(i wanted the depth-swept vibrations of her voice to be the re-being of me
i wanted an ablution of the liquid-living brown of her eyes)
It was totally Jo's idea. They were all three sitting in the living room above the shop. Abe was complaining about getting too old to work more than half the day. "At 75, I am ready to partially retire," he said.
Abe then looked at Jo and her huge pregnant belly. He said, "That does not mean I want to babysit my newest half brother."
Jo sighed. Abe added, "I just need to make a little more money to have the retirement I really want."
"You should write a book," Jo said. Because it was her idea. She said, "Turn all of Henry's journals into a science fiction book."
"That seems like a horrible idea," Henry said. "People will hunt me down."
"Because a fiction book would definitely have enough clues so someone could hunt you down," Jo said.
"Another immortal, possibly?" Henry look troubled.
"Not if we stop around 1900 or so. Also, why would anyone presume I knew a real immortal versus having heard the stories and having a wild imagination?" Abe smiled. "I like this idea a lot."
"That doesn't address that this book might very well bring even more insane immortals to find us. Do I need to remind you about Adam?"
Abe said, "Yes, and he's gone, now. Bali, right?"
"And the other one wasn't insane and just wanted to compare notes," Jo said. "What are we worrying about again?"
"I've been hung when people find out," Henry said.
"Yeah, but it's going to be a fictional book. Fiction, fiction, fiction. No one will know it's about you," Abe said. "Though I like that you're already assuming this book will be very successful so all these people are reading it."
"Henry," Jo said. "People debunk memoirs that claim to be the truth, no one tries to prove fiction is actually true."
"I think that generalization is overly broad," Henry said. "But fine, I give my permission."
Abe smirked at Jo and she knew they would have done it without his permission. Abe would have, Jo would have helped. Henry said, "I never fancied myself a writer of prose, though."
Both Abe and Jo laughed. Jo said, "Come on, just from your ME reports I could tell you fancy yourself quite a writer of prose. All those fancy phrases you fancy." She laughed again at her silly joke.
Henry glared good-naturedly at both of them. "It's a good thing I love both of you or I would take all this teasing as mean-spirited."
Abe started on the book the next day, he was so excited. Henry went off to work, Jo listened to Abe compose. She made suggestions. She hated maternity leave but she could understand why no one wanted a 37 week pregnant lady trying to investigate murders. She talked to Abe about Henry's stories, he'd heard more of them than she had. Henry had been more open with Abe, she supposed. It made sense, though, he'd known Abe longer.
Abe kept plugging away after Felix was born. She held Felix on her hip, looking over Abe's shoulder at what he'd written so far. She said, "You're only at 1850? I thought we decided to do the first 100 years of immortality. You've got 64 years to go."
"I know. So many deaths, so so many deaths still to go. He died a lot in the old days, you know," Abe grumbled. "But I spoke to a nice lady at shul, her daughter is an agent. Important clients. She only wants a sample so this is enough for that."
"Ooh, do you have a meeting with an important literary agent?"
Felix squealed as Jo bounced him a little.
"I do, actually. I was going to ask you to come," Abe said.
"Why?"
"Well, because I'm an old man, and I want someone young to make sure I don't get taken to the cleaners," Abe said. He turned his chair around to smile at her.
"You will not be taken to the cleaners by anyone," Jo said. "But I'm happy to come if you want. As long as they let me breastfeed this creature." She made a face at Felix who squealed again.
Abe stared at Felix's perfect little face. "Pity Henry's immortality isn't genetic, huh?"
"Yeah," Jo said. "Maybe it is, and we just don't know."
"It would be weird if Henry could pass his on when neither of the other two can," Abe said.
"Well, I'm not testing it," Jo said. She would shoot anyone who tried to hurt Felix. She felt very fierce about her baby. She thought the pain of losing Sean would make it harder to fall in love so much, but Henry and now Felix proved her wrong.
The lunch was three weeks later. Abe told them that the agent had really liked the first 60 pages. "She's excited about meeting me," Abe said.
"It is a good story," Henry said. "Though I have to wonder, do you need to keep taking liberties?"
"Abe, it turns out, writes a good sex scene," Jo said. "So of course there's more sex."
"It wasn't all the sex, though, yes, there is more than I did have, but some of the medical procedures while crude, were not quite that grisly," Henry said.
"They were that grisly, you just have a 19th century perspective on it," Jo said.
"I don't see how that's possible," Henry grumbled. "And I was hardly a monk at any point in my life."
Abe looked at him. "Really, 1985 to 2015?"
"In my days we all knew monks weren't celibate as a general rule," Henry said.
Jo said, "Surely you'd had sex more recently than 30 years before the first time we did it -"
"Oh, of course," Henry said.
"You're lying," Jo said.
"He is," Abe said.
"30 years is different to me than to you," Henry said.
"I'm not upset, I'm feeling a little vain, frankly. I broke a 30 year drought. I know you had offers," Jo said.
"No drought or celibacy could stand in the face of your beauty and kindness," Henry said, holding her waist.
"And smarts," Jo said. "We like when you like our brains now."
"Your intelligence, your sharp deductive reasoning, your aim with a gun," Henry said, hand slipping under her shirt. They took it upstairs.
When they met the agent, Ruth, she was expensively dressed, even for New York City. She immediately wanted to put Abe front and center. "Holocaust survivor, Vietnam Vet, your life is magic. Magic," she said.
"I'm a shy, retiring man," Abe said.
Ruth and Jo laughed. Felix snuffled like he also thought his older brother was being funny.
"Okay, not in some respects, but I don't want my life all over the nation," Abe said. "I prefer to be a man of mystery."
"Maybe the mystery will help you sell it better," Jo said.
"Maybe," Ruth said. "If this book does well, maybe I could convince you to write something more non-fictional."
"Absolutely," Abe said, smiling.
"So what happens next? Any celebrities showing up?"
"Actually, I think that might throw people out of the story, you know, they're expecting Byron to be one way and turns out he just smells bad," Abe said.
"Or you could write Byron not smelling bad," Ruth said.
"There will be a brush with Jack the Ripper," Jo said.
"Right," Abe said, leaning forward. "Sorry, I tell Jo all my ideas. She's my sounding board, you see."
"I see," Ruth said. "Is the narrator Jack the Ripper?"
"No," Abe said. "But he examines one of the bodies."
"And he later suspects it's another immortal," Jo said. "Is what I recall you telling me."
"Ooh," Ruth said. "There is another. I like that."
"In my head, the narrator doesn't find out about another immortal until later, but we can more that forward," Abe said. He started to looked excited. "Actually that would be great for the last section, as the first World War starts."
"I like it," Ruth said.
Abe had representation. Henry was predictably upset about the idea of introducing Adam into the story. "It's fiction," Jo said. "We're taking liberties. If he reads the book, he'll be amused."
"I just worry this is dangerous," Henry said.
"That's all that's bothering you?"
Felix stirred a little in his sleep, his little hands twitching. Henry lightly touched his little boy's fist and she sighed, stupid in love with both of them. So stupid.
Henry said, "No, you're right. I still feel guilt about many of my actions."
"This is where you don't talk about your second wife and your firstborn," Jo said. "It's okay, Henry. You did what you could. And it was 1880, it doesn't mean anything that you can't find records."
"1880 in Malay," Henry said, sighing. "I wish I knew for sure."
"What you could find showed your daughter lived and had babies, if I recall correctly."
"Well, that was what I found when I asked around," Henry said.
"Maybe Abe can give fictional you a better ending there," Jo said.
"You know, I should look it up again, maybe the records are better now," he said. He was half asleep, his eyes on Felix.
"I bet Abe would do it for you," she said, sleepy herself.
Jo was finally able to go back to work. She missed Felix like he was her right arm, but she loved working. She talked to the babysitter every other hour, practically. "And when it's not you, it's Dr. Morgan," the sitter said.
They'd moved to Jo's house, the one she'd bought with Sean. The one Sean's parents had bought, really. Abe commuted three days a week to the store. She came home and immediately took Felix from Abe. "I said I wouldn't babysit this rugrat, you know," Abe said.
"You volunteered," Jo said. "You said you'd come down at 4 and watch him for an hour."
"Fine," Abe said. He smiled. "He's actually pretty good company."
"I understand you won't be saying that in a few years," Jo said.
"He'll still be pretty awesome, I bet," Abe said.
"Tell me what about what you wrote today," Jo said.
"I started writing about Malay," Abe said.
By Friday, Jo was exhausted from work and Felix. She went to bed early with Felix right next to her. Henry came upstairs and laid down next to them. He said, "Next week will be easier."
"I hope so," Jo said. "You look pensive."
"I am pensive," Henry said. "Generally, always so."
"Particularly tonight," Jo said.
"You're right," Henry said. "Abe's book project is making me dwell on memories I'd rather forget sometimes."
"There's a song that I think is very wise," Jo said. "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have: the facts of life."
"Yes, I suppose it's true," Henry said. "But I've abandoned people, people I loved, people I fathered."
"You kept them from being being hurt themselves - if you'd gone back, people would have harassed your wife and daughter to find out if they had the same abilities," Jo said.
"Like they still might one day do to you and Felix," Henry said.
"They try it, I shoot 'em, grab Felix and Abe and run for Canada. Once we get there, we go to Russia," Jo said. "I've made plans. Not very detailed plans."
"You don't want to get too caught up in the particulars," Henry said, smiling.
Abe finally finished his first draft. He had Jo read it first. Abe had a compelling first person voice, and she really did like the sex scenes. She wondered if some of the nuances in the stories she knew were from Abe or something Henry said, just not to her. Reading the book she could see in a way she hadn't before why Henry thought of it as a curse. His first wife, old and hysterical, while he still looked the same. Saving another woman he loved from being harmed by disappearing completely. She passed Henry the book and kissed his cheek as she settled in beside him.
Felix was four months old and unless it was time to be fed, he was in a phase, (it was totally a phase he would get over) where he loved Henry best. Felix refused to be passed to his mother. Jo glared at Henry, like he was doing something to make Felix prefer him, and turned the pages for Henry. He said, "Will you take a note for me?"
"No, just give me Felix, he doesn't get to play favorites when he prefers you," Jo said, joke frowning.
She left the room with her capricious son so he wouldn't wale for his father.
Abe and Jo together did the first round edits from the publisher, and then the second. Finally, the book was final, and now they just needed to wait.
"Did you really hate it?"
"No," Henry said in answer to Jo's question. "I enjoy the book. It makes me feel good, actually."
"After all your complaining?"
"I'd never thought about it the way Abe does, that passage at the end where the other Immortal says I have hope, I keep trying to connect. It was very sweet. A little inspiring," Henry said.
"We both wrote that," Jo said. "We had lunch and watched Felix rolling over from his stomach to his back, and talked about you."
"Then I thank you and Abe," he said and kissed her.
The book came out with a slow build. After a few months, it was a minor best seller. Abe was crowing about the offers he'd had to make it a movie. "I like those apples," Abe said.
"A movie is seen by even more people," Henry said.
"And he's back to being worried," Jo said.
"This morning, the new Lieutenant said reading my personnel record reminded me of the immortal character in your book, because of my trips to the river," Henry said.
"And then you say, actually, I know the guy who wrote the book and he was inspired by me," Jo said. "He thought the nightswimming would be cool if it was because of immortality."
"That's quite clever," Henry said.
"Told ya, no one tried to prove fiction is true," Abe said.
"I thought I said that," Jo said.
"We both said it," Abe said. "Are you being an evil stepmother?"
Jo laughed and hugged Abe. "Yes, go clean the fireplace."
"Never," Abe said, walking upstairs.
Henry ran his hand softly down Jo's face. "I feel that hope you talk about is something you feel too," Henry said.
"I don't hope you find a cure," Jo said. "I hope you keep greeting each new day as something exciting. Also, I like when you greet each day by changing Felix's diapers so I don't have to."
"Anything for you, my dear," he said, pulling her close and kissing her. "Even the damn diapers. You know, I know we commonly belittle the 19th century for their ideas of hygiene, but there were some things we might want to move forward."
"No cloth diapers," Jo said. "Unless you wash every single one."