“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.
89 MEMOIRS OF A USELESS GOOD-FOR-NUTHIN’
Sins You Been Gone, 2018
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.”
“We were both taking a piss outside Madam Rosa’s. Absurda told me she was pregnant.” He’s standing to the left of me. Laluna jams her jaw tight and is letting him talk. “I told her we’d cancel the rest of the tour because you’d want to stay home with her … Although there was no reason, she was thanking me. She was pretty emotional.” His and Laluna’s unwavering eyes are X-raying me. I feel naked, like we’re all naked. “Yeah, Ambitious, it was yours.”
“Is this some Alchemy slick scheming?” I say all full of bravado. Only my bones know it’s truth.
“What could she do, after you ran off to the Plaza and ended it like you did?”
“That got nuthin’ to do with you not tellin’ me. Motherfucker, you shoulda told me. How the …” I hated the sound of my whiny voice.
“I gave my word to Absurda.”
Thinking he’s settled it with me, he slides next to Laluna. He is like six inches taller than her, only they feel the same height. She backs away and walks up the three steps behind the console, like she can’t stand to be near him.
I ain’t satisfied. “Alchemy, why the fuck—”
“Ambitious,” Laluna cuts me off, not raising her voice, her body shaking, full of quiet rage. “Ambitious, he’s telling you the truth. It’s impossible for him to have a kid of his own. He lied to me. To everyone. Persephone’s not his — she’s Moses’s.”
I’m so torched, and in my own head, what she says don’t sink in. “Why the fuck did Absurda tell you first?!” I smash my fucking beer bottle against the wall. The pieces fly everywhere.
“Ambitious.” He reaches for me. I spin around, still squeezing the bottle’s neck, ready to mince-meat his pretty face. Laluna bulls herself between us. “Go. Cool off. This is between Alchemy and me now.” I sense that it’s best I take a hike ’cause I never, not once, ever seen her even close to crying ’til that second.
90 THE MOSES CHRONICLES (2018)
AU 79 1850F
Finding no one in the house, Moses frantically searched outside. He spotted the recording studio’s lights and headed down the path. While walking, he sent his response e-mail to everyone else. He heard Mindswallow cursing to no one outside Salome’s studio. He kept walking and typing.
Must somehow stall SpeedFeed for 48 hours. Get best lawyers. Dispelling lies postpub could prove fatal. Brazen act of pubbing w/o asking for reaction indicates suicide bomber job. Meeting Alchemy now. Call ASAP.
Orange-yellow lights streamed out of the open studio door. Voices crackled like sparking electric wires. Their fury quieted as he passed over the threshold and into the studio.
Laluna spoke first. “Mose, I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too. Mose, tell her. Tell her Persephone’s mine.”
Moses was ready to do battle with political enemies over the SpeedFeed smears, not with Alchemy over Persephone’s paternity, Jay’s betrayal of his confidence, or the fact that Alchemy had broken his word again. Certainly not his own role in the whole mess.
“Go ahead, Mose, tell me. First, take a good look at your brother, the god of cool.” Her voice punched out with contempt. “America’s savior. The big man reduced to groveling so his brother covers for him.”
Moses, wobbly and uncertain how to answer, moved deeper inside, sidestepping strewn instruments. He halted between them. He sighed and bowed his head for a second, and regained enough composure to speak. “I can’t. Alchemy, I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“Laluna knows the truth.”
“Mose, how could you?”
Laluna answered for him. “He didn’t. Jay confirmed what I didn’t want to believe.”
Moses felt obligated to defend Jay. “She didn’t mean to, it just—”
“What? Mose? You told Jay? You lied to me?”
“You lied to me first. You swore you’d told Laluna.”
“Boys, it doesn’t matter who lied first. Or last. I’m taking my daughter away from all of you. Tonight. For good.” Through the skylight, a moonlit silhouette of Laluna’s face glistening from her silent tears.
Suddenly, the invulnerable edifice that was Alchemy began to topple. Not from the calumnies of his enemies; those he could repel and master. No, the dream-deniers of time and truth arose, leaving the invented past in ruins and annihilating Alchemy’s imagined future. Moses reached his right hand toward his brother, a sign he loved him, that they’d work it out somehow. Alchemy’s eyes — drained of their luminous energy, now dulled and static — closed.