The Royal Family Read Online Free Page B

friendly as soon as we started giving her money. Why do you think that is?
    Oh, shit! laughed Kitty.
    Tyler hung his head. —And Sapphire said . . . he whispered.
    What do you mean, Sapphire said? That retarded bitch can’t even talk! Only mouth she uses is the one between her legs . . .
    But the Queen . . .
    How many times I got to tell you there ain’t no Queen? If there was a Queen, she’d just be a pimp that’s got a pussy. Why should you care? You don’t want to hang out with no pimp.
    You think we should see Domino again? said Tyler. Maybe if we gave her more money she could explain things to us.
    Don’t have nothing to do with her would be my advice.
    Well, what should we tell her next time we see her?
    Her? Tell her get lost, man. She’s a nut! All she’s gonna do is get you in trouble. She probably has warrants and shit.
    Tyler nodded solemnly. —Well, Kitty, why don’t you and Mr. Breakfast go do your business in that parking garage over there? I’ll just sit here and jerk off.
    Mr. Breakfast is gonna make you wait on him? cried Kitty in amazement. Tell him he oughta pay you for that.
    I’ll tell him.
    You hear that, Mr. Breakfast?
    Yeah, I heard, Kitty. Now let’s go to that garage.
    I don’t trust that garage. I’ll take you to a better place.
    I’ll pay ten bucks extra to take me into that garage, said Brady caressingly.
    Kitty scuffed her high heels sadly on the sidewalk. —No, thank you, Mr. Breakfast. I don’t never go in there.
     

| 11 |
    The new hotel room smelled bad. Brady, who’d turned the TV on, ignored it, almost slicing the stack of photos with his nose. The bed sagged down toward him, the blue and white bedspread like the bottom of a canted swimming pool. The TV glowed orange and said: . . . the significance of this historic achievement. The two men stood discussing money over the round table. Tyler leaned, staring very hard at the stacks of expense money. The eyes in his grey face slowly narrowed as he thought: If only all this money belonged to me, I could run away with Irene. I could take her down a well and we’d staythere making babies and never get out . . . —Brady, whose feet hurt, leaned backward on his heels, looking softly down at the money while he was explaining. Although the greenbacks lay between them, it was obvious to whom they belonged: Brady kept pointing to them and sometimes touching them, while Tyler gazed down almost shyly. The window was open, and across the gulf between ratridden buildings another window was open, through which the blonde whore Domino was watching them. Tyler smirked and waved. Brady did not see.
    I think the garage is the place, said Brady.
    Well, boss, you might be right.
    You don’t think so, do you?
    It’s too early to say.
     

| 12 |
    Arentcha cold? the whore said.
    A sunburst of hair, short arms over boobs bigger than the wheels of a Greyhound bus. Her sweater was as nice as light.
    You going to warm me up? said Tyler, as enthusiastically as if he hadn’t asked that question a hundred times already.
    The black girl’s hair was bright against the dirty white of a massage parlor wall. She leaned to nurse her hair as if it were some elaborately tender creature.
    Tell you the truth, said Tyler confidentially, I’m looking for the Queen.
    Honey, you done come to the wrong place. This here’s a hundred percent girl you’re talkin’ to! Try the Black Rose.
    You know what I mean. Not that kind of queen, but the one that runs things. The Big Spider. The Empress of Darkness.
    Honey, sure I know what you mean but it gonna cost you big. It gonna cost you.
    How much? he said.
    (Her eyes were the shadows behind fences.)
    Whatcha really wanna do?
    Let’s duck into that parking garage and you can give me a blow.
    Sure, honey. But not there. I know a better place.
    What’s wrong with that? I see girls go in there all the time.
    It’s just not a good place.
    So Tyler went with her to the alley. As soon as he’d paid