The Cloud Atlas

“You know why,” he said. “Or if you don't, you'll know soon enough.” Push any man up here far enough, and you always reached this same blind alley of significant looks and silent lips.

“What the fuck?” I said, exasperated. But I swore so infrequently- I'm still pretty bad at it, at least in English-that my voice involuntarily squeaked at the novelty. A few people turned around. “Everybody's got a secret here. Everybody's a damn spy,” I sputtered, though that's not what I meant, and my voice went soft as a result.

But the man took no notice, and just shook his head. “We all pretend to be,” he told his empty glass. “He is.”

The door opened with a shout, so sharp and loud I couldn't make out the word, only the volume behind it.

“And here he is,” he said without turning around.

“Sergeant Belk!” my captain shouted. I had not turned to look at him yet. “Sergeant Louis A. Belk, if you're on base or in this bar, God help you if I find you before the MPs do.”

My friend turned to me slowly, summoned what sobriety he had left, and squinted at my name strip, which I could tell he couldn't read. He stiffened up and looked at me. “Be glad you're not Belk,” he said.

I swiveled around in my chair, and faced Captain Gurley for the first time. “But I am,” I said quietly.

“THIS BAR IS CLOSED,” Gurley roared, his voice more musical than loud. “The hour of judgment is at hand. Be gone, princesses of darkness!” Looks were exchanged, heads shook, but everyone filed out quickly enough. Even the bartender tried to leave, but Gurley stopped him-and me.

He jabbed a finger in my chest. “Belk.” I can feel the force of that finger still; it's a chronic pain, actually, that flares up in times of stress.

Gurley looked at me carefully. “You're familiar,” he said.

So was he: he had been Lily's appointment from earlier. He waited a moment, long enough for me to wonder if he remembered or not. Then he spat out my name again: “Belk!” He frowned, and then slowly knocked on the bar, twice. “That is one fucking lousy name, Sergeant.” He looked for the bartender, and then spun back: “God above, what sort of faithless name is that?”

I said nothing.

Gurley leaned over and grabbed my chin with a bony hand. I later decided his strength was a mystery until you looked closely. He was tall and thin, but more than thin: skeletal, a look that makes some look emaciated and others as though they'd been hammered out of steel. He had an odd way of standing, too: he teetered occasionally, as though he were having trouble finding his footing. I wasn't thinking about any of that then, though. I was just trying to figure out why I couldn't snap my head out of his grasp. He kept talking, punching each comma and period: “A question requires an answer, Sergeant, not some subhuman gesture. Speech is what separates us- most of us- from primates. Are you a primate?”

“No,” I said.

“I'm not sure you got that quite right,” he said, somehow managing to squeeze harder.

“No, sir,” I said.

“Better, but still, not enough,” he said. “Are you a primate?”

“No, sir,” I said.

“As in monkey, chimpanzee, o-rang-u-tan.”

No.

“Mmm,” he said, and then took a step back to regard me. “Lutheran?”

I shook my head.

“Methodist?”

No.

“I'm usually quite good at this…Let's see… ‘Belk’… Presbyterian?”

No.

“Not-Episcopalian? Couldn't be.” He frowned, and then leaned close, put his nose at my neck, and sniffed. Once, twice.

“No,” he said, stepping back stiffly once more, eyes wide with mock horror. “Good God, Belk, Catholic?” He looked me up and down. “A papist?”

“Catholic,” I said quietly.

Gurley looked around as if to call someone else's attention to the zebra that had just walked into the room. “ Catholic, then,” he said, and knocked on the bar, signaling something to the bartender. “My family always, and I mean always, had Catholic servants. But that was us. Only the best. Silver spoon in my mouth and all the rest.”

The bartender brought over a bottle of Canadian Club and a glass. Gurley nodded at him. The man poured. Gurley picked up the bottle, sniffed it, and set it back down.

“Go,” he said, and the bartender was gone before I'd swiveled back around. He looked to me. “It's true. My mother had a preference for them-and so did I.” I lowered my eyes. “Catholic girls, Belk,” he said, and inhaled. “Are you Irish?” he asked.

“No,” I said, and started to say something else.

“Alas,” Gurley said. “There might have been the chance I'd ravished-fucked-a cousin of yours. Perchance a sister.” He looked at me. “Quite sure?”

“Captain,” I began, eager to stop him before his claims progressed.