BEYOND THE INFINITE

You know you should talk to him he’d really like to hear from you, give him a call

Give him a call? Really I don’t know

No he’s your Godfather give your fucking Godfather a call he’d like to hear from you and he’ll totally stoke out all you and your friends – it’d be fun

Alright, alright I’ll give him a call

--

Hey Tom! Its Colter, Colter Fox

Holy shit Colter how yah been?!?!

I’ve been good, I’ve been good, how have you been?

I’ve been great Colter, it’s really nice to hear from you. How has school been coming along? Any girls in your life? I know you and those girls, your father has told me

Oh he has? Yeah there was one and now there isn’t. And school has been ridiculous but I’m graduating in a couple weeks and then it’s NL in the fall to be an English major

Oh that’s wonderful Colter, I’d love to read some of your writing

Yeah I’d love to share with you. It’s finally coming together; I think I’ve finally started to figure some stuff out

That’s great, lemme know when your first movie comes out, ah shit I’ll probably see your face on the advertisements haHAH

Oh yeah will do, I’ll get right on that. But my dad mentioned something about your new business? Pretty awesome sounding stuff and my birthday is coming up in a month or so and I think your place would be fun to come with a couple of my buddies.

Ooooh yeah!!! You should definitely come down, I’ll show you the place, I’ll stoke yah out

That’d be great, you think I could come down next week and check it out? I’ll come on a weeknight when yah aren’t so busy. I’ll bring a buddy of mine, Zach. You’ve met him, but it’s been years

Colter you don’t even need to ask, just mention my name at the door. You and your buddies are always welcome. I know you ride with some good fellas, and for fucks sake we’re family!

That we are Tom. Alright does Wednesday work for you, around 8 or so?

That’s just fine, I’ll be up in my office. Just give me a holler when you’re close

Will do, Tom

--

How far is this place out man?

It’s in the south end, supposedly a classy place from what my dad told me

Oh fuck yeah man this is gonna be fucking tight, fuckin Tom man coming up with the most random shit, its been years

The most awesome shit

Yeah fucking right man

Free entry, and VIP?

I’m sure man, Tom is a generous soul

--

Tom! Jesus Christ yah old man you look great! And you remember Zach, right?

Oh shit! It’s been long you young guns look great I tell yah fucking superb. I see yah still got my knife I gave yah Colter, you haven’t had to use it yet have you? haHAH

No I haven’t Tom thank god

Hah well that’s great. The girls are starting to flutter in now oooh weeee what a job this is

Zach: Fucking heaven on earth man, the promise land

That’s right boys, the fucking promise land. Well lemme give you Le Grand Tour, follow me. Over to your right there is the soda bar. Here in Washington State we can’t serve booze fuckin shame I tell yah. And I don’t think I need to point out the main stage it kind of speaks for it’s self. Man the girls climb up and down that thing like acrobats! It’s a fucking trip! Oh and back over there is the VIP. I’ll take yah fellas in here, the best part about this place! Only for the “Very Important” ahHAH

Colter: Man, Tom you are really doing well for yourself, this is a classy joint. Real gentleman’s club, not any trashy shit we’ve been to

Oh yeah Colter, I take pride in it. My pride and joy. And the hottest girls, fake tits, beautiful faces, they all look like they just walked off a magazine

Zach: haha no shit, this is ridiculous

Girl 1: Who are these handsome boys, Tom?

Oh well this is Colter here, he’s my Godson! And here is Zach, good buddy of Colter’s, been friends since before they even knew what tits were!

Girl 1: oh well that’s just fantastic, you boys in college?

Colter: Yeah I’m about to be going to NL; I’m in the process of transferring to study English

Zach: And I study at BIU, and I’m a business major

Tom: Scholars! Smarter than I ever will be! Hey Natalia! Natalia sweet heart!

Natalia: Be right there Tom

PAUSE

Tom: How bout you show these boys the real VIP experience, they want to get a taste, it’s Colter’s birthday next month and he wants to come back with some more of his boys.

Natalia: Oh sure thing Tom, how bout you come with me boys

Colter: yep okay

Zach: mhm yah

Tom: Natalia is the best! She’s the mother hen around here

Natalia: oh shush Tom!

--

Natalia showed Zach and I into the VIP lounge area, with the neon at its full brightness hanging on the ceiling. The walls were all glass, our reflections all seen. The corners of the lounge were darker where men would come and sit with their paid company. Beautiful women, with gorgeous bodies. Bodies that most of these men, often lonely men, would only see in their dreams or walking down the sidewalk but they would never think of even a second look let alone one of them sitting on their laps.

--

Natalia: you like the place boys? Pretty cool, huh?

Zach: Oh yeah this is great, really nice

Colter: yeah this is wonderful

Natalia: Now what kind of girls you boys like? White girls? Black girls? How about Hispanic? Latinas? Asian girls? What’s your preference?

Colter: I like tan girls, darker you know. I guess

Zach: I have no preference, surprise me!!

Natalia: haha okay then, find your places and some girls will come in in a jiffy

--

Zach: dude this IS GONNA BE SO FUCKING AWESOME

Colter: those pills kicking in yet? These lights feel like they are getting brighter and brighter

Zach: oh yeah man, oh yeah fully IGNITED! 

--

Two half naked women walked in. A blonde girl with decent curves walked over to Zach and reached out her hand and then swung a long leg over his waist. The other girl walked over to me with long black hair and sunken eyes, she was on the shorter side with perfectly tan skin and a curving body

Stripper: And what’s your name handsome? I hear you’re the birthday boy to be

My name is Colter, and yeah that’s correct. What’s your name?

Penelope. You’re really Tom’s godson?

Yeah that’s right I am.

Alright then I’ll give you special treatment then

Sounds great, Penelope

I’d like to talk to you afterwards, handsome, you have a girl?

Nope, sounds great

Is everything great for you?

Yeah, at least right now

--

 She started doing her dance her body swaying in a nonsensical way, she would just go to the waves the music playing around us

The neon shine started dripping from the ceiling and congealing around us wrapping Penelope, illuminating her body onto mine

It shined down onto the carpet and filled the room with a warm harmony

She kept swaying back and forth taking off the small amount of clothing she had on, making noises, and breathing in my ear and down my neck, my consciousness was displaced and all I heard was whispering in my ears of unknown tongue

She outstretched her arms pulling the galaxies and every universe into the room, one hand in space and the other tugging at my physical existence, bringing me closer to the surface, nearing reality

Then she flung her hands onto my chest, fingernails dug into my skin, and her angelic features were falling from her gaze

It was gorgeous and gorgeousity made flesh

Gravity was nonsense now, and I felt my body rising to the neon then feeling all the real colors and knowing that this was the deepest summer

It was a manufactured distortion of images and illusion

Illusion of doubts, illusions of her and me and the neon lights from above and Tom and Natalia and the mirrored room, and when I look into the walls all I see is the neon and Penelope’s naked back, I’m not there anymore but only with my memory

But I looked harder into the lights harder into my memory and I see the burning pillars reflectively bouncing off the corners of the room trying to guide me home

I don’t know if Zach and his girl were there anymore, I don’t know if any one of us were ever there, I don’t know if it all happened or if it was just a twisted dream of consciousness being displaced by consumption of an individual’s “goods” on a corner or the parking lot of a grocery store. You wake some mornings or you think back to things and happenings and who knows if they were real, or if this is real and if we make things the way we want because it’s easier to fall asleep at night and its easier to not have to remember, but then maybe we are just pulling galaxies and staring into lights when we should be staring into mirrors instead

But then I took my eyes and I shot them to the ceiling and the stars were coming through now and descending, and I knew then that I would have to fight the morning off

The stars and the constellations of the stars and the galaxies of the universes and everything beyond the infinite were bouncing off of her shoulders and the constellations were moving and spinning around the room as if they had been there before

The entire universe of the entire creation of the infinite had been inside the parameters of the boundlessly mirrored room. It was an unknown land to me, she was the starchild, the guiding light of all the real and all the colors, me a man a young man with no placement and no woman with a woman from a different land all falling through the stars

The neon had fully manifested now and I knew then that this was the end, all the real colors of the world, and the burning pillars of hope with the neon hue seeping and falling into the constellations all to guide me home.

 I then closed my eyes and plummeted beyond the infinite,

the infinite of the waking dreams, and the burning contemplations, and the things that don’t make any sense no matter how long you spend in front of the mirror, trying over and over again to convince us of something that we can’t believe.

--

The quiet music that had been playing was off and all I heard was silence falling from Penelope’s eyes

She smiled and disappeared into the neon

--

I lit a cigarette walking to my car. Zach was sprawled out on my hood laying down smoking a joint.

I turned around and saw Tom waving, saying “Hope to see yah in a month boys!!!”

I yelled back thanks and put on my sunglasses.

I reached into my pocket for my keys and felt a card. I took it out, and it read The Neon on the front and had a number and email address for booking

I flipped the card over and it had another number in scribbled handwriting, below the digits it read, “Penelope”.