Page 125
“Suit yourself,” Maggie says like I just refused a poison antidote.
“If we’re done with the fashion show, can I see Thivierge now?”
“Ms. Lawton is in the back room by the garden. Follow me.”
The rooms I walk through remind me of Danny Gentry’s place, only a lot richer and a lot classier. Movie posters on the walls. Awards on the bookshelves. Lots of photos with lots of important people. What’s funny, though, is that there’s a light coat of dust on everything, like no one’s set foot in these rooms in a long time.
By the time we get to the back, where Thivierge is waiting, I’m beginning to regret not taking the parka. My hands are going numb and I can see my breath.
Finally, Maggie stops by a room sealed like something you’d see on a space station. The wall around the door is covered floor to ceiling in heavy, silver-backed insulation. The door itself is sealed with a kind of airlock, so that nothing that’s going on out here is going to contaminate what’s going on in the next room.
I touch my cheek and realize I can’t feel my face anymore.
Maggie smiles at that and says, “Please don’t upset her. She’s fragile.”
“I’ll be like cotton-candy kisses.”
Maggie gives me a look and opens the door. An even deeper winter blast smacks me and I can’t help but shudder.
The crap I do to make a living.
I wait by the door and listen as Maggie seals it up behind me.
Across the room is an old woman in a wheelchair who looks like she was carved out of a glacier. A living ice sculpture for some billionaire’s New Year’s party. We stare at each other for over a minute.
Finally, I say, “Thanks for seeing me, Ms. Thivierge.”
“All of a sudden you’re polite. Did your mother teach you to be nice to old ladies?”
“No, ma’am. She taught me how to make her martinis.”
That gets me a brittle laugh. She points to a sofa that’s covered in puffy insulated material. I sink six inches when I sit down.
“So, you found me out and tracked me here,” Thivierge says. “Big deal. If it’s money you want, I don’t have any. Every cent is sunk into this house and the electric bills.”
“I had a feeling they’re pretty hefty.”
“It’d make your balls shrivel up if you saw it.”
“My balls are pretty shriveled anyway.”
Another brittle laugh, followed by a hacking cough. I get up to help her, but she waves me back onto the sofa.
She says, “I can’t stand being touched. Feeling another person’s body heat is agony.”
I’m tired of beating around the bush.
“Tell me, Ms. Thivierge, who cursed you?”
She sits back and eyes me for a minute, so I go on.
“I couldn’t help noticing all the protections you had on your place. Are you afraid of someone? The person who did this to you?”
This time when she laughs it isn’t brittle. It comes from deep in her throat. It’s the most human sound she’s made so far.
She says, “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you? You’re part of the Hollywood magic set, aren’t you? Well, kiddo, I’ll tell you exactly who cursed me: me.”
It all makes a kind of sense. All of those Hollywood parties with stoned garbage wizards like Kenny; something was bound to go wrong.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125 (Reading here)
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169