Charlie Huston - A Dangerous Man

USER SCANDY HAS SIGNED ON

God Zilla: Hey sandy.

MagickBulletMan: Hi sandy.

sidomaniac: What’s up sandy?

budthecat: Sandy!

scandy: hey, guys!

sidomaniac: Cool of you to drop in.

MagickBulletMan: Thought you were in NY.

scandy: i am! I’m dancing at Private Eyes! It’s so great! I just had some time and wanted to say hi to my real fans!

God Zilla: ty, sandy.

scandy: sure, big Z!

sidomaniac: We were talking about the Danny Lester rumor.

budthecat: I love you, Sandy.

scandy: what rumor, sid? ty, kitty! meow!

MagickBulletMan: Lester is saying that henry has been in contact with you.

sidomaniac: It’s bs.

scandy: it sure is, sid. If Henry Thompson ever made contact with me the first thing I’d do is call the cops!

MagickBulletMan: That’s what I said.

God Zilla: He’s dead anyway.

budthecat: Then show me the body, zilla. habeas corpus. When there’s a body I’ll believe he’s dead.

God Zilla: There’s no way he could stay hidden this long. They did a Hoffa on him. sidomaniac: Who’s “they,” zilla? scandy: hey, guys! anyone seen henryhunter today? budthecat: Not today.

God Zilla: Sorry

sidomaniac: Not here.

MagickBulletMan: Did you try therealhenrythompson? he hangs there a lot.

scandy: this is my first stop. anyone know how to get in touch with him?

God Zilla: Nope

SCANDY: You have a private message from BUDTHECAT.

I know his email, sandy. Want to send a message?

MagickBulletMan: Don’t know where he is.

Private message for BUDTHECAT.

could you, honey? Just tell him I’m here! TY!

sidomaniac: Havn’t seen hh for awhile.

SCANDY: You have a private message from BUDTHECAT.

Sure!

scandy: hey, guys! I have to go do a couple things. I’m gonna stay logged on, so if hh comes by please tell him I’ll be right back!

MagickBulletMan: Sure.

Sandy pushes back from the computer in the Internet cafe on Forty-second.

– Jesus, they freak me out.

I watch as their chat continues to scroll down the screen. They bounce various theories about me, opinions about Cramer’s books, quiz each other on the names of my former “associates,” talk about my cat, and whatever else. It’s all mixed together with personal talk, mostly about a chronic lack of girlfriends.

– Interesting following.

She slides her eye from the screen to my face, and then back to the screen.

– They’re not my fans. They’re yours. I’m just extra. If it wasn’t for you, they’d have latched on to some other piece of ass.

USER HENRYHUNTER HAS SIGNED ON

henryhunter: Hey room.

God Zilla: Hey, hh.

MagickBulletMan: Hi hh

SCANDY: You have a private message from HENRYHUNTER.

You here, Sandy?

sidomaniac: Sandy candy was looking for you, hh.

henryhunter: ty, sid.

Private message for HENRYHUNTER.

hey, hh! Thanks for coming!

sidomaniac: She said she’d be right back.

SCANDY: You have a private message from HENRYHUNTER.

Sure, sandy. What’s up?

Private message for HENRYHUNTER.

um, it’s kind of personal. Can we do a room!

God Zilla: You back, sandy?

SCANDY: You have a private message from HENRYHUNTER.

You bet! I’ll call it hhscandy.

Private message for HENRYHUNTER.

TY, hh!

USER HENRYHUNTER HAS GONE TO A PRIVATE ROOM

USER SCANDY HAS GONE TO A PRIVATE ROOM

sidomaniac: Oh man! A private with sandy! How’d hh score that?

USER SCANDY ENTERING ROOM HHSCANDY

scandy: hh?

henryhunter: Hey sandy. what can I do for you? You OK?

scandy: well, remember when you did one of my chats a couple weeks back?

henryhunter: Yeah! I love your site!

scandy: TY, hh! Anyway. you were talking about closure and I was thinking about that and you said how talking to someone who actually knew henry might help with my therapy and you said something about his parents and I was talking to my therapist and he said he thinks something like that might really help with my nightmares and stuff and I was wondering if you were like just talking or if you might know how to get in touch with them?!?

henryhunter: Wow, sandy, that’s pretty heavy.

scandy: i know! Sorry to like unload on you!

henryhunter: No! it’s ok!

scandy: ty, hh! You’re so sweet! can you help me? It’s really important to me!

henryhunter: Well, pretty much all the serious Henry Thompson people (and I mean the ones who want to seem him brought to justice, not the sickos) know by now that his parents moved to a place in Oregon. Some people have managed to get their hands on an address, but that’s pretty secret stuff.

scandy: what about a phone number or something?

henryhunter: Someone might have one. But they would have gotten in illegally so they’d be pretty cautious about sharing it or talking about it.

scandy: you know someone like that hh? I bet you do!

henryhunter: I might know something. But this isn’t really what I’d call a secure connection. I could maybe help, but I’d need your private email to send it to you.

scandy: ok

henryhunter: And then maybe we could like exchange some emails. I’d like to hear how things are going with your therapy and stuff. We could even sinc up. Chat some more.

scandy: sure thing, hh! I’d love that! But I have to get back to the club! If I give you my address can you send that number right away?!? Then we can make a date to chat! That’d be cool!

henryhunter: Great! scandy: super! My address is candicestalbot@earthlink.net

henryhunter: I’ll send you a message as soon as I sign off.

scandy: TY, HH! You’re my hero!

USER SCANDY HAS SIGNED OFF

– Fucking great. Now I’m going to have to change my private e-mail. Do you know how big a pain that is? All my charges go there. My PayPal. My eBay. Shit.

I point at the screen.

– Candice?

– Candice Sandra Talbot. Sandy Candy. Like it was meant to be.

– It’s a nice name.

– Whatever.

She logs on to her e-mail account. She hits the check mail button four or five times until a new message pops up. She opens it.

Sandy,

It was cool chatting with you in private. I think you’re making the right decision trying to get in touch with Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. Everything I read about them and all the stuff that was on TV made them seem like very good people. It’s not their fault their son did the things he did. They’ve probably suffered from his crimes as much as anyone. Please don’t share this number and please delete this email. Like I said, “someone” (wink-wink) probably had to do some illegal hacking to get this. Write me back and let me know your MSMessenger account. We can chat anytime. I live in Ohio, which isn’t so far from Pennsylvania, so maybe we could even meet! That would be great. Good luck and I can’t wait to hear how it goes. Have fun dancing.

HH

(But my real name is Sam)

Sandy scribbles the number at the bottom of the screen onto a scrap of paper.

– Ol’ Sam probably started jerking off to a picture of me as soon as he hit send.

SANDY GOES TO the bathroom while I pay for our time on the computer. She comes out and walks past me. I grab my change and run after her. She’s walking fast down Forty-second on her way back to Private Eyes.

– Sandy. Wait up.

She keeps walking.

– Hey.

I catch up to her, but she keeps storming along.

– What do you want? You got the number. Go use it.

– Yeah. Well.

– What? You want something else?

– I just.