ISHMAEL HOUSTON-JONES

Prologue to the End of Everything was written in the late 1980s and became the text for a dance/performance piece with the same title. It was performed at The Kitchen in New York in 1988 with Ishmael Houston-Jones, Antony Bowman, and Trinket Monsod; music by Chris Cochrane with Zeena Parkins and Doug Seidel; set by Robert Flynt; sculptures by Impala; lights by Michael Stiller. Section One was published in Farm, (Feature and Instituting Contemporary Ideas, 1990). Section One has also been published in Caught in the Act: a Look at contemporary Multi-Media Performace, (Aperture, 1996) and Footnotes: Six Choreographers Inscribe the Page, (G+B 1998). Prologue to the End of Everything The airport had been closed for almost two weeks; there was a ban on exit visas; Matt sleeps and dreams of iguanas calling him from a vacant lot; of strawberries the size of babies' red fists; of women in damp blouses, denim skirts and pink plastic sandals.  He dreams of sucking on ice cubes.  And the busboy's eyelashes. 1. He wakes up, a wrestler defeated by his own sweaty sheet. 2. He wakes up, reassured by the sounds of lizards on his screens and parrots in the trees. 3. He wakes up, takes a piss in a green plastic bucket, takes a short look at two unhealing sores, spits out some red foamy toothpaste, rinses his mouth with rum, takes a painful, watery rotten-eggy shit, checks for blood, sprinkles some pine oil into the bucket... 4. Matt heads for the cafe. He never liked this cafe. It's in the bourgie quarter across from the Palace Hotel It's the only one that's still open.     5. He steps over a few new bodies. 6. The heat is bearable, but just. 7. His toes curl up under, inside his boots. 8. There are more bodies than yesterday. 9. And a few left over from the day before. 10. The squads are getting sloppy. Or overworked. 11. He gets to the Palace. 12. The same woman and little girl are begging on the corner. 13. The woman is dead. 14. The girl holds a cup.  Stares straight ahead. 15. A sign in her language is taped to her T-shirt. 16. It reads -- "Blessed Mother, protect my precious one." 17. He drops some sweat-crumpled bills into the cup. 18. About 25 1/2 cents U.S. 19. The girl doesn't say thank you, not even automatically. 20. He thinks, this is unusual, he thinks. 21. He thinks -- she'll probably be dead by nightfall. 22. At the cafe, his favorite waitress tells him a nephew died last evening. 23. That's four people in her family this month. 24. He expresses his sorrow and orders a rum. 25. He orders a rum. 26. There's an attractive university student reading Franz Fanon at the next table. 27. There are listless parrots in huge cages. 28. There's the busboy he always overtips. 29. He orders a rum. 30. He orders a rum. This one with a bottle of Coke. With the cap still on please. And he adds needlessly — Of course without ice. 31. He strains to see the headlines on the cute student's newspaper. 32. Death toll, as always, in the upper right corner. And assurances that scientific help is coming from the outside. A message from the First Lady. Something about the World Futbol Cup. 33. And a factory nearby that manufactures binary chemical weapons has been taken over by... 34. But the attractive student's nose has begun to bleed. 35. Badly. 36. And people are running down the street past the Palace Hotel. Ripping up shrubbery. Throwing paving stones. 37. It's a lot like TV. 38. The waitress gives the attractive student a kitchen rag and tilts his head back. 39. More people are running screaming in the streets. 40. The parrots wake up to beat their wings against the bars of their cages. 41. He hears what could be firecrackers or gunshots or mortar fire and he thinks he really should learn the difference. 42. He thinks out loud --"What I should do is get my black ass back to New York and fast." 43. Paving stones are being thrown at the cafe. Tables overturned. 44. The busboy says, Follow me, you'll be safe," and leads him into the walk-in box. 45. All he can hear is the sound of the motor. All he can feel is cool air. All he can smell is fresh clean blood. 46. The busboy says in his language, we'll be safe here. 47. The busboy sticks his tongue in his mouth. 48. Matt thinks of Elizabeth's latest letter asking why he doesn't come home and take that teaching job. 49. The busboy unbuttons Matt's pants, pulls them down and spins him around 180. 50. He thinks of his father teaching him to ride a two-wheeler. 51. He supports himself holding onto the cold slimy carcasses of two calves hanging from meat hooks -- skinny as dogs. 52. He hears the busboy's pants unzip behind him and he thinks of paintings by Francis Bacon. 53. The busboy slaps his ass. 54. He hears a loud explosion out beyond the heavy metal door and the cool. More screams. More breaking glass. More parrot squawks and firecrackers. 55. "Your legs are very beautiful but what are those marks?" asks the busboy in his language. 56. "It's the end," Matt answers. 57. Then, "No, it's not the end." 58. His fingers dig into the fat and muscle of the two hanging calves. 59. The busboy orders, "Relax!" 60. It's not the end. It's the beginning. The beginning of the end of everything. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

II 1. Beyond the door and the motor they hear voices. 2. They eat chilled strawberries big as babies' red fists. 3. "It's O.K. says the busboy.  They're from outside.  The owner, he trades on the Black 4. Matt bites into another berry; cool pink juice drips onto his shirt. 5. "Here," says the busboy in his language; he wipes Matt's shirt and mouth roughly with his kitchen rag. 6. Matt laughs. 7. Silently. 8. They both have their pants around their ankles. 9. With his eyes Matt connects the dots of goose bumps on the busboy's thighs. 10. The busboy opens a bottle of Coca-Cola and rips the legs off a roasted chicken. 11. Matt touches a dot with his left forefinger and begins to connect it to another. 12. "Later," the busboy whispers in his language. 13. "Why?"  Matt asks in his language. 14. Beyond the door the voices sound nearer. 15. The busboy puts down his Coke. 16. He offers Matt a chicken leg. 17. Matt takes it. 18. The busboy cleans his penis with the kitchen rag. 19. Matt bites into another strawberry.  Chucks the stem.  Puts down the chicken leg.  Pulls up and buttons his pants. 20. He keeps his eyes on the rag and the brown hands that use it. 21. The busboy pulls up and zips his pants. 22. He sticks the rag into his back pocket. 23. He sticks his tongue into Matt's mouth. 24. "Later." 25. The voices are just outside the door. 26. Over the drone of the motor Matt can make out some words in the voices. 27. In their language. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     III 1. The heavy metal door pulls open. 2. Light and men and women with various guns and uniforms rush in. 3. The busboy begins to frantically grab bottles of Coke and French water. 4. He screams in his language, "we are just working here, we are just working here." 5. He drops a bottle of Coke. 6. It explodes at their feet. 7. We are just working here. 8. "Not any more" laughs a man with a gun. 9. Then not laughing, "Get out!" 10. The busboy grabs another liter of Coke. 11. We are just working here. 12. Matt grabs a bottle of French water and a melon the size of a bowling ball. 13. They jump over upturned tables and chairs and barstools. 14. They jump over the body of a man. 15. The waitress and the attractive student are gone. 16. The bloody rag and newspaper lie on his table 17. No people run in the street. 18. The parrots are quiet in their cages. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     IV 1. The heat is as clear as the French water they nabbed from the café.   2. There is thunder in Matt's ears.   3. They run through empty streets. They run through overgrown lots. They run along a cracking unfinished highway.   4. For fifteen minutes without stopping.   5. The thunder in Matt's ears drums louder.   6. The source of his breathing is further away.   7. The busboy kicks open a high metal gate.  It is covered with morning glories.  Topped by razor wire.   8. Inside there are trees bearing fruit.   9. Inside there are chickens and dogs.   10. Inside there is an old man.                                A lot of children.                                    Girls mostly.                                        And two middle-aged women sitting under a tree       11. Drinking beer from bottles.  Fanning flies with white handkerchiefs.  Wearing plastic slip-on sandals, denim skirts, and damp blouses.   12. In her language the prettier of the two asks Johnnie what's wrong.   13. "Trouble, bad trouble," he tells his mother in their language.   14. He leads Matt through the dim doorway of a sprawling shack.   15. In the language of the busboy and his mother The Wild Wild West plays on the television.   16. A local band is on the radio.   17. White Christmas lights in blue plastic roses surround the Virgin.   18. No one is inside to watch, listen, or pray.   19. Little faces appear at the windows looking in from the yard.   20. "This way."   21. The busboy closes a slatted door behind them.   22. He gestures to a card table where they drop their loot.   23. "We shoulda' got a rum," says the busboy in English.   24. Matt sits carefully on a flimsy cot covered with a thin foam mattress and a clean cotton blanket.   25. Matt makes a note of the posters on the walls.   26. Jimi Hendrix, Che Guavera, Black American runners giving the gloved fist salute on the Olympics victory stand, Mao, Malcolm X, and the LOOK Magazine cover of Peter Max Beatles.   27. "Hi Johnnie," Matt grins.   28. "That's not my name,"   29. "Anymore."   30. "She saw a lot of stupid American movies."   31. He smiles down at Matt, then seriously,   32. "My name is Che."   33. The busboy is simultaneously so grave and so beautiful that Matt cannot laugh. That he does circle his arms around the boy's hips.                    That he pulls the boy to him.                                That he buries his face into the front of the boy's pants.   34. "Hello Johnnie-Che" he whispers to the swelling flesh beneath polyester.   35. The cot sighs.   36. "Later" says Johnnie-Che in his language.   37. "Now" says Matt in English.   38. Matt lifts his head so that only the point of his chin is touching the polyester lump.   39. "OK, now" says Johnnie-Che and he steps back outside the circle of Matt's arms.   40. He covers his window with a striped towel.   41. He gestures for Matt to stand.   42. He plops the thin foam mattress onto the cement floor.   43. He smiles.   44. Outside Matt hears the snorting of a pig. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

V 1. Johnnie-Che unbuttons Matt's shirt. 2. Johnnie-Che peels it off. 3. Johnnie-Che takes off his own. 4. He opens the slatted door. 5. Calls out a girl's name. 6. Hands the melon and both shirts to her. 7. Matt sits down on the bare springs. 8. Johnnie-Che kneels and unlaces Matt's boots. 9. He pries them off, skins off socks. 10. He puts them on the windowsill. 11. Johnnie-Che motions "get up." 12. He unbuttons Matt's blue jeans. 13. With one movement he jerks them and Matt's boxers down to his ankles. 14. Matt steps out of them. 15. Johnnie-Che hangs the jeans in a plywood wardrobe and drapes the underwear over a boot on the windowsill. 16. Johnnie-Che gestures for Matt to lie down. 17. "But I want to undress you." 18. Silence 19. Silence 20. Johnnie-Che relents. 21. Matt unzips the tight café pants.  Then remembers shoes.  He kneels.  He unties the dusty-shiny café shoes. 22. Johnnie-Che steps out of them holding onto Matt's head. 23. Matt is clumsier at this than the busboy. 24. He fumbles with socks. 25. Pants get caught on angles of body. 26. Synthetic underwear tangles. 27. They lie face to face on thin foam on a concrete floor. 28. Toes and penises touching. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     VI 1. They lie very still for a very long time. 2. Sounds of children and dogs and chickens blow in from the yard. 3. Sound of a lizard scuttling across the tin roof. 4. A piglet grunts just beyond the wall. 5. A pile of revolutionary newspapers is yellowing under the card table. 6. And a stack of cheap local movie magazines. 7. A rosary is draped around a red plastic bust of Karl Marx atop the wardrobe. 8. Johnnie-Che has a ballpoint tattoo of a cross on his shoulder. 9. The cross is surrounded by strokes of light. 10. He wears a gold crucifix on a chain around his neck. 11. Resting on his side, the cross lies Jesus-down on the mattress between the two of them. 12. Johnnie-Che starts to say something but doesn't. 13. His front teeth are near perfect. 14. On the sides he has baby fangs. 15. His lips are full. 16. He has the very beginnings of a very ugly moustache. 17. No beard hair. 18. His eyebrows almost connect. 19. His lashes are snares. 20. He has a small mole on his left cheek. 21. Sweat shiny hair frames his face in large black ringlets. 22. Fat black sausage curls spill onto his shoulder. 23. His collarbone is so thin a kiss could snap it. 24. There's a scald mark on his left breast. 25. Matt's eyes connect the points of a perfect triangle formed by dark chocolate nipples and a pouting navel. 26. Light feathers fan out from the center of his lower belly. 27. A surgeon's scar wrecks the symmetry. 28. Matt starts to say something but doesn't. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     VII 1. Outside a girl is laughing.   2. She laughs as though she were being strangled.   3. Matt remembers the eyes of the girl begging outside the Palace Hotel.      With her cup. With her dead mother. With the sign taped to her T-shirt.   4. She didn't say thank you.   5. He crushes Johnnie-Che's body to his own.   6. He kisses a black circle of hair on his forehead.   7. He palms his ass.   8. Tightly.   9. Their penises crossed at the roots are smashed between their bellies.   10. Matt kisses a black curl and an ear.   11. Matt sucks a long black hair.   12. His lips brush the scald mark.   13. His big toe draws a line up and down the outside of Johnnie-Che's calf.   14. He kneads the boy's ass with one hand, pressing them even closer together.   15. The boy smells like roasted peppers.   16. Matt hears a distant explosion.   17. And little girls squeal with delight.   18. Matt thinks —"Now."   19. Matt says — "Now."   20. He turns the boy belly-down on the mattress.   21. He kisses the tattoo cross on his shoulder.   22. And a tuft of hair at the base of his spine.   23. He pommels the boy's ass with both fists.   24. He kisses each cheek.   25. Johnnie-Che suddenly turns his head to face him.   26. He says nothing.   27. He flips the gold chain so the crucifix hangs Jesus-up down his back.   28. He says nothing.   29. He turns away, pillowing his head on his right forearm.   30. "I don't want to hurt you," Matt whispers in the boy's language.   31. The boy points to a shelf in the boy's wardrobe.   32. Behind a giant size bottle of Listerine, next to some Brut spray cologne is a jar of Vaseline Burn Ointment.   33. Outside little girls shriek.   34. Johnnie-Che's mother says something to them in her language that Matt doesn't understand.   35. In her language he tells her son —"Relax." *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

VIII 1. Johnnie-Che is so still Matt stops. 2. Johnnie-Che is so quiet that Matt begins again 3. To sink deeper and deeper and deeper into the boy 4. To find 5. Something. 6. To feel everything. 7. He feels almost nothing. 8. Only a faint moist warmness surrounding his penis tells him this boy is alive. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     IX 1. Matt drifts. 2. Two days ago he saw another boy. 3. He had seen this one before. 4. But two days ago in the noonday sun. 5. This one lay on a plot of browning grass. 6. With near closed siesta eyes. 7. And parted lips. 8. This boy was so still that Matt stopped short. 9. Flies crawling out from and into the boy's mouth and nostrils told Matt that he was right. 10. Matt's toes curled up inside his boots. 11. The way they always do. 12. Matt looked at the boy for a long time. 13. His pants —jeans, fatigues, whatever —had already disappeared. 14. And whatever shoes and socks he'd had. 15. All he wore now were cheap cotton underwear and a black "Iron Maiden" tee shirt. 16. A green-black beetle crawled out from the fly hole of his shorts. 17. He had a ballpoint tattoo of a heart on his forearm. 18. The heart was surrounded by strokes of light. 19. His legs were hairier than Matt had imagined. 20. His arms more muscular. 21. Thick black hair circled his deep navel. 22. He had the beginnings of an ugly moustache. 23. The boy's face and the kinky hair on his head were becoming dusty. 24. A sweet stench clutched Matt's throat and stomach. 25. He veiled his own mouth and nose with his fingers. 26. The boy was so quiet Matt had to move. 27. Slowly. 28. He needed to shroud that siesta face. 29. He found some old newspapers. 30. Sunday edition. 31. The funnies. 32. Charlie Brown and Spiderman and Asterix and Obelisk all spoke in the language of the boy. 33. Matt made a tent of comics over the boy's head. 34. A breeze nudged it away. 35. Matt anchored the four corners of the newspaper with stones and bits of broken colored glass. 36. Matt began to run. 37. As fast as he could. 38. Through the unblinking heat. 39. Jumping over other new bodies. 40. Down past the Palace Hotel. 41. And the woman and girl begging. 42. To the café. 43. He ordered a rum from his favorite waitress. 44. He stared into the wide-open eyes of the busboy. 45. He always over tips. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     X 1. Johnnie-Che is so far away he could be any place on earth except where he is — 2. On a thin foam mattress, on a cement floor, in his own room, under Matt's weight. 3. The only movement he makes is a small yielding when Matt plunges. 4. The only sound, the soft soughing when Matt withdraws. 5. Matt's tongue traces the whorl of Johnnie-Che's ear. 6. "I don't want to hurt you," Matt breathes in English. 7. Silence. 8. Only that vague dank warmth tells Matt this boy is alive. 9. Matt begins to thrust. 10. Harder. 11. Matt begins to grind at the end. 12. Matt bites the boy's scalp. 13. Matt knots his fingers with the boy's fingers. 14. Matt claws his toes into the cool cement. 15. The boy's eyes are dreamily closed. 16. His lips are parted but silent. 17. Matt feels almost nothing. 18. He jabs and grinds and jabs and grinds, 19. Scrubbing the boy's ass with his pubic hair. 20. He arches, he clutches, he kicks, he shakes his head. 21. He is drowning inside this boy. 22. And the boy is any place on earth but here. 23. Matt wedges both hands between the boy's chest and the mattress. 24. He squeezes both nipples. 25. Hard. 26. He bites the boy's neck. 27. Hard. 28. He slides one hand down past the boy's belly. 29. He fondles the boy's penis with his thumb and two fingers. 30. It's as soft as a ripe mango with a hard pit inside. 31. He slides the foreskin back. 32. And fingers the sticky head. 33. A shock tremors through the boy. 34. A seaquake. 35. Matt jabs and grinds and jabs and grinds. 36. The boy's penis begins to swell. 37. The boy's breath begins to shallow. 38. His eyes are tightly clenched. 39. With his tongue Matt tries to pry open the boy's mouth. 40. The boy turns his head away. 41. He buries his face in the foam mattress. 42. Matt squeezes the boy's nipple harder and works the foreskin back and forth over the head of his penis. 43. Johnnie-Che makes a sound. 44. His hips are being forced back onto Matt. 45. Matt pushes deeper but gentler. 46. Johnnie-Che has begun to smell 47. Like onions being sautéed. 48. Like shit. 49. He has begun to sweat. 50. Matt twists them both onto their sides. 51. Neither is lying on the thin foam. 52. Both lie on the rough cement. 53. Matt is pumping Johnnie-Che's cock. 54. Matt is churning his own inside the boy. 55. The boy throws his head back. 56. Matt looks over the boy's shoulder at the penis he's pumping. 57. It's bigger than mine, Matt thinks. 58. He kisses the side of Johnnie-Che's face. 59. Johnnie-Che twists his head to kiss Matt. 60. Their teeth scrape like metallic bones. 61. Johnnie Che turns away. 62. Matt feels his hand get wet, then wetter. 63. Matt smells a different smell. 64. He looks over the boy's shoulder but the boy has finished. 65. At that exact moment the boy made no sound. 66. Somewhere this angers Matt. 67. "I want to hurt you," he thinks. 68. He twists the boy belly-down onto cement. 69. He bites his shoulder. 70. He pushes and pushes and pushes into the boy. 71. He bites the gold chain. 72. He swallows the boy's ear, whole. 73. He grinds his chin into the boy's scalp. 74. He sinks deeper and deeper and deeper. 75. He swallows the gold crucifix. 76. He reins the chain tight across the boy's throat. 77. He comes inside the boy. 78. He collapses whole onto the boy. 79. "Che," he whispers into him. 80. "Thank you," Che says in English to the cement floor. 81. They lie motionless for a very long time. 82. Beached, Matt is no longer drowning. 83. Only sporadic after shocks of seaquake disturb their stillness. 84. Sound of a lizard scuttling across the tin roof. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

XI 1. Matthew peed blood. 2. Orlando Jennings told Miss Ivey but Miss Ivey wouldn't believe him 'til Matthew ran crying from the boys' room and she called for an ambulance to take him away. 3. Elizabeth brought him boxes of puzzles, And Bible comic books, And a transistor radio with an earplug, And an African violet plant. 4. And when the little boy who moaned all night in the big round machine was wheeled into Matthew's room, Elizabeth told the nurses he would have to move out because he frightened her son, her angel. 5. Elizabeth told Matthew he was safe now. 6. Elizabeth told Matthew he had almost died. 7. Elizabeth told Matthew his father would come tomorrow and that he should sleep now like a good angel. 8. Elizabeth kissed her angel on his forehead. 9. An official's stamp, a photo-document of their parting. 10. Matthew was stopped at the curb. 11. He was kept from the street by a "no" and a "good-bye." 12. Elizabeth's back grew smaller. 13. Matthew watched her vanish into a building called office, a place called work. 14. With his eyes Matthew would follow forever the disappearing back of her yellow print dress cinched tightly at the waist by a black patent leather belt. 15. The snapshot of a kiss developed on his forehead. 16. Official's stamp.  Document of parting. 17. Matthew walked home a different way. 18. He stopped at the witch's house. 19. A pile of greasy chicken bones lay on a sheet of tin foil in the doorway. 20. A headless body of a doll was impaled on a TV antenna. 21. A bottle of Johnson & Johnson's baby oil was in an upstairs window. 22. All the windows were broken. 23. Cold, musty air exhaled from the house and chilled Matthew. 24. Some older boys rounded the corner. 25. Four or five of them. 26. Boys from the third or fourth grades. 27. They began throwing bricks at the already broken windows. 28. They began throwing bricks at Matthew. 29. He ran as fast as he could. 30. An older boy cupped Matthew's head from behind. 31. Keeping him from sliding beneath green water. 32. He told Matthew to arch his back. 33. He told Matthew to breathe. 34. He told Matthew to relax. 35. The boy already had hairs in his armpits. 36. About four or five maybe. 37. And the beginnings of a moustache. 38. Beneath Matt, far below the smooth wet surface of Che's body, Che makes a very small, very deep movement. 39. Like the bones of a dinosaur turning to tar. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     XII 1. Like the bones of dinosaurs turning to pitch. 2. Che trembles again. 3. Drops of sweat or tears or spit stain the cement under his head. 4. He pushes back against Matt. 5. He tries to roll to one side. 6. Matt's weight is dead on the surface of Che's body. 7. "Please," Che says in his language. 8. Che's skeleton shrugs Matt off of him. 9. Che's anus squeezes Matt out. 10. "Like a human shit," Matt thinks, then 11. Suddenly he is covered with goose flesh. 12. His breath stops. 13. He is colder now than when they were inside the walk-in box. 14. As the Ice Age descends he is all alone. 15. The moment passes like a cloud. 16. Che smiles a near perfect baby fang smile. 17. In his language Che calls Matt "My Life". 18. He kisses Matt wetly on the lips. 19. With tongue. 20. Che stands. 21. Che snaps down the striped towel from the window. 22. Che opens a bottle of the French water. 23. Che is more beautiful than Matt remembered. 24. He is wet and dotted with flecks of cement. 25. Sunlight has changed the room. 26. The room smells like sex. 27. Che takes a long swig of French water 28. Then pours some over one end of the towel. 29. He washes himself while looking down at Matt. 30. He washes his arms. 31. He washes his neck. 32. He washes his chest and belly. 33. He pulls back his foreskin and washes the head of his penis. 34. And his thighs. 35. While still facing Matt he demurely wipes the crack of his ass. 36. He wrinkles his nose and bares his teeth. 37. He pours French water into the cup of his hand, splashes his face, dries it with the other end of the towel. 38. Finished. 39. He smiles down at Matt and winks. 40. He soaks the dry end of the towel and offers the bottle to Matt. 41. Matt sits up and takes a drink. 42. The bland wetness of the French water dilutes Che's taste in his mouth. 43. Che kneels and begins to bathe Matt. 44. His chest.  His underarms.  The corners of his mouth. 45. Che smells and kisses and washes Matt's greasy hands. 46. He washes Matt's penis like he does the glasses at the café. 47. Absentmindedly, but with care. 48. He bites Matt's lower lip then says to him in English — 49. "Let us get dressed, 50. My Life." 51. There are no voices in the yard. 52. Even the animals are quiet. 53. Matt hands Che the bottle. 54. Che kills it. 55. He drapes the towel back over the window.  He picks up the crumpled busboy pants from the floor. 56. He meticulously brushes and folds the polyester slacks and hangs them in the wardrobe. 57. Matt pulls on his underwear. 58. And his jeans, socks, and boots. 59. Che hands him a nylon short-sleeved shirt. 60. "Yours probably not dry yet." 61. Che opens a false bottom in the plywood wardrobe. 62. He digs out green fatigues, shirt, socks and boxers.  Shiny black combat boots.  An expensive watch and a revolver. 63. He dresses. 64. He rubber bands his hair into a short curly ponytail. He puts the revolver into the holster of his belt. He puts the foam mattress back onto the cot. 65. "How old are you?"  Matt asks the young soldier in his language. 66. "Sixty," Che says in English. 67. When Matt raises his eyebrows and smiles — 68. "One…six. Six…teen?" 69. Matt grabs the soldier by the back of his neck and tries to kiss him on the mouth. 70. Che kisses Matt on the nose, turns to the slatted door and says, "let's go," in English. 71. "Let's go," Matt echoes in Che's language and leaves the room behind him. *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     XIII 1. Someone has unplugged the Virgin's lights. 2. On the television Detective Columbo is interrogating a murderer in Che's language with a voice much higher pitched than Peter Falk's. 3. Electronic drums drive a diva's wails on the radio. 4. Che and Matt sit facing. 5. They rock in identical chairs. 6. There is a small table between them. 7. Outside is so quiet.  This room is so cool. 8. Matt stares into Che's eyes and wonders what the young soldier is thinking. 9. The high-pitched non-English Columbo disturbs Matt and he wonders if it is this that… 10. He glances at the handle of Che's revolver and wonders again what the soldier is thinking. 11. Che calls a girl's name and something else. 12. A girl steps into the room from the yard. 13. She carries a plate. 14. On the plate the melon Matt took from the walk-in box has been cut into thin wheel spokes, a half lime at the hub. 15. "My sister." 16. She sets the plate on the small table. 17. She has those same lips and lashes. 18. She appears to be, what, two years younger, but 19. Who can tell? 20. She has a similar mole but there is more gravity in her eyes and angle of head. 21. She mumbles something in her language to Matt while staring at his hands. 22. She has those same teeth. 23. Matt does not understand. 24. "Your shirt, it hangs in the sun; she will iron it when it is dry," Che translates. 25. "Thank you," Matt says in her language. 26. She smiles a near perfect baby fang smile and runs back into the yard. 27. Che squeezes limejuice over the melon slices, licks his fingers, puckers. 28. "Eat," he urges in English with an unnaturally large gesture.  Then adds 29. "My Life," with a wink. 30. "My Life," Matt mouths and wonders what he himself is thinking.