Уолтер Мосли - Odyssey

A feral look spread across the young woman’s face. She sneered and shivered. Before her expression could turn into words she turned quickly and ran.

Sovereign then remembered chasing Lemuel down the hall to the stairs, toward the front door of the building and out to the street. As he stood on Lafayette, his big fists hung at his sides, Sovereign’s breath came in shallow gusts. This reminded him of the desert out around Palm Springs, where his family went for vacation once a year. He wasn’t quite clear about why the desert came to mind, but the memory felt good in his mind — slow and dry.

Sovereign James walked toward his apartment from the temporary courtroom that late afternoon. On his way he wondered what would have happened if he and Toni had run away together. Their love was overwhelming and insufficient, unexpected and doomed. Their love was like his life had been. It wasn’t a new thing but a repetition of the old in a new configuration. If he had run with her, sooner or later she would have drifted off to the life she needed. That was the pattern he’d created for himself.

The big bronze doorman, Jolly, was behind the reception desk at Sovereign’s building.

“Mr. James,” the young man hailed. “Haven’t seen you in weeks.”

“Been on trial for attempted murder. The feds were after me too but that stopped.”

“What about the trial?” Jolly asked, his seemingly unsinkable mirth receding behind squinty eyes.

“Judge said she’ll give the verdict on Monday.”

“I remember now,” the young man said. “Axel said that they called him and Geoffrey to testify. I thought they meant in some kind of lawsuit.”

“No.”

“You think they’re gonna find you guilty?”

“Maybe. Probably not completely... but who knows?”

Sovereign walked through the front door of his apartment, closing it behind him. He shut his eyes and stood there — waiting for inspiration. But the feeling of blindness had gone. He no longer knew how to move in darkness.

His sun-flooded living room with its red chair and white sofa held the silent echo of Toni’s scream and the straining of the life-and-death struggle with Lemuel Fister Johnson. His whole life, it seemed, had been in preparation for that fight, when he now knew he should have been training for some other goal.

He sat in the red chair for a while and then moved to the sofa. Three hours later he went to the bedroom and lay down on the big bed. The room had been cleaned multiple times by Galeta and so the scent of Toni’s floral perfume was absent. He closed his eyes but sleep didn’t come. He imagined the dizzying swirl blindness had foisted upon him, but that too had abandoned him.

On Saturday he exercised, fried pork chops, and read Treasure Island , a favorite novel of boyhood.

On Sunday he exercised, fried pork chops, and read Treasure Island again.

No one called that weekend. There was no one to call.

Late Sunday night Sovereign called Seth Offeran’s office phone.

“This is Dr. Offeran’s line,” Seth Offeran’s voice said. “Please leave a message and a number and I will get back to you.”

“It’s Sovereign James, Doctor. I’d like to see you early next week if I’m not in prison. Can you call back and tell me if that’s possible? I can make it any time except Monday at nine. That’s when the judge renders her verdict.”

There were no dreams, because Sovereign did not sleep that weekend. He lay in bed with his eyes shut but was aware of the light, and the possibility of sight, just beyond those closed lids.

Toni hadn’t called but he wasn’t surprised by this. He hadn’t called her. He didn’t know what to say. His birthday was next week. He’d be fifty — exactly half a century old. There was a spider crawling up the wall as Monday’s sun rose to illuminate the opposite end of his bedroom. He was still in shadow but the light was there before him.

The phone rang and the voice-mail message engaged but there was only silence. A few minutes later the phone rang again.

“Hello?”

“Sovereign?”

“Lena.”

“Judge Lowell’s secretary called me this morning...”

“What time is it?”

“A little after seven.”

“She had him call you this early?”

“She said that there’s no case without Lemuel’s corroboration. Even if he’s lying there’s no basis for a conviction. So she’s vacating the case.”

Sovereign looked down and saw that his digital message machine had logged one hundred and forty-seven voice mails.

“Sovereign?”

“Yeah, Lena?”

“Did you hear me?”

“Do I have to go down to Lafayette today?”

“You’re free, Sovy. The case is dismissed.”

“I see.” He was wondering about all those messages.

“Are you all right, Sovereign? Is there somebody I should call?”

“I’m the only one,” he said. “Thank you, Lena. Just send me a bill and I’ll put the check in the mail.”

“... most of the calls,” Sovereign was saying, “came from businesses and salespeople. Most of those were trying to sell me insurance or wanting me to take out loans. There were four wrong numbers and one call from Lemuel Johnson—”

“What did he have to say?” Seth Offeran asked.

“He started off trying to apologize for attacking me twice. He said he shouldn’t have done it but the beating I gave him more than made it equal. It was almost as if he was saying that he allowed me to beat him like that. And then he started talking about Toni, about how much he loved her and how they were supposed to be together.”

“When did he leave this message?”

“The first day he was conscious.”

“How did he get the number?”

“Toni probably used his phone to call me or something. Maybe he got it from her mother.”

“That call sounds crazy.”

“Drugged. He sounded high on the line. Probably some kind of opiate for the pain.”

“Have you heard from Toni?”

“No.”

“Have you called her?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Valentina Holman left me a message about three weeks past.”

“And?”

“She and Verso broke up again. They called off the wedding.”

“Why?”

“She told him about me.”

“Why did she say she did that?”

“It was just a short message and I didn’t call her yet. I probably won’t call. But as far as her telling him is concerned — I figure it’s better that they get it out before the wedding. I mean, if he’s gonna be jealous she should know it before they have kids.”

“I thought you said that she didn’t want children?”

“With me. That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have Verso’s kids.”

“Why did you call me, Sovereign?”

“Things happen, Doctor. They happen and we respond but the world keeps on going anyway. Not matter what happens, that’s not the end.”

“What happened with you?”

“The judge found me innocent and Lemuel Johnson won our contest. I went home and there was nothing there. I don’t have a job anymore and with that went my only real purpose — the secret revolution that I no longer believe in. I’ll be fifty years old next week, and probably the most fertile time of my life was when I was a blind man.”

“You lament the return of your vision?”

“My mother died last week.”

“What?”

“My sister called. She said that Mama lost strength after my visit. She said that Mama was just holding on to see me one last time.”

“But didn’t you just see your brother a few days ago? Why didn’t he tell you about your mother?”

“He must’ve been in the country for the funeral,” Sovereign said. “Probably didn’t tell me because I was still on trial. Maybe he thought I’d run out of state to go to the funeral.”