Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (40 page)

“
Watching her diet?”
Anjelika felt the blood rush to her face. “Keeping her exercise up?
The child has an eating disorder.”

“
Most of them do,” her
father shrugged.

“
She almost
died!”

“
Greatness requires great
sacrifice. She has the potential for greatness.”

“
Still the same old
monster,” Anjelika spat at him. Spinning in place, she walked
toward the door. “You are not welcome here. Without our help, you
shall rot in prison where you belong.”

“
You’re angry with me,” he
said. “For this child? Or for everything else?”

Anjelika stopped in her tracks.

“
For everything,” he said.
“You are such a child.”

She turned to him. They shared a long angry
moment.

“
What could you possibly
know of greatness?” Anjelika asked. “Greatness is a human endeavor
and we both know you are not human.”

He nodded. She wasn’t sure if he was
agreeing with her or simply acknowledging her anger. She watched
his face. He shrugged.

“
We have had a lot of…
trouble,” he said.

“
I am the only child you
have left,” Anjelika said. “All of my siblings, every last one of
them, are either dead or in prison. You stole my children from me.
They suffered unspeakably. I suffered unspeakably.”

“
To live is to suffer,” he
said.

“
Nietzsche?” Anjelika
asked. “You stand in front of your only remaining blood relative
and quote Nietzsche?”

“
I’ve been with the CIA
for a month,” he said. “It has… worn my manners. Please, my angel,
sit down with me and share some tea.”

Unsure of his motives, but not willing to
back down, she poured herself a cup of tea and sat down on a couch
in the sitting area. He watched her movements and repeated her
actions. He sat on the couch at an angle to the one she was sitting
on. He took out a flask and offered it to her. She shook her head
and he poured some into his tea.

“
You’re an alcoholic now?”
she asked.

“
No,” he said. “Trying to
stabilize myself for our conversation. I’ve always found our
arguments to be difficult. You’re smart and cunning like me, but
beautiful like your mother. You have her voice. I find Vodka
steadies me.”

She gave him a hard smile.

“
Yes, fuck me,” he said.
“Do you hate me, Anjelika?”

“
No,” Anjelika said. “You
did what you had to do because of who you are, where you came from
and the situation at hand.”

“
But?”

“
I wish you were a
different man,” Anjelika repeated something she’d heard her mother
say. Nodding, he acknowledged the thought and her
mother.

“
I wish I was a different
man too,” he said. “Your mother… She always saw the whole of life
and death and love. It was one big package and she made every
decision from that place. Me? I have always dealt my cards right
here, right now. It wasn’t until she was gone that I understood our
difference. It wasn’t until you were gone that I saw the gaping
hole in my life.”

He shrugged.

“
Why did you decide to
leave Russia?” she asked. “Why are you here?”

“
Mikhail, actually,” he
said. “He also sees the whole of the world – life, death, goodness,
badness, humanity. Like your mother. He didn’t know who I was. We
played chess while his Valerie was a super hero on a movie set. We
argued, a lot. Like his mother, he doesn’t back down or feel
intimidated. He looks so much like your mother and Perses. Both. I
don’t know, Anjelika. Out of the mouth of your son, I finally
understood what I needed to know.”

“
Which is what?” Anjelika
asked.

“
To your original point,”
he smiled at her. “Believing perfection is possible is almost like
believing in fairies and goblins. I have insisted on perfection all
of my life. I have created hell for every being that came near
me.”

“
And this garbage about
greatness?” Anjelika asked.

“
That’s experience,” he
said. “What do you know about greatness?”

“
I grew up around
greatness all of my life,” Anjelika said. “The greatest violin
player. The greatest ballerina. The greatest artist. The greatest
murderer. The greatest thug. The greatest…”

“
Yes,” he said.
“And?”

“
Greatness belongs in the
world of your fairies and goblins,” Anjelika said. “There is only
now, only people doing their best every day. And the world has
changed. What was great is no longer.”

“
Yes, I have learned
that,” he said.

“
Sissy will be a great
ballerina,” Anjelika said.

“
Is that what you’d like
me to do? Make that happen?” he asked. “All of this is over this
child?”

“
You don’t need to do
anything,” Anjelika said. “She will do it on her own.”

“
Then why are you here?”
he asked.

“
Do you still have your
gift?” Anjelika asked.

He nodded.

“
We can heal her wound,”
Anjelika said.

“
And mine as well?” he
asked.

“
Your wound?” Anjelika
asked.

“
You could ask anyone to
heal her,” he said. “Mikhail can do it. He says Jillian is stronger
than he.”

“
Why do you
think?”

“
Because I have a lot in
common with this Sissy,” he said. “Because you don’t want to spend
the rest of my life with a father who craves only
perfection.”

“
And you won’t spend a
minute of time with my children and their family if you don’t let
go of this… fantasy,” she said. “Not one minute.”

“
You’ll make that
so?”

“
I will not allow them to
be broken by your insanity.”

“
You are your mother’s
daughter, then,” he said.

Unsure of what he meant, she focused on her
tea.

“
And Perses?” he asked.
“You know he brought me in.”

“
I asked him to,” Anjelika
nodded.

Her father was so surprised that he stopped
moving. He couldn’t look at her or speak for a moment. He held the
tea to his lips, paused for a moment, and then set the cup
down.

“
Thank you,” he
said.

His eyes held unshed tears. In this moment,
the monster was gone leaving a frail, lost old man in his place. He
was like a remnant from a time when wars were cold, fought with
propaganda, and missiles waited patiently on desolate plains to
destroy the world. She smiled.

“
Shall we go see the
girl?” he asked. “Mikhail and Valerie asked if I would stay for
dinner. If you will give me your permission.”

“
They live with Delphie,”
Anjelika said. “She is an Oracle, a true phenomena. She will know
everything. Even you won’t be able to hide.”

“
I managed to avoid her
when I was here before,” he said.

“
You won’t this time,”
Anjelika said. “And Bruno?”

“
He’s here because, like
me, he has nowhere else to go,” her father said. “He and I are
relics looking for a museum to rust in.”

Anjelika nodded. He went to the sliding door
to get his bodyguard.

“
They call you Otis,”
Anjelika said.

“
So does my passport,” her
father smiled. “I am Otis now.”

Nodding, she moved toward the door.

“
You can still call me
Papa,” he said.

He touched her back. For the first time in
almost twenty years, they embraced.

“
Welcome to America,
Papa,” Anjelika said. “Now behave.”

Laughing, he followed her and Bruno out of
the suite.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday evening – 7:35 P.M.

“
That’s five,” Charlie
said from his position at the window in Noelle and Sissy’s room.
Biting her finger nail, Noelle came to the window to look
out.

“
There are two more police
cruisers,” she said.

“
There are six cruisers
over here,” Nash yelled from the kitchen window.

“
What exactly did you do?”
Sandy turned to look at Seth.

“
I quit the police force,”
Seth said. He was sitting on Sissy’s bed holding her
hand.

“
Why did you quit, Uncle
Seth?” Sissy asked.

“
I didn’t want to do it
anymore,” Seth touched her face. “Some day, you’ll be sick of being
a ballerina.”

“
If I ever get a chance to
be a ballerina, I’ll never get sick of it,” Sissy said. “Never.
Ever.”

“
Oh you will,” Seth said.
“You might never get sick of dancing or performing or using your
body in this way. But some day, you’ll get tired of doing the
stupid stuff to make some insecure boss happy.”

“
What did they want?”
Sandy asked.

“
End it with Ava,” Seth
said. “It’s probably a smart thing to do. She’s young; I’m old;
whatever. But I almost died in the service of my city and the Chief
wants to control my private life?”

Seth shrugged.

“
I didn’t want to do it
anymore,” Seth said. “So I quit.”

“
Why are the police here?”
Aden came in from showing Anjelika and her father down to dinner.
He looked from face to face. “Charlie?”

“
Not me,” Charlie pointed
to Seth. “They’re here for him.”

“
Seth?”

“
I’ll go out in a while to
talk to them,” Seth said. “Right now, I’m enjoying my time with
Sissy. Was meeting Otis hard?”

“
No, he was really nice,”
Sissy said. “He said he knew Ivan from Russia and that Ivan brags
about me and… I can’t wait to be dancing again.”

Sissy gave a bright smile then a shadow came
over her face.

“
I feel kind of stupid,”
Sissy said.

“
We all do stupid things,”
Seth said. “Some day I’ll tell you about some of mine.”

Sissy smiled.

“
Are you going to be all
right?”

“
I think I’m going to be
all right,” Sissy said.

With her words, Noelle dove onto her bed to
hug her. Charlie flopped at the end. Nash and Teddy were close
behind.

“
They’re like puppies,”
Seth said.

Smiling, Sandy nodded.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and EIGHTY-ONE

Stuck

Friday morning – 10:45 A.M.

“
You’re saying you’ll sell
me this house for what you paid for it,” Jeraine’s eyes scanned
Jacob’s face. They were standing in the middle of the kitchen of
the little house in Five Points. “And you got it for fifteen
thousand under the bank’s asking price.”

“
They want me to buy a
larger building,” Jacob said. “I’d need to move it so… I haven’t
decided.”

Jeraine’s eyebrows went up.

“
He thinks you’re trying
to cheat him,” Tanesha said. “Cocaine. It’s rotted your brain,
Jer.”

“
Come on.” Trying to keep
from laughing, Jill took Tanesha’s arm. “Let’s check out the
backyard.”

The women laughed their way out of the
house.

“
Why would I cheat you?”
Jacob asked.

“
Why wouldn’t you?”
Jeraine asked. “You’re a rich white man. I’m a dumb n…”

“
Jake?” a woman’s voice
came from the front of the house.

“
We’re in here,” Jacob
said.

Jeraine turned toward the front door. A
middle aged woman in a flowery dress entered the house. He knew
he’d met her somewhere before.

“
You’re right,” Delphie
said. “There’s an ugly darkness here.”

She smiled at him as if she’d known Jeraine
all his life.

“
Are you ready to get to
work?” Delphie asked.

“
We have some b-dness to
work out,” Jeraine sniffed at the funny white woman.

“
I liked you a lot better
when you were Jermaine,” Delphie laughed.

Puzzled, Jeraine looked down at the silly
woman. It wasn’t until Jacob looked away to keep from laughing that
he remembered how he knew Delphie.

“
The girls are in the
garden?” Delphie asked.

Jacob nodded.

“
I’ll go out while you
finish your important business.”

Delphie gave a little wave and laughed her
way out to the backyard. They heard Tanesha and Jill laugh.

“
Relay,” Jeraine said.
“Second leg. And that’s your Mom’s best friend; she’s in my mom’s
knitting group. She used to make us…”

“
Brownies,” Jacob
said.

“
Joystick Jake.” Nodding,
Jeraine put his hands on his hips.

“
Nympho Jer,” Jacob
said.

“
Hey,” Jeraine said. “You
were just as bad as me.”

“
I wasn’t married,” Jacob
said.

“
True dat,” Jeraine opened
his mouth to explain. Seeing the look on Jacob’s face, he closed
his mouth.

“
Tanesha is my
family
now,” Jacob
raised his eyebrows at Jeraine.