QUARTER GIVEN-III

He started to talk but my mind drifted away. Nina poisoned me! I was dead! I WAS GOING TO HELL!
I was poisoned by somebody I thought, loved me. I’m dead but I still feel alive. I’m going to hell so I must have lived a horrible life. But I DIDN’T! I gave alms to the poor! Every Sunday on my way to Church I gave to this old lady with the broken arm with the dented milk can! I gave a lot when the donation hat was passed hand-to-hand thru the aisles.I went to SUNDAY MASS! EVERY SUNDAY! I EVEN WENT ON DAYS THAT WEREN’T SUNDAY! I OBSERVED THE BLESSED SACRAMENTS AND ALL THOSE OTHER SPECIAL DAYS! I even walked around like an idiot for a day with that stupid ash mark on my head every ASH WEDNESDAY just to ensure that I’d go to that Beautiful white CASTLE in the air! AND NOW I GET THIS!

I should have just stayed at home and watched TV instead of sweating and standing in those overcrowded services where priests would talk about things that they only read in books! I should have fucked other women when Nina wasn’t available! Should have committed adultery and every sin that I could have indulged in at the time!

LIFE IS SO FUCKING UNFAIR! EVEN IN DEATH!

Then my thoughts went to NINA. Our relationship wasn’t going very well for the past six weeks. There were fights over small things. What channel to watch? What to eat? What to wear on her friend’s parties? I can’t even have a normal conversation with her because somewhere along the line, we’d argue over something and then it would be a full-scale war! So I avoided talking to her. I’d just lock myself in the library and read and read. Can’t watch TV that’s her territory, the living room. So an invisible demarcation line was drawn. Did it ensure peace? NO! We still slept in the same bed. Now that was another battleground!

“ We don’t talk anymore? “ She’d say in between puffs of smoke.

I’d pretend that I was asleep. But she’d blow it in my face.

“ I ‘m just avoiding arguments. I don’t want to argue with you.” I’d mumbled.

“ How can we communicate when we don’t talk? “

“ Can you please not smoke in bed. I have asmath and it bothers me when you smoke in bed.” I replied.

“ I smoke when I’m stressed out.”

“ NO! You smoke because you love smoking. You smoke before breakfast. You smoke during breakfast. You even smoke while YOU’RE CHEWING! “

I slammed the pillow as I clicked the light open.

“ YOU KNEW I SMOKED EVEN BEFORE YOU FIRST FUCKED ME! SO DON’T GET ALL HIGH AND MIGHTY WITH ME!” She flicked the stick and reached for the pack.

“ BUT I DIDN’T KNOW THAT YOU SMOKED EVEN WHEN YOU SLEPT!” I tried to control my anger but once the beast was loose…. it was loose!

I stood up and shook my head.

“ Do you know how it’s like to kiss someone who smoked as much as you do? I can even taste what kind of cigarettes you had. On Mondays you have that menthol after taste. Which isn’t so bad because I like mint but when you smoke the. …It’s like French kissing a muffler! THAT’S WHY I NO LONGER KISS YOU! “

Her eyes flared up. Its ok if I criticized her cooking because she knows she’s not good at it. It’s all right with her if I don’t like the books she reads because it is common knowledge she loves JERRY KOZINSKI. BUT never ever talk about her smoking habits! That’s the big SIN!

“ Its easy to hide behind a cigarette when you’re dick’s as big! You don’t kiss me anymore because you don’t feel like it. Not because of this smoking crap! I remember days when ‘we’d do it for hours and I’d smoke in between and it doesn’t stop you from clamping your tongue into mine! YOU DON’T KISS ANYMORE BECAUSE YOU CAN’T GET IT UP! “ She lit another one and smiled like a cat.

Of course that wasn’t true. I was horny as ever. It’s just that I just…can’t with her. Just the sight of her makes me… I don’t know. I slept inside the library that night. With WAR AND PEACE as my pillow.

Should have known that something was a foot when she cooked me breakfast. Or was it dinner? She was all smiles and asking for forgiveness. I thought everything was dead and buried as I gobbled up the salmon. How many people had salmon for breakfast? That should have tipped me off as well.

I was shooked out of my reverie by a shove. The devil pointed towards the kitchen and said. “ She did the ritual over there.”

“ RITUAL? What RITUAL? “

“ THE RITUAL OF TALOS.” He snorted.

I was about to ask why when he brutally cut me off.

“ Its an old trick that the priests of KNOSSOS used to to do during the year of POSEIDON. I don’t want to go into that. It’s kind of sick if you ask me. Involves all kind of ritualistic bullshit. From disemboweling to summonings and spitting into coffee mugs.”

‘ I thought I was poisoned? “