“So I got awn the See-Bee an’ tol’ olf Harry—he’uz a-drivin’ t’othuh rig—he ‘n’ Carey could do everythin’ they wawnted, but iffen it didn’t git no better time we come to Cockeysville, Fuz gone turn off ‘n’ lay ovuh till it did.”
He had then grinned, slugged down a can of beer and continued. “Well, when I told him bout this lil ol’ gal I knows is a waitress at thishere big ol’ motel in Cockeysville, he allowed he’d lay ovuh, too.
“Well, enyhow, we’uz almost to Cockeysville an’ the rain was a-comin’ down fit to bust an’ jest as my front wheels lit ontuh thishere ovuhpass, it … it jest felt like the road wuz movin’ like, you know. So I slowed down-—couldna been doing moren thirty, thirty-five to start out, but I geared ‘er down. An’ then I felt like I’s in a elevatuh goin’ down, an’ I figgered the foundashuns of thet ol’ ovuhpass had done washed out an’ the ovuhpass had done caved in an’ I knowed this ol’ boy wuz dead meat. So I closed my eyes an’ said, Sweet Jesus, I loves You, tek me home.
“An’ then they was this bad bump, an’ then anothera, and oP Pete starts accusin’ me from in the sleepuh. An’ I opened my eyes, an’ they won’t no road nowhere in sight! The rig uz jest rolling along, real slow, in the middle of this here great big pretty pasture-like. An’ I looked in the mirrer an’ ol’ Harry ‘uz still ovuh my shouluh.”
Another grin, another can of beer. Krystal nibbed her arms hard, then, to lay the gooseflesh, recalling with terrifying clarity the hideous indescribable agony as the berserk patient’s improvised knife tore through her tender breast and remembered the horrible awareness of inchs of icy, razor-edged steel slicing the throbbing heart deep in her chest. As she now recollected, she, too, had closed her eyes, had felt a thump which she had then assumed was that of her body falling to the floor of the psychiatric ward. Every bit ai frightening was the memory of what she first had seen when again she had opened her eyes—a stark, gray stone tower; battlemented, and rising above the roofline of Bass Foster1! house!
Long and strict self-discipline had imparted to her the ability to quickly will a return of composure, and she now exer« cised it and glanced at the Professor in time to glimpse a hii of remembered horror in his eyes, too. Then the truck recommenced his narrative.
“Well, enyhow, I braked up hard an’ fas’, an’ Harry di too. An’ Pete come a-rollin’ out an-yellin’ an’ cussin’ an don’ know whatall, an’ I’uz a-tryin’ to tell him what doi gone down, when thesehere two fellers come a-ridin’ hosses ovuh thishere HI hill an’ intuh thishere pasture where we wuz, They wuz all dolled up like thet feller in thet movie this of gal took me to oncet, thet feller Don Kwixoat, ‘cept thef didn’ have them no shields, jest spears an’ steel hardhats-like an’ thesehere swords an’ all.
“Well, enyhow, we hadn’t got moren twenny yards from thcl rig, when them bastards come a-ridin’ straight for us. C’n you] blieve thet? Then they split up, thet’s awl whut saved this of boy, I tell you. Pete had done got down from the truck an1 one of them maniacs headed for him an’ the othern kep awn at me an oil Harry, an’ thet bastard got to us afore his pal got to where Pete was, natcherly, ’cause we wuz closer to where they started from.
“Well, enyhow, thet sonuvabitch—pard’n me, ma’am, Fin sorry.” The big man flushed and dropped his eyes in embarrassment. “But, enyhow, thet feller took his spear an’ stuck it clear through pore oV Harry! I mean it, clear through ‘imt
“Well, I’m a peaceable ol’ boy, but when I seed what been done to ol’ Harry, I’uz scared, damn raht, but I come to git so mad I couldn’ see straight, hardly. I jes’ jumped ovuh an’ grabbed me thet ol’ spear whut thet bastard had jest done pullted outen ol’ Harry, an’ I jerkted it an’ he hung awnta it and I pulled him raht awfen his boss an’ his hardhat come awf when he hit the groun’ an’ he let go thet ol’ spear too.an’ I took an bashted his damn haid with it so dang hard it busted, but”—he grinned again—”it busted his haid too, caved ‘er raht awn in, it did.”