Ptolemy realized that the fever wasn"t fully gone, that the medicine was losing the battle against the fire in his mind. He climbed up on the bed and slept on top of the covers. He was a child again and Maude and he were playing down by the Tickle River and n.o.body else, not even she, knew that she had ever died.
Robyn got up early and left. She"d put a note on the small table in the kitchen telling Ptolemy that she"d be out all day. At the bottom of the note was the number to a new cell phone that she"d purchased.
Ptolemy knew what cell phones were. Little radios that acted like phones. This knowledge burned in his mind, wavering, shining brightly. He knew that in some way this understanding in his ancient brain was some sort of abomination. He knew that the Devil would have his due. But that was further up along the trail. He picked up the house phone and dialed a number automatically without even having to recall it.
"h.e.l.lo?" the heavy voice of Hilly answered.
"Hey, boy."
"You get my peanut can, Papa Grey?"
"Yeah, I got it. But tell me sumpin"."
"What"s that?"
"Why you wanna leave live ammunition out in the open where any child or fool could pick it up?"
"I knocked but you wasn"t there," Hilly complained.
"You could"a called. You could"a taken the peanut can back home and called me and come ovah when I told you to."
The young brute sighed through the line.
"That don"t make sense to you, boy?" Ptolemy asked.
"I know what you sayin"," he countered.
"You do?"
"Yeah," Hilly said. "But I didn"t wanna waste my time comin" all the way ovah there again. You wanted the bullets and now you got "em. I don"t see why you raggin" on me."
Ptolemy thought about what his great-grandnephew was saying. But it was as if they spoke different languages and came from different peoples far removed from each other by thousands and thousands of miles and many generations. Hilliard was a Catholic and Ptolemy a Hindu, or something else far removed from what his nephew believed in. He tried to think of how he could explain the great expanse of separation to the boy, but even the Devil"s injections had not made him that smart.
"You got Nina"s phone number somewhere around there?" Ptolemy asked after giving up on the young black man.
A familiar man"s voice came across the line. "h.e.l.lo."
"That you, Alfred?" Ptolemy asked.
"Who"s this?"
"Ptolemy."
"Who?"
"The man Reggie used to look aftah. The one you met at Niecie"s house when you took Reggie"s wife away."
"What you sayin", man?" Alfred asked angrily.
"I"m sayin", is Nina there?"
A few seconds pa.s.sed before the receiver banged down and Alfred called out, "You bettah tell that mothahf.u.c.kah to be respectful."
"h.e.l.lo?" a feminine voice asked. "Who is this?"
"Ptolemy Grey . . . Reggie"s great-uncle."
"Oh . . . Mr. Grey. Why you callin"?"
"I"m fine and how are you?"
"Oh, okay. Uh ..."
"How was the funeral?" Ptolemy asked, trying to repair the broken conversation.
"Very sad, Mr. Grey. The children were so sad. Reggie"s sistah come down from Oakland with her kids. What is it you wanted?"
"Did you bring Alfred to the funeral?"
"No . . . how can I help you, Mr. Grey?"
"I got everything I want," he replied. "I don"t need a thing, thank you very much."
"But why are you callin" here?" she asked, beginning to lose patience.
"That Robyn is a miracle," he said. "You know that?"
"She okay."
"No . . . no, no, no. She"s a honest-to-G.o.d miracle."
"I got to go, Mr. Grey."
"When she come here to my house," Ptolemy said, as if he had not heard Nina"s complaint, "she saw the mess and the junk and cleaned it all up from one end to the other. Washed and cleaned and threw out and poisoned the bugs too. And then, when she looked at me and seen that I was a mess, she took me to the doctor and got me the kinda medicine you people got out there today. Strong stuff, the kinda penicillin open up your eyes."
"That"s, that"s wonderful," Nina said. "You go, Mr. Grey."
"Get off the phone with that old fool," Alfred said in the background.
"I got to be somewhere, Mr. Grey."
"So you know," the old man went on, "when Robyn brung me to that doctor, that handsome Devil with the thick mustaches, I started to remembah things."
"That"s nice but I-"
"One thing I just remembered was somethin" Reggie wanted me to give you."
"I said get off that phone!" Alfred shouted.
"Just gimme a minute, Al. I"ll be off in just a few minutes."
"I"ma go wit"out you, Nine," he threatened.
"Go on, then," she said. "Go on an" I"ll meet you there."
Errant sounds came through the line for a time. This period was ended by a loud bang that Ptolemy thought was a door slamming.
"Mr. Grey? Are you still there?"
"Sure am. I hope I didn"t cause any trouble with your man."
"Don"t worry "bout him. He just get mad sometimes."
Suddenly, and without apparent reason, Ptolemy had a startling memory. It was an afternoon that Reggie was visiting with him. It was back in the time when his mind wasn"t working right, but still he had a clear image of the young man showing him a photograph.
"These my kids, Papa Grey," the old man remembered the young man saying. "Tish an" Artie. Aren"t they beautiful?"
"Mr. Grey?" Nina was saying. "Are you there?"
"I don"t want that man"a yours to know about this," he said.
"Okay. I won"t tell him. What is it? What did Reggie have for me?"
"I wanted him to have it," Ptolemy said. "But he said that he wanted it for you and them beautiful chirren. Are the kids still stayin" wit" Niecie?"
"For a while longer," Nina said. "Until I get myself together."
"Uh-huh. You go and visit them?"
"On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, every week. Those are my days off from the department store."
"Hm. That"s good. A mother should see her kids. They need to be seen by her. That way they know they okay. They know it by the look in her eye. You know, if your mother look at you an" smile, then you know you doin" all right."
"What was it that you had for Artie and Letisha?" Nina asked softly.
"I don"t want that Alfred to know nuthin" about it," Ptolemy said again. "Reggie didn"t like him."
"I won"t tell."
"Okay, okay, then I"ll tell you what. One day I"ma come by Niecie house when you there with the kids but Alfred ain"t. That way I can talk to you without worryin" about him hearin" it."
"But what is it?"
"I"ll tell you that when I see you."
"Why don"t you tell me now?"
"I would if I could but I cain"t "cause I ain"t."
"Why not?"
"You just make sure to go to Niecie"s on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. What time you usually go there?"
""Bout eleven in the mornin"."
"Keep that up and you will get Reggie"s gift."
"But, Mr. Grey, I need to know what it is."
Ptolemy hung up the phone and grinned. He chuckled to himself and then laughed out loud.
Sitting in the living room in the late morning, Ptolemy tried to remember the last time he laughed out loud. He could feel the laughter in his hands and knees. The happiness had replaced his arthritic pain. He never laughed like that when he was with Sensia. She laughed for him. He was already beyond elation and wonder by the time he was a man. It was way back in his childhood, when he would walk around the woods with Coydog and the old thief made crazy faces and sounds and told jokes about things that other adults didn"t think were proper.
Ptolemy wondered how he could have lived for so long but still the most important moments of his life were back when he was a child with Coy McCann walking at his side. How could the most important moments of his life be Coy"s last dance on fire and Maude"s death in flames? Hadn"t he lived through poverty, war, and old age? Didn"t any of that mean anything?
The Devil"s fire ignited in him and he was able to laugh again now that he was burning alive.
He thought about Robyn"s legs, about how firm and brown and strong they were. Many a time, when she was walking around the house in only a T-shirt, he wanted to get on his knees and hug those powerful thighs to his cheek and chest. This desire made him happy. He was as old as Methuselah but a child"s legs made him happy. He could no longer feel s.e.x, but he remembered . . . maybe knowing it better in hindsight than he ever did when he was able.
"I love her," he said into the silence of the apartment.
As the moments pa.s.sed, Ptolemy thought about stars wheeling through the night sky. They moved past, getting on with their business while men had their feet in clay.
We born dyin", Coydog used to say sometimes. But you ask a man an" he talk like he gonna live forevah. Nevah take no chances. Nevah look up or down. But you ask a man an" he talk like he gonna live forevah. Nevah take no chances. Nevah look up or down.
"I love you, Robyn," Ptolemy said as a reply to words spoken so long ago. Death was coming, but Love was there too. Robyn was a far-off descendant, an adopted child, a woman he might have loved as a woman if he were fifty years younger and she twenty years older.
Pain t.i.ttered in his knucklebones and burbled in his knees. His joints were like music, like transistor radios calling out from under his skin. The knock at the door was a new strain, another musician deciding to jam with him. He waited for the knock to come again before getting up, going to the bedroom, pulling the bureau drawer open, and retrieving his .25-caliber pistol.
He walked to the door purposefully, like a soldier marching into battle.
"Who is it?" he asked in a mild voice.
"Shirley Wring," she answered sweetly.
Changing his mood as quickly as an infant child distracted by a sudden sound, Ptolemy stuffed the little gun into his pocket, threw the four locks, and opened the door.
She wore an orange dress and largish, bone-colored beads. Her half-blind eyes glistened behind glittering gla.s.ses. Her short hair was done recently, forming a cap that wrapped in arcs down under her ears and got curly over her forehead. Her tennis shoes were white and sensible. And instead of the red bag, she carried a pink paper box in her hands.
"Can I come in?" the small woman asked.