“Evan!”

My skull started vibrating. The earth was a much better conductor of sound than I would have guessed. It was like a loud noise under water, only worse. I called back through the breathing tube, saying things like “Not so loud.”

More gently: “Evan?” It was Plum. “It’s Plum,” she said, unnecessarily. “I’m here,” she said, pointlessly. “ Plum,” she said, redundantly.

“Where is everybody?”

“They’re not here. Evan-”

“What time is it?”

“A little after eleven. Evan-”

“Eleven! What the hell happened? Where did everybody go? Why am I still here?”

Silence.

“ Plum?”

Sounds of a girl crying.

“ Plum -”

“You won’t let me tell you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“They can’t, they aren’t, they can’t come for you.”

“They what?”

“The wake,” she said, and sobbed again. “There was a wake. For you. Your wake. A party after the funeral. At Armand’s house. A wake.”

“So?”

“There was a lot to drink. There was, oh, there were other people besides the MMM people, and it had to be authentic, you know, and some people got very drunk. Because of having too much to drink.”

“That’ll do it.”

“Pardon me?”

“Nothing. Go on. What happened?”

“I guess it was very noisy there.”

“Oh.”

“Singing and carrying on, you know.”

“Oh.”

“And someone – you know Armand doesn’t get on with his neighbors – and some neighbor called the police, and you know how the police feel about us all. And they came, and of course there were black and white together at the party, as a matter of fact that was the song they were all singing, Black and White Together, We Shall Not Be Moved, and the police came in.”

“Oh, God.”

“And arrested everybody.”

“Oh, shit.”

“And they can’t come, because they’re all in jail, all but me, and I don’t even know where to get a shovel, and I don’t think, I don’t, I don’t-”