Walter Mosley - The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Table of Contents

Also by Walter Mosley

RIVERHEAD BOOKS
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Copyright 2010 by Walter Mosley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned,
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Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mosley, Walter.
The last days of Ptolemy Grey / Walter Mosley.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-44533-4

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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For the man who gave everythingLeroy Mosley

AFTERWARD

Dear Robyn,

You are away for two days with Beckford and Im sitting here in this apartment waiting to finally be a man. I have the Devils medicine burning in my veins and Coydog McCann whispering in my left ear. I have you in my life. That was something I never suspected, expected, or even dreamed about. I love you and I couldnt be here right now if it wasnt for you taking care of me. And if you were twenty years older and I fifty years less Id ask you to be my wife and not a soul on this earth would have ever had better.

I want you to know that everybody in my family is counting on you. They might not like you. They might be mad that I made you my heir. But in the end they will all be better for your strength, my guidance, and Coys righteous crime so many years ago.

Im sitting here waiting on the man with two names to come and tell me the truth. Thats all I ask for. I need to know what happened and why. Because even though I can remember as far back as I have years, ninety-one years, I still dont know what happened. And a man has to know the truth and act accordinglythats only right.

So if something should happen and I dont make it past this afternoon I want you to know how much I love you and I am in love with you. You deserve the best I can offer up and thats why Im sitting here with a pistol under the cushion and a gold doubloon on the coffee table. You might not understand. You might think that it dont have a thing to do with you and you dont want me acting a fool like this. You might say why live a whole life being careful and then throw it all away at the last minute?

But baby girl I should have run into that tarpaper fire when I was a boy. I should have run down with a rock or stick when Coy was dancing on flames. I should have walked out on Sensia and stayed away even though it would have killed me.

I have to do this baby girl because you gave me the heart and the chance and because when I saw you I knew.

I love you always,
Ptolemy Usher Grey

Hello? the very, very old black man said into the receiver.

The phone had not rung for more than a week and a half by his reckoning but really it had only been a little more than three days. Somebody had called, a woman. She seemed sad. He remembered that shed called more than once.

Classical piano played softly from a radio in the background. A console television prattled away, set on a twenty-four-hour news station.

Is somebody there? the old man asked before his caller could speak.

Papa Grey? a male voice said. It was a young mans voice, free from the strain and gravel of age.

Is that you, Reggie? Where you been, boy? I been waitin for you to come by for a week. No, no, two weeks. I dont know exactly but its been a long time.

No, Papa Grey, no, its me, Hilly.

Who? Wheres Reggie?

Hilly went silent for two seconds and the old man said, Is anybody there?

Im here, Papa Grey, the voice assured. Im here.

He was certainly there, on the other end of the line, but who was it? the old man wondered. He looked around the room for a clue to his callers identity but all he saw were piles of newspapers, boxes of every size and shape, and furniture. There were at least a dozen chairs and a big bureau that was tilted over on a broken leg; two dining tables were flush up against the south and east walls. His tattered mattress under its thin army blanket lay beneath the southern table.

That was Etude no. 2 in A-flat Major by Chopin, the radio announcer was saying. Now were going to hear from...

Papa Grey? a voice said.

... half a dozen bombs went off in and around Baghdad today. Sixty-four people were killed ...

Was the voice coming from the radio or the TV? No. It was in his ear. The telephone

Who is this? Ptolemy Grey asked, remembering that he was having a phone conversation.

Its Hilly, Papa. Your great-nephew. Junes daughters son.

Who?

Hilly, the young man said, raising his voice slightly. Your nephew.

Wheres Reggie? Ptolemy asked. Wheres my son?

He cant come today, Uncle, Hilly said. Mama asked me to call you to see if you needed anything.

Heck yeah, Ptolemy said, wondering what anything the call and the caller meant.

Do you?

Do I what?

Do you need anything?

Sure I do. I need all kinds of things. Reggie havent called me in, in a week, maybe, maybe its only three days. I still got four cans of sardines and he always buy me a box of fourteen. I eat one every day for lunch. But he havent called and I dont know what Im gonna eat when the fish an, an, an cornflakes run out.