Elizabeth Hand - Glimmering

And Leonard himself exactly where he had always wanted to be: dancing in the century’s graveyard, laughing at the end of all things.

Glimmering

It took them six hours to get to Lazyland. Trip tore a piece of fabric from his anorak and handed it to Jack. Jack wrapped his wounded hand, then slumped against his seat and fell into an exhausted stupor lanced with pain. Now and then he heard shouts from outside, Fayal’s curses and pleas for divine guidance, the sound of other vehicles, police sirens, ambulances. The boy in the front seat said nothing, and Jack made no effort to speak to him; only offered directions to Fayal when after hours they finally passed Co-op City, the limo edging through the mass of cars like a queen bee making her way through a broken hive. When Jack peered out the window behind them, he saw a city in flames: smoke rising from skyscrapers, flickers of gold and scarlet leaping from shadowy canyons and avenues. Fires burned along the George Washington Bridge. On the western banks of the Hudson he could see more blazes. The air inside the limo was acrid with the scent of burning.

At last they broached the outskirts of the city of Yonkers. They drove past crowds of people, revelers and rioters who moved reluctantly to let the limo pass. Bottles crashed against the hood, rocks bounced off the roof, and once Jack dived to the floor when Fayal yelled at him, and automatic weapons-fire echoed in the street outside. The car plunged through a sea of bodies. Jack heard a sickening thump, but Fayal just kept on going, until at last they were bouncing down familiar rutted streets, past Delmonico’s and the ruins of Hudson Terrace, past gutted mansions where Jack could see figures capering beneath a sky like an open wound.

“This is it,” he said hoarsely. He pointed to his home’s security gate. The limo nosed through, eased down the driveway, finally came to a stop in front of the wide veranda.

“You guys—out fast, okay?” said Fayal. “I’m gonna piss and get the fuck out of here.”

Jack opened the door and stumbled onto the drive. He blinked in the glare of—what? Morning? Dawn? When he glanced at his watch it said almost six.

“Jack!”

He turned and was nearly knocked down by Emma. “Oh, Jack,” she murmured, hugging him. Behind her he could see his brother Dennis, his mouth an O of anguished relief. “Jack, I thought you were—we all thought—”

Emma drew back to look at him. “Holy shit. You’re bleeding! Get inside, come on—”

“Wait.” Jack looked to where Fayal was zipping up his trousers and sliding back behind the wheel. “There’s someone else.”

The blond boy stepped from the car. He moved away as the engine gunned, and in a spray of gravel the limo shot back up the drive. With a desultory roar it turned out onto Hudson Terrace and disappeared from sight.

“Who is he?” Emma demanded.

“I have no idea. A friend of Leonard’s, I think.”

“A friend of—” Emma scowled. “Jesus Christ. Well, tell him to get inside.”

She looked at Jack’s injured wrist as she steered him toward the porch. “I have to tell you, Jackie,” she said in a low voice, and began to cough. “I hope your friend can take care of himself. I’m not feeling that well, I don’t know what it is.”

They walked inside. Jack turned, saw the blond boy gazing up at the mansion’s crumbling exterior, and beyond it the venomous sky.

“Hey,” Jack called. “Move it, let’s go.”

The boy nodded and followed him inside.

The house was dark. Jack’s brother cleared his throat. He was eight years older than Jack; in the months since he’d visited Jack in the hospital, Dennis’s hair had gone white. His face was gaunt.

“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his eyes. He squeezed Jack’s shoulder. “I’m—I’m glad you’re okay. I’m going to lie down—it’s been tough, Jackie.”

“Where’s Grandmother?”

“Upstairs. She’s all right. She’s sleeping. But—well, Emma will tell you. I’ll talk to you in a little while.”

Jack turned to Emma. “What happened? Is she really okay? Where’s Marz?”

Emma said nothing. Her face was grey with fatigue, blotched with small raised spots. She smoothed a hand across her head, the blond curls dank and flattened. “She’s dead, Jack,” she said. “She went into labor yesterday morning—”

“Oh Christ—”

“There wasn’t anything I could do.” She began to cry. Jack drew her to his breast, holding his injured hand out stiffly behind her. “She—it was twins. A boy and a girl. It would have been hard no matter what, she was so young, she was malnourished—”

“Twins? Did they—”

“They’re okay.” Emma laughed brokenly. “Can you believe that? Two mouths to feed. But I brought some Similac—there are cases stockpiled at the hospital—and Keeley found some old baby clothes…” She started to cry again.

“Emma, Emma…”

Jack pressed his face against her scalp, smelled her unwashed hair, the sharp scents of disinfectant and isopropyl alcohol. He glanced up and saw the blond boy walking hesitantly upstairs. Emma took a deep breath and drew away from him.

“Enough. You should go lie down, too, Jack. Right now.”

“Me?” He shook his head. “What about you? What about—what happened with Jule?”

“I don’t know. Dennis was able to get through on the phone for a while, but the lines are dead now. They’re supposed to be sending his body here, but—”

She waved a hand at the window, where skeins of purple and gold and red threaded across the sky. “Who the hell knows. Dennis and I—we buried the girl outside. But dogs kept trying to dig it up, and when Dennis went out to chase them off they came after him. The body’s gone.”

She looked at him, her eyes haunted. “What else could we do, Jackie?” she whispered. “What else could we do?”

“Nothing,” he said, his voice cracking. “You’ve done everything, Emma. You’ve done more than any human being could possibly do. Now you have to rest.”

He walked with her upstairs. On the second-floor landing he stopped and kissed her forehead.

“Where are you sleeping?”

Emma gestured at his uncle Peter’s old room. “There. Dennis is in the other bed. Your grandmother and Mrs. Iverson are in there—” She pointed at Keeley’s closed bedroom door. “And the babies—”

A sudden wail rent the air. Jack smiled in spite of himself, craned his neck to peer down the hall into Aunt Susan’s room. The sheets had been stripped from the canopied bed. Two bassinets lay side by side on the empty mattress, and between them the blond boy sat, staring into one of them.

“I think I know where the babies are,” said Jack. A second wail rang out. Trip leaned over, carefully picked up one of the babies, and awkwardly cradled it against his chest.

Jack shook his head. “Hey—”

“Hush.” Emma said. “He won’t hurt them. And I’m too beat right now to take care of them, and you shouldn’t do anything till you’re cleaned up. So just leave him, okay?”

Jack watched as the boy reached into the other bassinet for the second infant, straightened with them both in his arms.

“Is that doctor’s orders?” Jack asked.

“Absolutely.” Emma patted his good arm. “Go try to sleep, Jack. That’s the best thing any of us can do right now. Just try to sleep.”

He stood on the landing, watching as the boy sat with the babies. “Doctor Emma said there’s some formula downstairs,” he called into the room after a while. Trip looked up. His face broke into a smile.

“They’re so tiny ,” he said. “But they’re really, really cute.”