Saving Anna Karenina
Part 41
Start with Part 1, and read a short synopsis of the original book.
Devondrea and a young man were sitting in the two stuffed chairs in the rear salon, looking out the window. Music was playing on a radio, like the music that played on the streets of Anna’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Anna greeted them and passed into her room.
A new woman Anna hadn’t seen lay in the third bed. The silent roommate was still lying on the other bed, staring up at the ceiling. The new one had black circles around her eyes, and thinning hair. Anna said hello. The woman said hello back. She was listening to music on a tiny radio, and every few moments a man would come on the machine and shout about something. Anna tried to read but she couldn’t concentrate. Then a young doctor came in and sat on the old woman’s bed. He asked her what year it was, what city she lived in, how old she was, made her count to ten, then back down to zero. Anna got up and went out to the rear salon. When would this day end? She just wanted to read about Princess Adriana in peace. There were people everywhere.
She found a chair and pulled up next to Devondrea.
“Those movies was all warnin’ us you know — I Robot, Terminator,” Devondrea said to her companion. He had a baby’s perfect skin, and nodded his head at Anna to acknowledge her. They hummed along to the music. The man bobbed his head. Anna sunk into her chair and smiled. Devondrea sang along. Keep on moving, keep on moving don’t stop now. Keep on moving. She had a beautiful voice and a romantic style of expressing it, her head tilted, eyes half-closed, waving her torso back and forth. The man closed his eyes. Anna did too. She focused on the music. Before long, the song changed. Now both were singing, but it was more of a chant, a rap, they called it. She couldn’t understand the lyrics. The song had a beautiful orchestra playing behind the singer, and a slow beat. Anna’s companions sang like they had rehearsed — he was the anchor tenor to her contralto, but she didn’t sing every word, and when the chorus came she sang different lyrics to back him up. Both of them rocked and snapped their fingers to the beat. Anna beamed at them, feeling a rush of awe at their talent, and a desire — to dance.
When the song finished, Anna gave a little applause. The man grinned shyly and ducked his head. Devondrea laughed.
“Yeah, I’m movin to Miami,” said Devondrea, repeating the refrain more clearly. “Haha.” She smiled with satisfaction. “You understand what he sayin’, Lil’ Wayne?”
“No, but it was fabulous.”
“He be sayin’ gangsters don’t die. You know, like a legend. Gangsta’s just another word for legend. Listen, a gangsta’s just someone who faces adversity, and he finds a way to get by. He don’t die in the end like all the stories, you know, Pac, Biggie. No. Wayne sayin’ they live on. They live on in a heaven like Miami. Sunshine every day, beach, beautiful women in bikinis. And then he say they get chubby there, cause they so happy.” She chuckled.
Anna wanted to go to this place called Miami. On many magazines lying around the front salon were pictures of beaches. She wanted to dance at the beach like the people in the pictures. With Matyas. To Devondrea’s music.
This is part 41 of a serialized novella being published each Thursday. It is a speculative sequel to Leo Tolstoy’s novel, Anna Karenina.
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40
I’m the author of Oh, the Places Where You’ll Have a Nervous Breakdown.
