Chapter 3: More Terrah and Eden
This week we’re digging further into this chapter about Terrah and Eden’s growing association. This is a strange spot in the book for me, because for the first time, I have several sections, all narrated by Terrah, all in a row. I’ll have to decide, in the long run, how I want to structure this; it may end up being one long section, since the narrator doesn’t change. But for now I have it divided into scenes. So here is scene 3 of the chapter, or scene 2 of the story of how Terrah moves from drug dealer to reluctant confident to ally and friend.
As usual, there’s about half of it here for anyone to read, and the other half is behind the paywall. If you’re curious or have friends you think might like to read this in full, please pass it on. Even the smallest monthly contribution gets you the full text as I release it.
THREE
Terrah
The next week, I was in the car with Cid again, heading toward that same neighborhood. I hadn’t said anything.
But of course Cid spoke up.
“Hey, weren’t we just here?” he said, in his too-friendly, too-obvious way. Man, it was like he was desperate to seem human. “I remember this street. You going to see that lady that pissed you all the way off the last time?”
“I am not ‘going to see’ anyone, trashcan. I’m going to deliver some product. To a key client.”
“Yyyyyeah,” Cid said. He took one hand off the wheel and made an air-quote with it. “Deliverin’ product.” In the rear-view, I saw Cid’s face play a clip of some old school comedian, black-and-white film, leering and wagging his painted eyebrows up and down.
“Fuck’s sake.” Still I laughed a little.
“Who is the girl, anyway?”
“I don’t even know,” I admitted. “Some minor star. Music, I think. Looks like a Real Doll. Has some kind of pheromone mods.”
“Whoa. Wish I’d thought of that. All’s I can do is smell like a new car.”
“A cyborg with scent mods that make people want to fuck you? Now that’s just weird. Anyway, how would you even do it?”
“Make pheromones? Or fuck?”
“Either. Wait, I meant neither. I withdraw the question.”
“Oh, we have our ways.”
“I do not wanna know.”
“Maybe the Real Doll upstairs does…”
“Ew. Dude, just drop me off, we’re there.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Cid pulled over and let me out the back. I went up the same way as before, but when I got to Eden’s door, it was already open. Eden wasn’t standing there waiting, which was what I expected. She wasn’t leaning in the doorway, trying to start something. Which I’d prepared for.
No, this was worse. With the damn door hanging open I couldn’t just leave the package and go without interacting with her at all. I had to go in and look for her.
Goddammit.
“Hello?” I closed the door behind me; no reason to let anyone else wander in. “You here?”
Eden came out of the room she’d disappeared into the last time. She was paler than before. She looked sullen, her bow-like mouth drawn down, her eyes slightly sunken. She leaned against the bar dividing the kitchen from the living room.
I tossed the package on the bar. “It’s there.”
“My hero,” said Eden, and reached for it slowly. With methodical, almost dazed movements, she opened it. She didn’t make any move on me, but she didn’t make any move to pay me, either.
“Listen,” I said. “Uh. Why was your door open? That’s bad security – you have no idea who could come in.”
“I knew you were coming. Didn’t care about anyone else.” She started cutting up the lines, only on the bar this time. She didn’t seem to discriminate much.
“Are you f — what if somebody came in here, wanted to hurt you? Aren’t you all famous and shit? This your secret place?”
“I go everywhere incog. Plus, no.”
“No what?”
“No I’m not ‘all famous and shit.’” She put air quotes around it. “Not anymore.” She did a line and performed the timeless dance of drug-snorting, tilting her head back, putting one finger by the nostril she’d used, making sure it all stayed in. “Fuck, that burns.”
“Why you do it, then?” I muttered.
“Fastest high. Also shut up.”
“Fine, then pay me.”
Eden looked down at the bar, holding onto it, managing the high as it came on. I didn’t know what this drug was like; I’d only seen it from the outside. I could have tried any of the drugs I delivered at any time — the big boys expected it, took a loss out of their statements knowing that their runners would take a hit or two, try out the merchandise. I’d been offered it by clients more than once — Eden’s offer hadn’t been the first, by a long shot. I always declined. Decided a long time ago not to be out of control like that.
Whatever this was, this new euphoric-stimulant-psychedelic, it was highly addictive, possibly the finest expression of a party drug ever made. It gave you all the forgetting, all the ecstasy, all the I-can-do-anything, without the bad crash afterward. It did, however, make you want it again bad almost immediately. It was keeping people like me, who don’t want to work in the megacorps and live in the capsule towers, in business. I wasn’t about to feed my paycheck back into my own damn nose. It may seem crazy, but I like the world, like my wits about me while I’m in it.
Well, maybe that’s a little strong. The world sucks. I don’t like it so much as I want to be in it, survive it, kick its ass.
Eden raised her head, slowly, her eyes gone all heavy again. She stared at me, lidded, her lips a little apart. Her cheeks were a little red, which made her glow like a porcelain doll.
“I accept cash, credits, automatic transfer — however you want to do it,” I said, as though there had been no pause.
“Wait,” said Eden, slower than she probably meant to. “I wanted…”
“Lady, at this point you’re going to be paying extra for my time.”
“I just want to talk to you!” It was nearly a shout. Her eyes were wide now, desperate.
I looked back in disbelief. “Why?”
I’m guessing the fact I hadn’t just left and found a way to collect later made Eden bold; she knew she’d gotten me. I watched her lip curl and sighed, part exasperation, part resignation.
“Look,” I said. “We don’t have to do this. You got your problems, I get it — I got mine too. But I don’t know you, and you sure as shit don’t know me, and I’m just here to bring you some drugs, and pick up some cash, and get the fuck outta here, okay? You got what you needed — just, please, give me the money and we’ll be done with it.”
“That’s not all I need, though,” said Eden. She was moving toward me again, like the last time, all hip-sway and eyelash-batting.
“No. I told you last time, you can use that sex magic shit on me all you like, I’m not into it.”
“I can pay you more.”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” I stood back, arms spread, looking myself up-and-down as if to say, really? This? “You can get anyone you want, right? The way you look, and — whatever that smell thing is you do. What’s the matter with you?”
“I don’t want anyone I want!” she shouted again, petulant.
I put one hand down to my weapon. I didn’t want to have to do anything I’d regret, but I was always ready in case I had to. “You are not making any sense. You’re real high right now, and I’m gonna go, and have an enforcer come by later.”
“No — no, please, listen. I — I’ll pay you, I swear. I just — I just wanted you to stay a little longer. Talk to me. Okay, okay here, here’s half of what I owe you.” Her eyes unfocused as she ran the transaction through her tap, the way she had the last time. I saw it come in, half of what she owed me. Security. But for what?
I let my guard drop, just a little, watching her close. “What do you want?” I finally said.
“Will you...will you sit down?” said Eden.
I glanced at the couch, its leathery expanse probably worth more than I made in a year. “Sure.”