10

Puppet

The sun is below the horizon by the time Atticus and Dimitri arrive at the building in which Lenny’s radio station is located. Stars are beginning to disappear as a thin layer of clouds replaces the light of dusk on the western horizon. Atticus didn’t speak to Dimitri during the entire boat ride, shifting nervously and restless for possibly the longest trek of his life.
“Have you seen what happened? Do you know what to expect?” Atticus finally breaks the silence as they dock the boat right out front of the main entrance.
“It wasn’t a massacre, if that’s what you’re worried about, but I didn’t go in.” She gives him a hand in stepping onto the docks.
“And how do you know my presence has been requested? Don’t tell me you’ve spoken to Moony…”
She doesn’t answer, instead leading the way up the stairs and into the building.
“Of course.” He clenches his jaw. As they arrive at the elevator, Atticus slowly lets out a breath and changes the subject, “Does Steve know?”
Dimitri glances at him before muttering, “I’m not sure, that’s not my problem, sounds like your concern.” She smashes the faded ‘up’ arrow.
“Dammit! Why did you drag me into this, Dimitri?”
“Keep your voice down, people live in this building.” She enters the lift as it dings and the doors slide open. Once enclosed in the elevator, she turns to look at Atticus directly, “Listen, I know this is a lot and things are happening quickly, but you’ve gotta keep your cool unless you want to end up like Lenny, dead in your own shit. You agreed to work with me and I know you’re not fucking stupid, you were well aware of the risks involved with this city’s entertainment industry and pushing Jackson. You wanted this, don’t lie to me, I know you better than you think.”
“I wanted a taste of success and maybe, maybe, to take down Jackson in the process, not for decent, innocent people to die!”
“Well, we’re here, so you better come to terms with this reality real quick. Besides, I had nothing to do with your little radio cameo at Jackson’s party the other night.” The elevator dings once again as she finishes and the doors slide open to Lenny’s floor. She steps out, leaving Atticus pale-faced and unmoving on the back wall. “You coming or are you going to disappoint me?”
“I-” He closes his mouth and follows, having nothing to retort.
She claps him on the back and smiles, “That’s what I thought, I knew you were the right choice. No need to act like you care around me.”
They move down the hallway to the radio station door. An excess number of flies have already begun to collect, but upon entering the room, their presence and the smell are the only indications that Lenny isn’t just asleep at his desk.
“Oh gods…” Atticus exhales the statement and scrunches his nose.
“Just the work of one god, actually, but yeah.” She steps further into the room to allow space for Atticus. “You want to do the honors?”
“Not particularly, but I suppose I should.” He navigates through the familiar mess of wires and stacks of music albums until he gets to the body. Atticus tightens his lips when he notices the stack of cash and the note in Lenny’s hand. He carefully plucks out the paper, trying not to touch Lenny himself, but accidentally brushes his hand anyway, a shiver running down his spine at how cold the man’s flesh is. He unfolds the paper and reads the note to himself before grimacing and handing it to Dimitri, who reads it aloud in her best mocking Moony voice:

Mr. Atticus Frank,
Consider this my gift to you. You wanted the spotlight so badly, now it’s yours. In fact, the whole station and your late friend’s entire collection is all yours as well. There’s a room three doors down that has been cleaned and furnished for you, but I wouldn’t disregard Leonard’s living quarters; his collection is far more vast than you realize.
The people of this city seem keen on you, which works well enough for me, though maybe not for Mr. Mondo. As long as you do not continue to disappoint, you will find your pay is much more than you’ve probably seen in your lifetime as a bottom feeder. Do not, however, misinterpret this as me having any partiality towards you or your patron, I am merely respecting the game at play.
I will only give you one warning out of the goodness of my heart, and that is to tread carefully with Mr. Mondo; he is immature and never learned how to share. I can always find replacements for either of you.
Now, I’m sure you will receive this note soon enough, so Ms. Jenny Holland would love to meet you and have her performance streamed this coming Friday night. This is not a request, it’s time we all reintroduce ourselves in a more professional setting.

Regards,
Entertainment

Dimitri laughs as she finishes reading, “Wow, dramatic much?”
Atticus glares at her and picks up the cash, eyes wide as he counts out the large quantity, “This is enough to feed me AND the family for a month…”
“See? Not so bad, is it?” Dimitri joins Atticus at the desk, “Though we should probably do something about this body.”
“His name is still Lenny, and he didn’t deserve this, we should give him a proper send-off down the canal.” He reclaims the note from Dimitri and pockets it with the money before nervously tapping at the desk as he thinks. After a moment’s hesitation, he comes to a conclusion, “I need to tell Steve, he deserves to know and maybe he knows if Lenny had any family we should tell.”
“I am not joining you in that conversation.”
“I wasn’t asking anyway, it would just cause more questions. Any chance you at least know where Steve lives? I doubt he’s still in the Water Hole.”
Dimitri narrows her eyes at him before giving directions to his room on the floor below his venue. “I will be in your new room when you’re done, I have no desire to wait in here.”
Atticus waves his hand in the air as if dismissing a fly, “Yeah whatever, don’t make yourself too comfortable.” He leaves her in the room and heads down several floors.
Atticus stops a floor early, at the Water Hole, to use the restroom that he knows is situated in the hallway. He washes the stickiness of the sea salt off of his face from the day’s trip, which now feels like it happened weeks ago. Looking in the mirror, he can’t tell where his eye bags end and the bruises from yesterday’s fight begin, but he notes that his jaw looks much less swollen than it feels. He leans down and drinks water directly from the tap before drying his face and returning to the hallway.
The corridor is empty and a couple of lights flicker, but it’s otherwise dark. Peeking into the music hall itself, he glances up at the theater masks staring down at him from above the stage, far more familiar than they should be. He snorts out a chuckle at the irony and then returns his focus to the task at hand, heading down one more floor to find Steve.
Exiting the lift, Atticus turns and counts the doors along one wall until he arrives at the one Dimitri assured was Steve’s living quarters. He pauses at the door, gathering himself before finally lifting his fist to knock. Several moments pass and he’s about to knock again, but there’s a shuffling noise on the other side of the door, promptly followed by a lock sliding and the door opening just enough for Steve’s body to fill the space. He’s in a baggy pair of shorts and a t-shirt; either having gotten out of bed to answer the door or was just about to go to bed. Steve looks reasonably annoyed as he recognizes Atticus, speaking without any amusement, “Atticus. What in the world are you doing here this late? And why do you look like shit?”
“Hi. I, uh, got in a fight, don’t worry about it, it has nothing to do with why I’m here. I have some bad news.” Atticus is restless and doesn’t make eye contact with the man in front of him, despite Steve looming over him.
Steve furrows his brows and sighs, “Come on in, you seem serious enough.” He opens the door wider to allow for Atticus to step inside. He leads them both to a small living area where there are several seats around a coffee table with a silent radio. “Take a seat if you like, what’s up?”
They both sit on opposite sides of the table and Atticus motions towards the radio, “Have you listened at all today?”
“No, I was out most of the day getting shit together to open up the Water Hole this week. Is that what you came here to ask?”
“Lenny is dead, he was killed. He hasn’t been on the radio all day so I came to check and well… ” He easily lies about how he knows, finally finding the confidence to look at Steve’s face as he speaks.
Steve had been clasping his hands, leaning on his knees as he listened intently, but releases his interlocked fingers and straightens up in surprise. “What!? No, he can’t be, I saw him just last evening!”
“It must’ve happened sometime in the night, I’m sorry you had to hear from me.”
Steve begins impulsively digging through his pockets and begins to look more and more frantic as he can’t find what he’s looking for.
“I guess now’s as good a time as any, these were for you anyway,” Atticus speaks timidly as he pulls out the pack of spliffs he’d bought the day before and lights one, handing it to Steve, who takes it without a word. “I can bring you upstairs if you want, show you his body.”
Steve takes several long drags of the spliff before standing and heavily moving towards the door, “Yeah, why don’t we go up there. I won’t really believe it until I see it anyway.” He hands the smoke back to Atticus as they leave the room.
Once on the lift, Atticus speaks again, “Steve, I- I wanna tell you it’s my fault. This wouldn’t have happened had I not interrupted the show the other-”
“Did you kill him yourself?”
“Well, no, but-”
“Did you ask somebody to kill him?”
“No…”
“Well then, kid, it’s not your fault. You may have fucked up somewhere along the line, but that doesn’t make you responsible for the death of another man.”
He doesn’t respond as they arrive at the correct floor and head towards the radio station. Inside the room, Dimitri is gone and the only sound comes from a pair of headphones on the desk, from which they can faintly hear music. Steve mumbles something and pulls up one of the extra chairs to take a seat in the same place as when Atticus first visited the room. Atticus does the same with the second chair and they light another spliff, tears clearly welling up in Steve’s eyes.
“I really was hoping this was some sick joke of yours, Atticus.” Steve finally breaks the silence.
“I’m not that insensitive. Do you know if he had any family we should reach out to?”
“I’m sure they’re somewhere, but he’s not actually from here. Did you know he’s from up north? Came down when he learned about how active the music industry is here, wanted to be a part of it all. But no, there’s nobody to reach out to.”
“Well we should do something tomorrow. I’ll get on air in the morning and make the announcement, then we can send him down the canal.”
“You’re awfully quick to jump into that chair after him.” Steve side-eyes Atticus, eyebrows raised.
“I’ve got no choice, Mr. Mob Boss left a note for me. I told you this was my fault.”
Steve takes a deep breath, but clearly understands the situation without further explanation, “Well son, I suppose you can’t defy a request like that, can you? Gotta keep playing the game if you’re gonna keep your head above water. Do me a favor and keep me out of it, will ya?”
“Gladly.” Atticus pauses, silence filling the room momentarily, and then speaks again, “Steve? Thanks for being human. I’ll be around.” He stands and leaves Lenny’s long-time friend alone in the room.
Finding his new living quarters, Atticus takes a quick glance around the unfamiliar room, much larger than what he’s used to. Dimitri is lounging on a couch, her feet up on a coffee table, and drinking clear alcohol from a glass. Across the living space is a kitchen and on one wall, Atticus can see through two doors; one to a bathroom and the other to a fully furnished bedroom. He walks directly towards the bed. He sees Dimitri open her mouth, about to say something, but cuts her off before she can, “I’m tired, please don’t, we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
*****
“Good morning, Seatac and Century City, this is Atti speaking. Apologies for the radio silence yesterday, but I do have some unfortunate news. It is with deep sorrow that I inform you all that our good friend, Lenny, has recently passed from an ongoing health condition. He passed peacefully and painlessly, and with his life’s work to remember him by. We will be sending him to the sea this afternoon, so please join us on the docks to commemorate him if you so wish. He was loved by all and gods know he deserves better. I will be cycling through his favorite albums throughout the day, with little commentary, aside from updates, so that we can all remember him through his passion for music. Thanks for tuning in and I will be briefing you all on what’s going to happen with the station later, but for now, here’s one I’m sure we’ve heard a hundred times, but we all know was held close to Lenny’s heart.” Atticus mutes his mic and hits play on a radio next to him, the CD beginning to spin within the device.
Dimitri sits across from him, holding the pink CD case, “This isn’t really great funeral music, don’t you think?”
“I don’t think Lenny would have wanted funeral music anyway, he was all about the art behind the music itself. He frequently spoke highly about this album, so I’m playing it. And besides, he’s Gone, Gone, so we gotta say Thank You for everything he did.”
“Ha ha, good pun.” She rolls her eyes and tosses the case back on the desk. “Keep those jokes cooking, Atti Boy, and I’ll make sure this city stays desperate for them. It’s you and I against the world.”
“Feels more like it’s me against the world, seeing as you’re already friendly with Moony.” Atticus is barely audible as he mutters the statement, glaring at Dimitri.
“Jealous much? It wasn’t even anything, all he did was reach out to me yesterday to say that he recognizes what’s going on, will allow it to continue as long as it benefits him, and that I needed to make sure you got his note as soon as possible. All of which I agreed to and that was that. Besides, you’re going to also become friendly with him starting now.” She stands and heads to the door, “Steve is coming up, I’m going to go out for a bit. I’ll be in touch.”
Not ten minutes later, Steve knocks at the door before letting himself into the radio station. “That was a good statement, Atti, you don’t cease to surprise me.”
“Did you think I was gonna say something insensitive or make a shitty joke? C’mon Steve, I’m more mature than that.”
“Well, you’re also here for a reason, you can’t blame me for being a little concerned. You mind if I sit in here with ya for a bit?”
“Please do,” Atticus nods towards the chair that was previously occupied by Dimitri, “In fact, I was hoping to ask if you knew much about this setup and how everything works in here? I kinda got thrown into the fire, you know?”
Steve scratches at the stubble on his chin, “Can’t say I know too much, but Lenny was pretty passionate about it all and explained a good bit to me, I can pass on what I remember. Sounds like a good distraction until his send-off, anyway.”
“Yes, thank you!”
The two proceed to walk through most of the gear in the room, Steve giving mediocre explanations on how each piece of equipment works and how to troubleshoot if any issues come up. Steve also reminisces on a handful of shows that Lenny attended at the Water Hole and all the great memories they made while struggling to stay on the air or get decent musicians to play shows.
On several occasions, one of them manages to trip over the mess of cords or knock over a stack of records, resulting in the discovery of new and old music, which Atticus sets aside for future use. The room manages to become even more of a mess as the morning goes on, until Steve decides he’s given all the instruction he can.
“Alright, Atti, I think it’s about time we head down to the docks, don’t you agree?” Steve stands with his hands on his hips, scanning the chaos of the room, “I’d be happy to help tidy things up afterwards.”
Atticus is crouched by a pile of records on the floor, picking out the next one to play, but looks up at Steve, “Is it that time already? Yeah, I’ll be right down, go on without me, I’ve got to announce it to everyone.”
Steve nods, leaving Atticus alone in the room. He pauses the music as a song ends and unmutes to notify the city residents that Lenny’s funeral boat is about to set sail. Once finished, he opts to shuffle the music on one of the devices sitting on the desk instead of playing another album.
Atticus stands and looks around the room, grateful that it’s even more out of order and looking less like it did when they found Lenny. He and Steve had worked together first thing in the morning to move the body to the lowest floor and get access to a funeral boat and gondolier. Steve had left him after that to take care of his own affairs and Dimitri had arrived not much later.
Finally, he grabs a couple of items and leaves the room. He takes the stairs down to the canal to kill as much time as possible and avoid too much interaction with the crowd that is undoubtedly waiting on the docks.
Outside, the sun is high and Steve is helping a gondolier in gently laying Lenny’s body to rest, a crowd of several dozen gathering to watch. Atticus pauses on the building’s entrance platform, several feet above the docks, watching the process. Steve looks up and notices him, waving him down to join, which Atticus reluctantly does. He descends the last short flight of stairs to the docks and carefully weaves through the crowd until he’s next to Steve. Atticus crouches down to reach Lenny, lying face up in the boat. Still sore from his injuries, he struggles to keep his balance, but Steve catches his shoulder as Atticus leans over the water and places Lenny’s headset and a CD case on his chest. He stands and his face gives no hint of emotion as he silently nods at Steve, who in turn gives the gondolier the go-ahead.
Everyone is silent as the boat glides through the calm waters, headed to the open ocean. However, once out of sight, chatter begins to break the silence.
“Of all days for it not to be raining, today doesn’t feel like the day for that.” Atticus speaks to Steve, who still stands next to him, “Never thought I’d say it, but if the sun could kindly fuck off, that’d be great.”
Steve just grunts in response, but a stranger from behind invites himself into the conversation. “I couldn’t agree more. You’re Atticus Frank, right?” A bronze-skinned man with shoulder-length, dark hair holds a hand out to shake. When Atticus doesn’t react immediately, he goes on, “I’ve been a fan, even if you haven’t been on air much. Sorry to meet you in such depressing circumstances, and I’m sure this has been hard for you as a close friend of Lenny’s, rest in peace, but I’m sure you’ll do a great job in his place.” He lowers his hand, but is clearly waiting for a response.
Atticus relaxes his jaw, not realizing he had clenched it so tightly, and forces a friendly smile, “Yes, thank you, ‘preciate it. Lenny was like everyone’s favorite weird uncle, I’m sure we’re all feeling this loss pretty heavily.”
The man returns the smile and moves along, but it doesn’t take long for others to replace him. Atticus repeats several similar interactions, strangers offering their condolences and expectations. Some people admit to having seen him around but never knowing who he is, but all of them express interest in him taking over the station. Atticus maintains a level of politeness while preventing any conversation from lasting too long. At the same time, people are approaching Steve, and Atticus can hear them having heartfelt conversations; Steve is much more well-known and loved by the locals.
After several minutes of these interactions, Atticus interrupts a conversation and mutters to Steve, “I’ve gotta get out of here, sorry.”
Steve politely ends his conversation to address Atticus directly, “Understandable. But y’know, kid, you could do to show a little more emotion to these people. Our humanity is all we’ve got in this cruel world, it’s okay to show that.”
“I’m a comedian, Steve, and an entertainer. It’s been made excruciatingly clear by the man up top that my sole purpose is doing just that; entertaining. So no, I don’t get to show any despair out here, my emotions are to be experienced privately and fleetingly. Can’t have these people thinking I won’t be able to distract them in two hours. I’ll see you later.”
Steve looks at him sadly and sighs, “Take care of yourself, Atti, I’ll bring some food up to the station this evening and help put things back in order.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got plenty, and I’ll clean up tomorrow, I don’t have it in me today.” Atticus turns and swiftly pushes back through the crowd and into his building.
He makes it to the radio station and picks another playlist that Lenny had made on one of the devices, updating Seatac with an announcement before continuing the music. Atticus assumes he can spare a couple of hours before needing to be active on air for the evening and proceeds to move into his room and furthermore, into his bed. Aside from a small amount of light filtering through a space between the curtains, the room is dark. It doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep.
Atticus awakens to the room even dimmer than when he went to sleep, as the sun has begun to set. He clumsily rolls out of bed and rubs his eyes, moving into the main room. Dimitri is seated by the coffee table like the night before, flipping through a stack of CDs that hadn’t been there before. “I found these left out on the docks today, probably in honor of Lenny, but I figured they’d be a great addition to your new collection.”
“I hope you get cursed for disrespecting the deceased.” Atticus takes a breath and decides not to say anything else, moving to the kitchen.
Dimitri chuckles, “Curses are so old news, none of the new gods are into that shit anymore. Besides, none of us have that kind of power anyway, you’ve gotta be worshiped by entire nations for that.”
“Well if I were a god, I’d curse the fuck out of you and plenty of others.” He opens the refrigerator, which is stocked with a week’s worth of food that for once in his life, will actually last that long because of the steady flow of electricity in the building. He pulls out miscellaneous produce, finds bread in a nearby cabinet, and throws together a sandwich. He leans on the counter, watching Dimitri as he eats, and finally speaks, with his mouth full, “Is there a reason you’re in here? I don’t remember you also being a resident of this flat.”
“Not very hospitable of you.” She scoffs, “But I’ll let it slide because of the circumstances. I wanted to drop these discs off and then join you in the station for the evening. Also, I figured you were asleep when the music never changed and was going to wake you up in case you overslept, but obviously I didn’t have to do that. It was close, though, your playlist is getting old.”
“Right, yeah, I guess it is time to move back to the station.” He finishes eating and pauses for a moment to emotionally gather himself before pushing off the counter and heading to the door with just enough energy in his step to carry him through the evening.
In the station room, Atticus and Dimitri get settled and Atticus prepares several CDs and vinyls before putting on a headset, stopping the music being aired, and unmuting the mic. “Aaaaalrighty everyone,” He tries to put some amount of cheer in his voice, but it mostly remains monotone, “Welcome back, this is Atti speaking, as I’m sure you could all figure out by now. I wanted to say thank you to everyone for such a lovely turnout today, it was clear how much this city cared about Lenny. Now, in case anyone hasn’t caught on and is still wondering what’s going to happen to the radio station, I will be taking over. I could never come close to living up to Lenny, except for the fact that I’m still liv- I’m not gonna finish that. Anyway, I’m no replacement, but I’ll do my best to not ruin all of your days. I was requested by the man up top himself to take over, so expectations are high. That said, I think that’s enough of an introduction for the night, so up next I’ve got a couple of albums picked out to close out our day. First up I thought I’d play something more recent and close to home, so here’s the most recent album from the Glass Oceans. Lenny loved them and I can confirm they’re pretty decent people, so I suppose we should support the ones we care about today, or something sentimental like that, but we’ll dive back into the archives after this. Enjoy.” Atticus mutes the mic and taps on the screen of a device in front of him, on which Lenny has saved audio recordings of many of the local musicians.
Dimitri is softly clapping on the opposite side of the desk, “Incredible, truly inspiring.”
“Right, thanks. You wanna explain how all this shit works to me? Steve tried earlier and honestly, I didn’t understood half of what he said.”
“What do I get in return?”
“Girl, I don’t know, my success? Which in turn is your success, I guess?”
“Let me choose an album to play tomorrow AND I get to dress you for Jenny’s show, no more of those rags you wore last time.”
He rolls his eyes, “Yeah sure, whatever. Now show me how to use all this equipment, we’ve got about thirty minutes until I need to switch the music.”