“We all have skeletons.”
“You too?”
“Ones I’d kill for,” Larry answered. “You?”
“I don’t know if any secret is worth killing for… You always want to be a director?”
“I wanted to be a chef. But I was allergic to so many different types of food, it was impossible.”
“Is that why you eat Taco Bell almost every day?” Kathy asked.
“You noticed.”
“I wondered why we had so few rats in our home. Rats are pretty picky about their food.”
Larry snickered. “You mean they don’t like Mexican pizzas?”
“They don’t like poison in general.”
Larry twisted his lips. “Twenty dead rats say they can’t tell the difference.”
“You bugged by a couple of dead rats?”
“I’m bugged by a couple of dead anything,” he replied.
Four days later, Officer Yu came by.
“Larry,” he greeted him.
“What’s up boss?”
Yu smiled heartily. “There’ve been complaints that you haven’t been complying with ordinance 7.822c.”
“What’s—”
“It’s the ‘kill the rats’ law,” Yu informed him.
“Ah…”
“If it’s the killing that bothers you, we have extermination companies that’ll take care of it. The city’ll put you up in a local hostel for three nights and—“
“I’ve already been told,” Larry said. “I can’t comply.”
Yu tilted his head, his brows raised. “Why not?”
“I don’t want to.”
Yu clutched his guard stick, rubbed the sole of his boots on the carpet. “Larry, be reasonable. This is for the be—”
“Sorry,” Larry cut him off. “I’ve made up my mind.”
Yu tipped his hat and said, “We’ll talk more later.”
Three hours later, Yu returned with eight officers. It got the notice of some national media who had come to cover the story about Mayor Doug Kwan.
“What’s going on?” one journalist asked another.
“Some guy’s protesting the rat law.”
The presence of the media unnerved police chief Tom Kong. “We have to show we’re not pushovers just because we’re police in a small town,” he told his officers. “Advise Larry of his rights, but if he doesn’t comply, arrest him.”
When the officers knocked on his door, Larry answered with a camera in hand.
“Either you’ll comply with the law, or we’ll have to put you under arrest,” Yu informed him.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t obey this law,” he answered, news cameras zooming in on him. A flurry of rats happened to stream out at the same time.
Officer Yu put the manacles on. Larry tried to avoid the rats and fell into Yu. Two officers, mistaking his action for an attack, wrestled him brutally to the ground. They dragged him to the police car, dirt smearing against his face, rats rushing out of the way.
Next day, the headlines read, Man arrested for refusing to murder pet mice. Never mind that they weren’t his pets and they weren’t mice either.
VI.
Doug screamed at the chief of police, “Fine him, give him a citation, but don’t arrest him on national television!”
He went to see Larry personally.
“I’m sorry the officers got overzealous,” Doug told Larry.
“It’s all right.”
“You’re free to go.”
Larry startled. Was about to say something but stopped, a skeptical gleam overtaking his eyes. “Thanks for letting me out,” he said.
When Kathy came by to see Larry, he was working feverishly on editing digital footage of rats.
“What’s that?” she asked.
He turned to her, saw she was wearing a blonde wig. “I’m making movie clips to post online. Did you know most rat poisons are anticoagulants? The rats bleed internally for a week until they die of exhaustion, shock, and pain.”
“I never thought it was comfortable…” Three rats were sniffing around the carpet. “They don’t repulse you?”
Larry shook his head, glanced over. “You?”
“I remember seeing them in the subways and they’d be running along the rails. I was just a kid, but they terrified me. I guess I got used to them after I moved here.”
“Even though they’re filthy, pathogenic, and creepy?”
“Sounds like my clients,” Kathy muttered with a dry laugh. “Any time I eat on the bed, they come crawling. I have to chase ‘em off.”
“The rats or your clients?”
She gave a smartass look and said, “A couple times, I was sleeping and about ten of them jumped on the bed. I was scared shitless.”
“They keep the bed warm.”
“I’d rather die than share my bed with rats.”
“There’s worse things than death or sleeping with rats.”
“I can’t think of many… You need help with anything?”
“You still want to be an actress?”
They’d been working for a week straight. Larry said, “They used to use strychnine to kill rats. But during WWII, the Japanese took over the Asian countries where they grew it and Americans had to switch to phosphides.”
“You’re pretty OCD about this.”
He laughed. “I studied that period like crazy. I started making movies because of old Japanese war films.”
“What do you mean?”
“My junior high teacher showed us a war propaganda film the Japanese made to glorify their empire and convince other countries to join them. They massacred millions of Chinese. It made me sick. I mean, it was only 60–70 years ago when these armies were trying to wipe out entire races. I got drunk twice because I was so depressed.”
“You got drunk in junior high?”
Larry’s pupils dilated. “I started making movies to fight against things like that from ever happening again.”
Kathy practiced her lines over and over. “First time I ever acted,” she said, “I played a news reporter. My job was to fuck the quarterback I was interviewing. Those were crazy times. There’s months I don’t remember ‘cause I was partying so much.”
“When’d you stop making movies?”
“After my best friend killed herself.”
“Oh, sorry — sorry for asking.”
Kathy shook her head. “She fell in love with another star but he was gay and only fucked women for the pay. She hung herself after he turned her down ten times. I didn’t understand, what was she thinking? I was supposed to act with him in an upcoming movie, but I just couldn’t do it.”
They watched the final cut together.
“You sure about that last part?” Kathy asked.
“I’m sure,” Larry affirmed.
“But if someone calls you on it.”
“I don’t bluff.”
Five rats watched from behind, sniffing all around.
“It’s like they can smell it,” Kathy said.
“Rats smell death.”
“You don’t sound too optimistic about your movie.”
“No one gives a shit about rats. No one gives a shit about anyone.” He lowered his head. “I just make dumb shit no one watches.”
“The rats seem to be enjoying it.”
Larry furrowed his brow.
“C’mon, let’s post it on YouTube,” Kathy said.
VII.
Doug had been stuck in meetings with the lieutenant mayor and several corporate sponsors. There’d been complaints about the recent spike in electrical bills. The roads on the east side of town had been in disarray since some bad rains a month back and there’d been heated discussion about the proposal to cut education spending in the arts. After he returned to his office, he had forty messages and a hundred emails to answer. But it was a skinny brunette with bulbous eyes that caught his eye. Claire Minford, assistant DA, closed the door and gave him a smooch.