William Vollmann - The Royal Family

Well, we got a problem, said the Queen.

Her children remained so tensely silent in that room that all could hear the click of a cigarette lighter in the hall. Lily, proud of her hospitality yet shy, sat on the toilet seat peeping through the doorway.

Anybody here not know what it is?

And the royal family huddled together unspeaking as if they were incapable of uttering language or even of comprehending what their old, old Queen was intimating as she sat there on the edge of Lily’s mattress with Sapphire on the carpet kneeling down between her legs, head in the Queen’s lap, sleeping.

Allrightie. I s’pose you all heard Henry’s story.

Beatrice cleared her throat and said: I doan know. Because we have something inside and they doan want us to…

Her words died as they left her mouth. The lightbulb buzzed tremblingly.

The Queen said: We can’t none of us make these vigs go away. They’re onto us and they wanna get us. They see that Mark of Cain glowin’ in the dark on our forehead, so we can’t even run, ’cause if we do we just make a movin’ light. I’m pretty sure they’ll get us. And that Brady man, the one that beat up Francine so bad that time she ain’t never come back to us, he wanna be playin’ a double game. He wanna have his whorehouse over there an’ he wanna bust us over here. It ain’t reasonable, so we can’t reason with him.

An’ we can’t ex him, the Queen went on. We can’t do nothin’. ’Cause my power’s just about used up. That’s what the Bible says. An’ the Enemy never lies in His book. It’s all true an’ all cruel. So.

She cleared her throat and said: I love you all. An’ maybe some of you all gonna get your reward real real soon.

Lily’s skirts rustled in terror. Lily was remembering the death of Sunflower. Gazing at Lily, Kitty wrung her hands. But Tyler feared nothing. He was thinking of what Irene used to call “bow envelopes,” envelopes white or red, containing cash, which on New Year’s Day the old relatives presented to the younger ones, who then had to bow down to them in love and respect. Whether his reward would prove to be love, enlightenment, freedom or death, he knew that he would kneel to his Queen and render thanks.

Anybody got somethin’ to say, better say it, shrilled the Queen, the corners of her mouth twitching and grimacing like unquiet water in its tides.

So I think we should find this Brady man, said Domino. And I want us to find this part of this Brady man, she added laughingly, wrenching her favorite dildo, Clitilda, from its altar beneath her armpit where it always stayed when it was not in the abandoned meatpacking plant in her striptease cage improvised from wire and stolen parking meters. (She had constructed it, with the tall man’s paid help, because it had always been Domino’s dream to strut on a stage and get applause and big money without even having a customer breathe on her, but she was too old now for that and too abscessed.)

And do what? You heard me say we can’t ex him.

Why not?

C’mon, Dom. You was there in that Vietnamese restaurant with me an’ Henry an’ Danny Smooth when I opened the Book. You know why.

Domino’s face turned scarlet with humiliation and rage, and she hung her head. Later, when the tall man tried to remember what Domino had said about Brady, he could not be certain that he’d really heard anything, because, after all, the blonde uttered such poisonous statements day and night that it was better not to listen. He was the only one who even attempted to remember.

The thing about the Queen is she teaches you things, whispered Lily, whose legs were were blotchy and stringy like a mummy’s flesh. If you pay attention, Queen’s gonna show you how to—

Because you wanted to be one step ahead of the police, right? demanded the crazy whore, stroking the TV’s withered wires which resembled dead branches. — I mean, you wanted to have a mutual slumber party. Isn’t that what you’re saying? But the police want to search for somebody who’s awake. So stay asleep, Maj. Don’t stay awake.

Well, Mary, said Domino drily, I know that’s how you go through life.

I doan want to qvarrer with anyone, whispered Yellow Bird, but the crazy whore, acknowledging this advice with an eloquent wave, leaned forward and said: Domino, you think of beauty as something skin deep. The first thing is, you’re jealous of the Queen for trying to go to sleep as soon as she hears about anything. Because you’re just somebody intelligent who’s had weapons used on you, so you want to use music on her but I’m completely innocent.

Fuck off, you crazy bedbug.

Gun up! cried the Queen. All of you pay this some mind. Get ready, now.

Why don’t we just leave town? Strawberry said. Me and Chocolate, we were talkin’, and we thought maybe up in Fairbanks there’s a lot of action and the Vice cops won’t know us when we get there, so I thought maybe—

You ever been to Alaska? the Queen inquired mildly.

Well, I had an opportunity once and I should have taken it since I just pissed away my money anyhow.

Lot of girls comin’ up missing even there, said Bernadette through parted lips and wise eyes. Some Canadian chick was tellin’ me they just wind up dead, so many girls now, shit, I dunno, seven, eight—

The Queen leaned her weary head back against the wall and closed her eyes, on her lips a sad half-smile which almost broke everybody’s heart.

What’s up, Maj, what’s up? cried the tall man.

My blood pressure, she said.

I prefer to give those sonsofbitches the slip, Domino opined then. Hell, I can always leave town. I don’t know about the rest of you sluts…

And which town you fixin’ to go to?

What the fuck’s the difference? Any town’ll work. Any town where men have cocks and wallets.

And if they follow you there?

Busted is busted, Maj. Excuse my French, but I’ve been there before.

Fine, said the Queen. So Domino’s headed for Vallejo or Stockton or maybe Idaho Falls. Anybody else?

Lily giggled in a panic, but finally managed to say: If somebody’s spying, and you take a radius of four blocks and cut that radius down, I discover that in that whole four block radius I can hear what they’re saying when they’re talking about me. For instance, this old lady said I was pretty. She came to check me out: You are pretty. I’m not sticking it in right now, she said, because it don’t have what it takes to stick it in you; I’m saying it was an incident of look and blah-blah-blah…

You do this for a living? Domino sneered at her.

Thank you, Lily, said the Queen. Anybody else have something to mention?

Beatrice gave me these jeans, continued Lily with a horribly anxious smile, afraid that she had already said something bad or wrong. — I had to cut ’em up, though. I just get afraid somebody’s gonna cut me up…

Oh, shut up, bitch, said Domino.

Dom, you got to calm down tonight, said the Queen.

Go fuck yourself, Maj.

I mean it. We got a problem and we need to scope things out.

When those vigs get a bug in their ass, they don’t quit, the tall man said at last. I reckon they’re gonna be gunning for us. Maybe I can knock a couple of their fuckin’ heads together…

Nobody in this room cares about me, Domino said. You’re all just going to abandon me when Brady drops his dime. And, Maj, you’ve changed. All you care about’s that bastard over there. And what’s that bastard got to do with anything?

Henry here’s my main man.

Tyler cleared his throat and said: Hey, I’m on your side, Domino. We just need to figure—

Will you shut the fuck up?

Opening one eye, Sapphire clutched the hem of the Queen’s skirt and began to whimper.