Now that the hardest one is safely behind him, the man is feeling a little easier in his spirit. He’s got a couple more on his list, and tonight, he’s going to settle a score that goes back to when he was a boy. Marvin Musgrove might be a solid Darling citizen and important enough to run for mayor, but the fact of the matter is that he’s a shady character. He cheated the man’s daddy out of twenty-four dollars, back when it mattered, when his daddy didn’t have twenty-four dollars and finding it meant some hard scrabbling. That may have been thirty years ago, and the man might have been just a kid. But he has a long memory. It’s payback time.
And this one isn’t just about an old score that needs settling. Now that the man has learned what fires can do—or to put it a little more accurately, what he can do with fire—he’s discovered that he loves it.
He admires the way it grows from the flick of a match to a roaring blaze, a live thing fed by its own greedy energies.
The way the new fire siren on top of the courthouse tower gets everybody’s attention.
The way the Hot Dogs have to rush to undo what he’s done while the Darling citizens stand watching, their mouths stupidly open, awestruck and frightened.
The way it’s the hot topic in the diner the next day or over at Mann’s Mercantile or the post office or when people are standing around chatting after the Wednesday night prayer meeting.
He especially likes the way Darling people talk about him even when they don’t know who he is and have no idea that he’s standing right there beside them, listening and putting in his two cents from time to time.
And the more often he does this—plants his little doodads in the right place, flicks a match and stands back to watch the flame—the more he likes being the secret, sinister agent of all their fears. It gives him the kind of power he’s never had until today. Until tonight. Until right now.
But he has decided, after a great deal of thought, that torching Musgrove’s Hardware might not be a very good idea. Marvin knows the man has a grudge against him and he might just begin to suspect him. Of course, Marvin couldn’t prove anything, but the accusations could be a nuisance. And anyway, he has come up with another plan, which when it comes to settling that old twenty-four-dollar score is every bit as good as burning down the hardware store.
And who knows? Maybe he’ll even get around to burning the hardware store. Later.
Tonight, he’s going to burn this.