Chapter Twelve
“TIIIIIIITS!!!!!” Tiko screamed.
My God, he had a way of ripping you out of your daydreams. I wondered if the machine might have affected his brain after all or if that was just the way he was.
He pointed at a billboard which had two huge well-formed 3D breasts jumping at us. They were situated just outside the reservation on a little hill - so they wouldn’t be missed. From afar they looked like pralines too heavy to enjoy.
But as we got closer we could make out a little door down the cleavage. Probably the entrance to the pleasure vault. Tiko stuck to the window like a spit out chewing gum all the while producing the strangest of noises.
“Could you pleeeeaaaaase stop the whimpering, goofball. We will see what we got here and then drive on. I’d like to remind you I’m sitting here cause I wanna see some waves, not giant tits,” Mark said, a little disturbed.
If he would have known in beforehand the kind of freaks he’d be spending his next days with, I don’t think he would have asked Louis to stop at our square. Barely having escaped the cultists, here we sat in the heat staring at the biggest rack ever.
Louis had stopped the bus and got out to inspect the heavenly twins. We followed.
He said: “Definitely steel enforced silicon, or … might it be concrete? What would you say Tiko?” while lovingly caressing them. “I could tell they weren’t for real.”
He had tears running down his face from laughing.
“They’re even bigger than the bus,” he added and doubled over.
To see him laugh, this big man, was so contagious.
He couldn’t be stopped: “Little guy, shouldn’t you better forget about all this shit and just go to school, learn about all the other things life has to offer, besides babes and porno queens?” he asked Tiko, who sat staring at the set, still speechless.
At that moment the joint’s door opened and out stepped one of those slim beauties like straight out of a fashion magazine. This trip wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
She had pale skin and wore a tiny skirt.
“Voult you like to coame in?” she said with a funny accent.
Before anyone could answer or even move, Tiko had slipped into the pleasure dome.
That of course resulted in Lucy thundering after him: “You little fucking brat, get back here as quick as the wind or I’ll run after you, drive you all the way back to where you came from and let you rot in your Native American hell forever!”
Nothing moved. The girl stared at the door, completely unimpressed by my sister’s sudden outburst of emotions. Probably used to all kinds of customers.
“Come on, let’s go inside and get him,” Mark shrugged.
Lucy didn’t react. She just stood dead-still like a puppet. But I knew my sister, it wouldn’t be long before the bomb would explode again.
“Hey Lucy,” Mark said, trying to take away the tension. “We’ve all been through a lot over the last couple of hours. Let’s try to get him out without a fuzz, o.k.”
Having said that, he took Lucy in his arms and kissed her softly.
Sometimes it takes just that to make her happy.
Louis said he’d prefer to stay with the bus. “You three can manage, I guess. Seen too many babes lately. If you don’t mind, I’ll take a little nap. Too tired for more.”
I could tell he desperately needed sleep, with the latest night ride and everything else he’d been through before that.
The white-skinned girl let us in. We entered a large hall with two sets of mirrors hanging from each side and a bunch of cheaply painted portraits in fat fake golden frames in between. All were of pretty half naked girls.
The girl asked: “Aoh, I seey you like art and appreciate beooty. Doa you haf a preference?”
Where the hell did she grow up, Siberia or something? She sounded even worse than one of those Eastern European Bond Girls.
I guessed she wanted to know which of the painted babes I wanted for sex.
Without a blink I replied: “All of them!” much to the surprise of Mark and Lucy. But before they could protest I said: “I’d like to get to know them in person so that I can better decide with whom to start.”
Obviously the girl had never met a stud like me. She couldn’t cope with the situation and started stammering something about getting someone to help her out and not all girls being available, bla bla.
“No need to worry,” I said. “Why don’t we start from the left, over here – that is, if that one’s available. We’ll see where we’ll go from there, o.k. sweetheart? By the way, why aren’t you on the wall?”
Too much for her to take. She stuttered: “I gonna tttt…tttake you to the b .. b. bossss.”
Which was all I wanted.
“Please coame with me.” She was frightened.
He had a pair of pocket-size Armani glasses propped upon his small nose. Two tiny angry eyes staring through the tinted lenses instantly registered all that came in sight.
But that was where the small parts ended. Everything else was triple X-large. As large and fat as an overstuffed pig, a Russian pig that is. A half empty bottle of Vodka and the plastic flag next to it gave away his nationality. He sweat like a pig, too. I wouldn’t know what would come first: the stink or the sight of the monster. Whatever, it would make you run. Not that it would help much. He’d be faster and he knew it.
He’d probably overheard the girl’s knocking. Although it must have surprised him that she came calling, it had no influence whatsoever on his facial expression. There simply was none. As we entered the room, I noticed the slickness of his reaction. He was incredibly fast. Before the girl had even managed to open the door completely, his right hand had gone in and out of his jacket so that by the moment she did, we had a gun waving right into our faces. It was as if he hadn’t moved at all, as if he’d be standing there all day, pointing the thing at any intruder.
Dangling from his other hand was Tiko. The Russian checked us with a pitiful stare. As he saw we were no match for him, he put his gun back into the holster. I looked for the girl but she had already left.
“Dis shit belong to you?”
Tiko was desperately trying to pull himself loose, but as he started yelling at the guy, he just smashed him hard against the wall.
“I tol’ you to shut up!” he said.
It had the intended effect.
Lucy screamed: “What do you think you’re doing, ape? Hitting babies against walls?! He could be dead, for Christ’s sake!”
“Dis ain’t no baby, dis a freak. And when I tell it ta shutup it bedda lissen.”
There was no way we could talk sense into this mountain of meat and muscle.
“Ok, sir,” Mark said, “I think we have a bit of a misunderstanding here. I’m sorry if the little guy disturbed your peace, but let’s face it, he’s just that: a little guy.”
“I don’t give shit ‘bout big or small. Fact is dis freak wen inno the girls place and put its nose in b’ween Olga’s legs. And I won’ let that happen. Is my job to keep nonpaying customers away from them girls and I am goo’ at it!”
“Obviously right now he’s not in a state to apologize,” I said, desperately trying to avoid a huge grin. “So please mister, do accept our apologies for the misbehavior in his place. It won’t happen again, I promise. Would you be so kind as to hand over the baby?”
He looked as if his brain had been put to work. After some hard thinking he obviously was convinced that smashed-in Tiko wouldn’t be causing any more trouble.
“Ok, here ya go,” he said, handing over Tiko who by now resembled more of a wet blue towel than anything remotely human.
“Now get outta here, or did you plan to spend’e night wit one of our gals?,” he said laughing, all the while shaking like Elvis and wiping the sweat from his huge head.
With nothing left to hold us - at least that was what we thought at the time - we went for the door, with the huge pig following us closely. As I watched Lucy’s clenched fists I felt a similar anger start heating up inside of me. I was ready to shoot anything in sight.
Louis ran over as soon as we stepped out of the building. No need for asking questions. He knew the moment he saw Tiko dangling from my arm.
“And dontya dare come back, ya hear?” the Russian howled while smashing the door closed behind us.
Louis took Tiko from my arm and went for the bus. We followed in silence. In a way I guess we all felt ashamed for having been unable to prevent this from happening, for lacking even the tiniest amount of courage. At the same time we burst with anger over the Russian. But what could we have done to stop the guy?
Louis went to the back of the bus, got some towels, water and medication from under the back seats and then carefully put Tiko on them. He folded the towels into a cushion so that the boy’s head was slightly lifted and started cleaning the wounds.
We said we’d wait outside. Sitting down in the shade, staring at the sand and stones, we soon realized that we weren’t going to make a change this way.
Mark was the first one to speak up. Still looking down he said: “Did any of you see that little handwritten sign sticking in the flowerpot next to the door?”
“What flowerpot? I didn’t see any pot. Where was it?” I asked.
“I noticed some plastic flowers next to the table in the hall,” Lucy said. “They were in this golden angel pot. It looked so gross. But I didn’t see a sign.”
“No, these were next to the door. It was all going so fast, but I’m quite sure I read the word ‘Help’ and then a name starting with O. It was just a little piece of paper sticking to one of the flowers. With the Russian in my back I couldn’t slow down or anything, but I’m sure to’ve read ‘Help’.”
Lucy got all excited: “But yes Mark, don’t you remember? Just before he smacked Tiko into the wall the guy said something about Tiko sticking his nose in between one of the girls legs! What was the name again? Something foreign.”
“They had so many pictures in the hall. Besides the one opening us up, there’s got to be a whole bunch of girls living in the building and I think they are being held by force. Just think of the way the pig reacted to us entering the room,” I said. “But we are no match for the guy. And to be honest, after what he did to Tiko I don’t want to see his face ever again, nor look into the barrel of his gun.”
But that was exactly what happened the next second: I had this steel barrel’s dark, round hole suddenly sticking right between my eyes. Over it the two familiar ugly little eyes fired hate filled sparkles at me through the likewise appreciated sunglasses.
He thundered: “I tol’ ya ta hit da road, what are ya sitting hea’ fo’? Get lost!!!”
That was the last civilized sentence ever to escape the guy’s mouth. What happened then couldn’t have been stopped by any of us even if we would have wanted, which we didn’t. It all went so fast that we didn’t realize what was going on until after it was over.
The second the Russian finished his roaring threat, Louis tipped him on the shoulder and as the guy turned his head to start yelling at whoever had dared to cut off his monologue, Louis’ baseball-bat hit him in the middle of his face, full force.
“That’s for smashing Tiko,” Louis thundered.
Blood splashed everywhere, the tiny glasses flew through the air and what looked like was once the guy’s nose hit my cheek.
“And this,” Louis yelled, “This is for all the hurt and pain you inflicted upon others!!” this time hitting the guy’s head so hard from the side that we heard the skull crack.
Of course we tried to stop Louis from freaking out. Yelling didn’t help, so we tried groping for whatever body part we could reach to stop him. It was too late. To me it seemed as if all his stored up anger burst out during these few seconds. The Russian had to take it all. They clung to each other like wrestlers, Louis hitting wherever he could.
The Russian was finished. The moment Louis let go of his lifeless body, it fell over with a huge slap, spreading a cloud of dust. Louis kept on thundering for some twenty more minutes before we managed to calm him down.