Meet Marlena Merlot
EXCERPT FROM A DATE WITH THE FAIRY DRAG QUEEN
Walking into Marlena's room was like simultaneously walking into a nursing home, Grateful Dead concert, and crowded men's room at a bar on New Years' Eve. The sickly smell of Vicks Vapor Rub mingled with vomit, piss, and more than a hint of weed. No matter how many times I stepped into that space, the smell assaulted me, and I had to stifle my gag reflex.
Marlena must have seen me wrinkle my nose. "Ah, the crazy rich straight girl is offended by my perfume. Eau de AIDS isn't your fragrance?" she teased.
"I prefer Eau de Montezuma's Revenge," I quipped.
So, she was in a good mood today. Wasn't going to kick me out or tell me to go fuck myself. I relaxed and sat in the wooden folding chair next to her hospital bed. There were few personal touches in her room. The others decorated their spaces - with family photos, art, plants - but Marlena's space was plain. I made a mental note to ask her about that sometime.
"I didn't think you'd do," Marlena sang. Her dachshund Charlie looked up from underneath her sweatshirt with his big brown eyes then breathed a deep sigh and snuggled back into his dog nap.
"He loves it when I sing Dylan. Our favorite crooner," Marlena explained.
"It's soon after midnight," Marlena continued singing in a husky, sultry voice. If I closed my eyes, I could picture her as the magnificent Marlena Merlot in all her shimmery, glittery finery.
Charlie's tail started to wag.
"And I don't want nobody but you." Charlie's tail was going so fast now I worried he'd propel Marlena off the hospital bed.
"That's from 'Soon After Midnight' the song that inspired my drag look, "she said. "I imagine that someday I will meet the Fairy Drag Queen on the other side, and I want to be radiant for her."
"Never heard it," I admitted.
"Well, it should be our theme song," Marlena declared. "Remember how much I hated you when you got here?"
As if I could possibly forget. The creamed corn Ensure mess on my lap. The refusal to take her medicine if I sat next to her at the table. Her obnoxious comments and insistence that I smelled bad. "I gag every time she walks into the room," Marlena told Harry. "It's like I'm allergic to her pheromones. I'll die sooner if you let her keep volunteering here," she insisted.
Harry reminded me again that the disease played funny tricks on Marlena's mind, and sometimes the medications had strange side effects. I'd shrugged it off. But her words had stung. Of course they had. I was clinging to the guys at Horizon House. They kept me from thinking about why I was really there.
But somehow it seemed that Marlena could smell right through me.
Like she knew I had a secret and was going to ferret it out at all costs.
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