one of the plastic tables next to the window. Suddenly his heart pulsated. Pumping his blood like a piston. He felt weightless. The milk bar was moving in on him. He realised that this was just like his dream he had had that morining.
Everything was normal again, except he still felt déja-vu-ish. He didn't know whether to be scared or not. He looked out the window, he remembered it being in the dream, and just saw the filthy side-walk and parked cars.
"ONE HAMBURGER!" shouted the asian woman.
Lex slowly turned in his chair to face her, realised what she had said, and sprung to his feet. Grabbing the burger he headed for the door, opening it to find red and blue lights and a man in uniform.
"Please, sir. If you would kindly come down to the station for some questioning."
ENDE