Theo (27 page)

Bang bang bang. Bang bang
. One of the men stands holding up both hands with his middle fingers sticking up. Another one has his hands on his penis and is waggling it – is everybody supposed to be like that. Is he normal.

Can he help his dad. What should he do. This stuff happens more when Roger’s around. All of it. Helicopters and fights.

Theo remembers one time he stood with his dad and Chris the regular drummer watching Roger get off a boat, and Adrian said, here comes the king. Chris said, how do you know he’s the king. And Adrian said because he ain’t got shit on him, and both of them laughed. Theo didn’t understand: why did you call him the king.

Adrian noticed Theo, rubbed his head. Didn’t know you were there, mate. We were just quoting some lines from a movie. He ain’t the king, he’s just a cat I was at school with.

Try telling him that, Chris said, pulling hard on a cigarette.

Chris stomped on his cigarette with a bare foot, exhaled a cloud, and crossed his arms, then lowered himself to sit as Theo followed Adrian walking down the waterside steps toward Roger, wearing a cape and a three-cornered hat. A Paul Revere hat, like the paintings in the history book. Roger grinned at Adrian and held out one of those silver suitcases they gave to each other all the time: Not bad, he said.

Damn right, Adrian said, taking the case. Theo thinks that was Venice.

Theo veers off now to find the dogs – they need somebody to take care of them. They don’t like all the people, everyone wanting to pet them or feed them or dress them up, or pretending to like them but not. You can’t trust everybody. How do you get from safe place to safe place, who helps you. Who can help you. What if you’re alone.

Sun burns, the helicopter’s circling, the people mostly ignoring it now, some going inside with a flip of fingers. It’s summer. Wednesday, Theo thinks. He’s not sure what month it is. Maybe five o’clock.

On a desert island, shipwrecked, how to get off. He’ll build a boat.

He goes to find ladders in the caretaker’s cottage, to make the sides of a boat: he’ll put one on either side of the sliding board off at the corner of the lawn – and he’ll have a boat, with a lookout. Sail away.

Theo runs for the caretaker’s shed, tile roof slates raining off,
a line of them outlining the shape of the cottage like drips from the eaves. Colin’s been on the roof hammering at them and yelling at the sun before: Theo’s seen him. The slates he’s fixing break a lot and that makes him yell more.

Punching open the stiff door Theo’s in the weird gloom: so much of that around here, dark in the day when the world seems bright except where he is. He listens, not wanting to see anything else. No sounds.

Theo moves toward the ladders, hung on hooks to keep them off the damp floor. They’re spattered wood, and heavy: he has to strain to lift one from its hook, and then it crashes down on the hard stone floor. He hopes it’s not cracked. Theo lifts it and it’s heavy but he’s taking it, and so starts dragging, banging his back against the door, then the door banging open and he’s back in the sun, dragging and carrying, looking at the ground, hearing everything, low voices and high, laughing like flutes, the helicopter churning over everything, music from somewhere, and he’s dragging, hot, toward the slide and the swing set.

Now Theo’s running back to the shed, a little wet under the arms and in the middle of his chest, and he can feel wet on his scalp, sweat. Perspiration helps you cool off, dogs can’t sweat so they pant, their tongues help them cool off. Theo feels sorry for animals in fur, the zoo polar bears he saw in Amsterdam and Texas and other zoos, flat as rugs, arms and legs sprawled, looking sad. Theo wondered what it would be like to be so far from home. Is this his home. Maybe Jamaica is. His dad seems happiest there.

Theo’s back in the shed door and not stopping. Straight to the ladders and wrestling off another one, taller, that topples over him and he has to jump out of the way. Then he’s at it
grabbing and dragging out and over the grass and the dogs have short hair but they still pant. Do they have water, Theo wonders, and thinks he will go fill their bowls when he sets up the second ladder, the other side of the ship.

Theo’s leaning the ladders on the ground beside the slide for the boat sides, and then he can be inside, under the slide, like a cabin, and then he climbs the slide stairs, captain, looking over the green ocean and the people from the boat he built and then he slides down and at the bottom jumps up and runs toward the house, to give the dogs water.

Bodies are obstacles, and chairs, and he’s dodging. Someone tries to trip him, smiling – adults think that’s being friendly. It was Jimmy, the man who plays keyboards. Theo understands he didn’t mean anything so Theo just jumps over the stretched out skinny leg, like ivory it’s so white, an elephant tusk, no shape and so white. Maybe Jimmy’s sick, Theo thinks. The rest of him’s pretty white too, yellowy-white. He’s only wearing a pair of baggy shorts and his stomach sticks out a lot.

The dogs have water bowls outside and inside. There’s yelling: Colin’s standing on the ledge of a window on the third floor, next to another open window. On the lawn people are calling him names. Adrian’s head pops from the other window, yelling too – get your ass inside, you bloody idiot. I’ll be damned if I –

Now Colin is yelling and laughing and taking a really long step from one ledge to the next and grabbing onto the window frame and Theo can see Adrian’s got an arm around Colin’s legs and Colin’s yelling about messing with his balance and he was doing fine until all the fucking old women started bleating – get inside, Adrian’s yelling and Colin’s shakily, slowly squatting until he can get both legs inside the window and now he’s sitting with his back to the lawn and now he’s inside and Theo can
hear the yelling and he’s inside the house through the ballroom and here comes Roger in a long robe with a white hat and a white cane and he’s walking past the piano and he stops and sits as Theo walks toward kitchen and the indoor dog bowls and one’s empty and one has a hamburger in it, bun and pickle on top. It might be from McDonald’s. All the food still sits on the table, low flames under some of the pans, and the caterer is on the phone, writing on a piece of paper – and six dozen oysters, she’s saying, looking up at Theo and winking.

The catering lady is talking about fish, swordfish and salmon. Sushi, she says. Theo’s eaten that in Japan and he hates it.

Roger is playing piano in the other room, and he’s singing. He and his dad like blues a lot: Theo doesn’t like old music, but his dad plays it all the time and takes Theo to meet people who play it. They play together and Theo sleeps in a chair until it’s over. Usually it’s really late. It’s early now, and Roger’s playing in the sun and it’s weird to hear this music during the day.

What day is it. Where are the dogs. Someone is taking pictures of Roger. Theo runs out through the ballroom and onto the terrace and toward the lawn and toward his ship – he can keep an eye on things from there.

Theo looks back at the windows upstairs: they’re closed now. Keep the animals in. He wonders about his dad. Is he sick. Will they make a record. How long will he stay. Where’s Gus. He forgot about Gus, he forgot about Tim, who’s nowhere now. Maybe back with Theo’s dad, minding him.

People say things at him as he passes but just noise like monkeys. He’s a monkey. He doesn’t want to think, about Adrian or the day. School. Kids like him. Theo notices the muscles in his arms as he pumps his arms, running, notices
men with big muscles; there are a couple. Most here are skinny like his dad. So are the ladies, except for some who have big chests. The men and the ladies look kind of alike, with long hair and skinny and pale, the ladies wear short skirts and the men wear pants mostly, one man is wearing a kilt. When they wear bathing suits they dress differently. Why do women wear skirts and men wear pants – his cheeks heat as Theo thinks about how men and ladies are and he feels his crotch tingling. He runs faster to get past all the people and hopes he doesn’t run into anyone coming from the beach.

He’s at the sliding board, which is brand new – the play set came after they moved into the house, Colin had it delivered. Adrian and Colin thought it would be fun for Theo, but he was embarrassed they thought that. Sometimes on top of the climbing part he watches birds or clouds. But he’s not a kid.

Now he’s on the ladder’s silver steps, perforated with holes, and climbing to the top, with curved rails and a flat place to sit, which he does, the metal hot. The slide’s silver is too hot for his feet so he tucks them up, bends at the knees with his arms around his knees, but that’s not right – he squats for a minute then moves back down a step and rises to stand, staring out across the ocean of lawn and people toward the country of house. An island.

The horse is walking, reins trailing on the ground, and the man who rode it is talking to some ladies, one of whom does not have a top on. The front of the man’s pants stick out and one of them is touching that. Theo’s instantly poking out into the slide’s metal and has to adjust. The girls in school, do they know about that. What do girls know.

Theo hasn’t been around girls for a while. He hasn’t been around boys for a while. Standing at the top of the slide on the
ocean. Are all animals like that. He knows the dogs aren’t. He didn’t think about mating much before but he’s starting to. Theo guesses maybe that’s growing up, or some of it. Does it happen to girls. They must, because from what Theo understands they have to let stuff be done to them. Do they like it. Maybe if he had a friend who was a girl.

Theo’s trying to remember stuff from school and he can’t. Summer makes you forget. What did he learn.

If he’s a pirate as his mom says he needs a sword, so he runs down the ladder and runs off toward – the shed or the house. His dad has real swords: he streaks for the house to ask. Again he’s weaving through the grownups, the man from the horse gone, the horse walking with reins on the ground, eating grass – Theo stops to watch its big lips, curling to pull at the short stems. He wonders if the grass is enough – maybe there’s something he could feed it in the kitchen. He sees its ribs, its skinny legs like a deer, how does it hold up the big barrel of body. Horses are scary – Theo’s ridden them before with his mom, sitting in front of her and her arms around him, and its more scary than motorcycles, which he’s ridden with his mom and his dad. On the horses the ground seemed miles away, like being on a giant’s shoulders. His mom told him just to relax – horses want to be told what to do. And you tell them with your hands and your knees, she said, you squeeze your legs from waist to thigh but keep them loose from knee to foot, and you also signal with the reins. Horses are happier feeling that someone’s in charge. They’re social animals, Frieda said: they’re like us.

Someone’s now rubbing the horse’s neck as it crops the grass, and little patches of brown hide shiver to shake off insects. How do they do that, just move one muscle in that big country of muscle. Sometimes it would be nice to be told what to do.

Theo’s focused on the door and getting inside and notices he doesn’t notice as many things as he did when he was a little kid. When he was little he was constantly watching what all the people were doing around him, and wondering about what they were doing and why. Now that he’s older he pays less attention – like his dad is with photographers. Someone’s always taking pictures, everywhere, and Theo asked his dad once whether it bothered him. His dad said, I’ve had people snapping pictures of me since I was just a few years older than you – I don’t even see cameras anymore, they’re just part of faces, like noses.

Someone is trying to feed the horse something – Theo can’t tell but a man is laughing and squatting next to its head near the ground holding his open hand near it, but the horse is chewing grass and moving its head away, so the man moves too, on his knees, to keep his hand near its mouth. What’s in his hand. The horse puts its big nose into the hand and then yanks it out, shaking its head and snorting, and it trots a few paces away and stops, then puts its head down and snorts, and then begins cropping again. A lady is kicking the man, and yelling at him in French. She’s speaking fast but Theo knows it’s French: Frieda yells at Adrian in French sometimes when Theo’s with them.

Theo wonders what’s left for him not to hear. His dad usually is quiet when she goes French. She also speaks German sometimes: sometimes in her sleep.

Theo’s now beside the horse, patting its massive shoulder and it’s shaking its head crazily every now and then, and snorting. Theo wonders how his mother is. Now he runs again toward the house and the swords. Theo’s suddenly angry: what was in the man’s hand. Mingus moves through the air now outside, in
a different costume – one of his space characters, like a robot or a space knight.

Careful out there, little man, there’s a lot of bastards.

What do you mean.

Watch out on that lawn – too many white people in one place can only lead to trouble.

Is that a joke.

Sort of.

Mingus, can I –

I’m Akhnaten-K.

What.

I arrived here to shore up defenses on this outpost against the Triad System.

This is an outpost.

Yeah.

I’ve got a ship out there that we could use to fight. If you want.

There are two ladies with Mingus that look bored: Come on, we’re not babysitting.

Hold on, I have to talk to my lieutenant. Mingus puts a hand on Theo and walks him a few feet away, and bends down.

Listen, man, this is just the beginning. There’s a storm coming, and you gotta get ready.

A storm: Theo sees nothing but the sky burning with blue. I don’t see any storm – you mean today.

It’s coming, man, and it’ll be like a war. You gotta protect yourself. Figure out where you can hide if you have to, get your escape pod ready. Don’t fool around with this stuff now, the future of the species might depend on it. Mingus looks serious, and flicks a finger off his nose at Theo as he straightens and turns to the ladies: ready for takeoff, ladies. The three of them
stroll onto the lawn toward the empty pool, Mingus’s arms around the ladies and their arms around him, holding each other up.