Robbie drank his beer and watched them. The house had a smell that Emery once described as Failed Bachelor. Unwashed clothes, spilled beer, marijuana smoke. Robbie hadn’t smoked in years, but Zach and Tyler had taken up the slack. Robbie used to yell at them but eventually gave up. If his own depressing example wasn’t enough to straighten them out, what was?
After a minute, Zach looked up again. “Nice shirt, Dad.”
“Thanks, son.” Robbie sank into a beanbag chair. “Me and Emery dropped by the museum and saw Leonard.”
“Leonard!” Tyler burst out laughing. “Leonard is so fucking sweet! He’s, like, the craziest guy ever.”
“All Dad’s friends are crazy,” said Zach.
“Yeah, but Emery, he’s cool. Whereas that guy Leonard is just wack.”
Robbie nodded somberly and finished his beer. “Leonard is indeed wack. He’s making a movie.”
“A real movie?” asked Zach.
“More like a home movie. Or, I dunno-he wants to reproduce another movie, one that was already made, do it all the same again. Shot by shot.”
Tyler nodded. “Like
“Seventeen seconds of a 1901 plane crash. The original footage was destroyed, so he’s going to restage the whole thing.”
“A plane crash?” Zach glanced at Tyler. “Can we watch?”
“Not a real crash-he’s doing it with a model. I mean, I think he is.”
“Did they even have planes then?” said Tyler.
“He should put it on YouTube,” said Zach, and turned back to the computer.
“Okay, get out of there.” Robbie rubbed his head wearily. “I need to go online.”
The boys argued but gave up quickly. Tyler left. Zach grabbed his cell phone and slouched upstairs to his room. Robbie got another beer, sat at the computer, and logged out of whatever they’d been playing, then typed in MCCAULEY BELLEROPHON.
Only a dozen results popped up. He scanned them, then clicked the Wikipedia entry for Ernesto McCauley.
Robbie took a long pull at his beer, then typed in MARGARET BLEVIN.
“‘The Magnificent Blevin’?” Robbie snorted. He grabbed another beer and continued reading.
“Leonard wrote this frigging thing!”
“What?” Zach came downstairs, yawning.
“This Wikipedia entry!” Robbie jabbed at the screen. “That book was never a best-seller-she sneaked it into the museum gift shop and no one bought it. The only reason it’s still in print is that she published it herself.”
Zach read the entry over his father’s shoulder. “It sounds cool.”
Robbie shook his head adamantly. “She was completely nuts. Obsessed with all this New Age crap, aliens and crop circles. She thought that planes could only fly from certain places, and that’s why all the early flights crashed. Not because there was something wrong with the aircraft design, but because they were taking off from the wrong spot.”
“Then how come there’s airports everywhere?”
“She never worked out that part.”
“‘We must embrace our galactic heritage, the spiritual dimension of human flight, lest we forever chain ourselves to earth,’” Zach read from the screen. “Was she in that plane crash?”
“No, she’s still alive. That was just something she had a wild hair about. She thought the guy who invented that plane flew it a few years before the Wright brothers made their flight, but she could never prove it.”
“But it says there was a movie,” said Zach. “So someone saw it happen.”
“This is Wikipedia.” Robbie stared at the screen in disgust. “You can say any fucking thing you want and people will believe it. Leonard wrote that entry, guarantee you. Probably she faked that whole film loop. That’s what Leonard’s planning to do now-replicate the footage then pass it off to Maggie as the real thing.”
Zach collapsed into the beanbag chair. “Why?”
“Because he’s crazy, too. He and Maggie had a thing together.”
Zach grimaced. “Ugh.”
“What, you think we were born old? We were your age, practically. And Maggie was about twenty years older-”
“A cougar!” Zach burst out laughing. “Why didn’t she go for you?”
“Ha ha ha.” Robbie pushed his empty beer bottle against the wall.
“Women liked Leonard. Go figure. Even your mom went out with him for a while. Before she and I got involved, I mean.”
Zach’s glassy eyes threatened to roll back in his head. “Stop.”
“We thought it was pretty strange,” admitted Robbie. “But Maggie was good-looking for an old hippie.” He glanced at the Wikipedia entry and did the math. “I guess she’s in her seventies now. Leonard’s in touch with her. She has cancer. Breast cancer.”
“I heard you,” said Zach. He rolled out of the beanbag chair, flipped open his phone, and began texting. “I’m going to bed.”
Robbie sat and stared at the computer screen. After a while he shut it down. He shuffled into the kitchen and opened the cabinet where he kept a quart of Jim Beam, hidden behind bottles of vinegar and vegetable oil. He rinsed out the glass he’d used the night before, poured a jolt and downed it, then carried the bourbon with him to bed.
THE NEXT DAY AFTER work, he was on his second drink at the bar when Emery showed up.
“Hey.” Robbie gestured at the stool beside him. “Have a seat.”
“You okay to drive?”
“Sure.” Robbie scowled. “What, you keeping an eye on me?”
“No. But I want you to see something. At my house. Leonard’s coming over, we’re going to meet there at six thirty. I tried calling you but your phone’s off.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.” Robbie signaled the bartender for his tab. “Yeah, sure. What, is he gonna give us manicures?”
“Nope. I have an idea. I’ll tell you when I get there; I’m going to Royal Delhi first to get some takeout. See you-”
Emery lived in a big town house condo that smelled of Moderately Successful Bachelor. The walls held framed photos of Captain Marvo and Mungbean alongside a life-size painting of Leslie Nielsen as Commander J. J. Adams.
But there was also a climate-controlled basement filled with Captain Marvo merchandise and packing material, with another large room stacked with electronics equipment-sound system, video monitors and decks,
