The Immortals by Mary Hallberg (chrysanthemum read aloud txt) 📗

He wiggled his fingers. “Then hand over the remote. My show is on.”

I glanced at the couch but couldn’t see the tiny remote. Luke reached across me to fetch it from the middle seat. I had no desire to watch one of his dumb crime shows, but there wasn’t much else I felt like doing.

Luckily he didn’t change the channel right away. “Want to talk?” he asked.

I shook my head but started talking anyway. “I don’t get it Luke.”

“Don’t get what?”

“Why did grandpa leave?”

“You mean The Immortals?”

“Yeah. I guess it had to have had something to do with dad. But since he...since he died, don’t you think he would have wanted to stay? So he wouldn’t have to die too?”

“Kenzie, I know you’re upset. We all are. But grandpa was 78 and lived a full life. He didn’t want to live forever, especially with his only son gone. He’d have to watch everyone he loved die eventually — and since this was before you were Immortal, that included you. He knew that death is a part of life. That’s why I never wanted to join.”

“I thought it was because you weren’t offered a spot.”

He laughed. “I wasn’t. But sometimes my friends offer me TNV. They have enough between all of them to make the whole freaking world Immortal.”

“Luke,” I said, “What do you think grandpa would do if someone gave him TNV after he left The Immortals?”

He snickered.

“What’s so funny?” I said.

“Kenzie, I’m not dumb. I know you spiked his water with the stuff.”

“Wait...how did you know?”

“Because I know you. And it did help, for a little while.”

“I know, but I had to stop. I knew he’d freak out if he realized what I’d done. I had to respect his wishes — even though it was really, really hard.”

Luke put his feet up. “Kenzie let me ask you something. What do you remember about life before the collapse?”

“I remember...having money. Never having to worry about anything. Everything was sort of...”

“Picture perfect?” he finished for me. “You were so young back then. You couldn’t remember mom and dad fighting.”

“What? You mean, before the collapse?”

“They fought like crazy before the collapse, Kenzie. You don’t remember it because you were too little or because you don’t want to remember it. I guess it was no more than most married couples fight, but they did. Life wasn’t a bed of roses.” He snickered. “One of grandpa’s old sayings.”

“What did they fight about? Surely not money.”

“Oh yeah, they fought over money. But that wasn’t all. I think mom wasn’t happy because dad was gone for so long. He was in Washington a lot and he flew in when he could. But a lot of the time it was just her and sometimes grandpa and grandma here, raising all of us. And even grandpa stopped coming for awhile after grandma died. They got through it, of course, and they loved each other. But having lots of money didn’t make everything perfect.”

Of course. How could I have forgotten that? I remembered dad’s presents coming in at a constant flow more than I did his actual...well, presence.

Luke squeezed my shoulder. “Do you know about a man named Jerome Glen?”

It took me a minute to remember where I’d heard the name. He was the man who had sold his car to Niles, who in turn had given it to Matt. The man who had lost his wife in a bizarre cliff diving accident, one of the few incidents where an injury was so quick and damaging that not even TNV could cure it. His wife’s death was the only reason I had been able to join The Immortals. Nobody would have admitted that, of course, but it was blatantly obvious — she had died just a few months before my name was submitted. It was the first time I’d ever admitted it to myself.

“Yeah I know who he is.”

“He died last week. Put a pistol in his mouth.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it was on the news. You must not have been in here. Ever hear that old saying ‘money can’t buy happiness’? It’s true — money can’t buy a whole lot. It can’t even buy eternal life. There are no guarantees, Kenzie.”

“Do you think that was it? After dad died, did grandpa realize that money can’t solve all your problems?”

“Kenzie, there’s a lot more to it than that. You miss dad, don’t you? And even though you always said you didn’t want to be Immortal, you joined right away when you were offered, didn’t even give it a second thought, because you didn’t want to put us through the same thing. Didn’t want anyone to have to grieve for you that way. Yeah, you would have had to watch us all die. Me, mom, all your friends. But you would have to suffer through it. Not us.”

I shook my head, even though it was true. “I couldn’t believe it when grandpa left right after dad died. I felt like he was giving up.” It was the first time I had said it out loud.

“I don’t think he saw it that way. Grandpa wasn’t as well off as us growing up, you know. He knows what it’s like to have everything, but he also knows what it’s like to have nothing.”

“But even when he wasn’t Immortal he had something. He had us.”

Luke grinned again. “I think that top notch education is finally rubbing off on you.”

twenty-two

I’ve only been back to The Necropolis once since the Feed the Needy event. Well, technically twice, but both visits were on the same day.

The first was prompted by an invitation from Corrina Girard, who just couldn’t believe that another Immortal had left. She said she’d buy me lunch if I’d give her some insight – off the record, of course – about why I had done what I’d done.

We met in the same restaurant the Immortal girl had brought me to when I saved her dog. I wouldn’t be getting pizza with my fancy napkin, though; now that