The Eve of the Day
One shot. Bang! Dead. Jackie Mandrake uses the flapper to get rid of the three striped mosquito carrying the deadly virus released upon mankind by some bad people. “And for my next trick …” He doesn’t finish the sentence, there is a knock on the door.
“Hi Eve, come on in, I need to tell you something.” She is a flapper too. She is wearing Armani’s summer collection and with the high heels she reaches up to his eye brows. She looks absolutely stunning and she doesn’t even seem to know. Or does she? The Mediterranean blue eyes, high cheeks and the broad smile of Julia Roberts. The body of a girl who likes a good workout at the gym, the dojo for martial arts, and the shooting range too, just to keep in shape. She is younger than her passport says, 42, it says.
She closes the door behind her and he has a look at her, but there is nothing to worry about, the look is just routine and the sudden attack of paranoia is gone. For the moment. He’s been under some stress for a while. But hey, wait a minute …
“Hello, handsome.” She kisses him. Strawberries. She steps out of her high heels.
“Do you have it?”
“Of course.” She opens the small black leather bag hanging on her shoulder and hands him the packet.
“Great! A huge leap for mankind, this is.”
“Armstrong.” She sighs. “But you shouldn’t mock me.”
“Sorry. I forget.”
“That’s okay.” She laughs. “I love you just the way you are …” She sings the words by Billy Joel. Her voice is melodic and vibrant and she easily reaches five and a half octaves if needed. Mandrake knows this from the other night when she was on stage at a soul bar, singing an old jazz song with the band. Blue Moon. And she sounded exactly like Billie Holliday too. There are a lot of things she can do if needed. She is tall, long legs, she speaks in complete sentences in any language and she can kick in a door if needed.
He opens the brown paper packet containing eleven vials. He takes one and smashes it to the floor.
“What about the rest?”
“We are going to do some travelling.”
“Good. I love to travel.”
“Me too. We have a plane to catch.”
She says nothing because she already knows. She processes the information through circuits with connections that overpower your usual milk man - her dendrites and synopses are connected to all of the other brain cells at the same time. She knows a lot of things about things, and today she shed a tear for the future of mankind.
“Well, when is this adventure supposed to take place?” She pretends not to know.
“Now - get your stuff, we need to hurry - we have five minutes.”
“I’m packed.” She grabs her cabin bag on the drawer beneath the television on the wall. Good we never watched the telly in the three days we stayed here, she thinks. I would have gone into shopping mode. They are out the door within ten seconds.
“Fucks,” she says to herself while they walk through the front door at the hotel, waving at the pretty girl in reception - thanks for having us! - “I forgot the chewing-gum in the room, I must be losing it.”
They have to turn around as cars with screeching wheels stop outside the hotel. They walk out through the back door into an alley where they take a left and there is the street on the riverside and they disappear into the crowd celebrating, well something, yes it’s the President’s birthday. People cheering, happy smiles, flags waving. Singing and chanting. The works. Just on time.
They made a narrow escape but Eve is blaming herself. “Fucks,” she says - “I forgot the chewing gum.”
“No worries - I’ll get you a packet of chewing gum.” He looks at her. “What is this about chewing gum?”
“I don’t know. I think I might be losing it. On my way back to the room my mind was drifting, I was looking at clothes in expensive boutiques, and I wanted it all.” She bursts into tears, “I can feel I’m changing - you bought me these clothes to make me look like I fit in … but now I want more … I look into the shop windows, I look at clothes, I look at shoes, I look at nice handbags and I saw this wonderful Kelly 25 alligator for one hundred thousand dollars and I wanted it so badly. What can we do about this, you think? - Do we have another chance?”
“Sorry, Eve, we can’t afford it,” says Jackie Mandrake and raises his gun.
