Dark City

5.

Nathan awoke feeling phantom pain in his leg. It was one of his more moderate recurring nightmares. Always felt so real too. Sometimes he watched Private Steiner leave, fading into the dark mist. Other nights, he wouldn't open the door, but would shout at the top of his lungs for his friend to go away, breaking down as his heart filled with nails and razor bits of guilt.

He kicked off his sheets, and saw the stump below his left knee. The shock froze him cold until he remembered. In his dreams, he had both legs, and every morning endured the rediscovery of his amputation.

The clock read 5:04 p.m. Matt Bellamy glared from the wall, bordered by All Shall Perish, Drowning Pool and Incubus. Nathan ripped them down. The bastards weren't making his nightmares any better.

He popped his Vicodin and dressed his leg. Through his dust-powdered blinds, he checked the street. Calm suburban lawns stretched as far as he could see. But today there was something out of the ordinary across the street. Tom had just moved back home after dropping out of college. And in his front yard, a young woman pulled weeds and piled them next to a rose bush.

Tom's new girlfriend. He must have brought her back with him. She had a rare face like those angels on the billboards in Times Square, but what instantly struck Nathan was her waist-length red hair.

He watched her go to the hose bib to twist the handle. Her cut-off shorts rode up as she leaned forward.

The doorbell rang. "Nathan!" called his mother. "Can you get that?"

Nathan threw on a shirt and headed downstairs. When he got outside, he saw the UPS man shoving a package into his mailbox.

"Thanks," he said. "I got it."

The UPS man fled in a hurry. On this particular afternoon, the air was sultry and dense. The forested streets of Shark River Hills could pass for the American Dream. The houses had that Dutch colonial feel, with their two stories under a gambrel roof and their fenced-in front porches. People grew daffodils, had pinwheels and American flags on their lawns. People trusted their neighbors and didn't lock their doors.

It had been a long time since Nathan had come outside. As he crossed the lawn, the scantily clad girl across the street waved to him.

Squinting, he shaded his forehead with his hand and waved back. And she was, her hair blazing like fire against the backdrop of Tom's gray house.

"Tom home?" he asked.

The young woman removed her gloves and walked toward him, her hips swaying. Nathan made a conscious effort not to look at any part of her aside from her face, but her magnetic eyes swallowed him whole.

"Who's asking?" she said.

"Nathan."

She stared at his tattoos. "Right. You're the marine. I'm Lacey." She offered her hand. Every finger had a silver ring, some with amber stones. Nathan held her hand as if it were a little finch. "Come in and wait for him. He'll be home soon."

"No, that's okay. I'll come by later."

"No. You'll come by now."

Nathan chuckled, caught a little off guard by her attitude. "All right," he said, following her in.

Tom's house was different from how Nathan remembered it. The white carpets, black leather furniture and post-modern art on the walls were all gone. Tom's father hated clutter and kept the place immaculate, but now the living room looked like a bohemian opium den with its Persian carpets scattered unevenly on the floors and huge canvases heavy with paint on every wall. The glass dining set was gone, and in its place stood a low wooden table with green cushions all around.

"So," Nathan began awkwardly, finding a seat at the breakfast nook. "You like gardening?"

Lacey leaned up against the kitchen counter. "Actually, this is my first attempt. In the city, I never had a chance to grow anything." She opened the refrigerator and took out a glass pitcher. "Want some tea?"

"Sure," Nathan replied.

"Sugar?"

"No. Thank you."

"Lemon?"

"Yes, please."

"So damn polite!" Her speech suddenly had a hint of a southern drawl. She cut the lemon and dropped it into Nathan's glass.

"Thank you."

"So, Mr. Marine. Did you always know you were going to enlist?" she asked, handing him his beverage.

"No."

"Do you miss it?"

"That's an odd question."

"Is it?" she said. "I think it's reasonable, considering you were discharged."

"It's not what most people ask."

"People are afraid to ask veterans anything. My father served in Vietnam, so I'm not as skittish as your average suburbanite."

"Is that right?"

"I remember I borrowed his army jacket for a party when I was sixteen. When I got home he slapped me across the face and told me I might as well have taken a shit on the American flag, putting on a soldier's uniform when I never served."

"And that didn't make you skittish?"

"No. I told him how four or five people asked where I got the jacket and how I shared my daddy's story each and every time. I wore it because I was proud of him. He seemed okay with it after that. So why don't you stop pussy-footing and answer the goddamn question. Do you miss the marine corps?"

"Yeah. I do."

"I figured. You know what they say. There's no such thing as an ex-marine. Once a marine, always a marine. I think that's true of New Yorkers too."

He smirked. "Sorry, can you explain that?"

"Well, ok, so, I grew up in Louisiana and when I moved to New York it was like a different country. I learned how to hide my accent, how to sleep between stops on the subway, and after a few years, the city felt more like home than St. Bernard Parish ever did. I went back last year and I didn't fit in at all anymore. I'm a New Yorker forever now."

"Maybe not forever," said Nathan.

She rested her elbows on the kitchen island and as she did, her top angled open. Nathan noticed a sliver of a tattoo on her breast.

He averted his gaze and sipped his iced tea. "Do you fit in here?"

"I don't know yet."

Nathan was still trying to figure out her tattoo. When she stood up straight and adjusted her shirt, he panicked that she might think he was checking out her cleavage. "You have a tattoo," he said. "What is it?"

Lacey smirked. "It's hidden for a reason, marine."
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Music: "Darkshines" Muse