The Pseudo-Chronicles of Mark Huntley

The Truth is Never Out There - 10/21/04

But no, as it was, I was completely oblivious as one of them separated from the pack and approached me quietly. Crept up, one might say, if one were in a not so charitable frame of mind. She leaned down, braced herself against the back of my seat— and licked my ear. I jolted. 

Her warm tongue lingered there for only a second, and then she was gone, having retreated back to her friends, sitting in the row in front of them. 

I jerked around in my seat and stared the three of them down. 

"What the hell was that?" I snarled. "Who are you?" 

The girl's two friends, already shorter than her, hunched down a bit to make themselves even smaller. Their wide eyes suggested that they were rethinking their little joke, maybe that it wasn't so funny right now. 

The licker herself, however, stared right back at me with calm brown eyes. "It was a dare," she said. "Sorry... sir." 

I got up from my seat and took a few steps in their direction. The two girls sitting behind their tall friend shrank even more, as if trying to hide behind her. One of them let out a little shriek. 

The girl in front didn't move, just kept looking up at me expectantly. Her brown hair was wild and spiky but didn't cross over the punk line. Sixteen-that-looked-nineteen, maybe, judging from the baby faces of her pals. Adding to the confusion, she dressed like a twelve-year-old. Multicolored plastic necklace over a tight blue shirt, with a lighter blue flouncy skirt bunched up over her thighs, knee socks, and on her feet a pair of Mary Janes that had their backs partially cut out. Half-under the seat, I could see a magnificent backpack riddled with over twenty buttons. The biggest was for Kerry/Edwards, but they also represented for South Park, Gwen Stefani, and world peace. A Stan keychain dangled from the zipper.

I could tell her not to bother voting, but she wouldn’t be able to anyway. I had different advice in mind, though.

"What's your name?" I said. 

She met my eyes. "Alyce." 

"There are plenty of monsters out in the world, Alyce," I said, as I loomed over her. Her cool cracked a little, her gaze wavered. By now, her friends were terrified. 

"And you'd better thank your stars that right now, I'm not one of them." 

With that, I turned from them and walked to a different seat, one that was several rows ahead of where I'd been. When I got up to exit the train at Rosslyn, the girls were gone.

I walked out into the wet pseudo-city. Downtown Arlington isn't a pretty place under normal circumstances, and persistent rain makes it fer-sure ugly. As I headed for the deli where I was supposed to meet Gwen (St. John, not Stefani), my cell phone rang. It was Ms. St. John herself. 

"Hey," she said. "I'm stuck in the middle of a somewhat important phone call here. I hope you're not waiting at the deli?" 

"Nah, on my way there. On Moore Street." 

"It's going to be a tad longer than I expected.... would you mind coming to my office and walking me out? Tenth floor— I'll meet you in the lobby." 

I said sure, and she told me how to get there. It was only a couple of blocks away. I turned right on 19th Street and then took a left on Lynn. I walked past a husk of a twenty-story building, condemned and already half-torn apart, and then I found myself standing in front of the Freiholt & Wagner office tower, equally high but in much better condition. I looked up at the building, impressed. Did this all belong to them? Had to be a pretty successful law firm. Gwendolyn had done well for herself, whatever her future ambitions.