“You mean you talked to it?”
“Yeah. While you were unconscious.”
“And you promised — ”
“I promised I’d go with it, as soon as you two were safe. That was the deal.”
“Huh. You made a deal with an angel.”
“What else was I going to do? I had to do something. And it was my stupidity that got us into this mess.” He put his head through the broken window. “At least she’s still breathing. But she’s also bleeding.”
He lifted his hands and displayed his palms for Maxine. They were blood-soaked.
“Oh God.”
“You know what?”
“What?”
“You’re going to have to go for help. Because that sonofabitch isn’t going to let me out of its sight. Can you do that?”
“Can I walk? Yes I can walk. Can I walk as far as Sunset?” She drew a deep breath. “I don’t know. I can try.”
“Okay then. You go get someone to help Tammy. And for God’s sake be quick about it. I don’t think she’s got much time. I’ll stay here with her. Not that I’ve got much choice.”
“A deal’s a deal.”
“A deal’s a deal.”
“Have you got a cigarette?”
Todd stood up and dug in his jeans pocket. “Yep.” He pulled out a crushed packet, and examined its contents. “Two Marlboro Lights. One each.”
“Matches?”
“Never without.” He came over to Maxine, and gave her the better preserved of the cigarettes.
“You light it,” she said.
He put both the cigarettes in his mouth and lit them from a single flame. Then he handed Maxine’s back to her.
“Didn’t somebody do that in a movie?” he said.
“God, you are an ignoramus. Yes, of course. Paul Henreid, in Now, Voyager. I showed it to you.”
“Yeah,” he smiled. “I remember. Maxine Frizelle’s Ten Favorite Moments.”
She drew on the cigarette, and started to walk back along the path carved through the thicket by the car, to the street.
“Hurry.” Todd said.
Tammy ate her meatloaf in silence, thinking of nothing in particular. Aunt Jessica busied herself in the kitchen, coming in now and again to be sure that Tammy was eating all her vegetables. If the plate wasn’t cleaned, there’d be no dessert. No pie or cake. Aunt Jessica wasn’t a very good cook but she knew what her niece liked. Pie and cake, preferably with ice cream.
“You’re going to be a big girl,” she said to Tammy when she brought through the slice of peach cobbler and ice cream. “Big all over. And that can get a girl into a lot of trouble.”
“Yes, Auntie.”
“Especially with the boys.”
“I know, Auntie.”
“So you have to be extra careful. Boys take advantage of big girls, and I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I won’t let them, Auntie.”
“Good,” Aunt Jessica said, though she didn’t sound much convinced. Back into the kitchen she went, leaving Tammy to enjoy her cobbler a la mode.
The first couple of mouthfuls tasted good. She ate them thinking of nothing in particular. The clock ticked on the mantelpiece. Aunt Jessica’s canary chirped in its cage.
She took a third mouthful. For some reason it didn’t taste as good as the first two; almost as though there was a piece of bad fruit in it. She put her napkin up to her mouth and spat out whatever it was, but the taste of dirt, and the gritty texture of it, remained on her tongue and in her throat.
She put down her spoon, and put her fingers into her mouth.
“Wait … ” somebody said.
It wasn’t Aunt Jessica who spoke to her, however. It was a man’s voice. A gentle man.
“There’s … something … in my mouth … ” she said, though she wasn’t quite sure who she was talking to.
“Dirt,” the man told her. “It’s just dirt. Can you spit it out? Spit hard.”
She glanced back towards the kitchen. Aunt Jessica was at the sink, washing pans. She wouldn’t approve of Tammy spitting in the house.
“I should go outside,” she said.
“You are outside,” the man replied.
As he spoke to her she felt the room lurch sideways-the table, the mantelpiece, the canary in his cage.