TEN

Thunder rolled overhead as Ashley shouldered into the tanning room and flicked o the lights. Ashlyn pushed in behind her and the girls crossed to a low bench next to a wooden coat rack with a circular top. The room was long and narrow, lit by soft, amber wall sconces. It was decorated in a tropical style to match the lobby. Another photomural of a serene island beach covered the entire back wall, while the other three were paneled in strips of bamboo. A plastic palm tree, gracefully curved by "trade winds," stood in the corner opposite the coat rack.

The tropical mood was somewhat marred by a metal air conditioning duct that poked out of the ceiling, and by the tanning beds themselves, huge, seven foot long, three foot wide, chrome and steel pods that lay along the left and right walls with about three feet between them. Their interiors glowed an eerie, unnatural blue. They looked like they belonged in a science fiction film rather than a beach party movie.

The girls began stripping off their raincoats and backpacks. Ashley dropped her stuff on the bench and crossed to the beds, slurping on her Bug Gulp. On top of the light tubes of both beds were plastic placards that read: "This bed has been cleaned and is ready for tanning. Are you?" She removed them both and put them on a table by the door.

"Come on, Lee," said Ashlyn as she hung her raincoat and backpack on the coat rack. "Yuri said no drinks. What if you spill it like last time? He'll make us clean that shit up."

The weight of the backpack was too much for the coat rack. It started to tip over. Ashlyn caught it and took the backpack off. She set it on one of the rack's legs to steady it.

Ashley glared at Ashlyn and took a long, defiant fuck you slurp on her straw, before holding it up and shaking it to show her that there was nothing but ice left.

"Happy, bee-yotch?" she asked. "Nothing to spill."

She put the empty cup on the table between the tanning beds and crossed to the wall-mounted control panel that operated the beds.

Ashlyn sneered and dropped into a mock kung fu pose.

"Except your blood," she snarled. "Watch it or I'll go all Kill Bill on your ass."

The girls laughed. Below the table with the empty cup was a gray electrical box –the buck booster, which monitored and increased the electrical output for the beds. Thick electrical cables led into it from the socket in the wall, and out of it to the beds. An LCD display on the buck booster read: 230 VAC. A yellow and black warning label next to the display read: "Warning –This device should never be set above 250 VAC."

Ashley leaned in to the control panel on the wall. She set the timer to fifteen minutes.

Behind her, Ashlyn moved to the electronic thermostat. "Yuri keeps the rooms too cold," she said.

"Maybe it's supposed to be colder for the machines, or whatever," Ashley replied.

"Maybe it's because Yuri is from fucking Siberia and he wants to feel at home," Ashlyn countered, shrugging as she tapped a button on the thermostat's LCD display, setting the room temperature to seventy-three degrees. "What's a couple of degrees gonna do, right?"

Ashley pulled off her shirt and then unhooked her bra, revealing the body and the breasts that every teenaged boy in a fifty-mile radius –and truth be told, a fair number of older men as well- had fantasized about ever since the girls had hit puberty. As all those sweaty minds had suspected, her body was flawless, her breasts plump and perfectly shaped.

Ashlyn rummaged through her backpack, and slumped her shoulders.

"Oh shit," she groaned. "I forgot my iPod. I can't believe this."

Ashley laughed and tossed her hair, pulling out her own iPod. "Ha ha," she said. "Sucks to you, bitch."

She pointed to a three-foot shelf mounted over the other tanning bed that held a half dozen dusty jewel boxes.

"Looks like they have some CDs at least," Ashley said. "It's that or the sound of the tanning bed fans."

Ashlyn sighed, as if it was almost too much to bear, then stood and shuffled over to the shelf. She stood on tiptoes to look through the meager selection, holding on to the shelf with one hand for balance.

"Celine Dion? Britney Spears? Kenny G? Huey Lewis?" She rolled her eyes in disgust. "Jeez, are we, like, the only cool people who come here, or what?"

She reached for the last CD on the shelf, putting weight on her steadying hand. The shelf dropped a quarter inch as the anchor screws drilled through the metal L braces that supported the shelf, were pulled a little way out of the dry wall. Ashlyn looked at the last CD, scowling skeptically at the psychedelic colors of the cover.

"Have a Nice Decade," she read. "Greatest Hits of the Seventies." She shrugged. "Better than that other shit, I guess."

"Come on, admit it, Lyn," Ashley said. "You really are a closet Huey fan."

"Yeah, right."

She put the CD case in the hand that rested against the shelf and opened it with her free hand. Once again, the screws in the L braces pulled out a little from the wall. Ashlyn didn't notice. She stuck her finger through the hole of the CD and threw the jewel box back on the shelf as Ashley fired up the tanning beds. The tubes began to glow more brightly. The fan motors started whirring.

Ashlyn popped the disk into a wall-mounted CD Walkman, then pulled off her T-shirt too. Her tits were a little smaller, and her body was not quite as lean and ripped as Ashley's, who had been working out with her fitness freak parents since before she was born, but so far Ashlyn had no complaints. Besides, together they were devastating, far more than the sum of their parts.

…

Outside, Yuri continued the endlessly spiraling argument with his girlfriend. The irony of this whole, mad business was that Tanya was the only woman in his life to whom he had ever been completely faithful, yet she was insanely jealous, utterly convinced that he had a line of women around the block the moment her back was turned. At first, it was almost flattering that she thought he was so desirable that women could not possibly resist him, when in truth, it was she who could have any lover she chose. Tanya was without a doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. She was tall and regal with fierce Mongol cheekbones and a body that took no prisoners, but at this point she was starting to become far more trouble than she was worth. Yuri's closest drinking buddy, a sardonic American named Spence, had once said that no matter how hot a chick might look, somebody, somewhere was sick of putting up with her shit. At the time, Yuri thought that was ridiculous, but now, buffeted by Tanya's non-stop interrogation, he was starting to understand the wisdom in that simple statement. Still, he knew he would not break it off with Tanya. How could he? When he got home, he knew that her jealous rage would transform into a kind of wild passion that would leave him raw, exhausted and totally happy. This was just the price he paid for that kind of happiness.

"Détka," he said again. "Baby, you know you are the only one…"

Behind him the tanning cream was still oozing out of the tube and spilling into an oily puddle below the door. A lot of cream had squeezed out of the tube, which was getting so thin that the door was edging closed.

…

In the tanning room, Ashley sat on the edge of the tanning bed, wearing nothing but a miniscule black thong. She pulled the goggles on, adjusted them, and placed the headphones of her iPod over her ears. Ashlyn, already lying on her bed and wearing absolutely nothing at all, looked up at her quizzically. She lifted her head and pulled aside one of the earphones of the built-in CD player.

"Lee," she said. "You're wearing underwear?"

Ashley nodded as she lay down and made herself comfortable.

"Steinmetz says he gets off on tan lines," she replied.

Ashlyn curled her lip. "Steinmetz is a freak."

"Yeah," said Ashley. "But he's a rich freak. Anyway you're just jealous."

Ashlyn was really less than thrilled about Ashley's dawdling with that creepy guy. For one thing, he was so old, like almost thirty. And yeah, maybe he had lots of money and all, but he was into weird stuff, like having Ashley step on him with her shoes on, and smelling her feet after she'd been on the treadmill. He had bought her over fifty pairs of shoes. Most of all, he was the first guy that Ashley had played around with more than once. She spent way too much time with him. Ashlyn didn't want some skuzzy weirdo from the gym spending more time with Lee than she did. She shrugged. Maybe she was jealous, not of her but of him.

"Look," Ashley said, seeming to sense Ashlyn's discomfort. "Tell you what. Next time I go over to his place, why don't you come with? We wear the same size shoes. I think he would cream his jeans if we both stood on him at the same time."

"But that's so weird," Ashlyn said. "Standing on a guy. I just don't see how that's even remotely sexy."

"It's so hot," Ashley said. "You'll love it. It's like being Girlzilla, stomping down the city. It's a total power trip, grinding your heels into a man's naked chest."

"If you say so," Ashlyn said, still skeptical. She pictured herself standing on her current fuck du jour, a rough and tumble BMX ramp rat named Snake. Nah. It just didn't seem right. She preferred her boys to be more of the take charge, caveman, drag her around by the hair and make her like it type. Ashley and Ashlyn had always been in such perfect agreement about everything that Ashlyn couldn't help but resent Steinmetz even more for filling Ashley's head with weird ideas. It was disturbing to think maybe she and Ashley might actually be starting to grow apart.

Ashley reached up and closed the lid of her tanning bed, bringing the brightly glowing tubes down to within inches of her face and ending the conversation. Ashlyn sighed and did the same. No point getting into it now. Ashley would get tired of this guy soon enough, just like she always did, and then things would be back to normal.

On the table between the two beds, the Big Gulp full of ice was covered in beads of condensation, pooling at the base and forming a little puddle. As another bead of water ran down the cup and into the puddle, the puddle broke its meniscus and a tiny arm of water slowly began to find its way across the table toward the back edge.

…

Outside, Yuri was distractedly kicking the cinderblock wall of the back alley while continuing his cell phone conversation with Tanya. She was finally starting to wind down, to accept that maybe he really was just working and not actually playing around with some other woman. Didn't she realize that she was such a non-stop handful that Yuri couldn't possibly have any energy left over the cheat, even if he wanted to? Not to mention the fact that he was forty-one years old. The very idea of trying to coax even a single extra drop out of his poor, overworked yáytsa, on top her voracious nightly marathons was ridiculous in the extreme. Besides, in spite of everything, he did love her. As crazy as she made him, as much as he wanted to tell her to piss off and hang up on her, he still in his heart wanted nothing more than to make her happy. If need be, he would get down on his knees on the rain-slick pavement, then and there, and swear that she was the only woman in the world for him. Anything.

Behind him, unnoticed, the tube of tanning lotion, now utterly flat, squeezed out of the gap between the door and the frame like a watermelon seed pinched between a finger and thumb, and dropped down to bob and spin in the puddle below the door.

…

In her tanning bed, Ashlyn, naked except for her goggles, started to groove as the opening scream of the Ohio Players' "Love Roller Coaster" plummeted into the song's funky bass line. She frowned slightly as the verse started.

"Huh? I thought this was a Red Hot Chili Peppers song," Ashlyn murmured to herself. She shrugged. "Must be a cover."

In the other bed, Ashley nodded her head to a harder beat. Her fingers tapped the tubes at her sides. The girls were both lost in their own little worlds.

On the table, the trickle of water reached the edge of the table, where it pooled for a moment. Then it slid down the side. A few drops dripped down onto the gray buck booster box, and found a seam in the metal. The box buzzed. A few tiny, white sparks flew, spraying the underside of the table.

As the tubes of the tanning beds heated up, their fans kicked in, blowing the hot air out through grills at their heads. The room started to heat up. The LCD of the thermostat, which had already climbed to the seventy-three degrees Ashlyn had set it at, now began to climb higher –seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy-six. To compensate, the thermostat turned the air conditioning on, and the air duct that stuck down out of the ceiling began to blast cold air. The breeze blew against Ashley's coat, causing the coat rack on which it hung to sway.

More water ran down the side of the table with the Big Gulp on it and a stream of drops fell onto the buck booster, seeping into the seam. There was a loud bang and more sparks. The red LCD on the front of the gray box winked out for a second, and then flashed back on. The numbers started to go up -240 VAC, then 245 VAC.

The coat rack began to sway wider and wider, pushed by the blast of frigid air that hit the raincoat every time it swung back under the vent. Finally, it lost its balance and tipped over completely, falling against the plastic palm tree. The palm tree fell too, overbalanced by its heavy, drooping leaves, and crashed down behind Ashley's bed. The crown of plastic leaves clipped the wooden CD shelf on the way down and jerked it out of the wall. It fell, spilling jewel boxes to the floor, bounced off the leaves of the tree, and came to rest upside down on top of the lid of Ashley's tanning bed. The metal L braces that had held it to the wall stuck straight up in the air.

The LCD of the buck booster continued to climb -255 VAC… 260 VAC… 270… 280…

Ashley, bobbing to the music on her iPod, did not notice the thud above her, or the increasing speed of the fan beneath her, as the bed's cooling system fought to control the rising temperature.

In the other bed, Ashlyn, still grooving to "Love Roller Coaster," didn't hear the fans either. But beads of sweat started to form on her brow, her breasts and her arms. She opened her eyes and turned her head in the direction of the other bed, calling to Ashley.

"Way too warm in here now, huh?" she said.

No response, so Ashlyn raised her voice.

"Lee," she called. "You think it's a little warm in here now?"

Ashley popped one of her earpieces out. "Huh?" What'ja say?"

"I said," Ashlyn repeated for the third time, "don't you think it's kinda warm now?"

"Yeah," said Ashley. "A little. Why don't…"

A cell phone rang, its insistent electronic warble cutting through the funky bass grind.

"Is that my phone or yours?" Ashlyn asked.

"That's yours," said Ashley. "Mine plays 'Linkin Park' now."

"Oh yeah, right," Ashlyn said.

"Gee," Ashley said, reaching up to open the lid of her bed. "I guess I fucked up and set it too warm."

"I'll go ahead and cool it off," Ashlyn said, and started to roll up on one side to open the bed. "I'm dying in here."

But as Ashley pushed up on her lid, the wooden CD shelf slid off the smooth top of the bed, twisting as it fell, and one of the L braces got caught in the metal rod handle of the bed. Inertia caused the trailing end of the shelf to flip up, and, just as Ashlyn began raising her lid, the other L brace slotted down through the rod handle of her bed. Ashlyn banged her head as the lid unexpectedly stopped moving.

Ashley pushed at her lid, but to no avail. The phone was still ringing, but it might as well have been a million miles away.

"What the fuck?" she said, a high note of anxiety creeping into her voice.

Se shoved again, harder, and so did Ashlyn, but linked together by the wooden shelf and its metal braces, the lids of the tanning beds could be raised no further.

"What's going on?" Ashley called.

"I don't know," Ashlyn replied. "Do these things have locks or something?"

Between them, below the table, the buck booster continued to shoot sparks and its LCD continued to rise, faster now -300 VAC… 310… The tanning bed lights began to glow brighter and brighter, and burn hotter and hotter. Ashley and Ashlyn closed their eyes against the blinding light. Their hands were slick with sweat as they shoved and strained against the lids of their beds. But the more they pushed, the more tightly the shelf became wedged in the handles of the beds. Ashlyn's cell phone stopped ringing.

"Something's wrong," said Ashlyn, her voice rising with worry. "Lee, what are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything," said Ashley, panic beginning to grip her. "What are you doing?"

They were both sweating profusely now, perspiration gushing out of their pores. Their hair, perfect and glossy when they laid down, was now stringy and matted with sweat. Their make-up was running down their faces. Ashlyn had a sudden, awful fear that someone was going to have to come in and free them, and that they would see her looking all messed up and skanky, like the girl cat that fell into the barrel of water in that Pepe LePew cartoon.

"I can't fucking breathe!" Ashley screamed. She pushed with all her might against the lid. Her arms shook. The lid did not budge.

"It's too hot," Ashlyn said, frightened by the fear in her best friend's voice. She kicked and shoved at her lid as a deeper panic started to set in. "I'm burning up!"

The buck booster LCD ticked up to 335VAC, then 340.

The voltage was too much. The lamps over Ashley's face exploded, sending slivers of superheated glass into her face, like tiny knives. She twisted aside, screeching, and tried to cover her face with her arm, but the naked elements of the bulbs had burst into flames and her elbow blistered, skin searing and blackening. She jerked it away. Her hair caught on fire. She beat at the flames, but it was futile.

"Lyn!" she screamed. "Lyn! Help me!"

"Lee?" called Ashlyn, her skin a deep, glistening red from the heat. "What happened? I heard something pop. Are you okay?"

She tried to scoot down out of the foot of the bed, but the built-in fan that was meant to keep the occupant of the bed cool blocked the way. She tried to go up instead, but the head of the bed was set right against the back wall of the room. There was no way out. Suddenly, she started to jerk and scream, clawing at her face. The tanning goggles were melting. The plastic was bubbling and sinking into her skin.

…

In the back alley, Yuri, still on the phone, looked up. The scream came again. He rolled his eyes.

"Stupid girls. What now?" He spoke into the phone. "No, no. Not you. Detka, I got to go. I'll call you later, okay?" He knew the trouble he would be in for, but snapped is phone shut anyway and hurried to the back door. He saw that the tube of tanning lotion had slipped out of the door jam. He grabbed the door handle anyway, but the door had locked. He sighed, and turned to log down the alley and circle around to the front of the building.

…

The girls' skin bubbled and blistered as they writhed in mirror image agony. They would have called to each other, would have proclaimed their undying love and loyalty to each other, would have forgiven each other for all the catty comments they had made to each other over the years, but they were beyond words now. All they could do was scream and struggle. Suddenly, all the bulbs in both beds began exploding like firecrackers, shooting off electrical shocks and billowing flames above and below the terrified girls. Their skin and hair burned merrily, and began to crackle and pop. Now they were beyond screaming.

…

Yuri ran around the front of the mini-mall and down the storefronts. He grabbed the handle of the California Sun door and pulled. It didn't open.

"What is this?" he cried.

He yanked the handle again, then spotted the flyer taped to the inside of the door.

"Back in thirty minutes," he read. "What is this bullshit? You are eighty-six you crazy bitches. What do you do to my salon?"

His head jerked up and he sniffed. He could smell smoke.

"Fuck!" He patted all his pockets, but his keys weren't there. He looked through the door to the front desk. His keys were lying on the counter, next to the phone, right where he had left them. "Goddamn it."

…

Inside the tanning room, flames licked out of the two closed tanning beds. Ashley and Ashlyn were burning like torches, but their struggles had ceased. There was no more life in them than there was in two steaks on a grill. The plastic lids of the tanning beds began to melt and drip, and the beautiful tropical beach in the big photomural on the wall glowed with an orange light, not cast by the warm Californian sun.

I know I've said it before, but I like how the book tells us more about these characters.

Ashlyn's concern. How is Yuri's girlfriend and why does he continue with a woman who calls him non-stop, etc.

In the movie, we did not get to know anything about these characters beyond their main facet.