Ports of Hell - Softcover

Strike, Johnny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1900486334 ISBN 13: 9781900486330

Publisher: Diagonal, 2004

Synopsis

Ports of Hell tells the story of Jamie Coates, a young man who falls in with Elias who claims to be from Lemuria. On Elias' instructions, Coates travels to Thailand and Mexico, and later Hawaii and Sri Lanka, acquiring brutal enemies and caught in a struggle that threatens his sanity and life. Conspiracy themes and the picaresque are in play throughout.

A writer first and foremost, Johnny Strike is a founding member of the seminal punk band Crime.

"Just got around to reading the pages you sent and was agreeably -surprised . . . these are real maps of real places."-William Burroughs

About this title

About the Author

A writer first and foremost Johnny Strike is a founding member of the seminal US Punk band Crime. The Crime album STILL Doomed was recently released to critical acclaim by Swami records. His current band, TVH, recently released their debut album Night Raid On Lisbon Street. He is a contributor to Headpress, Ambit, Chronicles Of Disorder, Cover, Maximum Rocknroll and Si Señor.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Jamie crossed a leg and looked at Elias, who was sitting across from him wearing makeup and a lavender turban. Elias was heavyset, wore a pencil thin moustache, had a shaved head and claimed he was from Lemuria. He had the most compelling pale blue eyes Jamie had ever seen. As though laying out a card hand Elias placed money, credit cards, an airline ticket and a passport on a table between them. It was Jamie s picture on the passport but a different name. Elias wanted Jamie to become an agent and go to Thailand on a training mission. When Jamie first arrived in San Francisco he had taken a room in a seedy hotel in the Tenderloin. He spent each morning watching the hordes of homeless move by on the street below. On this particular day he opened the blinds to see a phalanx of shopping carts. They were packed with all their owners Earthly belongings. They were being led by a man who pushed an oxygen tank. A few in wheelchairs were being rolled along like some aberrant royalty of the gutter. Others hobbled on canes with dirty bedrolls slung over shoulders. They talked to themselves and looked for butts on the ground. One old crone who used a filthy crutch stopped, looked up and made a gesture as if beckoning Jamie to join them. Jamie stood at the window thinking about the last twenty folded up and tucked away in his wallet behind his driver s license. A week before he had fallen in with a couple of three card monte players. They d taught him to be a shill, which included winning and losing strategically as well as being able to talk to and prompt the players. They worked the street fairs and shows where they d pay their way in and set up in the men s room. They were chased by the police a few times but never caught. When the other two started to talk about a robbery he had parted company.

A few blocks from his hotel Jamie entered the waiting room of an old doctor s office. Two other customers were there: an elderly woman who looked at a wall and muttered and an equally elderly man with darting eyes who snapped his mouth open and shut like a wooden dummy. Jamie stepped out to the lobby for a smoke. When he returned the waiting room was empty. A voice called out "Next," and he curiously entered the private office that resembled a pawn shop. TVs and VCRs were displayed on shelves. Greasy boxes overflowing with cameras and tape recorders were stacked against a wall. A lone motorized wheelchair sat parked in another corner. The doctor wore dark glasses and sat behind his desk and fiddled with a gold watch. He asked Jamie what he wanted. Jamie mumbled about some vague back pain and how Codeine # 4 s had always helped. The doctor named a price and wrote out a prescription. He snatched the ten dollar bill with crooked fingers stained by tobacco and pointed to another door. Jamie could sell these easily to Bones, the junkie handyman at the hotel. Jamie walked a few blocks to a bus stop and took one to the Mission district. He walked down a reeking sidewalk. He stepped past a pile of black feces, a pool of purple vomit, the remains of a discarded sugar drink in a plastic pouch and a bus stop that was a pile of green shattered glass. He passed a series of low roofed restaurants with outside seating. At one table three furtive men guarding their drinks glanced his way. The neighbor-hood was full of bars, taquerias and dirty looking cafes. All afternoon and part of the evening Jamie searched for a job but without luck. Then, below a red neon DINER sign a waitress, cigarette dangling from her mouth, was taping up a Help Wanted sign in the window.

Jamie looked in. There were nine tables in a blue room trimmed in gaudy yellow with a counter along a wall. A pimply faced boy was perched on a stool with a cup of coffee. A fat man slouched at a table, the remains of a spaghetti dinner sat before him. Jamie went in. The waitress who had retreated to a back alcove, reappeared, smiled weakly and pointed to an empty table. Jamie asked about the job and with an air of disdain she told him to go to the back and look for Sammy. Into a steam-filled hell he stepped where pots and pans bobbed in sinks of greasy, soapy water. A rack of dishes rolled out of an industrial machine with a blast of steam and an apparition emerged: a wiry man with dagger eyes, beak nose, wearing a tight white T-shirt and white pants. At first Jamie was startled. Sammy s head resembled some ugly, prehistoric bird. The bird man pushed a button and the machine droned to a stop. "Who sent you back here?" He ignored Jamie s silence and gave him a quick assessment. "Alright," he said, "I ll introduce ya to the beast." He showed Jamie the operation but had the annoying habit of adding "see what I mean?" after nearly every sentence: "The dishes come in here, see what I mean? Now you clean em off, and line em up like this, see what I mean? Now check this switch. Push this button. See what I mean?" Finding this annoying yet strangely compelling, Jamie paid scant attention to what Sammy was saying and instead listened for the see-what-I-means. This would cause him difficulties the first day on the job. The bird man said the last guy had worked both the day and night shifts and asked if Jamie would do the same until he could find a second dishwasher. Jamie hesitated for only a moment. He was nearly broke.

Edition details

• Publisher: Diagonal
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1900486334
• ISBN 13: 9781900486330
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192