Page 3 (1/2)
I can’t pretend that I remember the next minute with clarity We struck at each otheran opening We grabbed anything thatit A flurry of blows staggered both of us into a clinch, and I felt his hot breath on , snapping at ht ear, as panic pressed upon him the tactics of a beast
I broke the clinch, shoved him aith an elbow under the chin and with a knee that missed the crotch for which it was intended
Sirens arose in the distance just as Stevie’sand ready: two cavalries, one in pa­jamas, the other in the blue-and-black uniforet past both ed-for shield, under the bed If he threw
open aand cli directly into the ar cops
As the sirens swelled louder, nearer, Harlo backed into a corner where he stood gasping, shuddering Wringing his hands, his face gray with anguish, he looked at the floor, the walls, the ceiling, not in the e, but with bewilderh he could not recall how he had come to be in this place and predicament
Unlike the beasts of the wild, the many cruel varieties of hureater ferocity Instead, they reveal the cowardice at the core of their brutality
Harlo’s wringing hands twisted free of each other and covered his face Through the chinks in that ten-fingered arht terror
Back jammed into the corner, he slid down the junction of walls and sat on the floor with his legs splayed in front of hih they were a mask of invisibility that would allow him to escape the attention of justice
The sirens reached a peak of volurowl to waning groan in front of the house
The day had dawned less than an hour ago, and I had spent everyup to my name
THREE
THE DEAD DON’T TALK I DON’T KNOW WHY
Harlo Landerson had been taken away by the authorities In his wallet they had found two Polaroids of Penny Kallisto In the first, she was naed and alive In the second, she was dead
Stevie was downstairs, in his mother’s arms
Wyatt Porter, chief of the Pico Mundo Police Departe of the boy’s un­ when Penny Kallisto walked through a wall and sat beside one froled, had never died
As before, she remained mute
I tend to believe in the traditional architecture of life and the after-life This world is a journey of discovery and purification The next world consists of two destinations: One is a palace for the spirit and an endless kingdom of wonder, while the other is cold and dark and un­thinkable
Call me simple-minded Others do
Stormy Llewellyn, a woman of unconventional views, believes in­stead that our passage through this world is intended to toughen us for the next life She says that our honesty, integrity, courage, and de­termined resistance to evil are evaluated at the end of our days here, and that if we come up to ed in soreat mission in the next world Those who fail the test simply cease to exist
In short, Stormy sees this life as boot camp She calls the next life "service"
I sure hope she’s wrong, because one of the iy is that the ainst worse in the world to come
Stormy says that whatever’s expected of us in the next life will be worth enduring, partly for the sheer adventure of it but primarily be­cause the reward for service comes in our third life
Personally, I’d prefer to receive my reward one life sooner than she foresees
Storratification If on Monday she thirsts for a root-beer float, she’ll wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to treat herself to one She insists that the wait makes the float taste better
My point of view is this: If you like root-beer floats so much, have one on Monday, another on Tuesday, and a third on Wednesday
According to Stor to be one of those eight-hundred-pound men hen they fall ill, must be extracted from their homes by construction crews and cranes
"If you want to suffer the hu hauled to the hospi­tal on a flatbed truck," she once said, "don’t expect ut like Ji ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’"
I’m reasonably sure that in Disney’s Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket never sits on the brow of the whale In fact I’m not convinced that he him­self encounters the whale
If I were to make this observation to Stormy, however, she would favor me with one of those wry looks thatpissy? This is a look to be avoided if not dreaded
As I waited there on the edge of the boy’s bed, even thinking about Stores of Scooby-Doo, i could
I kept thinking about Harlo losing his ht have been a memorial to her, about how instead he had shaht about Penny, of course: her life brought to such an early end, the terrible loss to her faed their lives forever
Penny put her left hand in ly
Her hand felt as real as that of a living child, as firm, as warm I didn’t understand how she could be this real to h walls, this real to me and yet invisible to others
I wept a little Sometimes I do I’m not embarrassed by tears At times like this, tears exorcise e, embitter me
Even as my vision blurred at the first shimmer of tears not yet spent, Penny clasped my hand in both of hers She sht, Odd Thomas Get it out, be rid of it
The dead are sensitive to the living They have walked this path ahead of us and know our fears, our failings, our desperate hopes, and how much we cherish what cannot last They pity us, I think, and no doubt they should
When ain, and with one hand sesture seeood-bye
She walked across the roo one story above the front yard - or into another realhter than a Pico Mundo summer
A moment later, Wyatt Porter appeared in the bedrooin appear­ance With basset eyes and bloodhound jowls, his face has been af­fected by Earth’s gravity more than has the rest of him I’ve seen him move fast and decisively, but in action and in repose he seeht on his beefy, rounded shoulders
Over the years, as the low hills encircling our town have been sculpted into neighborhoods of tract houses, swelling our population, and as the meanness of an ever crueler world has crept into the last havens of civility, like Pico Mundo, perhaps Chief Porter has seen too ht he carries is a load of memories that he would prefer to shed, but can’t
"So here we are again," he said, entering the rooreed
"Busted patio door, busted furniture"
"Didn’t bust most of it myself Except the lamp"
"But you created the situation that led to it"
"Yes, sir"
"Why didn’t you coure a way Harlo could entrap hiether in that fashion in the past
"My feeling," I said, "was that he needed to be confronted right away, that "
"Yes, sir That’s what I think Penny wanted to convey There was a quiet urgency about her"
"Penny Kallisto"
"Yes, sir"
The chief sighed He settled upon the only chair in the room: a child-size, purple upholstered number on which Barney the dinosaur’s torso and head served as the back support He appeared to be sitting in Barney’s lap "Son, you sure complicate my life"