Philip Palmer - Debatable Space

The planet itself is a cornucopia of hot spas and torrential waterfalls. A favourite game is to shoot the rapids from Hispanaiola to Lisbonville, then physically crawl the ten miles from the river to the hospital in order to receive limb and organ grafts. Many die, but here, life is cheap. The pirates who end up here have fought and slain and been tortured and seen their families horribly killed. Many enter a fatalistic state where death is sought in a million random ways. It all makes for a certain wildness, in a corner of inhabited space where there are no soldiers, no law officers, no Doppelganger Robots, and no rules.

Grendel and I go way back. We once fought a duel which lasted for six weeks of grisly, eye-gouging, biting and kicking hand-to-hand combat. By the end neither of us had a functioning limb, and we were reducing to biting each other’s throats. But, hey, we survived, and we’ve been friends ever since. One day I must ask him what we fought about; I made a computer note of it somewhere, but the actual memory is long gone.

Grendel bangs the Centre Table with his beer tankard, which is a two-pint glass carved out of pure 21-carat diamond. The diamond facets sparkle in the light of the overhanging candlebulbs. A hush descends over the hall. Grendel nods to me.

“A song.”

I pick up my guitar. I lightly strum it. I have tuned the instrument to play acoustic guitar with an automatic harmonic and a fluid accompaniment of harp and wah-wah guitar and drums. When I strum the strings, a band plays. If I change my touch, the guitar sound morphs into a powerful saxophone.

I play one of my favourite songs from the Golden Age of blues and rap. I begin with a soft, lyrical, beautiful chorus. My voice soars up, harsh but pure, until the words bounce lightly against the glass roof that bares to us the glittering stars.

“I never thought that I would see,” I sing,

“Such beauty and such tragedy

And foolish fucked up blazin’ wasted lives,

And un’xpected sublimity

I never thought that I would see

So much of life, and of the genius of our universe.”

A heartrending moan is ripped from the entrails of the guitar, and I move into the rap section:

“She was a two-bit crack whore, and she was working the streets

He was a psychopath and she thought he was sweet.

And she played his games, and then she asked to be paid,

And he called her a ho, and he left her for dead.

I was her sorry ass man, her oreo boy,

I was no brotha from the hood, I had my PhD.

And she played me and she lied to me and treated me mean

And so I told her, you a chicken head, I ain’t seein’ you again.

And then I saw her dead, at the hos-pi-tal.

Not smiling no more, got holes for eyes, not smiling no more, ’cause her lips been gouged.

Not smiling.

And I figure it’s my fault, for despairing, and not caring, not holdin’ and keepin’ her.

But, you see, I never thought that I would see

My baby dead.”

And again the chorus, rich, soulful, evocative:

“I never thought that I would see

Such beauty and such tragedy

And foolish fucked up blazin’ wasted lives,

And un’xpected sublimity

I never thought that I would see

So much of life, and of the genius of our universe.”

Lena is nodding her head to the melody, the whisper of a smile on her lips.

Rap again:

“I thought my life was over, when they tracked me and they captured me,

See, they sentenced me to be the only PhD on Death Row, y’know.

But I didn’t give a damn, ’cause I had killed a man, this oreo boy,

I had vengeful motherfucking man-who-killed-my-girl-killing joy.

See the psychopath, he had his friends downtown, but his ass was down,

And I don’t deny, she made me cry, I was her sorry ass man, her oreo boy,

And I killed for her, I paid the bill for her, and I was prepared

To go to Hell for her.

But then they fried my brain, and they wiped my mind,

And they let me go. A hundred years ago.

Yeah, she was a two-bit crack whore and she was working the streets.

I was her oreo boy, and I knew that she was sweet.”

And the soul singing returns:

“I believe that every day will be a better day for me.

And I believe that every day will make me happier.

And I believe that every day will make the world a better place.

And every day I learn I’m wrong, but I believe!”

And the last chorus:

“I never thought that I would see

Such beauty and such tragedy

And foolish fucked up blazin’ wasted lives,

And un’xpected sublimity

I never thought that I would see

So much of life, and of the genius of our universe.”

I stop. There’s a rich, reflective silence. Then the sound of tankards hitting the wood of the table reverberates around the hall. I nod, moved, and wait.

A black-haired woman with a scarred face and angry eyes speaks.

“A fine song,” she says. And then she repeats some of the lyrics, without the rap, but with a soft, gentle verbal caress: “I’ve seen and experienced things, That’ll push the average to the edge and swan-dive to death, I’m two guys, multiplied by ninety-three guys, Evenly balanced seein’ evil equally in each eye now, Maybe I’m the most thorough worker on the job to you, Or maybe I’m the one, who was plottin’ to rob you.” She nods, appreciative. “We thank you. What is your name?”

“I’m Captain Flanagan, pirate.”

“I am Hera. This is my tale.”

Her voice is still gentle, and soft, so we all quieten as much as we can. Her words slip around the hall like butterflies, and we dart our heads and ears to hear them.

“I was born a slave, I will die a free woman.”

Tankards bang on tables.

“I was the youngest of five sisters. These are their names.

“Naomi was the eldest, she was tall and slim and she loved to run. She was a gazelle, a meteor, whenever she was with us our spirits soared. Naomi was a leader. A person you wanted to be with. We all loved her. Some say she resembled our mother though of course, we did not know our mother. For we were born on Hecuba.”

These last words are spat out like poison venom. All are chilled, for all of us know of Hecuba. A fertile paradise farmed and tended by men, and men alone.

“The second-eldest child was Clara. Clara was a sulky one. We quarrelled a great deal. I was seven years younger, I thought Clara was rude and bossy and, yes, I was wrong and, yes, I repent every cruel and horrible word I said to her, when I was five years old, and when I was six years old, and when I was seven years old and when I was eight years old, and when I was nine years old. But when I was ten years old my elder sister Naomi was taken for harvest and Clara became the mother of our family, and we stopped quarrelling. She was seventeen, and she took her responsibilities seriously. She made us laugh, she sang us to sleep. This is the song she sang.”

Hera’s soft speaking voice modulates into a sweet, unaffected singing voice. Her song is a lullaby written some time in the twenty-first century, and the melody has a haunting clinging quality. It is written in a modulated style; each note shifting through six or seven notes before arriving back at the core note. Hera sings it with huge charm:

“Expectat-i-i-i-on

Of morning’s dawn that’s

Dawning on

Our happy world

Imagine i-i-i-i-i-it.

El-ev-at i-i-i-on

Of human souls

That aren’t controlled

Into paradise.

Imagine i-i-i-i-i-it.

Time to sleep and dream and let your mind be free.

Time to sleep and dream and let your mind, oh let your mind, be

Time to sleep and dream and sleep and dream and let your mind oh