Lair of Dreams

  While Henry waited for Ling to wake him back in the real world, he sat one last time at the Chickering before it, too, was gone. He rested his fingers on the keys, and then he began to play. He was still playing when he heard the alarm begin to scream, and the last remnants of the dream station blurred into feathery whiteness and disappeared forever.

  It was Theta’s mud-spattered, worried face Henry saw first through the narrow slits of his heavy eyes when he awoke back in the museum.

  “Henry?” she pleaded. She was soaked through and smelled like a garbage dump, but she was by his side.

  “Theta,” he croaked.

  “Henry!” Theta hugged him. Henry gagged. “Whatsa matter? You sick?”

  “No.” Henry coughed. “You smell bad.”

  Theta was laughing and crying at the same time.

  “How’s my best girl?” Henry asked.

  “Everything’s jake,” Theta said, holding tightly to him.

  Memphis stood back, leaving them be. After all, didn’t he have a brother, too?

  “Ling,” Henry said, reaching for her. Theta went to pull Ling into the circle, even though she looked uncomfortable.

  “I don’t hug,” Ling said, sandwiched between the two of them.

  “Sam!” Sam said, hugging himself. “You’re welcome. Don’t mention it.”

  Evie wasn’t right. Her eyes were glassy and she seemed unsteady on her feet.

  “Evil?” Theta asked, concerned.

  “Did one of those things get her?” Ling asked.

  “Evie,” Sam said. “Hey. You okay?”

  Evie turned and threw up.

  It was nearly dawn. Filthy and famished, Theta, Memphis, and Sam crowded around the long table, wolfing down the limp watercress sandwiches. Theta offered Henry half of hers. Jericho handed Ling a cup of broth.

  “It’s not fancy, but it’s warm,” he said, and she thanked him with a nod. “Could I use your telephone, please?”

  Jericho brought her the phone as well, and a moment later, he could hear Ling speaking Chinese in hushed tones to someone.

  Across the room, Mabel poked the dying fire into flames to chase away the chill. Evie sprawled in a chair, nursing a cup of coffee. She looked rough. The remnants of the scuttled Diviners exhibit were still everywhere.

  Theta took out a cigarette.

  “There’s no smoking in the museum,” Jericho said.

  Theta glared up at him as she struck a match. “There is now. Hand me that ashtray, will ya, Mabesie?”

  “I thought I was the only one who called you Mabesie,” Evie said.

  Theta shrugged and kept smoking. Mabel folded her arms across her chest and looked away.

  Ling hung up the telephone and took a sip of her broth.

  “Everything copacetic with your parents?” Sam asked.

  “There was a protest. People surrounded the mayor’s office, and he gave the order to bring everyone back to Chinatown. But I wouldn’t say everything is copacetic. It’s only one battle.”

  “Amen,” Memphis said, locking eyes with Ling, an unspoken understanding passing between them.

  “As we’re all present and accounted for, I call this meeting to order.” Jericho paced the room, just as Will so often did. “It should be patently clear by now that something is going on in this country. First John Hobbes. Then this business with Wai-Mae and those wraiths in the tunnels. There are ghosts and demons among us. Every day, there are more reports. And it seems like we’re the only ones who can do something about it.”

  “You mean we have to work together,” Mabel said coolly, looking from Evie to Jericho.

  Sam raised an eyebrow. “You trying to unionize us, Mabel?”

  “No. Even the Wobblies are easier to organize,” she said.

  Evie’s eyes were still closed. “I hate ghosts.”

  “All these powers and we know bupkes about ’em,” Sam said. “It’s like having the keys to a brand-new roadster and not knowing how to drive it.”

  For a moment, there was nothing but the steady percussion of the rain and the crackle of the fire. With a sigh, Evie sat up and opened her bloodshot eyes. “Sam, I think we should tell them about what we’ve found.”

  “Nothing doing,” Sam said.

  “Either you do it or I will.”

  “This is twice you’ve done this to me. Remind me never to tell you a secret again.”

  “It’s not your secret anymore.”

  “Fine,” Sam grumbled. He placed a coded punch card on the table. It was a little worse for the wear, thanks to the evening’s activities, but it was still intact.

  “What’s this?” Memphis asked, picking it up.

  “Evie and I found these files in a basement office in the post office. Used to belong to the U.S. Department of Paranormal.”

  “The what?” Ling asked.

  “It was a secret government division started by President Roosevelt to investigate supernatural phenomena and recruit Diviners to aid in the interests of national security,” Jericho explained.

  “Teddy Roosevelt? On the level?” Theta said, impressed.

  “Hey. How’d you know that, Freddy?” Sam asked.

  “It’s all here in Will’s letters to Cornelius Rathbone. Diviners have been around since the dawn of the country,” Jericho explained, gesturing to the useless Diviners exhibit. “You’d know that if you’d been around. Sam, Evie, Memphis, Ling, Henry—every one of you is a Diviner in some way.”

  Mabel put a hand on Theta’s shoulder. “Some of us are just hideously ordinary, I suppose. Or does that make us extraordinary?” Mabel said, digging at Jericho just a bit.

  Sam and Theta exchanged a furtive glance, but Evie caught it.

  “What was that look about?” Evie asked.

  “Nothing. Just stretching my eyes,” Sam said quickly. “So what now? Do we start a speakeasy? A ghosty quilting bee? Does everybody want a radio show?”

  “We find out why,” Ling said. “Why do we all have these powers? Where do they come from? Why now? Why us?”

  “It used to be that I could only get a few seconds’ worth of secrets,” Evie said. “And it was patchy—like watching a movie shown through a broken projector. But in the past six months, it’s grown much stronger.”

  Memphis said, “I couldn’t heal since… for a long while. But now it’s coming back, and yes, it’s much stronger.”

  “Same for me,” Sam said. “When I took that soldier down, he was really gone.”

  “Ling and I—our powers were stronger when we were together,” Henry said.

  “It seems that we’re all connected,” Ling agreed. “Like atoms coming together to make a new molecule.”

  “But why?” Theta said. “What for?”

  “It must mean something,” Memphis said. “Was it Henry and Ling battling Wai-Mae in the dream world that got rid of those wraiths? Was it Evie reading those bones and us burying Wai-Mae’s remains in the Trinity Church cemetery so she could be at peace that ended the haunting? We don’t know.”

  “You buried her where?” Ling said, eyebrows drawn to a tight V.

  “Trinity… cemetery?” Sam said.

  Ling threw her hands up. “You can’t bury someone in the city! That’s bad luck.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sam said. “I didn’t stop to read up on it.”

  Memphis continued. “All we know for sure is that it took all of us to stop it for good.”

  “Has it?” Evie said quietly.

  “Has it what?” Memphis asked.

  “Has it stopped for good?”

  And with that, the conversation broke down into shouting and squabbling. Jericho tried in vain to restore order. He brought the gavel down hard, cracking the table. Sharp static burbled from the Metaphysickometer, silencing everyone. The needle jumped erratically.

  “What’s that?” Sam said. “Why’s it doing that?”

  “I don’t know,” Mabel whispered.

  The front door to the museum banged open and shut, t
he slam echoing through the old mansion.

  “Quiet!” Jericho whispered. Everyone crowded together around the table. Jericho lifted the fireplace poker from its holder and held it like Babe Ruth, ready to swing. The clack of shoes echoed in the hallway. The door swung open.

  Framed in the doorway, Will stopped short, his gaze traveling from person to person. “Are you starting an orchestra?”

  “Will, I—” Sister Walker came up behind Will. “Oh. I didn’t know you had company.”

  “Neither did I,” Will said.

  Memphis squinted. “Sister Walker?”

  “Hello, Memphis. I’m happy to see you here. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a long time now.”

  Will acknowledged Evie with a terse nod. “Hello, Evangeline.”

  Evie folded her arms across her chest. “Uncle Will,” she said coldly.

  “Well, Will. Looks as if they’re all here at last,” Sister Walker said.

  She took off her hat and shut the door.

  On the streets of Chinatown, drums thundered and firecrackers sizzled, exploding into pops of light. The Year of the Rabbit had begun. Neighbors crowded onto second-floor balconies. Children watched from fire escapes, eager to see the action below. The crowd was smaller this year; some people still feared the sleeping sickness, even though there’d been no new cases reported. Still, Mr. Levi had come with his grandchildren, who thrilled at the sight of the undulating lion dancers. And Mr. and Mrs. Russo, who ran the pastry shop on Mulberry, had also arrived with several cousins in tow. Everyone clapped and cheered, delighted by the spectacle and the food and the hope of the celebration—a new start was always welcome. Couples handed out red envelopes filled with money, eager for good luck to bless them. Ling tucked hers into her pocket. Later, she’d add it to her college fund. But now there was a banquet to serve. The Tea House was filled with hungry people eager to feast, and the smells of meat and fish, soup and noodles—the best of her father’s kitchen—made Ling’s stomach growl.

  Behind the teak screen, Ling poured tea and placed two plates of oranges and a moon cake on the table: one to honor George, the other Wai-Mae.

  “Happy New Year,” she whispered.

  Jericho dripped with sweat as he drove himself through his daily physical regimen. He collapsed on the floor. Three hundred push-ups. Two hundred pull-ups. His arms didn’t even shake. He made a fist. It was no trouble at all. Silently, he slid open the drawer and took out the leather pouch stashed there beneath his undershirts. The ten empty vials clinked as he unwrapped the strings. Carefully, he removed the stopper in the smaller vial Marlowe had given him, drinking down an ounce of blue serum, enough for the week. Three ounces left. He dropped to the floor and started again.

  Evie stepped from a taxi and rushed toward the monolithic WGI building. Her hand was on the door when she heard, from behind, “Look! It’s her!” A trio of excited girls huddled together, pointing and whispering.

  Here we go, Evie thought. She braced herself as the girls surged forward, then grew befuddled as they ran right past her. She stepped out onto the street to see where they’d gone. The girls had stopped halfway down the block, where they surrounded Sarah Snow.

  “We just adore you, Miss Snow,” one of the girls chirped.

  Sarah beamed. “Bless you all,” she said and signed their autograph books.

  Henry walked into the Huffstadler Publishing Company wearing a new jacket and holding tightly to the sliver of jade Ling had given him with a curt “Don’t lose this.”

  Behind his desk, David Cohn greeted Henry with a raised eyebrow. “Back for more abuse?”

  “I hope not. I wanted to leave my card in case you hear of somebody looking for a rehearsal pianist. I quit the Follies.”

  “That was either very brave or very dumb. Let’s go with brave,” David said.

  From behind Huffstadler’s closed office door, they could hear the publisher berating the Amazing Reynaldo—“What kind of two-bit Diviner can’t even let a man with a mistress know that his wife is on the way up?”

  Henry and David both grinned.

  “Well, thank you,” Henry said, tipping his boater.

  “Say, Mr. DuBois. I know of a place that sometimes needs piano players. It’s a club down in the Village, the Dandy Gentleman.” David gave Henry a meaningful look. “You know it?”

  Henry nodded. “I do. Swell place for a certain kind of fella.”

  “Are you a certain kind of fella?”

  “Depends who’s asking.”

  “A certain kind of fella. There’s a show there tonight, starting around eleven thirty.”

  “What a coincidence.” Henry smiled. “It’s possible I might be there around eleven thirty tonight.”

  As Henry bounded down the steps, the first few bars of a song began to take shape in his head. “A certain kind of fella…” he sang, and flicked the jade like a coin, catching it cleanly again and again, feeling like a man whose luck was turning for the good.

  Sam grabbed the day’s mail at the museum, grimacing at the scary-looking notice from the New York State Office of Taxation. He stopped when he came to the envelope addressed to Sam Lloyd—no return address, no name, no stamp. Sam found a letter opener and slit through the envelope’s top. An article from the morning’s paper fluttered out. It was a brief notice about a man who’d been found under a small hill of powdery coal waste out at the Corona Ash Dump along the Flushing River. The man, who had been strangled, had nothing on him except for a receipt from a radio shop on Cortlandt Street and a motor vehicle operator’s license for one Mr. Ben Arnold.

  Mabel found herself without an umbrella as the rain came down, so she ducked into a basement bookseller’s on Bleecker Street and shook the rain from her arms just as someone else barreled through the front door, hitting her in the back with the doorknob.

  “Gee, I’m awfully sorry if I… why, if it isn’t Mabel Rose!” The man removed his cap and stuck out his hand, pumping hers in a firm handshake. “Remember me? Arthur Brown? Golly, but you’re soaked. Heya, Mr. Jenkins!” Arthur called to a small, portly man in a vest reading a book behind the cash register. “Any chance of a towel for my friend?”

  Mr. Jenkins offered Mabel a thin dishtowel and she blotted it against her face and hair, trying to preserve what was left of the wash-and-set she’d gotten at the beauty parlor the day before. It was a lost cause, but she had been trained to take on lost causes.

  “The others are upstairs, Arthur,” Mr. Jenkins said, taking back the towel. “I let them in.” Mr. Jenkins suddenly looked nervous. “I hope that was all right.”

  Arthur nodded. “It’s jake. I’m late.”

  “Late for what?” Mabel asked.

  Arthur seemed to be weighing his response, and Mabel was afraid she’d been rude. Arthur glanced toward the drapes at the rear of the shop and back to Mabel. He offered his arm. “Would you like to find out?”

  As Memphis rounded the corner of Lenox and 135th Street, the crow found him, keeping pace as it fluttered from newel post to street lamp. Memphis sighed. “Good to see you again, Berenice.”

  “That bird’s got something to say to you.” Madame Seraphina, the second-most powerful banker in Harlem and the most powerful mambo, stood in the doorway of her Obeah shop, tucked under the stoop of a brownstone. “Birds are messengers from the land of the dead.”

  “That’s what my mother used to say.”

  Seraphina pointed a long, graceful finger. “There’s a weight on you. I can see it. Come. Let me help you.”

  “No weight on me, ma’am. I don’t wear worry,” Memphis said, tipping his hat and turning away.

  “Stay your feet!” Seraphina commanded. “Kijan ou rele?”

  “Pardon?”

  “What is your name?” she said slowly.

  Unease twisted in Memphis’s gut. He’d heard mambos could fashion a curse using any bit of personal information, even something as innocent as a name.

  “It’s Memphis,” he answered after a
pause. “Memphis Campbell.”

  “Yes. I already know who you are, Mr. Campbell.” Madame Seraphina raised her chin, appraising him. “The Harlem Healer. The Boy Wonder. Not a boy anymore. You Haitian?”

  “On my mother’s side.”

  “But you don’t speak Creole?”

  “Not much.”

  “It’s important to know where you come from, Young Oungan,” she clucked. “Come. Let me talk to the lwas for you.”

  “I’m late to meet Papa Charles,” Memphis lied.

  Madame Seraphina’s lips curled into an easy smile that didn’t match the flintiness of her eyes. “Papa Charles is sleepy. If he doesn’t wake soon, the white man will come in and take all that he has built. Rabbits in the garden,” she said, and Memphis didn’t know what she meant.

  “I just run the numbers.”

  “You just run the numbers,” she mocked and took a sucking breath in through her teeth. “You grew up handsome, I see,” she said, laughing at Memphis’s embarrassment. Then: “I bet you miss your manman. She came to see me once before she passed.”

  Memphis’s head shot up. He’d have to be crazy to take on a real Haitian mambo, but he’d had enough taunting. “Don’t talk about my mother. You didn’t know her.”

  Madame Seraphina’s shoulders moved just slightly, as if she could barely be bothered to shrug. “There is a weight on your soul. I know. I can see.” Her smile was gone. “Come and let me help you while I can.”

  But Memphis was already backing away.

  “You’ll come to me one day,” Madame Seraphina called after Memphis as the crow squawked and squawked.

  The New Amsterdam Theatre dressing room was a delightful chaos of feathers, sequins, and half-dressed Follies girls pressed close to the mirrors, mouths open in awkward positions as they glued an eyelash into place or lined their peepers with kohl.