Staten Island Noir (28 page)

Paul staggered forward, toward a statue of a person sitting cross-legged like the nun did. Pearls and coral studded its flowing gold robes. He reached for it but the nun moved smoothly in front of it. She said nothing, just smiled.

“No,” Paul heard himself croak. “Please. You have to let me.”

She shook her head.

“Paul!” Stoom snapped. “You moron loser. Push her out of the way.”

“No. I'll get a different one.”

“I want THAT one!” Roman whined.

Paul swung his head around. The headlamp picked out a glittering statue with lots of arms, over in a case by the door. He turned his back on the nun and lurched toward it. By the time he got there she was standing in front of it, hands folded, smiling. He hadn't seen her move.

“Paul,” she said, “this life has been hard for you. I don't know why; I think, though, that the next turn of the wheel will be far better.”

He didn't know what she was talking about. Wheel, what wheel? All three of The Guys were kicking him now, Roman the hardest, trying to pop his right eye out. “Please,” he said. “Get out of the way.”

She said nothing, just smiled the ticket lady's smile and stood there.

Paul took two steps over to the next cabinet.

There she was.

“Please!” he shouted at her. “Stop it!” His head pounded, the pain so searing he thought he might throw up. He could barely see but he knew she was still standing between him and the statues. “
Please!
”

“Hit her.” That was Larry. Paul barely heard him through the pain. He tried to pretend he didn't hear him at all but Larry laughed. “Hit her. With a statue.”

Paul's hands trembled as he reached into the backpack, took out the gold statue. “Please,” he whispered to the nun–ticket lady. “Please move.”

She just stood and smiled.

Paul lifted the statue way high. As he brought it down on her shaved head he realized he was screaming.

He felt the impact on her skull, felt it all the way up to his shoulders, his back. The nun crumpled to the floor without a sound. Blood flowed from the smashed-in place, started to pool under her face. Paul dropped the statue; it fell with a splash into the puddle of blood. “Oh my God,” he whispered. “Oh my God oh my God oh my God.”

“Oh my God is right!” Larry roared a grand, triumphant laugh. “You killed her!”

“Killed her! Killed her!” shrieked Roman.

“You know what happens now, don't you?” Larry said. “You go to jail. Prison, you loser, you go to prison where there's no smack and we go too! Oh, will that be fun!”

“No.” Paul could barely get the word out. “I didn't. She's not dead.”

“Really?” said Stoom. “Can you wake her up?”

Paul kneeled slowly, put out his hand, shook the nun gently. She still had that little smile, the ticket lady's smile, but she didn't respond at all.

“Look at all that blood,” Stoom said. “You're stupid if you think anyone could be still alive with all their blood on the floor like that. You're stupid anyway, but she's dead and you killed her.”

“Prison!” Roman bellowed. “Killed her! Prison!”

“No.” Paul stood slowly, shaking his head. “No.”

“Oh, yes, yes,” Larry said. “Oh, yes.”

Paul took one more look at the nun, then staggered toward the exit door. An alarm shrieked as he pushed it open. He ran across the terrace, slipping on the autumn leaves. When he got to the railing he stared down; the headlamp shone on branches and bushes growing out of the wall beneath him but couldn't reach all the way to the street below.

He grabbed the rail, ready to vault over.

“No,” said Stoom in that very hard voice. “No, you're staying.”

Paul felt his grip tighten on the rail, like The Guys were controlling his fingers. He heard a siren wail. That would be the cops, because of the door alarm. If he was still here when they came, he'd go to prison for sure.

“That's right,” Larry said with satisfaction. “Prison for sure.”

Paul took a slow, deep breath. “No,” he whispered. “She told me I don't have to do what you say.”

The Guys yelled, they bellowed and kicked, but Paul loosened his fingers one by one. He climbed over the railing, stood for a minute on the edge of the wall. Then he dove. His last thought was the hope that The Guys wouldn't have time to clear out of his head before he smashed it to bits on the pavement.

The impact, the thud of a body landing forty feet below, didn't penetrate very far into the square stone room. It barely disturbed the resting stillness, didn't echo at all past the golden Buddha in the middle of the floor. The statue lay on its side on a smooth dry stone tile, beside a backpack full of other statues. Except for the statue and the backpack, and the single panel removed from the skylight, nothing was out of place. The calm silence in the room continued, and would continue once the statues had been replaced in their proper spots by the museum's new director.

She would be pleased that something had scared off the thief, though greatly saddened that he'd fallen to his death over the railing at the terrace. As advised by the police, she'd add an alarm to the skylight. She had much to do, as she was all the staff the museum had. She guided visitors, and also sold the tickets, the ticket lady having retired years ago. She didn't mind the work. She was hoping, even, to soon reopen the meditation caves, to perhaps make the museum not just a serene spot, but a useful one, as it once had been: a beacon for poor souls with troubled minds.

About the Contributors

 

 

___________________

 

 

Ted Anthony,
a longtime journalist, has reported from more than twenty countries and forty-seven US states. He has been a foreign correspondent in China and covered the aftermath of 9/11 in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the early months of the war in Iraq. He is the author of the cultural history
Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song.

 

 

Todd Craig
is a product of Ravenswood and Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York. He is a writer, educator, and deejay. Straddling fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, Craig's texts paint vivid depictions of the urban lifestyle he experienced in his community. He currently teaches English at the College of Staten Island while completing his doctorate in English at St. John's University.

 

 

Ashley Dawson
is a professor of English at the City University of New York's Graduate Center and at the College of Staten Island. He is the author of
Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain
and
The Routledge Concise History of Twentieth-Century British Literature
, and coeditor of three essay collections, including
Democracy, States, and the Struggle for Global Justice
and
Dangerous Professors: Academic Freedom and the National Security Campus
.

 

 

Bruce DeSilva
is the author of the hard-boiled Mulligan crime novels
Cliff Walk
and
Rogue Island,
with a third,
Providence Rag,
on the way. His fiction has won Edgar and Macavity awards and has been a finalist for the Anthony and Shamus awards. He worked as a journalist for forty years, most recently as a senior editor for the Associated Press. He reviews books for the Associated Press and is a master's thesis advisor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

 

 

Louisa Ermelino
is the reviews director at
Publishers Weekly
. She has worked at
People, Time,
and
Instyle
, and written three novels:
Joey Dee Gets Wise
,
The Black Madonna
, and
The Sisters Mallone.
Her family summered in Staten Island and it is the home of her husband's family and "the site of a large part of our courtship."

 

 

Eddie Joyce
 was born and raised on Staten Island. He is working on his first novel. Before he started writing, he was a criminal defense attorney in Manhattan for ten years. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three daughters.

 

 

Binnie Kirshenbaum
is the author of two story collections,
Married Life
and
History on a Personal Note,
and six novels:
On Mermaid Avenue, A Disturbance in One Place, Pure Poetry, Hester Among the Ruins, An Almost Perfect Moment,
and
The Scenic Route. 
She is a professor and currently serving as chair at Columbia University's MFA program. She taught at Staten Island's Wagner College twenty years ago.

 

 

Michael Largo
has published three novels and four books of nonfiction. He won the Bram Stoker Award for
Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die.
He was born on Staten Island and grew up a few blocks away from where Willie Sutton once lived. He attended the College of Staten Island and, among other things, once owned the St. Marks Bar & Grill in Manhattan.

 

 

Bill Loehfelm
is the author of three novels, most recently
The Devil She Knows
, as well as
Fresh Kills
, winner of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and
Bloodroot
. All three novels are set in Loehfelm's home borough of Staten Island. He grew up in Eltingville, and is a graduate of Monsignor Farrell High School. He currently lives in New Orleans' Garden District with his wife, A.C. Lambeth, a writer and yoga instructor, and their two dogs.

 

 

Linda Nieves-Powell
was selected as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics by
Hispanic Business
magazine. She is the author of the novel
Free Style,
and the writer and director of the award-winning plays
Yo Soy Latina!
and
Jose Can Speak,
and is the creator, cowriter, director, and producer of the comedic web series
Happy Cancer Chick.
She moved to Staten Island when she was thirteen, and still lives there today.

 

 

Michael Penncavage
won a 2008 Derringer Award for his story "The Cost of Doing Business." He has been an associate editor for
Space and Time
magazine, as well as editor of the horror/suspense anthology
Tales from a Darker State
. He has been published in approximately eighty magazines and anthologies, and is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the Horror Writers of America, and the Garden State Horror Writers.

 

 

S.J. Rozan
is the author of thirteen novels and three dozen short stories. She has won Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards, and was a recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon Award. She has served on the boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and as president of Private Eye Writers of America. Her latest book is
Ghost Hero.
Rozan set a large portion of her book
Absent Friends
on Staten Island.

 

 

Patricia Smith
is the author of six acclaimed poetry volumes, including
Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah
;
Blood Dazzler,
a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award; and
Teahouse of the Almighty
, a National Poetry Series selection. She is a professor at the College of Staten Island and serves on the faculties of the Stonecoast and Sierra Nevada College low-residency MFA programs.

 

 

Shay Youngblood
is the author of the novels
Black Girl in Paris
and
Soul Kiss
and a collection of short fiction,
The Big Mama Stories
. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Pushcart Prize, a Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, a 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts Sustained Achievement Award, and a 2011/2012 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship. Shay lived in Staten Island from 1995 to 2002.

About the Akashic Noir Series

 

 

___________________

 

 

The Akashic Books Noir series was launched in 2004 with the award-winning anthology,
Brooklyn Noir.
Each book is comprised of all new stories, each taking place within a distinct location in the city of the book. Stories in the series have won multiple Edgar, Shamus, and Hammett awards and the volumes have been translated into 10 languages. Each book is available on our website, as e-books from your favorite vendor, and in print at online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. For more information on the series, including an up-to-date list of available titles, and information on how to purchase the paperback editions of all titles in the series at a group discount (currently 56 titles) please visit www.akashicbooks.com/noirseries.htm.

 

 

ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE AKASHIC NOIR SERIES

 

BALTIMORE NOIR,
edited by LAURA LIPPMAN

BARCELONA NOIR
(SPAIN), edited by ADRIANA V. LÓPEZ & CARMEN OSPINA

BOSTON NOIR,
edited by DENNIS LEHANE

BOSTON NOIR 2: THE CLASSICS,
edited by DENNIS LEHANE, JAIME CLARKE & MARY COTTON

BRONX NOIR,
edited by S.J. ROZAN

BROOKLYN NOIR,
edited by TIM MCLOUGHLIN

BROOKLYN NOIR 2: THE CLASSICS,
edited by TIM MCLOUGHLIN

BROOKLYN NOIR 3: NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH,
edited by TIM MCLOUGHLIN & THOMAS ADCOCK

CAPE COD NOIR,
edited by DAVID L. ULIN

CHICAGO NOIR,
edited by NEAL POLLACK

COPENHAGEN NOIR
(DENMARK), edited by BO TAO MICHAËLIS

D.C. NOIR,
edited by GEORGE PELECANOS

D.C. NOIR 2: THE CLASSICS,
edited by GEORGE PELECANOS

DELHI NOIR
(INDIA), edited by HIRSH SAWHNEY

DETROIT NOIR,
edited by E.J. OLSEN & JOHN C. HOCKING