Tanker Ray

Tanker Ray was having none of that. Not today. A man that big need be suppressed before he causes harm. Ray was in the business of Harm: harm to property, harm to health, and harm to life itself on more than a few occasions. So if The Tanker is cranky you best stay away. Ray was looking for me, I heard say, so I took my own advise.

Stayed away.

Geneva was Ray Scilianno’s sister, and once again I get suckered in by a babe who is just a little bit crazy, only this one’s got a brother who is a lot. I think it might be the crazy sex angle, but smart. The troubled ones got something to unload, sometimes bad, Not the desperate kind, but the one’s that got  ‘just getting off’ on their mind.

Some nights I swim tired seas, where no one wants to work that hard ….Not when something easy will do. Geneva was not a catch - she jumped into my boat. Dark, magnolia-scented, full lipped and vodka breath. “Hide me quick before that prick comes back.”

“Do I know you? Is there trouble?” then I saw the flicker in her eye. Playful. Forward. A hint of a promise. I bit the bait.

“Is there really a guy after you?”

“Not exactly.”

“I saw you with the guy…”

“He dumped me. Here with you.”

“Me? No. I don’t fit into that equation. I am a non-entity in this.”
“An innocent observer…”
“A none observer, and a big, I don’t-carer, too.”

“Can’t you just find a little piece of that heart to give me a place to hide?”

“That makes little sense…if he dumped you then what’s to hide?”

“I slip in and out of reality.”
“Not seamlessly.”

“I sense you might have a common knack for doing the same.”

“I have enough trouble with the reality part, but am willing to stay in it rather than slip out.”

“Don’t know what you are missing…”
“Oh they find me. I know.”

“So what’s that make me? Another lost crazy girl out to screw up your life? And let me ask you, if your reality includes this place then why bother?”

“You’re here...”

“This is where I come to slip out.”
“I see. So, what? You slumming?”

“Something like that. Now come on, you’re a good looking guy…I think maybe even smart…and I can carry on a spirited conversation. Let me buy you a drink and sit awhile.”

“Smooth talker. You see how these things start? Not so innocently, and never end very nice.”

“You’ve yet to  open the book...how do you know the ending?

“I have a few volumes on my shelf.”
"Nothing too heavy I hope."
"...nope."
"Bullshit. Okay, we've done the epilogue. Blank page.

Title? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRINK? 

Page One. Chapter One... "

"Johnny Walker Black...fuck Tanker Ray..."

"Doubles", she echoed

"And so it begins."