eternity

The detective seized this opportunity: gripping the waitress’s arm, he flung her around:

“Did that couple leave you a tip?”

“Wait, let me check”, she responded, nervously eyeing the ring finger of her left hand.

“Stop!” the dick interrupted, holding up his ketchup-stained fist. “Suppose you tell me how 

you lost your pinky?”

(still fidgeting) “Ice skating when I was 14”. My girlfriend Amy pushed me into some people racing around the rink, and when I tried to break my fall, a blade sliced it off”.

“Hmmm”, Falk muttered. “Where’d you read that one?”

(arranging a stray hair on her forehead and covering up a giggle with her other hand)…”I have a few others if you’d like to hear them, sweetheart”.

“Never mind! That’s enough…put your hands behind your back- we’re going downtown.”

“Am I under arrest or something?” she snared, pissed off for the first time, pokerfaced, dandruff mixed with coconut oil dripping off her scalp.

“Not this time”…as the cop proceeded to cuff Jenny, dragging her struggling through the door.

(just as they get outside)…“Yell something, goddammit!, the detective demanded, we have to act quickly now- not a moment to loose!”

“Police brutality!” wailed Jenny.

(a crowd of people flocked, staring)…”I paid more in taxes last year than Mitt Romney”, Falk muttered to the gawking groupies.

The mob went silent, as he led Jenny toward the idling black sedan. He ducked the woman’s head into the rear passenger door and slid into the driver’s seat, satisfied, as the sensation-seekers began to thin out.

Meanwhile, Jenny’s wrists blistered in pain underneath the tight cuffs. (her voice brazen and broken at the same time)…“How long will they hold me for treason?”

“The way I understood the deal, till this badge drops off and my wings re-emerge. You see, eternity is relative, but desire never sleeps”.

Jenny understood. She had suffered as a fallen angel far too long, and now it must be time to return to her perch on top Gates Pass.

Her shoulders involuntarily twitched as her eyes locked shut, the cuffs sliding off her wrists dropping onto the floor.

Pete then settled into overdrive, satisfied he had not only salvaged his own immortality, but that of another fallen angel.

Lake Worth, FL

2013