Sir, I’m the Landlord
Sir, I’m the Landlord
Liko supervised Jeffrey’s lunch, gently nudging greedy siblings away from the feeder to make sure the littlest duck got his share. He lifeguarded pool time, then dried Jeffrey off and gave him some cuddles.
“Look at you besties,” Maya said, skimming wood chips and debris out of the pool.
Liko only smiled, perfectly content in the simple moment. As the duckling nodded off between his cupped palms, he remembered newborn days when Kyle would nap on his chest. But the memory didn’t bludgeon him today. It just sat quiet. Cuddling a little.
In the farmhouse kitchen, Dane was making a sandwich. “I killed the last of the cold cuts,” he said. “And the bread. Sorry. You should go over to the Pub—they have a great Sunday lunch with a cider tasting. How’s your buddy?”
“He’s awesome,” Liko said. “Thanks for introducing us.”
“Everyone needs a creature.” Dane took his plate over to the couch by the fireplace. “If you want, we can do a little more of the game while I’m eating.”
Liko got his computer and resumed the game outside Paderborn Cathedral. Knowing what it meant now, he clicked the loose brick in the buttress next to the Drei-Hasen-Fenster, and flipped the switch that revealed the stairs to the Green Man Chamber.
“It’s really beautiful,” Liko said. “I know Ethan’s not your favorite person in the world right now, but the artwork of this game is just stunning.”
“It is,” Dane said. “Objectively, outside my personal beef with him, he was an amazing artist. Show me what you know.”
Liko went toward the wisteria vine first, and clicked the specific flower that grew older with each touch, until it produced its three seeds.
“Three is a magic number,” he said, “and wisteria is Misteria with the M turned upside-down.”
“Nomi and I would play as a team against Ethan in Scrabble,” Dane said.
“He’d murder us. The guy read the dictionary for fun, and the score would end up being two thousand to sixteen.
So me and Nome made up all these cheaty rules to get an advantage.
One of them was we could turn Ms upside down to make Ws. Or vice versa.”
“I need that rule.” Liko clicked the hare hiding in the wisteria vines and carried it to the ceiling motif.
Then the second hare at the base of the altar.
“So,” he said, drawing a deep breath. “As far as I know, this is as far as the gaming community has gotten. And I told you that the night before he died, Kyle discovered something new. A piece of the puzzle no one else had solved yet.”
“That’s right.” Eyes on the screen, Dane touched Liko’s arm. “Show me.”
Liko clicked the third hare in the Green Man’s lap, took it to the fire and dropped it into the flames. They roared up high, releasing a hare-shaped cloud of smoke. The cloud ran up to the ceiling and melded into the motif, starting it spinning.
“Way to go, Kyle,” Dane murmured.
“He figured it out from the word deign. Debasing yourself. Doing something beneath your dignity. I don’t know if Ethan meant it that way.”
“He didn’t,” Dane said, sounding genuinely impressed. “I swear, man, it has nothing to do with the word deign. It’s from the Jakata Tales. The story of Buddha when he was incarnated as a hare, and he threw himself into the fire as an act of compassion, to fulfil his divine duty and feed a beggar.”
“But also, from the word deign,” Liko said, feeling stubborn about his son’s accomplishment.
“Absolutely,” Dane said. “And now, officially. Anyway, like I told you, the ceiling motif is spinning the wrong way. The hares need to be running counter-clockwise.”
“Why?”
“The best things happen when you’re out of your comfort zone and running against the order.”
Liko sighed. “Is this where the anagram comes in? And ye then deign to know me, o what the fuck does this turn into?”
Dane laughed. “Not yet. You have to use what’s at hand.”
“The wisteria seeds?”
“Bingo.” He got up. “Go get lunch at the Pub. Trust me, you won’t regret it.”
They left the house together. At the bottom of the porch stairs, Liko paused. “If you don’t mind me asking, who exactly owns the farm?”
“Now that Nomi is dead, Saskia. I own the house. It’s zoned separately from the farm.
I own the house and the lot it’s on because you should marry for love, but keep the real estate in your name.
” He gave a wry smile. “That’s Maisie’s line.
Buying the house was her idea. She said we could do commitment ceremonies every day the rest of our lives, but Nomi and Ethan being legally married was a practical disadvantage for me, should we split up.
Naturally I didn’t want to hear it, but she stayed on my ass.
Not that she disapproved of our relationship, but because I’d walked out of my father’s house with nothing, and worked my ass off to amass something.
Maisie wanted me to have security, and real estate was a sure thing.
She said, If they get the marriage, you get the house.
“When John and Mary retired, I bought the house from them. To keep it scrupulous, Ethan and Nomi paid me rent.” Again his mouth twisted in an ironic smile.
“Which is a snappy comeback I sometimes used when nosy people asked who I was in the arrangement. Ah, here are Mr. and Mrs. Hasen. And who are you? I’d say, Sir, I’m the landlord. ”
“Brilliant,” Liko said. “I confess I’ve been nosily wondering about the financial aspects of your relationship.”
“The farm became Nomi’s,” Dane said. “Ethan joked it was his dowry. Nomi was pulled out of a dumpster. While she was being kicked around the system, all she dreamed about was a place of her own. A little farm where she could build a family and grow things. Ethan could give her precisely that. Security for her and Saskia. No matter what happened to me or Ethan or the three of us, nobody could ever be thrown back into the system.”
“What a gift,” Liko murmured.
“It was Ethan’s way. Same with the cover art for Two-Faced. Gideon Perfect commissioned it from Ethan. Ethan used me as the model. Gideon paid ten thousand dollars and Ethan signed it over to me. As a nest egg.”
“The cash or the painting?”
“Both.”
Liko hesitated, then said as gently as he could, “He really loved you.” He let the you be open to interpretation and held back his next exhale, hoping he hadn’t stepped in it.
“Yeah,” Dane said. “Yeah. He was… Yeah.”