Ishmael Reed - The Terrible Threes

“Then why are you hiding me?”

“Because I need the cash. Nothing personal.”

“You’re smart, Nance. You should have finished law school. You would be a judge or something by now.”

“I like doing what I’m doing. A jack of all trades. I live by my wits.” Nance went into the kitchen. He wolfed down a doughnut. He opened the refrigerator. There were steaks, fish, chicken, and ground beef in the freezer. There were also boxes of frozen yogurt and bags of shrimp. The drawer at the bottom of the refrigerator was filled with fruit and lettuce. “What’s all of this?” Nance asked.

“Just thought I’d pick up a few items. There wasn’t anything in the refrigerator but a bottle of Pepsi and a paper plate full of ribs.”

“Look, don’t get comfortable. I’ll give you until tomorrow to make other arrangements. After that, I want you out.”

Her skin was rich and dark. The color of Embarcadero candy.

“Where’s Nance, and who are you?” He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was carrying a baby with her that looked as though it was about three months old. She was wearing a cotton dress. He could tell that she was braless. This fascinated him. She wore her hair in dreds.

“He’s out at La Guardia.”

“Shit. This man from Con Ed is talking about turning out my lights and he’s out at La Guardia. I have a baby who has to have his formula heated and he’s out at La Guardia. They’re supposed to come this afternoon.”

“Why don’t you just pay your bills?” She looked at him and made a contemptuous splitch with her lips. She screwed up her nose and looked Krantz up and down. The baby was crying. She turned around and started downstairs. Krantz went to the door.

“Who are you?” she asked, looking him up and down.

“Krantz, Bob Krantz.”

“You a friend of Nance’s?”

“You might say so. I’m staying with him over the holidays.”

The baby looked up at Krantz. It made some infant sounds and balled a fist. She took out one of her breasts and began to feed the child, eyeing Krantz while doing so. She rocked the child. He was impressed with her breasts, which had the elegant curves of modern Italian furniture.

“Do you have a cigarette?” she asked. He got up and went over to a drawer in the kitchen where Nance kept cigarettes. He came back and gave her one. While she leaned over, she bent her head and took a light from him. Their eyes met.

“Nance helps me. I don’t have no old man. He went away a few weeks ago to the work-force project. Thought he’d send me some money by now. He’s been out of a job for three years.” Krantz knew all about the work-force project. Communities located outside of the cities, where unemployed male surps lived in barracks. The conditions were abominable. He was one of their architects. She wouldn’t be seeing her husband for a long time. He hated what he did for the Hatch administration, but he had a larger purpose in mind. Something that neither Hatch nor the Reverend Jones knew about. The baby kept crying.

Krantz was taken by her beauty. She had some serious lips and honest eyes. Her craftsman’s legs were the color of the dark wood in the Harvard Club. She wasn’t like some of the white women he met in Washington, who were as hungry for power as the men, and behaved like them.

“Have you eaten?”

“I had a Hershey bar a couple of hours ago,” she said.

“Look, I’ll go down to the Chinese take-out place and get some food,” he said.

“That would be nice,” she said, rocking the child who had fallen asleep. He put his coat on and started out of the door.

“Would you bring me some beer,” she said. “I haven’t had any beer in a long time.” He nodded. They smiled at each other. Outside, the snowstorm was so blinding that he could only see the lights from the street lamps. He turned the corner and almost walked into Joe Beowulf. As Beowulf grabbed him and shoved him into his hubba buggy, a Suzuki Samurai, all he could think of was how cold Beowulf must have been in his Viking clothes, the huge belt, the bear fur covering his crotch, and strapped by leather to his ankles and feet. But then he remembered, as they began their journey toward Washington, that the weather didn’t affect Joe.

“Lucy! How did you get in here?”

“It was easy. Everybody is downtown, awaiting Dean Clift’s return to the Capitol.”

“Yeah, that Nola Payne. She deserted me too. All of that junk about Saint Nicholas, and then James Way, and then all of those Congressmen. The whole capital is going nuts. Seeing things.”

“So where are you going?”

“I gotta get out of here. All of us will get the slammer. Clift’s going to want revenge. Then they’ll find out about that dumb Terrible Twos Operation. That Clift was telling the truth when he said that Nicholas told him we were involved in Operation Two Birds. We used that as an excuse to put him away, but now everybody is seeing this Saint. I’d like to get my hands on this Nicholas.”

“You’ll have your chance.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s on the way over here.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not surprised that you’d be talking about ghosts. That was your business until I closed you down. You were serving as a medium for Congressmen, cabinet members and their wives.”

“I can help you. You see, he can’t leave well enough alone. It’s not enough that he’s influenced the political destiny of the capital, he wants to change you, too. All we have to do is wait.”

“But why are you doing all of this?”

“I’ll tell you later. Let’s get rid of Nicholas first, and then we’ll take care of Clift.”

“But why are you helping me? I tried to banish you from Washington.”

“Saint Nicholas is threatening our operations. Besides, I have a score to settle with him. After we get rid of him, we can go back to our feuding. Besides, I’d like to get my hands on Nancy Reagan’s crystal ball. I hear it’s hidden somewhere here in the White House.”

“But how are you going to get rid of Clift?”

“I have friends in low places,” Lucy said.

Joe Beowulf was heading toward Washington, his prisoner, Bob Krantz, sitting next to him in handcuffs. He had come to and now was looking out at Pennsylvania farm country. He had a headache.

“Would you like a cigarette,” the thing asked. Krantz shook his head.

“Thought you could get away, huh? Nobody gets away from Joe Beowulf. I catches them all. See that? My brain is almost human. You’ve seen my movies. I catch them all in my movies. I turn over cars. I break down doors.”

“I’ve seen your movies.”

“What, you don’t like my movies?”

“I didn’t say that. They seem to be dependent upon a lot of action shots. Why don’t you do the classics? Golem. Frankenstein. There are plenty of roles that a robot can play. High-caliber roles.” They rode in silence. Passing through the countryside. Through small villages and towns. Once they were slowed by a horse and buggy driven by an Amish man.

“Wait till I get you back to the Reverend. You did a bad thing. They said in the newspapers that you did a bad thing. Reverend Jones talks about it all the time. You and that Admiral. He said that you were like a son to him, and that he saved your life, but after he took on the mighty responsibilities of the Presidency you and all of his friends abandoned him. He told Heinrich and me a lot. He said that we were his only friends. He said that if he’s around in the next administration he’s going to put the Jews and the blacks in adjoining barracks so that they can have bull sessions and debates all night. Ha ha ha. Reverend Jones is a man who thinks ahead. He wants me to stay around until then, and then I can go back to Hollywood, having helped my nation the way Superman and other heroes did.”