Orpheus Lost Read Online Free PDF

began.

5.
    M ISHKA MADE LOVE as he made music.
    When they made love, Leela believed whatever he said. She wanted to believe.
    After each fresh incident, each scene of carnage, she came to expect his withdrawals. The absences grew longer. They grew more frequent. Always the violin or the oud went with him, sometimes both.
    “Are you seeing someone else?” she finally asked.
    Mishka was offended. “What kind of a question is that?”
    “Last night, when you didn’t come home, I went to the Music Lab. You weren’t there.”
    “Leela,” he said sadly, “I’ve never once asked you about all the other men before me, though I’ve heard plenty of gossip.”
    “They became irrelevant once I met you.”
    “That’s why I’ve never asked,” Mishka said.
    “That’s not true. You were awfully curious about Cobb Slaughter.”
    “You wanted to tell me. I didn’t ask. I hear there were plenty of men between Cobb Slaughter and me.”
    “I swear to you, if that’s got anything to do with anything, that I have been one hundred per cent faithful—”
    “It doesn’t have anything to do with anything,” Mishkasaid. “The boring truth is, I’ve been playing my oud at Café Marrakesh in Central Square two nights a week.”
    “The Marrakesh! I love the Marrakesh.”
    “You’ve been there?” Mishka seemed slightly alarmed.
    “Of course I’ve been there. It’s a stone’s throw from MIT. I often meet colleagues there. I knew they had live gigs at night, belly dancers, Middle Eastern musicians and stuff, but I’ve only ever been there for coffee or lunch. Next time, I’ll come when you’re playing.”
    “I’d rather you didn’t.”
    “Why not?”
    Mishka sighed. “My music, especially my Persian music…it’s just something I like to be alone with.”
    “You’re not alone when you’re playing in a club.”
    “Yes I am. I’m inside my music.” He turned away from her. “Leela, I’ll move out if you want. I’m afraid I take after Uncle Otto, better heard than seen.”
    Leela was stunned. “How could you think for a second—?” What she felt was pure panic. What would I do without Orpheus? she wondered. She touched him, hesitantly, and was reassured when the familiar sexual fever engulfed them. “I don’t know how I would live without you,” she murmured.
    “You would survive,” Mishka said. “Everyone does. People learn to do without whatever they have to do without.” He reached for his violin. He hummed then began to sing. Che farò senza Euridice…
    “Orpheus survived,” he said. “Even though he didn’t want to.”
    Leela realized with shock that she had never before been afraid of losing someone. She had never been jealous. She had never before gone through anyone’s pockets or his violin case or his desk.
    Not until Mishka’s next disappearance had she ever thought of following him.
    A few weeks later, there was the incident in the subway: evening rush hour, the Red Line, an explosion between the Park Street station and Harvard Square, chaos.
    Leela heard about it in a delicatessen store in the Square. She bought wine and salad and salmon for dinner but as she walked home she was thinking that now Mishka would disappear again. Harvard Yard, and even Massachusetts Avenue, seemed subdued. She walked more slowly. Perhaps she should go back to the Square. Perhaps she should eat in bright company, in the jazz lounge at the Charles Hotel. When she turned into her own side street, which was dark and deserted, she decided: If he’s not home, I’ll go back to the Square.
    Then a black car pulled up and she was ordered to get in. Her cell phone was confiscated. A wall sealed off the back seat from the front and the windows were covered.
    There was a man in the back seat beside her. “You will not be harmed,” he said, “provided you do not cause trouble. In case you do, as you already know, I have a gun.”
    Leela felt something cold, like the muzzle of a dog, against her cheek.
    She