Coda 02 -A to Z

was grinning from ear to ear.

    Ruby shrugged. “I don’t interpret the visions, dear. I only receive them.”
    Jeremy came in at four to see if we needed more pamphlets. He was obviously disappointed in how many were still sitting on my counter.
    “I just can’t understand why more people aren’t interested in promoting real change in Washington,” he said to me.

    “I’m not sure, either, Jeremy,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic.
    “Do you realize the federal income tax isn’t even legal, Zach? The sixteenth amendment was never properly ratified by the state legislature. The whole thing is a scam—a scam to cheat us out of our hard-earned money.”
    “Is that right?”
    “It is. The Federal Reserve has taken over this country, Zach. There would be riots in the streets if people understood what that meant.”
    “Riots?” I couldn’t hide my skepticism.
    “I’m not kidding, Zach.” And he did indeed look quite serious. “There’s a movie,” he said, and Angelo suddenly looked interested, “called Freedom to Fascism . Do you have that movie here? Have you seen it?”
    I had to look at Angelo. “Do we have that movie?” “No,” he said. He was scribbling on a piece of paper and didn’t even look up. “I can order it, though.”

    I turned back to Jeremy. “I have a feeling I’ll see it before the end of the month.”

    He shook his head at me sadly. “I hope so, Zach. Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s also no excuse.”

    At five, Tom called to cancel. He said he had another meeting. It was always a meeting.

    “So I won’t see you tonight after all?” I couldn’t keep the annoyance out of my voice.
    “I’m sorry, baby. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.” “Whatever.”
    “Please don’t be mad. Listen, I have to go. I’ll call you soon.” I almost told him not to bother, but the line went dead before I had the chance. I hung up the phone and wondered what I would do now that my plans had fallen through.
    “Let me guess.” I looked over to see Angelo watching me from the other side of the counter. “Dickhead ditched you again, right?” “Fuck off, Angelo.”

    He was quiet for a minute, and then he said, “Sorry, man. I just don’t get why you let him treat you like that.”
    I was starting to wonder the same thing. And now I was facing another night alone in my apartment. A whole night to think about the date that should have been. “You want to come over tonight?” I asked Angelo.
    “Dickhead ditches you, and I’m your back up plan?” When he said it that way, I really felt like an ass. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
    “Yeah.”
“Yeah, what?”
“Yeah, I want to come over tonight.”
I found myself smiling at him. “Do I get to pick the movie?” “You gonna pick somethin’ with Molly Ringwald?” “Maybe.”
    He smiled at me. “No way, Zach. You pick dinner; I’ll pick the movie.”
    We got back to my house, and Angelo got a beer out of the fridge while I ordered a pizza. I found him sitting at the dining room table, working on the puzzle. I sat down opposite him, and we worked in companionable silence for a while. It surprised me how much more fun it was working the puzzle, just having him there with me.
    “What movie did you bring?” I finally asked him. “ Aliens .” He looked up at me with his lopsided smile. “Violence and mayhem. Nothin’ better.”
    I laughed and was just looking back down at the puzzle when I spotted something above the edge of the table—something soft and gray sticking up from his lap, like a hairy flag. Or a cat tail.
    “Is that Geisha?” I asked in surprise.

    “If Geisha’s a cat, then yeah,” he said, without looking up from the puzzle.

    “She’s in your lap?”

    He looked up at me like I had lost my mind and said slowly, “Yeah. Why?”
    I couldn’t believe it. Geisha would glare at me any time she saw me and meow at me in outrage when her food bowl was empty or it was too cold outside. And she would occasionally bat at my face to wake me up at four in the morning and had been known to pee in my dirty laundry pile when I didn’t clean her box. But she never, ever sat in my lap.
    “How did you get her to come to you?” I asked him in awe. He shrugged. “Just sittin’ here and she jumped up.” I could only stare at him in shock.
“What’s the big deal?” he asked.
    “All this time I thought she hated people. I guess she really just hates me.” My own cat. Nice.
    The pizza finally