The Mountain Shadow

‘Whatever we are, or we’re not, all I know is that you beat the curse, and got back on your feet. That’s something to be proud of, Lisa. You’re doing what you love, working with artists you respect. And I’m your friend, no matter what happens. It’s good, Lisa. You’re good.’

She looked up again. She wanted to speak. Her mouth opened. Her lips twitched, tricked into movement by flickering thoughts.

‘I gotta go,’ she said quickly, standing to leave. ‘There’s a new show. A new artist. He’s . . . he’s pretty good. We’re mounting it in a couple of days.’

‘Okay. We’ll –’

‘No. I’ll get a cab.’

‘I’m faster than any cab in this city,’ I smiled.

‘That you are, and cheaper too, cowboy, but I’ll get a cab.’

I paid and walked out with her, descending to the sun-streaked street. There were taxis parked opposite, and we made for the first in line. She stooped to enter the cab, but I held her back.

She met my eyes for a moment, and then threw her glance away again.

‘Don’t wait up for me tonight,’ she said. ‘This new installation we’re setting up, it’s pretty complicated. We’re gonna work around the clock for a couple days, to –’

‘A couple of days?’

‘Yeah. I . . . I’ll probably sleep there tonight, and tomorrow, just . . . just to bring the show in on time, you know?’

‘What’s happening here, Lisa?’

‘Nothing’s happening here,’ she said, and got into the cab.

It took off at once. She turned to look at me as the taxi pulled away, staring back at me until I lost her.

The rapture, born in seconds, is a frail thing. And when rapture dies, no power can restore it to a lover’s eye. Lisa and I were staring at one another from a deeper place: the place where rapture lands when it falls.

A light had dimmed, and a shadow moved across the garden of what was. I waited on the footpath for half an hour, thinking hard.

I was missing something, a conflict more fundamental than Lisa’s objection to my life on the edge of the Sanjay Company, or even her desire to be with others. Something else was happening, and I couldn’t see it right or even feel it right, of course, because it was happening to me.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The street was happily larcenous as I parked my bike outside Leopold’s beside a lounge of street touts, their salamander eyes roving for business. I looked left, slowly, and then right, taking in every threat or opportunity on the street around me. I’d begun to turn my thoughts away from that shadow, Lisa’s shadow, moving across the garden of what was, when I heard a voice.

‘Lin! This is great, man! I’ve been trying to find you.’

It was Stuart Vinson, and he was agitated. That was good. After the talk with Lisa that I didn’t understand, agitation from a man I almost never understood seemed like the right distraction.

‘Vinson. What’s up?’

‘There’s this girl. She’s . . . I need your help. You’ve got some pull with the Colaba cops, right?’

‘Define pull.’

‘You can get things done, man. That’s right?’

‘I know who’s first and last in line, if you’re handing out money.’

‘That’s it! That’s great! Can you come with me? Right now?’

‘I –’

‘Please, Lin. There’s this girl. She’s in a lotta trouble.’

He read my frown.

‘What? No! She hasn’t done anything wrong. Fact is, far as I can figure it, it’s just that her boyfriend’s dead. He OD’d, like, just last night, and –’

‘Wait a minute. Slow down. Who’s this girl?’

‘I . . . I don’t know her name.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘I mean, I haven’t heard it yet. I haven’t seen her passport, either. I don’t even know where she comes from. But I know I’ve got to save her, and maybe I’m the only one who can, you know? She’s got these eyes, like, it’s too weird, man. I mean, it’s like the universe is tellin’ me to save her. It’s mystical. It’s magical. It’s fated, or something. But every time I ask the cops about her, they tell me to shut up.’

‘Shut up, Vinson, or talk sense.’

‘Wait! Let me explain. I was in the police station, paying a fine for my driver, you know, because he got in this fight with another driver, on Kemps Corner, near the Breach Candy turnoff, and he –’

‘Vinson. The girl.’

‘Yeah, man, I finished up with the cops, and I saw this girl sitting there. You gotta see her, man. Those eyes. Her eyes . . . they’re . . . they’re fire and ice at the same time. You’ve gotta see it to believe it. What is it about the eyes that gets you so fucked up, man?’

‘Connection. Back to the girl.’

‘Like I said, her boyfriend died of an overdose some time, like, last night or early this morning. Best as I can make out, she woke up and found him like that, stiff as a two-by-four, and long gone. She was stayin’ at the Frantic.’

‘Go on.’

‘Those Frantic guys run a tight ship, and they know how to keep their mouths shut. I’ve done some deals there. But, like, dead bodies? They draw the line, you know?’

‘I know the Frantic. They held the girl, called the cops, and handed her over.’

‘Yeah, the fuckers.’