The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

As the treatment takes effect, Ptolemy slips further into oblivion. He remembers walking back to Coydog’s shack so that Coydog can retrieve his suitcase before leaving for New York. He forces Ptolemy to stay concealed in case someone has come looking for him. Coydog no sooner enters his cabin than he is attacked by a gang of white men. They beat him, demanding to know where he concealed the coins, but Coydog doesn’t talk. In the end, the white men set his feet on fire and lynch him as Ptolemy watches from his hiding place. Ptolemy’s memories then skip forward to the night he retrieved Coydog’s gold coins and spirited them out of the county. He was seventeen at the time.

Ptolemy’s memories shift to the day he met his second wife, Sensia. He was a divorced father in his forties, and she was a beauty in her twenties. Immediately after meeting Ptolemy, Sensia left her then-husband to track Ptolemy down. She says: “I saw you at that barbecue party and I knew that you would read to me and hold me if I had fever. I knew that you would ask me how I was today and hear every word I said.