Page 44 of Nearly Roadkill: Queer Love on the Run
This kid comes up to me, eyes popping out of his head, and he says, “Winc?” I say, “Orlio?”
He’s laughing, and he says “Wow, you really *are* a lady!” And I say “Sometimes, dear.” And he keeps laughing.
We’re only there a few minutes when suddenly there’s Scratch at the curb in that silly car. Ze leans out the window with a crinkly grin and says, “Hey, Dollface, kept you waitin’ long?” Swoon. Ze must’ve broken every speed limit getting here on time.
“Gwynyth’s Guides are with us! There’s a parking space!”
I shake my head in disbelief.
Orlio can’t get over Scratch.
“Oh man, that is so cool: You’re gay!”
Scratch keeps smiling, glancing at him all gruff-but-not-really, and finally says, “Sometimes, dear.” I swear!
Right, so just as he said he would, Orlio’s dad let us into his loft at this office called EcoTech, then he and Orlio went home, and now it’s just the two of us, cozy as can be.
See you and Toobe soon, yes?
—ScratchnWinc
END GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
TOOBE ENTRY
Well shit. All nodes have gone down except one (plus Jabba’s). That guts the strike. Technically. But people are still out in the streets celebrating!
I can’t believe their stupid plan is working. I love them.
END TOOBE ENTRY
GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
Balls of fire! Scratch and Winc are actually sitting together in the Manhattan office of EcoTech, in the node room, typing to one another side by side (Winc’s idea of an icebreaker, I imagine). The two of them seem quite oblivious to the law closing in, having now pegged them to NYC.
*** You are in Private Room “Hee Hee” ***
Winc: ::sleepy smile:: Good morning.
Scratch: Check this out! Dueling computers!
Winc: ::blinking:: You seem very awake.
Scratch: Way!
Are you reading the “Scratch and Winc” board?
Have you missed me?
Do you have enough stuff to read?
Read this: ::uploading::
Post: Scratch and Winc Website
It’s working, it’s working! Very few nodes left!
Signing off now!
—Alternative to Loud Boats Node, San Diego
Winc: Do you know you make me happy beyond words?
::shaking my head:: Delighted to see this side of you.
Scratch: So many sides. So happy to see you!
Winc: Me too you! ::softly:: Why are we typing then?
Scratch: We’re shy. And we have to keep activity on this line.
Winc: ::dimly:: Still haven’t had any coffee yet, dear.
Scratch: When all the nodes shut off we’ll be the only ones left!
Winc: You seem pretty happy.
Scratch: Hysterically happy!
::measuring happiness::
85% cuz you, 30% cuz rebels with a cause.
Winc: Your math needs some work, sweetie. Know what?
Scratch: ::stopping short:: What?
Winc: When you’re happy, you tell stories.
Scratch: Hmmm, guess you’re right…
Winc: Lovely to see, darlin’. You’re full of joy.
Scratch: Joy’s got me picked up by the holes like a bowling ball.
Scratch: You wanna hear something else?
Winc: Always.
Scratch: ::demonstrating:: I put my fingers inside your cunt, then I put two more in your ass, then I rock you back and forth and up and down and then I kiss you and then I pick you up and you come and then we are happyhappyhappywackos!
Winc: ::gasp:: Yeah, that’s sort of what I had in mind… like that…
Scratch: Then Razorfun comes in all dark and scary and cuts you and then we bleed all over naked bodies and roll around in the daisies…
::circuits crossing and jamming::
::Technicolor explosions::
Winc: You are so sweet.
Scratch: … and then Scratchgrrl jumps into Winc’s riotboy arms and we slamdance around while I pull his cock and then Digqueer trips us up and we fall down on the green grass with all kinds of wet stuff and lots o’ flowers…
Winc: Scratch. I am so glad you’re back.
Scratch: Back ain’t the half of it.
You may fear you’ve created a monster…
Winc: ::purring:: You have always been my favorite monster.
Scratch: Do you think we should be logging this?
Hard to recreate hysterical joy…
Winc: ::rolling my eyes:: Been logging for hours. It’s bound to be someone’s idea of history someday.
Winc: But I’m a little scared of going offline.
To be with you face to face again.
I can feel the warmth of you next to me.
::carefully keeping my eyes glued to the screen::
Scratch: Yeah, me, too. But there’s no other way but forward.
We gotta be together for this last thing.
::using all my willpower to keep fingers on the keyboard::
Scratch: I’m sorry I was gone so long, must have been very difficult for you…
Winc: ::nodding, smiling gently:: Made sense, though.
Look how long it took to get to know each other, not just in surfing, but…
I go away too, just not quite so noisily as you
Scratch: I know. Too much stimulus. So I just shut down.
Winc: Understand.
Scratch: Trying not to think about you on the floor…
red marks on your back…
Winc: ::moaning::
Scratch: Oh damn, it’s like I heard you really do that!
Scratch: You’ve got to protect yourself from my going away.
I have NO idea when it’s coming…
Winc: Sighing. It’s all part of love.
Winc: Didja hear that?
Scratch: I sure did, sugar pop.
Scratch: ::slight grin, continuing to type::
Wanna get you all wet, always want to get you all wet and messy…
Winc: Wanna be on my knees in front of you.
Scratch: }-
Winc: Is that a picture of Razorfun?
Scratch: Uh huh.
Winc: Wanna press my face against your boot.
Scratch: Wanna slap that face and kiss that face and slap it some more…
Winc: You know I really wanna feel you slap me.
Scratch: You know I really wanna mark you with me.
Winc: Wanna be yours.
Winc: Scratch?
Winc: Scratch?
Scratch: Guess what?
Winc: NO! ::small voice:: g’bye?
Scratch: Yeah, we should do our signoff soon.
Winc: ::gulp:: Right you are. ::waving::
By goddess, I hope the heck they learn to talk in real time.
END GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
NARRATIVE ENTRY, JABBATHEHUT
6:00 a.m., Manhattan Monday, still no traffic.
No early-to-work types rushing to their offices.
A gaggle of government types stand on the sidewalk, holding cups of sticky-sweet concoctions from the Papaya King.
They’re all listening to Budge hold forth about his days as a beat cop.
Only Shelly Dunlap notices that he keeps shifting his eyes to the EcoTech building, up to the fifth floor, where one light is burning.
“What’re we waiting for, Wally?” she whispers.
“For Henderson to wake up and give us the damned go-ahead,” says Wally. “Even though he thinks we’re on a false trail. Can’t say I acted without orders. Until then,” he grins, “we wait.”
He looks over at his shabby crew.
“Hey, you guys. And gals. Have I told you the one about busting the pickets at the abortion center in Chelsea?”
To: ScratchnWinc
From: Jabbathehut
Subj: Errant nodes
There appear to be only two nodes left online.
One belongs to some kind of gun-rights group whose last message was “we don’t know how to turn it off.
” The last node is mine. I assure you I will continue to operate as usual, as it is not my nature to be a joiner of any kind. Please excuse that inconvenience.
Fighting God,
—J.
To: Jabbathehut
From: ScratchnWinc
Subj: Naughty nodes
Gun rights? Wow. And um, did you know that if we all go offline you’ll be the only one left? Could you please consider taking a holiday for 24 hours? We wouldn’t really count you among the strikers, but it would make everything perfect.
—S&W.
END JABBA NARRATIVE ENTRY
GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
I might have to agree with Jabba about people’s short attention spans.
Having had 10 minutes of no activity, Scratch and Winc goofed around online and, incredibly, discovered the Allied Consumer Industries database file.
Perhaps because there were hardly any nodes online, it was easy to discover? How do they DO these things?
END GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
SCRATCH JOURNAL ENTRY
OMG, we found *the* database with all the Reg info, all the answered Reg forms!
I got off on just looking at it, but Winc went right in. Ze said Jabba had taught hir a few codes, and ze just started hacking away until ze was in. Fuck!!!
First thing ze tried to do was delete the whole thing, but it kicked hir out a few times. Ze found another backdoor and we got to the database spreadsheet itself, which showed all those stupid Reg questions we hated about Registration.
Then we got another note from Jabba.
To: ScratchnWinc
From: Jabbathehut
Subj: Confirmation
There being only two nodes left makes you extremely vulnerable to actual capture. Since the gun-rights site is in SF and mine is in NYC any fool would know you’re in one or the other.
F.G.,
—J.
Right. So back to the spreadsheet: We skipped down to the third question, our favorite one to hate:
Sex: M/F
Annnnnnd, I go…
—CLICK—
And the whole column was selected, easy as pie!
Saying that out loud made Winc announce that ze wanted some pie.
Obviously punchy by then, bored out of our skulls but wired from all the waiting, adrenaline, and the sex we weren’t having.
We put our fingers together and hit the DELETE key as one, fully expecting a big old nothing.
We didn’t really know what we’d done, but it went sorta like this:
Winc: Wow, it’s an hourglass.
Scratch: What does that mean?
Winc: It’s thinking.
—pause—
Scratch: Wow, it’s still thinking.
Every time we looked back at the screen, the hourglass was still there. And the little lights blinking on the console. S L O W L Y.
Meanwhile, in came another memo from Jabba:
To: Scratch/Winc via bypass
From: Jabbathehut
Subj: Neatness
There is one more node left besides my own, the gun-rights site. Not a blocker, but one likes clean, smooth lines in one’s patterns.
There appears to be no means of having your little action work, so long as this node is open.
—J.
It always fucking goes this way. One stupid little scared clutch of people fuck it up for the rest of us. All they had to do was shut down for 24 hours. But no, as if taking a stand on something, anything, would fucking kill them.