Stalking Zoey Blum
an excerpt

STALKING ZOEY BLUM
contents

1. Every Wolf Will Take His Road
2. The Gardener’s Dog Will Eat No Beet
3. Every Madman Packs His Load
4. Nor Will He Let the Beggar Eat
5. Ever More the Rivers Churn
6. 'Tween Hollow Word and Finished Deed
7. Ever More the Fishers Earn
8. A Gaping Chasm Lies, Indeed
9. Canary in a Lonely Cell
10. A Simple, Well-placed Word of Heed
11. Neither Cries Nor Sings as well
12. Whatsoever Man Proposes
13. All the Clever Bunnies Need
14. Ends However God Disposes
- Epilogue
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Chapter 1) Every Wolf Will Take His Road

Even while he watched his mother shoving that sleeze-ball of a maid into the back of the Mercedes and slide in after her, it seemed to Nicolas that the curtain was breathing. He squinted at it, certain that it billowed out like Clarin's taffeta robe, like the shower curtain occulting her body. He sneaked his hand toward its edge and yanked, but found nothing more than cement wall. In the compound below, Bozo-orange hair a-glint in the high sun of Cali, David-the-chauffeur extracted from his trouser pocket a hunk of keys any school janitor would envy, and hopped into the front seat just as Nicolas spun around and flung himself across the bed.
-Lying hussy of a gold-digger- Nicolas thought.
-All the maids in Cali tried to get themselves knocked up and then blame their bosses’ sons. Free-ride for life.-
Mama Londoño frequently annoyed Nicolas with her indifference to his scientific aspirations, her perfunctory relationship with him based exclusively on the fact that she had once had intercourse with Papa Marquez in order to engender him, but henceforth had no further meaningful interaction with either of them, and her imperious expectation that Nicolas would eventually grow into his tío Pépe's pants, a feat Papa Marquez had never manned-up to do. Yet there were other times, such as this, that Nicolas felt secretly pleased to have a mother who knew how to TCB. He was glad to see his mother packing that useless thing off to Bogota where she could become someone else’s problem. He had enough of his own.
For one thing, Nicolas wished that Clarín would either be all-the-way-dead or come-the-hell-back to -life, had become obsessed with the idea that she was watching him from the beyond, reproaching his every move, reading his mind, controlling his thoughts, or perhaps even plotting to harm him from the grave. The hairs along his spine stiffened as he thought of her, like the little pins the tailor used, and he felt the irresistible need to shake her off, shout her away. He wished she were either alive or dead, all the way, one way or another, just pick a damn lane and drive in it, not torment and terrorize him.
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more stuff here (I deleted it from the page) to get to closing lines of chapter 1:
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Ivo’s foreman, Anhelo, was on the shortwave with Ivo. Supposedly, Ivo would have been been here by now to meet his friend and introduce him to Anhelo and the crew. Anhelo signed off and whistled the two surveyors over. -Boss’ll be a few days late. says he had to go to Guayaquil for a meeting, Ma’s making lots of food today ‘cuz she thought there’d be more of us wanting it. Let’s just head over there and knock off for the day ‘til either Ivo or his friend show up. The surveyors had no trouble packing their paltry instruments into the back of the little Suzuki that Ivo had left for Anhelo’s use. They pulled out onto the salt-flat and headed northwest toward the shack teetering on the Pacific edge.
Moments after they had left, the international came across the salt flats from the east and swerved left and right to avoid the pits dug to collect the salt. And then it was gone. Nicolas eventually climbed out of the pit and staggered back in the direction from which he had come.

Chapter 2) The Gardener's Dog Will Eat No Beet

Opening lines:
Satanaz sat on Sra. Madre’s broad lap and whispered into her crystal-violet coif - yes darling mother, this time I know I can please you!- The lump that was Sra. Madre draped her ample bosom over her son’s athletic thighs, and began to yodel with delight. This, of course, was music to Satanaz’ tone-deaf ears, and both of them turned their gaze to the pregnant body of the gringa draped bloodily over Sra. Madre’s massive bed, ignoring the banging upon Sra. Madre’s bedroom door. Threats of bringing the police were of no concern to the loving mother and son at this point; soon they would have Helium’s house all to themselves and here, before them, lay the key.

Trajectory:
Backstory re: why Sra. Madre lost the house and hoe Satanaz hooked up with the gringa. Tangle up a web of deceit in which Satanaz pretends to ally with Helium, but is out to kill him, Helium pretends to accept the gringa because she is pregnant and Satanaz because he claims to be taking care of her, but actually (Helium) wants them out and conspires with dirty-cop-son, Hugo, to drive them out. Hugo and his brothers all want Satanaz and gringa out, but are false allies as they also vie secretly against one another for Helium’s favor and the inheritance of the house. All this forms backdrop for sadistic abuse of the gringa, who is totally objectified in this story. Story is basically a monkey-fist, and where this string leads out of the knot, the gringa has disappeared, thereby dashing Satanaz’ plot with Sra. Madre. Tsk-tsk.

Things from Chapter 2 that recur in chapter 13:
the gringa...neds to have some recognizable physical characteristi, like green eyes, long fingers...something that makes her different-ooking from Peruvians, and also recognizable among other gringos, yet subtle enough to be an inconspicuous clue in Chapter two. Might be a habit or tic.