Boulevard
BOULEVARD
BOULEVARD
BILL GUTTENTAG
PEGASUS BOOKS
NEW YORK
For Marina, Misha, Sasha
Contents
C
asey jammed her shoulder into a heavy oak door, and a moment later was running down a steep, wide driveway.
Her frayed backpack bounced on her shoulder. She was already out of breath. Dawn was breaking. Punching out against the sky were bright red-orange neon lettersâ
Chateau Marmont
. Casey froze. This wasn't the smartest thing to be doing: she was out in the open, and it was getting light enough for anyone to see herâa fifteenâyear-old in a ripped leather jacket running from a hotel for movie stars. She looked around. But nobody was out. Even the Sunset Stripâthe Sunset Strip was quiet. Had to be the quietest she had ever seen it. The street kids, the punk kids, the hip hop kids, the college kids, the glam girls, the tourists and the kids who roll the tourists, the whores, the johns, the strippers and the bachelor party assholes who drool over the strippers, the junkies, the hustlers and their dates, the baby transvestites, the do-gooders with their stupid sandwiches, the religious jerks and their pamphlets, the maps-to-the stars-homes Latino guys, the wannabe rock stars, wannabe rappers, wannabe models, wannabe starlets, the pimps, the dealers, crackheads, the LAPD, the LA Sheriff, the CHP copsâeven the street cleaner trucksâthey were all gone. What time was it? Maybe 4:30 or 5:00. Amazing. For once, something was going right.
She hurried down the hill. Voices. Shit. Voices. She thought it was deserted. Two Mexican guys from room service were sitting on the lawn beside the driveway having a smoke. If they turned, they would see her. Casey looked for a gap in the tall hedge on the other side of the drive. None. She looked ahead and behind. Still none. But she pushed through the hedge anyway, the branches grabbing her hair, scratching her face like a rake. On the other side was a garage with a parked pickup. She huddled next to the truck and could hear the waiters as if they were beside her. God, they got those guys trained well. The whole world is asleep and they still go outside to smoke. How much longer till they finish? She glanced at the skyâstill lighterâand then she saw her reflection in the pickup's window. She hadn't looked at her face carefully in a long timeânow she examined every pore. Her brown eyes were bloodshot. There were droplets of clear water around them. Across her nose were specks of redâbut they were only freckles and what was left of freckles fading away. She pushed back long brown hair that fell past her shoulders, and ran her fingers through it. Her hair was wet in places, but she was pretty sure it was only water and sweat.
She could hear everything the waiters said. It was all in Spanish but somehow she knew they were talking about soccer. Soccer. Her life was crashing and the biggest thing these guys have on their minds is some soccer game. She thought, what about a trade? I'll give you the last couple of hours of my life if you give me the last couple of hours of yours. No way? You have any friends who want to make the deal? Is there anyone in the whole fucking city who would make this deal? Soccer. The sky was getting lighter by the second. How much longer could they talk about soccer? On and on. And the scoreâuno, uno. Who cares? ⦠She looked at her feet and then back at the sky ⦠But then, they had said all they had to say about the stupid game and went inside.
She pushed back through the hedgeâeasier now that she had blazed the trailâand raced down the rest of the driveway towards the Strip. Casey took one last glance back. It wasn't completely deserted after all. There was the Marlboro man, behind the Chateau signâfortyâfifty feet high, holding a rope in one hand and a smoke in the other, his body cut out against the electric blue dawn sky. When she got here almost a year ago, she remembered seeing the Marlboro man for the first time and thinking how great the billboard was. He stood high, way high above the Strip. He
owned
the Strip. How many times had she been on the street, hating the street, hating everything about the street, and then looked up to see the Marlboro man. Calm, enjoying his smokeâ
nothing
was gonna get to this dude. The street was
his
. And now with everybody in LA asleep but her and Pelés number one and two, the Marlboro man watched over the city like some kinda cool god.
I
t was the most unbelievable chair. So,
so
comfortable. Made of green velvet that rubbed against her back, the chair felt so good. Big, wide arm rests. The whole thing just wrapped around you. Casey got lucky, and it was hers without a wait. Whoever invented Starbucks ought to get some kind of medal. And this was the best one on the planet. Down on Santa Monica Boulevard, it had two of the green chairs, a couch, and lots of magazines and papers lying around. The place was filled with guys from the Sports Connection across the street who had already finished working out.
Finished
âthis early. God, they looked buff. Big muscles, little shirts. All gay. But that's why Paul loved this place so much. And the girls, they were buff too. Tons of people come to Hollywood thinking they got the looks and bods to be movie stars, but watching the girls come here after their workouts, if they weren't on TV or something, they should be, Casey thought. Even the guys at the counter were awesome too. They smiled at her, told her to have a nice day, treated her decently. One kid who worked here, and who she used to see at the bus stop in a UCLA sweatshirt, called her his prettiest customer. Who's gonna complain about that? She called it
Maui
because it was so great here. The other kids didn't buy it, thought she was crazy. But the reason was, you come to Starbucks by yourself, you can disappear into your great green chair and everyone leaves you alone. Come with a pack of street kids, and you get different looks from the cuties at the counter.
Casey sipped her coffee. It was hot, good. She flipped through an
Elle
, but there was no way she could read now. Instead she curled her legs underneath her. She could have stayed in the chair all day, all night, all week. Just looking at the guys and girls going in and out of the gym, stopping for their coffees and going off to school, or their jobs, or wherever real people go. Freeze the clock. Stop time. Just sit here. Here. Forever. But even in Maui, there's a limit on how long you can stay â¦
J
oey's on Hollywood Boulevard, right in the center of it all, didn't have any great green chairs. It had a bunch of hard plastic booths. When Casey pulled the heavy glass door open, the smell of grease was everywhere. The windows were caked with so much dust and grime that when you wrote your name on one with your finger, it stayed for months. There was always a mile-long line to get some of their excellent fries, the location was cool, and they didn't chase you awayâat least not usually. Everyone came here. Right now there were ten kids, maybe more. All hanging out. Slowly sipping coffee, sharing a cup between two, or even three. Later, there might be some money for something better. As Casey stepped through the doorway, she felt herself shaking. They were going to see right through her. Know the real 4-1-1.
Back off, and come back again later
. But behind her, she heard Jumper.
“Hey. Where were you?”
“I couldn't get back.”
Jumper was nineteen, with short black hair, and despite all the shit, he smiled more than anyone she ever met. He was tall and quick, a distant echo of the junior high swim team captain he'd been a lifetime ago.
“You okay?” he said.
Casey prayed he wouldn't ask any more. “Yeah.”
A second later, Dream flew in the door behind Jumper and dropped her arms over Casey's shoulders.
“Got a buck for fries?”
Casey reached into her pocket. She grabbed whatever was there and pulled it out. A wad of bills.
“Woah!” Dream said.
“Damn, Casey!” Jumper said.
Shit. Nice move.
“Remember your friends, girl!” Dream said with a big smile.
Casey slid her a twenty, and Dream practically skipped for the counter. Then she stopped. Turned around.
“How come you wasn't back?”
“Had a date.”
Twirling the bill over and over, Dream said, “I guess so.”
Dream had pancakes, and when you ordered them, Joey let you have the syrup bottle to go with it. The pancakes were floating in syrup. Casey thought, with a pencil and a napkin you could make a sail for them. Dream was also working on a plate of fries. She was thin like Jumper, had long curly hair and caramel-colored skin. Dream was from New Orleans and always talked about how much better the food was back home. But seeing her digging in now, this looked like the gourmet meal of a lifetime. Jumper had the Woodsman's Special: pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, home fries, orange juice, coffee. Woodsman's Specialâwhat a joke. There weren't any woods around here for a hundred miles. Someone told Casey the guy who owned the restaurant before Joey used to be a hunter and that's where the name came from. In Seattle, lots of people hunted. On the Boulevard, if you see someone with a gun and he's not a cop, you better run 'cause you can bet your ass it ain't a deer he's looking to shoot.
Casey couldn't eat. She sipped coffee from a styrofoam cup. Watching Jumper dig in made her feel a little better. But then Dog-Face showed up. He was six-three, wiry, and with tatts up one arm and down the other. He grabbed a handful of fries from Jumper, practically ripping them out of his mouth, and slid into the booth beside Dream.
“Assholes. Assholes. Assholes,” Dog-Face said.
“You got a real gift for words there,” Jumper said.
“Hey. They're assholes. Alright?”
“Who, Doggie?”
“Fucking cops. Giving everyone on the Boulevard shit.”
“Sure they're giving shit,” Dream said, “it was the mayor's best buddy or something who got taxed.”
Casey stared into her coffee, stirring it around with a straw.
“And that gives them the right to fuck with everyone on the street? There's gotta be a million cops out there now. Everywhere you look, there's another fucking cop.”
Casey felt it in her stomach. She kept moving the straw â¦
“Doggie, you're the mayorâyou gonna let some street scum tax your buddy and not do nothing about it?” Jumper said. “That's really gonna happen.”
“Man, it's ten in the morning!”
“It's
appalling
,” Jumper said as if mortally offended, “At least wait until lunch before giving us shit.”