When Driggs and Allie got close to her house she stopped and turned to him.
“Thank you,” she said.
“This is you?” he said as he kept moving toward the house.
“It is.”
Driggs sensed Allie wanted to call it a night right here, but he continued moving toward the gate as he looked to the house. Driggs knew the difference between want and desire.
“A white picket fence, no less,” he said.
Allie hesitated to follow as she looked around a bit, then lingered after him as he continued toward the house. Driggs stopped at the gate and gazed up at the house for a long moment. When Allie moved up he turned to her a little, then looked back to the house.
“Lovely home,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said as she looked toward the house, then glanced to him. “I appreciate you seeing me home safely.”
“My pleasure.”
He lifted the gate latch.
“After you,” he said.
Allie stuttered a bit as she said with a nervous laugh, “Oh, I can see my way from here.”
“I’m taking you all the way,” he said as he removed his hat and pointed toward the front door.
Allie looked at him without moving, then back at the house, and moved up the rock path toward the door. She could feel Driggs’s formidable presence just behind her as she climbed the steps to the dark porch.
When she got to the door she paused slightly, then turned. He was still holding his hat in his hand.
“You’ve been so kind,” she said as she retrieved the door key from her clutch.
“I aim to please,” he said.
“Well, then,” she said as she held out her hand. “Again, thank you for a lovely evening.”
He took her hand and held it, then brought it up to his lips and kissed it. He then pulled her gently toward him. He leaned and kissed her on the cheek . . . and just as quickly as he had pulled her out of her world and into his, he released her.
“You are okay from here on, I take it?” he said.
“Yes, yes, of course,” she said as she turned and fumbled, trying to get the key into the lock.
“Allow me,” he said.
Driggs took the key from her and slid it into the hole, turned it, and opened the door. It swung into the room slowly and freely as it offered a long, eerie creak.
She looked up to him and smiled. Then he held up the key. She reached for it, but he held it back slightly.
“Do you want me to come inside?” he said. “Make sure everything feels right?”
“No, I believe I can make it from here, and if I can’t, then I guess they might as well put me under.”
“Let’s not go that far,” he said with a laugh.
She stepped inside and turned to him. He put his hat to his chest, bowed, and said, “Good night . . . and sweet dreams.”
“Good night,” she said and closed the door.
He put on his hat, turned, and walked down the steps. He opened the gate, shut it behind him, and moved off. Then he looked back just as he passed behind the adjacent building for one last look at the house. He could see Allie’s silhouette as she looked out the front door.
As Driggs moved on, he thought about what it might have been like if he’d gone ahead and got inside that house and did what it was that he did so well. But there were more pressing things churning up now, far more important happenings for him to be concerned with. The fire that he’d felt earlier when he was looking at himself in the mirror in Allie’s dress shop was getting hotter by the hour. He was beginning to feel the full heat all over his body now. It was no longer just in his loins but was spreading like a wildfire through his body.
“Fear not,” he said quietly as he walked on. “I am the first and the last. I am the one that lives. I was dead but behold I am alive for evermore. And I hold the keys of hell and death. I saw heaven open and I behold a white horse and he who sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. This is the second death. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceived the world was cast down to earth. Behold I come quickly, my reward is with me to give every man according to his deed. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
—
Back in the room, Driggs drank some whiskey and smoked cigarettes as he thought about the evening, about Margie, about the princess, about what he needed to do, and about Allie. He liked her, the way she moved, the way she smelled. Once everything was said and done he figured he’d take good care of her, like he knew she needed, wanted . . . but currently he had those more significant thoughts that were occupying his head.
Around three in the morning he crawled into bed, and when he did the princess stirred and for the next few hours he toiled and procured before his mind eased and he eventually drifted off to sleep.