Lysergically Yours | Page 6

continued to orate. Johnny had no idea what was going on so he simply smiled and nodded back at Lyle, finished piling futo maki onto his plate and started looking around for Tinka whom he had completely lost track of.
He was still looking when he noticed that Lyle had broken off from his group and seemed to be gravitating in his direction.
"Didn't expect to see you here," Lyle said when he got close enough.
"Me either."
"You didn't expect to see me here, or to see you here?" Lyle asked smiling.
"Take your pick."
Lyle grabbed an avocado roll off of Johnny's plate and popped it in his mouth. He seemed entirely absorbed in his own thoughts as he chewed, as though he had from one instance to the next completely forgotten that Johnny was there. This turned out to be untrue the next moment when Lyle reached for the glass of wine in Johnny's hand, took a generous sip, swallowed and handed the glass back. "Pretty damn good for free food."
"No kidding," Johnny responded guardedly. He couldn't really think of anything better to say since he was half-expecting his mother or some other equally unlikely person to walk through the door at any second. Johnny's mother was in fact in Peterborough making love to Johnny's father at just that moment and would live the rest of her life without ever setting foot in Annesley hall. So he was okay on that front.
Despite Johnny's obvious disorientation, Lyle kept dragging the conversation along: "That chica is bad news."
Johnny was snapped back into the present by the non sequitur and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.
"The Korean girl you came in with", Lyle elaborated, "I've seen her around. She's trouble."
Johnny merely smiled and shrugged: "Whatever". He didn't mind a little trouble. Lyle shrugged as well, as though to say: "I warned you, that's all I can do".
Johnny stopped to take another look around the room. He took in the two lonely looking girls leaning against the drink table. They both had that look in their eyes that said "yeah, I'm a woman in a man's world. What's it to you?" He took in the man in his fifties wearing the baby blue suit who was waving his arms excitedly and talking about Buckminster Fuller as his wife looked on with terminal boredom. Suddenly Johnny realized that, aside from Lyle's presence, this scene was no stranger than any number of others he had been through in his life. Without warning, he hit his social stride and grabbed the conversational bull by the horns: "It wasn't acid that Huxley was talking about in Doors of Perception, it was mescaline."
"I know," said Lyle, "but he talks about acid in Heaven and Hell, and if you've read one, you're going to read the other."
"Yeah, but he also talks about strobe lights in Heaven and Hell."
"I'm not interested in strobe lights. I have a professional interest in acid."
Ah! Johnny's thought, he's a dealer. Maybe the future wasn't as bright as he had first thought. But still, Lyle claimed to be looking for acid. If he was a dealer looking for a new connection there may well be even more money to be made. And at a lower risk.
"Well," Johnny said, "no promises, but if you're still interested I might just be able to help you out."
Lyle had opened his mouth to respond when Tinka's voice suddenly interrupted them: "Come on Doctor, we're leaving."
At the word "Doctor" Lyle raised his eyebrows and smiled. Tinka shot him a look that would have killed a lesser man. He smiled wider, showing his teeth. Tinka began to bodily drag Johnny away. He mouthed "Monday" to Lyle and proceeded to follow Tinka under his own power: "What's the rush?"
"Some old biddy wants to claw my eyes out because she thinks I was flirting with her husband."
"Were you?"
"Irrelevant," she said as they passed the drink table. Tinka let go of Johnny's arm so that she would be able to grab two unopened bottles of wine on the way past. Then they were out the door. Tinka stopped suddenly: "Shit!"
"What's wrong?"
She thrust the bottles into Johnny's hands: "Hold these. Wait Here."
And then she was running back through the doors into the main hall. A moment later she reappeared triumphantly holding a corkscrew. She took his arm and said cheerily "Shall we?"
"Where am I walking you to?" Johnny asked once they were outside.
"Your place," she said, "we're married."
Tinka uncorked one of the bottles on the way and they had finished it by the time they reached Johnny's residence, Tinka drinking more than her share. As Johnny unlocked the door to his room, Tinka said suddenly: "I cast a spell on you this morning."
Caught off guard, Johnny could only ask: "What kind of spell?" as they stepped inside.
"To make you good in