by Lola Swain
I looked over at the rose garden and Jonas Dashiell stood next to Adelaide and gestured for me to come.
“Great.”
“Just go, everything will be fine.”
“Will you go see if Perry had any luck with any woodland creatures bigger than a breadbox?”
“Sure thing, cherry blossom,” James said and walked toward the property line. “Hey, you know what?”
“What?” I said as I walked toward the rose garden.
“I—”
I turned around and looked at him.
“Yes?” I said.
“I…I don’t want you to worry, that’s all,” he said and turned around.
“I love you too,” I said and smiled.
I walked toward the rose garden and Anthony ran after me.
“Sophia,” Anthony said, “where are you going?”
“Adelaide wants to see me,” I said and pointed toward the rose garden.
“Oh, gosh, I feel sorry for you,” he said.
“Just hang back, I shouldn’t be long. You know, you’re doing an amazing job, Anthony. And don’t think I haven’t noticed that May has been all over you.”
“Yeah, about that,” Anthony said and stared at his feet, “would you mind just calling me Tony for the rest of the mission? It really gets me into character.”
“Of course, Tony,” I said.
“Thanks, friend,” he said.
Anthony ran back to the wolves and I walked toward Jonas and Adelaide.
“Hi guys,” I said as I walked up to the gate of the rose garden.
“Sophia,” Jonas said.
“What’s going on now?” Adelaide said. “I see everyone has gathered.”
“Yeah, well, there’s been a snag,” I said and rested my arms on the iron gate. “Nellie found the recorder that Patrick hid under the bed.”
“That is a snag,” Adelaide said. “What’s the plan?”
“The plan is moving forward, just not at the time I would like,” I said. “She got spooked and called a cab.”
“You’re going to do it now?” Jonas said.
“I have to. They’re going to leave.”
“It’s a little early for these hijinks, wouldn’t you say?” Adelaide said.
“It’s darker now,” I said.
“Your victims are coming out,” Adelaide said.
I turned and looked toward the entrance to the hotel as Nellie dragged Brandt out the front door. She helped him over to a bench near the driveway and they sat down and huddled together.
“They’re here!” Patrick said and his voice echoed across the property.
“I’ve got to go,” I said to Adelaide.
“Go, go,” she said. “Who’s stopping you? Just be very careful, Sophia.”
I ran across the lawn and joined the others. Anthony lined the wolves in a row across from Nellie and Brandt. Only the snow-covered asphalt driveway separated them.
“Get them ready, Tony,” I said.
“Up!” Anthony said.
The wolves stood at once and the muscles in their necks tensed as they fixed their eyes on Brandt and Nellie and licked their chops.
“Shouldn’t we spread out?” Tara said.
“We’re not playing football,” Judah said.
“Hey, Conway is at the door,” Patrick said.
Mr. Conway stood at the front door to the hotel with his face pressed against the glass. I turned around and looked at the property line. The only thing that stood on the other side of James and the others were the woods.
“There are no animals there,” I said.
“They’ll come,” Andy said and rested his head against my leg and sucked his thumb.
Nellie stood from the bench and looked toward the long driveway.
“Someone is coming!” Jonas called to us from the gate of the rose garden.
Car headlights cut through the thick fog that enveloped the long drive toward the hotel.
“What is it?” Brandt said and looked up at Nellie.
I looked at Mr. Conway who stood at the front door and shifted on his feet.
“The cab, I think,” Nellie said and squinted.
“Good,” Brandt said. “I need a shot.”
“Ready!” Anthony said and lifted his arms in the air.
The wolves stretched and pushed their weight to their front paws and drops of saliva fell from their bared fangs.
“Red lights,” Nellie said. “Red lights!”
“What the fuck is she babbling about?” I said and turned toward the driveway.
The fog turned red as whatever was driving toward the hotel stained the air.
“Cops!” Nellie said and pushed Brandt. “Brandt, get up!”
Nellie picked up the suitcase and threw it toward the bushes and turned and ran toward the front door of the hotel. She grabbed the door handle and Mr. Conway stood on the other side of the door and held on.
“Open this fucking door!” Nellie said and pressed her face against the glass. “Open this door right now!”
“Oh, fuck,” I said and ran over and stood in the driveway.
A police cruiser with its lights flashing cut through the fog and moved slowly through the slushy asphalt. The first car was followed by another.
“Sophia!” James’ voice echoed across the grounds.
Nellie shook the door handle and banged on the glass panes. Brandt sat slumped against the side of the hotel and bowed his head.
“Brandt get up! He called the fucking cops,” Nellie said.
“Good,” Brandt said and closed his eyes. “I can’t take anymore.”
“You’re dead!” Nellie said to Mr. Conway as she banged on the glass. “Do you hear me? Dead! You can’t prove a fucking thing.”
A row of guests inside the lobby lined up at the windows and stared at the scene from the inside of the hotel.
“It’s now or never, Sophia!” Anthony said. “I’m not going to be able to call them off soon. They are wicked pissed!”
The cop cars stopped at the mid-way point before reaching the front of the hotel. The officers inside did not get out of their cruisers.
“Brandt, get the fuck up!” Nellie said.
“No, Nellie,” Brandt said as he held his arms out, “I want them to take me away. Take me away!”
I looked across the lawn at James. He looked at me and shrugged. And then he nodded.
“Now, Tony!” I said as I ran toward the wolves. “Now!”
The wolves started barking and they crouched down toward the ground, waiting for their command.
“Go!” Anthony said.
“Oh, shit!” I said as I skidded across the wet grass and landed on my ass.
Two of the wolves jumped at Brandt and each took one of his feet in their jaws and clamped down.
“Nellie, help!” he said and looked down.
Nellie swung around and looked at him as the wolves yanked back and pulled him off the bench. Brandt landed on his back on the pavement and two more wolves lunged at him. They each clamped their jaws around his wrists and waited for the others.
“What the fuck?” Nellie said and covered her mouth with her hands. “Brandt!”
“What’s happening? Something is biting me,” Brandt said and screamed.
“Go!” Anthony said and two wolves ran over to Nellie.
One of the wolves jumped up on his hind legs and clamped down on Nellie’s shoulder and pulled her to the ground. The other wolf took her arm in his mouth and dragged her across the driveway into the grass.
“Brandt, what’s happening?” Nellie said and tried to sit up.
Four wolves pounced on her each one grabbing her feet and hands as the others did to Brandt. Mr. Conway opened the door to the hotel and walked outside.
“What…I don’t…” he said and rubbed his eyes.
The wolves held Brandt and Nellie off the ground by their hands and feet and Nellie turned her head and looked at Brandt.
“You’re off the ground!”
she said as she looked at the space between Brandt and the ground. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Yes,” Brandt said and smiled, “I’m floating.”
“Brandt,” Nellie said as she fought against the wolves, “wake the fuck up!”
“Let’s do it, Tony,” I said as I ran toward him.
“Go!” Anthony said a third and final time.
The wolves ran, dragging Nellie and Brandt in their mouths toward the property line. We all ran after them and I looked over at the driveway as one of the officers got out of his car.
“Help,” Nellie said as she was dragged past the police cars. “Help us!”
The officer ran onto the lawn and cleared his gun.
“Halt!” the officer said.
“We’re not doing this!” Nellie said as her head bounced off the snow.
I looked at Brandt’s face as I ran next to him. He looked at the sky and smiled.
“I am ready,” he said as the wolves dragged him toward the property line. “I am ready to die!”
I reached James and he put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face the hotel. Mr. Conway ran across the lawn toward Brandt and Nellie and a few of the guests inside peeked outside the door.
“Well, kid,” James said, “you never want to do anything small-time. It’s the big displays that people always remember.”
The wolves that were not dragging Nellie and Brandt lined up at the property line and barked.
“Look,” Perry said and pointed to the trees, “eyes.”
I looked into the woods and a pair of eyes looked back at me through the thicket. Slowly, five coyotes crept out of the woods on their bellies. They came toward the property line and snarled as the wolves dragged Brandt and Nellie toward the edge.
“Give them room,” Anthony said as he ran toward us.
Brandt lay on his back and didn’t move. He had the same dopey smile on his face as he stared up at the purple sky. Nellie struggled against the wolves. Her wrists and ankles were bloody and she writhed on her back, trying to get free.
“Help me!” Nellie said.
The six cops ran toward us, guns drawn as they shouted a jumble of commands at once. Half of the cops had their guns on the growling coyotes and the other half, on Brandt and Nellie. Mr. Conway knelt in the middle of the lawn and babbled to himself.
The wolves that held Brandt reared back with their heads and held him off the ground.
“What the—” one of the cops said as he cocked his head and looked at the space between Brandt’s body and the ground he should have been on.
“Now!” Anthony said and held his arms up.
The wolves pulled back on Brandt’s arms and legs and lunged forward and released him. Brandt flew through the air, over the property line and landed on his back in front of the coyotes. They circled him and growled. One of the coyotes tapped on Brandt’s chest with its paw. Nellie screamed as the wolves lifted her and the cops backed away as the wolves held her off the ground.
“Help me!” Nellie said.
Nellie twisted her hands in the wolves’ mouths, slashing her wrists further as she hooked her fingers into one of the wolf Number Ten’s collar.
“Now!” Anthony said.
“No, she’s got him by the collar!” I said.
The wolves restraining Nellie reared back and tossed her toward the property line.
“She’s taking Number Ten with her!” Anthony said and jumped toward the wolf.
“Anthony, no!” I said.
Anthony pried Nellie’s wrist out of wolf Number Ten’s mouth in mid-air and pushed Nellie’s head away as they both flew toward the property line. Nellie landed first and rolled toward the woods away from the coyotes.
Patrick grabbed Anthony’s foot to yank him back, but he tripped over one of the wolves and fell. Anthony landed on his stomach with half of his torso over the property line.
It was that half of Anthony that exploded and burst into flames.
“No!” May Gaspar said and screamed as flames engulfed the upper half of Anthony’s body. “Tony!”
“What the hell?” one of the cops said as he moved toward the flames.
The half of Anthony’s body that remained on our side, convulsed as his upper half burned.
Mr. Conway ran toward the flames and fell to his knees.
“The burning bush! The burning bush has come,” he said and lifted his arms to the sky.
Tara and Jennie-Lynn held each other and cried. Patrick grabbed Céline and pulled her away. I looked over at the rose garden and saw Jonas Dashiell running toward us. The coyotes ran away from the fire and back into the woods as Anthony continued to burn.
“Push him over!” Jonas said as he ran toward us. “Tell the wolves to push him over, for Christ’s sakes. He’s suffering!”
I wiped my tears away and grabbed Number Ten’s collar and brought his head down to Anthony’s legs.
“Go,” I said into the wolf’s ear. “Push him.”
The wolf crouched down on the ground and nudged Anthony’s severed torso over the property line with his nose. The rest of Anthony exploded and the cops jumped back.
“It’s a gas leak!” one of the cops said.
I fell to my knees as great flames shot up from the remnants of Anthony’s body. Andy Larabee ran over to me and sat in my lap and cried. Everyone else dropped to their knees at the property line.
When the last of Anthony’s body was burned, the flames simply disappeared. There was no singed earth or smoke or dust. It just ended and was gone.
Brandt sat up and looked around for Nellie. She crawled toward him on her hands and knees. One of the cops walked over to them with his gun drawn.
“I don’t know what the fuck just happened,” the cop said and shook his head, “but we had a call about you people doing some kind of drug dealing here.”
“What?” I said and slammed my fists into the ground. “Fucking drugs?”
I looked up at James and he shook his head.
“We are not drug dealers,” Nellie said and patted the ground that moments before was consumed in fire.
“What’s your name?” the cop said.
“We’re not drug dealers,” Nellie said and looked up at the cop.
“Your name!” he said.
“N-Nellie. My…Brandt…has a prescription. Morphine. It’s in my purse, over there,” she said and glanced up at the hotel as she wiped the blood from her wrists on the snow. “How did—”
“Close your eyes, Sophia,” James said.
“His life for this?” I said and hung my head. “All of this, I did.”
Céline crawled over to me and pulled me into her body.
“It’s not your fault, Sophia,” she said and kissed my face. “You didn’t know.”
“Exactly,” May Gaspar said. “She didn’t know because she didn’t plan it properly. All of this was a fucking mistake and now, Tony is gone!”
“May!” Jonas said.
May ran off toward the hotel and Jonas squeezed my shoulder.
“Close your eyes, Sophia,” James said.
I looked up at him and he nodded.
“Close them!” he said.
I looked up at the sky and hoped to see the fat star, but saw nothing but black. I closed my eyes and wished for James to push me over the line the same way the wolf did to Anthony.
“James, no!” Jonas said.
I opened my eyes and saw a single sheet of paper drifting toward the ground on the other side of the property line. I looked up at James and he stared at me and then at the paper.
“What did you do?” I said.
“Always go out with a bang, Sophia,” James said and winked.
James turned and walked away from me toward the rose garden.
“James, what did you do?” I said and slammed my fists into the snow.
Jonas ran after James as the paper James threw over the line landed on the ground in front of one of the cops. The cop bent over and picked
it up.
“What does it say, Mike?” one of the cops said.
The cop pulled a flashlight off his belt and shined it onto the page. I looked through the back of the illuminated paper and saw the note was written on the Battleroy’s stationary.
“What did you do?” I said. “James!”
“Are you Brandt Therrault?” Mike, the officer said as he shined his light in Brandt’s face.
Brandt looked up at Mike and smiled.
“Yep.”
“And you,” Mike said and waved his flashlight at Nellie, “you’re Nellie Daniels?”
“What is that?” Nellie said and looked up at the paper and then Brandt.
Mike turned to the cop next to him and whispered in his ear. The cop summoned the other two and they walked toward Brandt and Nellie.
“What the fuck is that?” Nellie said as one of the cops grabbed her arm and pulled her off the ground. “Can’t you fucking hicks see we’ve been through enough?”
“Oh, it’s just beginning lady,” the cop said and cuffed Nellie’s wrists behind her back.
“‘I, Brandt Therrault,’ ” Mike the cop said as he read the paper, “‘attest that it was Nellie Daniels and I who murdered Sophia Pearson-Therrault on June 23, 1967 at the Battleroy Hotel and not Bobby Allen.’ ”
“Sounds like a confession to me,” one of the cops said and pulled Brandt up from the ground and cuffed him.
“Brandt!” Nellie screamed and tried to lunge at him. “Officers, I did not write that.”
“It doesn’t say you did, sweetheart,” Mike the cop said. “It does say that you killed her. Mr. Therrault, did you write this letter?”
“Write the letter? Look at him! He can’t even remember his own name. No, we are being set up by that man!” Nellie said and pointed to Mr. Conway.
“Sir, did you write this letter?” the cop said to Brandt.
Brandt looked up at the sky and smiled.
“Yes,” he said and sighed.
“Brandt!” Nellie shrieked.
“Read them their rights, Mike,” one of the officers said.
“No rights,” Brandt said. “I confess. We confess.”
“Let’s take them in and sort it out at the station,” Mike said.
“Sophia,” Céline said, “they’re going away!”
“James intervened,” I said. “It’s against the Law.”