The Royal Family by William T. Vollmann Read Free Book Online Page A

they hardly ever did it anymore. Maybe she was reading in the bathtub. Maybe she had gone to sleep. Perhaps John had asked her to pick him up at work.
    Easily and rapidly now he rolled down the shining streets to the Tenderloin where outside the XX and XXX preview booths, guys in baseball caps were having a discussion. Extending the antenna microphone, he heard:
    They be tryin’ to say they ask for it.
    Shit, baby, yeah. My ho done ast for it. I give huh a good smack upside the jaw.
    Hey, you s’pose it’s true what they say?
    (Somebody honked behind him. He pulled into a loading zone and let the car pass, which it did, angrily blaring its horn.)
    You better shut your lip. Lookit that honky in the car over there like some spy for Vice.
    He don’t have nothin’ on me!
    Nothin’ but parole violation, mothafuckah.
    Hey, I’m goin’ to court, I say I sold dope on a bet. That’s all it was, Your Honor, just a mothafuckin’ bet.
    And yoah ho won’t nevah bail you out!
    If she doan bail me out, she done ast for it. I’m gonna break huh teeth. She’ll give bettah head then anyways . . .
    Hey, remembah what I said. Maybe it’s true what they say.
    Maybe honky over there needs a piece of rock. A nice big piece of white girl. *
    What they say?
    They say when you talk vi’lent ’bout yoah ho, sometimes the Queen be listening . . .
    Fuck that bitch! I ain’t scared a no goddamn bitch! Brain’s in her cunt; my dick is twice her I.Q.!
    An’ my dick’s the othah twice of yours!
    Hey, check out that honky sittin’ there. I doan like that honky. He come out here, I fuck him up—
    Tyler, bored anyhow, but glad to learn that the Queen might represent justice, pulled out of the loading zone and drove to Eddy and Jones where a knowing pimp was explaining something grand to his knowing wife-employee; there walked Domino in the rain; he remembered the shape of her bullet-scar. Her nose looked longer than usual, as if she’d been telling more lies about the Queen. The red neon whisper HOTEL made rain-sweating bricks blush, as if on fire with the slumlord’s lust.
    He honked four times, and she came running. He said: Do you remember me?
    Sure, asshole. You’re the misogynist. Are you dating or not?
    I’m lonely, he said. I’ll pay you five bucks just to ride around the block with me.
    Ten’ll work.
    How about seven?
    Fucking cheapskate, she laughed, getting in. He counted out a five and two ones from his wallet, added another single for courtesy, and drove silently around the block.
    Here we are, he said.
    You mean that’s it?
    Uh huh.
    You know what? said Domino. You’re a fool. You’re making me really angry.
    Because you got something for nothing, but it wasn’t enough? Or did I hurt your feelings because I didn’t want to fuck you?
    Look, pal. You don’t know the first thing about my feelings. So don’t patronize me.
    I’m not trying to patronize you, he said. I was just lonely, that’s all. And I thank you for riding with me.
    She softened. —All right, she said. What’s your name?
    Henry.
    I’m Domino.
    I know.
    She kissed his cheek faster than any rattlesnake could ever strike, then leaped out of the car and loped away. Tyler smiled uneasily, scratching his chin.
    Uncovering no activity at the entrance to the parking garage (a fact of little probable value, which he recorded nonetheless on the surveillance report form soon to pad out Brady’s files), Tyler drove up to Union Street where an immense pear of light bloomed from an apartment’s stairway and stretched halfway across the pavement. A truck blinked its weary lights, and a foghorn warned of the least dangerous thing.
    His brother John came out, holding another woman’s hand.
     

| 17 |
    Once Irene had asked him whether he had any reason to believe that his brother might be unfaithful, and he, professionally knowing that all men and all women were unfaithful to something, said: I don’t know. I wondered that at your wedding. I hoped that