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Show All the Variables & Other Love Stories 44 How the Devil Saved Miss Colorado One thing about Jay Meeks: the baphomet tattoo on his right forearm. He made Richard Cordova give it to him one night while they were frying balls on acid, with a heroin needle and a package of Bic pens. It bled like a son of a bitch so that Richard thought he might get sick, but Jay said he should be ashamed of himself, if s just a little blood, you pussy, do it, so he did it. It was a lot of blood, and it wouldn't stop so Jay wrapped it in an Ace bandage and wore it like that for weeks, until it was all dirty and bloody and smelled rotten. Then one day it was gone and so was the swelling. In its place was a thin upside down star and wheel etched against Jay's chalky skin. Rumor about Jay was that he was a Satanist; that he practiced the rites of the black mass, whatever that was-animal sacrifice and that-he could conjure the devil. He never denied it, not even to Maya Hernandez, who asked him point blank, are you a devil worshipper? Maya Hernandez went home with him one night and vowed to her girlfriends the next morning that Jay Meeks slept with his eyes open, never ate, took ice water showers. Beau Walker didn't think much of Jay Meeks, except the world would be a better place without him. Beau's daddy was the County Sheriff, and Beau, an All-State second baseman on the high school team before he graduated. Now he played for Adams State College right here in Alamosa. Spent his free time with his friends, driving his daddy's late-model, one-ton pickup up and down Main Street, whistling at girls, pitching empty beer cans out the windows, and loving Jesus. |