"What did they do: Come up through the toilet?"
Tesla didn't reply.
You're going to have to tell her, Raul murmured in her head.
"Well?" Phoebe said.
Tell her about Kissoon.
"She'll freak," Tesia thought.
She's doing pretty well so far.
Tesla glanced back at Phoebe, who was finishing off her pizza while she waited for a reply.
"Once I've started with Kissoon, where do I stop?" she said to Raul.
You should have thought of that before you mentioned the Lix. It's all part of the same story. Silence from Tesia. Isn't it? he prodded.
"I guess so."
So tell her. Tell her about Kissoon. Tell her about the Loop. Tell her about the ShoaL Tell her about Quiddity if she hasn't got up and left.
"Did you know your lips move when you're thinking?" Phoebe said.
"they do?" "Just a little."
"Well-I was debating something."
"What?"
"Whether I could tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but@'
"And have you decided?" Tell her.
"Yes. I've decided," Tesia leaned forward, pushing her plate aside. "In answer to your question," she said, "no, the Lix didn't come up from the toilet. they came from a loop in time-"
This was the tale she'd never told. Not in its entirety. She'd given Grillo and D'Amour the bare outlines, of course, but she'd never been able to bring herself to fill in the details. they were too painful, too ugly. But she told it now, to this woman she barely knew, and once she'd begun it wasn't so difficult, not with the clatter of plates and the chatter of patrons all around them; a wall of normality to keep the past from catching hold of her heart.
"There was a man called Kissoon," she began, "and I think if we had to make a list of the worst people to have graced the planet he'd probably be somewhere near the top. He was a-what was he?-a shaman, he called himself, but that doesn't really get to it. He had power, a lot of power. He could play with time, he could get in and out of people's heads, he could make Lix-"
"So he was the one."
"It's an old trick, apparently. Sorcerers have been doing it for centuries. And when I say sorcerers I'm not talking about rabbits and hats, I'm talking about people who could change the world-who have changed the world, sometimes-in ways we'll never completely understand."
"Are they all men?" Phoebe wanted to know.
"Most of them."
"Hmm.11
"So Kissoon was one of a group of these people, they were called the Shoal, and they were dedicated to keeping the rest of us from ever knowing about@' She paused here a moment. "Go on," said Phoebe. "I'm listening."
"About a place called Quiddity."
"Quiddity?"
"That's right. It's a sea, where we go sometimes in dreams."
"And why aren't we supposed to know about it?" Phoebe asked. "If we go there in dreams, what's the big secret?" Tesla chewed on this a moment.
"You know, I don't know? I always assumed-what did I assume?-l guess I assumed that the Shoal were the wise ones, and if they lived and died keeping this secret it was because the secret needed to be kept. But now that you mention it, I don't really know why."
"But they're all dead now anyway."
"All dead. Kissoon murdered them." "Why?"
"So that he could eventually have control over the greatest power in the world. A power called the Art."
"And what's that?"
"I don't think anyone really knows."
"Not even this guy Kissoon?"
Tesla pondered this a moment. "No," she said eventually, "not even Kissoon."
"So he committed these murders to get something when he didn't even know what the something was?" she said, her incredulity perfectly plain.
"Oh, he did more than murder. He hid the bodies in the past-"
"Oh come on."
"I swear. He'd killed some of the most important people in the world. More important than the pope or the president. He had to hide the bodies where they'd never be found. He chose a place called Trinity."
"What's that?"
"The when's more important than the where," Tesla said. "Trinity's where the first A-bomb was detonated. Sixteenth of June, nineteen forty-five. in New Mexico."
"And you're telling me that's where he took the people
'd murdered."
"That's where he took 'em. Except-"
"What?"
"Once he was there, he made a mistake-a little mistakeand he got himself trapped."
"Trapped in the past?"
"Right. With the bomb ticking away. So-he made a loop of time, that went round and round on itself, always keeping that moment at bay." Phoebe smiled and shook her head. "What?" said Tesla.
"I don't whether you're crazy or what, but if you made all this up, you should be selling it. I mean, you could make a movie for TV-"
"It's not a movie. It's the truth. I know, because I was there three times. Three times, in and out of Kissoon's Loop."
"So you actually met this guy?" Phoebe said.
"Oh sure, I met him," Tesla replied.
"And-?"
"What was he like?" Phoebe nodded; Tesla shrugged. "Hard to find the words," she said.
"Try." "I've spent five years trying not to think of him. But he's there all the time. Every day something-something dirty, something cruel, maybe just the smell of my own shit-reminds me of him. He wasn't much to look at, you know? He was this runt of a guy, old and dried up. But he could turn you inside out with a look. See inside your head. See inside your guts. Work you, fuck you." She rubbed her palms together, to warm them, but they wouldn't be warmed.
"What happened to him?" "He couldn't hold the moment." Phoebe looked vacant. "What?" "The little loop of time that kept the bomb from being detonated," Tesla explained, "he couldn't hold it."
"So the bomb went off?" "The bomb went off and he went with it."
"You were there?"
"Not right there, or I would have gone up with him. But I was the last out, I'm sure of that." She settled back in her chair. "That's it. Or as much of it as I can tell you right now."
"It's quite a story."
"And you don't believe a word of it."
"Some bits I almost believe. Some bits just sound ridiculous to me. And some bits-some bits I don't want to believe. they frighten me too much."
"So you won't be coming with me to Erwin's house?"
"I didn't say that," Phoebe replied.
Tesla smiled, and dug into the pocket of her leather I jacket.
"What are you looking for?"
"Some cash," she said. "If you're willing to dare Lix with me, the least I can do is pay for the pizza."
As the streets started to empty, Erwin began to regret his contretemps with Dolan. Though his feet ached, and he felt weary to his imagined marrow, he knew without putting it to the test that phantoms didn't sleep. He would be awake through the hours of darkness, while the living citizens of Everville, safe behind locked doors and bolted windows, took a trip to dreamland. He wandered down the middle of Main Street like a lonely drunk, wishing he could find the woman he'd whispered to outside Kitty's Diner. She at least had heard him, if only remotely whereas nobody else with a heart beating in their chest., even glanced his way, however loud he shouted. There'd been something special about that woman, he decided. Perhaps she'd been psychic.
He did not go entirely ignored. At the corner of Apple Street he encountered Bill and Maisie Waits, out walking their two chocolate labradors. As they approached Erwin the dogs seemed to sense his presence. Did they smell him or see him? He couldn't be sure. But they responded with raised hackles and growls, the bitch standing her ground, the male dashing away down Apple Street, trailing his leash. Billwho was in his fifties and far from fit-went after him, yelling.