Goodbye Lucifer
Page 25
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“What the hell was that?” Louis’ head jerked around at the sound of the shotgun blast from the street out front.
Melanie jumped up, instinctively, and sprinted towards the office and David.
Louis got up, and started for the front of the store.
“Careful, Louis,” called Simmons. “That was a shotgun. I’d stay away from the front windows.”
Simmons went to the side window that he’d broken out earlier, and peeked out around the corner toward the Boulevard. He yelled back to the others, “You won’t believe this. There’s a woman standing in the middle of the road with a shotgun…just standing there looking around, calm as can be.”
Louis and Amanda looked at each other.
“Emma!” they declared in unison.
Melanie came out of the office. Over her shoulder, she said to David, “Just stay in there and play, okay?” Then to the others in general, “What’s happening out there?”
Amanda blurted, “Emma’s out front with a shotgun shootin’ up the town.”
“Oh, Amanda, she’s not shootin’ up the town,” Louis scolded. He moved closer to the front window and looked out.
Simmons was right. Emma, soaking wet, was standing there in the road, the light from the streetlamps gleaming on the barrel of the shotgun she carried lowered at her side. She appeared to be staring at something down at the other end of the Boulevard.
Louis went to the door, opened it, and stuck his head out, hesitantly. He yelled, “Emma, what are you doing out there?”
Emma stood in the middle of the intersection, at first appearing not to recognizing Louis. Then she said casually, “Oh, hi, Mr. Walker.”
From thirty feet away, Louis could barely hear her. She seemed a little out of it…spacey, he thought
“Have you seen Joe?” she asked, not quite focused on Louis.
From the door, Louis yelled, “Put the shotgun down, Emma!”
“But I’m gonna need it, Mr. Walker. I gotta find Joe and—”
“Put it down. Put it down on the ground.”
“But…”
“Put it down, Emma!” Louis shouted louder, “Now!”
Emma slumped, hesitated for a moment, then slowly bent down and laid the gun on the road.
Louis went out the door and walked, quickly, across the sidewalk and into the street. Reaching Emma, he bent down and picked up the shotgun, then straightened up and looked at her. She was soaked to the skin, shivering, and seemed confused.
Louis put his arm around her shoulder and said, gently, “Let’s go inside, Emma.”
TWENTY-THREE
TAMARA WAS DISAPPOINTED in Harry’s answers.
“No fire?”
“Nope,” said Harry.
“No brimstone?”
“Huh uh.”
She raised herself on one elbow and reached, straining, across Harry’s naked body to the nightstand beside the bed for a cigarette.
“Well, what’s there then?” she asked, snagging the pack from the nightstand and flopping back on the pillow beside Harry.
“Uh, let’s see, there’s my office…”
“Office?” Tamara was back up on the elbow again, looking at Harry, incredulously. “The devil’s got an office?”
“Well, yeah,” said Harry, not getting the irony. “And my apartment, of course.”
Tamara flopped back down on the pillow and muttered, “Jeez, an apartment in Hell, no less.”
Harry raised his eyebrows. “What!”
Tamara sat up, looking down at him, frowning. “Okay, how about the other stuff? Horns, pointed tail, pitchfork. What about that?”
Harry laughed. “A costume. A joke. A put on. It’s a long story and right now, I gotta pee.”
Tamara was getting flustered. She was up on the bed on all fours now. “You are the devil, right, Harry? I mean I know you are. But…but you are…right?”
“Yep,” he said, then added, “Kinda.”
Harry got up and padded to the bathroom. He closed the door behind him, flipped on the light and stood in front of the sink looking at himself in the mirror.
Nope, no horns, he chuckled, then suddenly serious, shook his head. What am I doing, here?
To the image in the mirror, he said, “A knockout, devil-worshiping nymphomaniac throws herself at you, calls you master and wants to serve you…and you let her. That’s bad, Harry. Really bad. Not to mention the age difference. What is it, two thousand years, or so?” He pictured her lying there in the bed naked, waiting for him. The face in the mirror winked at him and said, “You can’t be expected to pass that up, can you?”
He scowled at the face, You’re a cad, Harry, but decided to feel guilty later.
Harry peed and went back to the bedroom.