Bruce Bauman - Broken Sleep

Nothing. Nothing more from her to him. His heart aching, forever broken, Moses began to weep.

Can you take me back where I came from?

Brother, can you take me back?

— The Beatles

The medics drug Laluna, who can’t stop crying and screaming. I give my story to the cops.

They send Salome back to Collier Layne. I ain’t seen her since.

The funeral is back in Long Island. I don’t remember much, and sorry, I don’t want to. Me and Lux do the eulogies. Fuckin’ brutalest thing I ever done in my life.

Mose, he steps up big time. Him and Mrs. Mose kinda babysit for Perse and Laluna ’til the cops officially declare it an accident. Laluna can’t take no more bullshit, so she and Perse disappear to Hungary or Romania. No idea when she is coming back. Andrew and Sue, everyone turns up the heat on the SpeedFeed bullshit. They ain’t no better than the paparazzi. It was Mose, goin’ on TV just one time, acting all classy and calm, that got SpeedFeed to do a complete retraction and apology. Still, I learned a long time ago, people will believe what they wanna believe.

Mose officially shuts down the Nightingale Party, but some followers are keeping it alive on the Net and with meetings. He keeps the foundation going. I seen him at Kasbah working with the Sheiks on money stuff, and he looks not so good. None of us ever speak about that night. Don’t goddamn matter what I seen or even think I seen, ’cause Alchemy is dead and nuthin’ gonna change that.

It ain’t no fun, but I gotta admit I spent a lotta time hearing Absurda’s voice from that Christmas Eve when she came up to Alchy’s Topanga place. “I waited and waited for you to realize it was your loss. You didn’t. I did what I had to and moved on.” And blaming Alchemy for what I said and done. You know by now that I do what I do and move on with no grousing allowed. Only I’m gonna be living with this shit for a long, long time. Maybe forever.

That’s it. What I’ve told you, every damn word is the truth as I seen and lived it. In the end, all I can say is the Savants, they was one magnificently biddy-bip-bip clan. I loved them, and damn, I miss them, even crazy Salome, and Alchemy most of all.

Babydeath. Bodydeath.

Breaking apart.

Into the dark matter.

Goodbye, my sons,

goodbye.

I sing my songs no more.

The future that died that night is reborn each day in Alchemy’s eternal music — the man becoming the myth and the myth becoming the vision, singing through time.

Moses will travel to Orient Point. Alone.

He will pass the house where he was born but will not enter. He will walk along the shore where he was conceived. By the grave site of his brother and what was once his, and one day will be again.

He will fall.

His lips will close in a wry smile that turns suddenly sublime.

Above him are no stars. The moon not yet down. The sun not yet risen. The pink-blue-black dust swirls and becomes his sky. No ascent to heaven. No descent to hell. No more questions without answers. No more howls for meaning.

At last, and forever, peace.

PRIMARY CHARACTERS in order of appearance

SALOME SAVANT (b. 1943)Artist.

MOSES TEUMER (b. 1958)History professor.

ALCHEMY SAVANT (b. 1971)Rock star.

AMBITIOUS MINDSWALLOW (b. Ricky McFinn, 1974)Founding member of the Insatiables.

LALUNA (MARIA APPELIAN) (b. 1990)Musician, muse, and mother.

PERSEPHONE SAVANT (b. 2013)Child of the Moon.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS alphabetically by first name

A (b. 1960)Czech exile living in Berlin. Friend of Salome.

ABSURDA NIGHTINGALE (b. Amanda Akin, 1968)Founding member of the Insatiables.

AKINS FAMILYAbsurda’s family in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Sister: Heather, mother: Ginny, father: Jimmy, Sr.

ALEXANDER HOLENCRAFT (b. 1952)Founder of I, Me, Mine magazine. Coolhunter. Paramour of Salome’s.

AMY LOO (b. 1990)Cofounder of riteplay.com, which was funded by Alchemy.

ANDREW PULLHAM-LARGE (b. 1964)Oxford-educated Englishman. Cofounder of Surface-to-Air group that manages the Insatiables.

ART LEMCZEK (b. 1925)Alcoholic friend of Salome’s from Orient Point.

BEN BUTTERWORTH (b. 1935)Originator of RANT therapy. Moses and Alchemy’s therapist.

BERNARD RUGGLES (b. 1938)Salome’s doctor for more than thirty years at Collier Layne.

BLIND LEMON SOCRATES (b. 1914)Novelist, avant-garde filmmaker, friend of Nathaniel.

BOHEMIAN SCOFFLAW (b. circa 1964)Fictional 1960s radical.

BRYN SMITHSON (b. 1989)Pharmaceuticals saleswoman. Girlfriend of Mindswallow.

CAMILLE JAVAL (b. 1980)Actress in Paris by Night. Girlfriend of Mindswallow.

CARLOTTA SOLANO (b. 1985)Party planner. Wife of Mindswallow.

DEWEY WINSLOW (b. 1973)Partner with Elizabeth Borden in political management firm.

ELIZABETH BORDEN (b. 1980)Partner with Dewey Winslow in political management firm.

EVIE-ANNE BAXTER (b. 1982)Student at SCCAM. Musician.

FALSTAFFA (b. 1963)Bodyguard and roadie for the Insatiables.

FRANK PETERS (b. 1950)Art critic. Catalyst in securing Salome’s Hammer Museum exhibition.

FRANKY NOVALINO (b. 1974)Childhood friend of Mindswallow’s from Flushing.

GODFREY BARKER (b. 1979)High priest of the Church of Cosmological Kinetics.

GRETA GARBO (b. 1905)Actress.

GUS SAVANT (b. 1915)Farmer on Orient Point, Long Island. Salome’s father.

HANK FIELDING (b. 1938)Moses’s oncologist. BA in eighteenth-century English literature from Johns Hopkins.

HANNAH TEUMER (b. 1937)Lawyer with Bickley & Schuster. Mother of Moses. Wife of Malcolm.

HEINRICHA VON PRIEST (b. 1966)Lead singer of the Wannaseeyas in Berlin. Friend of Salome.

HILDA SAVANT (b. 1920)Salome’s mother.

HUGO BOLLATANSKI (b. 1965)Lawyer and boyfriend of Absurda.

JACK CROUSE (b. Date uncertain)Movie actor. Friend of Laluna. Member of the Church of Cosmological Kinetics.

JAY BERNES (b. 1967)Art consultant. Moses’s wife. Gifter of the Book of J.

KIM DOOLEY (b. 1973)Paralegal. Law school education was funded by the Insatiables. Later their legal council.

KYLE (b. 1941)Childhood friend of Salome’s who died in a car accident.

LABAN LIVELY (b. 1920)Friend of Malcolm Teumer and William Bickley, Sr. Worked for OSS and CIA.

LESLIE TALLENT (b. 1940)Art critic and Salome’s first champion.

LEVI FURSTENBLUM (b. 1917)Author of Chambers of Commerce and Mystical Mistakes . Holocaust survivor.

LILY FAIRMONT (b. 1928)Salome’s Los Angeles gallerist.