Page 77 of The Fire Walker
“What are youcalled?”
“The Devil’sTattoo.”
“Sweet name.” He grinned down at me. “Okay,ready?”
“As I’ll everbe.”
As he made the first line, I couldn’t help grimacing. Yeah, this shit hurt a billion times worse than my elbowhad.
“Okay?”
I grimaced. “Fucking hell, mate. That shit stings,hey?”
“Stomach is a sore one,” he said. “What’s it about? Why firewalker?”
Suddenly, I felt like I was on LA Ink or one of those tattoo storyshows.
When I didn’t reply straight off the bat, he said, “Is it about agirl?”
Between lines, I got out, “Something likethat.”
“Sounds like she put you through hell,man.”
“Lava pits ofit.”
“She must be something else if you’re getting a reminder tattooed onyou.”
“Out of the fuckinggalaxy.”
“You’re Australian, right? So does she live here,or…”
“She liveshere.”
“Andyou?”
“I live inAustralia.”
“How’s that work? You guys do the distancething?”
“No.” I grimaced as he tattooed a particularly long line. “We’ve only just gottogether.”
“Would you movehere?”
“I dunno,” I replied. The last thing I’d expected was a deep and meaningful with a tattoo artist. This shit was painful enough. “I mean, I can’t relocate here. The band is based inAustralia.”
“What does shewant?”
As the needle came down again, I tensed. When he lifted and wiped the section he’d just done, I said, “We haven’t talked aboutit.”
“Maybe she wants to go to Australia withyou.”
Truthfully, the thought had never crossed my mind. Back in LA, I would’ve said there was no way it would work out, but now she’d quit Galaxy. She still had her job at the cafe and her apartment, but I didn’t think I had it in me to ask her to leave it all behind. Typical Dee fashion was to think about all the things I could sacrifice for her. It hadn’t occurred to me that she would want to sacrifice things for me. She’d said she wanted to visit Australia. Maybe she would want to move there someday.
I was getting way ahead of myself. I still had two and a bit months left on my visa. I would stay with her until I had to go home. Besides, we still had a lot of things to talk through. Chickens before eggs and allthat.
When the tattoo was finally done, paid for, and wrapped up, I thanked the guy and walked back outside onto the street. It was almost time to go pick up Jessie, and she was probably gonna flip when she saw what I’d filled my afternoon with. My stomach was sore like nothing else, but that wouldn’t stop me from peeling off her clothes and making her come all night again. The adrenaline overload and the thought of her naked body made me begin to harden, and I strode down the footpath, on a beeline back to thecafe.
I would take her to the supermarket, make her a bloody brilliant meal, we’d talk, and then bury ourselves in each other. Then we’d do it all again tomorrow. And the day after that and the day after that. Rinse and repeat until wedied.
