Daye 9 / Psykick Hitman

cal was one of our casual friends
who claimed she had trained
under a former pupil of crowley's
to be a psykick hitman
back in the days before
most of us even new
what psykick meant
she had practised and practised
until she had awoken
the ability to destroy her enemies
with a single
concentrated thought

if cal didn't like the look of you
or if you said something outlandish to her
or something that she didn't like the sound of
you might be disappeared
to the airless plains of altair 4
or maybe wished away into a cornfield out in ohio
or somewhere
like something
straight out of
an episode
of the twilight zone

whenever we arrived anywhere
on an evening out
or a day trip
cal would always be there waiting for us
invite or no invite
always she would be wearing the same jacket
a tiny porcelain doll pinned onto the lapel
pink and blue feathers hanging from the sleeves
astrological symbols sewn into the lining

one evening
at a friends party
she was challenged
and got into a fight with some girl called patricia
who had tried to hit cal
right between the shoulder blades
with a hex on the sly
but patricia came off second best
and had to be taken home
said she could taste chemicals in her mouth
and became suddenly mute in the middle of a conversation
could see things creeping
along the edges of the room
in her peripheral vision
underneath the florid
yellow wallpaper

by 2am
she had a high fever
and a bell began to ring
in her head
odd sensations in the back of her throat
an urge to vomit
walls shimmered and breathed
inanimate objects moved
about in her room
leaving long luminous comets tails
in their wake
and the lights became rainbow-coloured
and developed strange aura's

the fever intensified
and everytime she closed her eyes
other eyes opened up
behind her eyelids
so she could still see the world outside
like ray milland in the man with the x-ray eyes
the universe beginning to fall apart
and endlessly reassembling itself
the fever continued
for fourteen more hours
until it hit another peak

the next day patricia was hospitalised
in the psychiatric unit at macc
somebody we know
visited her there
with bunches of flowers
and books to read
but she could no longer communicate
her eyes were misty
her voice was a whisper
her limbs were not her own
she fidgeted continually
developed colourblindness
and fuzzy vision

I never saw patricia again
after she was released
but I heard stories about her
how her life had fallen apart
catastrophically
how she was hopelessly promiscuous
and had an addiction to sex in dangerous situations
people treated her badly
mocking her attempts
at getting herself together
and calling her unflattering names
like lady greensleeves
because she always had
grass stains on her clothes

one night she tried to commit suicide by
jumping out of the third floor window
of the flat she shared with her mother
ended up with some broken bones
that the doctors
could never get to heal properly
made three more attempts on her life
over the next couple of years
until one day she finally succeeded
and was gone

cal was never the same girl
after her encounter with patricia
the hex that hit her
between the shoulder blades
must have taken its toll
on her psykick abilities
or else
like a bee which dies
minutes after using it's
barbed sting
cal had used her sting
against another psykick
and thus became incapable
of carrying out any further hits
so she went off
to find herself
in india or tibet
or someplace
occasionally one of us
receives a letter
that we know is from cal
but the postmark is
always smudged
or unintelligible
or water damaged
and her words
are written in a mixture of languages
that none of us can decipher