“Detective Bosch already called you.”
“She asked me what the tests had found so far, and I told her only you or Mr. Robinson can divulge his medical information. She didn’t say why she was so interested. Is there something I should know about?”
“I… don’t think so, no.”
Immortician Ayodele touched Anaea’s shoulder, causing her to flinch.
“I don’t believe that’s entirely true, Anaea,” Ayodele commented, “but you must decide. I decided to perform Buchanan’s rising because his soul was… very eager to return, the most eager of all those whose families vied for their return today. It spoke to me even before the ceremony, saying it would no longer die, that it was immovable. I’ve never felt such force before in my forty years of performing the rising.”
“Did that… force have anything to do with him becoming young again?” Anaea asked.
“That has more to do,” Dr. Greaves interjected, “with the unique gene mutations governing his Wnt and telomerase proteins.”
“Even with resurrection as an undeniable fact,” immortician Ayodele countered, “scientists still refuse to believe in the spirit’s true power.”
“You can resurrect the dead for three days with magic,” Dr. Greaves replied. “I want to keep people alive forever with science.”
“Stop it!” Anaea shouted as she stood, pushing her chair back and toppling it over with a loud thud. “Fight on your own time!”
“I’m sorry, Anaea,” Ayodele apologized. “These arguments are for another place and time. I asked to be here because I am afraid for you and your family. I should have refused such a supremely assertive soul access to the living world again, and hearing now about its body’s tendencies toward violence only strengthens that fear. You should leave him alone or let the police watch over him, anything but remain with him in your home.”
“We agree on that, at least,” Dr. Greaves concurred.
“There is nothing I can do to help you, Anaea. Only the arisen can break the resurrection spell before the triduum…”
“I think you’re all overreacting,” Anaea cut the immortician off as she righted the chair. “Thank you both for the information, and I remember that immorticians are bound by a code similar to doctor-patient confidentiality. I’m going to enjoy every minute of his brief time with us. I’ll see you Tuesday morning, Ayodele.”
Anaea walked to the door, opened it, and closed it firmly behind her.
“I wonder what her brain and DNA look like,” Dr. Greaves mused to herself as Ayodele bowed her head in prayer to the benevolent orishas.
V: Slow Perdition
Apart from a persistent distant cousin of Buck’s who kept calling to get some of the supposed hospital settlement windfall, the rest of Hallowmas passed uneventfully. The young old man spent most of his time alone either in his room or training in the backyard gym. Vanessa wanted to spend time with her great grandfather but Anaea sent her to play with friends or stay longer at swimming and ballet classes. Jack wasn’t around the house much, either, due perhaps to something Anaea hadn’t witnessed but could clearly see in the cold way Buck looked at him and the resultant unease in Jack’s face.
With the end of Buck’s time almost upon them, Anaea invited a few friends over to celebrate his life before the katabasis ceremony. The guest of honour remained silent most of the night, only tersely answering questions about what it was like boxing and winning in early twentieth-century America as a black man.
“Sure as fuck wasn’t easy but I beat everyone stupid enough to get in that ring with the Harlem Smoke. No matter what colour you are, you still cry the same when I beat your ass.”
His secret to longevity was just as eloquent.
“Get knocked too stupid to die.”
He not so politely declined requests to see his fighting technique.
When dirty plates and glasses and bottles were randomly left around the house and those who abandoned them were long gone, only two guests remained along with the immediate family. Dionne and Makeba both worked in accounts at Quay Way, and both looked far older than their forty-five years. They helped Anaea clean up while Jack put Vanessa to bed. Buck slipped out of the proceedings half hour earlier to train in the gym one last time.
“I should go, Ann,” Dionne said after they’d brought everything into the kitchen. “I was at church early on Sunday to get a good parking spot, and you know how Mondays at that hotel can drain you. I need a good night’s sleep or I’ll be useless to myself.”
“Pushing fifty, no husband or kids, buried in work and the church…” a shirtless, sweaty Buck said from the back door, “I bet you’re still a virgin, too. Sounds like you’re already useless, Dionne. You don’t need God. You need fucking.”
He smiled broadly at her shocked face.
“I can help you with that. I saw you looking at me like I’m communion you want to swallow.”
Dionne put down the two empty bottles of wine on the cluttered counter, turned, and walked briskly to the living room to get her bag.
“Jesus, Buck!” Anaea shouted.
“What do I care? I’m dying again in the morning… for good this time. Didn’t even get any pussy while I was young again.”
The stack of dirty plates in Makeba’s hands was liable to fall to the floor and shatter. Buck walked over, took the plates from her, and put them in the sink. He grabbed a half empty bottle of Extra Old rum from beside her, had a swig, and continued smiling.
“You should probably go with your friend… unless you want to stay and help me with my problem. Or are you and her together? I haven’t had that in a while, either.”
“I’ll see you at work next week, Ann!” Makeba blurted out and followed Dionne into the living room and out the front door.
“Anaea? Are you alright?” a tall, blonde man asked as Makeba rushed past him.
“Phil?!” Anaea exclaimed, “Jack’ll be ready in a few minutes! Why don’t you wait out in your car, please?!”
“Phil, huh?” Buck asked after taking a gulp of rum. “You’re the batty boy’s other half, right?”
All Anaea could do was stand by the refrigerator in stunned silence.
“Yeah, we’re a fudge package deal,” Phil explained, “and you’re the asshole who punched my man in the stomach.”
“You hit Jack?!” Anaea shouted at Buck.
“Little fag tried coming in my room when I was changing. He might have helped bathe and dress me when I was ancient but that shit won’t work now.”
“I thought you should know but Jack didn’t want to tell you, Anaea, so I kept quiet.”
“I still didn’t want her to know,” Jack said. He stood next to Phil and put a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “We should do like everyone else and get the hell out of here.”
“Jack, please…” Anaea began before Buck cut her off as he walked slowly toward the men.
“Yeah, get the fuck out of here before I tell her you’re in the living room watching ‘Open Rearlationship’ and ‘Net Dicks’ and ‘The Little Hermaid’ on the big screen when the girls are out and you think I’m sleep…”
It was Buck’s turn to fall silent as Vanessa pushed her way past the two men and into the kitchen in her pajamas.
“Why’s everybody shouting?” she asked. “Papa Buck needs to sleep before his kitty basics.”
“Katabasis,” he corrected her then scooped her up in one muscular arm.