The Memphis Bat

In the middle of the room is a circular area curtained off from the rest. Brick is lead to an opening which the attendant parts, then bows slightly and gestures for Brick to enter. Brick steps in and the drape is dropped behind him. Brick looks up to see – what might be a grizzly bear in silk robes. Almost seven feet tall including the red fez perched on his massive, loaf-like head, with long nails on hands like frying pans, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that one was ushered into an ursine den. “Either you're the man I've come to see or you're laughing boy's big brother,” he says as he nods back towards the curtains. The giant permits a small smile,”Man Fat, at your service.” He gives the fist/palm salute, Brick nods in acknowledgment. His large host then gestures towards a freestanding coat rack. Brick nods, “Thanks” and crosses to the rack and places his hat on top. As he starts to remove his coat, the behemoth helps him shrug out of it and hangs it up for him, then gestures to a silk upholstered oak chair. Brick marvels at the dexterity with which he manipulates objects in spite of the prodigious nails on each hand. He crosses and seats himself. “I am given to understand that you are a man of some integrity and that I may be of some help to you regarding your partner's sudden demise.” In the soft, ambient light, Brick can tell in spite of the manicured eyebrows and Fu Manchu mustache, his host was certainly not Asian. Brick understood that people are rarely what they seem, but this crazy caper seems to be taking it to extremes. Man Fat pours two drinks of bourbon into tumblers from a Lume cut glass decanter. The receptacle looks almost like a thumbtack in his large mitts. “Maybe, but we should start with a motive, I can probably figure it out from there,” Brick offers. “And what would that be?” “A certain Egyptian artifact that went missing from across the bay a couple of nights ago.” The gargantuan pseudo-Chinese pauses in his ministrations only slightly. He crosses to Lloyd, hands him his drink, and raises his glass in a toast,” Here's to plain speaking and clear understanding.” “Cheers.” They drink. Then Man Fat begins a slow circuit to his chair. “We begin well, sir. Straight to the point, no beating about the bush.” He stops and places a hand on the back of his chair.”How familiar are you with ancient Egyptian burial rites and practices?” “Straight to the point: I know that after their embalming techniques improved they stopped placing internal organs in jars.” Fat nods in appreciation,”An untold number created and now scattered about the globe in museums in private collections... but only one – unknown, save for a very few who covet such rarities - is believed to be merely a vessel for …. a passage to immortality.” He chuckles seemingly at the notion and moves in front of the chair. “And how well versed are you in Egyptian mythology?” “I believe I'm familiar with most of the major deities.” “Then, please allow me to add what may or may not be a bit of apocrypha for your conjecture. In ancient Egypt, the cult of the god Osiris, who was chiefly a god of regeneration and rebirth, had a particularly strong interest in the concept of immortality. As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also called “king of the living”, since the ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead, 'the living ones'. The colossus settles himself in sections in the large, sleek, purple wing-backed chair opposite. The seat creaks audibly under his massive girth as he continues,” Osiris was considered not only a judge in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life.” He sets his own drink down next to him on the cherry and maple wood table and from inside his voluminous hanfu he removes a small flask, uncaps it and pours a measure of fluid of a viscous nature into his tumbler. Returning the flask to his robe, he absently picks up a crystal swizzle stick and gently stirs the drink with a minute flexing of his fingers. He sips his humorous cocktail,”He was also described as 'He Who is Permanently Youthful'. The kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death: as Osiris rose from the dead, so would they.” His voice drops into a hoarse whisper as he intones,”In the year three thousand B.C. the capitol of Old Egypt was at the mouth of the Nile delta and called among other things, Djed-sut meaning, 'everlasting places', it eventually acquired the more familiar appellation of Memphis.” He rolls the edge of the glass between his huge hands,”It is said that Ptah; demiurge of Memphis, god of craftsmen and architects made a golden device for the assimilation and resurrection rituals. This device was supposedly shaped like a free-tailed bat, which would, when applied to the body of the supplicant, allow them to inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. But the experiment proved that eternal was easier to achieve than life.” He leans in and in an ominous voice intones,” The first test subjects they tried it on became neither alive nor dead, but continued on. Compelled to prolong their wretched existence by consuming the blood of living creatures. It is largely assumed that these unfortunates were either exterminated or succumbed to the many weaknesses and violent changes that were wrought in their physiology.”