Re: Dante’s Infanzia
Chapter 16: Better a man in Hell…
Dante was alone in the darkness after the Saint walked out. His legs lost their balance and strength and he collapsed to the floor, back on all fours. Saint Jude had said that as long as they were speaking, Dante could stand as a man. Clearly, the conversation was over. Dante sat there, alone in the darkness, waiting for something to happen.
The darkness receded, and Dante’s senses were slowly barraged by a bevy of familiar of sights and sounds. Bluish gray indoor/outdoor carpeting, the smell of baby powder and crying. Lots and lots of crying.
Dante was in a playpen, he concluded as the world came into view around him. He was all too familiar now with the mesh walls and padded floors. He turned his head to the sound of the crying. It was a girl, about his age, blonde, with her hair done up in a pink bow.
She wore a pink t-shirt that was puffed up and frilled around the sleeves. Useless buttons ran down the front that made it resemble a blouse. Stitched onto the left breast of the shirt was a cursive “L” Her short cotton poodle skirt barely concealed the puffy disposable she was wearing.
“Lysa?” Dante called out. “Is that you?” Lysa looked up. Her face had been red and puffy from crying. Her eyes were pink as if she had been stubbornly.
“Dante?” Lysa asked. “Is that you? Is it really you!” She lunged forward to hug him and fell on her face. She started sobbing. “I….thought…I…had…lost…you…forever!” she managed to choke out between gasps for air and sobs. Forever? Dante couldn’t have been in the Newborn Room that long.
“Lysa, get a grip, girl.” Dante said as he helped her up to her knees. “It was scary for me too. But I’m back now, so it’s going to be okay.”
“You were in there for nearly two weeks!” she blurted out. “I visited Caroline twice and saw you on my way out the first time, and got an early visit back where I tried to wake you up. You didn’t even notice me!”
“I’m so sorry, Lysa.” Dante said. He rubbed her arm for comfort. “What’s going on, Lysa? Why are you dressed like that?”
“Oh Dante,” Lysa cried, “things have changed here. Badly. When you stood up, you scared all of the Judy’s. They’ve been cracking down, trying to break all of us into babies. ‘No more survivors, no more anchors,’ I heard one of them say. This,” she sniffed, and gestured to her clothes, “is what I was wearing the night I got pregnant with Caroline.” She hiccupped a little. “Kinda. They’re trying to humiliate me and shame me so I don’t wanna be who I was when I was alive. And it’s wooooorkiiing!” The poor girl broke down again into another round of sobs.
No survivors? No anchors? And what they were doing to Lysa was nothing short of a mind fuck. Had Dante really caused all of this? Had the Judy’s come to the conclusion that every person holding onto their identity was a potential Orpheus? A rebel in the making? Dante had to know more.
“What about the others?” Dante asked.
“Jamal’s already baby talking,” Lysa rambled, “Kevin is throwing tantrums all the time, and that BITCH Vivian is always sucking on a goddamn paci!” She beat her fists against the padded floor.
“Easy Lysa,” Dante tried to calm her, “that’s not the real you talking.”
“Yes it is!” Lysa snapped back at him. Dante jerked back a moment. “That bitch has a paci….and I want one tooooooo!” She whined like a two-year old. “I want it worse than a cigarette, and I haven’t smoked in fifty-eight years!”
Instinctively, Dante moved in to hold her. She rested her chin on his shoulder, and he began to rub her back. Time for him to be the adult right now. “Shhhhhhh,” he soothed her, “it’s okay, it’s okay. We’re gonna make it through this. We’re together again. Nothing can stop us when we’re together.” He closed his eyes and held her, and rocked back and forth to calm her. Her bawling lessened.
A rubber nipple entered his mouth and he began robotically sucking down milk. His eyes popped open in surprise. He looked up and saw the Judy in the green dress smiling wickedly down at him. A thousand curses popped into Dante’s mind and vanished just as quickly as the milk took hold of his brain.
His muscles relaxed as he saw the Judy in the green dress take a hold of Lysa’s shoulders and ease her down to her back. Her legs lifted up and she bent her knees so that they were close to her stomach. He felt another set of hands grab him and ease him away. Dante looked up as he held his ba-ba-(Bottle…bottle…ba-ba) and saw his Judy in the nursery scrubs easing him away. She still had earplugs in.
The two angels had snuck up on either side of them and simultaneously forced the bottles of angel milk into their mouths. “Gotta keep our babies hydrated,” the Judy in the green dress snickered. Dante tried to lean back but his Judy held him so he was still sitting up.
