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When all were dead, the Builder’s as less than half done He was no longer anything as ordinary as a handsoed proved to be a spectacle that riveted Henry Lightner

When eventually the job here was completed, they would move on to the imprisoned day-shift personnel in the next roo hours, the patients would be brought down one by one, throughout the evening and into the night

Such relentless, swift rendering of flesh and bone

Such a fever of creation

Chapter 26

Shakily, Bryce Walker got to his feet and turned away froainst the wall Then he moved to the toilet, put down the lid, and sat

He had never been a superstitious man Yet in the wake of this experience, a sense of the uncanny per in occult pursuits and practices He knew that he had not chanced upon an audio pipeline to the abattoirs of Hell, but he also knew that what he overheard wasn’t evidence of any ordinary crieven than mass murder

And he didn’t knohat he should do about it If he recounted his experience to anyone, he most likely would not be believed At seventy-two, his mind was as sharp as ever, but in this tyranny of youth that was the e story would more often than not raise suspicions of Alzhei-married man became a childless asn’t he more likely, in his pitiable loneliness, to seek attention even with an i to hih ato share his story with a nurse or doctor who ht patronize him, but more than pride fettered him A primitive survival instinct, of which he’d had no need in decades, warned hi person would be the end of him and that the end would be swift

His shakes subsided He went to the sink and washed his hands The haunted face in the mirror unsettled him, and he turned away from it

When he stepped out of the lavatory, two nurses had nearly finished changing the sheets on his bed The breakfast dishes were gone A pill cup stood on his nightstand, and he suspected that the carafe was filled with ice water

He thanked them

They smiled and nodded, but there was none of the breezy chat hich ht their sency, not the bustle of woerness to be done with the task at hand and to be off to another endeavor that was the true purpose and passion of their day As they left the rooht he saw hatred in her eyes and a fleeting triuainst paranoia Or perhaps ehborhood, the big storh to make them breathe hard

Nummy could walk as tall as he was Mr Lyss was a little too tall for the drain, but he always stooped anyway, even in the open, so he didn’t bump his head

Because of the way he stooped, Mr Lyss someti over a giant iron pot as she ic soup At other tie in a differentand counting

Mr Lyss never reminded Nu a flashlight was a good idea when you used the stor the day Evenly spaced street drains overhead, covered with gratings, made waffles of sunshine on the floor

Between the sunshine waffles, the dark was plenty dark enough for Nummy, but there was always another waffle ahead

Smaller drain lines opened into the main one Nummy couldn’t always see the off to the left or right when he passed another pipe If Mr Lyss cursed the dark just then, his words spun away, hollow and spooky, into other parts of town

Sometimes when Nu lived down here--soht be, and he didn’t want to find out When the feeling got really strong, he stayed out of the storht, he saw a rat--once dead, three times alive Never more than one, no packs of the that maybe lived down here Each ti scared fro, and not from him

No rain in teeks ht now, only the smell of concrete all around

As he had done before, close behind Nu away froot a bloodhound’s nose"

"Like you said before"

"I’ll track you down by suts out"

"I never would leave you here, sir"

"I’ll wrap your guts around your neck and strangle you with them Would you like that, Peaches?"

"No"

"I’ve done it before I’ll do it again I don’t live by any rules, and I have no pity"

Nummy heard someone talk once about a pity party He didn’t knohat kind of party that was, but it sounded like Mr Lyss couldn’t go to a pity party if so Maybe that was one of the reasons he was so angry all the tio to parties but couldn’t

Nummy felt sorry for Mr Lyss

Nuht because he didn’t want to go All he ever wanted was to stay hoone, all Nu, Noro to parties and you couldn’t, that must be sad Nummy tried always to choose happiness, like Grandmama told him he could and should do, but he sa other people were lots of times sad, and he felt sorry for the curve, and when they caain, there was a big circle of light at the end

A round grating covered the end of the pipe with crossbars to keep trash and junk wood fro looked like it was fixed all the way around to the sides of the pipe, but it was really like a coin standing on edge If you knehere the little hidden lever was, you could press it and turn the entire grating sideways to the opening

"Pivot hinges," said Mr Lyss "Who showed you that?"

"Nobody Just found it one day"

They cae but shallow concrete catch basin Workers had cleared out the trash from the last storm The concrete boas clean and dry

A narrow road dead-ended at the catch basin They followed it downhill a little way, then left the blacktop and crossed a field to the back of Nummy’s house

"Sweet little place," said Mr Lyss "Looks like freakin’ Snow White lives here with seven damn dwarfs"

"No, sir Just me and Grandet the key

Mr Lyss said, "You just hide the key under the doormat?"

"It’s a secret," Nummy whispered

"Haven’t you ever come home and found your place cleaned out wall to wall?"

"No, sir," Nu my own self"

In the kitchen, Mr Lyss said, "Cozy"

"Grand that better well not biteroo his foot, slapping his hip, Mr Lyss laughed He had a laugh you wanted to run fro," Nu is what he is"