Rogue Ragtime

by K Alexis

  "Do go on," Jetta said, sitting back down.

  "When they shoot the little man, the fake hustler at the end, how do they know he's at the office? It wasn't the nineteen nineties. It was the twenties. No-one had any mobile phones."

  Jetta shrugged. "Adler was never big on plot. He liked action and surprise. Personally, I prefer the scene when Marl returns home and finds a pretty little surprise waiting for him. It's the only time he does something smart and throws her out. You could learn a lot from that moment." She winked at him.

  "After hitting her," Agra spluttered out, trying to continue the conversation and evade how Jetta's dress accented the shape and hardness of her nipples. The room was not cold nor stimulating his partner in crime, but these "facts" did not mean their flirting was real. It was supposed to be an act for the other fliers. Yet, if he had been wrong about his ex-girlfriend's commitment to him for almost a decade, what other signals and signs had he misinterpreted?

  "I've been thinking …" Agra continued. "Maybe my friends are right. It's possible the movies I like are sexist and I shouldn't watch them … Maybe that's what's making me …" He bit down on the steak and its flavor burst through his mouth. From the texture of the meat as it fell away to the intermingling of the mushroom sauce with the steak's succulent middle, he could find no fault. "To be rich," he concluded.

  Jetta scrunched up her nose. "It's not so great. Sure, you might have everything you want in the universe but unless there is someone to share it with …" She reached across the table and stroked Agra's hand.

  He had known this part was coming, the obvious tease, but it sent a pleasurable jolt up his arm all the same. He yanked his hand away and cleared his throat. "I'm not that kind of a man," he said.

  "Oh, I didn't mean to … I'm sorry … I really am." Jetta pretended to return to her meal and took three more bites of the fish in silence. She blushed and slowly licked her top lip. "Agra, you've been a huge help to me. I … I don't know what I would have done without you." She bit her bottom lip and bent forward. Agra focused on her eyes as best as he could. "I wanted to say thank you. That's all. That's what this dinner was for. After all, you'll be gone soon."

  "I don't need—"

  "How about we watch an imagination together?" she suggested. "A non-sexist one? It's a memory from Allāt, an ancient Arabian goddess. They say it's genuine."

  Agra took another bite of his steak. He wished he could stay at the table and be free from Jetta's allure. He wished there was no second act to their ploy. "I have ethical issues with those too. They—"

  "Please," Jetta begged, holding both of his hands in hers. "Let me do this for you. I want to do this for you. I'd do anything to make you happy again."

  Taking one last scan of table, Agra sighed, and stood up—committing to see this path through to its end. "How can I say no to the most beautiful woman on this zeppelin?" he said. It was a cheesy line, but they had been unable to resist including it.

  Jetta slid her arm under his. "You can't," she said, her eyes dancing with color. "No-one ever can."

  Agra felt his throat go dry, and he struggled to maintain his natural gait as they exited the restaurant. He hoped he had made the right choice trusting Jetta and rejecting Junko. He hoped but did not know. And he would only find out if Elia raged out of her cabin to come and lecture them on the appropriate propriety one must take when they have lost a friend or a lover.

  * * *

  MEA LAY NEXT to Tath and ran a finger along her girlfriend's naked body. Tath purred.

  "You want to go again?" Tath asked.

  "No," Mea replied. "This is all I need. You're perfect."

  Tath grunted and pulled away. "Tell that to Steh."

  "You're too hard on yourself," Mea said softly. "He was always withdrawn, always keeping secrets from everyone. He wouldn't have told you even if you had asked." Her statement was mostly true, although it was missing the why.

  "You knew him better than I did," Tath said. "Did you think he was suicidal?" Tath rolled over and looked Mea straight in the eyes. "Did you notice anything?"

  "No," Mea replied. "We were never that close. We only travelled together for safety."

  "You weren't close?" Tath queried. "You spent four years with him before Ag and I showed up and then six more dicking around after that. How can you not have been close?"

  Part of Mea ached to disclose her entire, tragic saga. She wanted to scream she was a heroine. She had defied her selfish, despotic mother. She had let Steh live to see the world before his death. It was not her fault he had needed to die. He had been too colossal a risk to leave walking around in this universe. It had been his fate long before he had even hollered for air.

  Rather than be honest, she said, "I prefer books to people."

  Tath reached over and drifted a finger down Mea's cheek. "I'm not going to judge you. Sometimes I wish …" Tath rolled onto her back and ran her fingertips along the cabin's ceiling. "Fuck it. I wish the world was like a novel. Even if it ended with some anticlimactic bullshit, it would be alright. A place where people made sense and tragedy had purpose … not like this one. He didn't have to die. He didn't have to fucking die alone."

  "Which novel?" Mea asked, latching onto Tath's palm as it passed over her head.

  Tath chortled. "I don't fucking know. I'm not sixteen anymore. I don't have time to sit around and vibrate off to impossibilities."

  "I'd go to Toghwars in the Hemi ngèr series," Mea persisted.

  "Don't be too fucking predictable," Tath needled Mea. "I already live in a magical universe. I don't get the appeal of those books."

  "Caring friends? Adventures to help you learn about yourself? Supportive teachers? An easy to spot villain?"

  Tath sat up and kissed Mea's hand. "I'd get bored."

  "How about The Magician and his Loathing? If I could take you there, wouldn't you want to meet all your favorite characters? You could relive their journey together."

  "'If you could take me there …' You can't, M. That's the reason why this is bullshit and a waste of fucking time. It's the type of shit fanboys shovel because they've got nothing else in their lives."

  "What if I could though?" Mea pushed herself up. "What if you could be a princess named 'Telia' in the morning and then a pirate called 'Tath' at night? Wouldn't you—"

  Tath began flicking her fingers as if she was thinking about summoning her knife. "'Telia,'" she repeated. "Out of all the names in the world, you pick Telia? My fucking name?"

  Mea gulped and her mind went blank. She had not anticipated such a reaction. "I didn't know."

  "Bullshit."

  "It's the truth. I think Telia's a pretty name. I think it's the name of a princes—"

  "Of course, it's the name of a princess, I am fucking one." Tath held up her hand in front of Mea's face as if it was a stop sign. "I'm not fucking around, M—if I find out you're looking into my past, I'll …" She pushed past Mea and slid off the bunk and onto the floor. "I'm going to have a shower. We're arriving soon. Who knows how long it'll be before we can have another one."

  "You didn't answer my question," Mea pressed.

  "You want to run away with me?" Tath confirmed.

  "Yes."

  Tath rubbed her perfect thighs and slid a hand through her hair. "Aw, shit. I don't … I don't want to run away. I did it once, and I'm still going. I'm exhausted."

  "We could be queens togthe—"

  "Fucking don't," Tath spat, interrupting. "Maybe if you'd asked before Lara had been killed, I would've had a different answer. Maybe I could've left this place and started again with fuck-all regret, but that path is closed. Lara's alive in here." Tath smacked her chest. "And Steh's alive in here." She hit it again. "Every day they push me to be better, work harder and stay smarter. If I leave this place, they're gone. Everything we've done and sacrificed for is gone. Six years of our lives and two of our friends." Tath yanked on a random skirt from the pile of clothes on the floor. "I can't give them up so I can start over
and feel light. This heaviness is my price for living; it's the cost for every fuck-up I've made and every asshole I've hurt." She grabbed a top from the cupboard.

  "Do you know what my father's philosophy was?" Tath asked Mea. "He believed everything is paid for in blood and betrayal. There are no friends or family, only opportunities to triumph or be ground under the racist's wheels. And maybe he's right, but I'm going to rage till my last breath to prove friendship is more than a mutually beneficial exchange." She paused and smiled, jerking her thumb toward the door. "Enough of that shit, though. You want to come with me? Water's an erotic playground."

  The lower half of Mea burned at the suggestion, but the rest of her felt dull. She had hoped, almost expected, Tath to leap at the chance of true freedom. She had begun to dream of them travelling from one universe of existence to another and living without any rulers or masters. Here, in this stuffy cabin, her lover had snuffed her hope out. Tath had made it clear that it was time for Mea to go home. Navigators did not belong on Earth. They were too immense, too vast, to be contained on the blue orb, and she would only be able to find peace back in her section of the heavens.

  "Not this time," Mea replied. "I have to see Elia about something."

  * * *

  JETTA SHED HER dress almost as soon as she had entered her cabin. Even though it took Agra a few seconds to close the door, Jetta made no effort to find a change of clothes. Rather, she impassively turned and stood in the middle of the space between the basin and the bunk. As Agra already knew, she wore no bra, but she was not completely naked—a pair of ivy, V-cut satin panties covered her most intimate area. Little metal pieces near the sides of it appeared to let the wearer pull the front down without removing the garment entirely. Although he had not asked, Agra had also learned the answer to whether or not Jetta had a bikini wax—she did.

  "They seem impractical for a heist," he said.

  "They are."

  Agra pressed his thumb into the palm of his other hand and winced. "This is where you tell me why you're half-naked, and I shouldn't leave. This was not part of our plan."

  "I could be a nudist," she replied.

  "Jetta, every time I believe you …"

  "Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to seduce you. Admittedly, without much effort, but I'm trying. If you fall for it, I can pretend I told you the whole story back in Broken Pieces. So, if you could act on those impuls—"

  "I'm not going to," Agra said, cutting her off. "Why did you even think I would?"

  Jetta stuck her tongue out and made a face like a kid who had been asked a silly question. "Well, you seemed to enjoy looking at these during dinner." She pushed her breasts up. When Agra did not respond to her baiting, she continued, "Obviously, I didn't think you would be such a dimwit, otherwise I would've put more effort in. Sometimes you have to reward yourself with a long shot."

  "Then could you please put some clothes on?" Agra requested.

  "No, because you'll need to take them off again. And my storage area wouldn't be packed the way I liked it."

  "Your plan involves me getting you naked?"

  "No, it involves us having loud sex. And before you freak out about a basic human need, like you always do, I'm not talking about a sharing of souls or intermingling of spirits—just loud and wild sex. It's got to be noisy enough people can hear our humping down the corridor."

  Agra reached for the handle. "I am leaving."

  "Then leave and we'll get a lecture for nothing. This is no more fun for me than you. And if you were a better liar, I wouldn't have to do this."

  "I'm a great liar," he countered. "My best friend doesn't know I'm a Corsair. I've gotten into castles and tombs with my silver tongue."

  "Oh, sweetie, you're not trying to trick a bored guard or besotted childhood friend. You're dancing with an age-old Turiean who's met more phonies than a supermodel at a pub. She's going to know." Jetta shivered and crossed her arms. "Maybe this was a bad idea, but I thought it was funny at the time."

  "The sex?" Agra queried, hoping Jetta would reverse her stance.

  "Of course not, that has to happen. Trying this approach." Jetta stuck her chest out and gestured dramatically down her body. "No? Really? Look, it's true, we could make a lot of groaning noises. It'll work for the rubes on the vessel." She pointed at the door. "However, when Elia gets here, it'll take her ten nano-nano seconds to know you're still Junko's boy. I need more than ten nothings. I need her to give you one of those long-winded lectures she enjoys doling out to her surrogate kids. And that only happens if it's so obvious you've fucked up on a … moralistic scale? A penis-in-a-beer-glass scale?"

  "What if you're wrong?" Agra pressed. "What if this is the sham everyone says it is?"

  Jetta rested her left thumb on the top of her knickers. "Then you get revenge on Junko and a classic J-story for the girls. How are you not over here and thrusting as hard as you can? I always plan win-wins for the guys I like."

  Agra's emotions and logic were all tangled together: Steh could be alive or dead, alive and dead. Jetta's body was so perfectly sculpted it could have come straight out of a well-budgeted porno-imagination. She was a liar. Her breasts were bigger than he had estimated at the dining table, and her ass curvier than he had given it credit for. Tath would hate him for at least a week. He was supposed to be in mourning. Steh was a city-destroying bomb. Her lips had a sheen to them he had failed to notice during their meal. Was she wearing lipstick? Would she fulfill her end of the bargain once they had separated? What would she taste like if he kissed her? He loved Junko. Jetta claimed Junko was a liar and using him. What would it feel like to be on top of the pirate queen and feeling her warmth wrap itself around his member? Junko had not replied to his message. How loud could he make Jetta scream when she climaxed? This was a trick. She had to be trying to steal something from them. All the valuable items they had were in the portal and inaccessible. Mea must have the portal key. Mea could not have murdered Steh, could she? He did not like Jetta. She was pushy and obstinate and demanding, yet also soft and funny … and loved watching imaginations. Why were his pants getting tighter? He was not interested in sex with her. He was better than this, was he not?

  Jetta reached under her bunk and pulled out Steh's pebble. "This may seem weird after all of that, but, tricks aside, I'm into consent. So, if you don't want to do this, no more twists or turns, I'll put some clothes on and we'll start groan—"

  Agra strode across the cabin and gathered her tiny body into his arms. As he started to kiss her, splashes of color broke out all around her irises.

  * * *

  THE LOUNGE WAS mostly empty when Mea stumbled her way into it with all seven Hemi ngèr books tucked under her arm. Only a young man and woman sat in the corner rambling over each other's speech. They could not decide on a topic and so jumped between politics, their unmatched love for one another and stories from their childhoods. Four empty wine bottles sat on their table while another was tipped onto its side and dripping onto the floor. There was no stain though, a testament to the enchantments at work on Nucia.

  Mea went over to the windows and placed her books on the ground next to her. They had crossed the equator a couple of days ago, and the season had changed from mid-spring to autumn. The shift, however, had meant little to those travelling where they could touch the stars. The temperature and cloud formations appeared to be identical to how they had been in the southern part of Earth.

  According to the picture clock on the wall, it was about the same time Mea had fought with Steh all those lifetimes ago, around eleven. It was likely the other passengers had gone to bed, making sure they got a solid night's sleep before their arrival at Ras Al Khaimah. It was the perfect time to do ungodly things and hope the almighty failed to notice.

  Mea patted the top of her book pile and stared into the blackness below. Despite the confidence she had exuded in the cabin, Tath's words had continued to rattle around in her head. Was her lover right: she was selfish and running away from her
pain? With a single transversal, the consequences of the choices, decisions and judgements she had made in this universe would be forever up to her to invent. She could stitch together a dozen happy endings for Tath and Agra—never having to confront reality. And if Tath was correct, then had Steh been honest about her failings as well? Had he seen something deep in her she had refused to reconcile?

  No, that was impossible. She would not turn into her mother: a Navigator jumping from universe to universe and dabbling in people's lives because they interested her, not because they posed a risk to others. There would be no demi-god here, ghost-birth there or intellectual wunderkind over yonder. She would take Tath's final lesson and cling to it in the face of temptation. She wanted to be a Navigator and live with her family once more but also be a human encased in loss.

  Mea's thoughts were interrupted by Elia. "I be tearing their little limbs from their petty skin containers," the captain yelled. "When they being done with me, they never be forgetting it. Me anger be burned into their flesh and souls as if it been of their own creation." The mutterings continued as Mea listened to the captain's heavy boots thud up the stairs and down the cabin area's hallways.

  "Agra," she muttered, shaking her head. "Couldn't you have waited a few more hours?"

  * * *

  THE MOMENT AGRA heard Elia's scream, Jetta slid off him and threw a small towel over his crotch. "That was fast," she said, pulling on the same panties as before. She grabbed a green sports bra from the top bunk and put it on. "I promise we can go all-out next time I see you."

  Agra sat up and began to wipe himself down. "You don't need to see me again."

  "But I want to," Jetta parried. "Don't worry, I'll find you." She gathered a pair of black cargo pants and a tank top from the place under the bed where she had gotten the pebble from earlier. As she put her clothes on, she tossed Agra two stones: Steh's Punch and one with a faint-green aura. Agra could hear Elia's boots stomping rapidly down the corridor.