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Chapter 20

Larry and I sat on the cool autu the lawyers draw up the will "They&039;re so serious," he said

"It&039;s their job to be serious," I said

"Being a lawyer means you can&039;t have a sense of hurinned His short, curly hair was a red so bright, it was nearly orange His eyes were blue and soft as a spring sky I&039;d seen both hair and eyes in the dorey-eyed and brown-haired I&039;d hate to have to give a witness description of someone I only saw in the dark

Larry Kirkland had that olden freckles corody Doody puppet Ishort, really short for acalled cute It was one of my least favorite endearments I think if all short people could vote, the word "cute" would be stricken froethave you been an anilanced at the luht hours"

I stared at him "This is your first job, anywhere?"

He nodded "Didn&039;t Mr Vaughn tell you about me?"

"Bert just said he&039;d hired another animator named Lawrence Kirkland"

"I&039;ton University, and this is my semester of job co-op"

"How old are you?"

"Twenty; why?"

"You&039;re not even legal," I said

"So I can&039;t drink or go in porno theaters No big loss, unless the job takes us to places like that" He looked at me and leaned in "Does the job take us to porno theaters?" His face was neutrally pleasant, and I couldn&039;t tell if he was teasing or not I ga

"Twenty is fine" I shook my head

"You don&039;t look like twenty&039;s fine," he said

"It&039;s not your age that bothersbothers you"

I wasn&039;t sure how to put it into words, but there was so pleasant and huhed ht and clean as a new penny, and I didn&039;t want that to change I didn&039;t want to be the one who forced hiet down in the dirt and roll

"Have you ever lost someone close to you? Family, I mean?"

The humor slipped away from his face He looked like a solemn little boy "You&039;re serious"

"Deadly," I said

He shook his head "I don&039;t understand"

"Just answer the question Have you ever lost someone close to you?"

He shook his head "I&039;ve even got all randparents"

"Have you ever seen violence up close and personal?"

"I got into fights in high school"

"Why?"

He grinned "They thought short meant weak"

I had to smile "And you showed them different"

"Hell, no; they beat the crap out of me for four years" He sht?"

"So&039;s not the important part," I said

He looked very steadily at me, eyes serious "No, it&039;s not"

There was abetween us A shared history of being the s the last picked for sports Being the auto short can make youfe shit, but so I needed to know

"The i up," I said

He nodded "Takes a beating and keeps on ticking"

Now that I&039;d spoiled our firstus both verbalize, I was happy "Other than school fights, you&039;ve never seen violence?"

"I go to rock concerts"

I shook ot a point to make?" he asked

"You should never have tried to raise a third zombie"

"I did it, didn&039;t I?" He sounded defensive, but I pressed on When I have a point to raceful, but I&039;m relentless

"You raised and lost control of it If I hadn&039;t co, the zombie would have broken free and hurt someone"

"It&039;s just a zombie They don&039;t attack people"

I stared at hi He wasn&039;t Shit "You really don&039;t know, do you?"

"Knohat?"

I covered my face with my hands and counted to ten, slowly It wasn&039;t Larry I wasI&039;d have to wait until toht here How lucky

"The zombie had broken free of your control, Larry If I hadn&039;t co and fed it blood, it would have found blood on its own Do you understand?"

"I don&039;t think so"

I sighed "The zombie would have attacked someone Taken a bite out of so huhost stories"

"Is that what they&039;re teaching in college now?" I asked

"Yes"

"I&039;ll loan you some back copies of The Animator Trust me, Larry, zombies do attack people I&039;ve seen people killed by the to scare me," he said

"Scared would be better than stupid"

"I raised it What do you want from me?" He looked completely baffled

"I want you to understand what nearly happened here tonight I want you to understand that e do isn&039;t a game It&039;s not parlor tricks It&039;s real, and it can be dangerous"

"All right," he said He&039;d given in too easily He didn&039;t really believe He was hus you can&039;t tell sos in person I wished I could wrap Larry up in cellophane and keep him on a shelf, all safe and secure and untouched, but life didn&039;t work that way If he stayed in this business long enough, the neould wear off But you can&039;t tell someone who&039;s reached twenty and never been touched by death They don&039;t believe in the boogey I suddenly felt old

Larry pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket

"Please tell me you don&039;t smoke," I said

He looked up at me, eyes sort of wide and startled "You don&039;t smoke?"

"No"

"You don&039;t like people to smoke around you?" He made it a question

"No," I said

"Look, I feel pretty awful right now I need the cigarette, okay?"

"Need it?"

"Yeah, need it" He had one slender white cigarette between two fingers of his right hand The pack had disappeared back into his pocket A disposable lighter had appeared He looked atjust a bit

Shit He&039;d raised three zo to Bert about the wisdo Larry out on his own

Besides, ere outside "Go ahead"

"Thanks"

He lit the cigarette and drew a deep breath of nicotine and tar Shosts "Feel better already," he said

I shrugged "Just so you don&039;t smoke in the car with arette pulsed orange in the dark as he sucked on it He looked pastsed"

I turned and, sure enough, the lawyers aving at us I felt like a janitor being called in to clean up the messy necessities I stood up, and Larry followed h for this?" I asked

"I couldn&039;t raise a dead ant, but I think I&039; you do it"

There were bruises under his eyes and the skin was too tight around his mouth, but if he wanted to play macho man as I to stop hiot salt out ofsupplies I suppose thechickens could be used as a weapon, but the rest of the stuff was considered haral systehal had recovered himself He still looked a little waxy, but his face was serious, concerned, alive He smoothed a hand down the stylish lapel of his suit coat He looked down at ood at looking down So

"Do you knohat&039;s happening, Mr Doughal?" I asked the zombie

He looked down his narrow patrician nose "I ahed I hated it when zombies didn&039;t realize they were dead They acted so huhal, do you knohy you&039;re in a ce?" one of the lawyers asked

"He&039;s forgotten that he&039;s dead," I said softly

The zoant He must have been a real pain in the ass when he was alive, but even assholes are piteous once in a while

"I don&039;t knohat you are babbling about," the zo from some delusion"

"Can you explain why you are here in a cemetery?" I asked

"I don&039;t have to explain anything to you"

"Do you reot to the cemetery?"