Boys in Gilded Cages by Jarod Powell Page A

you imagine? Of
course you can. Why pay for something when you actually have the
money? Your way of thinking kills me, Dan. One of those slices of
TV Wonderbread in class with all those Mexican teenage girls, who
probably sold some food stamps to get in? Probably folks more
pampered and remote than you, around those Valley paupers.
    That’s what I like about this place, Danny
Boy. People are more inclined to talk to each other, even if they
are faking it. You won’t find people talkin’ to each other in NYC!
No sirree!
    My girl wanted to be an actor, an actress.
Had a thing for that guy...
    Oh, What’s-His-Face. The one from that real
old movie, with the fat angel trying to earn a halo. Stupid movie.
She liked it because it was her mom’s favorite movie. I wouldn’t be
surprised if she never even saw the damn thing. She lied all the
time. Hated that bitch. She’s the reason I’m here on this bench,
smelling like life’s shit, talking to you!
    Aw, I shouldn’t say that. I was fucked a
long time ago. Ain’t no Tree of Knowledge here! Ain’t her fault.
Her ass was definitely God’s doing though. Can you imagine that? An
ass so perfect, it was created in Eden. Perfect, perfect ass.
Expensive ass, someone like you might say. She died after a rough
go with someone a lot like you. Well, not a lot like you. I kinda
like you in some weird, asshole way. You may have employed one of
her friends last night. Ha! How ‘bout that, Danny Boy!
    Now, look towards the sky. That’s me
standing behind you. See me? The guy talking into the brick wall
also known as your ear. Take a look and a whiff. This is what will
happen to you if you don’t stay
    in Colorado, or Idaho, or Indiana, or
wherever you’re from. How old do I look to you? Thirty-three. I’m
only thirty-three years old. Let me give you some advice, Dapper.
Don’t let that woman of yours take your money. I know you got lots
of it. Because they’ll do it. They’ll do it every time if you let
‘em. Raise your girls, if you got ‘em, to not be whores or gold
diggers and to marry men that will keep them under
    control. You do that, Dan, you’ll never see
me again, if you’re lucky. Now, don’t get me wrong, Dan, I ain’t
singing no Evil Woman Blues, and I ain’t blaming my shit on someone
else for no good reason. I love my girl, but she done this shit to
me and now I’m here, talking to people that may or may not even be
there. Women make the world go ‘round, but the first woman ruined
the perfection of God’s world, and don’t you forget that
shit.



     
    DARYL MCADAMS CHANNELS LUX LISBON
     
    Even Marcia’s big brown butt didn’t repel
Daryl McAdams. His heart was too open and his head too empty to
recognize a dog when he saw one.
    She was really nice and smart and
everything. But she was younger than Daryl and weird and was
clearly obsessed with him, but was open about it unlike his secret
fan club of hot skanks.
    In a movie, your narrator
would tell you that every other girl in the world is an empty
vessel with legs and tits who would lead our boy Daryl down a hall
of mirrors until his brain breaks, and Marcia is smart, if frumpy,
and purrrrfect for Daryl McAdams but he just can’t see it and be tamed.
Because in movies there are no bad boys, there are only reformed
bad boys and the women who extinguish their demons, for better or
worse.
    After Daryl’s episode with
Marcia so many years ago, back when the demon was still healthy
inside his head, they weren’t really allowed to speak to each
other. Daryl, being dumb and goofy and fucking myriad customers
since then, going through people like tissue, pretty much forgot
about Marcia. Nothing against her, he would say if he was ever asked, but I just can’t place her. Face looks familiar,
though. Of course, no one cared about
Marcia so no one ever asked, but I’m just telling you that’s what
he’d say if they did. That’s what he said about most
people.
    The fact that they weren’t allowed