Venus Drive Read Online Free PDF

the new dead style?
    I went down to the park and watched the sparrows peck things off the blacktop. Those animal kingdom shows I always watched with Molly made like there were animal societies, but these birds just hopped around unbidden. I picked one sparrow to be the hero. He proved himself the moocher of the flock.
    There was a man in Lycra on a nearby bench, breathing hard, a paper sign pinned to his chest.
    â€œR ACE FOR THE CURE ,” the sign said.
    I went over to another bench and waited for a feel in the air that would mean the coming of Gary.
    â€œI’m resting,” said the racer. “I’m going to get up. Just give me a damn minute.”
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    People always said that what Gary did to his thumb was due to a disturbance, but I figured it happened in a moment of calm. Once he sawed off his thumb and gave it to his mother on a breakfast tray, he was in the free and clear. Who would ever bother a boy like that again? Who would tell him when to go to bed?
    This is what I mean by wisdom.
    The death of rock was just bad luck.
    But Gary was getting it together. Meanwhile, he was mentoring me. The last time I’d seen him he came over with his knapsack, dumped out pills, powders and plant kingdoms on the kitchen table. Molly was gone and I looked around for something of hers to give Gary.
    â€œHey, are you sure you can handle all this stuff?” he said, pinched a razor blade between his living finger and his dead thumb. “Look at you, you’re slavering.”
    I asked Gary for some girlfriend advice.
    â€œDo you love her?” said Gary.
    â€œThat’s what I’m asking you,” I told him. “Do I?”
    He kept propping his thumb up against the side of the razor.
    â€œWhy don’t you use the other hand?” I said.
    â€œGive a man a fish,” said Gary.
    â€œYou want fish?” I said.
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    Now Molly was home with her mortar, her pestle. She liked to crush things for wellness when enough was enough.
    â€œYou’re home,” I said.
    I smelled fennel.
    â€œI had a headache.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” I said.
    â€œSo sorry you went and took more of my stuff? Don’t tell me, you just need it for a little while.”
    â€œI need to find Gary,” I said.
    â€œYou need a better embalmer,” she said. “Look at you.”
    â€œLook at these,” I said, spread out my hands for her, my thumbs. “These are all that separate us from the beasts of the field.”
    â€œWhat beasts?” said Molly.
    â€œThe ones of the field. In the field.”
    â€œActually,” said Molly, “that’s a myth.”
    â€œActually,” I said.
    â€œI mean,” said Molly, “factually.”
    â€œIf Gary calls,” I said, “tell him I love you.”
    â€œGet the hell out of here,” said Molly.
    â€œJust give me a damn minute,” I said.
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    I went to get some coffee, to think hard about where Gary might be. But then I started to think hard about what Gary said about fish. Give a man one why?
    There was a straw dispenser on the counter next to my coffee cup. You pushed a little lever and the straw jerked out.
    I had a flitter, a flicker.
    I saw Gary bouncing high in his ballroom chair. I saw him carried in it across the city, waving to crowds with his bandaged hand. His tusked uncles bore him across wide avenues full of birds. They took him into all of the Gary places, the parks, the bars, bodegas. Gary’s mother and the Brit danced around the chair with feathered parasols. I was running to keep up. I had a message to deliver, memorized on some prior occasion. The message went: “I am running to keep up.”
    A hand poked out of the crowd and hooked my arm.
    â€œPay extra to nod on my counter,” the coffee man said.
    â€œI wasn’t nodding,” I said. “I was passing out. You want to work in this town you should learn the difference.”
    I paid for the coffee