The first one, Pugsy, just glared at me. The other, who had to be Bibi, looked scared. A great couple of days I was having. First my crew gets sprouted, my ship sinks, Glottis is killed (by a goddamned cliché, of all things), Domino knocks my lights out, and now a little boy wants to bite me. I would have laughed if it wasn’t all so sad.
“Why do you want to bite me?” I asked Pugsy.
“You’re the mean new boss,” he answered.
“Mr. Hurley said you were meaner than him!” Bibi added.
“He said you had a bone saw,” Pugsy said with a tremor in his voice.
“Well,” I said, “you shouldn’t believe everything Domino tells you. My name’s Manny Calavera, by the way. You’re Pugsy and… Bibi. Right?”
“Mr. Hurley told us about you,” Pugsy said. I sighed a little. “You’re the one who tricked Meche.”
“Poor Meche,” Bibi said sadly.
“I never tricked anybody,” I said. “Meche is my friend.”
“She talked about you before,” Pugsy said. At least they don’t get all their information from Domino.
“Every time she says your name,” Bibi said, “she looks so sad.”
“I don’t know what you did to her,” Pugsy said angrily, “but you’re gonna be sorry!”
I sighed again, more heavily than before. “I’ve been sorry for about thirty years.” The two kids exchanged glances. “I didn’t trick Meche, but I did hurt her and I’m trying to make up for it.”
“You’re a bad man!” Bibi declared with the absolute righteousness of a child.
“I’m not gonna argue with you about that.” The little girl looked confused. “Do you kids know why you’re here?”
“Making light bulbs,” Bibi said. “What does it look like?”
“No,” I said, “I mean why are you here, in this place?”
“We’re dead,” Pugsy answered.
“Mr. Hurley said this is where people go when they die,” Bibi added.
“OK,” I said, “but has Meche ever said anything different? Then I guess she has,” I said when they didn’t answer, the angelitos flinched, “and Domino doesn’t want you talking about it.” They looked to the office’s open door, making sure no one was there, then nodded. “So maybe you can’t trust everything Domino says. I can’t give you a solid reason to trust me straight away, but you can trust me. This place isn’t where you’re supposed to be and I’m going to do my level best to get you out of here.”
“What?” Bibi exclaimed.
“You can’t do that!” Pugsy insisted. “We have to stay here and take care of Meche.”
“She’d be so sad here all alone,” Bibi said. “Sometimes we hear her crying, you know.”
“I’m going to get us all out of here. You, Meche, everyone.”
“How’re you gonna do that?” Pugsy demanded. “Mr. Hurley says there’s no way off the island.”
“Look,” I snapped, “will you stop throwing Domino in my face? I got enough of that from Copal!”
The angelitos looked scared. “I’m sorry. Domino’s kind of a sore subject with me.” I rubbed my head again. “You carry on with your light bulbs while I go find out a few things.”
As I walked out the door I heard Pugsy muttering, “So mean!”
I made my way back to Domino’s office suite. This time Meche was working in the outer office.
“Oh, look,” she exclaimed sarcastically as I walked in, “it’s my Prince Charming! Did you come back just to insult me some more, or do you just want some ice for your head?”
Well, I deserved that. I still don’t know why I made that crack about sharing a bunk. I couldn’t explain it to myself, so there was no point trying to explain it away to Meche. Instead of being apologetic, I angrily asked, “Why are those children locked up in a cage?”
She looked off balance. I guessed that was that last thing she expected me to say, but she answered matter-of-factly: “With the wings those angelitos have, they’re the only things on this island Domino can’t control.”
“Hey,” I said excitedly, “if the kids can fly—”
“They can’t fly that far, Manny,” she cut me off, “but they can fly circles around Domino… and they can bite pretty hard!” She clamped her hands over her jaw to muffle her laughter, casting a worried glance at the inner door.
It was a funny picture, but suddenly I felt dizzy. I quickly found a chair and sat down, massaging my skull. “You know,” I said, “I think Domino might’ve hit me right where you clobbered me,” Meche got a lip-bitingly guilty look, “so while were on the subject of true confessions, just why did you take me out with that champagne bottle, anyway?”
“I told you,” she said, “to stop you from falling into Domino’s trap. If you had made it on that ship, you would have ended up—”
“—here?” I finished the sentence for her.
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“Worked like a charm,” I said dryly. She looked away. In case shame was involved, I asked, “Has Domino… hurt you in any way?”
“Not as much as I’ve hurt him,” she answered, thankfully sounding as if she hadn’t experienced what I had been aiming at. “Boy, can that guy take a punch!”
I sighed, this time in relief, supposing I was reading her correctly. Either way, it was time to get to the point. “Look… Meche,” I started, taking a deep breath. “I think we need to talk.”
“Start talking.” She sounded sarcastic. “You’re the salesman.”
Where to start? “I have a lot of explaining to do,” I said, trying to give myself time to get my head together.
“Save your breath,” Meche snapped. “Domino’s explained it all to me already.”
I shook my head, angry. “Yeah, and Domino’s ‘explained’ everything to those kids. What gives? Is Domino the only trustworthy guy in the world?” I didn’t expect an answer and didn’t get one. “Well, whatever. We’re getting out of here.” I stood up.
“Still trying to steal my commission from Domino?” Meche asked, sounding amazed. “Manny, don’t you ever give up?”
“I’m not after any commission!” I protested, annoyed. “I just want to get us both out of here.”
“Then why don’t you just ask your boss for the day off?” she needled.
“Can’t believe you think he’s my boss,” I said sadly. “He’s my arch-enemy!”
“I think he’s your boss—you think he’s my boyfriend,” she said harshly. “We don’t seem to have a good foundation of trust in our relationship, do we?
I guess we didn’t at that. “Look, I’m sorry I implied he was your boyfriend. I do trust you.”
“Well, I’m not sure I trust you about anything. But I’ll tell you one thing that would convince me…”
That seemed more like it. “Name it.”
“Give me your gun.”
“What?!” I exclaimed in surprise. “What makes you think I have a gun!?”
“You work for the most heavily-armed organization in the Land of the Dead!” Meche snapped angrily.
This was unbelievable. Where did she get this crap? Of course: from Domino.
“I don’t work for the most heavily-armed organization anywhere!” I protested.
“You know,” she said sarcastically, “you’re right. There are those rumors of a revolutionary army stockpiling weapons.”