Elvissey (27 page)

"So describe problem one," Leverett said. "You've been
circling around it twenty minutes. Aim and fire, please."

"To best serve as a messiah figure," a bearded man I'd not
seen before said, speaking for the first time that day, "requires of the figure a belief in essential messiah concepts."

"Professor Aponte, isn't it?" Leverett asked; the man nodded. "And your field-"

"Neopost Gnosticism," he said. "Doctor Telford contacted me this weekend past, detailing inferences made in
direct observation. I've been overseeing deconstruction of
the subject's Bible and was developing my own conclusions.
Now, the lady tells us of this matter of his not willing to be
even a metaphor for God. The subject, I fear, lacks a key
essentiality."

"Detail," said Leverett. "No problem overwhelms."

"Professor Mora," said Aponte. "Historicize."

"Awared as we are from these studies that similarity divergence between worlds seems to have intensified, rather than
begun, at the 1945/1861 coeval timeframe," said Mora,
who appeared no less glad to see me now than he had during
our class together, "it evidences that unforeseen complications upset prior predictions regarding the subject's response accordanced to his historical context-"

"Dejargonize," said Leverett, his smile unwavering.

"Prior to the Middle Ages, in our world," said Aponte,
"numerous branches of Gnosticism coexisted with Christianity as viable belief-models throughout Eurasia and
northern Africa. The Catholic church, over centuries, liquidated all who adhered to Gnosticism, ridding the world of
those whom they considered the worst of heretical competitors. Only in the last fifty years have the beliefs remanifested
themselves overtly in Western society."

"Macaffreyism, as an example," said Mora. "My wife believes."

"As do many," said Leverett, allowing no hint of his own
supposed belief to be revealed. "So our boy's a Gnostic?
Make him all the easier to handle, I'd think-"

"Not at all," said Aponte. "Macaffreyism, taking that example, is a neopost variant similar only in the base concept
of dual deities, one good, one evil. Extrapolating from the
subject's Bible and from interrogation of the subject-"

"Keeping minded of his propensity to ganser," said the
Princeton SP.

"-it would appear that in the other world Gnosticism was
not erased but thrived, and that the Valentinian sect became
in fact the predominant religion of the American South.
Correlating his response on the eschatological curve with
the texted material, we discerned the potential problem-"

"I'd almost forgotten there was one," said Leverett. "Detail, please-"

"The messianic concept is alien to the subject," said
Aponte.

"And? What of it?"

"The core belief of Valentinianism is that knowledge and
self-awareness save the soul," said Aponte. "In this particular faith the creator manifests as a female deity, Sophia. She
birthed the God of this world, the Demiurge, who created
the world and who is unable and unwilling to lead either
itself or humanity out of darkness. In our subject's religion
old Christian beliefs are topturveyed. To his mind, people
redeem their creator in the act of redeeming themselves.
Humanity will save God, to be concise."

"He believes that?" Leverett asked.

"Evidently," said Aponte. "So to suggest to the subject
that people here want him to contain the God of this world
within himself inspires the unfavorable reaction observed."
Aponte shrugged. "Heretofore he's believed that, however
bad he was, he'd still one day be able to-"

"Regood himself," I said. Leverett nodded.

"So when he finds that others believe he contains God
within himself, a God whom they expect to save them, he
imagines not only that those who worship him call evil down
upon themselves by doing so, but that by living as their
worshipee he'll never have the chance to overcome his own
evil."

"Keep the ganser factor minded while assuming," said the
Princeton SP.

"Such religious beliefs must be politically quite useful, in
their South," said Mora.

"What am I to do with him, then?" I asked.

"He'll mindshift, everyone does," said Leverett. "Reality's
most adaptable thing there is. Talk with him about it. It's
reasonless why he can't pose as one god while believing in
another."

"I'm uncertain, Leverett-"

"He should viz his followers at close hand before we intro
him en masse of course, so he'll know what to expect from
them. I've a plan for that in any event. The forewarned
forearm. We'll roundabout this."

"It may be difficult," said Aponte.

"We'll see. Adjourned for now, gentlemen. See you Thursday, same time. Isabel, remain."

While the others filed out Leverett fixed his stare on mine
with such intensity that I believed he might be attempting to
hypnotize me, as the late Colonel was said to have done so
effectively with the King. "Your hair, Isabel. You didn't tell
me of your intention to change."

"I saw no need to tell," I said, twirling relaxed strands of
black between my fingers. "I've had enough of blondness.
My natural look's called for."

"But what will he think?"

"It's unmattering," I said. "He'll adjust if it troubles, as
he's adjusting to so much else. I've missed myself, Leverett.
I want to be as I am-"

"His reaction could disrupt the project if he sees you're
not as he's believed and then acts accordanced to his background," he said. "We've discussed this, Isabel, you're magnifying superficialities."

"It's not superficial-"

"I don't see why you've not adjusted better to your look,"
he said. "It's-"

"Preferable?" My shout must have upset him; he shook his
head so vigorously that I thought he might send it sailing.
"I'm devoting half my life to him for you, Leverett. He can
take me as I am. I want to cease Melaway intake."

"He's racially backgrounded," Leverett said. "You can't,
Isabel, it's unquestioned."

"I want to cease Melaway intake-"

"You have to make it so damned hard for me?" he said,
his voice rising only enough to infer an anger with which he
was growing too familiar. No sooner had he flared than he
calmed anew. "You're deliberately not understanding me.
We've got success by the throat. If you recolor now, Isabel,
that could handbasket all to hell. Please, a short time more.
That's all I ask."

"How long?"

"A short time. Trust me as he trusts you."

"Not enough trust," I said. "I'll stay housebound, then,
like John. I've ceased home intake already."

"Isabel-"

"If he trusts me, he'll trust me however I am, once he
understands," I said. "If this is unsuitable, then fire me.
Now."

His eyes widened; for a moment I saw far enough into him
to discern how afraid he was before he blinked, and reshut-
tered his soul. He leaned forward in his chair, clasping and
reclasping his hands as if wishing to pray and forgetting
how. "I understand this is important to you," he said. "Very
well. I'll aware the technicians so they can begin overseeing
withdrawal. But-"

"What?"

"I'd think you'd be concerned for your baby. For the
effects withdrawal might have on it. Even if you're unconcerned for me, or your company, or the project-"

"Meditexts inform that Melaway withdrawal won't impact
my baby," I said. "Proven, Leverett. Don't guilt me."

"Then if that's what's desired, I'll notify," he said, thrusting his lower lip out, as if evidencing a sulk. "You'll not
reblacken overnight, true. Mayhap he'll adjust. Tell him
you're spending more time in the sun-"

"He'll not believe that, Leverett-"

"If he upsets," he said, "if the screen blanks, your responsibility topmosts. That's understood?"

"Understood," I said.

"Fetal development thus far normal," my doctor said, concluding my check, several days later. If a computer died and
returned in ghost's form to haunt its former office, its night
cries would echo with like tonality, possessed of being sans
soul. "Disruptions generally evidence after the initial
month, as forewarned. Nothing can be assured until then."

"Awared," I said.

"Melaway withdrawal proceding sans untoward effect on
either subject or fetus. Graduated reduction assures against
unnecessary systemic shock. Have all options been reconsidered?"

She was forbidden to mention termination, as termination was illegal; still, as the law could be with ease bypassed
by Dryco if circumstances demanded, the procedure could
have onwent as I lay there, so long as through her phrasing
I gathered her inquiry's subtext.

"No," I said. "Can the parentals be genied yet?"

"As of next week," said my doctor. "Fetal contamination
risk rises tenfold with such procedure, as warned. The test's
desired?"

"Desired," I said. "But I'll not chance. What of my headaches?"

"Indirect result of pregnancy along with nausea, as explained. Reappoint for tomorrow, then. Avoid all teratologic
factors and mutagens as recommended."

"Including air and water?"

"Not unless you wish to precede your child," my doctor
said. I lifted myself from the table. Tugging my jacket closer
around me, I stared at my browning hands.

When they rehoused E the next week they moved him to the
seventieth floor of a Concourse building, a lime-green spike
driven through a century-old six-story base. The first time I
met him there he sat on the floor by one of the windowwalls,
staring into Manhattan's sea-haze and the strata cottoning
the tower.

"What's sighted?" I asked, walking toward him after the
guards nodded, allowing me entry. The rooms were so depersonalized as a hotel's, and nothing within was as it
showed: stone was plaster, brick was vinyl, ceramic was polystyrene, and glass was lucite. E didn't stand as I approached;
I knelt on the floor beside him. At that point we'd been so
proximitied for so long that I suppose I could have kissed
him hello; I didn't.

"What'd you do to your hair?" he asked, staring at me. I'd
dyed it black the night before, prepping myself to see him as
John lay silent in our bed. The darkness only paled my skin
all the more, delaying any full realization he might yet make.

"What's thought?" I asked.

"Looks good," he said. "It's all right. You sleep on it
wrong or somethin'? It's stickin' up real high in back." Lifting my hands, I patted my hair smooth, reshaping its
lengths. I'd not yet readjusted to its unironed kinks.
"What've you all got planned for me today? Am I really
gonna get outta here? This's no different than the hospital."

"Soon-"

"How soon?" The room's cameras whirred, sharpening
their focus at the source of the shout, taking account of
movements. E's treatment during the preceding month had
domesticated him enough so that I no longer disliked being
alone with him; still, he hairtriggered, so that my guard
never dropped, and at all times I readied to contain him if
he bolted. It never came to that; generally all that was
needed for me to do was glower, and that would still him. I
imagined that his mother's look, too, must once have had
that effect.

"Leverett's arriving shortly," I said. "You know as much as
I do. Let's ask him."

"He's not gonna tell me anything. Like talkin' to a brick
wall." He regarded the outer world once more, the odd
towers and silhouettes eking through the clouds. "I never
saw pictures a New York where it looked like this."

"It's a different city," I said, finding it unsurprising that
he couldn't yet locate himself in either space or time. "Years
later, as well. And over here, not there."

"Looks like somethin' on one a my magazines," he said.
"Those little helicopters atomic powered?"

"Hardly. Wouldn't be ecobuddiable-"

"This's all like a dream, Isabel," he said. "I don't get it, I
really don't. What is it y'all want me to be?"

"Being you suffices," I said.

"I'm not nobody and it's hard enough bein' that. You
want somebody supernatural. I can't be that, nobody can. It
just doesn't happen."

"People here believe it does."

"They believe crazy, then." He muted and, closing his
eyes, handrubbed them, as if to prolong his awakening so as
to assure that he wouldn't still be in his dream when he
reopened. "It's all crazy, Isabel. Valentine tells us, anybody
comes sayin' they're not a this world, they're either lyin' or
they're a demiurge come to do mischief and harm. How can
I pretend to be Satan?"

"You're not," I said again. "That's not what's thought-"

"I'm not no Dero," he said, "and I'm sure's hell not
nothin' bigger."

"That's not the spec here, E," I retold. "By being here and
being yourself you'll do so much-"

"What can I do for anybody?" he said, standing and walking away from me, toward the northfacing windowwall.
"Can't even help myself. People'd be fools to wanta get
anything outta me. I can't give 'em anything."