Part III: Beautiful cosmic ebbs at the pool – Baby bird is the word – Too Real – A quick retreat from the bar to sweet release
She screamed like a seagull as she flailed helplessly through the air, her almost naked body breaking the surface of the pool with the sickening crack that assuredly meant stung skin. It wasn’t deep – three to four feet maximum – and the water ebbed and flowed like a cerulean galaxy as she rose from the depths, spitting and wiping chlorine from her eyes. I didn’t bother removing my jeans as I launched forward and tucked together, feeling the tender caress of the water overtake me before my feet tapped the bottom. When I came back for air, the skin was alive with divine vibrations spinning phantasmic patterns and omens. She splashed me as I whipped the hair from my face.
"What that fuck was that for?" Addy spat at me with faux venom, her angry words and pursed lips unable to conceal the laughter in her voice.
I’d splurged on a room at the Aman Tokyo, and while it cost a small fortune per night, I wasn’t sure if I’d find myself in Tokyo again. It was an indoor pool that flowed directly to picture pane windows that gave us a view of the city, which was in full bioluminescence. A bottle of Suntory sat on the lip of the pool, which I’d picked up at a bodega on the walk back. After the earlier terror and madness, this was what I needed for a psychic anchor. “I told you I’d throw you in the pool for that terror earlier!” I snarled before breaking into a cascade of giggles. The peak was over, and the waning hours of an acid trip always come back down to Earth, aided by gentle kisses to the mouth of the Suntory fifth. No more madness or mouths full of teeth in the daisies – just a cascade of glittering diamond water droplets that seemed to hang in the air, connected in spiderwebs of neon, before the returned fire splash hit her. She shrieked again, this time a little less angry and a little more delighted. There was a war to be had.
When we’d burned our energy and acclimated ourselves to the water, it became a gentle float, the Suntory passing between us a flowing freely.
“Don’t puke in the pool, I’m enjoying this too much.”
“She-it Baccy, once’a night just’a make room, ya know. Nothin’ gonna make me gag now.”
I offered the bottle her ways, though it was difficult to move through the water in my jeans. I could feel each droplet on my skin, and the hum of the pool filter sounded like angelic choruses. It was nearing 4 am, and all elements of the evening had come together in harmony.
“You think that.”
Addy giggled. “Yeh…” That singular word hung in the air, her eyes on mine and her lower lip sucked between her teeth..
“You talk a big game.”
"I don't just talk…" Her voice dropped low and husky. We moved towards one another, a sense of white heat flowing out, until we were real close. I had half a foot on her, and I took a slug from the bottle and gave a shrug. “Prove it.” The city radiated through the window like an electric garden.
"Sure ya'll handle it? Every time things get hot ya seem to run…” she breathed, pouting her lip and batting her eyes at me.
“I don’t have a plane to catch this time, do I?”
Her pout twisted into a grin, and her voice dropped even lower. "Baccy Cat, imma make ya fly…” A hand came to my shoulder, her mouth was by my ear. “We ain't gonna be playin' hokey pokey but ya can put ya whole arm in."
I gave her a wry shrug and stepped back, our eyes locked. The water was running down the skin on her face, and her soaked underwear clung to her skin. She had that look in her eyes like she’d rip my throat out with her bare teeth – and I was just in the mood for that kinda party. “On your knees, yeah?”
"Mmm… nah… Baccy Cat on your knees."
“Ladies first. You’re the one making boasts.”
She considered. Had anyone ever said no to her? There were first times for everything. Maybe even seconds.
"Only this fuckin' time, Baccy Cat."
She slunk down into the shallow pool water, her eyes up on me. Frenzy had crept back into me – a final wave of regrettable madness before the come-down. She reached for my belt, but I was able to intercept her hands at the buckle. “No, no. Let’s close our eyes…” I let the words hang as she obliged, stifling a cackle. “Mouth open, tongue out…” She did. It was do or die. This was an opportunity for only someone with iron resolve, fully understanding the consequences… and not caring at all. I said a silent prayer to St. Christopher.
Then I took a slug from the bottle and baby-birded it directly into the back of her throat.
The liquor hit, and in surprise, she immediately began coughing and stumbled back into the pool. I raised the bottle like Excalibur, my victory at hand. “I knew you’d gag!”
She rose like a bat out of hell, her eyes bloodshot and wild, her hair clinging to her face like some sort of vengeful spirit from a J-Horror movie. "Ya fuckin' dead Johnathan!" She lunged at me, for the first time I felt a real, visceral desire to inflict harm upon my body, her hands coiling around my throat like a python around a baby, desperate to suppress my mad-wracked laughter. Leveraging her bodyweight, she dragged me underwater, and were I a much more sane man, maybe I’d have feared for my life or fought back. Five seconds. Four seconds. It all felt like weeks and months, under this terrible stuff. Let the water take me; an incredible fitting end to a short but bent life, drowned by an Australian succubus for spitting when she was expecting to swallow.
When she brought me back to the surface, nothing had subsided. The madcap laughed on. “The look on your face. The disappointment and rage,” I could hardly stifle the laughter, my side hurt even as I continued to spit water out of my nose and questioned the fate of the Suntory.
"CUNT! I was gonna bite ya, but FUCK!" She threw a punch to my chest, a tad more weight behind it than could be entirely friendly. In her eyes, I could see the embarrassment, and a twinge of guilt made me look away. It was then I spied the Suntory bottle, bobbing in the pool, capped, and safe from contaminated water. I plucked it out and offered it to her, sinking to my knees. Fair was fair, right?
“Your turn, Mommy.”
Her face livened with glee. She took a slug from the bottle as I closed my eyes and opened up, but I was met with the sound of a gulp, the snorting of her nose, and a fat wad of phlegm hitting my directly in the center of my tongue. But beggars can’t be choosers – I shut my mouth and swallowed before opening my eyes to stand up and see the look on her face.
“Are we even, Baby Girl?”
"We'll see. Don't sleep too deep, Baccy Cat."
“I don’t sleep well on acid. Probably stay up until 9 am.”
She looked me up and down and wordlessly snickered, a sneer almost on par with another certain friend of mine. I threw batted eyelids in her direction. “Are you not entertained?”
She shook her head, but her smile was big, bright, and genuine. I waded over to the wall, bushing myself up to sit on the lip and let the water run off my clothes. The belt was assuredly ruined and discarded immediately onto a chair, but I wasn’t sure how salvageable the jeans would be. In the meanwhile, I motioned for the dregs of the bottle. Addy looked over and ran her tongue around the edge of the bottle, giving a giggle and tossing it my way. I emptied the remnants down my throat and placed it poolside, bending forward to rest my arms on my knees and watch her.
She lowered herself into the water up to her neck, wordlessly gliding through the water and leaving technicolor streaks behind her before she twisted her body into the gap between my knees and rested her head on the pocket inside my right hip. She exhales with a sigh. I reached down to scratch her head, watching the water drip from myself onto her. I was not a religious man, but there was certain texts I remember Kat (or maybe Chelsea) mentioning to me about divine rhythms and glimpses of Nirvana. There was a fantastic sense of magnetism; that this was right and some greater cosmic enigma beyond our comprehension had somehow been solved.
She looked peaceful. Nuzzling herself as close as she could, our bodies slowly becoming entangled.
“Should we be doing this?”
She looked up at me, and while her mouth didn’t utter a word, I could hear everything I needed in her eyes. Her eyes are fucking gorgeous; I could see myself reflected in the faint sheen of her irises. She arched her back, drawing up as her face approached mine. Her eyes closed, her lips parted, but I didn’t believe her intentions were conversation.
And that’s why I stood up, my heart racing.
“I need a fucking cigarette, I’ll be right back."
I pushed myself up and crossed the cement before she could protest, grabbing my shirt and pulling it on, before I left her there all alone at the pool. I didn’t turn to see her face – how the fuck could I?
It was too real. Far, far too real. Still sopping wet other than my shirt, I shuffled barfoot down the hallway towards the hotel bar, ignoring the protestations and objections of housekeeping and the offers of a towel from the concierge. Unfortunately, that gangly cretin Cass Adler was already there, and in my state, his carcinogenic vibes would send my last precious hour or so of comedown in either some introspective nightmare hell or result in a violent frenzy where at least one of us would have to pay for property damages. I’d left my can of bear mace in my jacket by the pool, and while it wouldn’t take too long to fetch it - and the look on his face when ambushed by some red-haired animal spraying him down with two million Scovilles would be priceless - it was best to move on. I continued into the elevator and took it to the roof for a smoke and to make a phone call.