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. A year later when I had forgot, you’d still be there to remind me” (149). Ptolemy recollects their turbulent marriage. Sensia cheated on him frequently but always came back, and he remained in love with her until her sudden death from a stroke at the age of forty-eight.

Ptolemy eventually awakens and realizes that four days have passed since his last injection. His mind is clear and sharp, and he is determined to settle his affairs, starting with Reggie’s children. Ptolemy and Robyn buy new clothes and visit Niecie. She is amazed at the change in her great-uncle. He is lucid and confronts Hilly about stealing his social security money. Ptolemy says he will have a private conversation about it with Hilly at another time. He then tells Niecie that he will give her six hundred dollars each month as long as Reggie’s two children remain under her roof instead of living with their neglectful mother. Niecie agrees to his terms.

As Ptolemy leaves with Robyn, he feels a sense of triumph: “His mind straddled two worlds. He no longer needed a translator to decipher what was going on around him, but he was still sitting by the Tickle River, talking to Coy and making plans for a future eighty years from then” (158-59). Ptolemy asks Robyn about Beckford, a young man she’s been dating who was a friend of Reggie’s. She can’t decide how serious she is about him and proposes marrying Ptolemy instead. He says that he wants to adopt her as his daughter. That night he sends her off on a date with Beckford so that he can be alone.

After they leave, Ptolemy gets his toolbox and removes the planking on the floor of the living room closet. This is where he concealed Coydog’s gold coins. He lifts the parcel and finds everything intact, along with a .25 pistol. Ptolemy realizes that he needs to move quickly before his memories fade: “He could see the old confusion hovering above his crown, waiting to settle back on him like a venomless smothering snake around its prey” (161). He calls Hilly and makes peace with him about the theft of his money. He asks the young man for the name of Reggie’s closest friend. Hilly says that this would be Billy Strong, who manages a local gym.

After Ptolemy retires for the night, he realizes that Robyn has brought Beckford back to the apartment to sleep with her. Ptolemy doesn’t mind. The following morning, he asks if Robyn is serious about Beckford. He says: “I got to know before I die that you’ll take care’a Artie an’ Letisha and that you ain’t with no man gonna take what I pass along to you” (177). He says that they need to see a lawyer to formalize their relationship and ensure Robyn’s inheritance. Then, Ptolemy announces that he’s going out to visit his friend Shirley and return her emerald ring.