Ingest (June 20, 2009. Issue 6.)

Something in the random pipe must have summoned Lara's covert hippie. So distracted was she by Joey Ramone that she'd inhaled the mystery drug twice before passing it on. It had tasted deeper, richer than marijuana. Smoked mushroom, maybe. And now the room giggled and the music took on three new layers. No longer did she mind the crowd pressing her little ribs into the rail that separated her from punk itself.

When the Ramone's disappeared, Lara spilled out of St. Andrew's Hall and danced along East Congress. She was a butterfly. Then a gust of wind. She hovered a few inches off the ground. Dave appeared and tugged on her arm. "Hey, Crazy. Know you're in Detroit?"

"Ah, Detroit," she sighed. "Isn't St. Andrew's zippy? I'll put a spoon in no other venue."

Dave looked at her sideways. "Shit. Let's get back to my apartment."

"I'm so glad you found me, Ben."

Red burned over Dave's cheeks. "Ben's gone. I'm the new boyfriend." He unclenched his fist and led Lara down wide streets. She pointed out lightning bugs and sucked in the magical exhaust of Cadillac's and Fords.

"Look!" She traced a vibrating finger over the latest tag to cover Dave's building. "Say heck no to techno." She laughed up two flights of unlit stairs and fell onto Dave's ratty couch. After singing a few lines of a new harmony, heckno heckno heckno, Lara noticed she was starring in a party. Chris and Big Boobs were to her right. Vanessa the other way. They sat in a circle on delightfully squeaky chairs.

Dave shoved a popsicle in her hand. "Eat."

"But there's no fridge."

"There are stores, though, huh?"

The walls clanged. "More drugs," she demanded.

Dave pointed to the ceiling. "Go get some from Lido."

"Fuck Lido."

Big Boobs nodded aggressively. "Creepy bat that that … Clang. Clang."

No drugs were produced. "Lames. Leave me to Lido. But I'm taking all the ice." Lara stabbed her popsicle in the air, covered her large ears, and headed out to climb the splintered-wood escalator.

Lido found her crying on the top step, purple vomit in her lap. "Shit, Ivory. Come on in."

"I miss him so."

"You got puke in your hair." Lido left for an undetermined space of time and returned with a towel and shirt. She made him sit on the toilet while she showered amongst mold and crawling things. "Sorry there's no hot water."

But Lara's skin was glowing. The water was warm cream. "It works!" she said of the shower.

"Toilet, too," Lido said proudly. After fifteen minutes, his hand plunged passed the mildewed-vinyl curtain and turned the softness off. He scratched her with a cheap towel and pulled a shirt over her head. "So, you wanted something?"

"Popsicle?"

"I think maybe you wanted something to smoke or ingest in some way."

"Me?" Lara stood before the cracked mirror and shook her wet hair.

"You were crying at my door."

"Oh. Joyous drugs, please. And Ben. Got any Ben here?"

"No. Just joy and Lido."

After Lara spun three times, Lido returned and placed a paper square on her tongue. She looked for pockets, but found none. "It's free," he said. "Who's Ben?"

"Gone. Every night I dream. Roll off my boyfriend, snore, and there's Ben in my head. Sell me Ben. Now he has ties and a baby."

After being dragged through a maze of mushy words, she found herself lying on the towel on Lido's bare floor. The toilet ran. The shower dripped. Woodwinds echoed off the brick walls. "Lavender?"

Her clothes were somehow off again. Her nipples stretched toward the ceiling as if escaping the hard floor. Each arm hair announced its erection. Lido displayed dull crystals, seven. Bridge of her nose: whoosh. Dip between collarbones: whoooo. Under each breast: heeee, heeee. Navel: shooo. Between pressed-together knees: chaaah. "Where's Ben?" he asked, holding out the last one.

She grabbed the crystal and placed it against, but not inside, her vagina: mmmm.

He pressed her eyelids closed and banged across the floor. Body vibrating, she tightened her legs to keep the crystals in place. Warmth flooded her skin. Her eyes opened to a bright yellow. She blinked and teared.. A hundred rainbows shot out from the crystal between her eyes.

"Want him gone or back?"

"Back."

Lido removed the crystal from between her eyes. He held a hand mirror before her. "See your neck?"

"Radiant.."

He removed the second crystal, then extracted the remaining four sparkling prisms. "Keep that last one."

"Kiss me."

"I don’t kiss girls."

"Kiss me!"

They kissed. Then, picturing Ben's hairy chest, she slipped the last crystal inside.