Down Solo (16 page)

The shape seems to undulate slightly, a ripple that starts at its center and moves like a wave to its tips, and then it dives with astonishing speed. I follow more slowly and watch as it floats several feet over my body and then, with another ripple, moves to Tanya and descends and twitches in a voracious frenzy, like a shark feeding. It repeats its rape on Alan Hunter and ascends, blue streaks of electricity sparking in its darkness like lightning in a storm cloud. It ignores me and recedes into the sky. The roaring sound begins and grows until it engulfs me.

Time and space compress. In a vision from the sky, my silver strand to the world frayed and spider-web thin, I see thousands of junkies, hovering over the planet, superimposed as a second vision, looking down, lusting for another second chance at life.

. . . The End . . .

Earl Javorsky is the black sheep of his family of artistic high achievers.