Seth said without haste, “I can’t ever think of a reason to give that smiling man my money. Couldn’t imagine spend’n a single night in that dungeon, let alone every night of my life.”
“It sure didn’t look like I thought it would,” Toby responded.
“It surely don’t, it looked like it hurt’n Wesley so, you got to wonder why a man would pay coin for such pain.” Seth said it without looking at Toby and then he went on, “Gabriel says a man’s got to keep that stuff in check otherwise he’ll lose himself. The old ranch that’s burnt out, you know the one that sits south of where the Criss bends toward the Hansons’? The one we were afraid to explore on account of Smiley say’n it was haunted?”
“The old Kaiser homestead, I know it,” Toby responded.
“Gabriel told me the story of that family, and he says stay away from that place because it is haunted.”
“What? Go on, tell me.”
“All right, but don’t tell no one, lessen I’ll pay for it from Gabriel.”
“Course, go on now.”
“Your father knows the story too, he never told you?”
“The colonel never talks to me about such things, I get some stuff here and there from Abner, but you know he ain’t much on talking.”
“All right, I’ll tell you but you got to swear, Toby, it stays with us.”
“You got my word, Seth.”
“Kaiser had a wife and three little ones, the oldest a boy about eight. They was do’n jest fine, Kaiser had a business rais’n feed for horses. Gabriel says he was a man of vision. Knew it was gonna be good horse country and he started a feed business when there was still much doubt the ranches would hold. He was a god-fear’n man too—but they was Lutheran. They built that homestead and had a good well. The wife had the touch and raised plenty stuff. Well, the husband’s brother done come out from the east on a scrawny pony, how he wandered west through them lands without los’n his hair is a mystery itself. He was a drifter and good-for-noth’n, but being that it was Kaiser’s young’n brother he took him on. The brother took to working the homestead, plow’n, fixing up. The feeding business took Kaiser to travel, though. He had to deliver the feed and he had to man the storefront he built in town. You know it, it’s Drier’s now, but it was Kaiser’s ’fore that. Well, one night the husband came home and found his brother reaming his wife.”
“Go on now, how did Gabriel find that out?”
“I’ll git to that, don’t question the truth of something until you heard it all,” Seth scolded.
“I reckon. Go on, though.”
“All right, well Kaiser catch his brother lay’n wit’ his wife. The old man ran to get his shotgun, but he had a bad limp from the war, so he weren’t able to reach the rack over the fireplace ’fore his brother ran after him and sunk a buck knife into his back. Funny how every good-for-noth’n extra hand we had the misfortune of taking on during the brand’n season always slept with a knife close. Probably from all those years of have’n to sleep with one eye open on account of how many they’ve done wrong. The shiftless always think their reckoning’s gonna come at night. Anyhow, he stabbed his brother in the back, and Kaiser fell into the fireplace, buck knife stuck out his back. He lay there bleeding, cook’n in the fire, and there was his good-for-noth’n brother stand’n over him stark nude,” Seth continued.
“Go on now, Seth, you’re pulling my leg, how you know he was naked?”
“I told you I was gett’n to that, hold on. Anyway, the wife come run out naked too. I guess to stop it but she was too late; so there’s the two of ’em standing in the raw with Kaiser in the fire; and the three kids up with all the commotion come climb’n down from the loft. The kids see the brother and mother stand’n naked and the good-for-noth’n with the blood sprayed all over ’em and the father in the flames with the buck knife sunk in his back. So they all start scream’n. The mother drops to her knees sobbing, and the son is trying like mad to pull his father out of the fire, but Kaiser was no small man. The good-for-noth’n brother realizes he’s gonna swing for this, so what’s he do? What’s he do? He kills them all.”
“Nah, go on, how do you know it this good?”
“I ain’t funning. Gabriel told me the year I got hair down there. He took me aside and told me, said I was forewarned about the trouble that come with lay’n with any woman, even your wife, whoever she was to be, he said straight lay’n with a woman can bring ruin on a man at any time, it always come with a price.”
“You swear it was Gabriel told you straight?”
“I swear, and ain’t nobody ever seen Gabriel lie.”
“Well, go on, what happened next?”
“The good-for-noth’n kills ’em all, even the little’uns. He reaches into that fire and pulls that buck knife out his brother’s back and slashes ’em all. Then he dresses it up like renegades done it. Like it was a raid’n party or something. He took that buck knife and he stabbed that little boy and he stabbed that whore mother. He scalped ’em all and carved ’em up with that buck knife. Yep, they were no more than five or six, them girls. He loaded up his brother’s wagon with everything in that house that shined, anything he figured he could get a penny for in Tin City; set that house to fire and headed south. Gabriel said he was headed for Tin City to barter what he could git and try to hide his sorry ass out in the wastelands. Only too bad for him it rained that night, so the ranch was still stand’n except the roof, which caught pretty good, but most stuff only got charred not burnt through.
“The post come through the next day and found the ranch all busted up, the slaughter and blood. He rounded up the colonel and Gabriel and Raif’s pa, Matthew, and they searched that ranch and started putt’n the pieces together. They started shift’n through the house, and Gabriel said it was like putting a puzzle together. First they found no tracks, no signs of renegades, and they had Joe with ’em, so you know if there were tracks Joe would’ve found ’em. Gabriel says the key to figure’n it out was when they searched the barn they found the bedding for the good-for-noth’n, but couldn’t find no body to match that sleep’n roll. They rode hard for eight full days ’til they spotted the tracks of wagon wheels oddly break’n east off the flat’s road and on into them east woods.
“They found the good-for-noth’n wrapped in noth’n but an old blanket, still naked, and mak’n camp in a patch of trees eat’n fruit from a jar the wife had pickled. Gabriel said his hair was still matted with the blood of them kids. They followed the buzzing of flies and found the scalps under the wagon seat, he planned on sell’n them too. Gabriel says the good-for-noth’n was half-crazed, his eyes round and lifeless. He tried deny’n it at first, said he was out riding and returned when he found what the renegades had done and he were out chas’n ’em himself. But they weren’t having none of it. Raif’s pa was fit to be tied, weren’t gonna tolerate something like that done to a family. They put the good-for-noth’n to the wagon wheel and broke the truth out of him. Gabriel said it didn’t take long at all to break him; said they did nothing special; Gabriel says most men want to confess their sins.
“The good-for-noth’n told how he and the wife were spend’n more and more time together alone because Kaiser was always off sell’n his feed and building the commerce. The good-for-noth’n told how he dug a new well closer to the house and when he pulled that first bucket of water up, it was pure. He hit right on a spring; said it was the first bit of luck he’d ever had in his miserable life. He said the wife hugged him when he pulled that first bucket up, it being pure spring and all; he said he knew it were no ordinary hug. She come to him the night they hit the spring. She came to his bed in the loft. He said he was half asleep and she crawled naked into his blankets; said it took him by surprise; said he gave in to her ’fore he knew what he was do’n. After the first time, they would come to each other in the night when old man Kaiser was away, and on some nights she would feed Kaiser liquor, so he’d sleep and they could hump, they were crazy for it.
“
The good-for-noth’n said the wife started whisper’n to him in the night about how she hated the sight of Kaiser every time he came home. She hated that she had to lay with him. She started tell’n the good-for-noth’n that Kaiser was rough with her, especially when he were drinking. The good-for-noth’n said he knew now she had all of it plann’d out to make him jealous, and she started talk’n of how good it’d be for ’em if Kaiser were gone. The good-for-noth’n said he was tired of drift’n and that it were not just the wife to blame but Kaiser’s fault too for what he done. The good-for-noth’n started begg’n them to understand, say’n his brother didn’t appreciate all the work he was do’n and with him gone all the time, the work of the place were falling more and more to him. The good-for-noth’n confessed that he figured if he got rid of the brother he could lay with the wife; that he could step in like it were all noth’n but a new boot, jest take Kaiser’s place.
“He told how he was surprised as all get-out when the wife started screaming after he stabbed Kaiser in the back. He think’n it’s what she wanted. You won’t believe this, the good-for-noth’n told that he’d killed them all to ease their suffer’n. The wife was scream’n and she was beating him on the chest, say’n it was all his fault. The little ones were screaming. The boy was try’n to pull his father out of the flames. The good-for-noth’n said he wanted to end their suffering, he wanted to stop the cry’n. He went naked out on to the porch and the screaming and holler’n was com’n from inside. He said it were the most horrible wailing he’d ever heard, said he’d looked through the door and he could see the mother and children all try’n to pull the father from the flames. How they were all reach’n into the fire, howling in pain, but they couldn’t budge him. The good-for-noth’n went back in and stabbed ’em all so the scream’n would stop.
“Gabriel says the Kaisers were good folk until that jackal showed up. Gabriel says if you put your thing in a hole that ain’t yours, it never comes to no good. He says nothing good ever come of whore’n and that you got to guard your flock against the wolves, because they come in sheep’s clothing. Gabriel says the wolves are always close, always closer than you think.”
“What happened to the brother?”
“They condemned him to hell on the spot. They parlayed and agreed such an evil needed to be washed from North County. They had a mind to bring him to town, but Raif’s pa weren’t have’n none of it, someth’n like kill’n a family needed gett’n done right then. They scourged him and nailed him to an old dogwood tree, took a big cut to his belly, and left him there, I guess ’til his insides rotted or critters got him. They burned the wagon and took the scalps back to the ranch and did the best they could to bury them with the right heads. They gave the Kaisers a proper burial ’cept for the wife. They told Reverend Graham, and he wouldn’t see her buried in no holy ground; wouldn’t let no words be spoken over her, neither. He said ‘she be bound in hell with that jackal they left nailed to the dogwood.’ They told the folks, though, that it was renegades done slaughtered the Kaisers. The colonel told the townsfolk a story about how they tracked two renegades and caught up to ’em in the flats. I guess the Kaisers all but been forgotten about now. You know folks try t’forget every chance they get.”
Seth and Toby sat on the barn roof in darkness staring at the porch. Toby turned to Seth and said, “I guess a man that prays as much as Gabriel knows it’s wrong in the eyes of God to be in that cathouse.”
“Pray? I ain’t never seen Gabriel pray.”
“But he’s never without his Bible. It’s dog-eared as all get-out. Every time we stop he pulls it out.”
Seth looked down and spit off the end of the roof. “Yeah, I reckon he reads it, but I never seen that man kneel. He never been near a church as long as I known him.”
“Why do you suppose he’s read’n it then?”
“You’d have to ask him why, though I’d hate to think of the backhand one’d get to ask Gabriel such a question.”
“Seems odd, don’t it, reading the book but not pray’n?” Toby asked, not letting the matter drop.
“If’n I say what I think, you swear it stay between me and you?”
“You got my word.”
“Gabriel reads that book because he thinks he can figure out its meaning.”
“Well, ain’t every preacher trying to do the same thing as that?”
“No, not like that. Gabriel isn’t trying to interpret the words or find what the writing’s meaning is like a preacher. He thinks that book contains something hidden in it, secret meanings. I seen him one night. There’s a room off the main house that I only ever seen Gabriel go into. Even Nanna didn’t have the nerve to cross that threshold. It had a writing desk and loads of pencils and papers and an old sea chest Gabriel always kept locked; he built a trapdoor in the floor to hide it,” Seth said.
Toby could see the wariness in Seth’s eyes telling the story.
“Toby, you done give me your word on this, I need you to swear it again on your sisters’ eyes and on your mother’s soul.”
Toby said, “You have my word—eyes and soul, I swear it, I’ll never tell another soul.”
“All right, that room sits right ’neath the loft and I would always hear Gabriel in that room at night. He would pull that door in the floor open and lug that chest out. When I was a real young’n I would hear him down there most every night, scribbl’n away with his pencils. Lately, not so often, but enough to wonder what he’s up to. The only other soul ever in that room when that chest was open was Luther and I barely remember that; I was near seven I reckon, it were before the time Luther done vanished. On some nights, I could hear them talking down there, whispers usual but sometimes you could hear them snapp’n at each other. The whispers turn’n to hisses, arguing for hours; the whole time, Luther’s drink’n whiskey. Gabriel never tolerates no drink around him, but he would buy whiskey for Luther. I could hear him lay’n in the loft hissing at Luther that he knew something, say’n things like: ‘I know you were permitted; tell me what that number means?’ and I would hear Luther say, ‘it’s each to his own, the mystery is each man’s. It means different things to each man.’ Or some such shit you know he were always talking in riddles. Gabriel would hiss, ‘I know you don’t believe that, tell me, if you say it’s truth, why do you fear it? If there’s power in the know’n what good the know’n ever do you?’ ”
“What were they talking about?”
“I got no idea. It’s close to my first memory of anything. I don’t even know if I remember it right. I got it in my head, though, and it got so I needed to see what was in that chest. Something came over me, and it was an urge I couldn’t get a hold of, like a stud after the teaser mare in front of him. I tried the door one day with Gabriel out in the back forty, and it was bolted clean. I knew even after I loosed that bolt there’d be another puzzle to get that floor open. Still I couldn’t stop, I needed to know.”
Seth looked over at Toby with a pained expression, and seeing as Toby was riveted to his tale, he continued. “I heard him down there one night scratch’n away with his pencil, it was real late. He had been riding all day and come in late. He still went to that room and was up until the middle of the night. I heard him hit the cot in there with a thud and I knew he were dead to this world.
“I climbed my way down from that loft, I coulda snuck up on a cat the way I was moving. It were hot and the door were a little open and I could see Gabriel asleep. I pushed that door and I feared that tiny squeak would shake the world. I crept in there and Gabriel had three Bibles on that desk and some other old books—they looked a thousand years old by the bindings. There were drawings all over his writing desk with all kinds of shapes: mazes, circles, numbers, all sorts, like different cattle brands. Atop each of the shapes there were Bible scripts, passages written out in print, and above each of the letters there he written numbers . . . the numbers were written on a separate sheet of paper and circles that spun around and around—it were all, well, it were crazy
.”
“Crazy? I never seen Gabriel ever do something to be ashamed of.”
“Like I said I don’t know what he was doing, but I seen into the trunk. It were facing the other way and I crept up to it and pull it back; there were more books and more writings. Some of it was in letters I couldn’t sense no head nor tail of it. There were a skull in there with gold about it and coins and these stone tablets, look like small headstones with writing going down ’em in lines going this way and that, not like normal writing. But there were also a Spanish cross in there. It were forged of some gold metal, but Jesus was twisted such that he was hanging upside down on it. I reached in there and tried to lift it, to get a feel for its weight, but it were heavy as all get-out. I stared at it, there’s no way you could deform that thing by hand or by dropping it. It were crafted twisted. I crawled back out of that room. Ever since I been want’n to ask Gabriel, but he ain’t ever brought it up. I remember him in there and Luther saying the last night I seen him, ‘No soul needs to reach for that, Gabriel,’ and him just grunting.”
“What do you reckon, Seth?”
“I guess he been dodg’n bullets with his name on it so long, I think he wants to believe he got one last dodge left in him. I figure he knows his soul’s in peril with all the kill’n he’s done. He were gett’n squirrely, talk’n about things he never talk before, but then this happened and you could see it in his eyes, he were bent again; told me flat out we were going kill’n and we ain’t stopp’n until it be fifty for every one of ours—his eyes on fire.”
Angels of North County Page 20