Undead

Blue Again

The Mudd Club series is: Deep in Mudd (March 2023), Kitten in the World (May 2023), Blue (June 2023), Down By The River (November 2023), Blue Incognito (April 2024), Mirage (November 2024), Undead (February 2025).

The clock radio on the night table flips noisily to 1:30 am. Kit sighs, rolls over on her side, and gets up out of bed. Might as well dance to the circling blue lights spilling across the uncurtained windows facing Washington Street, where a broken bottle and fist fight had erupted at Badlands sometime before Kit got home, and where 6th precinct patrolmen and detectives are still mopping up the mess.

Swiveling her hips, sashaying toward the kitchen for a glass of water, she sings

Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry¹

“Damnit, Kit! Be QUIET!” The sound of her roommate’s singsong South Asian accent from behind his bedroom door startles Kit. He who did not have to have those lights swirling in his face. “Ooops, sorry,” she calls to Raj, in a whispery, pet-the-kitty voice.

“I have a Chemistry test in the morning!” Raj’s voice, now angry, does not merit a response. Kit quickly pulls down a cup from the cabinet, runs the faucet, and skitters back to her bed to lay down.

A pillow over her face, Kit is just beginning to find sleep’s calling when she hears a whistling sound coming from the window, as if the wind is sneaking in through a crack. It stops for a few seconds and then starts again. Slowly, she gets out of the other side of her bed.

Checking the jalousie window she finds it securely closed. The brawl scene outside Badlands is mostly cleaned up, with only one squad car remaining. Looking straight down at the street near the entrance to the building she sees nothing. But then the whistling starts again. It is coming from the other side of the doorway, but at an angle she cannot see.