Doryce: no, this was always my worst nightmare! not my age wrinkles.
Gladyce lies flaccid on the gravel ground, slimming into the sewer slime. her eyes are a constant source of dried-up water.
Gladyce: it hurts to see.
Doryce: close your eyes, dear, this world is too much for you. i'll lift you anywhere. i was always the muscular one in the group. course it would have helped if you hadn't canceled the swimming lesson.
Gladyce: let me borrow your glasses. ewww, when was the last time you cleaned these things!?
Doryce: thanks for cleaning them, dear, the spots were matching my liver spots. at our ages, all inanimate objects are sympathetic to our various plights.
Gladyce: i should have enough darkness in my soul to shade these glasses.
Doryce: no, honey, you are the lightness which will save us both. that is why this is so unfair. why didn't this happen to me?
Gladyce: i know you mean that sincerely. i can feel your heart. i can't feel mine currently. and that is why you are saveable.
Doryce: where does it hurt?
Gladyce: only when i breathe.
Doryce: let's get you out of these bus clothes and into the welcome darkness of my hodgepodge hovel. i'm afraid i don't have an extra bed...
Gladyce: you don't have a bed. you do it on the floor, which is quite common.
Doryce: stop your groveling, i'm on the case!
Gladyce: this is really gonna be a test. can a nice person stay nice while sick?
Doryce: irritability is an old woman's right. ordained by the goddess.
Gladyce: if you don't mind i want to stop talking now. it's not you, it's me. literally. i am feeling weaker than usual, which is saying something.
Doryce: i'll have you out of here in a jiffy. Russians think "jiffy" is the ultimate Americanism and learn that word first when they're training to be spies. there. nice and comfy on a cobweb in my too-big-for-me mansion.
Gladyce: get out your phone directory. i want to see the dust from it hit the roof. when was the last time you used a phone directory?
Doryce: when was the last time anybody? i don't think i've ever called on anyone before. now THIS is the holy grail of grimoires. this book is bigger than my vulva. i'll try to pry it open with my twiddling thumbs. twiddling from disease, i'm not voluntarily bored. do you think they'd be that direct about it? should i look under the W's?
Gladyce: i'll admit, darkness is a blessing, it's allowing me to think, to see straight, see in front of me. the Woman from Washington they call her, the medicine woman...
Doryce: i loved that show. they don't make shows like that anymore, forcing you to care about a time period long since dead. when life was wild and out-of-control but in a nostalgic way. simple but hard as fuck. i thought the name of the game was always forward progress. reminded me of when i was a girl and didn't have a phone in my hand.
Gladyce: look under the Q's for queer queens.
Doryce: yaaaas queen. found her. Federal Way, not far from here.
Gladyce: by foot it is.
Doryce: i got a long foot. but we got heart. i'll carry you anywhere after you carried me my whole life.
Gladyce: i see the digits of her phone number without looking at the book. i close my eyes and my other senses heighten. that really works, it's not just a Spider-Man thing. i wonder if that's a human thing, too.
Gladyce dials the number with her finger invisibly crossing the air.
Gladyce: that's my last bit for the rest of the day, love, i'm spent. good night.
Doryce: it's noon.
Gladyce: perfect for bats.
Doryce: got her. i'm getting her voicemail. she's saying, recordingly of course, that we two are the lucky ones for finding her as her number is not listed online. that is such a modern thing to say, i'm a bit worried. should we make an appointment?
Gladyce: oh don't you worry, honey, she'll sense us coming a mile away exactly.
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