Lucretia and the Kroons

by Victor Lavalle

  “What are you doing!” Loochie shouted.

  Loochie tried to shake free, but Sunny gripped her close. She held Loochie’s wrists and looked down into Loochie’s eyes.

  “She’s my friend,” Sunny said.

  Loochie struggled some more.

  “She’s my friend,” Sunny repeated.

  Finally Sunny released Loochie’s wrists. She slid away from Loochie and Loochie sat up. Nothing that had happened in 6D had stunned Loochie more than those three words. Loochie watched Sunny, dumbstruck.

  “I’m your friend,” Loochie finally said.

  Before Sunny might react both girls heard heavy breathing behind them.

  Sunny moved toward the sound, toward the female Kroon. When Sunny stood right next to it (her?) they looked like a jockey and a horse. One big enough to stamp the other into dust. The sight made Loochie want to pull Sunny away. Loochie scanned the ground for that tennis racket dagger, which she could still plunge into the monster, like stabbing a vampire with a wooden stake. But it had landed behind the Kroon.

  Sunny pressed her body against the Kroon, hugging its big arm and resting her head against its shoulder. How could she stand the smell? That’s what Loochie wondered.

  “Are you okay?” Sunny asked quietly.

  The Kroon sniffled but nodded.

  “Can you stand up?”

  Sunny stepped back and the Kroon rose to her full height. To Loochie the thing seemed to be seven feet tall. She looked into that face again—that missing jaw, the dribbles of spit rolling down its neck—and wanted to turn away. But now there were also two small gashes in its forehead, and a bump already starting to rise on its scalp. Hard for Loochie to believe she could’ve done such damage to something so powerful.

  Sunny pinched her lips tight. “I want you to say sorry to Alice.”

  Loochie didn’t mean to, but she laughed a little. “Her name is Alice?”

  The Kroon dropped her head. It almost seemed embarrassed.

  Sunny crossed her arms. “Loochie’s better?”

  That stung a little bit. “My name is Lucretia,” she corrected.

  Sunny pointed at the female Kroon. “And hers is Alice.”

  Sunny set her lips tight and squinted her eyes and leaned forward. It was her gangster pose. The one that had scared the Doberman pinscher away years before. Well now Loochie understood why that dog had panicked. Despite Sunny’s nearly bald head and her body worn down by cancer treatments, even with a monster standing right there, that girl looked like the fiercest thing in the world.

  “Fine,” Loochie finally muttered. “I’m sorry.”

  But that didn’t seem to be enough. Sunny said, “I couldn’t have saved you without Alice’s help, do you understand that? Who do you think pulled those bars on the fence apart? Me?”

  Now Loochie looked up at Alice, but Alice looked away.

  “You did that?” Loochie asked. “Why?”

  “She used to be as bad as the others,” Sunny said. “But she doesn’t want to act like a monster anymore. Now she wants to be friends.”

  Alice opened her hands and extended them so Loochie could see the scrapes on the palms and fingers. Proof that tearing open that hole in the fence hadn’t been easy. That Alice had done something kind for her friend Sunny. And for Loochie, too. Wasn’t that all she’d been hoping to do for Sunny in her apartment that afternoon? To be a good friend?

  Alice left her hands out and Loochie walked closer.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Sunny said calmly. She uncrossed her arms, relaxed her face. She was cooing at Loochie, the way you might call a skittish cat.

  Loochie inched closer. Alice’s big hands remained outstretched and open.

  “I promise it’ll be okay,” Sunny said, and the words were so quiet it almost seemed like Sunny was speaking right inside Loochie’s head.

  Loochie raised her two hands and set them flat on Alice’s. Loochie’s hands were so small, by comparison. Then Sunny set her hands, even smaller and frailer than Loochie’s, on top of theirs.

  “Friends,” Sunny said.

  They stood this way, and remained quiet, for a little time.

  “Let’s go home,” Loochie finally said with a smile.

  But in a moment they heard the great, echoing yelps of the male Kroons again.

  “They’re back,” Sunny said, looking at Alice. Strangely, Sunny didn’t sound scared. She sounded tired.

  Alice stood straight. Alice pointed behind them, toward the Unisphere.

  “We’ll have to hide,” Sunny said. “Let them pass by.”

  Loochie looked up at the stainless steel sphere. She’d always been amazed by the size of it in Flushing Meadows Park, and it was just as impressive here. Twelve stories tall, twice as high as Loochie’s building. You could actually see through much of the sphere, which was just a series of crossing lines, like longitude and latitude lines, welded together into the shape of a globe. Only the continents were solid steel, sitting just inside the lines, matching their real positions on the earth. It was a beautiful construction, a work of art, and even here, at its cockeyed angle, the Unisphere made Loochie feel secure.

  Alice picked Sunny up in one arm then she extended the other arm to Loochie. Loochie almost couldn’t do it, let herself get grabbed again, but then the squeals of the males came louder. Getting nearer. Loochie climbed into Alice’s embrace.

  Then Alice ran toward the Unisphere. She hopped over a concrete barrier that surrounded the base of the sphere, landing in a pool of mucky, murky water. As Alice ran the pool got deeper, the water coming up to her ankles at first, but then her knees, even the middle of her thighs. Loochie gazed down into the water, which looked like sewer sludge. The smell was just as hideous. She pressed her face into Alice’s shoulder, preferring the scent of burning plastic to whatever might waft up from the pool. As Alice ran the sound of splashing water drowned out the other Kroons.

  They reached the base of the Unisphere, a concrete pedestal. Alice stepped up onto it. She moved around the base until they were right below the continent of Australia. Sunny pulled at it. Australia swung open like a door. They scrambled inside the Unisphere.

  Sunny was inside now, walking along a latitude line, one foot in front of the other, with confidence. Her arms hung out slightly for balance. She made it ten steps before she turned to find Loochie stuck right at the start.

  “I was scared the first time, too,” Sunny said and she smiled as warmly as she had since they’d met in 6D. “You can do it.”

  Loochie looked at the latitude line again. She had to be calm. She breathed quietly. But the barks of the males were so loud it seemed as if they were shouting right into Loochie’s ear and the tremors in her legs got stronger.

  Sunny had made it all the way across, to the next continent. Africa. She called out. “I don’t want to rush you, Loochie, but Alice needs to get in, too.”

  Loochie looked back. Alice stood outside the sphere, on the concrete pedestal base, her body still, but her forehead had gone reddish and sweaty. Alice seemed to be as scared of the other Kroons as she was.

  Loochie decided she would walk across the line like Sunny had done. Follow Sunny’s example. Simple. No fuss. No hesitation. Sunny hadn’t even seemed to look down at her feet as she crossed. Loochie would do the same. That sewage water in the pool sloshed a foot below her. If she fell in there she’d probably drown or die of disgust, but she wouldn’t pay that any mind.

  Just walk. Just walk. Just walk.

  She made it three steps before she slipped.

  She was falling before she could even scream. Sunny had to scream for her.

  “Loochie!”

  Loochie threw out her hands to try to regain balance but that only made things worse. She flailed. She could see the water underneath the Unisphere. It was so dark it looked green. She saw the gaps between the longitude and latitude lines, like the gaps in the grillwork of her security gate but magnified a million times, and she hurtled toward the
m. And now the smell from the water, pure muck, did reach her. A sharp ammonia scent and something worse along with it. It felt like she’d been punched. She was going to dive right into it.

  But she stopped falling. Alice had grabbed her by the waist of her jeans.

  Alice pulled her back in.

  Alice walked across the latitude line with Loochie in one hand. Alice grunted with the exertion but she made it. All the way across. Where Sunny crouched. Alice reached Africa and set Loochie down. Sunny put her arms around Loochie and Loochie fell into the embrace. Sunny held Loochie tight.

  “You’re with me,” Sunny told her. “I’m not leaving you.”

  Those words made Loochie cry even harder than when she’d been alone in the Playground for Lost Children. But this time Loochie wept with relief and happiness. She was with Sunny. Sunny wasn’t leaving her. Loochie and Sunny and Alice sat inside the Unisphere. They rocked in the cradle of Africa and they were safe.

  11

  A pack of feral dogs would’ve sounded more civilized. The Twins circled the structure. Loochie thought she and her friends were about to get caught for sure. But the Twins were distracted. They were looking around for Loochie and Sunny, but they also scanned the pathway around the Unisphere. Looking up for the girls and down at the ground, back and forth. Loochie couldn’t understand what they expected to find at their feet. It wasn’t like the girls had shrunk down to the size of small rocks. But then one of the Twins almost seemed to sing, a high-pitched coo, the sweetest sound she’d ever heard one of them make.

  He leapt to the ground and snatched something up. The other Twin crowded close, cooing too. In a moment the other Kroons—Pit, Lefty, and Chuck—were scrambling closer to the Twins. But the first Twin ignored them, seemed to have forgotten about anything, everything. All except what was in his hand. He stayed on his knees and hunched over, his back to Loochie. She couldn’t see exactly what he was doing. But in a moment his hands glowed an orange color, as if they were on fire, as if a flame had leapt up out of his palm. The Twin brought his face down to his palm and inhaled deeply, loudly, and his shoulders rose and fell.

  The other Twin pushed his face closer to the fiery hands. The other males sprinted closer. Even Alice sat up straighter there inside the globe. But in a second the orange glow died out and both Twins fell backward on their butts, in a stupor. They tilted their heads back and gray smoke wafted from their nostrils. They smiled absently and shivered. Their whole bodies seemed to deflate. They seemed like they were about to fall over. At least until the other three Kroons got close.

  Pit choked with rage. He looked like he’d chop the heads off both Twins if he got hold of them now. The Twins scrambled to their feet and ran, slightly wobbly, away from the Unisphere and the other Kroons chased them. The girls watched them all go. Finally Loochie lay on her back and looked up through the top of the globe.

  “That was weird,” Loochie said.

  Sunny said, “I’ve seen them do that before.”

  Both girls looked to Alice, as if she might offer an explanation, but Alice only stared at the spot on the ground where the Twins had found their treasure and stayed quiet.

  “Well, can we at least start heading back home now?” Loochie asked.

  Sunny didn’t answer. Loochie sat up but Sunny stayed on her back.

  “I still have my lighter,” Sunny said. She raised her left foot and wiggled the rain boot until the lighter, a cheap little Bic, slipped out. She held it between two fingers and wiggled it. She looked at Loochie.

  Loochie sighed. “Why are you acting like this? You really think I care about that right now?”

  Sunny shivered for a moment, it looked involuntary, and her eyes rolled up slightly like she was about to faint. Then she coughed and cleared her head with a shake. She looked at Loochie and her eyes were clear, focused. “We said we were going to smoke a cigarette together. Just in case. You remember I said that? So I want to smoke a cigarette together. Now.”

  “I’ll smoke ten packs of cigarettes with you,” Loochie begged. “But let’s do it after we get back to my apartment!”

  Sunny’s expression changed. A wash of anger doused her face. “I’m not going back that way! Don’t you get that? Stop acting so stupid and try to understand!”

  Loochie grabbed Sunny’s arm and squeezed tightly, with malice. “Don’t talk like this on my birthday, Sunny.”

  Sunny looked down at Loochie’s hand. “Your birthday was in November,” Sunny said.

  “Fine,” Loochie said, letting go. She contorted herself until she could reach into her pocket. She pulled out the two remaining cigarettes.

  “Where’s the other one?” Sunny asked, sitting up.

  “I smoked it already,” Loochie said. “It was nasty.”

  Sunny waggled her head from side to side. “You just didn’t know how to do it right.”

  Sunny snatched one of the cigarettes from Loochie’s palm. “Hold on to that one for me,” Sunny commanded, and Loochie slipped it back into her pocket.

  Alice sat up too now. It took a little work but when all three crossed their legs they were able to sit in a circle. “The first thing I want you to do,” Sunny began, “is breathe like this.”

  Sunny sat erect and breathed in through her lips but then she held on to the breath and pushed her bony chest out. She let it expand and held the air inside. Finally she deflated and the air rushed out of her nose, a faint, shushing sound.

  “Now you two do it.”

  Loochie gave it half a dozen tries. Alice clearly knew how to inhale, but Loochie was lousy. She might get the breath down into her chest but just as quickly she’d fall apart, coughing and snorting. And this was before she’d even inhaled any smoke.

  Sunny watched Loochie with disappointment and even aggravation.

  “Well where did you learn to do it?” Loochie finally spat.

  “I watched my grandmother? Duh?”

  When Sunny put it that way Loochie only wanted to prove herself better at it than Sunny could ever be. So all three sat there, for about ten minutes, just practicing their breathing. They looked like a yoga class.

  Finally Sunny’s patience ran out. She tapped the bottom of the lighter against the stainless steel plate beneath them. “We’re just going to have a try now,” Sunny said.

  “This made me sick the last time,” Loochie admitted. She looked away from Sunny when she said it, feeling stupid and inexperienced.

  The practice had helped, though. While Loochie still coughed badly at first, she was able to get it right after a few pulls. Sunny, meanwhile, puffed expertly. And what about Alice? What did she do? Obviously she couldn’t smoke a cigarette without a bottom lip. Instead, Loochie and Sunny took turns inhaling the smoke and leaning across to Alice and blowing it down her throat. Alice inhaled expertly, considering the realities.

  Each time the girls exhaled they watched the smoke trail up, gray ribbons and clouds, floating toward the sky. Soon enough the whole cigarette was smoked down. After it was done they lay on their backs again, looking up at the unchanging, overcast day.

  “How do you feel?” Sunny asked.

  Neither Loochie or Alice responded.

  “Should we smoke the last one?” Sunny asked, but she sounded less assured than the first time.

  Loochie lay there feeling buzzed up and dizzy. Her hands were warm, her face tingled in a good way, but each time she lifted her head to answer Sunny her stomach lurched and she thought she would vomit.

  “Not yet,” Loochie groaned.

  And Alice, also on her back, waved her arms in front of her, another “no” vote.

  “Chickens,” Sunny said, pretending to be disappointed, but Loochie could tell she was relieved. That last cigarette would stay in Loochie’s pocket for now.

  They stared at the top of the globe, the far end of the world.

  “What did you mean when you said you weren’t going back that way?” Loochie asked. “Which way are you going then?”

 
Up through the frame of the Unisphere the gray sky seemed endless.

  Sunny sat up. She looked down at Loochie.

  “You’ve got boobs,” Sunny said. She said this with no affect in her voice, but the words were clipped, like Sunny was holding back a rush of true emotion.

  Loochie didn’t even understand the sentence for a second. Hadn’t she just asked about something else entirely? Something that seemed far more important? Finally she raised her head slightly, fought back the moment of dizziness, and saw her two nipples poking up through the fabric of her T-shirt.

  “These?” she asked, as if Sunny had just cracked a ridiculous joke. “You should see Monique!”

  Sunny crossed her arms. “I don’t want to see Monique,” she whispered.

  Alice stood up slowly, carefully. With all three of them on the single steel panel there wasn’t too much room for the Kroon to maneuver. She had to be very careful with her long body for fear of knocking one of the girls off the side. Alice tucked her nightdress between her knees and closed her legs tight. She extended her hands over her head. Her arms were so long she could grab at a pair of the latitude lines running above.

  “You wouldn’t ask me to go back,” Sunny said in a soft voice, ignoring Alice’s movements. “If it was you getting the treatments all these years.”

  “I want you to come back because I love you, Sunny. You’re my best friend. Don’t you love me, too?”

  Alice, holding the latitude lines tight, pulled herself up and then flipped over, so her legs were in the air. Alice hooked both legs over the latitude bars, then let go with her hands, and her upper body swung down. She looked like a child playing on a set of monkey bars.

  Loochie wanted an answer from Sunny, but she couldn’t ignore Alice any longer. She had no idea what was about to happen, but Sunny seemed to know. Alice grabbed Sunny’s hands, then curled her body upward, pulling Sunny up as well. She plucked Sunny up and Loochie watched, almost fainting, as Sunny scrambled through a crack between Africa and Europe and climbed out to the other side of the Unisphere! Sunny was standing on top of the world. Loochie heard Sunny’s rain boots squeaking as she walked across Europe. Then Alice swung down again, hands out, and gestured for Loochie.