Page 52 of It Takes a Thief

Maddy was thin-lipped, her arms crossed in front of her. I knew that move of self-preservation. “Fine. Go then.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and tried to look her in the eye. “Maddy. You know I love you, or I wouldn’t have come up here on this slight hunch.” She said nothing, just stuck out her lower lip. “Do you know I love you?” I was starting to worry.

She put one reluctant hand on top of mine. “I know you do. And I love you too. Now go. Cops’ll be here any second.”

And so I went, because now it was my club calling me. I was going to thrash it and maybe catch up with Noodlum, plug him through his fucking distorted brain. I knew then that I’d decided. I was going to back down on the construction end of things. There were others who could handle my load. But the club? Never. Without a father, I was it. I shouldered the weight of the entire club’s future.

Maddy could live with that.

I hoped.

CHAPTER TWENTY

MADISON

The seer was preparing the womb.

“This is a great thing, Maddy,” said Ellis.

We were shivering our balls off. Figuratively speaking.

I had not known what to wear to a sweat lodge. Galileo told me “nothing.” I wasn’t about to get naked in front of my boss, so I’d compromised with a two-piece bathing suit. I’d seen Ellis naked before. I had to go to his house—quite a nice house, compared to most of the decrepit shacks on the Rez, but so close to the hospital he could run there any time—because no one could find him and he needed to see some test results with his own eyes. “Come on in,” he’d yelled, and when I did, he was walking around naked. Well, he had a towel around his waist. He must’ve been in the shower. But I was so riled up I couldn’t wait to get home and rub myself to orgasm. I did that a lot. I sometimes wondered if I was an addict.

Ellis had confirmed that Ashlynne’s eyes had been gouged out. I asked if he’d heard of the Tupperware of eyeballs seized from a rental trailer of Galileo’s. He told me DNA samples had already been sent out to connect them to several other sightless female bodies strewn about the area over the past couple of years. He did not ask me how I knew.

“The Diné see the sweat lodge as a womb, that birth is an ascent, not a downfall. That the purpose of life is to enlighten, not to punish.”

“Good. I never believed that nonsense about Adam and Eve anyway.”

“Good on you. But that begs the question. What does the spirit gain by being separated from God? Plato thought we had a choice in life, even how we’re born, into what family, the whole trajectory of our predicted life.”

“That it’s set in stone?” I loved it when Ellis got all philosophical. These were hardly words you’d hear out of Ford Illuminati’s mouth. Although well-educated—mostly self-educated, I should say—Ford didn’t exactly stand around uttering deathless prose. We’d only discussed religion once, for example. Ford didn’t want to attend church, neither did I, so our kids didn’t. Boom.

“Well, he talked about spirits being allowed to choose their lives from a spectrum of families, jobs, environments. You’d think that most people would pick the effortless and glamorous road through mortality. But Plato said that, contrary to popular belief, the easy, cozy path was not the wisest choice.”

“Why not? Was Plato a Hindu?” I, however, was not well-educated. I’d barely squeaked out of high school. Between the drama at my mother’s house, having to find a place to bathe, and stealing food, I was absent a lot. Nursing school was my salvation. I clicked with it.

Ellis chuckled as though I’d made a well-read joke. He ignored me. “We can’t possibly know why some are born healthy and rich while others choose shitty bodies or broken homes, or enter a scenario of war or starvation. But Plato’s observations really should give us a moment to reflect, to choose humility and hope. Humility because we know we chose this life. This means there is more dignity and worthiness in choosing a disadvantaged life. A damaged life was the bolder choice.”

I nodded. “Then everyone on this Rez is fixing to be a saint.”

He nodded too. “Suffering can be cleansing. Pain isn’t punishment.”

It was just us two, waiting for the medicine man. “You’re not gay, are you?” I blurted out. And that shows you how far Ellis and I had come, our comfort with each other, how approachable he was unlike most bosses.

Ellis scoffed. “What? Now there’s a new one.”

“I take that as a no.”

“Emphatic no. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. What made you think that?”

Overcome with a sudden shyness attack, I had to look away. “Well, just about every girl has the hots for you. And you’ve never hooked up with any that I know of.”

“Nor will I, Madison. You are my disciples. Even the attending nurses and doctors are colleagues. I’m not such a horndog that I need to be boning everything I see.”

Of course that made me wonder if he was impotent.

Soon the medicine man bade us enter into “the sweat” by smudging us with a bundle of smoking sage and sweetgrass. Ellis said something to him in Diné and handed him some cash. They appeared to be on friendly terms. We had to leave everything unnatural, like rings and watches, outside the lodge.