A Beggar’s Kingdom

“Speaking of your father,” Devi said, carrying out two bowls of strong-smelling fish soup, “how is he?”

“Um, he’s … fine?” Ashton squinted at Julian with a sideways glare that Julian did not return.

“He must be happy having you in London with him, working with him?”

“He’s semi-retired, but … I guess.”

“You and your father have had some difficulties in the past, yes? Is it better now?”

Ashton shook his head. “Whatever. Not really. Maybe a little. It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I don’t want what I haven’t got.”

For a moment, the three men sat in silence, absorbing this. Julian wished he could say the same.

“Your father, does he have other children besides you?”

“What, Julian forgot to mention that part? No,” Ashton said. “I was his only child, and I still wasn’t his favorite.”

“Oh, I am certain that’s not true,” Devi said. “He is your father. You’re his only son.”

“Well, that he knows of,” interjected Julian.

“No, no,” Ashton said. “I’m pretty sure I’m it.”

Devi wouldn’t let it go. “Do you spend time together? Do father and son things?”

“Father and son things? We don’t fly kites if that’s what you’re asking. We have lunch once a week.”

“Well, that counts!” Devi said. He seemed happy it was so. “He must enjoy that very much.”

Ashton glanced at Julian by his side, as in what the hell.

In the uncomfortable hush that followed, Julian took the opportunity to apologize to Devi. He hoped there were no hard feelings.

“Apology not necessary,” Devi said. “I’m used to it.”

“I bet you are,” muttered Ashton.

“I was so angry,” Julian said.

“You still are,” Ashton said.

Devi nodded. “Stage two of grief: anger. It’s to be expected. No one should take it personally.” That sounded directed at Ashton. Certainly, that’s how Ashton took it because he scowled. They finished the mohinga, had kimchi and a banana cake with brandy. Gratefully Julian drank two glasses of the proffered murky tiger water. Ashton was given sake.

“So what’s wrong with him?” Ashton blurted to Devi after a second helping of the banana cake. “What really happened to his body? I’ve never seen anything like his injuries. Smoke inhalation? Electrocution? Multiple foot fractures?”

“Possibly by traveling into another dimension,” Devi said, “he had accumulated and stored a tremendous amount of energy, and on his improbable return, all of it was released as he was hurled through the physical universe at incredible speed.”

“Can you just stop it,” Ashton said. “Can’t one of you give me a straight answer for once?”

“That wasn’t straight enough for you?” Devi said. “He’s lucky to be back in one piece. He’s doing quite well, all things considered.”

“You think this is doing well?”

Devi shrugged. “Your friend’s predicament is not going to end here, Ashton. To truly help him, you must find a way to believe him, so he doesn’t have to keep dealing with the burden of your skepticism among all the other things he has to deal with. Ease his burden, don’t add to it. And, Julian, your accomplishment is not diminished just because you perceive yourself as having failed.”

“I don’t perceive myself as having failed,” Julian said, jumping off the stool. “I actually have failed.” It was time to go. “Ashton, ready? Thanks for the grub, Devi.”

As they were leaving, Ashton said to Devi, “We’re not trying to solve a crime here. I am helping him. He’s not looking for a solution to his predicament. He’s looking for compassion.”

“He’s looking for a little bit of a solution, too,” Devi said.

On the train to work, Ashton couldn’t stop talking about Devi. “The balls on that guy! Telling me what to do with you. Did I ask for his advice?”

“He’s the master of offering deeply unwanted advice,” Julian said. “It’s called being a shaman.”

“Being a fraud more like,” Ashton said. “There’s something he wants from you. It’s so obvious. How can you not see it? I don’t know why you bought into his lies. Has he hypnotized you? What’s in that gross water he keeps plying you with?”

“Tiger.”

“Right, okay. What I’m saying is he totally wants you to do again whatever it is you do for him.”

“I don’t do it for him.”

Ashton harrumphed.

“And you’re wrong,” Julian said. “Last time he tried to talk me out of it.” Tried to talk me out of it by fearmongering, Julian thought, not meeting Ashton’s eye.

“Not this time.”

“He doesn’t care, honest. He doesn’t have a dog in this fight.”

“Oh, not a dog, that swindler,” Ashton said. “Maybe a tiger.”

“How can he be a swindler, Ash? I fall into a starry profusion, through a sharp-fanged warp, and crawl out somewhere else in time and space, and find Josephine again. I told you about the Great Fire, about the Globe Theatre, the leper colony in the marshes near Drury Lane.”

“He’s drugged you. You’re having visions.”

“If I was going to have visions, why would I have them of her working in a brothel and murdering one of her customers? And did Devi break my feet and scorch my lungs, too?”

“He’s a dangerous and powerful man,” Ashton said. “He’s like an assassin bug—tiny but lethal.”

“Assassin bug?”

“One of the scariest insects known to mankind.”

Julian groaned. “Tell you what,” he said, “next time we go to Quatrang, I’ll tell him in front of you that I’m not going back, so you can see he wants nothing from me. Will that make you feel better?”

“Why would there be a next time?” said Ashton.