The Cuckoo Colloquium

36 - Pinky Bell

She frowned down at her little mound of clothes, covered in gory, burgundy stains, and then put them back on, feeling no relief from the throbbing.

"Gotta cover it." Windy was there, nodding at the still-shoeless toe.

She had just buttoned her top, and her look was not a welcome one.

He tried to look affronted; "I missed the good part, if that's what you're thinking." Then he dropped his eyes. "Okay, so I was watching you a little bit."

She knew he had been looking at her butt as she walked, and she wondered why men did that. Pinky Bell had dismissed sex as raw and meaningless, and her mind had not wavered. It was like drinking something strong such as the alcohol back at that longhouse- you did it to either please someone else, or you were simply of a self-destructive nature.

He rummaged through the drug store in his backpack, and then sprayed the toe with spermicide, before tearing the top off a little, square packet. Pinky Bell clicked her tongue at the condom, but as he rolled the latex contraceptive over her toe, her faint protest was that of a little girl.

Windy tried to think of something interesting to say, "Do you think the human head is a love offering? ... Is that whack, or what?"

Pinky Bell, too, had been thinking about Outback's words a few nights back.

Windy smiled, as if sensing her thoughts, "If I chop off Outback's head and give it to you, would you like that?"

"Outback would not."

"No, he wouldn't." Windy fell into reflection.

The boy was starting to come on kind of strong-if offering someone's head as a token of love could be considered strong in a jungle. But Pinky Bell smiled back at Windy, because she had seen it in the hollow of the bamboo stalk-or sensed it, anyway-the end, how things would go from here on out...

In a weird way, she felt something had passed her the game plans.

On the way back to the clearing, she tried more of the pronunciation that vexed her, "I am a gya-ru of the wa-rrd."

Windy, attuned to her speech, nodded. "You are a girl of the world-yes you are... But you still gotta work on the R and L."

English pronunciation-It was an intimidating mountain. Could she, some day, climb it? Could she, some day, overcome it all? ...

Pinky Bell had always felt herself to be rather pluckless, like a sock puppet, a person of no substantial worth. She knew she was pretty, by Japanese standards, but she felt unanchored by any real worldly beliefs or opinions. 'I have knowledge, yes, but do I have any real principles?' - In the company of Westerners, it was like she would vanish, like she occupied no real space of her own. Even in Japan she knew she would freeze up under the severe interview questions from the manager of the Babaloo convenience store...

The problem was that she didn't know herself-she didn't even know if she was religious or just superstitious.

But things were changing. They were changing for Outback, and they were changing for her.

Now, the dense canopy above that she had found so menacing just a few days back didn't frighten her. As for reaching the summit of the mountain-whether it was pronunciation, or something far more frightening, Pinky Bell felt herself to be, if anything, one game climber.

***

The night would be the most difficult so far. They hadn't ventured from where Outback had left them, and they had nothing to eat.