'I feel like I'm in Moonstruck,' Karyn said.
'Except in Moonstruck the Trade Towers were there,' Claude added.
The car fell silent as they passed under the neighboring on-ramps of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.
Jack had never liked the Trade Towers, had never thought he'd miss those soulless silver-plated Twix bars. But he did, and still felt a stab of fury when he noticed the hole in his sky where they'd been. The terrorists, like most outsiders to the city, probably had viewed the twins as some sort of crown on the skyline, so they'd aimed for the head. But Jack wondered how the city would have reacted if the Empire State and the Chrysler Buildings had been targeted instead. They were more part of the city's heart and soul and history. King Kong-the real King Kong- had climbed the Empire State Building.
Brooklyn turned into Queens at the Kosciusko Bridge and the highway wandered past Long Island City, then the equally unspectacular Jackson Heights.
Astoria sits on the northwest shoulder of Queens along the East River. Jack visited frequently, but rarely by car. One of his mail drops was on Steinway Street. As he drove he debated a side trip to pick up his mail, but canned the idea. His passengers might start asking questions. He'd subway back next week.
Following Junie's somewhat disjointed directions-she usually cabbed here so she wasn't exactly sure of all her landmarks-he jumped off the BQE onto Astoria Boulevard and turned north, running a seamless gauntlet of row houses.
'If this Ifasen's so good,' Jack said, 'what's he doing out here in the sticks?'
Junie said, 'Queens isn't the sticks!'
'Is to me. Too open. Too much sky. Makes me nervous. Like I'm going to have a panic attack or something.' He swerved the car. 'Whoa!'
'What's wrong?' Junie cried.
'Just saw a herd of buffalo. Thought they were going to stampede in front of the car. Told you this was the sticks.'
As the back seat laughed, Gia gave his thigh one of those squeezes.
They passed a massive Greek Orthodox church but the people passing along the sidewalk out front were dressed in billowy pantaloons and skull caps and saris. Astoria used to be almost exclusively Greek; now it housed sizable Indian, Korean, and Bangladeshi populations. A polyglotopolis.
They cruised into the commercial district along Ditmars Boulevard where they passed the usual boutiques, nail salons, travel agencies, pet shops, and pharmacies, plus the ubiquitous KFCs, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonald's, interspersed with gyro, souvlaki, and kabab houses. They passed a Pakistani-Bangladeshi restaurant; its front, like a fair number of others, sported signs written not just in foreign languages but foreign script. The Greek influence was still strong, though-Greek coffee shops, Greek bakeries, even the pizzerias sported the Acropolis or one of the Greek gods on their awnings.
'There!' Junie cried, leaning forward and pointing through the windshield at a produce shop with a yellow awning inscribed with English and what looked like Sanskrit. 'I recognize that place! Make a right at the corner here.'
Jack complied and turned into a quiet residential neighborhood. This street was lined with duplexes, a relief from the row houses. A train rumbled along a trestle looming above them.
'He's number 735,' Junie said. 'You can't miss it. It's the only detached single-family home on the block.'
'Might be the only one in Astoria,' Jack said.
'Should be on the right somewhere along-' Her arm lanced ahead again. 'Here! Here it is! Awriiight!' Jack heard the slap of a high five somewhere behind him. 'Told you I'd get us here!'
Jack found an empty spot and pulled into the curb.
Junie was out the door before he'd put the car in park. 'Come on, guys! Let's go talk to dead folks!'
Karyn and Claude piled out, but Jack stayed put. 'I think we'll pass.'
'Aw, no,' Junie said, leaning toward the passenger window. 'Gia, you've got to come meet him. You've got to see what he can do!'
Gia looked at him. 'What do you say?'
Jack lowered his voice. 'I know this game. It's not-'
'You were a psychic?'
'No. I just helped one once.'
'Great! Then you can explain it all afterwards.' She smiled and tugged on his arm. 'Come on. This could be fun.'
'Fun like that party?' Gia gave him a look so Jack shrugged his acquiescence. 'All right. Let's see if this guy lives up to Junie's press release.'
Junie cheered and led Karyn and Claude toward the house while Jack closed up the car. He joined Gia at the curb. He started toward the house but stopped when he saw it.
'What's wrong?' Gia said.
He stared at the house. 'Look at this place.'
Jack couldn't say why, but he immediately disliked the house. It was colonial in shape, with an attached garage, but made of some sort of dark brown stone. It probably looked better during the day. Jack could make out a well-trimmed lawn and impatiens and marigolds in bloom among the foundation plantings along the front porch. But here in the dark it seemed to squat on its double-size lot like some huge, glowering toad edging hungrily toward the sidewalk. He could imagine a snakelike tongue uncoiling through the front door and snagging some unwary passerby.
'Definitely creepy looking,' Gia said. 'Probably by design.'
'Don't go in there,' said an accented voice from his left.
Jack turned and saw a slim, dark Indian woman in a royal blue sari, strolling her way along the sidewalk, being led by a big German shepherd on a leash.
'Excuse me?' Jack said.
'Very bad place,' the woman said, closer now. Her dark hair was knitted into a long thick braid that trailed over her right shoulder; a fine golden ring pierced her right nostril. 'Bad past. Worse future. Stay away.' She didn't slow her pace as she came abreast of them. Her black eyes flashed at Jack-'Stay away'-then at Gia-'especially you.'
Then she walked on. The dog looked back over his shoulder, but the woman did not.
'Now that's creepy,' Gia said as an uncertain smile wavered across her lips.
Jack had always believed that in confronting a fear and facing it down, you weakened it. Recent events had given him second thoughts about the wisdom of that belief. And with Gia along...
'Maybe we should listen to her.'
Gia laughed. 'Oh, come on! She probably works for this guy; he sends her out to get us in the mood. Or maybe she's just a local wacko. You're not taking her seriously, are you?'
Jack looked after the retreating saried figure, now barely visible in the shadows. After what he'd been through lately, he was taking a lot more things seriously, things he'd laughed at before.
'I don't know.'
'Oh, let's go,' she said, tugging him up the front walk. 'Junie's been seeing him for a couple of months and nothing bad's happened to her.'
Jack put an arm around Gia's back and together they approached the house. They joined the others on the front porch where Junie had been jabbing at the bell button with no results.
She jabbed it again. 'Where is he?'
'Maybe he's not home,' Jack said.
'He's got to be! I can't-'
Just then the front door eased open a crack. Jack saw an eye and a sliver of dark cheek.
'Ifasen! It's me! Junie! Thank God you're here!'
The door opened wider, revealing a tall, lean black man, maybe thirty. He wore a white T-shirt and gray slacks; his hair was woven into neat, tight dreads that brushed his wide shoulders. Ifasen reminded Jack of Lenny Kravitz in his dreadlock days.
'Ms. Moon,' he said with an unplaceable accent. 'It's late.'
