Candy plays air guitar for a few seconds and says, “I’m a lot better than the last time you heard me.”
“You had a year to practice.”
“So, you’ll come?”
“Will Kasabian let me in?”
She sits back in her seat and looks up at the screen. Dr. Frankenstein and his creepy assistant are hauling a casket out of the cemetery.
“You let him get under your skin too much.”
“Well, he does hate me.”
“No, he doesn’t. He gives you his books and tells you about our best new movies.”
“That’s just so I’ll stay away.”
Candy sighs.
“He just gets worked up sometimes. He gets scared.”
“Yeah. Of me.”
“Not just you. His body doesn’t work right anymore. Sometimes his arms get stuck or his legs won’t hold him.”
“I’ll tell Manimal Mike to come by and check him out.”
“Mike already did. He says he can fix things, but it would mean taking Kas off his body for a few days.”
I laugh.
“I bet I know what he said to that.”
Candy nods.
“He started shouting and Mike left. Maybe you could talk to him . . . ?”
“He’s not going to listen to me.”
“You’re probably right. But we have to do something.”
I think about it for a minute, trying to come up with an angle. Some way to get Kasabian to make the right move. I start to say something about it, but what comes out is, “Listen. Janet and me, we’ve been—”
Candy cuts me off, still looking at the screen.
“I know. I mean, I guessed. It makes sense.”
“I didn’t go looking for it to happen.”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me. The way things are, I know you get lonely.”
“I suppose I do.”
“You have such a hard time admitting things like that. You think you’re still just Sandman Slim, the killer, and you don’t need emotions.”
I watch the screen for a minute with her.
“You think that’s it? My head gets all scrambled when I try to figure it out. I mean, what about you and Alessa? How does she handle us being together?”