George Effinger - When Gravity Fails

I named my friends, glad to provide an explanation of their whereabouts; they would not have to face such an inquisition as this.

“Would you like some more coffee?” asked Friedlander Bey wearily.

“May Allah guide us, I have had enough,” I said.

“May your times be prosperous,” said Papa. He gave a heavy sigh. “Go in peace.”

“By your leave,” I said, rising.

“May you arise in the morning in health.”

I thought of Abdoulaye. “ Inshallah .” I said. I turned, and the Stone That Speaks had already opened the door. I felt a great relief flood through me as I left the room. Outside, beneath a clear black sky pricked with bright stars, was Sergeant Hajjar, leaning against his patrol car. I was surprised; I thought he’d gone back to the city long ago.

“I see you made it out all right,” he said to me. “Go around the other side.”

“Sit in front?” I asked.

“Yeah.” We got into the car; I’d never sat in the front of a police car before. If my friends could only see me now … “You want a smoke?” Hajjar asked, taking out a pack of French cigarettes.

“No, I don’t do that,” I said.

He started the car and whipped it around in a tight circle, then headed back to the center of town, lights flashing and siren screaming. “You want to buy some sunnies?” he asked. “I know you do that .”

I would have loved to get some more sunnies, but buying them from a cop seemed odd. The drug traffic was tolerated in the Budayeen, the way the rest of our harmless foibles were tolerated. Some cops don’t enforce every law; there were undoubtedly plenty of officers one could safely buy drugs from. I just didn’t trust Hajjar, not as far as I could kick him uphill in the dark.

“Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?” I asked.

He turned to me and grinned. “I didn’t expect you to get out of that motel room alive,” he said. “When you walked through that door, you had Papa Bey’s Okay mark stamped on your forehead. What’s okay with Papa is okay with me. Get it?”

I got it. I had thought that Hajjar worked for Lieutenant Okking and the police force, but Hajjar worked for Friedlander Bey, all the way.

“Can you take me to Frenchy’s?” I said.

“Frenchy’s? Your girlfriend works there, right?”

“You keep up on things.”

He turned and grinned at me again. “Six kiam apiece, the sunnies.”

“Six?” I said. “That’s ridiculous. I can get them for two and a half.”

“Are you crazy? There’s nowhere in the city you can get them less than four, and you can’t get them.”

“All right,” I said, “I’ll give you three kiam each.”

Hajjar rolled his eyes upward. “Don’t bother,” he said in a disgusted voice. “Allah will grant me a sufficient living without you.”

“What is your lowest price? I mean your lowest.”

“Offer whatever you think is fair.”

“Three kiam,” I said again.

“Because it’s between you and me,” said Hajjar seriously, “I’ll go as low as five and a half.”

“Three and a half. If you won’t take my money, I can find somebody who will.”

“Allah will sustain me. I hope your dealing goes well.”

“What the hell, Hajjar? Okay, four.”

“What, you think fm making you a present of these?”

“They’re no present at these prices. Four and a half. Does that satisfy you?”

“All right, I’ll take my consolation from God. No gain to me, but give me the money and that ends it.” And that is the way Arabs in the city bargain, in a souk over a beaten-brass vase, or in the front seat of a cop car.

I gave him a hundred kiam, and he gave me twenty-three sunnies. He reminded me three times on the way to Frenchy’s that he had thrown in one free, as a gift. When we got to the Budayeen, he didn’t slow down. He squealed through the gate and shot up the Street, predicting amiably that everyone would get out of his way; almost everyone did. When we got to Frenchy’s, I started to get out of the car. “Hey,” he said in a hurt tone of voice, “aren’t you going to buy me a drink?”

Standing in the street, I slammed the door closed and leaned down to look in through the window. “I just can’t do that, as much as I would like to. If my friends saw me drinking with a cop, well, think what that would do to my reputation. Business is business, Hajjar.”

He grinned. “And action is action. I know, I hear that all the time. See you around.” And he whipped the patrol car around again and bellowed off down the Street.

I was already sitting down at Frenchy’s bar when I remembered all the blood on my clothes and my body. It was too late; Yasmin had already spotted me. I groaned. I needed something to set me up for the scene that was fast approaching. Fortunately, I had all these sunnies …

I was wakened once again by the ringing of my telephone. It was simpler to find it this time; I no longer owned the jeans it had been clipped to the previous night, or the shirt I’d been wearing. Yasmin had decide that it would be much easier to dispose of them entirely than to try to wash the stains out. Besides, she said, she didn’t want to think about Sonny’s blood every time she ran her fingernails up my thigh. I had other shirts; the jeans were another matter. Finding a new pair was the first order of business for that Thursday.

Or so I had planned. The phone call changed that. “Yeah?” I said.

“Hello! Welcome! How are you?”

“Praise Allah,” I said, “who is this?”

“I ask your pardon, O clever one, I thought you would recognize my voice. This is Hassan.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them. “Hello, Hassan,” I said. “I heard about Abdoulaye last night from Friedlander Bey. The consolation is that you are well.”

“May Allah bless you, my dear. Indeed, I am calling you to relay an invitation from Friedlander Bey. He desires that you come to his house and take breakfast with him. He will send a car and driver.”

This was not my favorite way to begin a day. “I thought I persuaded him last night that I was innocent.”

Hassan laughed. “You have nothing to worry yourself about. This is purely a friendly invitation. Friedlander Bey would like to make amends for the anxiety he may have caused you. Also, there are one or two things he would like to ask of you. There may be a large amount of money in it for you, Marîd, my son.”

I had no interest in taking Papa’s money, but I could not turn down his invitation; that was just not done in Papa’s city. “When will the car be here?” I asked.

“Very soon. Refresh yourself, and then listen closely to whatever suggestions Friedlander Bey makes. You will profit from them if you are wise.”

“Thank you, Hassan,” I said.

“No thanks are needed,” he said, hanging up.

I laid back on the pillow and thought. I had promised myself years ago that I would never take Papa’s money; even if it represented legitimate pay for a service rendered, accepting it put you in that broad category of his “friends and representatives.” I was an independent operator, but if I wanted to maintain that status, I’d have to walk carefully this afternoon.

Yasmin was still asleep, of course, and I did not disturb her — Frenchy’s did not open until after sundown. I went to the bathroom and washed my face and brushed my teeth. I would have to go to Papa’s dressed in the local costume. I shrugged; Papa would probably interpret that as a compliment. That reminded me that I ought to take some small gift with me; this was an entirely different sort of interview than last night’s. I finished my brief toilet and dressed, leaving off the keffiya and wearing instead the knitted skullcap of my birthplace. I packed my shoulder bag with money, my telephone, and my keys, looked around the apartment with a vague feeling of foreboding, and went outside. I should have left a note telling Yasmin where I was going, but it occurred to me that if I never came home, the note wouldn’t do me any good.