ID SAYS:
SCCCCRAWWWWWWKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wilmorn has just seen the love of his life. Unfortunately, Wilmorn happens to be the nipple of a Haitian musician and the love of his life is a frickin' nun! What's a nipple to do?
As fate would have it, Wilmorn's body likes to dabble in Voodooism. And by dabble, I mean he creates intricate rituals in his trailer and gets drunk off rum to commune with spirits. Wilmorn makes contact with a spirit and offers the rest of the body he is part of to gain an audience with the Seagull Gods. He makes a pact with them, which gives him seven days to kill the nun's true love to absorb their soul so he can be that love.
Failing means spending eternity as a lobster baby servant for the Gull Gods. That's a crustacean with an adorable little human baby head, and that's exactly what Wilmorn's given to assist and watch his progress. I wonder if the other lobster babies are as messed up as this chain-smoking, tail-molesting little bugger.
Seven days isn't very long to find someone. You don't even know her name. So hurry up, bitty booby, or look forward to becoming seagull food.
EGO SAYS:
For a well contained story focusing on a single body part, I found a surprising cast of secondary characters popping up in the narrative. The Crack Lady of Central Park, Nipple Cultists, even Jesus makes an appearance.
Wilmorn does not appear a complex character at first. He was a nipple and that's all he knew before he entered the whole-bodied human world. He thinks on simple terms and when he encounters Patina, sister at the Church of the Holy Menstrual Blood, on the street, he knows he loves her. Simple as that.
The same cannot be said for Stalin, his psychological makeup could keep doctors busy for decades. Stalin is a demon of some sort. Normally he resides in another world containing a sea full of more like him. They act as the main course for their ocean bird overlords. As Wilmorn's watcher, if he isn't smoking he's jonesing for a non-menthol. Don't anger him or he could go serial rapist all over you, and pray you never find out what a claw-job is.
SUPER-EGO SAYS:
Palabras fuertes molestar espíritus!
And how. The Seagull Gods definitely become a little agitated when Wilmorn drops them a cosmic line. The nipple doesn't even have a soul, and now he wants the chance to win the affections of a woman of the cloth?
This was one of the more weirder premises I've come across in recent time, but Mr. Chambers keeps the story moving as the oddness gets denser. The tone, however, is even, and no matter how ridiculous the situation nothing seems out of place. You find yourself laughing at Wilmorn's predicament, and yet still rooting for him to succeed.
Wilmorn is the underdog on the streets of New York. A fitting place for a wandering nipple in love, searching for the yin to his yang. In a city so vastly bizarre, the sight of a giant male nipple and a lobster with a baby face walking down the street isn't going to attract much attention. Just steer clear of any nipple fetishists.
