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To Nile, it was the perfect day for vegging out and watching makeup tutorials on YouTube. Joe had joined her, as he had taken to doing, sitting at her side and offering side commentary.
"Oooh, that's a gorgeous palette," Nile commented. "Too bad I can't afford it."
"Sure you can," Joe countered. Nile paused the video to listen to him. "We have plenty of resources, Nile. What's ours is yours."
"Oh. Right." Nile nodded, though she still seemed hesitant. "Guess I'm not used to that, yet."
"Honestly, I'm not entirely used to it, either."
Nile turned to watch him. Joe leaned back on the couch and stuck his hands behind his head.
"I mean, we haven’t worried about money in centuries, but all the things you can buy with it? Every year, some new product comes out. It used to be a bigger deal, honestly.”
Nile leaned back against the couch arm behind her and wedged her toes under his folded leg, listening.
“I remember the first time I felt astonishment at the wealth we had access to,” Joe continued. “It was the first time I walked into a market and saw a seller with a stack of clean, unmarked paper at his stall. When paper became so common that there was extra, enough to trade with strangers. Not just for kings and their scribes.”
Joe stroked his beard in thought. “For centuries it was like that. Occasionally something you had to put days of labor into getting, until you see it for sale for a large sum, then a medium sum, then pennies. Some things are even more-or-less free now. Those little salt packets at the restaurants…. Andy laughed so hard the first time she saw that. Stuffed a few dozen into her pockets. I caught her staring at them later.”
“Wow. Andy did that?”
“She did. That surprises you?”
“Well, she just… I know she’s not quite as jaded as she was when we first met, but she just seems so… tired. Most of the time.”
Joe nodded. “Yes, it is how you say. She carries that weight. But sometimes a little thing breaks through, something you wouldn’t expect. She can get really silly, too.”
Nile smiled sadly.
“You’ll have plenty of time with her, Nile. You’ll get to see all the sides of Andy, and she’ll let her guard down now that we’re here to rest. We still have time.”
Nile caught Joe’s eyes and smiled, shaking her head. “How did you…?”
“What?” Joe prompted.
“It’s just — how did you know that was exactly what I needed to hear, just now?”
“What was?”
“That... that I’ll have time with Andy, to get to know her. That I’ll get to see her happy.”
Joe’s eyes twinkled. “I’ve had a lot of practice reading people. And you, your heart is so strong. I see the way you care for our Andy.”
“You watching me?” she teased.
“Yes,” Joe responded with unexpected seriousness. “We want to get to know you, Nile. We want to be able to provide you with the care and attention you need.”
Nile cleared her throat, suddenly embarrassed. “Anyway. You were telling me about how salt is sometimes free now.”
“Yes, right. Of course, it’s not just about the luxuries, although there are so many luxuries. Whole wardrobes full of shoes and clothes, cheap enough to toss when they get threadbare instead of endlessly patching and re-patching. Produce from all over the globe, at all times of year. Provided you're in the right country, of course," he added ruefully. "Provided you're fortunate. But there are so many things you can buy now that would have seemed not just like luxuries then, but impossibilities, miracles. The medicines. The machines that do your washing for you. More knowledge than the great Library of Alexandria held, all accessible from a little rectangle in your pocket. Humans are incredible, truly."
Nile smiled. "Guess I hadn't thought about all that, yet. How much we have now, compared to what you had to make do with."
"Nicky and I don't consider ourselves lucky just because we have each other, you know. There is that, of course. But it's also all the astonishing things we've seen. The art, the music, the accomplishments, the inventions.”
“Ooh, what’s your favorite? Your favorite invention?”
Joe’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh, you like asking hard questions, huh? Let me think.” He rested his chin on his fist and sat in contemplation for a moment, then his eyes lit up.
“Well, first, I must say, that a close runner-up is airplanes. Humans have always wanted to fly. For decades I couldn’t look out the window of a plane and see the land spread out underneath us without shouting for joy. Booker…” His mouth twisted in sorrow for a moment. “Booker liked to pretend he was embarrassed by me, like he was unaffected by flying. But we all thought it was the coolest thing. Even him.”
“Right, of course. The miracle of human flight.” Nile pressed her bare toes up against Joe’s shin, trying to nudge away any incipient melancholy. “But what’s in first place?”
“I’m going to go with the smallpox vaccine. That one was personal, you know.”
“Wait, what? Don’t tell me you invented the vaccine for smallpox.”
Joe threw his head back and laughed. “No, no. Certainly not. But Nicky died from it, back in the 14th century, and I almost succumbed, too. It was awful. Andy and Quynh took care of us. You were born in the nineties, right?”
“Yep. Ninety-four.”
“Here, let me show you a picture, so you know what I’m talking about.” Joe pulled out his phone and navigated to the Wikipedia page for smallpox, then turned it to show Nile. She winced.
“Oh my god. Did that hurt?”
“Yeah.”
“Did Nicky look like that?”
“Yeah.” Joe looked crestfallen for a moment, then his face pulled into a grimace. “It was disgusting, honestly. But that’s not the only reason it was personal for us. We saw lots of people die of smallpox over the years. Disease is an old enemy, one we’ve rarely had the chance to fight in earnest.”
Joe had a faraway look in his eyes. “We’ve often been on the sidelines, tending to the sick, guarding supply caravans to make sure people still had access to necessities, to food. But in the early nineteen seventies, we found a job where we could fight back a bit more directly. The World Health Assembly started a smallpox eradication effort in, oh, I don’t remember. It might’ve been sometime in the fifties. It was a global effort, every country pitching in, even the Americans and the Soviets cooperating with each other. In seventy-five, the only place smallpox was left was the Horn of Africa, and all the foreign and local medical workers doing surveillance and containment also had to contend with civil war, refugee conditions; it was very dangerous, you can imagine.”
Nile nodded.
“So the four of us went down there, and we kept the eradication team safe. Andy and Booker left for Vietnam after a couple months, but Nicky and I, we really wanted to see this one through to the end. And we did. Something like 500 million people died of smallpox throughout history. But there hasn’t been a single victim more since 1978.”
The look on Joe’s face was warm and content, glowing with satisfaction.
“That feels really good. And that’s why I’ve gotta go with the smallpox vaccine.”
“That’s...an amazing story, Joe.” Nile scratched her nose thoughtfully.
"I think…” she said, “I think I've been so focused on what to do next, in the next moment, that I haven't really thought about, um, all the upsides? I guess I'll get to see it all now. How we fix all the big problems, like. What we do about global warming. If we go to space."
Joe smiled warmly at her. "You like space?"
"Definitely. We had an uncle with a telescope that he'd haul out onto his apartment's balcony, sometimes. There wasn’t a ton to see, in Chicago, but anytime the power went out we’d hustle over there, trying to make it before the lights came back on. Jerome was always more into it than I was. It was always him bugging me to take him across the neighborhood, 'cause Mom didn't want him walking by himself, but once we were there, looking up... I never really wanted to stop. We had to sleep on my uncle's couch sometimes."
Nile's mouth curved sadly. "He wanted to be an astronaut when he was in elementary school, but I guess he must have given up on that, when he got older. Realized how hard it would be. Made his dreams a little bit smaller." She looked down at her laptop's keyboard. "I wish I was still around for him. He needs people who believe in him."
Joe took her hand and squeezed it. "We could set up a scholarship, you know. So that he can go to any school he wants to.”
"Really?"
"Of course. Copley can help us figure out the details. We can make it look anonymous, or, even, you know, random. Like a -- what’s that word? A sweepstakes."
Nile's mouth dropped open.
"But it's not even my money! I didn't help you guys earn any of that."
"But you did." Joe squeezed Nile's hand. "The last two jobs we did were lucrative. And that's not at all how any of this works. You're our family now. What is ours is yours."
"Oh my God." Nile blinked rapidly. "That would be... yes. Yes, please. I would love that."
"Of course. Let me text Copley now before I forget." Joe opened up Signal on his phone and tapped out messages to Andy and Copley.
"It's taken care of. Now...."
Joe pulled Nile's laptop into his lap. "Show me which eyeshadow palette you want. We'll be at this location for at least another week, inshallah, so there's time enough to ship it here."
Nile kissed him on the cheek. "If it's really that easy, I'm getting three."
Four days later, the four of them were lounging around the living room together. Andy had foregone dinner in favor of an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's, Joe was playing around with a new set of colored pencils, Nicky was lying on the floor reading an extremely dry-looking textbook, and Nile had just returned from the front gate after hearing a delivery truck rumble away.
"Bet I know what this is!" she announced.
Joe looked up and graced her with one of his easy smiles. "Did your eyeshadow come?"
"I think so. Won't know for sure until I open it." Nile cast her eyes around for a pair of scissors until her eyes landed on the labrys leaned up against the wall behind Andy's armchair. Nile crept up behind Andy, holding the package out. Joe quirked an eyebrow and his mouth opened like he was about to say something. Nile put a finger up to her lips and he ducked his head with a grin, pretending to be absorbed in the layering exercise he was working on.
His eyes flicked up at the snick sound of packing tape being separated by a blade. Andy continued eating her ice cream as if she hadn't heard it, but Joe could make out the smirk on her face.
Nile ripped open the box.
"Nile Mariah Freeman, did you just open that box with my favorite weapon?"
Nile's face flashed briefly with alarm followed by studied nonchalance. "Of course not, Andy." She plopped down in front of her laptop propped on the coffee table and crossed her legs. "I used my fingernail."
"Uh huh." Andy rolled her eyes at Joe. “Can you believe these youths?”
"Too right, Boss," replied Nicky from the floor off to Joe's right, causing Nile to twitch a little in surprise. Nicky turned a page. "Such bad manners. Such contempt for authority."
Joe chuckled. "Such disrespect for their elders?"
"Ah, I see you have noticed this as well, ya albi,” said Nicky. “They are tyrants, when they should be the servants of their households."
Joe nodded sadly. "They no longer rise when elders enter the room."
"Fuck off," Andy muttered with a mouth half-full of Chunky Monkey. "Don't you fucking quote Socrates at me, you assholes."
Joe laughed til he snorted, while Nicky merely huffed and sat up, laying his book out next to him. "What did you get in the post, Nile?"
"Makeup! Some new eyeshadow palettes."
"Oh?" Nicky abandoned his spot on the floor and went to sit with Nile on the couch. Joe had never seen Nicky take an interest in eyeshadow before, but he loved how supportive Nicky was of their new sister's interests. "Show me."
Nile cracked the first case open. "So many shades!" he remarked.
"Yeah, I know! I love how saturated they are, too. Sometimes with the cheaper brands, they don't show up very well on darker skin and you have to do this whole eyelid primer thing, but I don’t always wanna go through that whole process. Sometimes I just wanna be lazy."
Nicky nodded. "Who taught you makeup?"
"Well, my mom, mostly. But that was just basic stuff, like lip color and mascara. My friend Yvonne got me into makeup tutorials in high school. But YouTube has really exploded since then, and there's a whole bunch of techniques I didn't really have the chance to try on active duty."
Joe got up to take the spot on Nile's other side. "You should show him the video you wanted to try the other day, Nile. It's very impressive."
Nile navigated to her recently watched videos list. "I wanted to give this one a shot, with Christmas coming up. Winter is the best season to really go all out with the glitter."
Nicky nodded sagely. "The glitter. Indeed."
"OH GIH-UH!" Andy exclaimed around a mouthful of ice cream, then swallowed to repeat herself. "No glitter, I said."
"Oh, Andy, no. It's not glitter like, festival glitter, crafting glitter. I wouldn't do that to you guys. It's just shimmery. It doesn't stick around."
Andy narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe you."
Nile grinned. "How about if I show you?" She waved a brush in her hand. "I can practice on you and you'll see a little shimmer is nothing to be scared of."
"I'm not falling for that. Practice on the boys, instead."
Nile raised an eyebrow at Joe. "You up for that?"
That dazzling smile was back. "For you, habibti, anything." Nicky hummed in warning and Joe’s hand lifted to rub across his cheek. ”Er, anything that doesn't require me to shave my beard, that is."
Nile bounced on her couch cushion. “Awesome. Okay, this is actually going to be a lot of fun. Sit right there, let me go get my shit and wash my hands.”
Five minutes later, Andy had finished her ice cream and was curled into a ball under a heavy gray blanket pulled all the way up past her chin, watching them like a relaxed cat.
Nile had dragged the floor lamp closer to the couch for better lighting, and deposited a travel bag of makeup on the coffee table. She was currently glancing rapidly back and forth between Joe’s face and the array of shades before her, pursing her lips thoughtfully.
“I think I want high drama, so we're definitely going to do eyeliner and mascara. But if I do the eyeliner last, I might mess up the whole thing, since I'm not very good at putting eyeliner on other people. So I might do a lighter eyeliner to start with at the very beginning, and mark out where I want to put it later... that's how I made it work for prom...yeah, let's go with that."
"You don't have to convince me, Nile. I am nothing more than a blank canvas for your artistry."
Nile grinned at Joe. "Just a blank canvas, huh?"
"Exactly. No thoughts, no opinions."
"Alright, well, Mr. Opinion-less Man, you're gonna have to relax your face for me."
"I am relaxed."
"No, like stop having emotions." Nile gestured at him. "All over your face."
From his vantage point watching over Nile's shoulder, Nicky snorted. "Good luck."
"I can be expressionless!"
From her armchair in the corner of the room, Andy made a disbelieving little "hrm!" noise.
"I can! Just watch." Joe shut his eyes, took in a deep breath, and sure enough, calmed his face into an impassive, peaceful mask.
"Wow. What are you thinking about right now?"
"A time I wasn't too happy, but I wasn't too sad, either,” Joe explained calmly. “Nicky and I were separated, but I knew he was safe. I used meditation to while away the hours."
"October ninety-two?" Nicky offered.
"Yes. Go ahead Nile, I'm ready."
Joe felt a small, strong hand cup his jaw and a pressure at the edge of his eyelid. "Don't move."
Nile traced a faint line of charcoal across Joe's lash line on both sides, then pulled back. "There. You ever worn makeup before?"
"Can I move my face to answer?"
Nile snorted. "No, you have to answer telepathically. Yes, you can move."
Joe opened his eyes. "There have been a few times. But I think it's been -- well, at least 30 years. Not since we went clubbing in Berlin."
"Oh man, I hear the nightlife in Berlin is awesome. We should all go there sometime!"
"We'll take you on our next vacation. But yes, Nicky and I both wore eyeliner that night."
"Good choice," Nile remarked approvingly. "There's not a man on this earth that isn't improved by a little eyeliner."
Joe saw Nicky, behind Nile, look up and to the left a bit, which meant that he was contemplating what he'd just heard.
"C'mere, let me keep improving you." Nile sorted through her brushes and picked out a medium-sized one, flat with a rounded edge. "I decided we're going with red and gold eyeshadow tonight. Drop the face."
Joe had been smiling fondly at Nicky and had to shut his eyes to comply with Nile's order.
It was lovely and calming, the feeling of powder being gently patted onto his eyelids, Nile periodically turning his chin this way and that to see her handiwork from a different angle.
She pulled back, which allowed him to murmur, "I think I want to do Nicky after this."
"Um, A, TMI, and B, when don't you?"
Joe heard a drawn-out giggle from the direction of the armchair.
"No, I mean, do Nicky's makeup,” Joe explained. “Under your direction, of course. I want to see how some of these colors would look in contrast to his eyes."
"Awww, you guys are adorable. Sure thing, we can tag team him."
Joe opened his eyes just enough to see Nile smirking at her double entendre.
"I suppose I do not have any say in this?" Nicky asked in good humor.
"No," Nile and Joe responded simultaneously, then laughed.
"Okay, Joe, here's the hard part. I'm gonna do your mascara now. Open your eyes, but look down and away from the direction of the mascara brush. My friend Marie told me it also helps if you open your mouth, and I have no idea if that's true, but I always do it anyway."
"Why would it help to open my mouth?"
"She said it's instinctual. It helps you not blink, because animals don't want to shut their eyes while their mouths are open, in case a bug flies in or something. I don't know, it doesn't make sense."
Joe leaned in for her slightly, mouth open, eyelids at half-mast.
"Okay, I'm real sorry if I poke you in the eye. Look down and to your right." Nile held his jaw again. "Could you open your eyes just a little more than that? Good." Joe saw the shadow of the mascara wand right next to his left eye, but didn't flinch away. There was a brushing sensation against his eyelashes, then it was gone.
"Good job. Now look down and to your left. Good."
Nile leaned back. "There's just one more thing I want to add." Nile pulled three different cylinders out of her makeup bag. "Give me your hand."
Joe obediently extended his hand. "Is this some new twenty-first century fashion? Makeup goes on hands now?"
"That’s called nail polish, and no. I need swatches." She uncapped each cylinder in turn and marked three different-colored lipsticks across the back of his hand. "Hold that up to your face?" Nile contemplated him. "I think I need an outside opinion. Nicky?"
"The middle one, I think."
"Yeah, good choice. I love that cherry color. We'll save the brick red for you."
Nile handed him a package of wipes and Joe wiped the swatches off his hand. "Now lean in and open your mouth again just sliiiightl -- yeah, exactly like that. Okay, now I know you've definitely worn lipstick before."
"Oh, he has, querida," Nicky piped up. "It is as he said, there is very little we have not done in all our time here."
“Lipstick was just the once,” Joe explained, when Nile pulled back. She mimed pressing her lips together and smacking them, and he mimicked her.
“Twice,” Andy corrected, sounding sleepy.
“When...? Oh, yes.”
“Shit, I forgot to touch up your eyeliner like I said I would. It’s pretty faint now under the eyeshadow. Give me one sec, then we can, how’d you put it? Do Nicky.”
Another high-pitched giggle from the direction of the arm chair.
“You sound like a -- like a leprechaun, Andy,” Nicky remarked.
“Do not.”
“Do too,” Nile responded emphatically. “Nicky’s exactly right, that was totally a leprechaun laugh.”
“I can’t sound like a leprechaun because leprechauns don’t exist, Nile.”
Nile shook her head at Joe and smiled. “Okay, here we go, last little bit. I’m just going to go over the eyeliner.”
“Eyes shut, yeah?”
“Yeah, shut ‘em for me... And there we go, all done.”
“Do I get to see myself?”
“Sure. All my mirrors are tiny, though.”
Joe got up and looked in the ornate mirror hanging opposite the front door. “Oh wow, I’m gorgeous!”
“Always,” came Nicky’s level rejoinder from the couch, not missing a beat.
“You like it?” Nile asked, coming up behind him.
“I love it.” Joe leaned in to get a better look at his eyelids. “This gold really pops.”
“That one was in the order you made for me.” Nile bit her lip. “Did I say thank you for that?”
“Nile, really, there’s no need. It’s your money, too.” Joe enveloped Nile in a big hug.
They returned to the couch and studied Nicky’s face together. “Honestly, Nile, I think you should do the eyeshadow again. That’s the tricky part. It requires finesse, judgement, artistry.”
“You’re such a flatterer, dude.”
“I am but a humble speaker of truths.”
“Alright, help me pick colors.”
Forty-five minutes later, since Joe and Nile had decided to check YouTube for references, Nicky was sporting a peacock-inspired look on both eyelids. Andy had emerged from her blanket cocoon and wandered off at some point.
“Do you still want to go with the brick red lipstick?” Joe asked.
“Nah, honestly, I think it’ll be way too much. This --” Nile gestured grandly at Nicky’s face “-- stands on its own.”
“Oh, my dear Nile, I’ve never agreed with you more.”
“I definitely want to see him with blush, though.”
“Go for it.”
Nile lightly swiped a faint pink powder onto Nicky’s cheekbones, then tilted her head to contemplate him. She grabbed a tissue out of the box on the coffee table and used it to apply a light coat of pink blush to the swell of Nicky’s bottom lip.
“I’m a genius,” she proclaimed.
“You are. Such daring, such vision! Unlimited by the constraints of your materials! I love it.”
“And that pink looks really good on him.”
“It does, it truly does.”
Nile held out the tube of mascara to Joe. “You should do the honors.” She laughed, suddenly. “You know, we were always told not to share eye makeup, but I guess that doesn’t matter anymore, right?”
“Why…?” Nicky asked. It was the first word he’d uttered in a while. “Ah. Hygiene. No, you’re right, it should be fine.”
Joe accepted the mascara from Nile and contemplated his husband. “Sit back on the couch for me, dear heart.” Nicky scooted back, leaving plenty of room for Joe to climb into his lap and straddle him. Joe put his hand under Nicky’s chin and tilted his head back against the couch’s headrest, then twisted the cap off the mascara tube.
“Hold on, you guys! Don’t move a muscle.” Nile ran to her room to fetch the digital camera she used when she wanted pictures of them. “I have got to take a picture of this moment. Just trust me.”
She moved around the couch. “Joe, hold Nicky’s chin again. Perfect. And hold the wand up like you’re about to -- yeah, exactly. Nicky, don’t look at me, look at Joe.” Nile snapped several pictures. “Okay, proceed. You can thank me for these later.”
Joe gazed down at Nicky. “Open your mouth for me.” Nicky’s mouth dropped open. “Look down and to your right. Eyes a bit more open than that.” Joe’s steady hand brushed mascara onto Nicky’s left eyelashes. “Good. Good boy,” Joe breathed lowly, and the tips of Nicky’s ears turned pink. “Now the same thing, but look to your left.” Joe applied mascara to Nicky’s remaining eyelashes and leaned back. “Beautiful.”
Nile hummed in agreement. “He really is. Now, uh, do you guys want me to leave? ‘Cause I can do that.” Joe clambered off of Nicky’s lap hastily.
“Of course not, Nile,” Nicky answered.
“Definitely not. I want to see your version of that green Christmas party look we liked,” said Joe.
“Yes, it is your turn now,” Nicky added.
“Well, alright. If you say so.” Nile’s smile for them was blinding.