"My, immaculate dream, made breath and skin. I've been waiting for you." -Duran Duran
Chapter 4:
Anger. One could call it a negative emotion. But acting out on it, with the right person, with a willing man, could make a memory that lasted forever. I burned with anger. The angry fire fueled my lust. I would never forget that night.
The silence overwhelmed as I sat on the upper balcony of my cabin. I could only hear the random drip-drip of stubborn water droplets from the dense Wisconsin forest around the cabin. The torrential rain had ended an hour ago and the clouds continued moving west. The balcony looked east, off the glacial hills, down to a flat cow pasture. I could see the green on green of the grass field when the yellowish light of the dim moon would show through the opening clouds for a few moments at a time. There were no sounds from the cicadas at this hour. Even the dairy cows were sleeping in the small barn in the far distance. Juan was asleep on the couch, presumably still alive.
Murad had stabbed Juan with the syringe he'd had delivered from his police-friend. The Narcan was supposed to bring him back from the overdose of the Oxycontin he had snorted. An hour ago, I heard the scream through the lingering thunder of the storm as it traveled East towards Madison. I figured from the sound that Juan had survived. I imagined what it felt like for him - to come down, from perfection, from a moment of almost touching God - and then to have that euphoria ripped out of his hand with the overdose kit. It was a loss of self that I never wanted to experience. But fate had its own plans.
Juan would live another day. I was somewhat jealous of the abandon with which those young men lived their lives. I only watched. Watching, I could look when I wanted to, and look away when the consequences came. And the consequences came, and I left them. I sat outside as Murad did his doctoral magic to revive Juan. I hoped he lived so I didn't have to explain in court what had happened. But I stewed in anger that this whole day had seemed beyond my control. I was forced to deal with the negligence of other's drug-fueled sexual escapades. And I was still sexually unfulfilled alone outside. My consciousness seemed hazy from the Oxycontin I had taken. Its effects were wearing off, and the long intensity of the day had successfully melted away my general politeness. Now I just burned with anger. I didn't want to be only a narrator in someone else's story. I wanted again to have control, even if I sacrificed pleasure.
I could hear the back door open as Murad sheepishly exited the cabin. He joined me silently on the stained Adirondack chairs. He sat for a moment as I didn't look at him. His jeans were back on, but his shirt was off. The olive skin of his chest and back were covered in glistening sweat, like the rain still hanging on the trees. As he sat down, I could see he wasn't wearing underwear, so that I could see an inch at the top of his ass crack. I imagined he had hastily put his jeans on when he had gone out to the driveway to grab the overdose kit from his friend. His lips looked parched. I handed Murad the cold can of Cherry Coke I had prepared next to me on the small wooden table.
"I think he's going to be okay." Murad sighed deeply, exhaling hours of fear over what he had done.
"How could you trust those... those rednecks with your prescription pad..." I turned toward him with open anger. "What did you think was going to happen? You could have lost your license. I might have had to bail your ass out of jail."
"I fucked up," Murad said as he stared out down the long forested slope behind the cabin. "Sometimes I trust in people too much, that they will know what it is right." He took another sip.
"Well grow up," I said. "People like those two don't know what is best for them. We spent our lives getting an education and money so that we could stop trash like them from fucking it up for the rest of us."
He looked at me with his green eyes that were the same color of the cedar trees after a summer storm. "I just think there is a beauty in knowing that they can live their life the way that they want to, even if it's not the life we would live." He looked angry at himself. His fists were clenched so that I could see the muscles in his arm and shoulder bulging. "I admit I am jealous that they just live life everyday like it is their last, while we sit here and obsess over politics and finances and our houses and decorations. I don't like to say I'm envious, but I am. How nice would it be to not have to make decisions every moment of your day? How nice would it be not to have to live with the guilt and suffering, knowing that you could always help more? I can always do better. If I had better judgment I could have stopped them. What if I just lived in a camper and didn't make everyone else's problems my own? How nice would that be?"
"Nobody is stopping you," I snapped back him. "You have enough money to live however you want."
"Yeah, but after so much time of preparing for the future, it's hard to just let it all go and live in the present," he chugged the soda in several large greedy gulps. His face cringed as if he could taste something bitter at the bottom of the can. "I think the city has infected me. I don't know if I could ever go back to herding goats."
"You herded goats?" I asked him.
"I realize it's hard to believe, but I wasn't born a doctor," he laughed. "Not everyone from Dubai is the son of an oil baron. I wasn't anyway."
"Well," I said with genuine surprise. "You don't look like 'new money'." I knew that phrase bothered him.
"Sometimes appearances are necessary to be successful." He smacked his lips. "Sometimes all you need is to convince people that you are high class, and the world is given to you. It's just a question of what you are willing to give up along the way. And if you let yourself lose who you were."
I had never been good at math, but I had an hour on my own to read the label of the Oxycontin bottle that Murad had left on the table in front of the fire. I figured how many pills a large stocky Arab could handle without also being on the brink of death on the couch. It was risky, but I had little to lose. If the police came, I could say he took the pills himself. He had enough evidence against him. I had made certain to only touch the bottle with a paper towel, before pouring the last of the pills in the can of cherry coke.
He smiled back at me, and his eyes unnaturally widened. I wonder if he knew. I wonder if it's what he wanted. Was I just playing into his hands like usual? I often found myself wondering whether my own games were just part of his plan as well. At this point, I didn't care. I felt rage that I needed to release. I was tired of being someone's toy. Finally, I would turn the tables on him. He set down the empty can with a distinct clank.