Remember the Future

by Delafosse, Bryant

  “Wish we had a few more moments to talk, Pedroza,” the first Blank Man said, giving him a pat on the head like an adult might give a small child. “We’ll be in touch.”

  As the white spots on the edge of his vision slowly dissolved, Rudy focused on taking in one breath after another—in-out, in-out, in-out--all the while trying to ignore the fact that they had taken Pepe’s corpse.

  But none of that seemed as important as the reality of how close he had come to that old acquaintance Death. Only this time instead of some other unlucky sap, the Old Man had been paying him a visit.

  5

  Sliding roughly on her belly over the edge of the hole in the wall, Maddy felt Grant’s hands around her waist as he guided her down to the ground. She landed with a bit of a blush, one which was easily concealed within the shade of the enormous azalea bush she found herself shielded beneath.

  “Looks like a big place,” Grant whispered, stepping casually out into the open and staring down from the small hill they stood atop at acres and acres of enormous crypts of stone separated by well-manicured grass and sidewalks. Some appeared to be miniature buildings topped with ornate crosses, while others were statues of human beings or angels in mid-flight.

  “This is either Metairie or Greenwood. I can’t recall which,” Maddy answered in the same hushed tone. “All I know is that they’re not open to the public yet.”

  “Why are you whispering?” he asked her. “We’re not likely to wake anyone up.”

  She shrugged. “You started it.”

  “Where’s the way out?”

  Maddy turned a slow circle then pointed to the northeast where some of the larger crypts seemed to be. “That direction?”

  “You sound uncertain.”

  “Well yeah. I’ve never been here before,” she replied, starting down the wide open path between crypts. “Anything I know was gathered from travel books about this city. This is one of the better kept cemeteries. The ones closer to the Quarter are in serious disrepair. Crypts falling apart. Graffiti everywhere.”

  Grant fell into step next to her. It was eerily like walking through an abandoned, immaculately-kept city in miniature. All the lawns were perfectly trimmed and the tiny streets clear of litter. Only there were no people—rather, none above ground. “How far?”

  “This is like some kind of a dream,” she whispered in awe, gazing around with a child-like smile on her face. Suddenly she grabbed his arm and shook him roughly. “I still can’t believe we’re in New Orleans!”

  Grant recovered and put a discreet distance between them. “And if this were a pleasure cruise, a cemetery wouldn’t be one of the hot spots on my list,” he said with an unconscious shudder. “The only saving grace is that it’s daytime.”

  “Is it freaking you out a little?” she asked, giving him a look of interest.

  “No,” Grant retorted a bit too sharply. He increased his speed slightly. “How big is this damn place?”

  “No idea,” she admitted, double-stepping to catch up to Grant. “There’s a hundred or so acres of dead folks in here. In fact, I think Louis Prima’s grave is around here somewhere.”

  Grant scrutinized her with an impressed smile. “Louis Prima? Really?”

  “That’s what I heard.” She flashed him a look of honest confusion. “What?”

  “I ain’t got nobody!” a voice sung out from behind them.

  Maddy squeaked and throttled Grant’s arm.

  Untangling himself, Grant spun to find a mound of rags on the steps of a crypt slowly materializing into a figure. A bearded face emerged and blinked at them foggily. “I ain’t moving, no how,” the man exclaimed, tipping over the empty bottle sitting next to him and sending it clattering down the stone steps of the crypt.

  The sound rang like the chiming of a bell through the still morning air.

  “How ‘bout a little help here?” he asked them blurrily.

  Grant took Maddy by the elbow and guided her in the opposite direction.

  “God Bless and the Devil curse,” the homeless man yelled at their backs, suddenly sobering up. “Curse you, you selfish sinners!”

  Just ahead the wide path narrowed to an intersection surrounded by towering stone monument-like crypts. Mounted atop one, a six foot tall angel laid draped around a cross as if in mourning. Another figure sat casually on the ledge beneath it, watching the passing couple with interest.

  “Okay, I’m officially spooked now,” Maddy admitted in a hushed voice.

  “You’re whispering again.”

  “Yeah, well now I have a good reason.”

  “I think you shoulda paid the gatekeeper,” a voice suggested in a conversational tone.

  Maddy attacked Grant’s midsection, throwing herself behind Grant and putting him effectively between her and the skinny emaciated black man in a top hat that had separated from the shadows atop the crypt beside them like a man-sized crow.

  “They ain’t open yet, y’know,” Top Hat informed them, dangling his legs off the ledge.

  Grant gently nudged Maddy backwards, but unable (or unwilling) to grasp the hint, she continued to cling to his mid-section.

  “We were just passing through,” Grant replied.

  Jamming his two pinkie-fingers into his closed lips, Top Hat gave a single shrill whistle that reverberated through the tiny space.

  Grant cocked his head back over his shoulder and hissed: “If you don’t let go of me right now, so help me!”

  Maddy dropped her arms and took one step back. Throwing her arms protectively around herself, she squeezed her eyes shut.

  Grant gave her a look of concern.

  A second man--this one tall, broad-shouldered and clothed in rags--stepped casually out into the path behind them. “Morning, t’ ya’ll.”

  Grant moved around the immobilized Maddy, putting himself halfway between the two men as Top Hat slipped carefully off the crypt ledge and onto the top step.

  “You okay?” Grant asked her.

  “Just checking the forecast,” she muttered in a low tone.

  Top Hat closed in on them from the other side. “They's selfish ones! They's desecrated this sacred spot.”

  “I don't have a dollar to my name. Look.” Grant took out his wallet and held it out at arm’s length. “Does it look like rain?” he growled out of the corner of his mouth in Maddy’s direction.

  Finally, she opened her eyes, her face pale. She gave a single hopeless shake of her head and darted behind Grant again.

  Top Hat snatched the wallet from Grant's hand like a starved wolf would take food. “You done insulted the sanctity of this here hallowed ground,” he said, rifling through the billfold with a disgusted expression. “Where’s ya’ll credit cards?”

  “I had a bit of a money problem and had to cancel all those,” Grant responded. “You probably know how it is.”

  Raggedy Man stopped a foot from Grant. He scrutinized him from a slightly taller vantage point. Grant met his stare and held it.

  Top Hat spiked Grant's wallet to the cement in frustration.

  Grant reached back and set the palm of his hand against Maddy’s belly, giving her a push firmly away from him.

  Maddy held tight to his hand, unwilling to part from him.

  Dropping his eyes, Raggedy Man turned to Maddy with a smirk.

  “There was a time when I would have been scared of guys like you,” Maddy said, stepping out from behind Grant.

  “You should be, dahlin,” Top Hat replied. “We’re the ones you been havin’ nightmares ‘bout. I’m comin’ for my pound of flesh.”

  Dismissing Grant, Raggedy Man side-stepped him and gingerly took Maddy’s chin in his huge hand.

  Grant glanced over at the taller man standing beside him and gave a sigh. He was exhausted and he was hungry, but in that moment, instead of frustration taking control--tired of being dismissed and taken for granted--Grant found himself acting out of instinctual concern for another person.

  Ragged Man looked down in sur
prise and found Maddy running her hand gently along his belly. He looked up again into her eyes, a sensual smile spread slowly out across his lips.

  Running on pure adrenaline, Grant grabbed the man’s wrist, twisted it behind him, and kicked the back of his knees, dropping him to the ground.

  “If today is the day I am going to die, I swear by every soul in this cemetery, I will not go with my back to thugs like you,” Grant yelled, turning to Top Hat with fiery eyes and letting loose a cathartic yet blood-curdling scream.

  Blinking as if awakening from a dream, Top Hat turned and bolted into the grass.

  Suddenly as if by magic, there was a pearl-handled six-inch blade in Maddy’s hand, held across the throat of the man at her feet.

  “I would take a hint and run before I hand the crazy white man your knife.”

  Raggedy Man fell to his bottom and back-pedaled a few yards away before rising and running after Top Hat.

  Maddy handed Grant the knife, which he promptly flung blade first into the grass where it stuck fast in the earth. He seized Maddy’s hand and led her down the path after him in the opposite direction of the two would-be muggers.

  Maddy looked over at him with an adrenaline-fueled smile. The animal within her suddenly wanted very much to rip the clothes off this man and have her way with him in the center of this graveyard. Where the hell did that come from, she asked herself, the out-of-character feeling both shocking and exhilarating her.

  “That was quite a scream,” she said coyly, gripping his hand even tighter and in response, she could feel him increase his grip as well.

  “Yeah,” he said breathlessly, a wide-eyed incredulous expression on his face. “I don’t know what came over me. I just saw him reach for you and I… and I…”

  Words failed him and he glanced furtively over at her.

  She pulled him to a stop and looked hopefully up at him.

  He stared at her for a moment, recognized something in her expression, and looked away with a panicky expression. Pulling her after him urgently, he started moving again. “C’mon, let’s get the hell out of here before something else tragic happens.”

  Maddy lowered red-tinged cheeks and trudged after him.

  6

  City employee Marvin Sanders had just raised the American flag and opened the gates to the Greenwood Cemetery when he saw the casually-dressed lady and gentleman approaching from inside.

  From inside?

  He’d seen a lot of homeless folks over the last six weeks he’d been employed by the city of New Orleans, but none of them had worn clothes in as good a condition as these two. Maybe he was missing something here.

  “Hey, uh..,” he started as they trotted toward where he stood at the entrance.

  “Okay, you must be the new guy,” the man said to him as he whisked by him, pulling the woman behind and out through the gate.

  “Well… yeah,” Marvin replied, feeling like he was missing something very important.

  “You realize that we've had a bunch of homeless folks in here all night?”

  Marvin turned his attention away from them a moment and looked into the cemetery with interest. “Again?” he murmured under his breath, unclipping the radio from his belt and turning it on for the first time that morning. Guess, I’m going to have to call Mr. Bernard, he thought. Man, he hated dealing with that idiot. Always picking his nose right in front of God and the world.

  Suddenly, he glanced around, wondering if he would be asked about these two, but they were already headed for City Park Avenue. But they work for the city, right, he figured as he stared emptily after him. Sounded like they did.

  The lady pointed out toward Canal Street, and the man glanced furtively back one last time at Marvin.

  “Don't just stand there! You might still be able to catch them if you hurry up!” the man called back to him as he trotted after the lady.

  Marvin nodded and headed into the cemetery, calling for Mr. Bernard on his radio and hoping he’d at least remember to blow his nose this morning, so Marvin wouldn’t have the watch the spectacle of his nasal excavation.

  7

  “Are you sure taking the streetcar is such a good idea?” Grant asked, rushing along behind Maddy and resisting the urge to look back again at the park employee at the cemetery gate.

  “We have to keep moving and stick to crowds,” Maddy said, grabbing Grant by his arm and drawing him closer to her. “They know we went through the cemetery.”

  “How do you know that they know?”

  Maddy pointed to her stomach. “You can feel it in here. Can’t you?”

  Grant gave her a look of confusion. “No, you’re the one with the… system.”

  A streetcar pulled up across the street. Maddy raced toward it and Grant followed.

  They rushed into line behind a small group standing at the door of the car headed southeast toward the Mississippi.

  “You usually disregard it, but everyone has it to a certain extent, Grant,” she said, giving him a patronizing pat on his own belly. “Even big strong, logic-minded men like you. I mean, you just did it a few minutes ago.”

  When their turn arrived, Grant followed Maddy up the steps. “What are you talking about?”

  Cutting him off, the uniformed driver announced: “Two-fifty. Exact change, please.”

  Maddy turned to Grant with an alarmed look. “You have two-fifty in exact change?”

  “You're the one with all the money,” Grant replied. “Where's your bag?”

  “You saw me leave it in the car with Chuckles the clown and the recently departed Pepe.”

  “C’mon. C’mon,” the driver grumbled, glancing at the line slowly forming behind them. “We’re on a schedule here.”

  Grant cursed under his breath and rummaged through his pockets. Finding the crumpled hundred dollar bill, he handed the bill to the driver and pointed to Maddy. “Two tickets please.”

  The driver glowered at the bill and without looking up at the face of the hand holding it said, “Now what exactly am I supposed to do with that? Roll it up and snort a line.”

  “Wow,” Grant exclaimed, giving Maddy a look of disbelief. “Look, I love your sense of humor, but seriously, it's the smallest I got.”

  “Must be nice to be you,” the driver said indifferently. “Go get some change. Another car will be round at fifteen after.” He pointed to the door.

  “No, we've got to take this one,” Grant replied.

  “Or we're going to be late,” Maddy added from beside him. “Very late.”

  “Look, you can keep the change,” Grant continued to argue. “Please accept it as a donation to the Courteous Bus-Driver’s Association. I don’t care. We just need to get on this particular streetcar.”

  The driver sighed heavily, glancing at the passengers behind Grant growing more and more agitated. “I got all day passes. Five dollars each.

  “Perfect, give me two.”

  “Exact change only.”

  Grant stared blankly at the driver. “Give me twenty. Free all day passes to the next eighteen passengers,” he proclaimed, turning to the grumbling line of humanity crowding into the tiny stairwell behind him. “Just my way of welcoming all of you to the city of brotherly love.”

  Several of the passengers grumble their indifferent thanks.

  The driver began to count out pairs of passes, then stopped to search the ticket compartment in vain. “I've only got the five pair.”

  Grant seized Maddy by the shoulder and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. “Please take control of this situation before I throw myself through the windshield,” he pleaded.

  Maddy nodded and stepped past Grant to address the driver. “Please, sir. We really need to catch this car. It may very well be a matter of life and death.”

  Finally making eye contact, the driver quietly assessed the woman standing before him.

  “You have the money and you asked for twenty all day passes, I just didn't have the proper number of passes available. Driver e
rror. You ride for free. Please take your seats,” the driver concluded, turning to the next passenger in line.

  As Maddy led Grant down the aisle, he leaned down to her and said, “There’s a man who genuinely seemed to take pride in his job.”

  Grabbing the first available seats, Maddy plopped down and beamed brightly as Grant joined her.

  “What?” he asked.

  “See, you can be positive when you want to be,” she stated, leaning casually against him.

  Grant cleared his throat and looked somewhat uncomfortable. Finally, he separated himself and angled his body to face her. “Now, explain what you meant when you said that I did it a few minutes ago. What exactly did I do?”

  “You knew that guy watching the gate of the cemetery was new. How did you know that?”

  Grant considered. How had he known?

  “In whatever brief amount of time we had, I must have just assessed him and something spoke inexperience to me.”

  Maddy tagged him playfully on the arm. “That’s in small measure what I do,” she told him. “It’s not so crazy actually.”

  “Did you see the knife?” Grant asked fixing his eyes on her with a laser-like focus.

  Maddy shrugged.

  “That’s not an answer,” he challenged her.

  “In a way, I did see it,” she answered.

  He continued to stare at her, giving a subtle shake of her head. “Was that an example of what you were talking about before at the truck stop? Remembering the future?”

  Maddy lowered her eyes almost with shame.

  “What? Now you don’t want to talk about it?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t exactly have a choice. You were going to leave me there,” she replied, an edge to her voice.

  “What’s stopping you now?”

  “I find it’s not a wise thing to… y’know.” She looked away. “Let’s just say, bad things happen to the people I open up to, Grant.”

  Grant gave up and gazed intently down at the hundred in his hands. “What you do is very special, kid. It’s not a system. It’s not something you can teach. What you do is a full-fletched phenomenon.”