Passengers Read online

  “But there’s a way of beating them. We can grab little scraps of life when they’re not looking.”

  “They’re always looking.”

  “No,” I tell her. “There can’t be enough of them for that. Sometimes they’re looking the other way. And while they are, two people can come together and try to share warmth.”

  “But what’s the use?”

  “You’re too pessimistic, Helen. They ignore us for months at a time. We have a chance. We have a chance.”

  But I cannot break through her shell of fear. She is paralysed by the nearness of the Passengers, unwilling to begin anything for fear it will be snatched away by our tormentors. We reach the building where she lives, and I hope she will relent and invite me in. For an instant she wavers, but only for an instant: she takes my hand in both of hers, and smiles, and the smile fades, and she is gone, leaving me only with the words, “Let’s meet at the library again tomorrow. Noon.”

  I make the long chilling walk home alone.

  Some of her pessimism seeps into me that night. It seems futile for us to try to salvage anything. More than that: wicked for me to seek her out, shameful to offer a hesitant love when I am not free. In this world, I tell myself, we should keep well clear of others, so that we do not harm anyone when we are seized and ridden.

  I do not go to meet her in the morning.

  It is best this way, I insist. I have no business trifling with her. I imagine her at the library, wondering why I am late, growing tense, impatient, then annoyed. She will be angry with me for breaking our date, but her anger will ebb, and she will forget me quickly enough.

  Monday comes. I return to work.

  Naturally, no one discusses my absence. It is as though I have never been away. The market is strong that morning. The work is challenging; it is mid-morning before I think of Helen at all. But once I think of her, I can think of nothing else. My cowardice in standing her up. The childishness of Saturday night’s dark thoughts. Why accept fate so passively? Why give in? I want to fight, now, to carve out a pocket of security despite the odds. I feel a deep conviction that it can be done. The Passengers may never bother the two of us again, after all. And that flickering smile of hers outside her building Saturday, that momentary glow — it should have told me that behind her wall of fear she felt the same hopes. She was waiting for me to lead the way. And I stayed home instead.

  At lunchtime I go to the library, convinced it is futile.

  But she is there. She paces along the steps; the wind slices at her slender figure. I go to her.

  She is silent a moment. “Hello,” she says finally.

  “I am sorry about yesterday.”

  “I waited a long time for you.”

  I shrug. “I made up my mind that it was no use to come. But then I changed my mind again.”

  She tries to look angry. But I know she is pleased to see me again — else why did she come here today? She cannot hide her inner pleasure. Nor can I. I point across the street to the cocktail lounge.

  “A daiquiri?” I say. “As a peace offering?”

  “All right.”

  Today the lounge is crowded, but we find a booth somehow. There is a brightness in her eyes that I have not seen before. I sense that a barrier is crumbling within her.

  “You’re less afraid of me, Helen,” I say.

  “I’ve never been afraid of you. I’m afraid of what could happen if we take the risks.”

  “Don’t be. Don’t be.”

  “I’m trying not to be afraid. But sometimes it seems so hopeless. Since they came here -”

  “We can still try to live our own lives.”

  “Maybe.”

  “We have to. Let’s make a pact, Helen. No more gloom. No more worrying about the terrible things that might just happen. All right?”

  A pause. Then a cool hand against mine.

  “All right.”

  We finish our drinks, and I present my Credit Central to pay for them, and we go outside. I want her to tell me to forget about this afternoon’s work and come home with her. It is inevitable, now, that she will ask me, and better sooner than later.

  We walk a block. She does not offer the invitation. I sense the struggle inside her, and I wait, letting that struggle reach its own resolution without interference from me. We walk a second block. Her arm is through mine, but she talks only of her work, of the weather, and it is a remote, arm’s-length conversation. At the next corner she swings around, away from her apartment, back toward the cocktail lounge. I try to be patient with her.

  I have no need to rush things now, I tell myself. Her body is not a secret to me. We have begun our relationship topsy-turvy, with the physical part first; now it will take time to work backward to the more difficult part that some people call love.

  But of course she is not aware that we have known each other that way. The wind blows swirling snowflakes in our faces, and somehow the cold sting awakens honesty in me. I know what I must say. I must relinquish my unfair advantage.

  I tell her, “While I was ridden last week, Helen, I had a girl in my room.”

  “Why talk of such things now?”

  “I have to, Helen. You were the girl.”

  She halts. She turns to me. People hurry past us in the street. Her face is very pale, with dark red spots growing in her cheeks.

  “That’s not funny, Charles.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be. You were with me from Tuesday night to early Friday morning.”

  “How can you possibly know that?”

  “I do. I do. The memory is clear. Somehow it remains, Helen. I see your whole body.”

  “Stop it, Charles.”

  “We were very good together,” I say. “We must have pleased our Passengers because we were so good. To see you again — it was like waking from a dream, and finding that the dream was real, the girl right there -”

  “No!”

  “Let’s go to your apartment and begin again.”

  She says, “You’re being deliberately filthy, and I don’t know why, but there wasn’t any reason for you to spoil things. Maybe I was with you and maybe I wasn’t, but you wouldn’t know it, and if you did know it you should keep your mouth shut about it, and -”

  “You have a birthmark the size of a dime,” I say, “about three inches below your left breast.”

  She sobs and hurls herself at me, there in the street. Her long silvery nails rake my cheeks. She pummels me. I seize her. Her knees assail me. No one pays attention; those who pass by assume we are ridden, and turn their heads. She is all fury, but I have my arms around hers like metal bands, so that she can only stamp and snort, and her body is close against mine. She is rigid, anguished.

  In a low, urgent voice I say, “We’ll defeat them, Helen. We’ll finish what they started. Don’t fight me. There’s no reason to fight me. I know, it’s a fluke that I remember you, but let me go with you and I’ll prove that we belong together.”

  “Let — go -”

  “Please. Please. Why should we be enemies? I don’t mean you any harm. I love you Helen. Do you remember, when we were kids, we could play at being in love? I did; you must have done it too. Sixteen, seventeen years old. The whispers, the conspiracies — all a big game, and we knew it. But the game’s over. We can’t afford to tease and run. We have so little time, when we’re free — we have to trust, to open ourselves -”

  “It’s wrong.”

  “No. Just because it’s the stupid custom for two people brought together by Passengers to avoid one another, that doesn’t mean we have to follow it. Helen — Helen -”

  Something in my tone registers with her. She ceases to struggle. Her rigid body softens. She looks up at me, her tear-streaked face thawing, her eyes blurred.

  “Trust me,” I say. “Trust me, Helen!”

  She hesitates. Then she smiles.

  In that moment I feel the chill at the back of my skull, the sensation as of a steel needle driven deep through the bone. I stiffen
. My arms drop away from her. For an instant I lose touch, and when the mists clear all is different.

  “Charles?” she says. “Charles?”

  Her knuckles are against her teeth. I turn, ignoring her, and go back into the cocktail lounge. A young man sits in one of the front booths. His dark hair gleams with pomade; his cheeks are smooth. His eyes meet mine.

  I sit down. He orders drinks. We do not talk.

  My hand falls on his wrist, and remains there. The bartender serving the drinks scowls but says nothing. We sip our cocktails and put the drained glasses down.

  “Let’s go,” the young man says.

  I follow him out.

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