Tetanus Acres

By Brendan Detzner

PART III

1

It was eleven o’clock at the Tommygun gallery, and the party was just getting warmed up. Everyone was watching movies. The gallery was split into twelve small areas, each one with it’s own television, and a different film was playing on each screen. The movies the gallery played were all black and white, with very little background music. Sometimes an expensive car would drive by and sometimes a man in a striped suit would smirk or fire a machine gun, but this never happened frequently enough to keep the crowd's attention.

Most of the time the gallery was decorated in black and white to match with the films played within it, but that morning Nails had stormed in with a team of experts and redecorated the place for the party. The new decorations were full of color, all the colors, placed and hung in tiny bits all over the gallery. Nails was careful to avoid a pattern. "Just cover the black and white, it's too moody. We don't want any ambiance in here. We want balance through chaos here, balance through chaos. Come on, come on." The decorators had done their best, but Nails was not satisfied. The black was showing through far too often.

Nails saw Red enter the gallery. He made his way through the crowd, ducked through the doorway, and approached him.

"How's the party?" he asked.

3

"It's very nice for what it is."

Nails' mask smiled wide. "It is very nice. I'm glad to know you like it. Tell me, where is..." Nails halted and shrugged. "Oh well, I guess I forgot her name."

"Mary."

"Mary. Where is she?"

Red didn't answer.

"You didn't leave her in her room did you?"

Red reached for his glass and took a sip of what was inside. "She's here."

"That's funny. If she were here I figured she'd be with you."

"You made a bad guess."

"I didn't guess, I figured. I thought it out."

"You had no idea. You guessed."

Nails laughed. "I suppose you're right. It's not like I'd know anything about it. I just thought that it might be best for her, if you kept her nearby. I run the city pretty well, but you have to remember the kinds of people that end up in here."

"People like you."

"Exactly. I mean, you wouldn't want to just let her go in a room with a bunch of little mes running around? It's almost the same thing. I try to keep an eye on things, but even I can't be in two places at once. Anything could happen, Red."

Red took another sip of his drink. "She can take care of herself."

Nails looked through the mask. "You're sure of that?"

Red put his drink down. "Yes."