Linger Awhile

9 Justine Trimble

8 January 2004. Crazy! Is this how Lazarus felt? And crazier from one minute to the next. I kept trying to push this old guy away but as the new life flowed into me I was getting horny. So I stopped pushing him away and pulled him on to me. If fucking was music he wouldn’t of been no more than a tin whistle but in my mind it was Gene Autry giving it to me real good and singing, ‘Whoopee ti-yi-yo, rockin’ to and fro, back in the saddle again …’

The old guy fainted when he finished and I must have used up too much juice because I could feel myself fading to black-and-white again which was a real comedown. When he opened his eyes the old guy — Istvan Fallok his name is — said, ‘How was it for you?’

‘Terrific,’ I said. ‘Only I think I’m fading back to where I was at the beginning.’

‘I noticed,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think I’ve got enough blood left to give you a top-up.’

‘So what’s going to happen now?’

‘You’re a good-looking girl, Justine …’

‘Yeah, so?’

‘You could have guys queueing up for you.’

‘What, you’re going to pimp for me?’

‘Calm down, you don’t have to go all the way — just get them in here and I’ll soon have you in Technicolor again.’

‘When I get them in here you’re going to do that business with the needles and tubes?’

‘Unless you prefer the classical method of satisfying your need.’

‘You mean …?’

‘Think Bela Lugosi, think children of the night.’

‘Jesus, you’re trying to turn me into a vampire whore! I’m not some tramp you picked up, I was a star, I rode after the El Paso stage and saved the goddam gold.’

‘Justine, you don’t like black-and-white much, it makes you feel terrible and you look like hell. I told you, just get the guys in here and I’ll do all the heavy work.’

‘Never mind, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way. I’ll be a vampire whore. Come to think of it, I won’t need you then, will I.’ I wanted to hit the street before my colour was all gone, so I grabbed a jacket and headed for the door. ‘Hang your head in shame,’ is what Gene Autry and me sung to the old guy as I hauled ass out of there and into the dark.