Another Way to Fly, from Terry Dactyl

Another Way to Fly, from Terry Dactyl Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (bio) The first time I met Sid she was on the dance floor in a silver and gold tube dress pulled over her head except it wasn’t just a dress because the fabric went on and on and somehow she knew the exact spot on the dance floor where the light would shine right on her or that’s how it felt when she was writhing inside this tube of fabric, pulling it up and down, a hand out and a hand in, and then her face exposed in harsh white makeup and black lipstick with long glittering eyelashes and then she rolled onto the floor, she was crawling or more like bending but also she was completely still in the bouncing lights and all this was somehow happening on a crowded dance floor at the Limelight while I was sipping my cocktail and I didn’t know what I was seeing I mean it felt like this went on forever, how many songs, it was like there wasn’t even music anymore just my body inside the fabric peeking out and then suddenly she pulled the dress up around her neck like a huge elegant collar, and underneath she was wearing a gold bodysuit with a silver metallic skirt that flared out, with ballet slippers also painted gold and she walked right up to me and said what did you think. And I had no idea how she even saw me but I must have mumbled something because then she took my hand and said let’s go upstairs, honey, and I thought we were going to the balcony but we went up the stairs in the back, and at the top she kissed the door person on both cheeks and then we went inside. And there was a whole other dance floor there, the club inside a club that I’d heard about, and she guided me over to the bar and said: I can’t believe she’s gone. And then she said it again: I can’t believe she’s gone. [End Page 279] And then she looked up at me and started laughing hysterically—oh honey, she said, I totally thought, I totally thought. And then she just stopped right there. I didn’t know if she thought I was someone else, or if she thought—I really just didn’t know. She said what are you drinking, honey, but she didn’t wait for my answer she just ordered two vodka sours with grenadine, I loved the color and after I took one sip I knew this would be my drink from then on. She poured some coke out on a coaster and then handed me a straw, and I made sure just to snort half but she motioned her hand like you take the rest, and when I was done she handed me a big flat round pill and I swallowed it with the vodka sour. I was a little worried because I was already a bit coked up and alcohol messes with ecstasy too, but I definitely knew not to turn down free drugs, I mean wasn’t this what was supposed to happen in New York? Sid, she said. Sid Sidereal. Terry, I said. Terry Dactyl. And she touched my back, and said: Where are your wings? It was the way she touched me. Like she was drawing my wings on. I could feel them right then. One by one, the others came upstairs, and took their magic pills—I didn’t know anyone yet, but when they saw me with Sid it was like we were old friends. Sid was so high that her eyes would roll back whenever she wasn’t speaking, and I was ready to go there. Jaysun Jaysin kept petting her coat like it would take her to heaven or maybe she was already in heaven. Bleached curly hair with dark roots, eyebrows dyed green, and she was wearing a big ratty faux-fur coat and maybe nothing on underneath and she touched my nose and said: twins. I looked at her nose, and noticed...