Neal listened patiently as I described my latest flights of creativity. CLICK, CLICK, SCRAPE, SQUEAK, SQUEAK went his razor blade on the glass block with the engraved lion. 'This house is really coming along,' he said during a visit, shaking his bangs and looking around.
'The upstairs is almost finished,' I said. 'I had linoleum laid on the floors. Red and white for the bedroom and blue and green for the boudoir.'
'Boudoir? Uh-oh,' he said, taking the glass block from my hand as I was about to snort a line. 'Maybe you shouldn't do any more of this.'
I laughed and grabbed it back. 'Well, that's what I call it. Actually, I don't use the room for anything. It's just a place to walk through to get to the bedroom.'
'And linoleum!' He smiled. 'You're revolutionizing the beach. Where do you think you are? Beverly Hills?'
'But this is my home. I'm going to be here forever.' I paused, gave him a pixie smile, and said, 'Wait till you see my next project.' Displaying papers covered with coked-out curlicued designs and intricate measurements, I explained, 'I'm going to cut the kitchen in half and make a bathroom!' Neal slapped a hand to his forehead. 'I've already designed it. See, look. Over here, I'm putting a flush toilet and a shower.'
He shook his head. 'A flush toilet? How can you do that?'
'They're building the septic tank now. And this little rectangle next to the toilet is a sink, a real enamel-type sink with faucets and a drain. I have it all figured out. . . Where's the other diagram? A tank on the roof will supply the water. It'll have to be lugged there from the well.'
'You'll have the only flush toilet on the beach. Here.' With a SQUEAK SQUEAK and a final CLICK, Neal passed me the block again. 'Maybe this toot will inspire a sauna or a whirlpool bath. Who'll fill the tank?'
'The maid, though she doesn't know it yet, be glad to have a bathroom inside the house. You should've seen me the other night, coked-out and wired. I hadn't slept the night before—I'd been staining the wood of the staircase. Come to think of it, I don't think I slept the night before that either. Anyway, about 4 a.m. I took the pump-lamp outside to the toilet. Yippy, it was so bright in that tiny enclosure. Every bump on the wall formed shadows that swelled and contracted. Spooky! I couldn't wait to get out of there.'
'Coke'll do that, especially if you don't get enough sleep,' Neal said. 'You know that much by Starko's? I'm positive it followed me home the other night.'
I fell back in laughter and knocked the bhong over.
Neal's visits definitely brightened my day.
modelling composite from a talent agency
A soft drink ad featuring Cleo
Cleo's Car
Cover
Taking
Watching movies in the theatre
Cleo in Goa
Graham playing backgammon in the dining room
December consisted of constant partying. Music wailed nightly on the beach and continued till the next afternoon, when people went home to sleep. Since no one kept track of days, Christmas went by without felicitations, though Alehandro wished me 'Happy New Year' at, or near, the correct date.
Petra lived in a house not far from mine, and she too dropped by every day to say hello. 'Ou, it's so nice and COOL in here,' she said, raising her arms as if standing under a waterfall. She leaned an elbow on the four-foot high platform the carpenter had made for me. 'What IS this thing?' she asked.
'Do you like it? I designed it myself. Sometimes I like to be up high, so I sit up there. Other times I like to crawl into a little space, so I sit underneath.'
Like Neal, Petra smiled tolerantly at my enthusiasm. She looked inside the satin surrounding the platform and commented, 'Interesting.'
Petra came often to keep me company while I worked.
One afternoon she and Neal visited at the same time. It was the day the Goans started the bathroom. We watched as three locals laid bricks across a doorway to convert it to a window (I didn't need a door going outside from the bathroom!). A few feet away, three others planned the wall that would divide the kitchen in two. While Neal told stories and made lines of coke, Petra flashed me disapproving looks. CLICK, CLICK, SCRAPE, SQUEAK, SQUEAK.
When Neal left, she coaxed me away from the renovation site for a moment.
'My dEAr, what is GOing ON between you and NEAI?'
'We're friends.'
She raised one eyebrow and lowered the other in the most disbelieving Look I'd ever seen. 'Is thAt so?' She put one hand on her hip and tossed her head dismissively. 'Neal is a suPERB man. I met him years ago in Kathmandu—beFORE he was into smack. BeFORE he got everybody ELSE into smack too.' She lowered her eyebrow again. 'And before he had EVE and the BAby. Just be CAREful, my dear. Are you getting enough SLEEP with all this COKE?'
No, I wasn't getting enough sleep. I'd be up for days, coked-out, spaced-out, designing weird things. I hadn't been eating much either. Who needed sleep and food? All I needed was coke and a pencil.
A few days later, as I tried to figure out what colour to paint the front room, a voice called through the open window. 'Are you Miss Cleo?' I turned to see a pretty face surrounded by black curls. 'I heard you might be interested in buying coke,' he stated.
'Actually, I don't have money on me at the moment,' I answered. 'I'm going to Bombay tomorrow to pick some up. Maybe next time.'
Again I'd run out of money. I'd bought a colossal amount of coke since I'd been in Goa. That, plus smack, plus the construction, had really swallowed my finances. Living in Goa could be stupendously inexpensive. Food and rent cost little and I paid the Goan maid twenty-two dollars a month for coming in seven days a week and doing everything.
Drugs were the main rupee eaters. I loved playing benefactor. It was exhilarating to slip a spoonful under everyone's nose. I loved having people flock around me, nostrils twitching, waiting expectantly.
Later that day Petra came by to ask, 'Did you receive my PREsent?'
'Present? No. What was it?'
'Aw, I TOLD him to come here. This DARling boy knocked on my door selling coke. He was STUNning. I thought you'd LOVE him so I told him to come HERE, that you were SURE to want some.'
'Oh, yes! He was here. But I didn't have money on me.'
'He looked your TYPE, THAT'S why I sent him Over.' Then she added. 'To keep you out of TROUble.'
Keep me out of trouble? To keep me away from Neal, she meant. Unfortunately, I had a feeling it was
