lighter fluid

Blue jeans, black Ts and shoulder length hair mark the two as rockers. Her voice lowered by smokes, his beaten by dope, closeness in pitch makes them hard to distinguish but for his soft saliva sucking through--perhaps false--front teeth.

Nearing the Van Nuys Station, county government buildings rise on the horizon.
"I'm glad I don't have to go there anymore," he comments. "You know what that is right?"
"Hmm."
"The county courthouse. I'm glad I don't have to go there anymore."

We roll past industrial lots into the residential streets of Valley Glen.

"Wow, look at that!"
"What?"
"Did you see that mansion?"
"Uh Huh."
"I wonder how much that property is. That was HUGE."
"Not as big as Ozzy's though."
"Yeah, well."
"In England, Man!" she chortles an awe.

"Did you feel that?" His voice softens only slightly, "A guy behind me just sneezed on the back of my head."
"Aww shit."
"If he gets up I'm going to say something. That's what I hate about taking the bus."

On December 8, 2004, schizophrenic former quickieluber Nathan Gale stormed the stage during a Damageplan concert at The Alrosa Villa in Columbus Ohio, unloaded multiple rounds of a Beretta 92 and killed four people, including "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. Gale's mother bought the semi-automatic pistol for her son out of pride for his service in the Marines and before the diagnosis that led to his discharge. Inside the grainy black and white menace of a nose guard's shaved head is certainty of identity and lyrics stolen by the Pantera lead guitarist, now buried with Eddie Van Halen's Charvel bumble bee guitar from the back cover of VH II.

"We was broke and hungry on a summer day
They sent the sheriff down to try an' drive us away
We were sittin' ducks for the police man
They found a dirty-faced kid in a garbage can, uh ha
Ooh! And I'm alone, I'm on the highway
Wanted, dead or alive
Dead or alive..."

The breeze of her hair waving to an internal rhythm, matching the rhythm of the whirring gears, touches my neck.

"You know that? D.O.A."
"D.O.A."
"D.O.A. Hehehe yeah."