Wormwood Discoveries

After their dinner out drinking wine, the four would-be double daters moved on to the only place they knew sold absinthe. They entered, and they were sold it at twenty dollars a glass. Each of the four of them obtained their own glass. The bar itself was sparsely occupied. They sat down at their own table. The first thing they talked about was whether or not any of them had tried it before. None of them had.
Of course, they soon moved on to other subjects.
“I don’t think this is working.” Ireena said.
“I don’t feel anything either,” Rory said.
“You have to wait longer. You haven’t even finished half of it.” Luther said.
“I feel a little strange,” Penelope said.
The jukebox was playing David Bowie’s Station to Station.
“So, does anybody know what it’s supposed to do to you anyways?” Rory asked.
“I’ve heard that you have more visionary dreams after drinking it,” Penelope said.
“It’s stronger than any other alcohols, but I have a feeling that just one glass is not going to offer a glimpse past the hallucinogenic gate.” Luther said. With that, he swallowed the rest in his glass. He then announced that he was going to the bathroom.
In his absence, Rory and Ireena took the opportunity to ask Penelope if she and Luther were now going out together. She said she supposed they were seeing each other, but she wasn’t sure how long it was going to last, because she didn’t know how much longer he was going to be in town. Rory, perplexed, asked her what she meant and she said Luther had said he would be going back to California in a week.
“That’s a lie,” Rory said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“It means he told you he was an actor just so he could get into your pants.” Ireena remarked.
“That’s a very fine way of putting it,” Rory shot back.
“No, but he really is an actor. He was at an audition today.”
“Did he get the part?” Rory asked.
“He didn’t say. But he really has to be an actor. He knows so much about acting.”
“Anybody can learn about acting,” Ireena said, “But few people can actually succeed at it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t call him a liar about being an actor. I’d call him a liar about going ‘back to California.’ He lives here, and he’s always lived here.”
In the bathroom, Luther was looking in the mirror. A friend of his had once told him that this had been the bar where John Wayne Gacy had used to hang out. He looked in the mirror, and he wondered whether the bathrooms had been rehabbed in recent times. The mirror did not look new. It looked as if it had scuff marks on it. The concept of sharing the mirror with a serial killer from the past did not frighten him, but rather amazed him. He was not in danger at the moment, as far he as he knew, and the mirror served as a reminder that the world was indeed very small. He reflected again, however, that perhaps his friend had been mistaken, and that perhaps Gacy had never been there at all, and that it was just an urban legend. He preferred to think it was true, though. He’d like to think the world was incredibly small.
David Bowie was singing, “In this age of grand illusion, you walked into my life out of my dreams.”
After he sat back down at the table, Luther looked at his friends with his eyes wide open and told them that the absinthe had begun working.
“The mirror in that bathroom possesses an evil spirit.” he said.
“So Lu,” Penelope asked, “When are you going back to California again?”
He looked at Rory and said, “A week from today.”
“Really?” Ireena asked.
“Well I’m not so sure yet. If I get a call back, I may have to change my flight.”
“Look, bullshit never helps dude.” Rory said.
“What bullshit?” Luther said
“You don’t live in California.”
“No, I don’t, but I’m moving there for a shoot.”
“Well, this is news to me,” Rory said, rolling his eyes at the ceiling.
“You can tell me the truth you know,” Penelope said.
“That is the truth. I’ve been considering it for a long time. I’ve lived in this town for years upon years, and it’s always exactly the same. I need to get out soon. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of things I love about this city, but I feel that the possibilities are so much more promising in California. There’ll be better weather, more opportunities for interesting work, the Pacific Ocean, good sports teams, and of course, parties in L.A. Carelessly degenerate—celebratory in fact.”
“Lu,” Ireena began, “Those are all stereotypes. Have you ever actually been there? You know it’s not all fun and games. There’s not anywhere in the world that’s all fun and games. There’s just as many things wrong with California as there are about any other state. It’s heavily polluted, the girls are incredibly shallow from what I’ve heard, you only get to go to the best parties if you know the right people, the ocean is shark-infested, and those sports teams have no staying power.”
“I think you should stay, Lu,” Penelope added, “I’ll really miss you if you leave. But this is really weird, that you would lie to me.”
“It’s not a lie! It’s a plan!”
“But you made it sound so set and ready, like your tickets were already bought.”
“Okay fuck it, I’m sorry. I won’t lie to you anymore. It’s just I have no prospects here, and I’ve been here for so long, and I’m sick of it.”
“I don’t think it’s such a bad idea to move,” Rory said, “But I think you need to plan it out a little better. Like, get a job there first, then move.”
“Nobody’s going to hire me.”
“They’ll hire anybody anywhere as long as anybody has a brain.” Ireena said. “Brains are more important than muscles in business.”
“This is making me really depressed.” Luther said.
“We really should be feeling better after this absinthe,” Penelope said.
“Well I wasn’t the one staging a confrontation here. I just wanted to have a good time. And I saw something in that bathroom!”
“What was it?” Ireena asked
“It was an evil spirit. I think it was John Wayne Gacy.”
“Oh that’s really creepy,” Rory said. “Was there a clown face or something in there?”
“Nothing so obvious, but that would have really freaked me out.” Luther emphasized.
“You’ve got to let me go in there,” Ireena said. “Watch the door.”
She went into the bathroom and looked at the mirror, and the walls, and the floor, and the ceiling, and she saw a completely typical space. She decided to look at herself in the mirror while she was there. She ran her fingers through her hair, she pursed her lips, she threw her hair over face and shook her head rapidly and looked at herself. Messy. Not sexy. But still beautiful, she decided.
She walked out and sat back down and said, “He’s right. I feel more evil now after coming out of there.”
“You’re joking.” Penelope said.
“No, I’m totally serious.”
“I don’t want to be more evil!” Rory said.
“Don’t go in there then.”
“I feel like I have to see if this is real or not,” Penelope said.
“I’m warning you! Look what it did to me!”
“You look very, punk rock,” Rory said.
“And evil!” Ireena exclaimed.
“I don’t care. Lu went in there, and now I have to go in there. I have to see if this is for real or not.”
Penelope walked in and scanned the area. No signs of evilness. Just the nastiness of a men’s room. She also looked at herself in the mirror, and she saw no evil, nothing supernatural, nothing broken. She reflected that she did feel a little strange from the absinthe. But whatever hallucinations she was having, they were not visceral. She could hear her friends through the door laughing, and she wanted to see what was so funny.”
She walked out and Ireena shouted, “Now we’re all evil! Except for Rory!”
“I’m evil enough as it is. I don’t need anymore of it.” he said.