I leaned over toward Ramsay and touched her on the shoulder.
“Yes?” she said, flashing her pale-gray eyes at me.
“I’m curious, the vote on me was four to one, who cast the descending vote?”
She shook her head. “We are sworn to confidentiality, but I will tell you it wasn’t me. The Hoxa story did it for me. I think it’s fantastic that you knew him. I wish I had.”
“That’s ironic,” I mused, “everyone that knew him wished they hadn’t.” Our laughs were greeted by scowls from the four tuning their instruments on stage.
“Maybe we should get out of here,” she said, looking over toward the game. “Have you ever had your fortune read?”
“No,” I said, confused.
“Let’s go, then.” She got up and walked over to a small red-cloth-covered table set up halfway between the long banquet table and the poker game. Samas sat at the table across from a middle-aged woman from the band of musicians, her hair tucked neatly under a yellow scarf pulled tightly over her head.
She held a handful of oversized cards and nodded thoughtfully at him. “You are a very happy man, are you not?” she asked in a thick accent as we approached. He nodded. “But I sense something troubles you,” she said, studying the cards. “It’s a longing you’ve had for a long time, yes?”
“Yes.”
“This goal will be attained very soon,” she said in an exaggerated nod.
Ramsay placed her hand on Samas’s shoulder. “That must mean you’re finally going to lose that last fifteen pounds to get down to your ideal weight of three fifty.”
“Three forty-five,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her. “Why don’t you see what she has to say about you?” He stood up and offered his seat.
“Sure.” Ramsay sat down and held her hand out to the fortune teller.
“Madame,” she said, taking Ramsay’s hand, double taking on the black tattoo. “The other man had one of these too. What is it?”
“That is a private matter that I hope you can overlook,” Ramsay said, holding out a fifty-franc note.
The string quartet began to play as the woman took the bill and folded it into her dress. “Palmistry or tarot?”
“Oh, palmistry, of course,” Ramsay replied.
The woman took Ramsay’s hand and studied it, looking down her nose at the lines through crude, wire-rimmed spectacles. “You will continue to be very successful in your business endeavors. You will have more work than you can handle.”
“Continue,” Ramsay said, unconvinced.
“I see many men in your future.”
“Really?”
“Yes, many men will fall under the spell of your charms, especially during the next twelve months,” said the fortune teller, raising her eyebrows.
“Interesting.”
“And you will live for a long time.”
“How insightful,” Ramsay said, winking slyly at me. “Why don’t you take a shot, Evan?”
“Not for fifty francs,” I said, taking a step back.
“Go ahead, it’s on me.” She laid down another bill.
The fortune teller took my hand and traced several lines with a long, yellowing fingernail. Ramsay placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’m going to check out the game. Come over when you’re finished.” She walked away, leaving me alone with the mystic.
“You’ve been alone for a large part of your life, yes?” the mystic said in the form of a question.
I nodded.
“You are in the middle of great changes happening in your life, yes?”
I nodded again, wondering if I wore my emotions on my sleeve.
“Many opportunities and adventures are open to you now, but you know this already, yes?”
I nodded.
“But still there is something that troubles you, yes?”
“Yes—”
“Don’t tell me,” she said quickly. “It is a tantalizing opportunity, but one you don’t feel you’re ready for or worthy of.”
“Yes, but how did you—”
She held up a hand to interrupt me. “I sense that you’re not a very trusting person. You are accustomed to depending only on yourself.” She looked back down at my hand. “It shows that this opportunity, if taken, will change your life dramatically.”
“What about money?” I asked.
“Oh, great wealth awaits you. I can see it right here,” she said, tracing a long line on my palm with a bony finger.
Boisterous laughter periodically rang out from the game. Spectators stood in a circle around the seated players.
I’d heard enough. “Thank you,” I said, withdrawing my hand. “Thank you.”
I walked over to the edge of the crowd, thinking about what she had said. I peered over Samas’s and Ramsay’s shoulders to get a glimpse of the action. “What’s going on?”
“No one has ever driven Chance from the table, but Auda is close. He hasn’t lost a hand yet,” Samas whispered.
“What did she have to say?” Ramsay asked.
“She said great wealth awaits me.”
“Of course she did, young Evan,” Chance crooned. “Why do you think they call it fortune telling?”
“I call your bet,” said Auda. “What do you have?”
“Three queens,” Chance said, his wide smile evaporating with each heart Auda turned over.
“Flush,” said Auda, pulling a mound of different sized silver and gold coins toward him.
“Blast!” shouted Chance. “That’s fourteen hands in a row.”
“Maybe he’s cheating,” Poppy said to Chance.
“That’s irrelevant,” countered the giant. “Nobody cheats better than I do.”
“You shouldn’t have given your lucky dice to Evan,” said Auda, goading him on.
Chance turned in his seat. Samas and Ramsay stepped aside to give him a clear view of me. “I’ll give you one thousand dollars right now if you loan me the dice for a few hours,” he said, a slight tinge of prideful desperation in his voice.
I went for my pocket and was about to say yes when Auda spoke.
“Evan, I’ll give you two if you don’t,” he said.
Chance turned to his opponent. “You would,” he said, sinking back into his seat. The impish cards were almost completely obscured by his thick sausage fingers.
Auda picked an oversized gold coin out of the pile and weighted it in the palm of his hand. “This feels about right.” He tossed the coin up to me.
I looked across the table at Chance. “No dice,” I said, pocketing the coin. Several chuckles and pats on the back came as they dealt anew.
A second staffer accompanied the wine pourer as they made another round. The new hostess offered fresh goblets as the other filled. I took a full one and marveled at the craftsmanship. The fresh goblets were made of silver with gold braiding inlaid around the rim. “How old are these?” I asked, holding it up.
“Who cares, so long as they still work,” said Chance before emptying his in one long swallow. “Refill, please.” He held his goblet under the large urn’s spout.
“Darling, you found me,” Auda said to the server. “Come over here and quench my desire.”
“Give the poor creature a rest,” said the man who had introduced himself to me as Kerr. He was young, but lean and hard looking with a long, scarlet scar slanting across the left side of his angular face.
I watched as the attendant approached with the water pipe again.
The string quartet continued to play on stage. Several couples waltzed among the columns, their counterclockwise turns delivering them back to a time when the music was new.
Ramsay tapped me on the shoulder and shoved the opium pipe mouthpiece into my hand. Her face contorted into a grimace as she held in a lungful of smoke. I placed the ivory tip in my mo
uth and inhaled without a second thought, the caustic smoke burning in my throat and chest. The tarry, stale taste stayed in my mouth long after I’d exhaled.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” she asked.
I felt its tingling effects as I stared into her gray eyes. “Yes,” I said in one exaggerated syllable.
Ramsay laughed and took another draw off the pipe. “Oh, I want to watch this,” she said in a stream of smoke. “They’re going to dance.” She motioned over to the women following the string quartet off stage.
“Wait,” I said to the young woman carrying the pipe. “Don’t leave just yet.”
I floated lazily back onto the pillows in the center of the reclining crowd. Violins, tambourine, accordion, and guitars combined in a raucous rhythm as five young women danced on stage in gyrating, staccato movements. Their bright dresses and scarves blurred into colorful swirls as I struggled to keep my eyes focused.
“How are you doing?” asked a voice next to me.
I kept my eyes locked on the beauty in the center and didn’t turn to see who was talking to me. “I’m feeling pretty good.”
“Good for you. Say, do you see anything you like?”
“What?” I asked.
“The dancers, do you see any you like?”
“Yes, I like her,” I said, pointing with an unsteady hand.
“Only one?” the voice whispered in my ear. “Don’t be so modest. You’re a young man. This party is for you, enjoy yourself.”
“Okay.” I felt my words begin to slur. “The one on the end is cute too.”
“That’s the spirit, that’s the spirit,” said the voice, trailing off into the background music.
I watched intently as the tempo of the music intensified, and they all danced at an accelerated pace, spinning and whipping their black hair in wide arcs. I remained focused on the middle one, taking another full wine goblet each time a staff attendant passed by. Cheers and groans periodically carried over from the shrinking crowd around the game table.
“They are lovely,” said a tall, thin, dark-haired man after he’d fallen onto the pillows where Chance had laid. He wore a two-piece suit tailored of black leather.
“How did you do, Tobias?” Ramsay asked him, motioning back to the table.
“I lost about eighty-five thousand.”
“That’s not as bad as last time,” she said.
“True.” He grabbed the pipe carrier by the ankle as she passed and then took three long drags in a row off of the braided serpentine hose.
I changed my fuzzy attention from the dancer to the long, leather-clad man. “So what’s your take on all this?” I slurred.
“My take,” he repeated thoughtfully. He rolled over on his side to address me directly. “My take on this whole thing is that we are creatures inspired by a divinity that desires to question the authority of mankind’s contrived Godheads. It is the only thing I’ve found that explains us. You see, or will eventually see, that slowly, imperceptibly, God and his hierology slips away from you until there is only the self. If there is no God, then there can only be the self. Selfishness necessarily supplants itself in the vacuum created by Godlessness, but this realization happens so slowly that the average man will never grasp it during his short earthly tenure. That answers what, but it doesn’t answer why. I think that eventually, we are supposed to enlighten the whole of humanity to this truth and lead them out of their self-imposed darkness.”
“Believe me, they will be much happier in their own world,” said Ramsay. “You and Poppy need to get those crazy thoughts out of your heads.”
“It’s more than just us,” he said, turning toward her.
“Just remember, it’s a moot point,” she said sternly.
He ignored her. “That’s my take,” he said to me.
“Are you stirring up trouble?” asked Samas, walking up behind us.
“No. I’m just soliciting opinions,” I answered. “Some more dangerous than others.”
His large drunken form teetered precariously over me. “How ironic, I was just about to solicit an opinion from you about my offer.”
His question brought anxiety to the forefront of my clouded mind. “It’s too soon, Samas. I need some time to think about it and some space to breathe. I’ll get back to you later, fair enough?”
“Agreed,” he said with disappointment, before staggering off toward the ransacked banquet tables.
“What was that about?” asked Ramsay.
“A business proposal,” I said, getting up. “I’ll be back. I need to walk around for a minute.”
I placed the cane under me and stumbled from column to column toward the back of the room. Auda and Chance were the only players left at the table. The wine server sat humbly in a chair next to Auda, a defeated expression showing on her face as she watched the game, uninterested.
Mr. Ing hovered around the table looking at the players’ cards and perked up noticeably as Poppy walked toward him with a short, stocky woman next to her. I forced my eyes into a squint to make them obey. When they walked into the ring of torches circling the poker table, I saw that the woman wore a Russian policewoman’s uniform, complete with its matching skirt that showed off her muscular thighs. Short blond hair poked out from under her high-peaked blue cap and was tucked neatly behind a combat-scarred cauliflower ear. All eyes in the room followed her as she strode confidently next to Poppy holding a portable defibrillator.
“Is she here for me?” Mr. Ing asked in an excited voice.
Poppy nodded knowingly as she motioned the policewoman forward toward him.
“Then you truly did bring something for everyone.” Ing nodded knowingly. “Tell me officer, how can I help you?” he asked as he extended a pale hand out to her.
The short policewoman smiled, set down the resuscitation kit, and took his delicate hand in hers. She held his grip for a split-second before placing her second hand over his and spinning him up against the nearest column. She pinned him hard against the post with a loud grunt and then spun him around again on her way to throwing him high over her head toward the cushions in a well-practiced Judo throw.
Mr. Ing landed with a crash just as the cop clamped her athletic legs in a viselike scissor hold around his bald head. He turned his reddening face to Poppy and gave a panting groan. “Oh, she’ll do nicely.”
“Evan! Evan!” Kerr shouted hauntingly across the room’s expanse. “We have a surprise for you.”
I turned away from the tangle of Mr. Ing and his new friend and made my way back toward the noise, wondering if what my drunken eyes had seen had really just happened.
The music had stopped, and the entire crowd stood in a circle around the place of honor where I’d been reclining. I parted the crowd to find Kress standing over the two dancers I’d singled out earlier.
“They’re for you,” said Kerr. “They want to share something with you. Enjoy,” he said, toasting me with his silver goblet as the dancers moved to both my right and left and locked their arms around my neck so that we moved as a line of three.
“Keep your foot up and let them lead you,” Ramsay shouted to me.
The Romani musicians started playing as the two dancers began moving in time with the building rhythm. They stepped in unison and supported my weight on their shoulders as I tried to move my foot in time with theirs. I gave up after a minute of their increasing pace and just tried to hang on as their turns accelerated with the music, sending the entire room of new faces into a blurring spin. I saw Samas and Clovis and Auda and Kerr and I caught a glimpse of Poppy as she unzipped her syringe case next to Jean.
I looked around at each flashing face and saw a small reflection of my own as I danced to their cheers before I crashed into a heap on the cushions with the two dancers.
This was written as bird of the cow (птица член крава) in the notebooks.
There is no word for this in Bulgarian as the cowbird is found only in the Americas.
Third Notebook
“If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my release should come.”
Job 14:14
19
I awoke to the faint echoes of splashing water. The dancers were gone. Several semiclothed men and women lay sleeping among the strewn pillows and toppled glasses. The torches flickered weakly as they burned the last of their fuel. I was the only thing moving, except for the splashing water.
I got to my feet, bracing myself against a column. My cane was nowhere in sight. I made my way over to the pool, limping from pillar to pillar. My head pounded unmercifully. I peered around the last column just as Clovis was climbing out of the water. Tiny rivulets of water trickled off his gray beard onto the sagging skin of his naked body. His long hair lay close to his head like a wet blanket. He looked up at me and smiled.
“Welcome back, Evan,” he said, wiping beads of water off his face with a wrinkled hand.
“How long was I asleep?” I asked.
“A few hours.”
I rubbed at my temples.
“How do you feel?”
“I’ve been better, I just can’t remember when,” I answered.
“You should eat. Are you hungry?”
I nodded gingerly.
“Good, so am I. We will have Diltz prepare something for us,” he said, covering himself with a thin robe. “Did you have a good time last night?”
I turned and looked at the motionless bodies littering the floor. “I think so, but I would probably get a more informative response if I asked that question of you.”
He walked up and looked me square in the face. He was my height. His gray eyes penetrated me. “It seemed like you had the time of your life.”
“That’s good,” I said, looking away.
“Where is your cane?”
“I don’t know.”
“It should be here someplace. You had it last night. I will help you look for it. Can you walk without it?”
“I think so. I need the practice without it anyway.” I followed him back over to where I’d slept, my limp becoming less pronounced with each step.
The Reincarnationist Papers Page 31
