I let it go a moment and then I smashed my foot on it again and then I stomped it and it was like a gaudy red, yellow and black necklace spilled on the floor. I kept stamping at it, beating it under my foot until it did not move any more.
"Waiting for me, weren't you?" I raged at it while I crushed it, hardly seeing it, hardly knowing what I was saying. I was anger and hatred and frustration. It had to come out of me.
I turned and stared at the suitcase where Lily had thrown it open. I glanced at her. Why had she stopped to open it? Why hadn't she pulled it from beneath those loose boards and run?
My mouth twisted bitterly. I had the answers. It was easy. Lily knew Marve Pooser. She had run through the scrub hoping that money was where he said it was, but she had done just what I would have done, what Marve had counted on my doing, she had opened that suitcase to check because she didn't trust Marve and didn't want to run with an empty suitcase.
It wasn't empty. There were a few stones in it, and some newspapers, to give it weight and the heft of money in fabulous amounts. Maybe Marve had laughed to himself flunking I would grab up the suitcase and run. What a laugh he must have had as he set this snake inside that suitcase, knowing that sooner or later I would have to open that suitcase, and, when I did, the coiled coral snake would be waiting for me.
"Oh, damn him," I said aloud. It was a futile thing to say, but they were the only words I had. I had leaned over him, ready to rip him with that knife. He had suckered me again. Had he known I wouldn't cut him? I wasn't like Marve Pooser… not yet. Or I hadn't been then, back in the shack.
"He's killed me," Lily said again. It was an empty sound, with all the heartbreak in the world in it.
"No, Lily. I'm going to get you out of this. I've killed that snake, and now I'll save you. Somehow I'll save you."
I put my arm about her and pulled her across the room to the western window where there was light. The marks of the snake's immovable fangs at the front of its upper jaw were small. It was like an insect bite.
I took out the knife that I'd threatened to emasculate
Marve with. Holding her arm vised in mine, I raked the knife point back and forth until the two fang marks were gone and there was a deep gash on her wrist and the blood began to pump from it. I dropped the knife then and pressed her arm against my mouth, sucking on the open place as hard as I could.
She sat silently there in the window, leaning against the sill. She had not cried out, or even winced as I slit the flesh between those fang marks.
I felt her right hand touch my hair.
"Thanks, Jake."
"You're going to be all right."
"No. I'm dead, Jake."
"Stop talking like that."
"You don't have to do this, Jake."
"Sure I don't."
"You got sense, Jake? You got any sense at all?"
"Sure. I'm the smartest bastard that ever lived. It's just that it's too late, and I don't know the right things."
"You're smart, Jake?"
I was wrapping my handkerchief about her arm above her elbow. I knotted it tightly so the veins showed blue on her inner arm. Her arm looked swollen below the handkerchief. "Sure. I told you."
"Then you know why I was here."
"Yes."
"I tried to get that money, ahead of you."
"All right." I sucked at her wrist again.
"It was such a fine plan, Jake. Marve was such a liar. You'd come here and I would hide with the suitcase. You'd think Marve had lied to you again. You'd go back to the shack… and I'd get away." Her voice had not risen once, she spoke levelly. "You're a fool to waste your time like this. There's no way to stop that poison, Jake. No way at all. You're wasting your time-and you're such a fool."
"It just bit you. I'll get that poison out."
Her hand touched my hair again. "Oh, you're such a nice guy, Jake. How'd you ever get mixed up in such an awful mess?"
"It was easy."
"You ought to be glad the snake got me."
"Why?"
"What I did to you. You ought to be glad."
"Well, I'm not."
"You're a fool. Such a fool."
She pressed her hand against my hair again.
***
"I was hiding out there in the scrub," Lily said, speaking slowly, tiredly, as if she were so tired she could hardly speak at all. "I saw Marve come back dragging the man he had killed. I saw you argue. When you dragged Marve back into the shack, I walked up close where I could hear what you were saying in there." Her laugh was as tired as her voice. "I heard Marve. He acted scared. He fooled you. Well… he fooled me too. I fell for it, just the way you did. Just the way he knew that you would." She shook her head. "Marve's a country boy. They call him an ignorant cracker. I've heard them call him that, but he's smart. It's a mean cruel kind of smartness. But Marve never was afraid of nobody, because he always knew if he couldn't beat 'em, he'd get back at them somehow, because he could think better than they could."
"He's just a bastard, and he thinks like a bastard."
She lifted her face to mine. "Look where we are, Jake. Both of us. Look at us. We tried to take Marve. Oh, God, look at us."
"Don't say that."
"I don't like to say it. I wish I didn't have to. But I'm so much smarter than you are right now, Jake. I guess my mind is clearer than it has ever been in all my life. I see everything. Clear. The way it really is. Not the way I want it to be. But you don't. You don't see yet what's going to happen to you because of Marve."
"No."
"Poor Jake."
"Don't say that."
"Don't you see it yet, Jake? He sent you running over here, sweating, thinking what you were going to do with all that money. He was laughing at you, Jake. You had a knife at his vitals. You could have killed him and he was laughing at you, because he knew you weren't going to kill him. You were going to come running over here and this coral snake was going to get you. And it would have, Jake. There's just one reason it didn't. Because I was even a bigger fool than you. I should have known. I've known Marve all my life. I know what he is, what he does. I should have known. But I ran over here ahead of you. I pulled out the suitcase, couldn't wait to open it. I threw back the top and reached in. The snake got me. Easy. It came up like a jack-in-the-box."
"You're going to be all right, Lily."
"No. It's no good, Jake. It ain't no good at all. You can't get that money from Marve. And I ain't going to be all right. That's all that matters now, Jake. You just got to see it. dear. Like I do."
I wiped my hand across my face. "He's not going to get away with it. I won't let him." I grabbed her and pulled her close. "You're not going to get away from me, Lily. Not any more."
"Don't, Jake. You act like a little boy. You won't believe what is the truth."
"You don't know, Lily. Because you don't trust me."
For the first time since I had known her, she smiled and there was no guile in it, no deceit.
"I know. I trust you. I do. You want to feel better, Jake? Will it make you feel better if I say it? I seen you when you walked up to our shack and stood there in the sun a-looking at me. Before you even asked about Marve, I was looking at you. And inside I knowed. You was what I been all my life a-looking for, Jake. I knowed it, right then. Right from the first."
I worked over her arm. My laugh was more bitter than the taste of her blood.
"Sure. You acted like it. You showed it, just fine."
"No. I didn't. I never meant to."
"Oh, God. Why not?"
"I wish you could see it, Jake, all clear like I do. Clear and plain-because it don't matter no more, that's why I see it. I couldn't never let you know what I felt about you. No… God no. I had love. I knew what love was. I had Marve Pooser. Always. I knew what that did to me. I wanted something else-something you couldn't give me. I wanted out of here-away from Marve. And away from the scrub and everything I ever was. I never would have told you, Jake. Only now it don't
matter."
"Now you're being a fool. We can get you out of here. I can get you to that boat. I can get you downriver to a doctor."
She smiled faintly. "That sounds so nice, Jake. You sound so nice."
"I'll do it. Come on. Can you walk at all?"
"Poor Jake. You just won't give up, will you? It's no good. With a coral snake it's different than with a rattler. The poison travels quicker or something-it's more deadly."
"Stop talking like that. Let's get out of here."
"Jake. You know how far it is downriver to a doctor?"
"All I know is we're wasting time. Let's get out of here." I stared at her and the word burst from my mouth. "Marve."
Her head jerked up. "What about him?"
"He's been catching these snakes all his life. He caught this one. He bragged he knew an antidote."
Her voice was low. "There ain't none."
"There's got to be. If there is, Marve will know it. I'll get him. I'll bring him over here."
She sat a moment, staring through the window into the yard. At last she turned, looking at me. Her dark eyes moved, her gaze went over me, and there was something odd in them that I didn't even try to understand.
"Yes, Jake. You go get him. You bring him over here."
I looked at her, at the blood dripping from her arm every time her heart beat. I lifted her arm, told her to hold it up.
"You gonna be all right?"
"Sure. I'm fine, Jake. You go get Marve."
I placed the rifle against the wall beside her. I went to the door, looked back once. It was getting dark in the room. By the time I reached the edge of the clearing, I was running.
***
I didn't know it was so far along the log trail to Marve's shack. It seemed forever and the darkness settled so quickly. I began to be afraid that in the dark I would miss the shack and would waste away Lily's life running through the eternal stretch of jack oaks. I was aware of nothing except putting my feet in front of me, pounding along the trail, feeling the jack oak limbs reach for me, snag me and scratch me as I ran through them. They hung closely over the road. I breathed through my mouth, staring ahead of me for some sign of the shack. I had never seen the darkness settle so quickly.
I ran into the clearing before I realized I was at the shack.
I was up the steps and crossing the stoop before I realized what a fool thing I had done. Marve was in there, but if he were free I was as good as dead.
The door was closed as I had left it. By now I knew external signs meant nothing where Marve Pooser was concerned. He used the most innocent-looking bait in the traps he set.
I stopped, standing outside the door. My breath burned in my throat and I leaned against the wall a moment. I pushed the safety off the automatic, kicked open the door.
Marve was where I had left him on the floor.
I leaned against the door jamb, staring at him. I breathed deeply.
Marve laughed. "What's the matter, Jake-boy? Did you find the suitcase?"
I was panting so hard I could not answer. I moved to the table, lighted a kerosene lantern. I stood beside the table while the lantern sputtered and then filled the room with yellow light.
Marve was bleeding on the floor from his wrists, but he had not stopped working with the wire. He did not stop working with it now while he lay there laughing at me.
"Did my pet get you good, Jake? Is that what you come back here to tell me? Come a-running, didn't you, Jake boy? You willing to trade your life now for that money. Huh? Is that it? You want ole Marve to fix that snakebite? Sure. Only Marve has got a price. I'm going to keep my money. All my money."
"You can keep it." I could barely speak yet.
"Now you're smart. Now you're almost as smart as this ole cracker boy!' He writhed. "You better cut these wires and let's get at that snakebite, Jake-boy. We keep fooling around, it might be too late." His laugh mocked me. "I'd hate that, Jake. Oh, I'd hate that."
I knelt beside him, worked with the wires.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my voice level. "I'm trying to figure like you, Marve. I figure the minute you get an arm free you're going to start."
"Stay fluid, Jake, that's all."
"So I'm warning you. Before I free this arm, I got something to tell you. I didn't get snakebit, Marve."
Marve stared at me. The agony in my eyes kept him from saying anything.
"Lily," I said. "Not me. Lily."
"You're lying."
"I wish to God-"
"You got to be lying." He was working at the wires again so they got slick with his blood.
"I'm not lying, Marve. She was outside. She heard you lying to me about that suitcase. She fell for it, too. She wanted that money. It would buy her-what?" My bitter laugh choked in my throat. "It would buy her freedom from this place, escape from what you made of her."
"She liked it. She liked what I done to her."
"We got no time to argue that. She opened your suitcase that you set up for me. The snake bit her."
"Where is she?"
I loosed the wire. "She's over there. Waiting for us."
He did not even stop to massage his bleeding wrists. He unwound the other wire while I cut his ankles free.
"You know how to save her, Marve. You better get ready."
"Let's go." He stood up.
I held the gun on him.
His mouth twisted. "What now?"
"We're playing this straight, Marve. She's over there. She may be dying. You're going to her-"
"I said it. Let's go."
"This is just to warn you. I ain't thinking about that money right now. I'll shoot you now, Marve. I been with you until I'm just about what you are."
He met my gaze. "All right. We play it your way. What you want?"
"Light that other lantern."
He lighted it, moving swiftly with that cat-like grace that needed the whole scrub country to move around in.
"All right. You walk ahead of me, Marve. There's no safety on this gun. The minute you try anything, I'm pressing the trigger."
"So all right."
"I'm just telling you."
We moved out of the cabin, Marve striding ahead of me, lantern swinging at his side, shafts of light leaping.
He moved across the clearing.
"Not that way, Marve."
He glanced over his shoulder, lantern light showing his snarl. "Shortcut. Nobody would use that winding road if he knows the country."
"Okay. Just the first trick."
He did not answer, plunged forward, swinging his lantern. I trotted behind him, staying far enough so that I could stop, close enough so that he could not dart into the darkness one way, hurling his lantern the other.
My legs trembled and the muscles ached. After a while there was no reality except the lantern swinging ahead of me and the pound of our feet in the lifeless sand.
Palmettos caught at the lantern, almost pulled it from my hand.
The night was clear and the stars were already appearing above the gray tops of the jack oaks. I smelled the dry smell of the scrub, and the smell of Lily's blood that lingered in my nostrils, and stronger than anything was the smell of death. Lily and the thought of death. I ran faster, coming nearer to Marve so that he glanced over his shoulder, troubled.
Soon there were no sounds in the night except our heavy breathing. I was gasping for breath and I saw Marve's shoulders heave as he ran.
It was a hot, breathless night and I thought about Lily. In my mind I could see her sitting in the old house, waiting to die with the rifle propped beside her where I had left it. She waited to die because she felt that she could not live with the poison in her and she did not believe that anything could save her. She did not believe that I could save her, and I thought bitterly that she was right. I could not save her. I could only run through the scrub and bring Marve to her, and Marve had never done anything for her but hurt her. She was alone and dying and I ran for Marve. Maybe I should have broug
ht her with me. No. It is not good to move with poison in you. If you move the heart beats faster and the poison moves faster, and death moves faster. "Hurry," I gasped at Marve.
He did not answer. The lantern swung, bounced along at his side. His shoulders heaved and I could hear his breathing and my breathing and I felt the limbs striking against me, and the trees were eternal and though we ran, it was like running in a nightmare. Nothing changed. The trees stretched unchanging in the flat dead land.
I began to be afraid that Marve had tricked me, that he ran into the scrub to lose me, and he did not care if Lily lived or died. I lifted the gun, thinking if we did not reach the clearing soon I would kill him. I was going to kill him without speaking his name, or giving him a reason. When I pulled the trigger and he died, he would know the reason. It would not need a name.
***
We came out into the clearing and crossed the yard under the cavernous darkness of the huge old trees. The light fell against the rotting walls of the house.
We went across the porch and into the foyer and through it to the living room.
The light pitched in there ahead of us. It lighted the gray walls, the fieldstone fireplace, the still-open suitcase on the broken floor, the welt of red and black and yellow that had been the coral snake. Across the room against the wall beneath the window, Lily sat. She had the rifle across her legs.
Her head was back and the lantern light shown in her hair. It hurt to look at her and think the poison was in her and that she might die. She would die unless Marve Pooser knew how to save her.
I forgot about Marve and strode across toward her. I was almost to her when I remembered that I had turned my back on Marve.
I heeled around to face him.
I didn't have to worry about Marve. He was staring at Lily. God knew what he was seeing. The same things I saw.
The light in her face, the fever in her eyes, the glinting in her hair, and maybe a lot of things I never saw-all the things he had done to her, the cruel and hurting things. She lay there now with the fever showing in her black eyes.
"Lily. Oh my God, Lily."
A Moment to Prey Page 13