Dead Last Read Online Free PDF

or device that concealed the identity of the wearer. Exemptions were made for traditional holiday costumes and persons lawfully engaged in trade and employment or sporting activity for the purpose of ensuring the physical safety of the wearer, or because of the nature of the occupation or trade. A person could wear a mask intended for a theatrical production or masquerade balls.
    Are you, he asked, on the way to a masquerade ball or a holiday party or a sporting event? No, sir, you confessed, you were not.
    Didn’t think so, he said. Hellfire, boy, what were you thinking?
    You don’t know what to say, so you say nothing.
    It’s not just Georgia, he explained. Other states had similar statutes, growing out of anti-KKK laws.
    You told him you understood. You didn’t realize it was a crime.
    He ordered you to remove the hood and without hesitation you pulled it off, showing him the face you prepared for just such an event. You held your hand in front of your eyes to shield the glare of the headlights. You tilted your head just so, and shifted your feet to angle yourself sideways. In that moment you realized how this situation could work to your advantage. This could be the break you need.
    You apologized. You intended no harm. You were doing it as a lark. You keep that open hand in front of your eyes.
    He could have detained you for prowling. He could have demanded to see your ID. Asked to examine the contents of your shopping bag. But his radio was squawking and he was distracted by it. Bigger fish elsewhere.
    After a silence, he accepted your explanation, and you were allowed to walk away in your black suit.
    Two weeks later, here in the parking lot of the cowboy bar, you strip out of your clothes. It requires limberness and patience. You’ve learned to bend and stretch around the steering wheel. Shoes first, pants, then underclothes, and last your shirt. You arrange them on the seat beside you, stack them in a tidy pile. When you return in a while you will be jangled and it’s important the clothes are organized. Seeing them will calm you.
    When you’re naked you wriggle into the suit. Some people refer to it as a unitard or a catsuit, but the proper name is Zentai. A Japanese word that simply means “bodysuit.”
    The stretchy material is skintight, nonreflective black. The hood assumes the shape of your face and skull. There are no eyeholes or mouth slits. The material is sufficiently thin at those places so your vision is only slightly impaired and breathing is easy. When the suit is in place, you fit on the special shoes. And you are ready.
    Your hand is on the door latch when you hear voices, and look into the rearview mirror. A couple is crossing the parking lot. In the outside mirror you watch them stagger, heading toward the pickup beside you. The man wears a string tie and a cowboy hat and the girl a low-cut top and a miniskirt. They are clinging to each other, kissing and groping.
    You could duck down and try to hide, but you don’t because this encounter might also prove useful. You’re running out of time. Such risks are becoming more necessary at this stage, so you remain motionless in the seat behind the wheel and wait as they approach. They stop at the tailgate of the cowboy’s pickup and share a sloppy kiss. Then they separate and the girl in the silver skirt and dark top comes down the aisle between the pickup truck and your car.
    You take your eyes off the mirror and wait for her approach. You hear the truck’s door open and the cowboy saying something drawly. “Get your sweet ass in my truck right now, woman.” The woman answers: “I don’t know if I like the way you’re speaking to me, sir.”
    You turn and look out your window. Her butt is an arm’s length away.
    She climbs into the truck and reaches back to close the door, but stops.
    She leans toward you. She’s seen something but doesn’t know what it is. It’s dark. She’s drunk, she’s sexed up.
    She stares at you for three