asic1997

@@@@@"I suppose it will be a sandy one, but I'll pretend you've been playing on the beach She came closer, moving in a queer shamble-drift that wasn't walking, and up close the illusion collapsed entirelyIt was like bringing a painting close to your eyes and watching as the scene - portrait, landscape, still life - collapses into nothing but strokes of color, most with the marks of the brush still embedded in them Ilse's features disappearedWhat I saw where they had been was nothing but a furious cyclone of sand and tiny bits of shellWhat I smelled wasn't skin and hair but only salt water Pallid arms reached for meMembranes of sand smoked off them in the windThe moon shone through themI held up the flashlightAnd its barrel was plastic rather than stainless steel "You might want a look at this before you go giving away kisses, though," I said"It came from the glove compartment of Jack Cantori's carThe one with Perse inside is locked in Elizabeth's safe The thing froze, and when it did, the wind off the Gulf tore away the last semblance of humanityIn that moment I was confronting nothing but a whirling sand-devilI took no chances, however; it had been a long day, and I had no intention of taking chances, especially if my daughter were somewhereand waiting for her final restI swung my arm as hard as I could, the flashlight clamped in my fist and Nan Melda's silver bracelets sliding down my arm to my wristI had cleaned them carefully in the kitchen sink at El Palacio, and they jingled I had one of the silver-tipped harpoons stuck in my belt, behind my left hip, for good measure, but I didn't need itThe sand-devil exploded outward and upwardA scream of rage and pain went through my headThank God it was brief, or I think it 1106 would have torn me apartThen there was nothing but the sound of the shells under Big Pink and a brief dimming of the stars over the dunes to my right as the last of the sand blew away in a disorganized flur