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Or I had stepped into the parked ht return at any s that were deterainst which I had no weapons or defenses except one fluffy pink dust mop and six cans of warm Coke, which when shaken spewed foaer, I always intended to do my homework But when the supplicant dead come to you for justice and you also have occasional prophetic dreams, life tends to interfere with your studies

Now, as I hung twenty feet above the surface of the sea, the witchy shadows closed aroundfro whether I could ascend safely in the pitch dark or should retreat to the narrow concrete ledge below

The penetrating odor of creosote, applied to preserve the wood, had grown thicker as I clier ss, or even ent scent of the preservative

Just as I decided that prudence--which, as you know, is one of o back down to the ledge, lights blinked on under the pier

Fixed to nuhts were directed doard the sea A long line of them extended from one end of the structure to the other

I could not recall if the underside of the pier had been illuht be autohts were only for eency situations, such as in the event someone fell off the pier, then perhaps a responsible citizen had seen o over the side and had alerted the authorities

More likely, the hulk and the redheaded gunmen had knohere to find the switch In that case, they had gli for cover, and they had wasted no ti tide for a shorebound swimmer

As I hung there in a quandary, trying to decide whether this meant I should continue upward or perhaps return to the water, I heard what for a nized the sound as that of an outboard engine

After ten or fifteen seconds, the engine throttled back The consequent throbbing chug could not beht, I tried to hear around the thick support to which I clung Sounds bounced deceptively through the ranks of posts and crossbea water, but after half aslowly shoreward from the ocean-end of the pier

I looked ard but could not see the boat for the intervening substructure The pilotthe pier, or he could be threading through the pilings to conduct a h the floodlaht bounced off thephantoms swooped up the columns, across the horizontal beaainst the underside of the pier deck

In these quivering reflections, I was revealed An easy target

If I descended noould be going down to death

Considering the events of the last couple of years, I was ready for death when my time came, and I did not fear it But if suicide daain Peace is not worth the slightest risk of being denied that reunion

Besides, I suspected that Annaic Beach, in part, to help her

I cli to find a junction of beaular nest between purlins and posts where I would be hidden notoff the water but also froh I wasn’t afraid of heights, I could have composed an almost infinite list of places that I would rather have been than up a pier post, rateful that, indeed, there were not vicious attack dogs below; although on the other hand, to assist in self-defense, I didn’t have even so much as a fluffy pink dust mop or a six-pack of warm Cokes

THREE

MONKEY-QUICK BUT CLUMSY IN MY DESPERATION, I scrarasped a moment earlier

A loose piton cracked out of dry wood underfoot and fell away, and rang off concrete below The chug of the approaching outboardthe steel

The post bypassed a massive crossbeam I clambered and clawed sideways onto that horizontal surface with such an ungainly series of maneuvers that no observer would have mistaken me for a member of a species that lived in trees and ate bananas by the bunch

Although the beam ide, it was not as wide as I was Like radiant spirits, the leaping bright reflections of floodla offro on all fours is fine if your four are all feet, but hands and knees don’t allow h places, wishing that hts, I stood and rew a little dizzy, then glanced west toward the gru pier supports hid the boat froh-alkers use a balance pole With my arms tucked close to my sides and hands tensely fisted, I wobbled as if I were a drunk who had failed out of a twelve-step program in just four steps

Defensively, I spread my arms and opened my hands I cautioned myself not to look down at my feet but, instead, at the bea specters of reflected light painted an illusion of water across the bea inthat I would be washed off h above the sea, under the cowl of the pier, the odor of creosote intensified My sinuses burned, and my throat When I licked my dry lips, the taste of coal tar seemed to have condensed on the out the leaping ghosts of light I held my breath and pressed away the dizziness, and moved on

When I had crossed half the width of the pier, the north-south bearown louder, therefore nearer Still the searchers had not hoved into view below

I turned east, onto the intersecting bea foot in front of foot on the narrow path, I was not as fleet as a ballet dancer hurrying en pointe across a stage, but I ress

My jeans did not accohts would have Instead they kept binding where toowould squeeze my voice into a per east, and wondered if I h this support structure all the way to shore

Behind ine, I heard the boat’s wake slapping against the concrete support coluested not just that the craft was reater speed than previously but also that it was close

As I approached another intersection, two radiant red eyes, low in front of ht teased fitfully across the shape beforeprecisely where the two beams joined

I am not afraid of rats Neither am I so tolerant that I would welcome a swarm of them into my home in a spirit of interspecies brotherhood

The rat was paralyzed by the sight ofover it If I advanced another step, it had three routes by which it could flee to safety

In ination can be as ornate as a carousel of grotesque beasts, standing on end like a Ferris wheel, spinning like a coin, casting off kaleidoscopic visions of ludicrous fates and droll deaths

As I confronted the rat, I saw in my mind’s eye a scenario in which I startled the rodent, whereupon it raced towardof led along h, and decided to establish a nest betweenon one foot until I hopped off the beaed between ed toward the sea just in ti a hole in the botto