Laura May’s eyes found Earl. She let out a cry of horror and ran towards him.
“Don’t be dead, Earl. I beg you, don’t be dead!”
Earl looked up from the mud bath he’d taken and shook his head.
“Missed me by a mile,” he said.
At his side, Gyer had fallen to his knees, hands clasped together, face up to the driving rain.
“Oh Lord, I thank you for preserving this your instrument, in his hour of need…”
Virginia shut out the idiot drivel. This was the man who had convinced her so deeply of her own deluded state that she’d given herself to Buck Durning. Well, no more. She’d been terrorized enough. She’d seen Sadie act upon the real world; she’d felt Buck do the same. The time was now ripe to reverse the procedure. She walked steadily across to where the .38 lay in the grass and picked it up.
As she did so, she sensed the presence of Sadie Durning close by. A voice, so soft she barely heard it, said, “Is this wise?” in her ear. Virginia didn’t know the answer to that question. What was wisdom anyhow? Not the stale rhetoric of dead prophets, certainly. Maybe wisdom was Laura May and Earl, embracing in the mud, careless of the prayers Gyer was spouting, or of the stares of the guests who’d come running out to see who’d died. Or perhaps wisdom was finding the canker in your life and rooting it out once and for all. Gun in hand, she headed back toward Room Seven, aware that the benign presence of Sadie Durning walked at her side.
“Not Buck…?” Sadie whispered, “…surely not.”
“He attacked me,” Virginia said.
“You poor lamb.”
“I’m no lamb,” Virginia replied. “Not anymore.”
Realizing that the woman was perfectly in charge of her destiny, Sadie hung back, fearful that her presence would alert Buck. She watched as Virginia crossed the lot, past the cottonwood tree, and stepped into the room where her tormentor had said he would be waiting. The lights still burned, bright after the blue darkness outside. There was no sign of Durning. Virginia crossed to the interconnecting door. Room Eight was deserted too. Then, the familiar voice.
“You came back,” Buck said.
She wheeled around, hiding the gun from him. He had emerged from the bathroom and was standing between her and the door.
“I knew you’d come back,” be said to her. “They always do.”
“I want you to show yourself-” Virginia said.
“I’m naked as a babe as it is,” said Buck, “what do you want me to do: skin myself? Might be fun, at that.”
“Show yourself to John, my husband. Make him see his error.”
“Oh, poor John. I don’t think he wants to see me, do you?”
“He thinks I’m insane.”
“Insanity can be very useful,” Buck smirked, “they almost saved Sadie from Old Sparky on a plea of insanity. But she was too honest for her own good. She just kept telling them, over and over: ‘I wanted him dead. So I shot him.’ She never had much sense. But you… now, I think you know what’s best for you.”
The shadowy form shifted. Virginia couldn’t quite make out what Durning was doing with himself but it was unequivocally obscene.
“Come and get it, Virginia,” he said, “grub’s up.”
She took the .38 from behind her back and leveled it at him.
“Not this time,” she said.
“You can’t do me any harm with that,” he replied. “I’m already dead, remember?”
“You hurt me. Why shouldn’t I be able to hurt you back?”
Buck shook his ethereal head, letting out a low laugh. As he was so engaged the wail of police sirens rose from down the highway.
“Well, what do you know?” Buck said. “Such a fuss and commotion. We’d better get down to some jazzing, honey, before we get interrupted.”
“I warn you, this is Sadie’s gun-“You wouldn’t hurt me,” Buck murmured. “I know you
women. You say one thing and you mean the opposite.” He stepped toward her, laughing.
“Don’t,” she warned.
He took another step, and she pulled the trigger. In the instant before she heard the sound, and felt the gun leap in her hand, she saw John appear in the doorway. Had he been there all along, or was he coming out of the rain, prayers done, to read Revelations to his erring wife? She would never know The bullet sliced through Buck, dividing the smoky body as it went, and sped with perfect accuracy toward the evangelist. He didn’t see it coming. It struck him in the throat, and blood came quickly, splashing down his shirt. Buck’s form dissolved like so much dust, and he was gone. Suddenly there was nothing in Room Seven but Virginia, her dying husband and the sound of the rain.