Nemesis Games

Amos smiled, and something in his expression made the man take a nervous half step back. “Hi, I’m an old friend of Lydia Maalouf. I just found out she’d passed, and I was hoping to pay my respects.” He worked his face for a minute, trying to find a version of his smile that didn’t scare little old men.

The old man – Charles, the obituary had said – shrugged after a minute and gestured for Amos to come into the house. On the inside it was recognizably Lydia’s space. The plush furnishings and brightly colored wall hangings and curtains reminded Amos of the apartment she’d had back in Baltimore. Pictures lined the shelves and tabletops. Snapshots of the life she’d had after Amos left. Two dogs in a field of grass, grinning and lolling their tongues at the camera. Charles, more hair on his head, but still silvery white, digging in the garden. Lydia and Charles together in a restaurant, candles on the table, smiling over their wineglasses.

It looked like a good life, and Amos felt something in his belly relax when he saw them. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but it was probably a good thing.

“You got a name?” Charles said. “Want some tea? Was making some when you rang.”

“Sure, I’d take some tea,” Amos said, ignoring the first question. He stayed in the cozy living room while Charles banged around in the kitchen.

“It’s been a couple months since the funeral,” Charles said. “Were you up the well?”

“Yeah, working in the Belt most recently. Sorry it took a while to make it back down.”

Charles came back out of the kitchen and handed him a steaming mug. From the flavor, it was green tea, unsweetened.

“Timothy, right?” Charles said, as if he were asking about the weather. Amos felt his jaw clench. Adrenaline dumped into his bloodstream.

“Not for a long time now,” he replied.

“She talked about your mom, some,” Charles said. He seemed relaxed. Like he knew whatever was going to happen was inevitable.

“My mom?”

“Lydia took care of you after your mom died, right?”

“Yeah,” Amos said. “She did.”

“So,” Charles said, then took another sip of his tea. “How does this go?”

“Either I ask if I can take some of those roses out front to lay on her grave…”

“Or?”

“Or I just take them because no one lives here anymore.”

“I don’t want any trouble.”

“I need to know how it happened.”

Charles looked down, took a deep breath, and nodded. “She had what they called an ascending aortic aneurysm. Went to sleep one night, never woke up. I called the EMTs the next day but they said she’d been dead for hours by then.”

Amos nodded. “Were you good to her, Charles?”

“I loved her, boy,” he replied, a hint of steel in his voice. “You can do what you want here, I can’t stop you. But I won’t have you questioning that. I loved her from the moment we met to our last kiss goodnight. I still do.”

The old man’s voice didn’t quaver a bit, but his eyes were watery and his hands trembled.

“Can I sit?” Amos asked.

“Suit yourself. Let me know if you want more tea. Pot’s full.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m sorry about rousting you like that. But when I heard, I worried —”

“I know who Lydia was before we met,” Charles said, sitting down on a small couch facing him. “We were always honest with each other. But no one ever bothered us here. She just had a leaky artery and it gave out one night while she was sleeping. Nothing else.”

Amos rubbed his scalp for a moment, waiting to see if he believed the old guy. Seemed like he did.

“Thanks. And, again, I’m sorry if I came on strong,” Amos said. “So, can I take a few of those roses?”

“Sure,” Charles said with a sigh. “Ain’t my garden much longer anyway. Take what you want.”

“You moving?”

“Well, the guy who was doling Lydia stopped when she died. We had a little set aside, but not much. I’ll be going on basic pretty soon, so that means the government block.”

“Who was floating her?” Amos asked, already knowing the answer.

“Kid named Erich. Runs a crew in Lydia’s old hometown. Somebody you used to know, I guess.”

“Used to,” Amos agreed. “Does he know about you? That Lydia was married?”

“Sure. He kept in touch. Checked up on us.”

“And he cut you off after she died.”

It wasn’t a question, and Charles didn’t answer, just sipped at his tea.

“So,” Amos said, standing up, “got a thing I need to go do. Don’t start moving out yet. One way or another, I’ll make sure you’ve got the money to keep this place.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Sort of do.”

“For her,” Charles said.

“For her.”

The high-speed to Baltimore took less time than the walk to the station had. The city itself hadn’t changed at all in the two decades Amos had been away. The same cluster of commercial high-rises, the same sprawl of basic and minimal-income housing stretching out until it hit the orderly blocks of middle-class houses on the outskirts. The same rotting seaweed smell of the drowned eastern shore, with the decaying shells of old buildings sticking out of the murky water like the ribs of some long-dead sea monster.

As much as the realization bothered him, Amos had to admit it looked like home.