Featherless Bipeds Read Online Free PDF Page B

in pastel clothing rushing back and forth, a television-like thing beside me, my own feet poking out from beneath a blanket. Two doctors — one male, one female — who I thought a moment ago were my Mom and Dad, are walking away from my bed. Heaven is beginning to look a lot like a hospital Emergency Room.
    â€œHe’s awake!” Zoe cries, and her face appears above mine, smiling. Her long, black hair brushes my cheek and neck as she leans forward to kiss my dry lips. She stretches out her coffee-with-cream coloured fingers, and brushes my hair off my forehead. Her skin is the softest thing I’ve ever felt.
    Tristan and Veronica appear at the foot of my bed, looking both worried and relieved. Akim and Sung Li, the couple I had just met when Lola tossed me from her party, are here as well
    â€œHi, Dak,” Veronica says. She kisses me, too. Sung Li does the same. I never would have guessed that getting stabbed would come with such benefits.
    â€œDoes it hurt?” Tristan says.
    I do a quick scan of my body. My belly throbs with certain, searing pain. The back of my head, which absorbed blows from the big, heavy weapon, as well as hitting the sidewalk, pulses and burns. I guess they took a few kicks at me, too, because the dull pain of rising welts dot my body like leopard spots.
    â€œIt’s not so bad,” I answer, and I discover that it hurts to smile.
    Lola tiptoes in between Veronica and Sung Li.
    â€œJesus, Dak,” she says, “You didn’t have to go this far to prove me wrong.”
    â€œI was just looking for Zoe.”
    Lola looks at Zoe. “I get it now.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” I say. “I probably shouldn’t have been mocking Zoe’s dad like that, since he might be my father-in-law some day.”
    Zoe rolls her eyes.
    I reach around Zoe and pat her behind with my bandaged hand, a move that is worth the pain it causes. I know she’s not my girlfriend anymore, I know that we are officially “just friends”, but I suspect in this particular circumstance she will let me get away with it.
    A nurse steps through the door, looks at the multi-coloured crew gathered around the bed. “Visitors are supposed to be family only,” she says. “I don’t think you are all related to this patient.”
    â€œWe’re all adopted,” I say.
    The nurse does not laugh. Everyone but Zoe move towards the door.
    â€œYou get better soon, eh, Dak?” Akim says. “You need to get back behind those drums, so we can get this band going.”
    â€œDamn right,” Lola says.
    Everyone says goodbye. Tristan winks at me as he pulls the privacy curtain closed.
    Zoe rests her head on my shoulder, touches two fingers to my lips, the only two places on my body that aren’t pulsing with pain. I slide my hand onto her slender back.
    â€œI’m glad you’re going to be okay,” she sighs.
    â€œGlad enough to make you want to be my girlfriend again?”
    â€œGetting there,” she says.
    Maybe it’s the painkillers, but I feel strangely warm and happy inside. I am going to be in a rock band. I am going to get my girlfriend back. No pain can keep me from smiling now.
    Life is good.

Paint
    Lyrics — D. Sifter, Music — A. Ganges, T. Low, D. Sifter
(From the album Socrates Kicks Ass!, recorded by The Featherless Bipeds)
    This kind of paint
    has thirty-two colours
    and a thousand times more
    when you mix ’em together
    and maybe a million zillion when
    you add black or white (or grey shades)
    to the mix
    as they age, their tones begin to change
    no two are ever exactly the same
    some are innocent
    some cover guilt
    some are contained and can never be spilt
    some are green, like gardens and trees
    some are red, like bloodshot eyes and skinned knees
    some of the colours can’t be seen at all
    black moonless nights and white blinding snow
    Brotherly, Sisterly, Fatherly, Motherly
    Pure and Forgiving,