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     | |      c   o   m   m   u   n   i   c   a   t   i   o   n   s     | |
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  ...presents...           The Burn Turns Two Into One
                                     Part 2               by Obscure Images

                      >>> a cDc publication.......1990 <<<
                        -cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
 ______________________________________________________________________________

                           (continued from cDc #140)

Chapter 3: Sweetness In The Air

        Paul threw his portfolio and carrying bag into a corner of his room,
flipped the television on, and flopped down on the bed.  This was another of
the many rituals that made up Paul Selby's life.  Today it was not only ritual,
it was necessity.  After walking quickly from the art building, the less-than-
fit Paul needed to take a breather.  The door opened as Paul's overheated
systems cooled themselves off, and Lisa walked in having just taken a shower.

        "Ah, I see you've finally decided to show up," she said gruffly,
closing the door.

        "It was really fucking cool today, Lisa; I got the flow back, man.  It
was really trippy.  I was just sitting there zoned as usual and all of a sudden
I had a vision and I had to paint it," yelped Paul in the hyperkinetic voice he
always got when he was excited.

        "You really should go take a shower soon, we have to get going pretty
quick," she said, carefully ignoring Paul's last speech.  That could be heard
later.  If they were going to ever make it to dinner, she'd have to get him
moving.

        "Oh yeah," said Paul, "I'll tell you about it later."

        Paul took off his clothing and threw it into the dirty pile; then he
went to the closet to put on his robe and wandered down the hallway, his head
lost in the events of the day.  Meanwhile, Lisa wondered about Paul while
putting on her clothes.  It's amazing how a person like Paul can successfully
exist in the real world, she thought.  One minute he can be painfully inert,
and then in a fraction of a second he can be bouncing off the walls.  Still,
she loved him, or at least she thought that the feeling that she had for him
could be called love.  He wasn't a real prize; all of her girl friends like him
but can't figure out why she'd want to live with him.  He is kinda dopey
looking, and he certainly needs to lose some weight; but then again, so do I,
she thinks.  Her mind turns away from her reasoning of why she loved Paul, best
not to think about something like that.  The feeling is there, and that is all
that matters.  She turns her attention to the figure in the mirror, putting
makeup on her pale face.  Paul doesn't understand why she needs to wear makeup,
but then again Paul doesn't understand a lot of things about women.

        The door opens up again, revealing a wet-haired Paul.  The door closes
and he leans up against it with a strange look in his eyes.  Of course Lisa
knows that look very well, it's his "wow, she's really beautiful" look. 
Naturally, as the ritual moves on, he opens his mouth and says, "Wow, you're
really beautiful."  Lisa has to laugh, at least on the inside.  It's always
nice how he can do the same things time again and still keep them fresh.  He
puts the robe away and starts fishing in his drawers for some clean clothes.
Lisa watches with interest, even though she's seen him in the nude thousands of
times, he's still funny to watch.  She felt a surge of happiness for some
reason and if he wouldn't have been still dripping wet she'd have grabbed him
and given him a kiss.  However ugly he was, she still found him attractive for
whatever reason.

        They finally finished preparing for dinner and, dressed in their best
clothing, left the house to go to the restaurant.  The restaurant was the one
fancy place in DeKalb, and it was also priced the highest.  It didn't really
matter, the two of them had been saving up for a while for a good night out on
the town, even if there wasn't much of a town.

        "What'd you do today?" asked Paul

        "Oh, I had to do some dipshit work on a project for soshe.  I ran into
a couple people though and we went out to lunch, it was a good time.  What were
you saying earlier about your painting?"

        "Oh it wasn't a really big thing, but I finally got myself working on a
painting again.  I've got a show coming up before too long and I was starting
to get worried about it."

        "No need to worry, I figured you'd catch the flow again one of these
days.  Oh yeah, how was Jim doing?"

        Laughing for a second, Paul replied, "Jim is painting frantically
trying to get all his work done.  He's no fun when he's rushing around like
that."

        "No, I suppose not," she said.

        At that point the food arrived on the table and they broke off the
conversation to eat.  Paul began to daydream about Lisa as he worked on his
food.  It was like seeing visions, Lisa's radiant nude form reclining on a
polished black table, with a completely black man in his own form hovering
above.

        Lisa detached herself from her food and thought about what exactly Paul
was doing.  There were times where he suddenly seemed to vacate his body, like
now for instance.  He started to eat, and then it looked like his body was
running itself while he left for a while.  She wondered what he was thinking
about when he did that.  The food was really good, but Lisa was anxious for the
meal to move on, she had more interesting things planned for after dinner.

        They finished the meal not too long after that, so they paid the bill
and walked out into the chilly DeKalb air.  The plan was to go to a movie, but
when they got to his car Lisa decided to change the plan.  Paranoid as usual,
Paul wondered about the sudden change in plans, and what he did wrong to make
her want to cut the date short.  They pulled into the parking space and got out
of the car.  Paul was about to follow Lisa up the stairs to their room when she
told him to go hang around in the living room for a half-hour before coming
upstairs.  Shrugging, Paul wandered into the living room where Jim and some of
the guys were watching television.

        "Hey Stud, why you home so early?  Have a bad time?" asked Jim.

        "I don't know, it's really weird, we were on our way to the movies and
she said that she wanted to go back here, then when we get here we start up the
stairs to the room and she told me to come hang out here for a bit and then to
come up there," said Paul.

        "Heavy, man, that's really weird," said the longhair that they called
Puffin.

        Paul sat down on the couch next to Puffin and vaguely watched whatever
was on television while chatting with Jim and Puffin.  Apparently, Puffin was
holding two hits of acid and gave them to Paul.  "Pretty good shit" according
to Puffin.  He pocketed the hits and left to go up to the room to see what was
with Lisa.

        He climbed the stairs and then knocked on the door to let her know that
he was there.  She told him to come in, so he opened the door enough to get in
and entered, closing the door after himself.  The light was dim, the only
illumination coming from two candles lit in the middle of the room.  His eyes
began to adjust and then Lisa stepped into the candlelight.  She was looking
better than he could recall her ever looking.  Her body was cloaked in an
appealingly arranged black silky gauze.  It flowed smoothly over her curves
making her look like some kind of Egyptian princess.  In her hands were two
silver goblets with champagne in them.  Handing one of them to Paul, she draped
her arm around his waist.  She looked up into his eyes and they kissed.  After
the kiss, they each took a drink, and remembering the tabs of acid in his
pocket, they decided to take the drug and then move on to more private things.
Thirty minutes later, the clothing flowed away from their bodies, their
necessity having passed quite some time before.
 ______________________________________________________________________________

Well you bring me color where once I had just black and white
Now I have rainbows appearing 'round here in the night
Our true love is growing
And passion is flowing
Well I don't need any cigarettes, or beer from a jug,
You're my drug.

        -Dukes Of Stratosphear, "You're My Drug"

  _   _   ____________________________________________________________________
/((___))\|The Dead Zone........214/522-5321|Demon Roach Undrgrnd..806/794-4362|
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  \   /  |The People Farm......916/673-8412|Tequila Willy's GSC...209/526-3194|
  (' ')  |Lunatic Labs.........213/655-0691|The Works.............617/861-8976|
   (U)   |====================================================================|
  .ooM   |(c)1990 cDc communications by Obscure Images.          07/23/90-#148|
\_______/|All Rights Pissed Away.                                             |

