Elephant Bangs Train

Elephant Bangs Train by William Kotzwinkle Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Elephant Bangs Train by William Kotzwinkle Read Free Book Online
Authors: William Kotzwinkle
upon her forehead, between her brows.
    'Beware of false swamis,' he said, and departed.
    The advice was wasted on romantic Adria, who quickly fell in with magicians. Soon she was leaving her body at night on plunges to the heart of the earth, where she danced in dreams of red and green, adorned in luminous macaroni. The violent nature of the handsome demons excited her fancy, and they were not averse to burying their thunderbolts in her mortal coil.
    When her visa expired, however, Adria was tired of witchery, and wanted to go home, to the lawns of La Spina, to its familiar walls and gardens. To the beat of a dark drum, slapped in the moonlight by black hands, she boarded an Air India coach. By strange coincidence, her travelling companion was the distinguished psychologist, Doctor B. F. Goodreich. Moonlight gleamed on the swept wing. Adria told him of her vision on Otukisama Bridge.
    'Amitaba is a projection,' said the exalted physician. 'That is to say, my dear young lady, you are Amitaba.'
    Norton Blue and his double-dyed crew were waiting for Adria at Roma International Airport, blowing paper snakes. At the sight of Blue's head, on which a Bulgarian postmark was tattooed, Adria burst into tears.
    The depraved band boarded a rented limousine and drove to La Spina, where a welcome party for Adria had been going five days. Music and laughter filled the air, and exotic slide shows designed by the master, Blue himself, flickered in several rooms, featuring the degraded Brazilian café star, Captain Diez y Ocho and his defiled gorilla.
    Blue showed Adria to the kitchen, where a wizened oriental in ceremonial robe was supervising the preparation of meals.
    'In view of your Eastern trip,' said Blue, 'I took the liberty of hiring Fat Tong here. He is a disciple of D. T. Yumabachi, the Macaroniotic Master. Yumabachi, as you may recall, ate but a single macaroni a day boiled in dog's milk, slept standing up in a cupboard and lived to the remarkable age of twenty-seven. Delicious,' said Blue, taking a spoon of soup.
    In the third week of the party, Monsignor Farina visited Adria secretly in the night by the rose trellis outside her balcony.
    'Signora,' said the priest, waving a smoking censer, 'you must be more discreet.'
    'Father,' said Adria, 'the old ways are gone.'
    There was a knock at her door. The prelate quickly crawled down the trellis to the ground. The paparazzi, led by Blue, leapt out of the bushes with their cameras.
    'Back, back!' cried Monsignor Farina, waving a sprig of garlic in the air.
    Eyes watering, unable to focus, Blue cringed.
    Monsignor Farina fled out the gate, chased by the dogs, his bald head shining like a poached egg in the moonlight.
    The paparazzi revived Blue with brandy. He sat up, saw Adria on the balcony in her pale dressing gown.
    'What do you suppose accounts for their firmness, gentlemen,' said Blue, pointing to Adria's heaving bosom, 'hormone cream in her cannoli , perhaps?'
    The paparazzi lifted him up, adjusted his electric tie. 'I must go to her,' said Blue, and taking hold of the trellis, ascended to the balcony.
    'Will you marry me?' he asked, clinging to the railing.
    Adria looked at him, did not speak.
    'We might have a small ceremony,' said Blue, 'you in a rubber gown, I in a chicken suit . . .'
    'Norton,' said Adria in a whisper, her fingers moving over the jewel of Amitaba which she wore around her neck.
    'Yes, my dear?'
    She put her arm through Blue's. Turning him towards the western sky, she pointed to the dark horse nebula. 'I belong to one out there,' she said.
    Blue held a small plastic viewer to his eye, pointing it at the moon. 'Peculiar posture this woman is in, look here—'
    'He's very old,' said Adria, 'and has united himself with—'
    '---with a seeing-eye dog, it's an extraordinary pose—'
    '—with the principle of nature,' said Adria.
    'Here,' said Blue, handing her the little viewer, 'when you turn this wheel, the dog sits up and begs.' He let go of the balustrade and

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