Goodbye Lucifer
Page 36
* * *
Sarah drove the big black Hummer down the mountain and around the last curve just before the road crossed the Brandell Bridge. Suddenly, Harry jerked forward in his seat, peering through the windshield. He glanced at Sarah, then back out the windshield.
“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is!” he said, his tone unbelieving.
Sarah had seen it too. Keeping a straight face, she said, “You mean the little old lady in a wheelchair being pushed across the bridge by a baboon?”
“It’s not a baboon. It’s a—”
“Yeah, I know what it is,” Sarah interrupted. “Aubrey told me they were running around all over town.”
Harry stammered, “This-is-not-good.” Sarah couldn’t help but chuckle at the look on his face.
“This is serious, Sarah,” he said, frowning. “It’s not funny. People aren’t supposed to see them. Ever! Or even know they exist.”
Sarah scoffed, “Come on, Harry. Anyone who’s ever been to a movie, or read a comic book knows about demons.”
“They know the myth,” Harry countered. “They don’t really believe it. They’re not supposed to come face to face with the fact that demons are real, or even that I’m actually real for that matter.”
Sarah nodded towards the middle of the bridge with a smirk. “Too late, now, Harry. The cat…er, demon, is out of the bag.”
“Anyway,” she added, “that’s Myra Hinkle in the wheelchair. I’d venture to say she knows all about you and your demons.”
Harry looked blank. “Hinkle?”
“Yeah.” Sarah grinned, mischievously. “Think back about sixty years, Harry—long, curly red hair, pretty face, great body?”
Harry said, “I don’t remem—”
“…dancing around the fire?” Sarah suggested.
Harry looked back out the windshield at the old woman in the wheelchair on the bridge in front of them. Recognition, and a tinge of embarrassment, dawned on him simultaneously.
“Oh, my goodness.”
SEVENTY-SEVEN
IT WAS JUST A MOMENT’S DIZZINESS followed by an overwhelming sense of intense confidence and self-assuredness. Melanie felt it; so did Amanda and Claudia.
In the big black Hummer, Sarah swerved when it happened, and barely avoided hitting the bridge railing. Aubrey Crumb almost fell on her face with her broom in mid-swing when the feeling came. Myra Hinkle thought the dizziness was just old age till she felt the rest of it, then she simply smiled to herself.
Melanie steadied herself against the kitchen counter till the dizziness faded. “Harry’s back,” she surmised.
“Oh, goodie!” Amanda chortled, leaning on the counter for support. “I’m a witch-bitch again.” Claudia was least affected. Only a slight sense of vertigo as her powers flowed back into her body. “Well! Back to normal. Thank God for that,” she said, whooshing out a breath of relief. “But we’ll get thankful later. Right now,” she looked at Amanda, “what, exactly, did Jilly say?”
“Just that Dread had run off. I went in and got you two right away. ‘Help me with the coffee pot’ was the best I could think of on short notice.”
“It’s okay. We’ll gloss it over later,” said Claudia. “Although, Louis has been downstairs and has seen—”
“Good Lord,” Amanda gasped. “He knows?”
“Yep. He saw the whole bunch, and I’m sure he knows we’re not in here helping you with the coffee pot. Anyway, that’s not the problem. Dread waltzing down Brandell Boulevard is what we need to worry about.” She stopped talking, and tilted her head, quizzically.
Amanda said, “Yeah, I hear it, too.”
All three women’s heads filled with the projection from Aubrey Crumb. You better get over here and collect your monster before I turn it into a pile of ashes!
“Ah!” Melanie smiled. “Problem solved.”