Cruddy - Lynda Barry [4]
I said, “Where’s Cookie?”
She said, “I have no idea.”
And Roberta stood on the porch and called and called until the mother yanked her inside and shouted, “You want to call that dog? Here! You call her!” And she grabbed the telephone and bashed the receiver into Roberta’s face. A broken nose. A boxer’s nose. One of my many distinctive features. My sense of smell has been very sensitive ever since.
I have not mentioned yet the real mystery of this story. The gruesome and bloody scene in a parking lot on the edge of the restricted area of the Nevada desert known as Dreamland. A real place. The Lucky Chief Motel Massacre. Only two known survivors. One was Cookie and the other one was me. Maybe you saw pictures in your newspaper. It was very famous. But I am jumping ahead. Because I have not even mentioned the father yet.
Julie got a major lump on her head from the nail polish remover bottle and the mother made her come downstairs so I could feel it and know the full terribleness of my personality and maybe it was cold-blooded of me to press down on it as hard as I could but there is such a thing as hatred in this world. The hippies are trying to cure it but I do not think they will be able to. No hippie could make me say peace to my sister right now, who is laying on the bed faking being asleep. She is doing her imitation sleep formations like hanging her mouth part open and breathing long breaths and slightly rolling her eyeballs under her eyelids and I will say she looks very convincing. Julie is an idiot and I hate her but she is very talented at certain things. Faking things.
I do feel slightly bad about bashing her head so hard. I feel slightly bad about so many things I have done. But I do not feel bad about killing him. Because it was me who killed him. And I’m not asking any forgiveness for that at all. It was a good idea and I’m glad I had it.
Truth plus Magical Love equals Freedom. The author knows this is a lot of details to remember for your reading comprehension but the author badly wants to give you the who, what, when, where, and how of this story right away because the author very badly wants to get to the question of why. The burning question of why she turned out the way she did and why she ended the way she ended.
Ask a burning question, get a burning answer.
Chapter 3
ND NOW the story can be told, and must be told, the truth can finally be revealed about that mysterious day long ago when the authorities found a child calmly walking in the boiling desert, covered with blood.
The authorities said, “Who are you? Where have you come from? What tragedy has occurred?” But the child could not answer. The child’s bloody face could only stare without blinking for the child was in the medical condition known as shock, the same condition as the freaked-out little girl in the movie Them! Called Them! because that was all she could scream when they found her walking in the desert because her mind was blown out by what she had witnessed. All she could say was “Them! Them! Them!” So she could not give the authorities any information about why she was the only survivor and everyone else was laying around in hacked-up pieces. What gruesome attack by unknown forces had taken place? Them! is a great movie. They show it sometimes on Nightmare Theater, Channel 7. If you see it in the TV Guide you should really watch it because it has ideas in it that could come in handy someday if you are ever facing the authorities in the desert and you are covered with blood that is not actually yours.
And now the story can be told. And must be told. In this book the truth will finally be revealed about the horrible murders and then the author must die. And people may be sad about that and wishing there were more books by the author, Roberta Rohbeson, but sadly, it will be