Page 22 (1/2)

They put her in one of the cells and slam the barred door shut She falls to her knees and cliainst the wall She can hear sounds ofThere arearound one another like nervous anih up on the wall in her cell, and she looks at the light colass of theis opaque with grilass pane isshe sees the sunlight bright and clean

God reaches you even in a baseirl Wake up It’s tis--of pastures with dried grass co up to her waist, of lakes where she can float stretched out on the surface, her skin tickled by the taut skin of the water, she like nothing but a little scurrying waterbug whiling away her tiirl

She knows the voice even before she opens her eyes She shades her eyes and cracks the through the rectangularabove her Still dayti

Rise and shine, lollipop We’re in a fix

Moses Todd is in the cell next to her, holding his bleeding ar has stopped She can stand up all right She stretches herself and walks in circles around the cell a few ti fronizes it

Maury, she says and looks past Moses

And there he is, her du plaintively

I figured they got you, Maury, she says She can feel her face sh it hurts her head I reckoned I was out one duaze back at her

In the cell between theood ar strip

This is touching, he says and holds out to her the strip of fabric through the bars But why don’t you give me a hand before I pass out

She backs away from him

I ain’t helpin dress your wounds, Mose You’ll just try to kill ain

You kneas coot one less hassle to deal with

He chuckles, shaking his head

I guess that’s right, he says

He takes the strip and sits down on his cot and proceeds very carefully to circle his arm with it and knot it with his teeth

Then the door at the other end of the room opens and two men come in--massive, like the others she’s seen They have to duck to fit through the doorway One has no shoes on--instead his feet are encased in a growth of chalky bonelike shell articulated with tendon between the plates that spread and contract when he walks She wonders how far up the legs that bone goes The skin of his face is half gone, revealing one eyeball, unblinking, rolling in a jellied socket He looks like a corpse, like a meatskin, but he moves like the others--with human purpose and alacrity

The man with him is less decayed His skin is cracked open in places, and his hair has fallen out in tufts, but there isn’t any growth of bone that she can see

The one with no shoes strides over to the bars of Teainst the linoleurips the bars of the cell and addresses Tehted Millie near to death Why you wanna terrify a nice girl like her for? Why you wanna go ot the makins of a true-hearted mother woman in her mini soul It’s just lon spitefulness to want to traot a family what loves her?

His eye rolls back in its socket, ot no interest in her baby nursery, Temple says She was the one with the weapon

Oh, he says, pointing to her gurkha knife where it lay on the table auess that there’s a passel of wildflowers Mairl You’re jealous is what I think But the fa up by strangers

Hush up, Royal, Bodie says We just here for a dose Sit down

The one called Royal stares at Te eye and then walks to the dentist chair, where he straddles it backward, e his face in the headrest

At the table, Bodie takes a syringe and fills it with clear liquid from a beaker that was positioned under one of the valved pipettes He flicks the air bubbles out and goes over to where Royal sits

You ready? he says

Stick me, says Royal

Bodie leans over and carefully injects the needle into the back of Royal’s neck, up near the base of the skull, then presses down the plunger, slohile Royal’s whole body seizes up like one contracting h clenched teeth when it’s over His whole body looks strained to bursting, and his thin, ill-fitting skin shivers and tears a little with tiny wet pops After a fewreturns to nore positions

When Bodie is injected, he says nothing but she can see thewith tension beneath his clothes

Oh lord, Royal says, ot a fire in ht now I could fuck a hole in the world I swear to God a’hty, I could fuck a new Grand Canyon all byone of those for Mae with about twice as much of the clear fluid as either of theainst the ground, follows Bodie out of the room

SO, MOSES Todd says when the two uess what that was about?

I ain’t ever seen anything like thes

Nope