Nancy sipped her coffee and kept her eyes on his. The gun lay in her
lap. The big kitchen was a place for coffee, brown and black, wood
ceiling and iron stove and pans. Collins sat across the twelve square
feet of table from her, and nursed the smoking mug.
"Sam, I want you to take whatever comfort you can from the fact that I
don't think the same thing about you as the rest of Waraxe."
"What does the rest of the town think about me?"
"They think you are a pathological degenerate who should be lynched. But
I don't believe that."
"Thanks. That's a big comfort."
"I know what you were after when you tore Mom's dress."
In spite of himself, Collins felt his face warming in a blush.
"You were only seeking the mother love you missed as a boy," the girl
said.
Collins chewed on his lip a moment, and considered the idea. Slowly he
shook his head.
"No," he said. "No. I don't think so."
"Then what do you think?"
"I think old Doc Candle _made_ me do it. He said he was going to bury
me. Getting me lynched would be one good way to do it. Ed Michaels
almost blew my head off with his shotgun. It was close. Doc Candle
almost made it. He didn't miss by far with you and that target pistol
either."
"Sam--I may call you 'Sam'?--just try to think calmly and reasonably for
a minute. How could Dr. Candle, the undertaker, possibly make you do a
thing like you did in Mr. Michaels' hardware store?"
"Well ... he _said_ he was a superhuman alien from outer space."
"If he said that, do you believe him, Sam?"
"_Something_ made me do that. It just wasn't my own idea."
"It's easier that way, isn't it, Sam?" Nancy asked. "It's easy to say.
'It wasn't me; some space monster made me do it.' But you really know
better, don't you, Sam? Don't take the easy way out! You'll only get
deeper and deeper into your makebelieve world. It will be like
quicksand. Admit your mistakes--face up to them--_lick them_."
Collins stood up, and came around the end of the table.
"You're too pretty to be so serious all the time," he said.
* * * * *
"Sam, I want to help you. Please don't spoil it by misinterpreting my
intentions."
"You should get a little fun out of life," Collins listened to himself
say.
He came on around the big table towards her.
The first time he hadn't realized what was happening, but this time he
knew. Somebody was pulling strings and making him jump. He had as much
control as Charlie McCarthy.
"Don't come any closer, Sam."
Nancy managed to keep her voice steady, but he could tell she was
frightened.
He took another step.
She threw her coffee in his face.
The liquid was only lukewarm but the sudden dash had given him some
awareness of his own body again, like the first sound of the alarm
faintly pressing through deep layers of sleep.
"Sam, Sam, _please_ don't make me do it! Please, Sam, _don't_!"
Nancy had the gun in her hand, rising from her chair.
His hands wanted to grab her clothes and _tear_.
But that's _suicide_, he screamed at his body.
As his hand went up with the intention of ripping, he deflected it just
enough to shove the barrel of the gun away from him.
The shot went off, but he knew instantly that it had not hit him.
The gun fell to the floor, and with its fall, something else dropped
away and he was in command of himself again.
Nancy sighed, and slumped against him, the left side of her breast
suddenly glossy with blood.
* * * * *
Ed Michaels stared at him. Both eyes unblinking, just staring at _him_.
He had only taken one look at the girl lying on the floor, blood all
over her chest. He hadn't looked back.
"I didn't know who else to call, Ed." Collins said. "Sheriff Thurston
being out of town and all."
"It's okay, Sam. Mike swore me in as a special deputy a couple years
back. The badge is at the store."
"They'll hang me for this, won't they, Ed?"
Michaels put his hand on Collins' shoulder. "No, they won't do that to
you, boy. We know you around here. They'll just put you away for a
while."
"The asylum at Hannah, huh?"
"Damn it, yes! What did you expect? A marksman medal?"
"Okay, Ed, okay. Did you call Doc Van der Lies like I told you when I
phoned?"
Michaels took a folded white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his
square-jawed face. "You sure are taking this calm, Sam. I'm telling you,
Sam, it would look better for you if you at least _acted_ like you were
sorry.... Doc Van der Lies is up in Wisconsin with Mike. I called Doc
Candle."
"He's an undertaker," Collins whispered.
"Don't you expect we need one?" Michaels asked. Then as if he wasn't
sure of the answer to his own question, he said, "Did you examine her to
see if she was dead? I--I don't know much about women. I wouldn't be
able to tell."
It didn't sound like a very good excuse to Collins.
"I guess she's dead," Collins said. "That's the way he must have wanted
it."
"_He?_ Wait a minute, Sam. You mean you've got one of those split
personalities like that girl on TV the other night? There's somebody
else inside you that takes over and makes you do things?"
"I never thought of it just like that before. I guess that's one way to
look at it."
The knock shook the back door before Michaels could say anything. The
door opened and Doc Candle slithered in disjointedly, a rolled-up
stretcher over his shoulder.
"Hello, boys," Candle said. "A terrible accident, it brings sorrow to us
all. Poor Nancy. Has the family been notified?"
"Good gosh, I forgot about it," Michaels said. "But maybe we better wait
until you get her--arranged, huh, Doc?"
* * * * *
"Quite so." The old man laid the canvas stretcher out beside the girl on
the floor and unrolled it. He flipped the body over expertly like a
window demonstrator flipping a pancake over on a griddle.
"Ed, if you'd just take the front, I'll carry the rear. My vehicle is in
the alley."
"Sam, you carry that end for Doc. You're a few years younger."
Collins wanted to say that he couldn't, but he didn't have enough yet to
argue with. He picked up the stretcher and looked down at the white feet
in the Scotch plaid slippers.
Candle opened the door and waited for them to go through.
The girl on the stretcher parted her lips and rolled her head back and
forth, a puzzled expression of pain on her face.
Collins nearly dropped the stretcher, but he made himself hold on
tight.
"Ed! Doc! She moved! She's still _alive_."
"Cut that out now, Sam," Ed Michaels snapped. "Just carry your end."
"She's alive," Collins insisted. "She moved again. Just turn around and
take a look, Ed. That's all I ask."
"I hefted this thing once, and that's enough. You _move_, Sam. I've got
a .38 in my belt, and I went to Rome, Italy, for the Olympics about the
time you were getting yourself born, Sam. I ought to be able to hit a
target as big as you. Just go ahead and do as you're told."
Collins turned desperately towards Candle. Maybe Nancy had been right,
maybe he had been imagining things.
"Doc, you take a look at her," Collins begged.
The old man vibrated over to the stretcher and looked down. The girl
twisted in pain, throwing her head back, spilling her hair over the head
of the stretcher.
"Rigor mortis," Doc Candle diagnosed, with a wink to Collins.
"No, Doc! She needs a doctor, blood transfusions...."
* * * * *
"Nonsense," Candle snapped. "I'll take her in my black wagon up to my
place, put her in the tiled basement. I'll pump out all her blood and
flush it down the commode. Then I'll feed in Formaldi-Forever Number
Zero. Formaldi-Forever, for the Blush of Death. 'When you think of a
Pretty Girl, think of Formaldi-Forever, the Way to Preserve that
Beauty.' Then I'll take a needle and some silk thread and just a few
stitches on the eyelids and around the mouth...."
"Doc, will you...?" Michaels said faintly.
"Of course. I just wanted to show Sam how foolish he was in saying the
Beloved was still alive."
Nancy kicked one leg off the stretcher and Candle picked it up and
tucked it back in.
"Ed, if you'd just turn around and _look_." Collins said.
"I don't want to have to look at your face, you murdering son. You make
me, you say one more word, and I'll turn around and shoot you between
the eyes."
Doc Candle nodded. Collins knew then that Michaels really would shoot
him in the head if he said anything more, so he kept quiet.
Candle held the door. They managed to get the stretcher down the back
steps, and right into the black panel truck. They fitted the stretcher
into the special sockets for it, and Doc Candle closed the double doors
and slapped his dry palm down on the sealing crevice.
Instantly, there was an answering knock from inside the truck, a dull
echo.
* * * * *
"Didn't you hear that?" Collins asked.
"Hear what?" Michaels said.
"What are you hearing now, Sam?" Candle inquired solicitously.
"Oh. Sure," Michaels said. "Kind of a _voice_, wasn't it, Sam? Didn't
understand what it said. Wasn't listening too close, not like you."
_Thud-thud-thump-thud._
"No voice," Collins whispered. "That infernal sound, don't you hear it,
Ed?"
"I must hurry along," the undertaker said. "Must get ready to work on
Nancy, get her ready for her parents to see."
"All right, Doc. I'll take care of Sam."
"Where you going to jail me, Ed?" Collins asked, his eyes on the closed
truck doors. "In your storeroom like you did Hank Petrie?"
Michaels' face suddenly began to work. "Jail? Jail you? Jail's too good
for you. Doc, have you got a tow rope in that truck?"
Ed Michaels was the best shot in town, probably one of the best marksmen
in the world. He had been in the Olympics about thirty years ago. He was
Waraxe's one claim to fame. But he wasn't a cowboy. He wasn't a fast
draw.
Collins put all of his weight behind his left fist and landed it on the
point of Michaels' jaw, just the way he used to do when gangs of boys
jumped onto him.
[Illustration]
Michaels sprawled out, spread-eagled.
Then Collins wanted to take the revolver out of Ed's belt, and press it
into Ed's hand, curling his fingers around the grip and over the
trigger, and then he wanted to shake Ed awake, slap his face and shake
him....
Collins spun around, clawed open the door to the truck cab and threw
himself behind the steering wheel.
He stopped wanting to make Ed Michaels shoot him.
He flipped the ignition switch, levered the floor shift and drove away.
And he was going to drive on and on and on and on.
And on and on and on.