Beyond the Station Lies the Sea (3 page)

Niner has never eaten so much in his entire life. And
nothing in his entire life has ever tasted so good, either. Not even Mama's chocolate pudding.

When the two of them are completely stuffed, Cosmos wipes the sweat from his forehead with the napkin.

The Queen smiles.

“And what are your names?” she asks.

“Niner,” he says, “and this is my friend, Cosmos.”

“Have you been on the road a while?” asks the Queen.

Cosmos nods.

“And where are you headed?” she asks.

“To the sea,” says Niner. “We wanna go to the sea. Where the orange trees grow.”

“Well, that's quite an undertaking,” says the Queen. “You do know that it's very far away?”

“We know,” mumbles Cosmos. “We're not idiots!”

Niner kicks Cosmos in the shin under the table. “Sure it's far,” he says quickly. “But we just have to get there, no matter what. 'Cause it's summer there, an' you can live the good life, and 'cause we've never been. You see, we've never seen the sea before . . . never!”

“It really is beautiful,” says the Queen. “I used to go to the sea every summer. I always fed the gulls there. I had a house on the beach . . . a white house with a red roof and blue shutters . . . first, there are the dunes, and then the sea. The
sea is really blue, and it's incredibly salty. You can smell it long before you see it. And you can taste it too, if you lick your lips. Ah, the sea, . . . ”sighs the Queen. “It's particularly beautiful in the evenings, when the sun grows larger and larger, until finally, it looks like a big, glowing orange. Then it slowly sinks into the sea, very slowly, very far on the horizon, where the sea meets the sky.”

Niner listens carefully to every word, filled with longing. Then he swallows, as if wanting to devour the glowing orange for a final dessert.

And then Cosmos says quietly, “But we need money!”

The Queen seems to waken from a daydream. Her expression is confused at first, then suddenly stern and fully alert.

And Niner knows that Cosmos has just made a mistake.

Cosmos knows it too.

“So,” says the Queen. “You need money, you say. And who doesn't?”

“He means,” says Niner, beginning to answer before he knows what he wants to say. “He means, if you, maybe . . . if you could lend us a little? . . .”

“Lend?” The Queen laughs, but it sounds bitter.

Niner is both alarmed and confused.

“No . . . no. I didn't mean lend,” he says. But he doesn't know what more to say.

And because she sees it, the Queen reaches over quickly and strokes his hair.

“Paying for dinner is no problem,” she says. “But lending money is out of the question! You know the saying: Neither a borrower nor a lender be!”

“But the sea,” begs Niner, and his eyes well up with tears.

“We're never gonna get there otherwise!”

“Come on,” says Cosmos suddenly. “We gotta go. Good night, and thank you very much for the food!”

He stands and pulls Niner up with him.

They are reaching for the door when the Queen suddenly calls out, “Hey, wait. Come on back! There may be a way after all.”

They turn around.

“Yes?”

“Sit down. I have a business proposition for you two.”

“A business proposition?” asks Cosmos. “What kind of business proposition?”

“An exchange of sorts,” says the Queen. “You give me your most valued possession, and I give you the money to get to the sea. Do you have anything of value?”

“We have absolutely nothing,” says Cosmos.

“Everyone has something that is valuable,” says the
Queen and stands up. “I'll let you have some time alone. Perhaps you'll think of something.”

Niner watches the Queen walk through the bar. She walks ramrod straight, with her head held high. And it looks as if the men clear a path for her, as if they step back when she passes by.

The men grin in embarrassment, and Niner watches them lower their heads.

It's like a fairy tale, thinks Niner. It really is just like in the fairy tales that Mama used to tell.

Niner would like to know if the Queen is really a queen. A real queen like the ones in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and all the other fairy tales Mama used to tell him.

“Well, Cosmos?” asks Niner. “What do you think we can give her?”

Cosmos shrugs his shoulders.

“Go on, tell me, what have you got there in your bags? There must be something valuable in there.”

Niner grabs one of the bags and is about to start rummaging around in it when Cosmos snatches it from his grasp.

“Hands off! There's nothing for her in there!”

“What about your baseball cap?”

Cosmos taps his forehead with his finger.

“Oh man, come on Cosmos, d'you wanna go to the sea or not?” Niner asks impatiently.

“Of course I wanna go to the sea, you dope! But what's the Queen of Caracas supposed to do with my old cap?”

 

NINER THINKS OF WHAT he used to give his Mama for Mother's Day. It was stones, mostly. Pretty, smooth, polished stones that he would look for by the riverbank. And how glad Mama always was to get them. She even put the smoothest stone in her coat pocket and kept it with her every day when she went off to Fisher and Frost in the mornings.

“That'll be my good-luck charm from now on,” Mama said. “And whenever I touch it, I'll think of my Little Hobbin.”

 

BUT NOW, THE RIVER is far away, and so is Mother's Day.

Niner feels around in his pockets, but doesn't turn up a single stone. He finds just a single green glass marble, a smushed-up stick of gum, and a rusty key that doesn't fit any lock.

“That's it! I've got it!” cries Cosmos, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Can't believe I didn't think of it before.”

“Well, go on then. What is it?” asks Niner.

“D'you remember the guardian angel posters? The women with the wings guarding the guys and their cars? Always here, always near!”

“The guardian angel posters? What have they got to do with our business proposition?”

“Lots,” says Cosmos, grinning. “We can do what they're trying to do, easy!”

Niner is confused. “Whaddaya mean? What're they trying to do?”

“They're trying to sell guardian angels to rich people!” says Cosmos.

“Yeah, so?”

“Man, are you slow! The Queen wants something valuable, right?”

And then, finally, Niner gets it.

“You're not serious?”

“And how,” says Cosmos. “If I had a guardian angel, we could use mine. I wouldn't care. Not if it was the only thing we could trade for the money we need to get to the sea!”

“Well, we're not doing that. My guardian angel belongs to me, and I'm not giving it up. Not for nothin'! Never!”

“Probably wouldn't help anyway,” says Cosmos. “What use is a guardian angel to the Queen of Caracas?”

Niner hesitates, thinking it over.

“And what happens if you sell your guardian angel? Is it gone for good, even if you believe in it?”

Cosmos shrugs his shoulders.

“I wouldn't know,” he says. “I don't know nothin' 'bout guardian angels. I only know one thing: we wanna go to the sea and we need money. And we ain't got nothing better than your guardian angel.”

Niner hesitates.

“Well, just take a look at me, now,” says Cosmos. “I get by just fine without any angel. And when we get to the sea, you won't be needing one anyway. 'Cause then we'll have everything we need, understand? We'll open up a little stand, with a great big sign: COSMOS AND NINER: ICE COLD DRINKS. And you'll go walking up and down the beach with a cooler and serve 'em up. We'll get rich down there, I promise, Niner! And once we're rich, then we'll just buy you back your guardian angel!”

Niner is still uncertain.

Mama's new guy used to say, “Close your eyes, and whatever you see will be yours.”

Niner had tried, but he'd never seen anything. Other than a pair of red squiggles, there was nothing but pitch black. But today feels different.

When Niner closes his eyes, he sees a stand on the beach and a white sign with big red letters:

He also sees the blue sky, and the sea is wonderfully blue too, and on top of the big white sign, three seagulls sit and watch as Niner opens bottles.

Yeah, he thinks. Maybe Cosmos is right. Cosmos, who bears the name of a seaman. Cosmos, who finds abandoned houses and conquers dogs. Niner has never had a better friend than Cosmos. And when you've got a friend like that, then maybe you really don't need a guardian angel. In any case, one thing's for sure, thinks Niner: we have nothing other than the guardian angel to offer the Queen. And that notion of buying him back may be a good idea. We could at least try it, thinks Niner, and if I'm lucky, she won't believe in it. Just like Cosmos.

 

SUDDENLY, THE BELLS GO off on the slot machine up front by the counter and the colored lights flash like crazy. Niner turns around.

“Drinks all around!” yells the guy who'd wanted to
throw Niner out earlier. “Herbert, the drinks are on you. Crazy bum's hit the jackpot again.”

“Lucky at play, unlucky in love!” cackles the woman with the lipstick.

“You just keep quiet, Lola!” bellows Herbert.

Then the slot machine begins to whir on the inside. One coin after another falls out into the catch tray.

Cosmos stares.

“With some people, money falls into their laps,” says Niner. “They don't have to sell their guardian angels.”

He looks around for the Queen, but he can't find her. Maybe she was just joking anyway. Maybe she's gone home already.

“Well, at least our bellies are full,” says Niner, and turns back to Cosmos. “C'mon, let's go, Cosmos. That's enough for one lucky night.” He sounds almost a little relieved.

“What's this about a lucky night?” asks the Queen from behind Niner.

Niner jumps and turns to face her. She stands there, smiling.

“Well now, what would you like to sell me? If I read you right, Cosmos, you've come up with something.”

“What're you paying, then?” asks Cosmos.

“Enough to get you to the sea!” says the Queen.

“Eight hundred,” says Cosmos. “At least eight hundred, or it's no deal!”

That's a lot of money, Niner thinks. I've never seen so much money in my life.

“Perhaps you might explain what I'm paying for first!”

“Okay,” says Cosmos, “see, it's like this: We've thought things over and we think you're a very special person, if you get my drift. And so we think, you know, a person like you deserves something real special. . . .”

“What he means is: you probably wouldn't want to buy his red baseball cap,” says Niner.

The Queen stifles a laugh. She tries to keep a straight face and look serious.

“Yeah,” Cosmos goes on, “so we're thinking, what's really right for a person such as yourself is something more unusual. Something really valuable. One of a kind.”

He talks like a car salesman, thinks the Queen, and he does it quite well at that. I should have known he had it in him.

“And since, as you know, we're not exactly flush . . . we were thinking, the most valuable and unique thing we can offer you . . .”

“. . . would be my guardian angel,” Niner spits out.

“The angel's good, madam,” Cosmos says. “Almost new,
barely used, works like a charm. You won't find an angel like that every day. Right, Niner?”

Niner nods. But the more Cosmos talks, the more Niner realizes that he doesn't actually want to sell his angel.

“I'm impressed,” says the Queen of Caracas, “deeply impressed! I've never had a proposition like this before. So you want to sell me a guardian angel. But a guardian angel is something very personal. . . .”

She looks at Niner thoughtfully.

“Are you sure you are willing to part with your guardian angel? Are you sure you don't need him?”

Niner bites his lower lip.

“Cosmos told me that once we're by the sea, everything'll be fine. Nothing bad happens there. He said that anyone who lives by the sea definitely doesn't need a guardian angel.”

“Madam, I don't even have a guardian angel, and I get by just fine,” Cosmos adds quickly. “And besides, Niner's not alone. He's got me, after all!”

The Queen of Caracas scrutinizes Cosmos for a moment.

“Very well then,” she says. “Very well. But you must swear not to leave the boy alone. You will stay with him and look after him. Agreed?”

“I swear,” Cosmos says solemnly. “I swear by everything I hold dear!”

Then the Queen of Caracas opens her purse. She pulls out a bundle of bills. A thick bundle.

Niner has never seen so much money.

“You'll sell, then?” she asks.

“Eight hundred,” says Cosmos. “Eight hundred or no deal.”

“Yes,” nods Niner, “I'll sell.”

The Queen sighs.

“A guardian angel is something very special. You shouldn't give it up cheaply, Niner. That's why I'm going to give you a little more. I'll give you a thousand.”

Cosmos looks taken aback. He's about to say something, but the Queen gestures for him to keep silent.