Ozymandias Chapter 14

 

Tyler awoke again, disoriented by the daylight. Vi’s face was next to his. “Come with me,” she whispered. “Quietly.”

As Grandma Vi tiptoed to the door, Tyler turned to find Carmen, her breasts in full view. He felt embarrassed to have let lust get the better of him, in his grandmother’s home no less, and with a woman who probably only wanted him because she assumed he was his father.

Covering Carmen, he extricated himself from the bed, pulling on his pants and shirt before grabbing his shoes and socks and following Vi outside.

“I’m sorry about that,” he whispered to Vi as she met him near the front steps. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“You’re a man now,” said Vi with a smile, “And she’s just a mixed up fool who can’t follow you.”

“She helped me escape,” he reminded her. Carmen was brave and so full of love, even if it was for someone else. “She brought me to you.”

“I brought you to me,” explained Vi.

“What do you mean?”

“You know this place. You’ve always known this place. And then you forget about it.

“I’ve never been here before.”

“You forget when you wake up.”

“I’m not imagining this, am I?” he asked, fearful it might all be a dream, which meant losing Carmen, his grandmother, and even the chance of meeting his father.

“No, but you used to spend many sleeping hours here, and there was only one of you not two, because you’re just as much my grandson as the woman who died in your world. There should only be one of you, but there are two because you forget who you are, and that there’s more to you than just this body of yours. And the woman who died, that grandmother you loved, is me. I survived because I remembered, and because I knew I didn’t have to die if there was another one of me in another world, which there was. My memories and hers. One body.”

“I don’t understand. What is this place?”

“I don’t entirely know. But here, it’s easier to see what’s wrong because we can’t pretend to be what we’re not. And everything happens at once, all time, interminable, relentless.”

“Is this hell?” he asked, noticing that Vi looked older today, perhaps in her fifties, a few wisps of grey just over her temples.

Vi grabbed his arm, smiling. “Would you call a place that brought us together hell? You always said you’d find me, and you always forgot. But somehow you remembered. You knew where to find me; and you would have come here whether it was with Carmen or someone else. I told you the way and you found it.”

“It was Magus who led me here.”

“He’s you, Tyler. Yes, that imaginary friend was you, but you as you wish you were, and later you as you feared you might become, homeless and dejected.”

“You said we needed to be two. If we’re one, how do I leave?”

“You can come and go when you like if you are complete. That’s why they don’t like flatworlders, and they call you flatworlders as if to suggest you’re less complete than the shadows that walk this world. Not all of us can see beyond this world, and many don’t even believe a world like yours exists. But some of us know, like me and the man you call Magus. They consider us dangerous.”

“And now he’s in jail,” said Tyler, feeling that perhaps he was half of what he was.

“I know. And that’s where they want him. And the moment I set foot out there, they’ll do the same to me. But I won’t leave, which is why they intend to tear everything down.”

“Bunker Hill? They tore it down years ago.”

“I know. But it’s harder to kill memories here.”

“This is a memory?”

“It’s an idea that we belong here and that they can’t take us away.”

“What happens?” asked Tyler.

“It won’t survive; though it doesn’t matter as long as you and Magus endure.”

“He wouldn’t be in jail if I hadn’t come here. It’s my fault.”

“I sent him to you, which makes it my fault,” said Vi. “I wanted you to be complete, as you were always meant to be.”

“I came because Laurel disappeared and she left a note for me to find her.”

“I knew you’d come, if at least for her; though she never left you a note. You wrote it for yourself, as a reminder of what I’d asked you to do; you, as Magus, as someone who could do as he pleased because no one would notice or care.”

Tyler retrieved the card with the map and note, asking for help. The writing looked like his, but he had no reason to write such a thing.

“I didn’t write this.”

“You did, but you don’t remember. One day, if all goes as it should, you’ll remember. You’ll remember everything, once you’re complete. And then they can never wipe out your existence or your memories.”

“So, let me get this straight,” said Tyler, his mind a fog. “I came here because you spoke to me in my dreams, and then I used Laurel’s disappearance as a pretext to come here, writing myself a message as my other half, the one who called himself Magus, who later showed me the way. But I’m not here to find Laurel. I’m only here to find you.”

“Of course you’re here to find her,” corrected Vi, visibly irked. “There’s more to your message than even I understand. Only you know why you had to follow her here. You’ve forgotten; which is all the more reason you had to come because it was the only way you’d ever understand your purpose.”

“My purpose might have been to stay put and live my life, not to come here,” answered Tyler, wishing he didn’t know anything. It was easier when all that worried him were the usual frustrations. Now there was more at stake, possibly too much.

“Your purpose wasn’t to live in darkness but to create light, just as Ozymandias did, the last complete man to ever set foot here, back when there were only a cluster of teepees and hunting Chumash Indians picking berries and fishing for food. He was here when the Spanish came and told the Indians to build missions for their salvation and he was here when the Americans decided to take it all for themselves. But many people came who forgot who they were, and those that died in your world lingered here without purpose; Olvidados, doomed to go through the motions of a real life when we’re all slowly disappearing. And, truth be told, we’re all Olvidados, except for you and Laurel and maybe your father, if he’s still alive.

“And Carmen?” he asked, hopeful.

Vi shook her head. She died of a drug overdose in your world. She never did hold it together when your father left her to come here. Your mother was made of stronger stuff. But her death here, in this world, divorced her from the possibility of completion. She can never remember who she is. Who knows where she goes when she sleeps, but it isn’t here. I doubt she feels connected to anything. It must be hard to think there’s no other world but hers and nothing beyond the body that keeps her alone.”

“But you. You said two sets of memories. One body.”

“It’s different. I died first. I can never be complete, not fully.”

“Why was my mother so different?”

“She was afraid. She knew what I knew and she knew it was dangerous.”

“You admit there’s danger here.”

“It’s all worth it, if it’s meaning you seek.”

What did she know about his aspiration? And what business did he have luring him here. His mother was right to keep her distance.

“You brought me here, but what if I die here?” asked Tyler.

“Then your other self, this Magus as you call him, will never leave.”

“And if he dies, I never leave?”

“You’re not here to contemplate worst case scenario, Tyler. You’re here to find Laurel and remember everything you forgot. I only wish I’d had time to help you when you were younger. But I lost control of the car. If the lamp post had been a few inches to the right, I would have survived.”

“You’re not dead,” he insisted, although he still wasn’t sure what to believe.

“This is about you not me. There’s nothing I can do but show you the way, and I found someone to help you because you’ll never get there alone.”

“And you want me to go without Carmen?”

“She doesn’t understand what you need to do. She loves you for what you give her, but all she can give you is forgetting. You’ll become Olvidada like her, what you knew in your world barely even a memory. You’ll remember nothing of what you were. And if you don’t find Laurel, she will forget what she was too, which is why you need to find her. No one should forget, and what everyone forgets becomes Murdoch’s gain.”

It made sense, yet he couldn’t imagine leaving Carmen. Her body inhabited his thoughts, and her honest love gave him hope. How could he be complete without a woman who was proving to be everything he’d ever wanted in the opposite sex?

“Then I’ll have to explain it to her.”

“You need to go, Tyler. She won’t let you go alone.”

“I can’t just walk out. She deserves an explanation.”

“She’s been through this before. She’ll yell at me, tell me it was my fault and then have a long cry. Soon enough, she’ll forget. Yes, she’ll forget, that is until she sees you again and she’ll remember and assume she never forgot you even though she did. So don’t worry about her. It’s you I worry about, which is why I sought out the best guide I could find.”

“I was wondering when you were gonna make the introductions,” said a man, almost entirely concealed by the arm chair he was sitting on. Tyler was surprised he hadn’t noticed the jeans and Converse sneakers.

The man stood up. He was a black man, tall and broad shouldered, a white shirt two sizes too small barely covering his protruding belly.

“Mad Dog at your service,” he said, extending a hand to Tyler. Tyler offered Mad Dog his hand and let the man shake it.

“You’re going to help me find Laurel?” Tyler asked.

“I don’t know nothing about no Laurel. I get you to New City and I get my money. Deal?”

“I don’t have money,” explained Tyler. “Sorry.”

“You messin’ with me?” he asked.

“I’ll pay you,” said Vi. “Once he gets there safe. You come back here. You know where to find me.”

“Mad Dog gets it upfront ‘cause Mad Dog knows not to trust no one.”

“And I don’t trust anyone either,” answered Vi, gazing up at Mad Dog but in no way intimidated by him.

“Mad Dog does what he says he’s gonna do. And he don’t come cheap.”

“I’ll give you a hundred now. The rest on delivery.”

As Vi held out a hundred dollar bill, Mad Dog sniffed contemptuously before grabbing it and pocketing it.

“You know I charge interest, times bein’ what they are. Times o’ trouble, prices go up.”

“Is it really that difficult to get there?” asked Tyler.

“It is when you’re not allowed to leave Old Town because too many people had enough of this shit and went west, like the new shit’s any better.”

Tyler thought of Carmen. “Tell her I’ll be back,” he asked Grandma Vi.

She nodded, grabbing Tyler by the shoulders and pulling him close.

“You should be careful about coming back because they know I’m your grandmother.”

Vi stepped to the front window. “And there’s a squad car out there now.”

“You didn’t tell me he’s a wanted man,” noted Mad Dog. “That’s a different price.”

“We agreed,” countered Vi. “Or does Mad Dog go back on a promise?”

“He does when he’s been lied to.”

“No one lied to you. I told you he’s not from here and you know how they are about flatworlders.”

“I know that really puts my ass on the line.”

“You’re as much a wanted man as he is, but if you don’t want the job, I’ll take my hundred back.”

Mad Dog contemplated Vi, surprised by her tenacity. “Times being what they are, a man’s gotta keep what he can. I think he can let this one slip this time. But next time, he won’t be so accomodatin’ when he needs to get paid.”

Vi nodded her understanding before turning to Tyler.

“If you see the Blue Knights, stick with Mad Dog.”

“We won’t see ‘em because we’ll be avoidin’ ‘em,” explained Mad Dog. “So are we goin’ or not?”

“I will be back,” insisted Tyler.

“You’ll do what you must,” she answered, her hand to his. “And only you will know what that is.” She embraced him again before releasing him.

“You wanna hug again ‘cause Mad Dog’s got all day.”

“We can go,” said Tyler.

“Took long enough,” answered Mad Dog before walking to the front door and ushering Tyler outside.

After descending the steps, Tyler turned back. Vi was at the door. Few knew him as she did. Would he see her again?

“She someone you know?” asked Mad Dog, gesturing to an upstairs window. Carmen was peering out, a sheet held over her chest.

“You leavin’ that? Man, what’s wrong with you?.”

Tyler observed her. She didn’t seem upset. Did she understand? She surprised him by nodding. He nodded back. Could Vi have been wrong about her?

“I wouldn’t leave that. Not never. Unless she had an identical sister.”

“I’m coming back,” explained Tyler.

Mad Dog snorted his amusement.

“Hey it’s none of my business what you do. But I don’t get much business from folks in New Town coming here. People like it over there. At least, no one comes back here.”

“I have to come back. You know I’m not from here, right?”

“Doesn’t matter. Like I said, I don’t judge no one where they’re from. That’s your business. Unless I don’t get paid and I got to hunt you down.”

“It’ll be fine,” said Tyler, unsure if that was even the case.

“What happens now?” asked Tyler, following Mad Dog down the hill.

“You follow me and keep your mouth shut. I’ll do the talking.”

“So does this usually work? I mean, how do we get past the police?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t done it before but I’m in real good with some bad ass black knights who do, you dig? So it’s all good.”

“You haven’t done this before? She said you were the best.”

“Because I keep an eye on her place from across the way and because I never let her down.”

Mad Dog turned a corner. Tyler followed.

“We’re walking?”

“That’s what you do when you got no money, though let’s just say this is one of those times you don’t want to be in no car. They check ‘em all. On foot, you can make a run for it. I hope you’re fast on your feet.”

“We’ve got to outrun them?”

Mad Dog stopped, laughter making his belly shake.

“Man, you folk believe everything.”

“I just want to trust you.”

“Oh, you can trust me. Just don’t believe a word I say.”

Mad Dog chuckled as he hurried on his way, Tyler trying to keep pace.

About Baron

I'm a writer of novels and screenplays living in Los Angeles.
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