Harry Palmer’s was by the railroad tracks, and there was a large freighter inching by about twenty feet away. Each car’s graffiti was more vibrant than the last’s. It was an unending colorful sentence full of odd words I didn’t understand.J-FISH. BOWLER. NADA-NADA. FUGUE.I wondered for a moment if it was a message just for me. My phone buzzed.
Don’t go back inside.
I stared down at the sentence from Daniel. My heart started beating in my ears.
Inside where?
The train clacked by, but it sounded like it was running inside my head.
I think you know.
I looked up from my phone, and in the space between the cars, I saw the outline of a figure. I waited until the last car had rumbled past, and then the person was walking toward me. It was a person that, up until now, I had only seen naked. Today, he was in a T-shirt and jeans, a backpack hanging off his right shoulder on a single strap, and a worn baseball cap on his head.
He took his time moving across the tracks. Then he stopped a few feet in front of me. His face was expressionless. He was more striking in person; his brows framing deep brown eyes with flecks of yellow. A few black locks of hair had escaped his hat and brushed against his forehead. I watched him lick his dry lips.
“No more phones,” he said.
He was a real person, standing in the same physical space that I was in.
“No more phones,” I said.
I reached out a hand.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m Actual Tess.”
He took my hand and gave it one brief shake. His palm was warm.
“Actual Daniel,” he said.
“Nice to meet you.”
I was staring, but I couldn’t help it. I tried to look away, but it was impossible. I couldn’t believe he was actually here.
“What, you weren’t expecting a brown guy?” he said. “I sent you a picture.”
I looked away.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone,” I said.
We were by the open door of the club, and there was a change in the music. All day there had been a steady blast of horns and rolling pianos. Raucous old music that brought raucous old women to the stage. Then suddenly, there came the soothing sound of Bobby Darin’s voice. A song I remembered from the Oldies station my grandma used to listen to.Beyond the Sea. All of the dancers started to gather on the stage.
“How did you find me?” I asked Daniel.
I still wasn’t sure that he was standing next to me. But I could smell the soap on his skin.
“Magic,” he said.
I looked at him.
“I called your dad. His number’s online.”
I turned back to the stage and listened to the song.
Somewhere beyond the sea. She’s there watching for me.
The old dancers had been drinking most of the day, and now they were in various states of undress. Lilli was still in a corset from an earlier number. Candy was in a shimmery purple evening gown with a giant boa wrapped around her neck. Another woman, Maggie L’amour, was topless, her drooping breasts covered only by pasties the size of silver dollars.
“This is what you’ve been doing since you dropped out?” Daniel asked.
