RANE ARROYO
SPEEDY GONZALES JR.
1.
So what? Who cares that Marilyn Monroe look-alikes o.d.?
Marilyn was a year of good wine. Speedy, a woman once
called me. I said, you're not Marilyn. I made her cry. I felt
like a rich man, a bastard, Columbus kicking pagan ass.2.
My mother told me to iron my hair flat like some dumb blond
surfer, like a highway in California long after dark. "Imagine,
hijo," she said, "you speeding the hell out of yourself."3.
I'm the best man. I try on the tuxedo, wrong size. I take it off.
I'm naked before the groom. I'm his best man but I'm the
better man. Speedy, he laughs, don't be afraid. Of what?
Why not be afraid? I ache when cartoon animals run and their
legs don't carry then away.
