Life In The Palace (9 page)

“Do they know?” Josh looked thoughtful.

“No,” Tal shook her head.

“Can they get out?” The three exchanged a glance.

“Yes,” Cale answered. “They can. If they can be shown the Palace then they can learn to overcome the Interloper. The good news is that their Interlopers are weak. They can be easily overcome.”

“Then it’s plain sailing?”

Cale smirked, “Not exactly because the Interloper is as strong as you are. As soon as you get stronger so does it.”

“How do you defeat it?”

“By getting better. By always being one step ahead.”

“Your lives are just one big battle?” I asked. It didn’t sound like that much fun.

Tal laughed, “Not all the time. Once a week on the Day of Connection, we spend the day in the ballroom with He Who Knows All, and Angels come to our house.”

“Angels?” Josh’s eyes were laughing again.

“Angels accompany us home from the House of Worship to our homes where the Palace descends to meet us.”

“Also, the food’s good,” Tal added.

Just then Cale’s phone beeped.

“Dror wants us to pick up Noy on the way to the old age home.”

“I guess we should be going.” Tal started to collect her things. She looked up suddenly, “Do either of you want to come? We’re going to sing in the old age home. It really cheers up the elderly to see young people.”

“I actually have to be getting home,” Josh looked like he’d invent root canal surgery if it meant getting out of seeing the elderly.

To my surprise, and Josh’s, I heard myself say, “I could come. I don’t have to be home till later.” I thought Josh’s eyeballs were going to pop out of his head.

“It might do me some good to leave the ten square blocks of downtown sometime,” I explained. Tal looked from Cale to Josh. “Great, the more the merrier.” She said although she didn’t sound overly enthusiastic.

With a slightly sheepish smile to Josh, I followed them down the street to Cale’s car.

I sat in the back with Tal.

“So, Jov, you guys are like the Scoobies? Or the season seven finale when all the Slayers are activated and fighting the forces of darkness.” I asked as Cale pulled away from the curb.

Simultaneously, Jov said, “The Slayers.” Tal said, “Do you have to encourage him?”

It’s a good thing Jov couldn’t see the smirk on my face as I replied. “
Buffy
was a classic show.”

“It’s up there with the original
Star Trek
and
Doctor Who
,” Jov said seriously.

I was enjoying myself, “There was hardly an off episode, if you forgive that whole ‘Riley’ thing.” I could see Jov shaking his head in disgust. “He only ever had one good line.” I went on.

“’You were going to nuzzle them to death?” Jov thoughtfully provided.

Tal screwed up her eyes and rubbed her temples.

“Ok, I’ll stop” I said quietly. “Do you guys often hang out with the oldies?”

Tal said, “About once a week, we’re into community service.”

“It restocks our ammunition supplies,” Jov added.

Cale took his eyes off the road to give Jov a look. “Chloe, you’re not one of the People are you?” Cale asked loudly.

“Nope, just an innocent bystander,” I answered cheerfully. I couldn’t see Jov’s face but he was quiet for the rest of the trip. Cale flicked on a CD. I didn’t recognize the band, then I remembered Tal said they had their own music. It had nice mellow undertones. The windows were down and I was quite enjoying seeing the city pass by.

“What neighborhood is this?” I asked as the city blocks turned to big private houses.

“Westmount,” Tal said, “It’s where the rich English speakers live. The rich French speakers live in Outremont.”

“It’s nice. Where do you guys live?”

“Snowdon. It’s not as fancy, mainly duplexes.”

“That’s where there are two houses on top of each other? Why do they do that here?”

“I have no idea. Saves space? You’ll see soon. We have to stop at my place to pick up my guitar.”

I was surprised, “You play guitar? I thought you’d be more the violin type.” Then I regretted it. I hoped she didn’t think I thought she was a nerd, which I did, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

Tal didn’t seem to care. Could be she was used to people thinking she was a nerd. “I actually also play violin and piano but guitar works better for a sing-along.”

We got on and off some sort of express way.

“This is Snowdon,” Tal said in tour guide mode.

“Why’s it called that?”

“It’s by the Snowdon metro stop.”

We seemed to be going around in circles. I was sure we’d just passed that dry cleaners. Across the street I saw a store selling Indian food.

Oh, I wonder if Seth would like real, authentic spices? Yesterday he was complaining that the saffron he’s got isn’t much good. I think saffron is the yellow stuff. I wonder if I could ever get here again? I think we’re actually only one block away from the Metro stop
.

It was beginning to get ridiculous, the dry cleaners was back on the other side of the road.

“Can’t you guys just erase my memory, instead of driving in circles if you don’t want me to know where you live?” I asked.

Tal giggled, “I don’t actually mind you knowing where I live. If we had more time I’d even invite you in. There’s a one-way system. Montreal is famous for it. Some streets only go up and others only go down and you can’t ever turn left. This is actually the fastest way to get to my house.”

“The French have a lot to answer for,” I said under my breath again. Tal raised her eyebrows conspiratorially.

Finally we pulled up outside a house opposite a park. Tal jumped out and ran up the stairs to the upper floor.

As she disappeared inside the building, I asked Jov, “Do you guys have superpowers?”

I saw Jov open his mouth, look at Cale, then say, “No.”

Apparently the fun was over.
Were they embarrassed? Tal seemed happy to talk to Josh. I hope I didn’t make them feel bad. It was fun talking to Jov. He’s a much less camp version of Jared.

Tal was taking a while, or just now things felt tense. I tried a different topic, “Jov, do you ever read Terry Pratchett?”

He turned to look at me, “No, who is that?”

I looked at him in real horror, “Jov, you think you’re a sci-fi, fantasy buff and you’ve never read Terry? Terry Pratchett is the genius who created the
Discworld
series.”

His face was still blank.

“You have to read Terry,” I said emphatically, “In
Witches Abroad
, he explores this whole idea about narrative being one of the driving forces behind history. The poor servant girl will marry the Prince, and once the hero has found true love he must get back to her because narrative convention is on his side.”

His eyes lit up, “Terry Pratchett?”

I nodded, “He’s British, but you can handle it if you watch
Doctor Who
. I’m sorry I didn’t bring any up to school with me or I’d lend you. But they should be easy to get hold of.”

Tal slid back into the car. “Sorry, I had to stop to help Mom for a second. Did I miss anything?”

“Chloe here is suggesting that Jov try reading books instead of watching TV all the time,” Cale snickered.

Tal smirked back, “Many of us have tried. But more power to you Chloe if you succeed.”

In what now seemed like a remarkably direct route, we stopped outside another duplex a few blocks over and picked up slight girl with dark curly hair pulled back with a head band. She looked surprised to see me.

“Noy, this is Chloe, my study partner,” Tal explained as she slid over to make room in the back. On the way to the old age home, they talked about what songs to sing. I’d never heard of any of them.

“I’m not sure if I know those ones, what should I do?” I asked after a while.

Noy looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time.

“It’s actually a good idea if someone sits with the elderly and encourages them to join in.” Tal seemed much more eager for me to participate than the others.

The old age home was a nondescript red brick building that looked suspiciously like the crematorium down the road from my Uncle Fred’s. I scanned the previous entries as we signed the guest book. It seemed the average visit was 35 minutes or less. Old Age homes are basically where you park your elderly relatives until you can cash in, kind of like a savings bond.

“I’ll see if I can find Marian,” Tal said, as we were buzzed in.

Marian was in the middle of bullying reluctant participants into their seat. She was middle-aged, and the type that thinks if they show enough cleavage you will somehow overlook the other 200-plus pounds of them. While Tal and her friends took what seemed to be their usual places, I tried to lurk while stuck in the middle of the open room. Thankfully Tal rescued me, “It’s best if you sit somewhere in the middle and clap enthusiastically.”

I glanced around at the ten or so crumpled specimens dotted around the room that could have seated fifty. “Will it help?”

Tal smiled, “I know it looks a bit lame now, but it’s really quite nice once we get going.”

I figured I couldn’t actually leave until it was over so I sat next to a wizened old lady who seemed all cardigan. It happens that I actually like the elderly. Grandma Mary’s one of my favorite people and we used to hang out with her sister, Aunt Theresa. They’d forget we were there and start telling all these stories about the village scandals back in Mexico. Some of them were pretty X-rated. I smiled at the lady next to me.

“Do you come for the singing every week?” I asked in a tone I hoped was loud enough for her to hear without being disrespectful.

My companion nodded, “When you reach my age, dear, the closest you can get to the Service is letting other’s perform it for you.” She chuckled.

“They seem quite eager to come,” I ventured.

“But why are you here, lovely?” She looked at me like she actually saw inside to my soul. Maybe she did. Before I could find out, Marian clapped her hands loudly to call the room to order. It was possible she had been a kindergarten teacher in her previous job.

“Aren’t we lucky? Today our friends Tal, Cale and Jov are back and their joined by two new friends Noy and Chloe. I’m sure we’re all going to have a wonderful time.”

The last sentence seemed more threat than promise. Tal began playing. Cale accompanied her at a piano in the corner. Jov and Noy were sitting on chairs next to Tal. Tal and Jov sang the main line with Noy harmonizing. It wasn’t really the sort of song you clap along to. This was not the right crowd to pretend to wave a cigarette lighter so I just sat still. I noticed most of the residents seemed to be singing along. Only Marian and I were silent. The old lady next to me eyed me suspiciously.

The air seemed to be moving. The melody was sweet, a little folksy. It was almost familiar, like a lullaby from my childhood. At first I thought my body was swaying involuntarily to the beat, but then I realized I was sitting still. It really was the air moving or something like that. I looked at Tal. I’m not sure she was still in the room.
Was this a song or a prayer?

It ended before I got an answer and we moved to a more conventional seeming number with a lively beat. I did my part and clapped along enthusiastically. Marian beamed and some of the residents even joined in. They did five songs before they reached what was obviously the wind-down number. Instinctively I shut my eyes as I felt the same movement. When it ended I nearly forgot to open them. When I did the old lady was looking at me.

“My name is Mrs. Hols, I’ll see you next week,” she said as an aide came to help her back to her room.

It was only when she’d made her laborious way out of the lounge that I thought to tell her I wouldn’t be there next week.

“Wasn’t that nice?” Tal bounded over. I wasn’t used to seeing her quite so perky.

“It really was,” I sounded more surprised than I intended to.

“Do you need a ride back downtown?” Cale asked.

“But you live up here, I don’t want to take you out of your way.”

“If we brought you up, the least we can do is take you back down,” he replied.

I shook my head, “No, really, it’s fine. I wouldn’t mind a lift to the nearest metro station, though.” I was glad he didn’t insist. I wanted a bit of time to clear my head before I went over to Seth’s.

*

Noy pulled the passenger door shut.

“Why on earth did you bring the Other with you?”

Tal blushed.

“We didn’t really have a choice,” Cale answered. “We invited Josh, the Serf who’s been showing an interest, and she was there. She offered to come and we couldn’t exactly say ‘No, we only wanted him because he can fight in the Palace and you can’t.’ So we had to let her come.”

“I don’t think it did any actual harm,” Jov said thoughtfully. “If she wants to help fight the forces of Evil, why shouldn’t she?”

“Because no one is supposed to know that’s what we’re doing, dumbass.” Noy rolled her eyes at her brother.

“It’s not like we handed her a sword,” Jov countered. “She sat at the back and clapped along. If we hadn’t brought her, Josh would have known something was up and we’d never get past his Interloper.”

“Just don’t let it happen again.”

Chapter 7

A
s I walked
down the street I saw Seth sitting on the long wrought iron steps outside his house.

“Did you get locked out?” I called up.

“I’m waiting for my true love,” he called back.

I looked around, “Did she come yet?”

He came down the steps and stopped right in front of me. His stare was twice as heavy because he didn’t reach out to touch me as he usually would. His eyes held mine and I felt the now familiar feeling of drowning and being saved simultaneously.

Without breaking his gaze, in his low husky voice, he said, “I waited many lifetimes but then she came. When she came, I discovered that the sun had never before shone, no water had ever nourished my parched lips and no love had ever touched my heart. When she came, I knew it would be forever.”

I didn’t dare speak. I couldn’t move lest I break the spell he wove. We stood there, right in the street, not touching, just feeling, for an eternity, until he smiled. He bit his lip and looked down slightly.

“I know it’s only three days,” he admitted sheepishly, “but I wanted to be sure you knew where I stood.”

“I’m glad you clarified because I was thinking of running off with Josh in your absence, but now I guess I’ll stick around.” I winked.

He pulled his arms around me and kissed me with more passion than was really polite in the venue. I kissed him back.

“Come, let’s go for pizza,” he said pulling away as some random teenage boys across the street started wolf whistling. “Do you want to leave your bag inside?” He asked turning back and reaching out his hand.

I started to fish out my wallet.

Seth put up one hand, “I think the pizza can be on me.”

I shrugged and handed him the bag. He bounded up the steps and put it just inside the front door. In a second he was back beside me, his hand in mine.

“We can go to the pizza place I was telling you about, with the thin crust and just enough cheese.” He said as he started to walk.

I pulled him back. He wheeled around and looked at me, concerned.

I hesitated, shut my eyes then looked into his. “I need to say something right now. I don’t just want to let it go…I think I love you. It scares the crap out of me. I have to stop myself from wondering how on earth I deserve anything so beautiful, so wonderful. I keep waiting for one of us to wake up. And then you don’t, and I don’t, and I’m here with you.”

Now it was his turn to look totally petrified. In a voice hardly audible, he whispered, “You make me want to be a better man.”

We’d run out of words, and we were still standing in the street. The boys across the street were waiting for a second showing. They were disappointed. By silent mutual agreement, we started walking.

“Life is made up of moments, when you touch something greater than you… ” Seth began. I nodded.

He smiled half a smile, “The problem is that the moments are held together with regular life. It seems ridiculous to touch infinity and then say, ‘So how was the presentation?’ ”

I laughed, “I know what you mean. When magic is exists, how do you live in the real world?”

“In the absence of an answer, how was the presentation?”

“It was pretty good. The professor stayed awake. We all remembered to say what we had prepared, our report was cohesive. It’s a summer survey course and I don’t think this prof is the type to mark more strictly in the summer just to make a point. Overall it should be good for an A.”

“That’ll please your parents.” He did my favorite thing where he rubbed the inside of my palm with his thumb. I was too blissed out to respond.

“What’s your Dad like?” he asked with a suddenness that must have been premeditated.

“Balding,” I answered, panicked. “Why do you ask?”

“I never hear much about him. Stacy, I’ve heard all about, Spike, I’m thinking of friending on Facebook. I don’t know much about your mother, but I think I know nothing about your father.”

“He’s Latino.”

Seth nodded, “And?”

“Balding?”

Another nod. I was going to have to do better.

“His parents came from Mexico before he was born. He grew up in Chicago in a mixed neighborhood. He went to college and studied Chemical Engineering. He never had much Latino identity and then he married my Mom. They lived in Philly for a while. They moved to El Paso when he was offered this job. Mom likes the sun and El Paso has plenty of it. My great-Aunt Theresa was already living there, although I think that was a count against El Paso in Dad’s eyes. After a while Grandma Mary moved out there too.

“He’s not really the henpecking type, and he doesn’t get overly involved in our choices as long as we stick within a certain range. As long as we didn’t spend too much, he was never down our backs about what clothes we wore or what afterschool activities we went to. He worked hard to make himself successful as the child of immigrants, so he thinks it’s important to know the value of money but he never begrudged us anything.”

“He’s a Democrat?”

I stopped walking to start laughing, “Dear God, no. What makes you say that?’

“I thought he’d be pro-immigration rights.”

I laughed some more. “He’s a card-carrying Republican. He says there are too many Spics in American already. If his parents managed to immigrate legally, why can’t the rest of them? A country has a right to control immigration. We can’t just open the doors and let everyone in or else there will be no jobs and no space left.”

“He doesn’t think that his family got a chance at a better life so others should also get that chance?”

“No,” I said carefully, “and in my family that is dangerous talk. Cousin Martin is still an outcast for making a similar suggestion one Thanksgiving.”

“I thought your father was easygoing?”

“I didn’t say he was easygoing, I said he didn’t get involved in the ways of ladies. Two totally different things. He can be quite intense about certain things.”

“Does this mean I’m in for a hard time? My family and I are fervent Democrats. There are rumors that some of them might even be a little ‘pink.’ ”

I considered the issue. “I would just avoid all political discussions, especially issues of immigration, gun control or gay marriage, if you want to be allowed continued access to his daughter.”

“Next you’re going to tell me he’s a member of the NRA?” Seth suppressed a giggle.

“I’m from Texas, the NRA is no laughing matter ‘Mr. Born-and-bred in Boston’. He’s not actually a member because Mom would have a fit if he brought home a gun, but he is a staunch supporter. All American’s should be able to determine their own future.”

“But not the ones that were brought here illegally by their parents?”

“Didn’t I just mention the ‘some things should not be referred to if you want to see his daughter’ part of his approach to politics?” My tone was a little sharp.

We’d been walking for a while and I was getting rather hungry. It had been a good few hours since the iced coffee with Josh and Tal. I wasn’t really in the mood for debating my father’s eccentricities.

“One false move and I’m out the door?” Seth asked, apparently not reading my mood. I sighed, I didn’t want to let my hunger fuel a stupid argument about nothing.

“You don’t have any tattoos, you don’t ride a motor bike, you plan to earn a living in a respectable middle class profession and you haven’t been the catalyst for his daughter dropping out of an Ivy League college. Even as a Democrat, you’ll probably be okay.”

Seth chuckled, “Poor Rob. I kind of feel bad for a guy.”

Just then we reached the famous pizza place before I had to respond. It was tiny, with one small counter that hardly had room for the two guys behind it. There were two small tables outside. We stopped at the entrance.

“Shall we just get one big pie? Do you have a topping preference?”

“Right now I could eat just about anything.”

He looked up quickly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were so hungry. Here, you sit down and I’ll get the house special.”

In one minute he was back with a slice of pizza and a can of Diet Coke.

“The house specialty is pepperoni?” I asked.

“No the house special is in the oven, but I didn’t want you wasting away in the meantime.” He sat down next to me. “If that slice revives you enough, I thought we might get the pie to take away.”

“Sure.”

It didn’t take long, and I did feel much better after I’d eaten something. Seth carried the pizza box and a shopping bag of extras. I waited for him to start walking down the street, but to my surprise he walked over to the curb and hailed a cab.

I looked at him.

“Where are we going?”

“My favorite Montreal spot.”

I got in the car. We drove out of the downtown area, past the neighborhood I now knew to be Westmount and headed up. Suddenly, the buildings disappeared and we headed through a park.

“The mountain?” I asked.

“Have you been here before?” he smiled.

“Only once for about five minutes. The second day I got here I took one of those tourist buses around the Island so I could say I’d seen all of the famous things. We drove through the mountain. Has anyone around here noticed that it’s really just a big hill?”

Seth put his finger to his lips, “Shhh, someone might hear you. Dissing the mountain is a hanging offense around here.”

We got out at a parking lot and I took the bag from Seth so we could walk hand in hand. We sat down at one of the many benches by the man-made lake. The place was full of bikers, roller-bladers, people strolling by, and families with their kids. Montrealers really know how to take advantage of the outdoors. The lake was entirely ringed by park benches so even with the heavy traffic it was easy to find a free one. Out of the shopping bag Seth pulled out a Diet Coke, a regular coke for him, a bag of French fries and a bundle of foil that proved to hold garlic bread. He spread it all out on the bench between us.

“No salad?” I joked.

“I don’t do lettuce,” Seth replied.

On my third slice of pizza, I realized Seth was watching me eat. “Why are you so hungry? Don’t tell me you need constant attention to keep yourself well nourished.”

I shook my head. “I meant to get something to eat after the presentation but then Josh invited Tal to join us at Second Cup and I forgot to pick up a sandwich because I was too busy monitoring his behavior. When I left her, I came straight to you so I kind of skipped the lunch part of the day.”

“Josh got home a while ago.”

“I know, I was hanging out with Tal and her friends.”

Seth arched one perfect eyebrow.

“They went to play music at an old age home and I went with them. I actually quite like the elderly. When I was younger, one of my favorite activities was hanging out with my great-aunt Theresa and listening to her tell all these off-color jokes in Spanish.”

“She was the family black sheep, I take it?”

I shook my head as I remembered Aunt Theresa, “She was black enough for a whole flock. Once when Mom and Dad were arguing about Stacy, I heard Mom suggest she took after Aunt Theresa, I have never heard my father go so berserk. I don’t think Mom’s made that mistake again.”

“Did Josh enjoy himself with this Tal character?” Seth pushed the last slice of pizza towards me.

“At least he behaved himself. They seemed quite happy to tell him about their religion. I’ve never really got much out of her before. I could tell that Josh was finding the whole thing very amusing, but I don’t think they noticed. It doesn’t seem to be a very easy life. Every move they make seems to be dedicated to their god.”

Now that I’d finished eating, Seth lit a cigarette. I was glad to be sitting upwind. It would be bad enough kissing him later. He looked out at the orange sun light flickering on the water. “It’s an interesting faith. If they get the balance right then their whole life becomes a form of meditation. It’s like reaching some sort of Zen state where every action propels them greater connection. They call it ascending through the Palace. The goal is to reach some sort of permanent god-consciousness, they say they’ve reached the Throne Room. But reaching the Throne Room is also linked to their afterlife, they earn a seat at the Great Banquet.”

I was about to ask Seth when he studied it, but then I remembered that he did take a bunch of comparative religion courses as part of his philosophy major, and he has that uncanny ability to sound like an expert on every topic.

“They’re supposed to be some type of warrior monks and still live in the real world?” I was having a hard time understanding how anyone could live with such pressure.

We stood and started walking. Seth slipped his arm around me. “That’s the point. They say that He Who Knows is in the world. The physical world’s purpose is to be a vehicle to Him. The separation between the real world and He Who Knows is only an illusion. You move through the Palace until you see that it is all one.”

“Until you can see the binary code,” I said under my breath. Slightly louder, I asked, “If it’s such a cool religion, how come more people don’t know about it?”

Seth laughed, “Because most people don’t really want to give their lives in the service of any deity. We all think that the religious people have more meaning in their lives, but we’re probably having more fun.”

Seth seemed to know where he was going as we wandered along a tree lined path. The trees parted and we came out to a lookout point. From there I could see the whole city, the Lawrence River and in the distance a geographical formation more deserving of the title mountain. Seth pulled me closer as I drank in the splendor before me, “It’s hard enough having to get through every day without fighting mythical battles or denying yourself worldly pleasures.”

The sun was beginning to set, there was a cool breeze and my gorgeous boyfriend was holding me tight. Right then I didn’t want to do without any earthly pleasures either.

I was trying not to think of it as ‘the first day without Seth.’ With the exam on Monday, I wanted to get all my studying done on Friday so I could enjoy the weekend. Armed with serious snack, I sat down to study.