He had signed it: To the best friend I have ever had, my partner, my collaborator, my muse.
Jeffrey
Saul’s eyes welled up with those crocodile tears and he thanked Jeffrey for everything that he had done for him as well, and the two of them sat in perfect silence as they drove toward Zion.
The Country Home was decked out in its finest and almost matched the splendor of a New York bistro when the car arrived. Red carpet led to the door, there was an actual maître d’, and a photographer from the Zion Gazette so that Saul could feel the true meaning of a celebrity evening on the town. Inside, the dining room was adorned with flowers and candles, and a string quartet played from some of Saul’s favorite musicals. The room was full except for the table in the center. The diners were all residents of Zion who wanted to be there to thank Jeffrey for what he had done for them and to let Saul know that he was now a welcome member of the community. One woman even came to the table and asked the ghost for his autograph.
Jeffrey smiled at the attention his friend was getting and thought of how hard it must have been for someone as outgoing and kind as Saul to have lived his life in such isolation. The mere fact that the ghost had not gone insane and become the stereotypical specter that so many bad horror movies were based around proved that Saul was truly a kind soul. He was finally receiving the accolades and love that he deserved.
Saul looked across the table and smiled at Jeffrey warmly and said, “Thank you, my friend. I could not have ever expected this.”
“Well, you deserve it,” Jeffrey answered and sipped his champagne. “None of this would have ever happened if I hadn’t met you.”
Saul laughed and said, “Nonsense! The real person we should be thanking is Heinrich Schultz.”
Jeffrey laughed at the irony of the statement and agreed. “Very true.” He raised his glass and said, “To Schultz!” They clinked glasses and sat in silence for a moment.
Finally, after a moment of more silence, Saul said, “It was because I was a failure.”
Jeffrey was a little confused by the announcement and asked, “What was because you were a failure?”
“My suicide,” Saul said somberly. “I couldn’t deal with the fact that I had become obsolete in the theater and that nobody wanted me anymore.” He looked past Jeffrey into space and continued, “My entire life had been performing and making others happy. When they took that away from me, I thought it was because they were jealous and threatened. I thought it would pass and they would come begging for me to return to the stage and save them from themselves.” He shook his head sadly. “It never happened. The phone never rang. They didn’t want to know me anymore. All of these people who I had made so successful and had done business with for so long just shoved me aside and pretended that I didn’t even exist. That was the hardest part, the being ignored.”
Jeffrey listened to the words coming from the ghost and was hit with the realization that he and Saul were like the same person. They both loved the theater, loved to tell stories for the enjoyment of others, and both had been brushed to the side as if they had never existed, through no fault of their own. The only difference was that whatever had happened to Saul was so unbearable to live with that he had decided not to live. Jeffrey had made the choice to fight back, but for Saul, there had been no fight left in him; he saw death as his only way out.
“That’s why I’m stuck here and not somewhere else you know,” Saul said.
“What do you mean, ‘stuck’?” Jeffrey asked.
Saul smiled at him and answered, “Here, in Zion. I’m stuck here because I killed myself. I broke the rules, and this is my punishment.”
This was a revealing comment from Saul that Jeffrey had not expected. He had often wondered why the ghost had chosen Zion, of all places, to spend eternity, but it had never occurred to him to ask why. He sat back and listened as his friend continued.
“And from everything I’m hearing, I’m going to have to pay for Louis Grecko’s death as well.”
“Why would you have to pay for that? You saved your friends’ lives; that should count for something.”
Saul shook his head and said, “When I first arrived here, I was told there were rules to the afterlife, and one of them was that I couldn’t take the life of a human being. There are consequences and I’m going to have to pay for what I did.”
“What kind of consequences?” Jeffrey asked concerned. “You don’t mean …” and he pointed down.
Saul shook his head and answered, “Nothing like that, the afterlife doesn’t work that way. We don’t all go to heaven if we’re good or hell if we’re bad. Most of us just cease to be anymore and are buried. Some of us are fortunate enough to be called for something greater, and then there are those selfish individuals like me who take it upon themselves to end the suffering without taking anyone else’s feelings into consideration. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I am going to have to answer for what I did.”
Jeffrey lowered his head and thought about the implications of what he had just heard. He wanted to help Saul in the worst way, but what could he do against powers that he could not understand? It was one thing to make Saul feel wanted again and to introduce him to the world that would accept him, but he could not fight this battle, and he feared it would be the end for his friend.
Saul saw the distress on his friend’s face and said, “Cheer up, bubbeleh; we’ve got a Broadway hit on our hands.”
Jeffrey smiled in spite of himself and agreed. He looked around the room and at the quartet. He excused himself and walked over to them and whispered a request. The musicians agreed, and Jeffrey turned to watch the reaction on Saul’s face when the quartet began playing, “Shall We Dance?” from The King and I.
Saul smiled widely, and Jeffrey slowly approached with his hand extended and asked, “How about it, Saul? Shall we dance?”
Saul blushed for effect and answered, “I thought you’d never ask.”
The two of them, the once-lost playwright and the ghost who was just forgotten, glided across the room to the music of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. The other patrons, all guests at the request of Jeffrey, turned and smiled at the sight of the two who had brought their little town into the spotlight that they had always wanted. There had been losses and a lot of tears, but they were a strong community, and with the addition of Saul, they were a unique community.
Mayor Baker and his wife stood and joined Jeffrey and Saul on the dance floor; they were joined by Rufus O’Neal and his wife. Others rose to partake in the moment, and Jeffrey and Saul smiled at the scene they had helped create.
“Wonderful choice of music,” Saul said to his friend.
“If they had met you,” Jeffrey began, “they would have called the musical The Queen and I.”
The two of them laughed and exchanged partners with the Bakers as Elmo danced with Saul and Jeffrey with the mayor’s wife, Chloe. The evening was everything Jeffrey had hoped it would be for his friend, and he thought how great it would be if he could stay in Zion permanently, but that was not in the cards, and he was going to have to break the news to Saul that he would be leaving the town forever.
Chapter Fifty: Curtain Call
A lot had happened over the course of the past year and Jeffrey took time to reflect on all that he had been through.
He had seen his once successful career go up in flames due to the sabotage from Heinrich Schultz and Mendel Fujikawa. His long-time relationship with Rachel had been destroyed by her own treachery, he had relocated to the small town of Zion, New York, and started his life over again thanks to meeting the ghost of a 1920s drag queen. At every turn, he had been hunted by a madman with designs on killing him, and there had been the matter of being betrayed by Jacob who then redeemed himself in Jeffrey’s eyes. In many ways, he thought he had been living in a sick, twisted dream, but then he came back to the realization that all of this had happened, and that he was, in fact, the better man for it.
His writing w
as back on track; Katz was one of the biggest hits in Broadway history, and he knew exactly where his life was going and where it had been. Abby was everything he had wanted in a woman and more. She was loving, loyal, and determined to help him make a better man of himself every day, without ignoring the fact that she was a part of this partnership.
He evaluated where he stood and realized it was a miracle that he was here to enjoy this success. Anything could have gone wrong over the last year, and the fact that he had survived it was a testament to his desire to fight back, a resolve he had never known he possessed, and to the unlikely encounter with Saul, who had been even more determined to not let him quit.
The ghost was the one who had breathed life into him, and that in itself was remarkable. The man had been dead for over sixty years, yet he was the one with life and vitality in him that would not quit and the one who had urged Jeffrey to strive for more at every turn. He had risked his own existence by helping Jeffrey and had broken some kind of rule regarding the dead and humans, for which he was going to have to pay a penalty. He had shown more loyalty to a man whom he had never met than most of those who had known Jeffrey for years. With Saul in his life, Jeffrey was confident that things would only get better.
But they would have to get better apart.
As the seasons changed, so did life, and in Jeffrey’s case, the life of his grandmother. Bubbe had finally succumbed to age and was no longer able to care for herself all of the time as she once had and was unwilling to leave her home in Borough Park. This left Jeffrey with the obligation to see to her well-being with around-the-clock care. Abby had happily agreed, which was part of the reason why he loved her so much, her willingness to put others first. So, Jeffrey and Abby came to the decision that they would move in with Bubbe and care for her for the rest of her days. And knowing the old woman as he did, that could be a very long time.
With Abby by his side, he was confident he could have it all, a professional life, a private life, and perhaps, even one as a father one day. Abby had told him of her relationship with Sean Wagner, and he told her that what she done before they knew each other was none of his business. They had both had their own lives, and now they would share together the lives that they had due to the experiences that they both had lived. They were a good match, and every day that went by only seemed to reassure him that his life was finally as close to perfect as it was ever going to be.
But with all of the changes in his life, he had to make the sad decision to sell the house in Zion. Jeffrey had asked Saul to come along with them, but Saul had revealed the decision had been made on his punishment, and the decision dictated that he would never be allowed to leave Zion again. Where he was once allowed to leave the cabin, he was now bound to the town. He would never be able to leave the town again for any reason, and if he ever transgressed again the punishment would be much worse.
Upon hearing the news that he would be stuck in Zion forever, Saul walked around in black, as if in mourning, for two weeks until Jeffrey convinced him that he would still be able to be talent director at the Zion Community Theater. At least I have a reason for moving around each day, Saul thought.
But it was when Jeffrey informed the ghost that the house was being sold that Saul almost went over the deep end. He shunned Jeffrey and wanted nothing to do with him. He called him a filthy golem and mamzer and said he would never forgive him for this treachery. Jeffrey tried to reason with him, but there was very little he could do to reason with a ghost who kept disappearing every time he raised the subject of the two of them separating.
Jeffrey tried to explain that he would still make it a point to visit the town once a year, but that did very little to sooth Saul’s anger and feelings of betrayal. What he and Jeffrey had been through together should have been the bonds that kept for all eternity, the kind that would have brought Jeffrey to the cabin after he had died, and the kind that dictated the kind of loyalty that could never be broken by something as trivial as a career or a sick bubbe.
Saul knew he was being unfair to his friend, but he could not shake the feeling that he was being shunned again by those who he had cared for the most. Melissa had tried to say good-bye and found that Saul was nowhere to be seen. He wouldn’t come out, no matter how much they pleaded, no matter how much they coaxed. The mayor of Zion even offered to name the tenth day of June, which was Judy Garland’s birthday, Saul Milick Day. It did not work, and the ghost remained in hiding.
Finally, the day came for Jeffrey to close up the house in preparation for the sale to the new owners, who he knew very little about since they had purchased the house in much the same way that he had, in total anonymity. He looked around at the cathedral ceiling, the beautiful view of the lake, and the staircase where Saul had come down on that night when he had taken him out on the town, and he found himself getting a little sad.
He stood in the middle of the living room and said to no one in particular, “I know you are mad at me, my friend, and I can’t say that I blame you, but this was something that had to be done.” He picked up a picture of Melissa taken during the premier that Saul wanted on display and smiled. “I know you think I didn’t do enough to try to see to it that I could stay, but there just isn’t any way. With the way things are now, and the fact that I’m more popular than ever thanks to my friendship with you, I can’t stay here in Zion. The town would never be able to handle the fame.”
Jeffrey walked to the stereo and put on the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. He figured the somber tone of the piece would show Saul how his heart was breaking at saying good-bye and that the ghost would appreciate the dramatic gesture. He waited for a moment, in hopes that Saul would appear, and was disappointed when he did not. He lowered his head and turned off the music. He walked across the room to the front door and left the keys on the table. He turned to take one last look and saw Saul standing in front of him with a bouquet of freshly picked wildflowers from the garden outside.
Jeffrey smiled at him and asked, “You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?”
Saul shrugged his shoulders and replied, “From your body language, I think I get the gist of it.”
Jeffrey nodded his head in agreement and continued, “You know Saul, I wish—”
“Don’t say it, Jeffrey,” Saul interrupted. “It’s better this way than to drag things out. I know what you are doing is for the best, and I will just have to learn to accept it and wait for you to vacation up here.”
“You know that I will, don’t you?”
“I know that you’ll want to,” Saul said. “But the best intentions rarely are seen to their end.”
Jeffrey understood the ghost’s apprehension at believing what he was being told, but he wanted to try to convince him that things would be different. “Abby is pregnant,” he announced. He hadn’t planned on it, but felt that this was as good a time as any. “How can I raise our baby without him or her ever meeting Uncle Saul?”
Saul smiled and said, “Mazel tov, my friend.” He held his hands to his mouth and continued, “You know, with me as the baby’s uncle and aunt, you have a choice of two names to pick when the baby is born, Saul or Esther.”
Jeffrey laughed and said, “Saul or Esther it is.”
“Don’t you dare do that to your child, you little pisher,” Saul chastised. He thought for a moment and then said, “I got it, how about Heinrich?”
“That’s it!” Jeffrey exclaimed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“You’re the writer, I’m the creative force.”
The two of them laughed and then grew silent. They stood looking at each other, the ghost and the human, the Broadway playwright and the queen of vaudeville, and the two of them embraced as if there was no divide of human and spectral between them. Their differences did not matter; they were friends and would be so for as long as this world would allow them. It was a unique friendship in that it would survive life and death, and Saul would be waiting for Jeffrey when that time came. Jeffrey wasn’t aware
of it yet, but Saul had pulled some strings with the powers that be to see to it that Jeffrey would be sent to Zion upon his death. The two friends could be together throughout eternity. It would be just like heaven if there really was such a place.
“I’m never going to forget you, Saul,” Jeffrey said, holding back tears.
“I don’t suppose that you will, bubbeleh.”
They walked to the front door and stood on the porch. The air was crisp and clean, and the woods surrounding the cabin were a chorus of bird song and the scampering of rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks. The sounds from the lake hummed of speedboats and jet skis, and Jeffrey took one last, long look at the house he had arrived at only a little over a year earlier and in a much worse state.
His life was no longer in a shambles, and he was no longer fighting for his professional life against a man who could have crushed him and wanted him dead. Jeffrey had learned, through Jacob, of the plot to send him to that demonic island that Schultz owned. He had reported it to the authorities, who promptly located it and shut it down, freeing more than fifty men and women who were waiting to be hunted down for the sake of sport. More arrests were to follow, but this was just another charge to be added to the already growing list of crimes that Schultz was guilty of.
“I better go,” Jeffrey said.
Saul nodded his agreement and offered, “Be careful driving home. Don’t be in too much of a hurry and take plenty of time to pish if you have to.”
“You sound like my bubbe, Saul.”
“And your bubbe sounds like a smart lady.”
The Queen and I Page 33