The Wave Read Online Free PDF Page B

Of all those that I knew. Of the move-ment under the earth. Up from the deep, our destiny.”
    “Are you from hell, then?” Nella asked.
    “I came from hell,” he said. “But that was before I was put in the ground. That was your world. Yours and Airy’s.”
    “Take that towel from your head,” she commanded.
    GT did as she told him. He threw off the towel, revealing his matted mane.
    She searched through the hair with her fingers, rubbing his scalp and pulling on his locks.
    “You don’t have horns,” she said at last.
    “Are you my son’s lover?”
    “All right,” she replied.
    “You are very beautiful. Eyes and skin, teeth and bone. Do you love him?”
    “I . . .” She hesitated, staring deep into his eyes. “Did you climb out of the grave, Mr. Porter?”
    “Yes. I rose from the deep memory, replenished by the numberless, reminded, readied, and then released.”
    Nella sat down next to the wild-eyed youth. She took his hands in hers and examined his fingernails. They looked perfect, from where I stood.
    “Did you claw your way out?”
    “I flowed through the mud. First one cell, then the second, then the first again. Like leapfrog. Leapfrog.” He grinned madly.
    “And when did you come awake?” she asked.
    “You don’t believe this shit, do you?” I asked Nella, interrupting the spell.
    “I just want to hear what he has to say for himself,” she said.
    “There’s nothing to know. He’s crazy.”
    “No, Airy,” GT said while keeping his eyes on Nella. “I am a syllable in the annunciation. The word echoed back into the air.”
    “No, GT. You’re a kid. You’re confused. That’s all.”
    “Then why did you bring me to your home? Why did you let me sleep in your bed?”
    “You slept with him?” Nella asked.
    “He was frightened.”
    “And so you put him in your bed?” she asked. “Did you take off your clothes?”
    “Make up your mind, Nella. Either you think he’s a zombie or my gay lover.”
    “He might be both.”
    “And my father, too?”
    This last argument seemed to stump her, at least for the moment.
    “He’s just some crazy kid, probably a relative, who believes he’s become my father. I think he might be a half brother from some other family. Probably from Georgia.”
    “Why you say that?” she asked.
    “He looks a little like my father. Around the eyes and cheeks.”
    “Do you have a picture of your dad when he was a young man?”
    “No. My sister has those pictures.”
    “Let’s go look at them.”
    “Why?”
    “Let’s just go,” she said.
    I liked her fiery side, her quick decisions. I needed to be led. Since my wife left and my job evaporated, I couldn’t seem to get going. The only reason I continued to work at the pottery studio was because Nella always urged me on. Some days, when I didn’t show up, she’d call to make sure I was going to come in and work on my line of mugs.
    “Get dressed,” Nella said to GT.
    When he shed his towels, a gasp of appreciation escaped my new girlfriend’s lips.
    “My,” she said, “they didn’t leave anything out when they resurrected you.”

9
    “The wind,” GT sang in ecstasy. “On my face and down my skin. The wind is the greatest joy in the wide world.”
    He was again wearing my jeans and the Mao T-shirt. His head and shoulders were thrust out the window of my Civic. I had owned that copper-colored car since before my marriage.
    “Get back in the car, GT.”
    “But it’s so beautiful, Airy. It’s so fast.”
    “. . . in other late-breaking news,” the radio announcer was saying, “a deranged man pushed two police officers from a three-story roof in downtown L.A., seriously injuring both men. The officers were responding to the complaint that a vicious dog had been threatening nearby residents. The man, possibly the owner of the dog, fled with the animal when police arrived. They chased him to the roof of the downtown apartment building and were surprised by the man. The attacker eluded