OCR Text |
Show 133 "You're funny." "Yep," I said, lips as motionless as a ventriloquist. "I'm killing myself." She turned to go back to the other room and I snapped my mouth open, jabbed thumb and forefinger inside and tried to yank the thing loose. Have you ever tried to remove the hook from a fish's mouth by yanking on it? It sinks deeper, as this hook did in mine. And tore things a little. I closed my mouth and went in and sat on the couch. I couldn't think. "I suppose with the war," she was saying, "there's lots of jobs out there. Is there an art school, do you know? Yeah, I guess a big city like that . . . You OK, Chess?" "Suurr." The saliva was coming almost too fast to swallow now and I washed it down with a gulp of my drink. "I was thinking of maybe going there instead of Seattle. I'd think it'd have a lot more to offer. In art and stuff. Don't you think so?" "Awthingso." "The only thing would be I wouldn't know anybody. Chess? Are you all right?" L i f t i ng my glass to wash down the saliva again, I had just seen the blood on the rim and I must have looked to her as i f I was f l i p p i ng out. Wide-eyed, blood on my l i p s . "Yussa arrmmm. Waii." I raised my hand to indicate that she should hold up a minute and walked briskly, purposefully to the kitchen. But I couldn't spit blood a l l over the dishes piled in the sink, so I went on to the John, wondering i f she would connect my strange faces with my bladder. The amount of blood I spit into the water startled me. I rinsed my mouth and before i t could f i l l again reached in to unhook myself, flinching with the pain. And i t wouldn't come loose! I panicked. My fingers were |