Bones of The Moon

Sitting on the couch in the living room – dressed in a gray suit, white shirt and black tie – was Jack Chili, lifesize this time. He was all smiles.

«Welcome home, Mrs. James.» That beautiful feathery voice which I had first heard coming from the sky seemed totally obscene here.

«Don't you like my voice, Mrs. James? How about something more down-home? 'It's a song, Cullen.'»

Just like Da

«No? Can't I be sexy too? Isn't that allowed? All right, let me think: 'Oh, light your cigarette with it, Cullen.'»

Eliot!

«Stop it! Those aren't your voices! You can pretend, but they're not yours.»

«_Everything_ is mine, dear.» A small smile. «All right, all right, I'll stop. Pepsi, don't you want to have a good look around before we get started? You might not get another chance later. Don't you want to see how your Mom lives? That's your sister's crib over there; that's where she sleeps.»

«Stop it!»

Without acknowledging me, he kept talking to Pepsi: «Will you look at those little balloons on her sheets, Pepsi! Aren't they great? What do you think of that stuffed dog? His name is Odie and he's from a cartoon. Look at that terrific bed! Who'd want to grow up if they had a bed like that to sleep in? What a great place to grow up in! This is the perfect place for a kid.»

Pepsi held the top bar of Mae's crib with two tight hands and kept looking into it with sad, lost eyes,

«Why don't you fix your son a snack, Cullen? Get him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich – that's his favorite. Can't you see the boy's hungry?»

Pepsi walked around the room taking it all in. He picked up a picture of Da

«Don't forget to check out the pictures on the walls in the bedroom! There's a good one of Da

«Why don't you leave him alone? What are you going to do now?»

«_Me_? I'm not going to do anything, Cullen. It's all up to your son.» He gestured with his head toward the other room.

«What does that mean?»

«Don't worry about it. How did you like what I did with the kids' dreams back there? Great, eh? How about the quick change to their all being Pepsi? You've got to admit it was pretty effective – scared the living daylight out of you, huh? lust like the last time you were here, remember?»

He raised both hands, the old gesture of surrender, and suddenly my parents were on the floor between us. Have you ever seen a bad car accident where people have died? Or those inconceivable photographs of airplane crashes, mass murders, what lay at the bottom of trenches in concentration camps? Well, that is what my parents looked like, lying there on the floor in front of me: Jack Chili's latest gift. But it was clear they were very much alive and feeling every horror their bodies had been subjected to.

They made sounds . . . they moved a little.

This is what I had seen on the side of the hill leading up to the Cafй Deutschland, when I was a girl and first in Rondua. This is why I had used the fourth Bone of the Moon to save myself and my parents, or so I thought.

I closed my eyes. «None of it's real.»

«No, you're wrong. It's real!»

Behind me, Pepsi entered the room and shouted something short and incomprehensible.

There was a hard _snap_ and then total silence. When I looked, the bodies were gone. Pepsi came up and put his hands on my shoulders. I bent my head so that I could touch a cheek to one of them.

«Thank you.»

«You little asshole! All right, all right, let's begin. Obviously you have the Bones, Pepsi, or else you couldn't have done that. Let me see them. I have to anyway.»

Pepsi sat down on the other end of the couch – Da

«Surprised, Mommy Cullen? You've been _had_, dearie. Your little boy's been pulling your chain.»

«I couldn't tell you, Mom – don't listen to him – I wasn't allowed to. I got it when we went to the Hot Shoes the other day. Remember when I climbed up into the pants?»

I could only nod, then I almost laughed. What bit of difference did it make? Nothing surprised me anymore. Not the fifth Bone of the Moon, not my parents' bodies writhing on the floor, not Jack Chili comfortable on the couch in my living room.

I got up and sat down again in Eliot's favorite chair; the one I'd bought at the Salvation Army and had recovered in paisley. Just out of curiosity, I looked at the arm to see if the stain he'd made with the chocolate sundae was still there. It was. Somehow that pleased me and I covered it with my hand as if it belonged only to me.

«Do you know what happens next, Pepsi?»

«No.»

Chili sighed. «I didn't think so. All right, I'll give you a Ronduan history lesson. Listen very carefully. No one knows these things but me, because I found the other five Bones.»

«You? _What_ other five Bones?»

«Shut up and you'll hear. Whoever created Rondua was fair. At all times, there are ten Bones of the Moon in existence. The five you found are called, collectively, The Bones of Smoke. The ones I found are called The Bones of Mark. Don't ask what the phrases mean, because I don't know. I do think they have something to do with the gods, or God, or whoever is in charge here. But that's only my opinion. Anyway, both sets of Bones are here and always have been. What happens in Rondua depends entirely on which set has been found.»

«Wait –«

«Stop interrupting me, Cullen. You won't have any questions when I'm finished, I can assure you. Both sets of Bones exist, but they must all be found by someone if they wish to gain power. A long time ago I found The Bones of Mark, so I've ruled Rondua since that time. You're familiar with my way of doing things, but I don't want to discuss policy with you because it would do no good. I rule the way I choose to rule.

«If you hadn't found The Bones of Smoke, Pepsi, I would have continued in power for another three Milans. Do you know how long a Milan is?»

Calm but attentive, Pepsi nodded.

«Good. Once someone finds the five Bones, either set, they rule for five Milans. Then they must take the test I'll describe to you in a little while.

«However, what you've done has thrown things off a bit. In the past, it has frequently happened that two have found the different sets of Bones at the same time, or almost the same time. Keegan Merle and Nile Shadows were the last ones to coincide. The law says that when that _does_ happen, the test must be taken immediately by both, and only one will survive. That time, Merle won and ruled for his five Milans. Incidentally, Merle was Mr. Tracy's father, in case you didn't know.

«After he was gone, there was a short period of no rule before I came along. I must tell you that I found the five Bones of Mark more quickly than anyone ever had in Rondua before.»

Looking pleased with himself, Chili reached over and picked up the fourth Bone of the Moon from the couch – the one that DeFazio had so indifferently given us when we went to his island; the one that looked like a baseball; the one I had used to save myself in another lifetime.