had headaches. But nothing like this had ever happened. No, nothing like this.
He lay in bed curled up like a baby, fearful that it would happen again. Eventually sleep claimed him. When he awoke, he was grateful to see the low clouds harkening the gray, colorless dawn. He drank his morning coffee sitting in his single kitchen chair watching the cargo ships plod into the harbor.
It didn't take a genius to figure it all out. He called in sick to his job waiting tables at the Lighthouse Deli. He couldn't wait until evening, so he went in search of Tudose. Cary needed to find out where Momma Desta spent her days. He had some serious questions to ask her.
He found Tudose drinking fast food coffee, wrapped in his sleeping bag upon a perch in Sunken City. He too had been watching the ships come in.
"Who goes there?" asked Tudose. He hefted a stick in his left hand.
"Cary Grant."
"Ah. You been down to Momma Desta's like I tell you?"
"Yes."
"Then she show you some magic. Good."
So he knew about the magic. Cary suddenly wondered something. "What type of magic did she show you?"
"She call it Swan's Sorrow," said Bob. He sat on the edge of a slab of broken asphalt. A chill breezed from the ocean and he hunkered down into his sleeping bag until it was over his head like a cocoon. "It be the magic of the Swan's Sorrow."
"I know," said Cary. "She showed me the same magic. But what does it do to you?"
"For me, it do everything. You see, Momma Desta returned my family to me."
Cary was confused. He knew the story about the man's family and there was no way they could be returned to him. Twenty years ago Tudose had jumped ship, his goal to bring his family over from Romania when he got enough money.
"When I drink, the Swan's Sorrow makes the world as it should have been."
Tudose had scrimped and saved for five years. He'd almost saved enough for bribes and an Atlantic passage for his wife and two small girls when his flophouse caught fire, destroying everything he owned including the money stuffed in an old bowling bag.
"Momma Desta makes it special for me. I drink then come back up here and play the harmonica. My family comes to life before me and we dance and sing and pray together."
Undeterred, Tudose began saving his money again. He was four years into his second five-year plan when he received notice that his wife and two teenage girls had been killed and dumped into a mass grave after a purge from President Ceausescu. A year later the President was overthrown in a violent uprising.
Cary noticed that Tudose was watching him. "I'm not so very crazy, you know? I know that my family is no more. But that is in this world and the Swan's Sorrow takes me to another, and in this other world they are very much alive." The fervent belief in the man's eyes was unmistakable.
Cary nodded solemnly. "But does this Swan's Sorrow make other things happen?"
Tudose cocked his head.
"I mean," said Cary trying again, "are there any side effects?"
Tudose took a slow drink from his Styrofoam cup and grinned wickedly. "Nothing's free in this world. Not even to a big famous movie star like yourself."
Cary opened his mouth to ask again, but Tudose had already turned to watch another Evergreen container ship enter the harbor. He allowed his friend the peace. After all, perhaps this ship had originated in Romania.
That evening he was the first one inside when Momma Desta unlocked the door. He made his way to his usual spot at the bar. Head down, his mood alternated between angry and confused. He didn't trust himself to make eye contact with her.
Finally, she broke the silence.
"Out with it. What's the problem with Momma Desta?"
Cary mumbled something unintelligible.
"Speak louder. If you mad at me, you need be telling me why."
"I think I'm going blind," he sighed.
"Then you better stop drinking the Swan's Sorrow," she said.
Cary agreed, but knew that to stop drinking also meant that he had to stop seeing Miranda. He'd already proven that he couldn't love her without it. Some might say that it wasn't true love if he needed alcohol to make it work, but Swan's Sorrow wasn't merely alcohol. Momma Desta was right, the Swan's Sorrow was the key to worlds. In this case, the Swan's Sorrow gave him the perspective he needed to understand love.