I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story (36 page)

The second was from Betsy.

`l)eclan, hi, it's Betsy. Call me back when you get this.
They like what I sent them. You have finished it, I take it?
Anyway they've made an offer. Wonderful news. Speak to
you soon, you appalling boy. Bye!'

The third was from Penelope Stone.

`Hello, Gunn, it's me. I don't know. I don't know what. It
was good to see you. I)o you think anything? I'm leaving my
number. I don't know anything, now . . .I

Not that there isn't a story from my end. The drying out,
the rehab, the sexual health overhaul. (Test results came
back negative, by the way. Clearly, there's no justice in this
world.) Still, best that I stay out of it. Not just because the
story of the last two months - from the moment I woke in
the tub's cold water, with the sense that, astonishingly, I'd
nodded off on the occasion of my own suicide, to the
movement of my reclaimed fingertips over these keys - is
a tale of metamorphosis all on its own, but because, let's
face it: some personalities, you don't bother trying to
compete.

I've had some decisions to make. Some I've made. Some
I've put off. It's not easy.

I returned all three of those calls.

The fourth one I didn't.

I guess it was made in a bar. There were a lot of voices in
the background - really a lot of voices - but I couldn't tell
whether it was a party or a punch-up. Could have been
anything. For a while - since the caller didn't speak for several seconds - I thought it was a mobile mistake, Violet
groping in her handbag, Betsy with her mind on something
else. I was just about to delete the message when a voice - at
once alien and deeply familiar - said:

`See you in Hell, scribe.'

Outside, the sky looked exhausted. A wind had picked up.
Dust blew in the courtyard. An empty milk bottle rolled
around, like a past-caring drunk. The flat was a mess. I felt
terrible.

See you in Hell, scribe.

Well, I thought. Probably.

But not today.

Several books were useful in the writing of this one, most
too venerable (and too long out of copyright) to require a
note. Of special help, however, was Gustav Davidson's A
Dictionary of Angels (The Free Press, New York, 1971), an
engaging and comprehensive guide through the labyrinth of
angelic nomenclature.

I'm indebted to Montague Summers's The History of
Witchcraft and Demonology (Castle Books edition, Secaucus,
NJ, 1992 - originally published by Kegan Paul, London,
1926) for the story of Lucifer's `Crucifixion sketch'. Names,
dates and places are my own invention.

Ron Ridenhour's connection to both the My Lai massacre
and the Milgram obedience tests is noted in Jonathan Glover's
book Humanity, A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
(Jonathan Cape, London, 1999). The author cites an internet
communication from Gordon Bear (1998) as his own source.

Himrnler's speech in this book is a fusion of two separate
originals, both of which can be found in Heinrich Himmler by
Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel (Heinemann,
London, 1965).

Grateful acknowledgement is given for the publishers'
permission to reproduce copyright material from:

`Fern Hill' by Dylan Thomas, from The Collected Poems of
Dylan Thomas UM Dent, Everyman edition, London, 1989).

`The Novelist' by WH Auden, from Collected Shorter
Poems 1927-57 (Faber and Faber Ltd, London, 1984).

The Ninth Elegy' by Rainer Maria Rilke, from Duino
E1e ies, translated by Stephen Cohn (Carcanet Press Ltd,
Manchester, 1989).

Biblical quotations are from the OUP's Kiti,~James Version
With Apocrypha (Oxford World's Classics paperback, Oxford,
1998).

My thanks go to Stephen Coates (a.k.a. The Clerkenwell
Kid, a.k.a. [the real] Tuesday Weld) for musical companionship
(see the soundtrack to I, Lucifer) and to jonny Geller at Curtis
Brown for his sterling and inimitable representation.

Finally, enormous gratitude to Ben Ball at Scribner, for
tact, acts of faith, and editorial acumen beyond compare.

The soundtrack to 1, Lucifer presented
by (the real) Tuesday Weld is available
on Dreamy Records (cat REM 666).

Visit www.dreamyrecords.com or
www.tuesdayweld.com for details.