All of This Is True

by Lygia Day Penaflor

  The Absolution of Brady Stevenson

  BY FATIMA RO

  (excerpt)

  The fortune-teller was a bad idea. Brady paced outside Madame Lola’s tent, texting Thora in a hurry. “The fortune-teller said I have a black cloud following me.” What else could Madame Lola see in those tarot cards? He had rushed out, afraid of what the old woman might say in front of Sunny.

  “Why the hell did you go to a fortune-teller in the first place? Brush it off! You make your own destiny. You carve your own path. Stop texting me and show Sunny a good time. Get thee to the castle!” Thora, the “wise woman in his life,” replied. Brady stuffed his phone in his pocket. He was determined to take her advice and say “Screw you!” to his black cloud.

  Sunny stepped out of the tent with one hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry. She shouldn’t be allowed to say stuff like that. Isn’t there a fortune-teller’s code of conduct? What a batty old crow. I shouldn’t have made you go in there. She charged me five dollars. Such a rip-off.” She felt awful. She’d thought it would be fun. Sunny wanted so badly to text Thora and ask how to rebound, but she didn’t want to text in front of Brady.

  “No, it’s fine.” Brady shrugged. “Cletus had to go out, that’s all. I think he was getting claustrophobic.”

  “Oh.” Sunny looked down at the dog. Cletus seemed perfectly content scratching his ear. Thora would say, “Keep calm and girlfriend on. Do what comes naturally.” Sunny decided to do that the rest of the day.

  “Come on.” Brady took Sunny’s hand. He led her and Cletus past a face-painting tent, a puppet theater, a tent peddling handmade jewelry, and a tent for henna and body art. Little kids ran in front of them, chasing one another with plastic swords. “No more tents. We’re going in there.” Brady pointed to Hempstead Castle, where visitors were streaming in and out. He was going to turn this date around.

  They hurried to the side of the building and snuck in through the delivery door with Cletus. “It’s never locked. We came through here last week,” Brady said as they wove their way through the maids’ kitchen. “I also came here this morning.” Brady opened a cabinet beside the sink. “To hide this for us.” He pulled out a blue cooler.

  “This is ours?” Sunny pulled the cooler toward her and rose onto her tiptoes. “What did you do?”

  “Packed us a lunch and some iced tea.” He opened the lid to show her the deli sandwiches, plastic containers, Arizona iced teas, and a beach towel inside.

  Sunny spun to face him. “Are you kidding me?”

  “What’s the matter? You’ve never seen a picnic in a castle before?” Brady asked proudly.

  “Sure I have. On The Bachelor!” She laughed and then kissed him on the cheek.

  Brady carried the cooler. They passed through a formal dining room with an intricately carved table and heavy satin drapery. In the classic wood-paneled library, faded books stood between copper acorns and stone busts. “Beautiful room,” Sunny said. “I love the woodwork.”

  Cletus’s nails clicked across the floor into the sunroom. There he lay, exposing his belly under a patch of sunlight. Earlier, Brady and Sunny had taken turns holding Cletus’s leash while he scampered along the shore, picked up sticks, and teased the waves.

  The couple joined the dog on the hand-painted tile and took in the view through the French doors. Brady unpacked BLT sandwiches. Potato salad, fruit, and drinks rounded out the lunch. Voices and footsteps traveled down from the staircase. Sunny and Brady looked over their shoulders at a group tour getting ushered into the foyer. The visitors took a few final pictures before exiting through the front door.

  Sunny stretched her legs and relaxed back on her hands. “I still can’t believe you did this. Thank you.” She couldn’t wait to tell Thora how romantic and thoughtful Brady was.

  “You’re welcome,” Brady said. He couldn’t wait to thank Thora for planning all of it.

  “It’s nice and warm right here. The sun feels so good,” Sunny said as she took her jacket off. “It was getting chilly out.” She opened her iced tea. Cletus’s ears perked when the cap popped.

  “Cletus always finds the sunny spots,” Brady said, giving his dog a pat.

  Sunny admired the expansive lawn and the glassy surface of the Long Island Sound. Children with painted faces were cartwheeling on the grass. “I think there’s a Great Gatsby party here in the summer. We should come back for that. I could wear a long string of pearls, and you can wear a bow tie,” Sunny said, smiling. A Gatsby party sounded pretty classy and was unlikely to have a fortune-teller. “It’s such a great castle. The diamond shapes in the windowpanes are so pretty.” She looked behind her at the fountain in the middle of the front room. “This reminds me of the Irish castles in The Drowning, only much warmer,” Sunny said. “In the book, Jules and her mother go from one castle to another; each one is colder and damper than the next. There’s this one character they keep bumping into, a British guy who wears a dressing gown and slippers to each castle because he likes to pretend that he lives in them.”

  Sheridan Thompson. Brady knew the character, but at this point couldn’t admit to knowing the novel so well. It’d be embarrassing. It was fun, anyway, hearing the girls talk candidly about the book. It was like eavesdropping on foreigners who don’t know you understand their language.

  “How does Thora think up this stuff?” Brady asked, as Cletus began to snore lightly beside him.

  “No idea. She thinks of crazy things, crazy but realistic; that’s why it’s so good.”

  “Like what else?” Brady asked, thinking of the racy chapters he had annotated with comments such as Is this porn?

  “Like . . . kissing,” Sunny said, anxious to take this date to the next level. “She writes some very realistic kissing.” She tilted her head.

  “Oh, really?” Brady glanced at Sunny’s bottom lip.

  “Yes. And other stuff,” Sunny teased.

  Brady looked down at Sunny’s cleavage. “Other stuff?”

  Sunny’s low-cut sweater had been a good idea. She was happy to distract Brady from his incomplete fortune. “A little of this and that.”

  He kissed her then, brushing his lips lightly over her cold mouth. She tasted of tea. Sunny leaned closer, adding pressure and opening her mouth. She rubbed her knee against his and pulled at his shirt as their kiss intensified. How far could they go in the castle? She dragged her hand down Brady’s chest and stomach to find out, but Brady caught her hand and broke away. He clearly wasn’t ready to go further than this. She would have to be patient.

  Brady exhaled deeply. All this off-the-page real-life kissing was torturing him. “I want to do ‘other stuff’ and ‘this and that’ so bad right now. A lot of it,” Brady whispered.

  “Really? Then why don’t you?” Sunny’s big eyes begged.

  “We can’t.” He leaned back and pointed to a dark globe in the ceiling. “There are cameras in here.”

  “Oh, thank god!” Sunny burst out laughing. “I thought it was because you didn’t want to!”

  “I want to! Believe me!” Brady squeezed her hand.

  Sunny threw her head back and waved at the camera. It was such a relief to know that Brady wanted her as much as she wanted him. He didn’t need more time to heal from his dark cloud. He was perfectly fine.

  Miri

  [camera settles] How’s your week going, Miri? We’re filming.

  [fixes hair] Oh, I don’t know. [sighs] You’ve seen the internet. Miri Tan: Loyal Fan. Very clever. Why is it so hard for people to understand why I defend her? Hear me when I say this: Fatima showed up for us. And when I say that she showed up, she literally showed up—to Graham. She walked right into our cafeteria just as natural as could be.

  Wow.

  I had no idea she was coming. I was just sitting there after school one day, eating leftover cupcakes from the student council elections, when in walks Fatima Ro. I kid you not. By then everyone knew her from our photos, and Ms. Grauss bought a class set of Undertow that very week
. It was as if Fatima had leapt off the book jacket and into the cafeteria. It was the stuff of life.

  [laughs] Wait. Did you run for student council?

  God, no. My plate was full. It was Natalie Singh versus this prick Hugh Lambert, a cocky Graham Seven, who thought he had it in the bag. Natalie deserved to be student council president.

  Did she win?

  She did. I was happy to campaign for her. That’s how I am. When I believe in someone, I will support her to the nth degree.

  Like with Fatima.

  Especially with Fatima. [takes a breath] Picture this. I’m sitting at a table with ten, maybe fifteen Undertow fans. I’m holding a VOTE NAT cupcake and my copy of Undertow when in walks the author herself, in vintage suede and cat’s-eye sunglasses. Hello!

  Nice.

  She walks straight up to me and gives me a hug, so now I’m hugging Fatima Ro, holding a cupcake behind her back.

  [laughs]

  And then what does she do?

  I can’t even guess.

  She grabs my wrist and licks the icing off my cupcake.

  [laughs]

  That put an end to the doubters. Not to the haters by any means, but it was the end of the doubters. I smiled and thought, “Don’t you ever question my friendship with Fatima Ro again, negative bitches.”

  NEW YORK CITY MAGAZINE

  FOUR-PART SERIES

  * * *

  Stranger Than Fiction

  The True Story Behind the Controversial Novel

  The Absolution of Brady Stevenson

  SOLEIL JOHNSTON’S STORY, PART 3 (continued)

  * * *

  PENNY

  Hi! Where are you?

  SOLEIL

  Art room working on #DoorsAsAMetaphor. I’m learning how to use a jigsaw to cut openings behind the doors. I feel like a lumberjack. Let’s shop for flannel shirts. Not joking. Urban Outfitters run!

  Come to the cafeteria!

  Why?

  Fatima is here!

  What!!!! I’ll be right there!

  Penny

  Did you know that Fatima came to Graham?

  I heard. That was a big deal, wasn’t it?

  It was crazy. Travis Foley hit on her. Teachers were worse than the students—asking for selfies and wanting her to sign books for them. Ms. Grauss, my English teacher, asked her how to do a topknot. It felt like . . . [pauses]

  Like what?

  It felt like the end to me. The beginning of the end.

  Of your quiet little group?

  Uh-huh. And another thing was weird.

  What?

  I got this feeling like there was something going on between Fatima and Jonah. First I saw them talking all secret-like in the courtyard. She didn’t even want to come inside, like she was there just to talk to Jonah. And then while Fatima was talking to the group, she kept looking over at him, and he kept looking over at her, and I just got a vibe.

  That doesn’t sound like Fatima to be interested in him that way.

  I know—what would she want with him? He must’ve been a kid to her. She dates older guys. Men, actually. And she is Fatima Ro, right? But who knows why artsy people do what they do? Celebrities on TV are always, like, cheating with the nanny or whatever. Anyways, you don’t have to be a brain on student council or on the debate team to have a gut sense. I know a vibe when I feel it. I couldn’t just stand there with Soleil and not say something, so I asked her flat out, “WWJ and F?” and I pointed out their knowing glances.

  How’d she react?

  She said, “I’m sure it’s nothing.” She brushed it off. Maybe it really was nothing, or maybe Soleil didn’t want to know, so I left it alone.

  The Absolution of Brady Stevenson

  BY FATIMA RO

  (excerpt)

  October 26, 2016

  Thora Temple in the Morley Cafeteria!

  3:21 p.m.

  Gaaah! I can’t believe I missed half the convo. Thank god Paloma texted me to come down. Will try to catch the rest here:

  Q: Where’d you get your jacket? I love it.

  A: Thank you! I found it in a vintage shop in the Hamptons, but I can’t remember the name of the store, and now I’ve lost the receipt. It’s killing me that I can’t remember. I can’t even find the place online.

  Q: Can I touch it? I love suede.

  A: Sure. Soft, huh?

  Q: Where did you go to high school?

  A: A private school in Massachusetts. It’s a little bit like here, except much smaller. And it’s definitely a lot more hippie. We didn’t get letter grades, just narratives. And the faculty let us call them by their first names. Our teachers were more like friends to us. It was the kind of environment where it was acceptable to have emotions. I felt free there to express my point of view.

  Q: Were you writing back then?

  A: Yes. I wasn’t writing novels yet, but I wrote short stories and poetry for Vent—that was our literary magazine. My writing was horrible, horrible! But it was my outlet, my forum. It gave me confidence and visibility. It was an important time for me.

  Q: How much of The Drowning was based on your life?

  A: The heart of The Drowning is real. The heart of my characters is always real.

  Q: Do you have a boyfriend?

  [laughter all around]

  A: No.

  Q: Don’t mind him. Trevor’s the class player.

  Q: Do you want a boyfriend?

  [more laughs]

  A: It depends on who’s asking.

  Q: I’m asking!

  [hooting and hollering]

  A: You’re too young for me.

  Q: I’m mature for my age.

  A: And I’m mature for mine. But nice try.

  [various expressions of Trevor Foy getting owned]

  Q: Are they going to make The Drowning into a movie?

  A: I doubt it. I love movies—these guys know that. [She gestured to us!!!] I’d love to see that happen. But The Drowning’s been out for a little while now, and there hasn’t been interest in that, so, probably not. It’s a little too quiet of a book for a film. So much of the conflict is internal rather than external. Maybe the next one.

  Q: What’s your next book about?

  A: I can’t really talk about it yet.

  Q: But I thought you practiced the theory of human connections by disclosing your precious truths.

  A: Oh, I do. That’s very important to me. Please know that. But I’m still in the early stages of the manuscript, so I don’t know what its precious truth is yet. When I’m writing something new it takes a while for me to recognize the soul of the story. And when it comes to the theory of human connections, you have to understand the truth for yourself first before you can share it with others.

  Q: Can I quote you on that for the paper? I write for Echo, the Morley newspaper.

  A: Of course.

  Q: I’m going to be senior editor next year. And for The Drowning, Marni put me in charge of school outreach. I’m doing everything I can to spread the word here about the theory and the novel.

  A: That’s incredible. I appreciate that. And congratulations on being senior editor. That’s a big deal.

  Q: Oh my gosh, thank you so much!

  Q: What were your favorite scenes to write in The Drowning?

  A: My favorite scenes to write . . . I guess I have to say the sex scenes!

  [laughter]

  Only because I was going through a rough time when I wrote that manuscript, so those scenes just allowed me to forget my life and focus on something fun temporarily. The rest of the book was cathartic, but not in a fun way whatsoever.

  Q: Why are you here?

  A: [glances at Brady] [???] I just wanted to say hi.

  Miri

  According to The Absolution of Brady Stevenson and New York City magazine, Fatima went to the school to visit Jonah.

  I know that.

  Does that bother you? To learn that Fatima went to Graham to see Jonah, not you?

  I
never said I was her favorite. I said that Fatima considered me the leader, which she did. But I wasn’t her favorite. Neither was Soleil. Jonah—he was her favorite. She swooped into the cafeteria and hugged me because she didn’t want anyone to know that she was there for Jonah. I know that. It’s fine. She was trying to protect him, didn’t want anyone to know they were tight. She never meant to expose him. Can’t you see? She loved that kid like a brother. She committed herself to him, wanted him to have the North Shore private school; the girl; the big, bright future; the confidence; the dog; all of it. People can go ahead and slam Fatima left and right for blasting Jonah’s secret, but can’t you at least see the precious fucking truth? Jonah Nicholls . . . Broke. Her. Heart.

  NEW YORK CITY MAGAZINE

  FOUR-PART SERIES

  * * *

  Stranger Than Fiction

  The True Story Behind the Controversial Novel

  The Absolution of Brady Stevenson

  SOLEIL JOHNSTON’S STORY, PART 3 (continued)

  * * *

  SOLEIL

  Jonah just told me the reason you came to Graham was to see him & you’ve been talking on the phone. He asked me if I’m okay with that.

  FATIMA

  Are you? There’s nothing else

  happening, cross my heart.

  I know. I trust you. Of course I’m okay with it. He hasn’t been opening up to me any more than when we first got together. At least he’s talking to you.

  I hope it’s not a problem for you and me.

  I want to be a friend to each of you.

  It’s not a problem. I understand why he’s comfortable with you. And I’m glad I don’t have to handle his issues alone. I don’t mean “his issues” as in a burden.