The Clarion May 2, 1995 Page 4
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"Jennifer In Lace Shadows ” by Aubrey Moore
DAVE
No one was around when it
happened. The girl wanted privacy
anyway, and the only place to be alone
in this club was the bathroom, so she
hid herself pretty well. She had been
shooting up on heroin or something,
was having a good time, but then she
OD’d. It was too bad, really. She had
been quite pretty.
Darcy found her in one of the
stalls in the bathroom. Darcy needed to
go really bad, she’d been drinking a lot,
and after she was done she saw the
body on the floor in the last stall on the
row. The floor was filthy and there
were needles and paper and a few
spoons on the floor around the girl, like
offerings to some demented god. The
graffiti on the walls around the make
shift god would make some of the guys
in the club blush.
I cannot say why Darcy was so
cool and calm about the whole thing. 1
wouldn’t have been. I might have
crapped in my shorts if I’d seen a dead
guy in the bathroom. We were at the
club, El Dorichio. It don’t think it
means anything in any language, the
owner just thought it sounded cool.
The inside of the place was huge.
It was a three story building without any
of the floors on the inside. The only
standing space left was the basement.
The stage was on the level where the
first floor would be, and it was support
ed by heavy wooden beams. I love
playing the place. The crowd couldn’t
reach you, and you could spit on them
without any problem.
So anyway, Darcy found the body
and came out and told this bruiser of a
security guy, you know, the kind with
no hair and a brow ridge so low you
can’t see his eyes. So he burst into the
ladies’ room and took hold of the whole
situation. Of course he didn’t know
what to do, so he called the cops.
Everyone in the place was on
something from pot to Coke to LSD to
Ecstacy. It was really bad, but the
place was a narcotics bust waiting to
happen. It was like an easter egg hunt
for cops, and all the eggs were out in
the open.
So when the police wanted to
interrogate us they would get a bunch of
drooling, crying schmucks with their
thumbs up their asses. I told my band
to stay off the stuff before a gig so we
would be clear as to what we were
playing. Lucky for them they listened.
It took the cops about thirty min
utes to arrive with an ambulance. By
then the body had been forgotten, and
there was some stupid doper chick
taking a dump. It was funny the next
day, because she was halfway through,
if you know what I mean.
So this chick was thrown out of
the bathroom, but only after she’d taken
care of business. She really hurried up
after the cops busted in. Darcy was at
the bar getting questioned by a detec
tive, since she had found the body.
They wanted a statement from pretty
much all of us. There were only three
people there who knew the girl, and
they were so doped that they couldn’t
give a statement without having an
epiphany every five minutes or so.
It was kind of pitiful. I think it
was around the time that the cops ques
tioned the third doper that I swore off
drugs. The doper was puking every
where, and the cops didn’t give a damn.
The neon lights were still flashing
away, and they were buzzing and crack
ling now. Somebody had bumped into
them while they were moshing around
the pit. They flashed reds and greens
and blues and yellows, a virtual rainbow
covering the floor. The LSD freaks
were having a wonderful time in this
liquid color landscape.
A cop came up to me to talk about
the girl. He was short and had a mus
tache, and he wore a dark blue shirt that
said SHERIFF in white. He had his
gun at his hip. He went through he
whole thing about my name and such,
and then he got up close and personal
about me.
"Did you know the deceased
personally?" he asked. This wasn’t like
COPS.
"Nah, none of us did. except those
dopers you guys questioned. I never
really noticed her before, but then I
rarely recognize people in here."
"How come?"
"Because, so many new people
come in here. Plus, I’m with the band,
so I don’t come here all the time either.
I might come here once a week or so."
"Did you notice her tonight?" he
asked. His moustache ruffled when he
SOOK6
‘"Nah. I mean, I might have seen
her, but I wouldn’t take any special
notice of her. She was a doper. I used
to be. I don’t hang with dopers."
He scribbled all this down. If I
was called to be a witness, they could
use that against my character. The cop
hanked me and went his merry way
and probably found some doper to
arrest. The cops would get a warrant
on this place in no time at all.
I hunted down Darcy and she was
sitting out in front of the club wearing
her sun glasses. She was curled up and
there were people strolling by her not
taking any notice. She was crying, but
she didn’t want anyone to notice. No
one cares anymore about who has been
hurt. Some jackass business man
walked by and told us to move our
asses and get real jobs.
"Piss off," I shouted after him.
Darcy cried a little more, and the suit
just moved a little quicker. He proba
bly thought that I was going to jump
him.
I looked down at Darcy, "You
OK, kid?"
"No." She whimpered a little.
"I know, I know," but I didn’t.
What else could I have said?
"She’s dead Dave. She was lay
ing there while I was peeing, and she
was dead," she sobbed and spit came
out of her mouth, "and I didn’t see her
until it was too late."
I hugged Darcy as she sobbed
some more. People were looking now.
She was making a lot of noise, and
there’s nothing like a scene to attract a
crowd.
Darcy didn’t seem to care if we
attracted a crowd. She’d just found a
dead body. I didn’t know what to say.
What can you say? Nothing real impor
tant, I guess, so I told her some jokes.
It wasn’t so she would forget or any
thing (What’s the last thing that went
through Kurt Cohain’s mind?), just so
she’d cheer up (His teeth. Oops.). She
only cried harder.
The cops started to leave. It was
only four in the morning and what not.
They wanted to secure the area and shut
down the place because they still hadn’t
moved the body. A police woman tried
to talk to Darcy and tell her it was o-
kay. I think Darcy wanted to become a
junkie right about then. At least junkies
get to run away for a little bit.
The boys from the ambulance
were rolling out the body in a bag.
They were shouting and Darcy cringed.
When they came out of the doorway,
they were like demons spewing forth
from some hell-gate. The body was
jostling from all the bumps the para
medics were giving it. Darcy cried a
little harder.
"Why don’t they stop!?!" she
screamed.
1 didn’t know.
The band left about an hour later.
They didn’t say anything to me or
Darcy, they just patted my shoulder.
They didn’t have any clue as to what
was going on.
After everyone left the club
(which was two hours and one hell of a