"Bedroom doors open, right?" he asked "And if... 186
"Bedroom doors open, right?" he asked
"And if something happens in the night, holler
like hell
"Roger that, Houston
"Is Jack going to be all right, Edgar?"
"If he burns the sketch, he'll be fine
"You doing okay with what happened to your
friends?"
Kamen, who taught me to think sidewaysTom, who
had told me not to give up the home field
advantageWas I doing okay with what happened to
my friendsI felt sad and stunned, but I'd
be a liar if I didn't say I also felt a certain
low and slinking relief; humans are, in some ways,
such complete shitsBecause Kamen and Tom,
although close, stood just outside the charmed
circle of those who really mattered to meThose
people Perse hadn't been able to touchAnd if we
moved fast, Kamen and Tom would be our only
casualties
879
"Muchacho?"
"Yeah," I said, feeling called back from a great
distanceCall me if you need me,
Wireman, balenciaga dix motorcycle and don't hesitateI don't expect to get
many winks
ii
I lay looking up at the ceiling with the silver
harpoon beside me on the bedtableI listened to
the steady rush of the wind and the steady tumble
of the surfI remember thinking, This is going to
be a long night
I dreamed of little Libbit's sistersNot the Big
Meanies; the twins
The twins were running
The big boy was chasing them
iii
I woke with most of my body on the floor but one
leg - my left - still propped on the bed and fast
asleepOutside, the wind and surf continued to
880
roarInside, my heart was pounding almost as hard
as the waves breaking on the beachI could still
see Tessie going down - drowning while those soft
and implacable hands clasped her calvesIt was
perfectly clear, a hellish painting inside my head
But it wasn't the dream of the little girls
fleeing the frog-thing that was making my tiffany diamond heart
pound, not the dream that caused me to wake up on
the floor with my mouth tasting like copper and
every nerve seeming to burnIt was, rather, the
way you wake from a bad dream realizing that you
forgot something important: to turn off the stove,
for instance, and now the house is filled with the
smell of gas
I pulled my foot off the bed and it hit the floor
in a burst of pins and needlesI rubbed it,
grimacingAt first it was like rubbing a block of
wood, but then that numb sensation started to
leaveThe sensation that I'd forgotten something
vital did not
But what? I had some hopes that our expedition to
the south end of the Key might put an end to the
whole nasty, festering businessThe biggest
hurdle, after all, was belief itself, and as long
881
as we didn't backslide in the bright Florida
sunshine tomorrow, we were over that oneIt was
possible we might see upside-down louis vuitton backpacks birds, or that a
gigantic hop-frog monstrosity like the one in my
dream might try to bar our way, but I had an idea
those were essentially wraiths - excellent for
dealing with six-year-old girls, not so good
against grown men, especially when armed with
silver-tipped harpoons
And, of course, I would have my pad and pencils
I thought Perse was now afraid of me and my
newfound talentAlone, still not recovered from
my near-death experience (still suicidal, in fact),
I might have been an asset instead of a problem
Because in spite of all his big talk, that Edgar
Freemantle really hadn't had another life; that
Edgar had just switched the backdrop of his
invalid's existence from pines to palmsBut once
I had friends againsaw what was all around me
and reached out to it
Then I'd become dangerousI don't know exactly
what she had in mind - other than regaining her
place in the louis vuitton purses world, that is - but she must have
thought that when it came to mischief-making, the
882
potential for a talented one-armed artist was
greatI could have sent poison paintings all over
the globe, by God! But now I had turned in her
hand, just as Libbit hadNow I was something
first to be stopped, then discarded
"You're a little late for that, bitch," I
whispered
So why did I still smell gas?
The paintings - especially the most dangerous ones,
the Girl and Ship series - were safely under lock
and key, and off-island, just as Elizabeth had
wishedAccording to Pam, nobody in our circle of
family and friends had taken sketches except for
Bozie, Tom, and Xander KamenIt was too late for
Tom and Kamen, and I'd have given a great deal to
change that, but Bozie had promised to burn his,
so that was all rightEven Jack was covered,
because he'd owned up to his little act louis vuitton white speedy of
thiever
