Goodbye Lucifer
Page 20
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Claudia came back to the table, and Louis explained what had happened, assuring Melanie that David had been in the back room through it all and hadn’t heard a thing.
“Thank goodness you weren’t hurt,” Claudia said to Simmons.
“Lucky, I guess,” said Simmons, still looking a little shy.
“Let me say, again, how sorry I am for the way I’ve acted today…that is, this morning and tonight. Believe me, that’s not me at all. Funny thing is…well, I’ve come over from Stillman twice today and both times, as soon as I came across that bridge, I just seemed to get irritated for no real reason. This morning when I went back to Stillman, I was fine…great mood, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. But tonight, when I came back across the bridge, there it was again. Falling through Louis’ window seems to have knocked it out of me…or something. Anyway, I can’t tell you how badly I feel about it.”
“Mr. Simmons—” Melanie started.
“John,” said Simmons.
She smiled at him, “John…you’re not from around here, are you.” It was a statement. She already knew the answer.
“No. Actually, I’m from Charleston—here on business.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m an engineer with the Bureau of Parks.”
“And you’re in Brandell on business?” asked Claudia. “What’s Brandell got to do with parks? No parks anywhere in the county…that I know of.”
“Well, that’s kind of why I’m here. The state is interested in the springs area and—”
“Whoa, right there,” Claudia interrupted. “The state’ll have to get uninterested in the springs area. No offence to you, John,” She smiled to soften the statement, then continued, “but you’ve seen Brandell. We can’t support an influx of people here…like tourists, and frankly, we don’t want to.”
Simmons held up a hand. “Oh, no…no, not as a park. I agree. Access alone would be pretty disruptive to a place like Brandell. The state’s interest in the springs, and the feeder streams flowing into them, is just the volume of water coming from them. The area downriver around Sharpton where the riverbed widens so much that—” He hesitated, “…you know where I mean?” Everyone nodded. “Well, the floor of that valley, there, is so flat that the river breaks up into a lot of smaller streams before coming together further downriver. What we’re doing now is simply a feasibility study to see how to go about defining the course of the river around Sharpton to reclaim quite a bit of usable land. No impact whatsoever on Brandell, but we have to know exactly how much water comes out of the springs and the feeder streams this side of Sharpton.”
“A lot,” said Patty. “You can’t hardly swim down to the caves—”
Jilly poked her with an elbow. Amanda shot a look at her daughter.
Jilly said, quickly, “She means, you wouldn’t want to try to swim down in there ’cause of all the water coming out. It’s a lot.”
“Really,” said Melanie, cocking her head at Jilly, suspiciously.
The little bells jingled again, and Jack Harris hurried through the door. “Jeez, it’s pouring out there,” he said.
SEVENTEEN
IT WASN’T JUST A FEW DROPS, then a few more in increasing frequency, like a decent spring rain should begin. It was a sudden deluge. A beautiful night one minute, pouring down rain the next.
Quackrak, surprised and shocked at the sudden downpour, stood beside the picnic table soaked to the skin.
Rain, he thought. This must be rain. He knew about rain. There wasn’t much to do in Hell except sit around and listen to Lucifer tell stories about his past exploits…same stories, over and over and over. Quackrak was pretty sure Lucy was making up most of them, but still, he’d learned a lot…like about rain, for instance. He’d also heard the expression, “get in out of the rain,” which sounded sensible, but the only thing he could think of was to crawl back under the picnic table, which seemed a little undignified for the head demon-in-charge to do in the presence of the others.
Quackrak stood there, shoulders slumped, water pouring off his body, resigned and frustrated. All he’d wanted to do was come up and explore a bit. Now, here he was standing in the pouring rain with these other five jokers who’d followed him out and he didn’t know how to put them back. He didn’t even know how to get back, himself. The crazy people could do it, but he wasn’t about to be jerked around by them again. Once was enough…except…well, maybe…if worse came to worse. He’d figure it out later.
He wiped the water out of his eyes and tried to shake it from his head. It was immediately replaced by more. “…just wonderful,” he muttered, shivering.
Quackrak shook again, then squished over the muddy ground to where the other demons were huddled by the shore. “Straighten up!” he barked, slapping one of them on the top of the head. “Stop your silly whimpering and follow me.” He turned, took a few steps then glanced back. The others hadn’t moved. Quackrak whirled around, squished back and whacked another one on the head.
“Come!” he growled at the terrified creature. He turned and strode off again. This time they followed.
EIGHTEEN
HARRIS HAD RUN for the overhang outside Louis’ drug store just as the rain started. He’d made it before the rain caught him, and now he stood inside the door wiping the few unavoidable drops of water from his shoulders.
“Jeez, it’s pouring out there,” he said.
Claudia and Melanie were talking with John Simmons. The three of them looked towards the door and smiled, acknowledging Jack’s presence. Jilly and Patty had their heads together giggling about something, and Amanda—
Harris felt a familiar catch in his throat. Amanda. He shook the feeling away…almost.
Louis gestured with his hand. “Come on in, Jack. Coffee’s on.” He started to get up.
Claudia touched his arm. “I’ll get it.”
Amanda stood up, quickly. “No, no, let me. You guys go ahead and talk.” She smiled warmly towards Harris. “I’ll take care of the big bad cop.”
“I’ll bet you will,” murmured Melanie under her breath, grinning ear to ear.
Amanda whispered, “Stop it, Mel,” and walked over to the soda fountain.
Melanie held in a laugh…and didn’t holler, “Hey, girl. Is that a little extra wiggle in your walk for ole Jack’s benefit?” She wanted to, badly, but she didn’t. She just kept grinning.
Jack Harris noticed Amanda’s walk. He didn’t know it had an extra wiggle; he just knew it was nice, as always, just like everything else about her.