“Did you die?”
“It says you can’t park here.”
“Who’s going to move it? Come on.”
People are walking their dogs and going about their lives like America isn’t a third world country. They’re talking about it though. They are also looking at me.
“They’re staring at me.”
“Because you’re with me. They’ll get used to it. Let’s stop here first.”
I’ve never been inside of a store before. I waited outside for Titus and Jude because women are not allowed to go into strange places. This is a pretty shop that sells fancy ladies’ clothes. Maximino pauses in front of a dress made of what looks like gold coins linked together. The plastic person wearing it looks naked underneath. I would never wear that. I stand a few feet away from him hoping he chooses something modest.
“May I help you, Sir?”
“Yes, I want this in a size ten and this one also. She needs to be dressed from the skin out. I want measurements taken so everything fits properly. What do you think about this blue dress, Kitten?” He turns around to find himself alone with the shop girl. “Where has she gotten off to? Kitten? Dumani?”
I look up when I hear him call me. Maximino looks relieved when he sees me.
“Come here.” I walk over to him and he pulls me against his side. “Don’t wander so far away from me.” He smacks me on my ass and goes back to selecting things. The shop girl is too shocked to hide her displeasure. Why doesn’t she like me? Because I’m not dressed up? She is looking at me like he can do better. She is looking at him like he should know better.
“Lady, I don’t have all day. Get the fucking dresses and save the disgust for your eating habits. You fat bitch.” He’s mean. My husband is mean. Maybe I like mean men. The lady rushes off and a new lady takes her place. She smiles in recognition.
“Mino!” She squeals excitedly. “Welcome home.”
“Angelina.” They embrace and he kisses her full on the lips.
“Why haven’t you called me, Lover?”
“I’ve been busy. I’m sure you found someone else to do.”
“They don’t compare to you. No one does it like you, Mino. Can I come over tonight?”
“Not tonight. I just landed and I want to settle in.”
“With her?”
“Do your job, Angelina. She needs clothes. Dress her or we can go next door.”
Dress her means buy more clothes than I will ever wear. We walk from store to store buying things for me and him. I enjoy watching him try on suits as the tailor pins and takes measurements. I’m not wearing my pilgrim dress anymore. I’m wearing a long-sleeve hot pink sheath of silk that hangs loose on my body down past my ankles. Maximino took a silver belt off a plastic person and buckled it around my narrow waste. His hands stayed on my hips and his eyes stayed on the dress for a tense three minutes. The dress didn’t fit so loosely with the belt.
“I want this in every color.” He finally said to the sales lady. I felt naked when I left the store with my bare feet showing in the flat silver sandals. I wasn’t going to wear them until I saw the way he was adming me. Like I’m beautiful. He walks with his arm around me pointing out things and carrying bags in his free hand. We stop at a cart.
“Two please.”
What is it? It looks like snow. I taste a little on the tip of my wooden spoon. I look up at him in wonder. That’s good.
“It’s gelato.”
We walk and eat our gelato like I didn’t leave my family behind and he doesn’t drink blood. We walk on like we know each other. We talk about my family.
“I am the unfortunate one.”
“They are the unfortunate ones. You lived and they didn’t. Dumani, you are a sorceress. You can shake the ground we walk on. Maybe it’s best that you don’t know anything about casting. It’s safer to let you believe you’re human.”
I tuck myself under his arm and wrap an arm around his waist after we toss away our cups. He drives me to his home in the scary, yellow car.
“What a lovely apartment.”
“It’s a palazzo, Kitten. This is Sicilian marble and Murano glass. This house is older than your country. Let’s put these bags in my room and I’ll show you around.”
The ceilings are higher than my roof back home. The windows are large and the rooms are airy. I feel like I stepped back in time. Or, into my future. The bedroom hasn’t been changed in two hundred years. It’s decorated like whatever Duke that furnished it is going to walk through the door and ask us what we’re doing in his home. Time stopped in here. The gilded furniture and high back, silk, sofas look original. I watch Maximino set the bags down before he takes off his jacket and cufflinks. He drops them in a dish on a side table. The shirt is unbuttoned and removed.
“Why are you watching me like that, Kitten?”
“I like watching you. Why do you call me kitten?”
He doesn’t respond. His smile is his response.
“I’m going to work out for a few hours. Take a nap, watch TV, or do witch shit. When I come back, I’ll make you dinner.”
“Can I come with you?”
“I’m not going far. You’ll be fine.” Maximino assures me. “Make yourself at home.” He says. This isn’t home. This is his home. I don’t want to stay here alone.
“Can I please go with you?”
Max looks at me like I asked him to marry me. I can’t tell if it’s sympathy or disappointment. He doesn’t want me to go with him. That, I can tell.
“I prefer to work out alone.”
“I’ll be quiet, please?”
“Fine.” He says reluctantly. “Come on.”
I jump up in my pink dress and I follow him. The gym is two buildings down. We ride a hand crank elevator to the basement. He takes me through the men’s locker room. There are males of all colors and sizes in various stages of undress. They raise their eyebrows at Maximino. What in the hell is she doing here? The unspoken question hangs in the air. No one has the balls to ask him aloud. A tall, naked man the color of fire coal stands off to the side with his big arms crossed. He is a perfect male specimen. I’ve never seen a man as well made as he is and I can’t look away. My eyes drop to his waist. They widen. He has a dick like a baseball bat.
“Dumani.” Maximino snaps at me. “See something you like?”
I blush all over. The black God’s smirk reveals a set of perfect, white teeth. I turn and hurry after my lover. The big dick man laughs at my back. How embarrassing! Maximino opens a set of glass doors. He stops beside two moss green wing-back chairs.
“Sit here and don’t move. Do you understand me?”
I nod my head and sit down. It’s comfortable at least. I watch him continue into the workout room. The door closes behind him and I’m alone again. I’ve always had my son or Judea around me. This is new and I don’t like it. He’s working out, not running off. Relax, Duma. I sit and count the minutes like a child on punishment. What are you doing? I’m waiting for my lover to finish working out. One hour turns to two. Men come and go, no one speaks to me. They make me feel like a trespasser. I make my way back to his palazzo only to find myself locked out. I don’t want to bother him in the gym. I go outside and study the old building with its columns and ornamental statues. I take off my sandals and I start climbing up the side like a mountain goat. The patio door is open. I remember looking out of it as we were leaving. It isn’t an easy climb. It isn’t hard either. I’m dragged over the side and dropped to the ground. A man has a gun pointed in my face. I raise my hands standing to my feet. I make my move when the man looks down at my bare legs. I knock his gun arm up into the air and it discharges. I punch him in the nose, elbow his ribs, and sweep his feet from underneath him. I raise my foot over his face when I’m taken down.
“You’re under arrest!”
“Under arrest? For what?”
“For theft.”
“Theft? What did I steal?”
“We caught you before you could t
ake anything.”
I struggle with him unsure if I should kill him or not. I am not going to jail with these men. I am not a criminal. There are four of them total. Two are holding my arms and a third is trying to handcuff me.
“You can call Maximino. He will tell you that I’m staying here.”
“That’s what they all say when we catch them breaking into his house. What’s his last name? You whores never know the answer to that question either.”
“Vitale. Maximino Vitale.”
You whores? Do they think I’m a prostitute? I’m offended and ashamed. How many women break into his house? I’d better not hurt them. I could get Max into trouble. I let them cuff me behind my back. The officer I fought is on his feet again. He rocks me with a left hook.
“He’s in the gym. Can you please send someone down to get him?” I spit a wad of blood on the officer’s shoe. Some of it spatters onto the antiquated tile floor. I dare him to hit me again. He does. So, I headbutt him and bust his lips.
“I’m going to kill you! You black bitch!”
“Are you going to send anyone? Can I leave a note telling him where I am?”
It’s hard to dig your feet into tile when you are being dragged away. The tall door bangs open as the man of the hour comes running in.
“What in the fuck are you doing? Take your fucking hands off her and remove these fucking cuffs.”
“Do you know this woman, Mr. Vitale? She was seen climbing in through the patio and when confronted she assaulted one of my men.”
“Are you okay? Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? I would have given you the key.” Maximino is sweaty and his damp hair is curling on top. He looks sexy.
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
“You didn’t want to bother me? Are you fucking crazy?” He touches my swelling eye. “Who hit you?”
“She was acting like an animal. Do you see what she did to my face?”
I watch in amazement as Maximino lifts the man by the shirt, takes eight steps and tosses him out of the open window. I hear his scream before he hits the pavement below with a wet smack. The twisted part of me wants to look and see if he splattered. The church girl is horrified. The lover is turned on. Max isn’t wearing a shirt and his body is hard and slick. I lick my lips.
“Go into the room while I speak with the officers, Dumani.”
I run myself a bath in the old clawfoot tub and I sit waiting. The bubbles tickle my chin and smell like him. I sigh as the hot water warms my skin and relaxes my muscles. The lights are coming on across the city. I am sitting in a tub where a royal person bathed. In a house where royal people lived. With a man that fits right in here.
“You scaled the building in broad daylight? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking the patio door was open and I could get in that way.”
“You are in the city now. You can’t do things like that. You can’t draw this kind of attention to yourself. There are people and things walking around that you know nothing about. Times are changing, Kitten.” I watch him strip out of his gym clothes and slide into the tub behind me. Water sloshes over the edge when it overflows.
“You need a bigger tub.”
“Why? We fit, don’t we?” He asks pulling me back against his chest. I smile to myself. We barely fit. I wouldn’t want it any other way. He picks up the soap lathering his soft hands. They squeeze and knead my round, firm breasts. Gavin is the real magician, not me. He made the ugly disappear. Maximino’s hands travel down over my flat belly and between my legs.
“You can’t go everywhere with me. I won’t be with you every second of the day. You’ll have to get used to it.” He says stroking my hair with his wet hand.
“What if I can’t?”
“You have no choice.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Our first night is perfect. I’m in Rome. I wonder what it looked like a thousand years ago. I would be watching a chariot race or in the middle of an orgy. Tomorrow, I’ll see more of the city. I want to see everything. I take a sip of the tart white wine in my glass. This is wonderful. I gaze up at Max because he’s so quiet. His eyes are burning into me. The intensity of his gaze makes me blush and look away.
“Look at me.”
I look at him. Every time I look at him it feels like the first time. He’s so shockingly beautiful. Judea and the Antonov’s are handsome men. There are handsome men in the church. Not like Judea but okay. Maximino is something else. I didn’t know that beings like him existed. He’s not a man. He’s something more. Something that I want down to the very depth of my soul. Maybe he cast a spell on me. How would I know? I don’t know. I don’t have to know everything. That’s why I have this life. To find the answers to the things that I don’t know. I’m figuring it out. I reach across the table and I cover Max’s hand with my own. He wraps his fingers around mine pulling me out of my chair and onto his lap.
“I’m glad you’re here, Dumani.”
I smile into his chest. I miss my son but I’m glad I’m here too. Judi is better off with Titus. I curl up and sip my wine and he sips his liquor. It’s a beautiful night. I like warm, breezy, nights.
“I’m sorry I beat up the police officer today.”
“Fuck him.”
I smile again and set my glass on the table so my arms are free to wrap around his middle. He’s so solid and feels so good. His arms come around me and his chin rests on the top of my head. I yawn. It’s been a long day. The next thing I know, he’s carrying me into the bedroom. I fell asleep in his arms. Maximino puts me to bed with a sweet kiss to my forehead. I fall asleep smiling. I wake up in the middle of the night screaming and fighting a ghost. The ghost that cut my face. I sit up in bed with my hand on my smooth cheek. Gavin fixed it and Max healed it. I’m not cut anymore. The bed is empty beside me.
“Maximino?” I call hesitantly.
I am met with silence. He’s gone. He left. Where did he go? What if he doesn’t come back? I get out of bed with tears pouring down my face. What am I doing here? What have I done? I walk from cavernous room to cavernous room. I hear a whisper. Then another and another. Quiet whispers. I can’t determine their origins because they are coming from everywhere at once. My head whips back and forth erratically. I break out in a cold sweat. Someone is here. I can feel it. I can feel them.
“Maximino?” I call louder.
The tangled whispers of a hundred voices begin to speak to me at once. They do not all speak the same language or belong to the same sex. I shake my head to empty the noise. The whispering gets louder and louder. This is a trick of my mind. I’m still sleeping. It’s Max playing a trick on me. He’s gone. I know when he’s near. It isn’t him. I can’t take it. I can’t take the voices. I run outside onto the patio to fling myself over the side. It stops. The voices go away when I cross the threshold. I can’t go back in there. I can never go back in there. I sit in a corner and cry. I want Judea. Why didn’t he choose me? Where did Maximino go? Is he with that woman? I should have stayed with Gavin. At least he was consistent. I never heard any voices when I was with him. I never worried about things like this with him. He cheated with work, not women. I lay my head on my knees and the toxic tears fall like pus from the festering gash in my heart. Where do I belong?
“Kitten? Where are you?”
How long has Max been calling me? I didn’t hear him come in. He’s worried. I’m not going back in there. I can’t. What if the voices start up again?
“Dumani? Say something, please.”
I don’t want him to see me like this. I’m falling apart. Max’s footsteps stop. He knows I’m here somewhere. Brown leather loafers appear in front of me. They’re topped with crisp, blue, suit pants. I can’t look at him. What if he has something to do with the voices?
“What are you doing out here?”
How can I tell him that I am being chased out by imaginary voices? I feel uninvited. Unwelcomed. Threatened. The voices don’t want me here. I was pushed o
ut by a house.
“You’re scared to death. What happened? Who was here?” He kneels in front of me. I can’t answer him. He’ll think I’m crazy too. My tongue is tied in a knot. I hear the whispers drift out through the open door. They say so many things. Help me. Kill them all. Where is my mother? Who are you? Help me. Miguel! They whisper their individual pleas and the noise is deafening. I cover my ears and I scream at him.
“Close the door! Close the Goddamn door!”
Max closes it before kneeling beside me again. His hands push my hair back.
“Who do you think is in there? We’re alone.”
“The voices are in there. They won’t stop talking to me. I can hear them but I can’t see them and they keep saying things.”
“You hear voices? When did it start?” He demands.
“When I woke up. It st-st-arted when I woke up.” I stammer.
“What do they say to you?”
“They tell me to kill people.” I say sniffling. “Some of them are lost and looking for family. Some are moaning in pain. There was a woman calling for Miguel. It’s awful.”
“It’s normal.”
“It isn’t normal. Nothing about this is normal. I can’t stay here.”
“Listen to me. The voices you hear are people who aren’t alive anymore. They can’t hurt you. I’m going to call a friend. He’ll come over and chase them away. Sit tight.”
“Don’t open the door!”
“I have to open the door.”
Two minutes. He’s back in two minutes speaking into his cellphone. Was the rest of the world affected at all? Max pulls me out of the corner and against his nice suit as he wraps the blanket around my trembling body.
“This is what happens when witches are raised to be something they aren’t. You should have learned to control it when you were a child. Instead, you were put in mental chains.”
“How do I stop it? I don’t want to hear voices anymore.”
“You can’t stop it. You can never stop it but you can learn to live with it. Why would you want to stop being what you are?”
“I can’t live like this. Who are they? Why are they bothering me?”
The Doomsday Papers Page 42