and piling up all around us like summer snow. We stood and listened and above the crazy calypso sound of the hail hitting the treetrunks we heard two cars start up.
‘Stay right here,’ Chris told me, and he started across the bog.
‘Chris!’ I said, panicky.
‘I got to. Stay here.’
It seemed he was gone a very long time. I became convinced that either Ace or
Eyeball had lurked behind and grabbed him. I stood my ground with nobody but Ray
Brower for company and waited for somebody–anybody -to come back. After a while,
Chris did.
‘We did it,’ he said. ‘They’re gone.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah. Both cars.’ He held his hands up over his head, locked together with the
gun between them, and shook the double fist in a wry championship gesture. Then he
dropped them and smiled at me. I think it was the saddest, scaredest smile I ever saw.’
“Suck my fat one”–whoever told you you had a fat one, Lachance?’
‘Biggest one in four counties,’ I said. I was shaking all over.
We looked at each other warmly for a second, and then, maybe embarrassed
by what we were seeing, looked down together. A nasty thrill of fear shot through me,
and the sudden splash splash as Chris shifted his feet let me know that he had seen,
too. Ray Brewer’s eyes had gone wide and white, starey and pupilless, like the eyes
that look out at you from Grecian statuary. It only took a second to understand what
had happened, but understanding didn’t lessen the horror. His eyes had filled up with
round white hailstones.
Now they were melting and the water ran down his cheeks as if he were
weeping for his own grotesque position–a tatty prize to be fought over by two
bunches of stupid hick kids. His clothes were also white with hail. He seemed to be
lying in his own shroud.
‘Oh, Gordie, hey,’ Chris said shakily. ‘Say-hey, man. What a creepshow for
him.’
‘I don’t think he knows -‘
‘Maybe that was his ghost we heard. Maybe he knew this was gonna happen.
What a fuckin’ creepshow, I’m sincere.’
Branches crackled behind us. I whirled, sure they had flanked us, but Chris
went back to contemplating the body after one short, almost casual glance. It was
Vern and Teddy, their jeans soaked black and plastered to their legs, both of them
grinning like dogs that have been sucking eggs.
‘What are we gonna do, man?’ Chris asked, and I felt a weird chill steal
through me.
Maybe he was talking to me, maybe he was… but he was still looking down at
the body.
‘We’re gonna take him back, ain’t we?’ Teddy asked, puzzled. ‘We’re gonna be
heroes. Ain’t that right?’ He looked from Chris to me and back to Chris again.
Chris looked up as if startled out of a dream. His lip curled. He took big steps
towards Teddy, planted both hands on Teddy’s chest, and pushed him roughly
backwards. Teddy stumbled, pinwheeled his arms for balance, then sat down with a
soggy splash. He blinked up at Chris like a surprised muskrat. Vern was looking
warily at Chris, as if he feared madness. Perhaps that wasn’t far from the mark.
‘You keep your trap shut,’ Chris said to Teddy. ‘Paratroops over the side my
ass. You lousy rubber chicken.’
‘It was the hail!’ Teddy cried out, angry and ashamed. ‘It wasn’t those guys, Chris! I’m ascared of storms! I can’t help it! I would have taken all of ’em on at once, I swear on my mother’s name! But I’m ascared of storms! Shit! I can’t help it!’ He began to cry again, sitting there in the water.
‘What about you?’ Chris asked, turning to Vern. ‘Are you ascared of storms
too?’
Vern shook his head vacuously, still astounded by Chris’s rage. ‘Hey, man, I
thought we was all runnin’.’
‘You must be a mind-reader then, because you ran first’
Vem swallowed twice and said nothing.
Chris stared at him, his eyes sullen and wild. Then he turned to me. ‘Going to
build him a litter, Gordie.’
‘If you say so, Chris.’
‘Sure! Like in Scouts.’ His voice had begun to climb into strange, reedy levels.