Silence of the Lambs 2

There was  a dark oak tree in her backyard, Kimiko's backyard that had been there for more than a hundred years. Its roots had gone darkly into the ground and becomes gnarled and malicious and often the skin and movement of the roots reminded her of the movement of snakes. Kimiko looked at the oak tree as its fingers tapped her window, almost asking to get in. The thunder was loud and white, glaring at her with its titanic voice, Beethoven's fifth, the male phallus, the male ego asking to be let in.

Kimiko had gone to the London School of Economics and was intending to become a banker when plans changed. She had talked to her friend, Masako, about American or English professors and Masako had agreed. Most of them had no charm whatsoever. All phalluses and logic, seducing only the women who almost completely agreed with them. Once a woman disagreed, there was a visible threat to their demeanor.

Feathers. She wondered about feathers. A Raven dashed against her window in the rain and then bloodied itself with such frenzied fever, crashing against the window over and over again. The bloodied color was washed away quickly. There are Yakuza members who will ritually kill a Japanese woman who has slept with a foreigner. They will drag her across the streets by her hair. They will spit on her. They will ritually disembow her. BUT Dr. Lieu. Dr. Lieu really disgusted her in the way he justified and rationalized everything.

She looked at the dollar bill through a lens. The skin of George Washington was like a snake's skin with scales. He had a scarf over his neck. For some reason, she thought of Prometheus. The Eagle eating out his heart. What was the hubris, the overpride of Washington. He wanted to be king? Or he set up a democracy? Wasn't Jefferson the one who set up the democracy and Washington the one who wanted to be King?

The number of blocks in the pyramid, there were 33. The Eye of Reason. The One-Eyed Seer.

Her cellphone rang.

-Kimiko, I want you so bad. You're so hot.

-Dr. Lieu, you're not funny.

-I tried to disguise my voice like a redneck.

-You aren't very convincing. How'd you get a cellphone?

-I murdered and disembowed Whitey Bulger for the Italian Mafia.

-He had a cellphone?

-Yes, stuck inside of his asshole. It's was almost a naked lunch. It's fascinating how the government uses one ethnic race to kill another ethnic race.

-I completely disagree. It's called waste management.

-Can you get me some opera tickets? I promise I won't disappear.

-I'm afraid I can't.

-You know, Kimiko, this case does interest me just a little bit. Not that I care about white people or even black people. It interests me because it is so banal. Don't you agree and you, with all your degrees, cannot figure out this case. It really makes me wonder about the uses and misuses of intelligence. Kimiko, it's your conscience that prevents you from seeing the clear light of the truth. Adam and Eve gained a conscience when they ate of the fruit of good and evil. They must not eat of the fruit of eternal life lest they attempt to kill God.

-Conscience makes me sane.

-So no opera tickets?

-No opera tickets.

Kimiko undressed herself and went to sleep under the veil of her blanket. She dreamt about a turnistile, then the raping sound of gunfire and all these Japanese villagers throwing themselves over the cliff. She saw the American soldiers raping Japanese women and killing their honor. Babies cries piercing the sky.