Since Tomorrow

by Morgan Nyberg

  “Don’t you what, Langley?”

  “Don’t I got dogs?”

  “You do? I never seen no dogs.”

  Langley turned and punched Freeway in the face. Freeway cried out and threw up his hands and stumbled backwards and sat. He had his hand over his right eye. He said “Ow! Oh! That’s my eye!” Blood ran from his right nostril.

  Langley shook his right hand, winced, looked at the back of it, gingerly formed a fist. He said “You got a hard eye, doggy.”

  Freeway slid the hand from his eye, which he kept closed. He tried to wipe away the blood, smeared it into his moustache and beard. He said “What? I ain’t no dog.” He moved to get up, but Langley drove him in the forehead with the heel of his boot. Freeway sprawled onto his back.

  Langley set about kicking him in the thigh with the toe of his low-cut leather dress boot. He screamed “Bark, doggy! Bark, god damn you!”

  Freeway bellowed “Ow, that’s my sore ass!”

  “You couldn’t even beat old Frost! Frost’s dogs was better than you! Bark, I said!”

  “Arf!”

  Langley kept kicking him.

  “Arf! Arf! Don’t! Ow! Arf!”

  Freeway pushed himself backwards off the trail, flattening a swathe of wet grass, breaking shards of fallen stucco, snapping the bare twigs of bushes. He crossed the warped sidewalk, into a mound of blackberry. Langley kept ordering him to bark, and Freeway kept barking.

  Without moving her head Noor looked down at her spear. She glanced sideways. But the men were not watching Langley punish Freeway. They were watching her. The man who held her sword had his other hand on his crotch, against the wool of his shift, slowly rubbing. In his moonlike face the eyes were dark holes. He took a step toward her. The men on either side of him also took a step. Noor turned her head. The soldiers on the other side of the cart were shifting, sliding gradually behind the cart toward her side, and edging around in front of Beauty.

  The man with her sword laid its blade on her shoulder. The tip touched her throat.

  “Please! Please! Arf! Arf! Ow! No! Arf!”

  Then Langley was among the soldiers, screaming. “You run away from Frost! You run away from an old man!” He was swinging indiscriminately. There was the sound of his fists smacking flesh, thumping into shoulders and chests. “What do I feed yous for! What do I get yous women for! Yous can’t even beat an old man!” The soldiers had thrown up arms for protection, were ducking, backing away.

  But the man with the sword had not moved, had not even turned his head. He stood there with the sword on Noor’s shoulder, licking his lips, massaging his crotch. Langley snatched the sword from him. He grabbed it by the blade, flipped it, caught the handle. As the man leapt backward Langley swung twice, slashing an X across the man’s shift. The man screamed and ran, hunched, arms clasped over his chest.

  Langley dropped the sword, stared at his hand, which was lacerated on the knuckles and bleeding freely from the palm. He turned to Noor. He showed her the hand. He said “Look what you done.” He slapped her.

  She staggered but did not blink. She stared back at him. She wiped his blood from her cheek.

  The men were well scattered now. It was dark. The rain was coming down harder. Noor and Langley stood face to face beside the trail, under empty windows much blacker than the sky. Beauty had bolted a few steps. She was tossing her head and snorting. In the blackberry vines Freeway was sobbing loudly. The slashed man was whimpering.

  Langley said “You know that big buildin’ back there the way you come?”

  Noor said nothing.

  “It’s a nice buildin’. Nicer than that place of yours. That dump. You know what a dump was? We got meat in our buildin’. We got cordwood. We got real hooch. I keep that buildin’ for my soldiers. That’s where Wing’s women are at. Did you know that?”

  He watched for a reaction. He looked down at his bleeding hand, pressed the thumb of his other hand against the wound. He said casually “So here’s your choice, Noor. You can stay in that there buildin’ with Wing’s women and help them keep my men warm at night. Or you can come with me to my place at Skaggers’ Bridge. It’s a nice place. You’ll like it. I got stuff you ain’t even dreamed about.”

  Noor said “Grampa’s waitin’ for me.”

  “I got medicine. Did you know that pills keep forever? Maybe I could send some to your grampa.”

  She said nothing.

  Langley was silent for a long time, staring down at the hand, pressing the wound. Finally he said, very quietly “If you was on my side we could own this world.”

  She answered less quietly. “I don’t want to own this world.”

  “Frost will give me everythin’ to get you back.”

  “He’ll give you to the dogs.”

  Langley’s reddened cheeks paled instantly. The change was obvious even in the failing light. It was as if he was the one who had been slapped. He walked rapidly away, past Beauty. He called “Get back here! What the hell kind of soldiers are you! You got a prisoner to watch!”

  Warily the men began to return. Freeway had stopped sobbing. He was trying to rise, but the blackberry vines would not let go of his poncho.

  Langley walked back, stopped at the cart. He found the book under the bag of straw, came back to Noor. He said loudly “Did you know I can read?” He read from the cover. “Emo... Emo... That one’s too big for me. But I got this here one. Wellness. What the hell is wellness? The age of anxiety. That’s a nice word. I like that word. And look at these pretty people. You think that’s what people were like then?”

  The soldiers had again encircled them and the horse and the cart. He tossed the book to one of his soldiers. He said, without looking directly at Noor “Tell Frost my proposal is still on. But he’s got to throw in Fundy’s farm now too. I get his place and Fundy’s place, and he gets Wing’s farm. I ain’t going to wait much longer. And if he don’t like the deal, here’s what’s going to happen. Wing’s women are going to start comin’ to visit yous. If you know what I mean.”

  Noor stepped away and murmured a few words to Beauty and patted her shoulder. She swung up onto the horse. She held out a hand to receive the spear and the sword, but Langley did not bend to pick them up.

  He said “I been patient till now.”

  The woman and the horse moved forward.

  36

  Noor’s grandfather stood in his graveyard, looking across the river with the binoculars. It was a cold sunny morning. On the crudely trimmed grass a film of frost lay on the hundred T-shaped shadows of the grave markers. He said “Yes. I see a woman. She’s in one of the windows on the second floor.” He handed the binoculars to Noor.

  She looked, said “That’s not a woman. That’s a girl. It’s Snow. One of Langley’s men is with her.”

  Frost looked again, but the window was empty. He lowered the binoculars and put his glasses on and stood there staring across the river. His sword was at his side. At his feet the blade-end of a spear rested on the marker that said Susan.

  Noor observed her grandfather. Today he stood more erect than usual and seemed much taller than her. His worried eyes had grown hard and grim. The deep wrinkles around them looked as if they had been carved into cedar.

  He said without turning “Wing and his men and kids are moving over to Fundy’s today. They’ll be welcome there. Under the circumstances. Fundy’s women will be willing to forget about religion. The newcomers are going too. Fundy’s got plenty of spuds. The addicts have got to stay here, at least for a while.”

  “What about the bridges? Langley said the reason he didn’t attack over our bridge is on account of dogs.”

  “And there’s going to keep on being dogs. We’ve got Wing’s dogs now, and Fundy’s got one or two left. We’ll take them up on the bridges too. And we’ll move Pender and his dog up onto a bridge.”

  “Fundy’s dead, Grampa.”

  Frost waited, said “You know what I mean.”

  “Yes.”

  �
��You can help out guarding. You won’t mind sleeping up there?”

  “No.”

  “Among the men?”

  “No, I won’t mind.”

  “Daniel is going up. Jessica wants to help too. I hope to be able to work in shifts, but I don’t know if we have enough men. Enough people. Don’t let Jessica sleep up there. She won’t listen to Daniel.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Frost still had not turned toward his granddaughter. He said “I would attack the building. Smoke them out and kill them. Or maybe set up a siege. Their food is bound to run out some time. But Wing’s women are there. We can’t hurt the soldiers without hurting the women.”

  “There are soldiers all over Town anyway. And back at Wing’s farm. They’re not all at the buildin’. And there’s no guarantee Langley would be there.”

  Across the river the south slope of Town rose for two miles, becoming more barren near the top, where the old streets and house foundations were hidden under scrub and blackberry, from which scattered concrete buildings protruded like blemishes. Nearer the bottom the three-story concrete apartment blocks were separated by expanses of mud or by eroded ravines that carried run-off into the river. The pillars of Frost’s Bridge looked solid and ageless in the sunlight.

  He said “I wonder what von Clausewitz would say.”

  “Von Clausewitz lived three hundred years ago.”

  “I’m sorry to say, this is three hundred years ago. Maybe a thousand years ago. Von Clausewitz had muskets and cannons and cavalry. We’ve got dogs and spears.”

  “And bows that don’t shoot straight. Grampa?”

  He looked at her finally, turned to face her.

  She said “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken off like that.”

  Frost nodded. “Okay.” He touched her shoulder.

  “It was selfish and stupid. He could’ve killed me. Tortured me. He could’ve thrown me in with Wing’s women. He could’ve used me against you. Against everyone.” She looked away. Tears pooled in her eyes.

  Frost let the binoculars hang from his neck. With both hands he turned her face toward his. Near the eye her left cheek was reddened and slightly swollen. He said “But he didn’t do any of those things. He didn’t do them because he’s afraid of you. He knew, whatever he did, he’d come out on the losing end. And he’s right. Listen, I want you to know two things. I was wrong not to tell you I saw Steveston out at Langley’s place by Skagger’s Bridge. It was my fault. I was trying to keep things from getting complicated. I was trying to find the easy way out, and as a result everything got a lot harder and a lot more complicated. So don’t feel bad about taking off. And the second thing is, I don’t want you ever to stop being who you are. You’re the best of any of us.”

  For a few moments the grimness was not in his eyes. But then he turned away and picked up his spear. Still, he took her hand, and they walked westward, parallel to the river, through the frost-marked graves.

  He could see some of his men on Fundy’s Bridge. They were small, like ciphers, hardly real on the long sweep of the span, which seemed to spring with its own mindless energy across the water.

  Frost said “You will be the leader when I’m gone.”

  Noor’s hand tightened involuntarily on his. She said “That’s a long way off. Let’s not talk about it now. You’ve got more important things to worry about.”

  “I told Daniel and Jessica and Tyrell. Years ago. They all think it’s right.”

  She said, in a pleading way “Grampa...”

  Grace was standing alone beside the water. She was staring across it, as Frost had stared. He released Noor’s hand and went to Grace. As he came beside her she turned. The early sun made deep shadows in the wrinkles of her face. She looked like an old woman, weary and hopeless. She conjured a brief and self-pitying smile. Frost hugged her and kissed the side of her head.

  She said as he rocked her “It’s all gone.”

  He said “I’ll get some more.”

  She stepped back. “Will you, Frost? How?”

  “I don’t know. But we need it. So I’ll get some more. You have to stop worrying now.”

  “I will.”

  “You promise? We need you to be in good shape.”

  “Yes, I promise.” Her smile now had more life in it.

  Frost walked back to Noor. The two women observed one another for a second, and each lifted a hand in greeting.

  Noor said to her grandfather “Will she be all right?”

  Ahead Wing and young Surrey and Fundy’s son Solomon, who had a bandaged arm, and the newcomers to the domicile, and a couple of loose dogs were walking toward Little Bridge. Frost said “I don’t know if anyone will be all right. But she’s stronger then she thinks she is.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Frost did not answer. Ahead, Wing stopped and let the others go on while he waited on the path for Frost and Noor. He was wearing a shiny red warm-up jacket and black pleated chalk-stripe dress pants. He was carrying the baby girl from his farm, wrapped in a poncho.

  Frost said to Noor “What did Langley mean when he said Wing’s women were going to start visiting us?”

  Noor shook her head. “Nothin’ good. That’s all I know.”

  37

  Frost stood alone on the steps of the domicile, with a bucket of water at his feet. A golden but heatless light painted his face. There was a wind that tossed his long and twisted hair. He studied the afternoon sky. To the north the mountains were invisible behind a black curtain. To the east a dazzling and muscular thunderhead towered. It had passed a half-hour earlier.

  Then, in an instant, the sun was gone, and the day went dark. Frost heard more crows. A flock of them, fifteen or twenty, materialized above the far bank. With disordered flapping and angry cries they flew up to shelter under the bridge.

  Frost picked up the bucket of water and turned and entered the domicile and went up the dark stairwell. On the third floor he stopped in front of a door and called through the plastic. “Brittany?”

  ‘That you, Frost?”

  He set the bucket down and went in. Her room was like the others. There was a metal bucket for a fire, a ramshackle stovepipe, plastic over the window, a concave mattress under rabbit skins. The floor was sloped. Beside the bed stood a small framed photo of a young man with spiky black hair and a triangle of whiskers under his lip. Brittany sat on the mattress with her back against the wall, hugging her knees.

  Frost said “Are you all right?”

  “I’m not so good, Frost. I’m scared.”

  She was wearing green and red argyle socks, navy blue pyjama bottoms and a boy’s blue dress shirt with the right side faded to near white. Her tight white curls stuck out like a shelf below a green and blue peaked cap.

  Frost said “I know. Everyone is scared. But we’re not going to let anyone hurt you.”

  She asked in her child’s voice “Are you scared, Frost?”

  Frost deliberated for a moment. “No. I’m not scared.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I should be, but I’m not.”

  “Kill them bastards, Frost. Them hordes.”

  He nodded.

  She said “Joshua’s room is empty again. That guy with the lump was there. The guy with your shoes. But he’s gone now.”

  “I know. I saw him heading over to Fundy’s with the others.”

  “I guess Joshua can move back in. Did you see where he got to?”

  Frost did not remind her that Joshua was dead.

  “I liked it the way it was, Frost. We were a family, all of us here. We worked, we ate good, we talked.”

  “We’re talking now.”

  “I know. Thanks for comin’ to talk to me, Frost. It’s good to talk. Jeff is going to come and visit me soon.” She picked up the framed portrait, showed it to Frost, kissed the image, set it back.

  Frost said “Spring’s not that far off. We’ll plant spuds. Times will be good again.”

  “You p
romise, Frost?”

  “I promise.”

  “Kill them bastards.”

  He nodded, turned to leave.

  “Frost.”

  He waited. There was a word on her cap. Canucks.

  She said “You look different.”

  He went out and let the plastic curtain fall behind him and picked up the bucket.

  “You look mean.”

  Frost went up a floor. He heard voices in a room and set the bucket down and went in. Kingsway and his woman Night and old Ryan were lounging on the mattress. Like Brittany they wore factory-made clothes from the garbage bags of the Church Gang. Brandon stood apart, with his bottle.

  Frost said “You all right?”

  Kingsway and Ryan nodded, but Night started crying quietly. Kingsway stroked her hair.

  Frost said “Kingsway, I want you to go up on Fundy’s Bridge this afternoon. You’ll stay there overnight with some of the others. I’m trying to work out shifts. You’ll get a spear and a bow. You’ve got a sword?”

  Kingsway nodded.

  Brandon said “I can do guard duty. Send me up, Frost. You ought to see me fight. I can fight like a son of a bitch.” With the hand not holding the bottle he punched the air. His clotted and soiled white hair hung over his shoulders. His nose was swollen and purple. He gave off a heavy smell. He swayed slightly as he scowled at Frost. When Frost did not reply he took a drink. Over his torn wool shift he wore a woman’s black cardigan. The sleeves reached six inches past his elbows.