Babayaga: A Novel (23 page)

The man called Flats raised an eyebrow. “Adman? Meaning you make advertisements of some sort?”

“Yes, sort of. I help make them.”

“So, you draw the pictures?”

“No, I oversee all the other stuff, the research, the client relations, strategic thinking, you name it.”

“That’s interesting,” said Flats, mulling this over, “because I can’t honestly say I’ve ever noticed anything resembling ‘thinking’ in any advertisement I’ve come across.”

Will couldn’t tell if he was being joshed or not, but before he could reply, Oliver had changed the subject. “Listen, we’re here with a bit of hard news. It seems Boris—you know Boris, yes? Ned’s friend? The oversized Russian with a face like a bad dog’s?” The men nodded. “Yes, well, he dropped dead in the middle of a card game today. Quite sudden. Suspect it was foul play of some sort, we’re looking into it now. Anyway, the gist of it is, we’re wondering have you all heard of any other funny stuff going on around town these days?”

The three men locked eyes with one another, as if some shared thought had simultaneously popped into their minds. The man called Kelly looked as though he was going to say something when Red put a hand on his wrist and stopped him. Leaning forward, Red looked at Oliver and Will. “Now, before we share any of our own observations on this particular subject, one thing I’m curious about is why you and this ad guy here are asking? Not exactly your usual beat, is it?”

Red had the slow, careful manner of a person who is always distrustful, and Oliver was cagey with his reply. “It’s a mix really, a little personal, a little business. First and foremost, Red, Boris was a friend, a good friend. Also, coincidentally, I think whatever is going on might be decent material for a story, and a writer such as myself needs those. Chicken in the pot, and all that. If I did get a story, I could possibly squeeze a few francs out of my pals over at the
Herald Tribune
. Of course, if you helped I’d be happy to provide you with a cut.”

“Sounds reasonable, though you never looked much like a man who needed to hustle for his chicken,” said Flats.

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” said Oliver with a grin. “A well-tailored suit is awfully good at hiding an empty stomach.”

Flats nodded, as if this were an acceptable enough answer, and Kelly leaned forward. “The next question is, why you coming to us? Why do you think we can help?”

Oliver moved around in his seat a little nervously as he answered. “Fair enough. The truth of the matter is Boris might have been passed some bad medicine, if you know what I mean.”

Flats nodded again and Kelly looked around the table. “Okay, bad medicine. I get it. Fact is, there has been stuff happening. Ugly stuff going down. More than a few folks keeling over of late, yours here being the third in only these last three days, which is a pretty high mortality rate, even for users. The other two were residents over at the Arc Hotel, long-timers. Be good to know what your friend was taking.”

“Yes, well, we found this…” Oliver reached into his pocket and took out the tinfoil. Unwrapping it, he placed the small resinous ball at the center of the table. The five men looked down at it like rare gem merchants studying a precious stone.

“Looks like opium resin to me,” said Kelly. “And I ain’t about to do anything other than look. They say one of those fellows at the Arc flipped into some crazy convulsions till his body stopped cold, and word is the other went running out the window like he was being chased by voodoo spirits.” He tapped the edge of the tinfoil.

“Yep, pretty clear there’s bad medicine going round,” said Red.

“Be a good time to stay clean, if you could,” said Flats.

“If you could,” agreed Kelly, nodding.

“That’s all very interesting, yes. Funny, though, I hadn’t seen any news about these other deaths,” said Oliver, folding up the tinfoil again and putting it away in his pocket.

“Well, there generally isn’t a lot of talk when a user kicks,” said Red.

“That’s true too,” said Kelly. “Though word tends to get around to those who need to know. Good time for caution and all that. One other interesting piece of news these days is that lots of people who shouldn’t have any coin at all have been flashing some pretty serious money. I only mention it because I hear they found a whole bundle of franc notes in that window jumper’s wallet. And he was an absolute nobody.”

“Right,” said Oliver, looking at his watch, “very enlightening. Quite helpful, thank you for your time, gentlemen. If I do get myself hired as a stringer for this story, I will make sure to pass along your cut.” He stopped as if a thought occurred to him. “Also, one other thing: we’re looking for Ned. She been around?”

The men shook their heads.

Oliver leaned over and crushed out his cigarette in the bright-orange ashtray. “Well, there’s some money in that for you too, if you can find her.”

“We’ll ask around,” said Red.

“Wonderful. Give me a call if you have any luck,” said Oliver, handing Red his calling card. He looked at his watch and hopped up out of the booth. “Oh, you’ll have to excuse me now, I’ve got to find a phone. I’m supposed to call an ex–merchant marine who’s got a duffel full of poetry he wants me to look over. Word is it’s hot stuff. Take your time, Will. I’ll meet you outside in ten minutes.” He tipped his hat and headed toward the service doors.

Will felt a little uncomfortable being left alone with the three strangers. He didn’t know why. They seemed like perfectly nice men. “How long you been in Paris?” Red asked.

Will shrugged. “A couple of years.”

“Quite a while, then. You like it?”

“Sure. The music is great, the art, you know, there’s a lot to like…” His answer trailed off as he realized it was nothing more than their blackness that was making him uncomfortable. He could have easily talked about how much he enjoyed this town, he could have spelled out the specifics of all the things he loved, from the thyme- and sage-scented smells of the coq au vin that spilled out of so many kitchens to the buzzing sounds of the Vespa scooters whizzing by to the chiming of the bold church bells through the days and nights, all of this had been top of mind of late as his looming departure from the city made him sensitive to how much he adored being here, like a man with a death sentence painfully aware of the final moments of life. But he felt tongue-tied in front of these dark men who sat patiently staring at him, waiting for a response. It wasn’t that he felt superior in any bigoted manner, but rather because in all the time he had spent growing up in Detroit, he never mixed much with its Negro population, sizable though it was. Even when he was out on the town, exploring the different scenes, hanging out at bars and clubs that had a mixed clientele, he still rarely found an occasion to mingle with them. In fact, he realized he had never sat at a table and talked with three Negro men before in his life.

Flats seemed to sense his nervousness and gave him a reassuring grin. “You know what I like most about this city?”

“What?” Will asked.

‘The tubs,” Flats said.

“The tubs?” said Kelly.

“Yeah, the bathtubs,” said Flats. “See, when I was growing up down South, we didn’t have any kind of proper tub or shower or bathroom, we were, you know, what’s the word for it?”

“Poor,” said Red.

“That’s right. That’s the word.” Flats smiled. “We were poor. Dirt poor. So I won’t even tell you how we washed up back then. But in the army, they put us in those big shower rooms with all the other men. It was all right, but it was the military, so how good could it be? But now, here, in my little flat, I have got this white Parisian-style tub, and I tell you, it fits me like a glove. I dig getting in there, crouching down and scrubbing in all my nooks and whatnot. I tell you, it keeps me familiar and intimate with every bit of myself. You take a shower, your head is up, far away from everything, lost in the clouds, but down in the tub, man, you
know
who you are.”

Red and Kelly both chuckled, Flats grinned, and Will smiled too. Thinking Oliver was probably finished with his call by now, he started to get up to leave, but Red stopped him. “Don’t let us make you nervous, son. There’s no rush. Your friend’s not done yet. Tell us a little bit more about yourself. Stateside-wise, where exactly are you from? New York?”

“No. Detroit, Michigan.”

“Oh yeah? No kidding.” Kelly slapped his hands together.

Flats started singing: “
Michigan water tastes like cherry wine
…”

Kelly ignored him. “Listen, I’m from Detroit too. Black Bottom, you know it?”

Will nodded. “I grew up over on the west side of town, but, yeah, I know it.”

“Well, if you know it, forget it.” Kelly’s smile disappeared as his face slid into a bitter expression. “Black Bottom ain’t no more. They bulldozed the whole neighborhood. Paradise Valley district, gone. Club Sudan, gone. Sportree’s, gone. They erased the entire history. I mean, Floyd Patterson grew up there, right? You’ve seen him fight, right? They should be building a statue to that man, not tearing down his damn home. When I hit this town I couldn’t believe it. I mean, Paris has got whole city blocks and neighborhoods that have all been up for centuries. The place where I live is three hundred years old, beautiful place, older than Napoleon. Hell, I bet even Flats’s little bathtub is older than Napoleon. But back home, they raze it down to dirt or pave a tollway through it. That’s why I ain’t never steppin’ foot in Detroit again, ’cuz there’s no Detroit there left to step onto.”

Will was unsure how to respond. “I know, it’s too bad.”

Kelly nodded hard. “Yes, it is, son. It’s too bad. It’s like that magic trick where the magician tears away the tablecloth and leaves all the glasses standing. It’s exactly like that, only the opposite.”

Will felt silenced, he got up and nodded an awkward goodbye to the men and headed out to the street. Stepping through the double doors, he found an evening rain had started. Will lit a cigarette while Kelly’s words about Detroit rang in his ears. It wasn’t news. He would get long letters from his brother and mother describing how the whole city was falling to pieces, pulled apart by forces they could not quite explain. Each had their own prejudiced suspicions: his brother blamed the Negroes, while his mother blamed the auto companies, still stinging from the UAW’s wins and hell-bent on beating the workers back down. Will did not know who to believe. He’d been to all the joints Kelly had mentioned, and over a dozen others, enjoyed his first legal drink at Sutree’s, saw Johnny Hartman sing “Lush Life” at the Sudan. Will knew those clubs had been boarded up. The former patrons—ex-GIs with their new government loans, and union line workers enjoying their latest concessions—had all rushed out to the velvet quiet of the ever-expanding suburbs, while the downtown players, their old haunts, shuttered and abandoned, found their new gigs here as exiles in the City of Light. It seemed Paris somehow managed to absorb all the beautiful things the rest of the world discarded; it was a sparkling and bejeweled box of lost treasures, a wondrous cabinet that hummed with soft horn harmonies played against a grand piano’s minor chords.

“Well, those boys raised some interesting questions,” said Oliver, coming up behind him.

“In what way?”

“You heard it yourself, multiple deaths, eerily similar circumstances. Boris may have had a bad heart, who knows, but there’s no doubt he was helped along in his exit. I don’t like it. I’m sensing a rare pedigree of wickedness, some peculiar evil looming here in our midst.”

Will tried to ignore Oliver’s dramatic overtones. “Should we check out this Arc Hotel?”

“Oh, perhaps we should, though I’m not too excited at the prospect. I happen to know the Arc quite well, it’s a terrifically shabby place. We went there last summer to interview an American poet in from Morocco. The man was so high on kef he couldn’t finish a single thought. We literally spent hours patiently sitting at his feet, waiting for something resembling coherence to emerge. From what I saw, the entire place is packed to the rafters with that sort, nodding-off junkies, hashish-chewing automatons, and a pathetic calico that’s relieved herself on every rug in sight, making the whole place absolutely reek of cat piss. Very dingy stuff. But, given what the boys said, there’s probably no avoiding it.”

“Wanna go now?”

“Ha ha, no.” Oliver smiled and patted him on the back. “I’ve got to run, meeting up with Aga Kahn and a Hollywood friend of his for a game of bridge this evening. Do you play?”

“No, I’m more of a euchre guy.”

“Yes, you mentioned that. Shame, really, we’re in desperate need of a fourth. Look, I’ll ring you at the office tomorrow and set up a time for us to visit the Arc. Sound good?”

Oliver didn’t wait for a response but instead bounded off the curb into a waiting cab. Watching the car whisk Oliver away, it occurred to Will that he had wasted an entire day on this wandering journey, and instead of finding answers about the missing file, the missing knife, or even the missing small lesbian, all he had discovered of any note was a very large and very dead Russian. It did not feel like progress.

Will had no umbrella, and as he looked down the street for a cab, he realized that Oliver had taken what appeared to be the last unoccupied taxi in Paris. So instead, Will endured a long, humid, and stuffy journey in the metro, pressed in shoulder-tight among stoic businessmen, sleepy clerks, and pale, long-faced tradesmen all heading home. An impressive, and pungent, range of body odors filled the metro car and the stout woman Will found himself shoved up against wore an overbearing perfume that somehow only accentuated the various smells instead of masking them. It was a reminder that there were a few aspects of the city he did not entirely adore. He distracted himself by recalling the night he met Zoya on the metro. He remembered her little smudge of a black eye, how surprising it had been when she had spoken to him, and how he’d thought about asking her out for a drink but hadn’t, because he’d been too tired. He suspected that would be the single scene he took home with him as his mental postcard of Paris, the memory of talking with a pretty girl alone at night on an empty train.