He got her to beg him to stop eventually, but it took time. She let him strike her over and over- mainly her face, but on occasion her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and thighs. Only when she was so sick from his a.s.sault that she fell, and found that she was too weak to get up again, did she tell him she"d had enough. He didn"t listen, of course. The more he hurt her, the more he felt that bright, strange self rising up in him; and the more it rose the more he wanted to hurt her. Only once did he pause, catching his reflection in the mirror, his face shiny with sweat and exhilaration. He"d never been a narcissist, unlike Mitch.e.l.l; never enjoyed the sight of himself. But now he liked the way he looked, more than a little. There was a magnificence about him, no question. He began to beat the woman with renewed vigor, deaf to her protests, her sobs, her pathetic attempts at negotiation.
She would do this, she would do that, if only he would leave her alone. He ignored her, and beat on, blow after blow after blow, driving her into that corner where she attempted to rise, and finding that she couldn"t, began to panic.
She was afraid for her life, he saw; afraid that in his new state he would casually dispatch her. As soon as he saw that look, he stopped striking her, and without another word returned to the bathroom to p.i.s.s and wash his hands. There had been nothing faintly arousing about what he"djust done. He suspected he was beyond arousal now (it was too human: a thing of the past). With his hands clean and his bladder emptied he went back into the bedroom.
"I need your full name," he said to the woman, who had made an attempt to crawl to the door (which he had locked anyway, pocketing the key).
The woman mumbled something he didn"t comprehend. He pulled the chair out from the table, and sat down.
"Try again," he said. "It"s very important." He reached into his jacket and pulled out his wallet and his checkbook. "I"m going to give you some money," he said. "Enough money for you to go to join your mother in Kentucky and buy yourself a little business, and start over."
Even in her confused and semiconscious state Melodic understood what she was being told. "This is a filthy, perverted city," Garrison went on, "and I want you to promise me that if I give you this money-" he was writing the check now "-let"s say a million dollars-that you will never come back. Never. Your full name."
The woman had begun to sob quietly. "Melodic Lara Hubbard," she said.
"I"m not paying you this for what I just did to you," Garrison said as he wrote, "I did that because I wanted to, not because you were offering me a service. And I"m not paying you to stop you going to some supermarket gossip rag. I couldn"t give a f.u.c.k who you tell. Do you understand? I couldn"t care less. I"m giving you this because I want you to have some faith." He signed the check, then took a card from his wallet and scrawled a short sentence on the back of it. "You take this to my lawyer, Cecil Curry, tomorrow, and he"ll make sure the funds get transferred." He got up from the table and put the check and the card on the bed, among the crushed flowers. Melodic squinted at the row of noughts Garrison had set down. Yes, there were six, preceded by a dollar sign and a one.
"I"ll leave you to clean up then," Garrison said, fishing the key from his pocket. "Be clever with what you"ve been given. People like me don"t come along very often." He inserted the key, turned it, and opened the door. "In fact, they never come along twice. So you count yourself lucky." He smiled at her. "And you name one of your kids after me, huh? The one you love the most."
VI.
Garrison didn"t sleep for most of the rest of the night. He went back to the apartment in the Trump Tower, and took a long ice-cold shower, which left him feeling pleasantly tender. Then he sat in the big armchair where he"d sat talking with Mitch.e.l.l about Margie"s death. He"d felt inviolate that night, but the feeling was nothing beside the sense of power that suffused him now.
He sat through the rest of the night, thinking what his next move should be. Plainly he had first to make good on his promise to Mitch.e.l.l, which prospect pleased him. The Pallenberg woman posed no threat to him whatsoever, but if she was such a thorn in his brother"s side, then it was better for all concerned that she be summarily dealt with, as Margie had been dealt with. Oncethat was done he"d have Mitch.e.l.l"s full attention, and they could begin their real work. He didn"t doubt that whatever the nature of the other self he"d discovered rising in him, it was also in Mitch.e.l.l. Dormant, but there to be awoken, and called out into glory. What a revelation they"d make together!
At dawn, with a pleasant weariness finally coming over him, he retired to bed. He slept for no more than two hours, and dreamed a species of dream his head had never before entertained.
He dreamed he was floating through a great forest. The canopy was thick overhead, but not so thick that sunlight didn"t pierce it, falling warm on his upturned face. Somebody was taking to him-a woman, her voice light and happy. He couldn"t understand anything that she was saying, but he knew there was love in the words, and that the love was for him.
He wanted to see her face; he wanted to know what kind of beauty he had accompanying him.
But though he tried to make his dream-gaze obey his will, and shift in the direction of her voice, he was not sufficiently master of himself. All he could do was float, and listen, and feel the sweetness in the woman"s voice bathing him, caressing him.
Finally, his motion slowed, and then stopped. For a moment he hovered there, and then he was slowly lowered to the ground. Only now, when he was laid in gra.s.s that was tall enough to partially obscure his view, did he realize that he had not been traveling independently, as he"d thought, but been carried: that in this dream he was a babe in arms. And now, majestically, the woman who"d carried him walked into view. Her back was turned to him, her focus fixed upon a house, a magnificent house, which was situated some distance from them.
He started to cry. He wanted the woman to come and pick him up again. But she just kept looking at the house, and though he couldn"t see her face something about the way she stood, her arms hanging at her sides, convinced him that all the happiness he"d heard in her voice had deserted her, and that now she was consumed with yearning. She wanted to be there, in that splendid, white-pillared place, but she was forbidden.
And still he bawled, doing his best to get her to attend to him, his sobs echoing around the glade of moss-draped trees with such violence birds rose in panic from the branches and fled away.
Finally, she gave up watching the house, and looked back at him.
It was his mother.
Why was he so astonished by that? Why did the sight of her face so startle him that the dream- scene fluttered and threatened to be extinguished? It was his mother; mothers were supposed to carry their babies in their arms, weren"t they?
And yet he was shocked to see her; distressed even. It wasn"t the fact that her face was tear- streaked and pale (that was his preferred state for a woman"s face) it was the fact of her very presence here, where he sensed the uncanny. She belonged to a more mundane existence, whose minor enchantments could be bought and sold like any other commodity; not here, not here.She went down on her knees beside him, as if she intended to pick him up. Tears fell from her eyes, and splashed on him. Then she said the only word in the entire dream he understood. She said: "Goodbye."
Those syllables said-and without kissing him, without laying so much as a finger upon him-she stood up again, and walked away, leaving him there in the gra.s.s.
He started to cry again, his voice shrill and pathetic. But now his lips could form words- "Don"t leave me!" he sobbed. "Mama! Mama! Don"t leave me!"
He woke to the din of his own voice, crying out in his sleep. He sat up in bed, his heart beating furiously. He waited for the inevitable retreat of the images that his mind had conjured up, but they didn"t go. Even with his eyes wide open, feeding on a hundred concrete details of his bedroom, the sights he"d just seen and the feelings he"d felt insisted upon him.
Perhaps this was part of his transfiguration: his mind revisiting old anxieties so that they could be dealt with and sloughed off. It wasn"t a particularly pleasant experience, but any change- especially one as powerful as that which had seized him-brought with it some measure of discomfort.
He got out of bed, and went to the window to open the drapes. As he did so-as his hand caught hold of the heavy fabric-he was suddenly seized by a sickening suspicion. He put on his robe, and went across the landing to his study, where he"d left Holt"s journal. He"d begun reading it as soon as his brother had brought it to him, but events had overtaken his a.n.a.lysis, and he"d not returned to it. Now he began to search through its dog-eared pages, scanning the text. He pa.s.sed over the pa.s.sages about Benton-ville, and the section dealing with Holt"s return to his house; on through the portions dealing with the events in the East Battery, on through Holt and Nickelberry"s departure from Charleston. The deserters were moving north, in Galilee"s company, heading back to the Barba-rossas" territory. There were four or five pages devoted to the precise methodology of entrance: several small diagrams that almost looked like brands, and paragraphs speaking of the mysteries of L"Enfant, which if unsolved would prove fatal to any who attempted to gain access to the Barbarossa residence. He lingered long enough on this pa.s.sage to confirm that the solutions had indeed all been set down on the page, then he moved on to look for a description of the house itself.
And there, just a few pages from the end of the journal, he found the pa.s.sage he was afraid he"d find.
I have never seen such a house as was presented before us as we came between the trees. Holt wrote, nor felt so strongly the sense that we were walking in the presence of things unseen, forces that would have done us calamitous harm had we not been Samaritans carrying a prodigal back onto his native soil. That"s two Biblical stories in one, but that"s probably appropriate, for I believe that here, gathered in this place, were enough mysteries to be the subject of a dozenTestaments.
So the house. It was painted white, with a cla.s.sical f.a.gade, such as you might see in many great plantation houses; but there rose above these familiar forms a dome of such beauty and magnitude, shining white in the sunlight- Garrison put the book down. He"d read all that he needed to read. The house in his dream was the same which Holt had written about: the Barbarossas" great mansion. He"d be going there soon enough. But did the dream mean that he"d already been there? If not, how had he imagined the house so well?
Mystery upon mystery. First the death of the old man, and all the destruction that had accompanied it. Then his transfiguration: the force he"d seen in the mirror, blazing back at him.
Now this enigma: dreaming of his mother abandoning him on the grounds of the Barbarossa home.
He"d always been a man who trusted his intellect: in matters of money and in the management of human beings it didn"t do to be too emotional. But a wise intellect knew its limitations. It didn"t go where a.n.a.lytical power had no jurisdiction. It fell silent, and let the mind find other ways to comprehend whatever troubled it.
Here was such a border, where intellect retreated. To go on, into the place of sloughings and furies and abandonments that lay ahead, he would need to look to his instincts, and hope they were sharp enough to protect him.
Others had taken similar journeys and lived to tell the tale. One such traveler had written the very journal that sat there on Garrison"s desk: the captain whose life and seed lay fatally close to the root of the Geary family tree.
Perhaps that same prospect lay ahead for him; perhaps he was on this journey so as to found a dynasty of his own. The idea had never occurred to him before, but why would it? He"d been sweating in service of the Gearys all his life; a sterile preoccupation at best. Now he was free both of his servitude and his skin. It was time to think things over from the beginning. To find wombs; to make children. And to take them-in his own arms if need be-and lay them down in the gra.s.s where he"d been lain, where they might see the pillars and the dome of the palace that the Barbarossas had dreamed into being, but which he would steal from them, by and by, to house his own sons and daughters.
VII.
This time, Rachel didn"t come to the island as the pampered Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l Geary. The deferential Jimmy Hornbeck wasn"t there to meet her, eager to cater to her every whim. She rented a car at the airport, loaded in her bags, and with the help of a map she"d been given at the rental office drove to Anahola. The sky was overcast, the heavy, rainbearing clouds that had previously masked the heights of Mount Waialeale now lowering over the entire island. It was still hot, however; humid, in fact. She decided against sealing the car windows and turning up the air-conditioning. She wanted to smell the air: the fragrance of the flowers, the sharpness of the sea.
She wanted to be reminded of what it had felt like to be here before, not knowing what lay in wait for her.
It was impossible, of course, to return to a state of innocence, especially when its loss had brought with it such far-reaching consequences. But as she turned off the main road and wound her way down the rutted track that led to the house, she was surprised to discover how readily she could make believe the agonies of the recent past belonged to somebody else, and that she was coming here unburdened.
The trees and shrubs had swelled and thickened since her last visit, and had largely gone untrimmed. The vines had grown up over the eaves and were creeping across the roof; large rotted blossoms littered the front veranda, and the geckos that scurried there seemed less alarmed by her presence than previously, as though they had a.s.sumed possession of the place, and were not about to be intimidated by her trespa.s.s.
The front door was locked, which didn"t surprise her. She walked around the back, remembering that the lock on the sliding door had been faulty, and hoping (not unreasonably given the general neglect) that it had not been mended.
She was right. The door slid open, and she stepped into the house. It smelled musty, though not unpleasantly so. And it was nicely cool after the oppressive heat of the air outside. She closed the door behind her, and went straight to the kitchen, where she filled a gla.s.s with cold water, and drank. Gla.s.s in hand she made a quick tour of the rooms to reacquaint herself with the place. She hadn"t antic.i.p.ated how much pleasure she"d take in simply being back here; that pleasure sharpened by the illicitness of her presence.
The big bed had been stripped after her departure and not remade. She went to the linen closet, found some fresh sheets and pillowcases and made it up again. She was sorely tempted just to lie down and sleep, but she resisted. Instead she had a shower, made herself some sweet, hot tea and went outside to smoke a cigarette and watch the last of the day"s light. She had no sooner brushed the leaves off the antiquated furniture and sat down than the gloomy heavens unleashed a torrent.
Geckos zigzagged for cover, a panicked hen was blown across the lawn like a feathered balloon.
For some reason, the rain"s percussion made her want to laugh; so laugh she did. Sat there on the veranda laughing like some crazy woman who"d lost her mind waiting for her lover, laughing, laughing while the rain beat down and obscured from sight the ocean that had failed to give him up.
VIII.
Galilee had not expected to ever wake again-at least not into this world-but wake he did. His eyes, which were encrusted, opened painfully, and he raised his head to look at the water.
Somebody had called his name. It wasn"t the first time he"d heard somebody speak to him in his solitude, of course; there"d been plenty of talkative delusions. But this was something different; this was a voice that made his heart shake itself like a wet animal, and roused him with itsmotion. He looked up. The sky was the color of heated iron.
Sit up, child.
Child? Who called him child? Only one woman in all the world.
Sit up and attend to me.
He opened his mouth to speak. The sound that emerged was pitiful. But she understood.
Yes you can, she told him.
Again, he complained. He was too weak, too close to death.
I"m just as tired as you are, child, his mother said, and just as ready to die. Believe me. Perfectly ready. But if I take the trouble to come and search for you, the least you can do is sit up and look at me.
There was no doubting the authenticity of this voice. Somehow, she was here. The woman who"d warmed him in the oven of her womb; who"d fed him off her body, and shaped his soul; the woman who"d raged against him for his folly, and told him-in what was surely the denning moment of his youth-that he was flawed beyond fixing; a thing that would only ever bring harm and hurt-that woman had found him, and he had no place to hide, except to throw himself into the sea. And who was to say she wouldn"t follow him there, elemental that she was? She had no fear of death, whatever she might claim about her readiness.
I don"t come here on my own account, she went on.
"Why are you here then?"
Because I met your woman. Your Rachel.
Now, finally, he raised his head. His mother, or rather her projection, stood at the stern of The Samarkand. Despite all her demands that he look at her, now that he had done so he found her own gaze averted. She was looking at the setting sun; at that molten sky. A day had pa.s.sed, he vaguely thought, since he"d counted off the last moments of his life against the decaying light. He and the boat had survived another twenty-four hours.
"Where did you see her? She didn"t come to-"
L"Enfant? No, no. I saw her in New York.
"You went to New York. Why?"
To see Old Man Geary. He was dying, and I promised myself I"d be there when his last moments were upon him."You went to kill him?"
Cesaria shook her head. No. I simply went to bear witness to the pa.s.sing of an enemy. Of course once I got there it was difficult not to cause a little trouble.
"What did you do?"
Cesaria shook her head. Nothing of consequence.
"But he"s dead?"
Yes, he"s dead. She looked up, directly above her head. The first stars were appearing. But I didn"t come here to talk about him. I came for Rachel"s sake.
Galilee laughed; or did his best, given how dry his throat was.
What"s so funny? Cesaria demanded.
Galilee reached for his brandy bottle, which had rolled into the gunnel, and drank from it. "The thought of you doing anything for anybody"s sake but your own," he replied.
Cesaria ignored the barb. This is shameful behavior, she said. Turning your back on a woman who feels something for you, the way Rachel does.
"Since when have you given a d.a.m.n what a human being felt?"
Maybe I"m getting sentimental in my old age. You"ve found an extraordinary woman. And what do you do? You try to kill yourself. I despair of you. Her voice dropped as she spoke these last words, and the boards of The Samarkand trembled at their timbre. I truly despair of you.
"So despair," Galilee replied. "I don"t give a s.h.i.t. Leave me alone and let me die." He waved her away as he spoke, his head sinking down so that his face was pressed to the boards of the deck.
He was no longer looking at her, but he knew of course that she hadn"t departed. He felt the emanations of her power coming against him, subtle and rhythmical. Though she was just a vision here, she"d carried with her a measure of her physical authority.
"What are you waiting for?" he said to her, without raising his head.
I don"t exactly know, she replied. I suppose I keep hoping you "II remember who you are.
"I know who I am..." he growled.
THEN RAISE YOUR HEAD. The boat shook from bow to stern when she uttered these words; fish in the deeps below convulsed. But Galilee was unimpressed; at least, he didn"t obey the instruction. He stayed put, face down.You "re a wretch, she told him.
"No doubt," he murmured.
A selfish, willful- "No doubt," he said again. "I"m the worst piece of s.h.i.t that ever floated on the ocean. So now will you please leave me the f.u.c.k alone?"
The boat shook again when he spoke, though not as violently. There were a few moments of silence between them. Finally he glanced sideways at her. "You"ve got plenty of other children,"
Galilee said. "Why don"t you torment them?"
They don"t mean what you mean to me, Cesaria said. You know that. Maddox is a half-breed, Luman"s crazy, and the women... She shook her head. Well, they"re not what I had in mind when I raised them.
Galilee lifted his head a little. "Poor mother. What a disappointment we are. You wanted perfection and look what you got." He raised himself up now, into a kneeling position. "Of course none of it"s your fault is it? You"re never to blame for anything."
I"ll were guiltless I wouldn"t be here, she said. I made my mistakes, especially with you. You were the first, so I spoiled you. I indulged you. I loved you too much.
"You loved me too much?"
Yes! Too much! I couldn "t see what a monster you were.
"Now I"m a monster?"
I know what you"ve done all these years- "You don"t know the half. I"ve got more innocent blood on my hands-"
I don"t care about that! It"s the squandering that appalls me. The time you"ve wasted.
"And what should I have been doing instead? Raising horses?"
Don"t bring your father into this. This has nothing to do- "It has everything to do with him." He reached out and caught hold of the toppled mast, hauling himself to his feet. "He"s the one who really disappointed you. We"re just getting the aftermath."
Now it was Cesaria who averted her eyes, staring off across the water.
"Did I touch a nerve?" Galilee said. Cesaria didn"t reply. "I did, didn"t I?"Whatever happened between your father and me is over and done with. Lord knows I loved him. And I worked to make him happy.