LIGHT PUNISHMENT

A SCIENCE FICTION STORY

1

“Hey, Will, let’s go screw the new girl, who lives on the eight floor.”

“Are you looking for trouble, bro?”

“No.”

“And since when do you go after white trash?”

“And since when are you a racist? I don’t really want her, but she keeps staring at me. She’s chewing her salad leaves, and drilling into me with her colorless eyes like it’s a staring contest.”

“Have you tried talking to her?”

“How am I supposed to talk to her if she can’t even speak English? Her family just got here.”

“Commies?”

“Hell if I know. They don’t pray and all their furniture’s Salvation Army.”

“I wouldn’t get involved. You forget how the police kicked your ass last time? Maybe you want to catch another case?”

“Are you out of your mind? What case? All I did was check under her skirt during class. And she gets wet just like any other bitch.”

“And she didn’t say anything?”

“Nope, she just sat there and ate her damn salad; it was as if she spit in my face.”

“Alright, Jo, let’s go. But if she refuses, I’m out. I’m not looking for a trouble.”

Talking in an undertone, the buddies slowly moved up in the old elevator, which had a sweet-burnt scent well known to both. Jordan winked to William,

“That’s the right smell. Our clients are all over.”

Most youth would lit their joints already in the elevator, on the way to the top floor, and then onto the flat roof. The air was clearer up there, and you could keep an eye out on any policeman that came by.

The housing projects, where many new immigrants would settle, stood at the very edge of two spheres of influence. Here, the blacks were in control. But, on the other side of Lafayette, where the Asians lived, it was the Yakuza. All the local pushers of weed, pills and coke knew this but, from time to time, would make extra cash on their competitors’ territory, risking any beatings that might come with it. Already twice now, during one of his successful deals in the forbidden zone, Will had noticed Liu, a sinewy senior from their high school. He must have lived nearby but was seeing him there a coincidence?

2

Jordan reached out to ring the doorbell when he noticed a small slit in the unlocked door. He smiled slyly at Will:

“It’s like out in the country, where you’re always happy to have company,” he said as he pushed the door open.

It was silent in the apartment although either in the kitchen or in the bedroom something was rustling.

“Hello!” cried out Jordan. “Your door was open!”

No answer. He signaled to his friend to watch the door and made off to the bedroom. As he reached the doorway, he stopped, petrified.

There, in the center of the room, stood a completely naked girl, on all fours, eating like an animal from a large pile of leaves that had been dumped onto the floor. Meanwhile, that sacred place, which he so desired, was right there, just two steps away.

His heart fell. This was it: all or nothing!

With one hand, Jordan slackened his tight belt, which held his jeans up just below his butt-cheeks. With the other, he dropped his flowery boxers and, with a moan of release, joined himself with the most incredible girl of his life.

Will heard a roar come from the bedroom and grinned to himself. “Oh yeah, Jordan’s gonna show her.” But, after a moment, the moans and cries died out and a very distinct smell of burning meat and rubber reached his nose.

“Woah, what’s that? Slow down there!” he laughed, not doubting that the smell, of course, comes from the neighbors’ apartment.

No answer came. Will slightly opened the door of the bedroom and choked on a mouthful of his own vomit.

There, the fully charred body of Jordan wobbled atop a pair of melted rubber sneakers. There were no clothes on him save for the singed remnants of his boxers stuck to his scorched knees. Suddenly, a piece of black coal, which was joining the two bodies, fell away and the corpse of Jordan, with a squelching sound, keeled over onto its living stand. A noisy chewing was heard throughout.

“She’s eating my friend with her ass!” – A thought, like an intrusive fly colliding against glass, knocked against his temples. The blood froze in his veins. Not realizing what he was doing, he pushed aside the dead body, pulled out his knife and drove it to the hilt into the pink back.

The creature let out a shrill screech and, as Will withdrew the blade, a fountain of blood gushed out from the wound, hitting him directly in the face. Overcoming his own fear and disgust, acting on nothing but a desire to avenge his friend’s shameful and yet seemingly heroic death, he landed blow after blow until the creature fell silent right beside poor Jordan. Only then could Will catch his breath.

“I gotta wash up and get out of here before the firefighters arrive!”

Under the ringing of the smoke detector, Will washed the blood off his face and lips, feeling the strange, almost alien taste of it. He spit the remainder of the blood out.

“Now, I need to clean this knife, put it in Jordan’s hand, and wipe off my shoes!”

As he darted out of the apartment, he could hear the clatter of the firefighters’ boots and the clanging of their pike poles from the lower floors.

“Up!”

He ran up to the top floor with the queer sensation that something was happening to him — it was as if myriad microscopic creatures were rebuilding him: chiseling, drilling, and riveting everything inside. In his chest — a new brain, in his head — a processing plant, in his pelvis — weaponry.

“Open the roof door!”

He already knew that the blood of the alien had turned him into the same creature. He looked like Will from the outside, but, on the inside, he had become a scout from distant Aldebaran, readying an operation for the invasion of Earth. For the proper functioning of his new organism, he needed a large amount of chlorophyll b, which could be found in burdock leaves, simple burdock, which grew in the empty lot behind the garages on the other side of the boulevard.

While the remnants of Will’s consciousness told him not to wander into the Yakuza’s territory, the will of his host inevitably moved him across the roof, down another staircase, hurrying out of the building, and without looking for traffic, crossed Lafayette to the empty lot covered in green leaves.

3

The tanto-knife entered deeper than Liu had anticipated and Will’s body shuddered with its final convulsions.

“Ah, shit!” thought Liu with annoyance, “I’ve just been accepted by the gumi and I’ve already failed!”

“Little brother” had ordered him to teach his black competitor a lesson that, on this side of the street, power belonged to the Yakuza — not to kill him.

Liu held Will’s body and gently lowered it to the ground.

“I need to be very careful now. Leave the blade in the body and unscrew the handle. No fingerprints, not a drop of blood! Let the corpse rot in the bushes.”

This was his chance to become a real player — to win even after being dealt a bad hand. Both the police and his enemies would be after him. If he squeals, his own people would open his belly. But, even if he’s lucky and manages to outwit everyone, he’ll still have to go through the gumi punishment and publicly chop off the phalanx of his left pinky. But, Liu would be proud of this! After all, didn’t he deserve such light punishment?