It felt like a suffi ciently badass thing to do. I plugged Flux Pavilion into my ears and walked fast. Angled my head down like a hat on Mad Men. Like a cocky hat on a man on Mad Men; Caucasian and American. Red lips dangled a white cigarette on to a blue flame, and I walked away to the growing, unconcerned beats.

The Towers of Perth

March 2012

6145678289: Hi there ☺ Will I be shot down again if I ask you to dinner tomorrow night?

Tara: Russian accent guy?

6145678289: Yes, ma’am.

Tara: I think I remembered where I know you from.

Russian Accent Guy: Let’s hear it!

Tara: Well if I’m wrong this is going to sound really weird, but did you go to this weird Halloween party at River Rapids Park

Russian Accent Guy: Oh no, that’s an affirmative. Did I do something bad?

Tara: Haha, nope. You just sold me some pills.

Russian Accent Guy: That would have been the army-issued stuff, so I hope it was at least good?

Tara: It definitely was. How long were you in the army?

Russian Accent Guy: A little under two years, before I got a medical discharge. So is it a yay or nay on dinner tomorrow?

Tara: I’m going to go with the former ☺ 7 p.m. work for you?

Russian Accent Guy: Could you give me till 7.30? I’m teaching this self-defence class that doesn’t get out till 6.30, and I need a little time to go home and sexify after that.

Tara: Haha, by all means, take your time to sexify.

7.30 it is. What kind of self-defence?

Russian Accent Guy: It’s a mix of ju-jitsu and some other forms that the government calls ‘combatives’. And great, it’s a date. Address?

Tara: 100 Macarrow Street, Apt D. Right off Main past Eighth. And wow, that sounds pretty cool. Question—have you ever killed anyone?

Russian Accent Guy: Lol. Not directly.

Tara: How do you kill someone indirectly?

Russian Accent Guy: I was a human intelligence collector/interrogator.

Tara: That sounds absolutely TERRIFYING. I’m getting mental images of Hannibal Lecter slicing bits off that guy’s brain and cooking it before feeding it to him.

Russian Accent Guy: Lol, torture is illegal. Words were my battlefield. I just convinced people they should tell me what they knew. And the information I provided led to the deaths of several people. Although I didn’t pull the trigger and the information possibly saved lots of innocent people and all that, I still feel guilty.

Tara: What happened to make us so insensate, as a race?

Russian Accent Guy: The absence of a God.

Tara: You don’t think there’s a God?

Russian Accent Guy: There are gods, yes. Just not any that are ours, the human race’s.