Namaste, baby.
Hey Johnny. How you guys doing?
We’re doing fine, ain’t we, Murr? Hello, little man, come over here.
No.
What’s the matter? Uncle Johnny’s your friend.
I don’t like you.
Hear that, Abby? The kid doesn’t like me.
He’s just shy.
Well hell, that’s all right. I was a shy kid too. Just like you, Willie.
My name is Will.
Muriel calls you Willie. Oh, but you like Muriel, right? I mean, who doesn’t? I’m mad about her myself.
Give it a rest, John.
See how the women gang up on me? That’s what they do, women. They gang up on the men. Overpower us with their righteous chi. You and me, we should be allies.
Don’t go filling his head with junk like that.
I’m telling him how it is between the sexes. His dad ain’t here, someone’s got to do it.
My dad is a soldier.
Not anymore, he ain’t. He’s a general contractor.
He’s not a general. He’s a sergeant.
That’s funny. No, what a general contractor does, he builds stuff for rich people. Because rich people always need more stuff.
Has he been drinking this morning?
Why are you asking her, I’m standing right here.
My dad is a soldier.
Have it your way. Is he off fighting another war? Is that why he ain’t here, with his son?
He’s in California.
A war zone if there ever was one. Class war against the Mexicans and Chinese. Which side do you figure your dad is on?
We should be going.
Fathers. They fuck you up, don’t they, kiddo?
Stop it, Johnny.
This is what happens when you try to speak the truth. People want to shut you up.
Please, you wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you in the butt.
Listen to her, huh? Nineteen and she already knows everything. You need to know something, you ask Muriel. The teenage sage. Understand?
Okay.
Come on, we’re leaving.
What, we just got here?
I’ll see you guys later.
Not if I see you first.
The adults turn their backs on him. A terrible change is taking place. He knows that when they look at him again it will be with hideous faces, and he must run. To the door? He cannot see one. The stairs? No, not the stairs. But out, somehow. He must go, now.
His hand striking the bedpost stung him to consciousness. The pillow was on the floor. The sheets were tangled around his legs. He had kicked himself awake. A thin line of light showed along the bottom of the window shade. And there was the lingering impression of half a dozen shadows, huddled around the bed. Who disappeared into the room’s dark corners just as his eyes sought them.
“That’s right, hide, you miserable...”
Will sat up, examining his reddened knuckles. He was collecting a fine set of bruises. Who knew that dealing with the otherworldly was so much like a street fight? He reached over and tugged the shade, sending it flapping upward. The blaze of light was dazzling. And yet even at midmorning, it had a yellowy autumn cast. The sun was already losing strength. The red and orange leaves would soon be brown, then gone. The tree limbs bare. The long season of darkness was coming. And today was the day.
Muriel slammed the Subaru’s hatchback, where a load of gear was piled. She froze when she saw Will coming up the drive, as if he was one of the specters from his dreams.
“Do I look that bad?”
She smiled, shaking off the wariness.
“Would you believe I didn’t recognize you for a second?”
“All too easily,” he replied, leaning on the car, hands jammed in his pockets. Despite the sun, it was cold. “Off to your mom’s again?”
She tipped her head sadly and walked over to him.
“This could be it. I’ll need to be there as long as it takes.”
“I’m sorry, Mure.”
“She’s done well for a Brown. Most of us don’t make eighty. I sure don’t plan to.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I’m just sorry to leave you alone with these crazies,” she said, brushing his hair lightly with the back of her weathered hand. “You know what today is, right?”
“The day Johnny died.” He hesitated a moment. “Or do I say ‘Daddy’?”
“She finally told you.” Muriel seemed almost grieved by the news. “About time.”
“You could have told me.”
“Wasn’t my place—it had to come from her.” Which was true, of course. “Was it a bad scene?”
“No,” he assured her. “It was all right. She seemed to think I already knew.”
“Does it upset you?”
“It’s strange, but so much is strange right now.”
“It doesn’t make Joe any less your father. But you know that. Poor Joe.”
“That’s funny coming from you,” he replied.
“What? I got nothing against him. Except he’s mean, and I can’t forgive him for ditching you.”
“Right, besides that.”
“He hasn’t had an easy time. How you doing? After the other night?”
“Well, I’m still here.”
“Any more visits from Mike Conti?”
“Not so far.”
“Soon as they give you the all clear,” Muriel said, “get out of here and don’t come back. This place is poison. These people. Every one of them can go to hell.”
“Why don’t you leave?”
He waited for the usual response. She had spent her whole life here. Some people were meant to go and some to stay. Instead, she surprised him again.
“I’m working myself up to it,” Muriel said. She glanced at him mischievously. “Hey, maybe I’ll crash with you in New York. What do you say?”
“My place is a dump,” Will replied with a smile. “But you could have the couch for a couple of days.”
“No, I’m kidding. I’m not fit to live with other people. Though maybe you and me could do it. I imagined that once, when you were little. Getting you away from all this.”
“What, kidnapping me?”
“Rescuing is the word I had in mind. But thanks for making it sound creepy.”
“Mure,” he laughed, squeezing her shoulder. “You did rescue me. But that would have been illegal.”
“Why did you come over here?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Johnny said if I ever needed to know anything I should ask you.”
“Johnny? When?”
“Last night,” he replied, realizing his playful tone was not reaching her. “In a dream.”
“Don’t joke about that,” she said, in almost-menacing voice.
“Who said I was joking?” But he could see that her menace was hiding hurt. “I’m sorry. It was just a bad dream.”
“Johnny, huh? He told you to ask me something?”
Something new entered her voice. Curiosity, or even hope. This quick succession of disorderly emotions unsettled him. Clearly Johnny had been more than a casual fling for young Muriel, and he was sorry to have toyed with her.
“It was more like I was remembering stuff about him. Things he said.”
“He was crazy about you, Willie. He never made a big show of it, but he loved you.”
Will had to swallow back whatever surged up in him before he could speak.
“Is that why he was going to use me in his summoning? Because he loved me?”
“No, you’ve got that wrong.”
“So correct me. Oh right, you can’t.”
“If you’re talking about that silly oath,” she said, biting off the words, “I don’t give a shit about that.” Did he believe her words, or her manner? Which was becoming more and more agitated. He did not want to hurt her, not Muriel.
“What is it you think you know?” she demanded.
“That Johnny was coming upstairs to get me when the lightning hit.”
“You’re right,” Muriel said, leaning right into him. “To get you out of that house.”
This was the problem with memory. It distorted everything. He could not reconcile the big, threatening Johnny of his dreams with the worried and loving man his mother and Muriel were trying to sell him. If he could have, he would have figured this part out long before.
“Johnny was your accomplice.”
“More like I was his. I was just your wannabe momma—he was your real dad. But neither of us trusted those nuts.”
“Those nuts, like my mother?”
“Not her,” Muriel scoffed. “She was just a mess.”
Could this be right? Could it be the truth?
“Who was the leader, then? That night. If it wasn’t Johnny, who led the prayer?”
She closed her eyes and stepped back.
“I wasn’t in the house. Johnny didn’t tell me everything.”
“You have no idea?”
“I don’t want you thinking about this.”
“Too late,” he shot back, advancing toward her. “If you weren’t there, then you don’t know if Johnny might have been doing it after all. Playing some kind of double game with all of you.”
“No,” she maintained. “He was pretending to go along with them, but he was only there to get you. We were going to take you somewhere, until things settled down.”
“How would that have worked?”
“But they knew,” Muriel said desperately, still backing away from him. Driving her fingers up into her hair and tugging back the skin on her face. “They knew what we were up to, and they killed him.”
“No, it was the lightning.”
“Yes, the lightning. And I was in shock. Sitting out there in the car, waiting for him. Waiting for you. Then seeing that white flash and hearing the screaming.” She was going through it all again, hardly looking at him. “And when they told me, when he told me what had happened, and that I had to keep quiet, I just went along.”
“Who?”
“Like a frightened child,” she growled. “Like a coward.”
“Who? Who told you to keep quiet?”
“That old man,” she shouted. Then she turned on her heel, took three quick strides and collapsed. Will rushed to her side. She had fallen so heavily that he did not know what to expect. But when he got her sitting upright, her eyes were open, and her face was calm. He even detected a faint smile. As if she had come through the other side of something and was proud of herself. She tried to stand but he held her down.
“You’re shaking,” Muriel said. “It’s okay, Willie, I’m fine. In fact, I’ve never been better.”
“I shouldn’t have made you speak about that.”
“It’s over,” she said firmly, tipping her head back on his shoulder and looking up at him with a soft expression. Her eyes just inches from his. “That’s all over now. Those words don’t hold me anymore. It’s broken.”
Could it happen like that? One will overthrowing another? He wished he knew the rules. Sam would know. And where was Sam, damn it?
“Who was the man?” he asked cautiously, testing her truth. “The old man?”
She blinked a few times, studying him with those hazel eyes. As if whatever mental victory she had achieved had wiped away the last few minutes.
“Who led the ceremony?”
“I don’t really know, honey. But I think it was Doc Chester. I’m pretty sure.”
“And he’s the one who made you take the oath?”
“Corralling us like cattle,” she mumbled in disgust. “Which is what we were, I guess. Explaining how nobody outside the circle would understand. We had to keep it to ourselves. I don’t think we knew what we were promising. I sure didn’t.”
Doc Chester. It made sense. He was the elder of the group, knowledgeable about other cultures. It was he and Johnny who had brought new ideas to the circle, new rituals. And Abby had said that he owned a ceremonial robe.
“He’s dead,” said Will. Muriel nodded.
“There’s nothing for you to do,” she said. “There never was. Now help me up.”
Will relented and tugged her to her feet. After a moment or two of getting her balance she seemed fine. Better than fine. Flushed and energetic, and ready to fight the world.
“You should lie down for a bit,” Will said.
“No can do. I got to hit the road. Couldn’t forgive myself if she died without me there. I’m the last child left.”
“You need me to come with you?”
“You sweet kid,” she answered, reaching out and holding him by the shirt collar. “That would get you out of here, anyway. But no, you need to be with your mom. You need not to go out tonight. You understand what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Tonight’s the anniversary. But they’re all dead.”
“Not quite all of them. Look what Eddie almost did. And there are children. How about Jimmy? You’ve made a lot of enemies.”
“I know.”
“Stay home tonight. Stay safe. Promise me.”
“I already promised Abby,” he said.
She released her grip and smiled at him.
“Good boy.”