Caloric

Phoenyx spent the day exploring downtown L.A., basking in the aromatics of the flower district, window shopping to her heart’s content in the clothing district and narrowly avoiding one particularly impatient driver at a crosswalk. She made sure to leave that area before sunset, as she had been told by some friendly locals that downtown is a dangerous place at night—cops won’t even patrol downtown at night.

Now, after a long day of walking, she wanted to rest her feet and get a drink. She had been to a few nightclubs here and none of them were all that interesting. The people were all so phony and pretty rude. That must just be the type of people a big city produces. She would much rather go to a cozy little bar—maybe one with a pool table and cold beer on tap. There was one a bit down the street from her apartment which was hole-in-the-wall enough. Perhaps she should try that.

She went home, cleaned up, and dressed up a little. She took one last look in the mirror as she always did before leaving to go out in public. Her bob cut orange hair was perfectly straight and shiny; her almond-shaped amber-colored eyes perfectly lined and smoky. Satisfied, she locked up and headed down to the bar. She decided not to take her purse because it was too much of a bother. She just brought her cell phone, her ID, and a twenty dollar bill.

She walked inside the quaint little place and took a seat at the bar. The bartender was a middle-aged blond woman with sun damaged skin left bare by a spaghetti strap shirt. When the woman saw Phoenyx, she raised an eyebrow and sauntered over.

“I’m afraid I’m gonna have to see some ID,” she said with a sharp, twangy Texan accent.

Phoenyx lightly placed her hand on top of the bartender’s hand that rested on the bar top. As she had done so many times before, she let her will flow through her hand. It wasn’t really something she could explain, but the feeling was always of a sensual nature. Somehow that sensual energy passed from her to the person she was touching, causing that person to melt like putty in her hands and want nothing more than to do what she asks.

The bartender’s hard sternness instantly relaxed, her shoulders dropping ever so slightly. Phoenyx couldn’t be sure due to the bartender’s sun darkened complexion, but she almost appeared to be blushing.

“No you don’t,” Phoenyx said softly, with her hand still on the bartender’s. “Isn’t it obvious I’m over twenty-one?”

“Of course, darlin’,” the bartender said, smiling fondly. “What can I getcha?”

“Whatever you have on tap,” Phoenyx replied.

“Comin’ right up,” the bartender said and went to fix the drink.

“That was a pretty nifty trick,” a man’s voice said from down the bar top.

Phoenyx looked in that direction. The man was fairly handsome, somewhere in his mid-twenties, with clean cut short brown hair. Odd, she couldn’t recall seeing anyone at the bar when she first sat down. He was dressed plainly enough, in a simple blue T-shirt and black jeans, but something about the way he held himself gave off a sense of propriety and privilege.

He got up from his stool and moved to sit next to her.

“How old are you really?” he asked. “It’ll be our little secret,” he whispered.

She found his bravado amusing so she decided to indulge him.

“Nineteen,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Ah, and let me guess, you’re a…Gemini?”

“Yes, actually,” she said. “How could you tell?”

He shrugged and said, “I have a gift for these things.”

The bartender came back and set the tall frosty beer in front of Phoenyx. Before Phoenyx could retrieve any cash, the man handed the bartender a five dollar bill as payment for the beer.

“Let me know if you need anything else,” the bartender said.

“Thank you,” Phoenyx said, and the bartender smiled and walked away.

“My name is Dex,” the man said. “Who do I have the pleasure of buying a drink?”

Silently remarking at his, for this city, peculiarly great manners, she replied, “My name is Phoenyx. Spelled with a Y instead of an I. My mother felt it was more feminine that way.”

He chuckled.

“What’s funny?” she asked, feeling like he was laughing at her rather than with her.

“Oh, just that life can be so ironic at times,” he said, flashing a charming smile. “I promise you’ll get the joke later. Now tell me, what is a girl like you doing in the city of Lost Angels?”

“What makes you think I’m not from here?” she asked before taking a sip of her beer.

“Like I said, I have a gift for these things,” he answered.

She shrugged and said, “Okay? Well, I’m going to be starting at UCLA in a few weeks. I just moved here from Illinois. What about you?”

“I’m here on business,” he said vaguely.

She nodded, noting he was being purposefully ambiguous and she was losing her interest because of it. She eyed him as she took another drink and saw a unique pin on his shirt. It was square shaped and had a different color box at each corner, one red, one yellow, one blue and one green. It almost looked like the Windows logo.

“That pin you’re wearing,” she said, “what’s it for?”

“Oh,” he said, momentarily taken aback. “I belong to a fraternity of sorts. I won’t bore you with those details. I’m sure you’ll meet plenty of frat boys at UCLA.”

Now his dodginess was just becoming irritating.

He put his hand on hers and moved his thumb over the unsightly oblong scar that besmirched her otherwise pretty feminine wrist. Feeling like her space was being uninvitedly invaded, she pulled her hand back.

“Do you mind if I ask you how you got that scar?” Dex asked.

Phoenyx drank down her beer and then said, “Actually, I have an early morning. Thank you for the beer.” She slid off her stool.

“Perhaps I’ll see you again,” he said cordially.

She wasn’t sure if he was actually oblivious to her annoyance or just pretending to be.

“You never know,” she said, smiled, and then headed for the door.

* * * *

“Phoenyx, what are you thinking about?” Lily asked, snapping Phoenyx out of her rumination.

“Oh, just replaying that night in my head,” Phoenyx said. “Now that I can remember it more clearly, I guess I’m trying to look for any clues as to why we’re here.”

“Did you find any?” Lily asked.

Phoenyx shook her head.

Their night was miserable—not that they could really even tell it was night in this room. The only means they had of telling time was Lily’s fancy wristwatch that showed, not only the time but, the date as well.

Neither of them had really slept. The cement floor was far too uncomfortable to lie down on, which was probably why her back hurt since she first woke up in this prison. They tried finding a way to sleep sitting up, but every echoed sound from outside this room made them startle to alertness. They finally gave up on sleep at 5:30 a.m. and spent the morning mostly in silence.

The burgers and apples yesterday didn’t last long and now they were both pretty hungry. They decided it was best to conserve their water, as that was more important than food. Phoenyx hoped someone would bring them more food soon.

“I don’t think I can bare the silence much more,” Lily admitted. “We should talk about something.”

“Like how good a steak sounds right now,” Phoenyx said.

Lily laughed. “Well, maybe not that. No point in tormenting ourselves.”

“That’s a good point,” Phoenyx agreed. “In that case, let’s do what girls do best and talk about boys. You got a boyfriend back in Seattle?”

“No.” Lily frowned and shrugged. “I don’t really have time for one, with school and all my projects. The nursing program requires about eight hours of class a day, and that’s not even including homework and study time.”

“Yikes,” Phoenyx said. “That’s a hell of a work load.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Lily asked.

“I had a boyfriend in high school for a little while but he was a real idiot. He ruined my prom night, and that was the last straw. I knew we weren’t going to last long distance anyway, once I went off to college, so it was best that we broke it off early.”

“Were you hoping to find a new boyfriend once you get to college?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know.” Phoenyx shrugged. “If I find someone interesting, I might give it a try, but I’m not going to seek one out. The best guys come around when you’re not looking for them, you know. Or so I’ve heard anyway.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lily said. “You said you were going to UCLA, right? What do you study?”

“I don’t really know yet, to be honest,” Phoenyx said. “I haven’t started yet. This was going to be my first year. Actually…” Phoenyx cocked her head at Lily, “didn’t you say you were already going to UW? How is that—we’re the same age?”

“I graduated high school a year early,” Lily said. “I have always wanted to go into medicine, so I was really eager to start college right after. This is going to be my sophomore year.”

“What made you want to be a nurse?” Phoenyx asked. “Personally, I’m kinda squeamish. If I ever see a drop of blood, I’m intensely disgusted.”

Lily laughed. “That stuff doesn’t bother me, at all. Well, not in that sense any way. The sight of blood, to me, means that someone is in pain; it just makes me more determined to help. I’ve always been that way, driven to help people. Nursing just seems like a way to do that; better than being a doctor anyway because they don’t spend as much time with their patients. And private practice doctors are really just in it for the money.”

“What’s UW like?” Phoenyx asked.

“Beautiful,” Lily responded, smiling briefly at the thought of it. “I joined the gardening club. Last spring, we made a huge effort to plant more trees and pretty gardens around campus. It’s such a lovely place now.”

“Gardening?” Phoenyx asked playfully. “Nursing and gardening—that’s quite a mix of interests.”

“I’ve always had a knack for gardening,” Lily said. “I can bring just about any plant ‘back from the dead’, you could say.” She used air quotes. “My Aunt Gene calls me Green Thumb.”

“Aww, that’s kinda cute,” Phoenyx said.

“What’s UCLA like? I mean, what you’ve seen of it?”

“It’s a pretty campus,” Phoenyx said. “And huge. I walked around last week to make sure I knew where all my classes were going to be and spent the whole day walking. Thankfully there’s an hour gap between each of my classes.”

“You have no idea what you want to study yet?” Lily asked.

“Not really. There’s so much I’m interested in, but not that one thing I’m super passionate about. I’m hoping that sometime in the first year it will find me; although that may not even matter now.” She instantly regretted saying that. It brought them both back into the reality of where they were, and neither of them wanted to be reminded of it. It was better to think about happy things and pretend they were anywhere else but here in this cell in this gloomy cement room.

“Sorry,” Phoenyx said to the suddenly solemn Lily. “I didn’t mean to be a buzz kill.”

Lily shook her head. “It’s okay. We were both thinking it.”

They sat in a moment of awkward silence.

“You know, you would think they’d be decent enough to at least give us some music,” Phoenyx complained.

Lily’s brows jumped. “You know any good songs? We could create our own music.”

“Yeah, okay. Do you know ’When I’m Gone’? The cup song?”

“What self-respecting teen girl doesn’t know that song?” Lily laughed.

Lily made the cup sounds with her half-empty water bottle in perfect rhythm, clapping it and hitting the ground with it.

“I got my ticket for the long way round,” Phoenyx sang. “Two bottles of whiskey for the way. And I sure would like some sweet company and I’m leaving tomorrow, whad’ya say.”

Lily added her voice. “When I’m gone, when I’m gone, you’re gonna miss me when I’m gone. You’re gonna—”

They were cut off by the clickety clack of the door being unlocked on the other side. The door opened and that same giant, bald man came in.

Feeling brave, without hesitation, Phoenyx jumped to her feet and pressed herself against the bars.

“What do you want with us?” she demanded.

As if not hearing her, or simply deeming her unworthy of acknowledgement, the man flung a similar brown paper bag at them, turned around, and walked out.

“Hey! You can’t keep us locked up in here!” Phoenyx yelled after him.

The door clunked closed.

Grunting in futility, Phoenyx turned and slid her back down the bars until her butt touched the ground. She pulled the paper bag through the bars. The same things were in the bag as last time. Phoenyx tossed Lily one of the burgers.

Lily started singing again. After a verse, Phoenyx joined in. They sang together louder and louder, feeling less and less despaired. When the song was over, Phoenyx sang another song, and then Lily after that and so on. They took this dark, hopeless place and filled it with life and color. For that hour or two, they weren’t completely miserable.