The Foreigners - Maxine Swann [15]
Later, in the bathroom, there was a woman moving slowly in front of the sink, completely inside herself, eyes hooded, impenetrable flesh.
“She’s on something serious,” Leonarda said.
She did seem to be in some interior fleshy bliss that had nothing to do with the world around her. She scooped up water from the faucet and put it in her mouth. She let her eyes droop even farther. She had shimmery gray powder on her lids.
When Leonarda and I went back upstairs, I was surprised to see a man down on his knees inside the Plexiglas case above the stairwell. He had shorts and a tank top on and was mouthing the words to a song. I lingered, watching him. The bad glimmer of the lights made everything look weary and greenish.
We walked out onto the street and asked for single cigarettes in a kiosk.
“Did you see that dude at the kiosk? Sometimes when people look at me, it’s as if their faces dissolve in corrosive acid,” Leonarda said.
I looked at her. I hadn’t noticed it. Her face without her glasses looked different, extremely pretty when animated, but it could also, as now, look very exposed.
We passed some policemen.
“I want that hat,” Leonarda said. She turned back around. “Heyyyyy, hiiiiiiii!” she said to one policeman, wriggling her whole frame.
“Hello,” he said, stiffly, smiling, folding his hands in front of him. He felt better a few seconds later when his friend came over.
“Can I try on your hat?” Leonarda asked. “Just for a second?”
She reached up for it. The policeman flinched back slightly, then let her have it. She put it on herself, looked at him, looked at me, posed and then suddenly took off and began to run.
“Hey, hey,” the young policeman yelled. “Come back here.”
I didn’t know what to do. I balked, paused. I’d never run from a policeman before. I was caught between the two of them, him and Leonarda, on the sidewalk. Then I began to run too.
Leonarda turned a corner, out of sight. I looked behind me. The policeman was running now too. He and his friend had thought Leonarda would come back. Now she’d disappeared.
Shit, shit, I thought. I ran. I turned the corner too. Despite her block heels, Leonarda was far ahead, looking back, laughing. She motioned me to run faster. She had hailed a cab. She jumped inside. The cab backed up toward me. The door opened. I jumped in too. Leonarda slammed the door and we were gone.
The young policeman stopped on the street, dropped his arms. Leonarda put her hand out the window and waved, then, laughing, turned back and sniffed under her arms. She took a tall aerosol can out of her purse and sprayed herself, both armpits.
“You want some?” she asked, handing it to me.
“Okay,” I said. I sprayed myself in both armpits too.
The taxi driver glanced over his shoulder, displeased.
“Okay, okay, it’s over,” Leonarda said to him, putting gloss on her lips and the can back into her purse.
Later, back at my apartment, I stared out the window. Water ran in a sheen down the wall. My heart was beating.
four
I ran into Gabriel in the front hallway of the building. He had his bike helmet in one hand and was heading out.
“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked.
I was happy to have something to report and told him about meeting Leonarda.
“Wait, she’s in that Mercury group?” He was leaning against the wall, listening. “I know who they are. What does she look like again?”
I described her.
“Yeah, I think I know who you mean. I don’t know her, but I know who she is.” He stood up straight again, preparing to go. “Okay, I approve,” he said, smiling his demon smile. “Here’s my number.” He gave me his cell phone number. “Keep me posted on everything.”
I hadn’t done anything for this grant project yet. I decided to figure out what I was supposed to be talking about.
I began with some basic Internet research. Starting big, I typed in “South America” and “water.” Here is what I learned: the next big crisis this planet is going to face is water scarcity. With its huge sea of underground water, known as the Guarani Aquifer, South America is one