Bruce Bauman - Broken Sleep

“Jack, Jack, how was the party?”

“The Super Bowl party is super. The Nightingale Party is a disaster. Alchemy is a brilliant rock star and a lousy politician. He asked me to join him in supporting the California secession movement. How silly is that? Love the guy, but he should stay out of politics and stick to music and … very young girls .”

“Stay tuned.”

Moses forwarded it to Alchemy with a note: “You were right.”

“Please put that away.” Jay parachuted onto the bed. Moses lifted one leg to the edge of the bed and balanced himself with the other against the floor. Jay rubbed his back. “There was more,” she said, her words slurring slightly. “I screwed up. Laluna, I think, I’m not sure, but maybe, somehow she didn’t know about you and Persephone. Now she knows.”

Too dispirited and anxious to react beyond frustration, he simply sighed. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m pretty sure that Alchemy lied to her, and to you. What’s this?” Jay pulled the beret from his back pocket.

His phone rang. Laluna’s name flashed on the screen. “No, Moses. Please.” Jay patted down her hair and pulled the beret onto her head. “Fits.”

He didn’t want to talk about his mother. Not yet.

“Let me”—glassy-eyed and grinning, she snatched his phone, turned it off, dropped it on the floor, lay back, and reached to tug him down on top of her—“satiate … you …”

Years before, Jay’s jesting words could have spurred jealousy or despair. No more. Moses thought, Sure, why the hell not?

After my reborn son’s intrusion, the eviscerating, unseen light was drawing me to the dark matter. I dug a small fire pit behind my cottage. I lit some scrap paper and twigs. I gathered up photos of Art Is Dead and the Teumer Baddist Boys collages and carried them outside. I didn’t hear Alchemy until he stood beside me.

“Mom, what are you doing?”

“I had a visitor.”

“I saw.” The belated rampaging of Gravity Disease had transformed his effervescent blue orbs into wary slits encumbered by sadness. His delicate, unblemished skin turned blotchy and rough-hewn. “Mom, you don’t have to burn them.”

“You never conveyed my offer for a family get-to-know-you session? How can you let Persephone stay with him instead of me? Why, Alchemy why?”

“It doesn’t matter now. After tonight, you won’t have to worry about him staying here while we’re away or his coming here to visit.”

“Is he sick again? I inhaled a serious case of Gravity Disease.”

He didn’t answer. “Mom, don’t fret. It’s all taken care of.” Alchemy picked up the pieces and placed them in the studio. He returned and scooped some dirt, and we watched the fire die before it really got started. “I love you, Mom.”

I thought, In the end, he couldn’t betray me . I was so pleased.

“Got to say goodbye to the last people cleaning up and then tuck Persephone into bed.” He turned to leave.

“Kiss her good night for me. Tell her I’ll come to see her in the morning.”

After their twilight frolic, Moses and Jay both conked out. Down the hall, Alchemy finished reading Persephone a bedtime story. He clasped her tiny hand tightly in his. “Perse, honey, Mommy and I are going on a trip very soon. Uncle Mose and Auntie Jay will take care of you. Would you like that?”

“Yes.”

“Mommy and I will call you every day.”

“What about Granmamma? Is she going?”

“No, just Mommy and I. Granmamma is going on her own vacation.”

Perse’s bottom lip drooped sulkily. Alchemy tickled it with his pointer finger. “Daddy, d-on-on’t …”

“We’ll be back sooner than you can sing, ‘Petra Sansluv found her pearls.’ ”

“More.”

“ ‘At the bottom of the Black Sea / if you climb the Black Pearl tree / you can make a wish / to the Pearl Tree fish …’ ”

Persephone’s eyelids shut. Her lips formed into a smile, her breathing soft and peaceful.

Moses’s head snapped forward. He sat up. Head between pillows, Jay snored away. Grabbing his clothes, he dressed in the bathroom and turned on his phone. There were two missed calls from Laluna, an e-mail from Sidonna Cherry to him and Alchemy, and a follow-up from Alchemy, which now included Lux, Dooley, Warfield, and Pullham-Large with the subject: Defcon 1. This will drop at midnight unless we can stop it .

“Oh, fuck, what now?” He read the section that Alchemy had copy/pasted into his e-mail.

SpeedFeed can report that the Senate Committee on Anti-American Activities has issued subpoenas for Alchemy Savant and his brother, Moses Teumer. Among other things, the senators want to speak to the brothers regarding their ties to the deceased, unrepentant Nazi war criminal and father of Moses, Malcolm Teumer. Our sources, who requested anonymity, report that the brothers constructed an intricate maze with the singular purpose of confusing anyone seeking to understand the family relationships. We can state that the brothers visited the Sr. Teumer separately in Brazil. Salome Savant, mother of Moses, maintained relations with her lover until his death. Moses Teumer, a former professor of history at SCCAM, was well known among his students and colleagues for his profoundly anti-American lectures. Alchemy also has ties to the IFC, which has at least one member affiliated with white supremacist groups in its hierarchy.

Although not yet officially part of the CAA investigation, SpeedFeed’s independent sources allege sexual swapping among Alchemy Savant, his live-in partner, Maria Lopez Appelian aka Laluna, Moses Teumer, and his ex-wife, Jay Bernes.

Moses cursed under his breath. “Oh fuck fuck fucking bastards. LBJ pig-fucking hell.” He read Alchemy’s response, which was underneath the SpeedFeed report.

If they pub we go full force. High road denial/attack strategy? Get me booked on the morning shows. Mose, we need target points. Think about appearing w/me on at least one show. We only have a few hours. Know you guys only just got home, but we may need a midnite meet. More soon.

I never cared less about winning a bet. Stragglers are dragging their butts getting out. Laluna is hiding in the kitchen with the cleanup crew. Alchemy has disappeared. Lux, who’s been hanging with me, gotta take off. I’m so tense I ain’t feeling no buzz from the booze. I pass by Salome’s cottage and studio. No lights. It’s getting chilly so I go wait in the recording studio. I grab a beer from the fridge and open the skylight and keep the ceiling lights low. Strum a few chords on an acoustic. I’m not feeling it, so I sit at the board and tinker. I see something labeled 33 Visitations . Sounds like what Alchy gave me in the bar the night we kissed and made up. I see the two of ’em coming. They look like the Titanic and the iceberg steaming at each other, only I don’t know who is which one.

Alchy don’t flinch when he sees me. He turns all loose limbed, using his I-can-solve-the-world’s-problems-just-’cause-I’m-me voice, and asks, “So, what is the crisis?”

Laluna hands him the paper from the clinic. “Tell Ambitious what you told me.”

He stares at me, shaking his head. “You won’t be happy.”

“I ain’t happy now, so stop bullshittin’ and start talking.”