by Rice, Anne
“ ‘What’s that?’ she asked.
“ ‘That I’ve got you on my mind bad, Ms. Café au Lait. I don’t want to sleep with the dead.’
“Silence from her and then a partial smile, an uncharacteristic smile. Very slowly she ran her eyes over me, from toe to head.
“I felt my cock getting hard.
“The fire had consumed just about everything.
“The men had closed the tomb. She had the little casket under her right arm. Everybody was hot and sick and cursing and batting at the bugs, and the sun was flashing in the trees, and the water stank of things rotted, things dying.
“That’s what it was about the swamp. Of course things were being born and things were thriving and marvelous creatures lived in the treacherous slime, but more things were rotting and suffering for lack of sun, and it was death that had the upper hand, and death you smelled in the black water.
“We left the island.
“ ‘Better to drink this beer up home,’ said Clem, ‘where Mamma can cook us up some food. I’m starving.’
“We were all pretty damned drunk before we got home, and under the influence I’d made one or two bad turns which might have kept us lost for hours.
“As it was, we made it back before dark, and after I took the longest piss of my life I went down with the casket and the shovel to the little cemetery.
“I was fully tuned for the slightest chill, the finest frisson, but I was feeling nothing. And I didn’t see the old troop of spirits that sometimes accosted me. But it was their style to be seen from a distance. I’d never been among them.
“I found a patch of soil that was clear and I dug easily through the moist earth. Pretty soon I had a hole about two feet deep, and the casket fitted easily there, and I filled in the earth around it and over it.
“I put the heavy marble tombstone firmly in place.
“I made the Sign of the Cross. I said three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers and then the old prayer:
Let perpetual light shine upon her, O Lord,
and may her soul and the souls of all
the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
“The new grave looked mighty little among the old coffin-sized concrete tombs, but it was still respectable and even fine.
“When I looked up I saw Goblin by the oak tree, watching me. I was drunk and he was cold sober. I was filthy dirty. He was immaculately clean. He wasn’t just appearing to me. He was studying me. And only as I looked at him did I realize that I hadn’t seen him all day. I hadn’t even felt him near me. I hadn’t thought about him. For the last few days, I’d seldom seen him. I hadn’t talked to him.
“ ‘Yo, brother,’ I said.
“I walked or staggered up the slope and reached out to embrace him. He vanished and left nothing there for me to hold, and a cold feeling crept over me. But I was drunk enough to cry about nothing.
“And Jasmine was shouting, ‘Suppertime.’ Red beans and rice, gravy thick with pork fat and pork chops simmered with it.
“It must have been around nine o’clock before I was showered and shaved, and sobered up. I came down to be with Aunt Queen and tell her what her nurse, Cindy, had been telling her for days, that she had to get up, get going and above all to take some nourishment.
“I found her sitting up in bed against a mass of white lace-covered pillows in one of her gorgeous feather-trimmed white negligees, her glasses down on her nose as she read what appeared to be a letter of several pages.
“Cindy, the nurse, with her usual very bright smile, was in attendance. She excused herself as I came in.
“ ‘Well, I have it, beautiful boy,’ Aunt Queen said. ‘Come here, pull up a chair.’
“ ‘Only if you eat something will I do that,’ I said. ‘What is it you have?’
“ ‘I’m way ahead of you, angel face,’ she replied. ‘I’ve drunk two cans of relatively innocuous lipids, as Cindy can verify, so I have had enough food to feed an entire Hindu village for one day. Now sit down. I have a translation here of the inscription on the island. This just arrived.’
“I wanted to snatch the pages out of her hand, but she wouldn’t allow it and read out the words,
“ ‘Here sleeps Petronia, whose mortal hands once made the most beautiful of cameos, even for emperors and kings. Guard me, ye gods and goddesses whose images I rendered so well. A curse on those who attempt to disturb my resting place.’
“She gave me the page of the letter. I read it over and over. ‘Petronia,’ I whispered. ‘What can all this mean?’ I gave the page back to her. ‘Who translated it, Aunt Queen?’ I asked.
“ ‘A man I want you to meet, Quinn, a man who’s going to change the course of your life the way Lynelle changed it, a man who’s going to accompany you and me on the Grand Tour you should have had a long time ago. The man’s name is Nash Penfield. He’s an English professor from California, and I like him very much.’
“ ‘But what if I don’t like him, Aunt Queen?’ I asked. ‘Aunt Queen, I don’t want to go to Europe yet. I don’t want to leave here. What’s going to happen to this place? Aunt Queen, Pops just died. We can’t be making plans.’
“ ‘We have to make plans, my dear boy,’ she said. ‘And Nash Penfield is flying here Friday. We’ll have a nice dinner together and we’ll see how you like him, and if you don’t care for the man, which I truly cannot imagine, then we’ll find someone else. But you need a tutor, Quinn, you need someone to take up where Lynelle left off.’
“ ‘All right. We’ll make a bargain. You get up out of bed, eat three square meals tomorrow and I’ll meet Mr. Penfield. How’s that?’
“ ‘I’ll go you one better,’ she said. ‘You check into Mayfair Medical tomorrow for a series of tests, and I’ll get up, eat breakfast and go with you, how’s that?’
“ ‘What tests?’ I asked. But I already knew. They’d do brain scans on me, MRIs, electroencephalograms, whatever they called them. They’d be looking for lesions on the temporal lobe—something physical to account for what I claimed to see and hear. I wasn’t surprised, even with all the verification that Rebecca Stanford had been real and had been murdered, I wasn’t surprised.
“If anything, I was surprised that it hadn’t come sooner. And I thought to myself, Well, we’ll get this over with and I won’t have to think about it anymore.
“ ‘All right, I’ll check into Mayfair Medical,’ I said. ‘But I won’t find myself on the psychiatric ward, will I?’
“ ‘My boy, I despise the idea of nuthouses as much as you do,’ she replied. ‘But I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t request certain purely medical tests to be done. As for Mayfair Medical, it’s a marvel, with the finest doctors and equipment in the South.’
“ ‘I know, Aunt Queen. You have to remember, Lynelle was going to work in research there. Who in the environs of New Orleans doesn’t know all about Mayfair Medical? I’ve been there, beloved aunt, I walked those granite-tiled hallways with Lynelle. It was her dream come true, remember?’
“The fear came on me, it came on dark and strong when I thought of Lynelle in her breakneck high heels clicking on beside me through the hospital corridors, pointing out all the special features of this revolutionary clinic and hospital.
“I remembered the smallest, most special detail—that every ward in Mayfair Medical had broad comfortable benches along its walls, benches for the comfort of relatives and friends who were visiting with the patients. Every room was a private room. Every room had easy chairs for visitors.
“ ‘Oh, it’s too sad to think of poor Lynelle,’ Aunt Queen said, as if she were reading my mind or my wandering eyes. ‘Lynelle, Sweetheart, Pops, it’s too sad, too dreadful. But we cannot take our minds off the details of life, Quinn. The details will save us. We’ll have these tests done and we’ll discover if there’s anything to be worried about.’
“ ‘Worried about? You have a letter from the stranger! You know I didn’t write it or cook it up myself. I told you he was in my
room, and he has been on the island since I warned him away. I burnt his books, I was so angry. And now this inscription. What can it mean? And the cameos. Why is it all connected?’
“She listened intently and affectionately.
“I told her the vision I had had of Rebecca hanging from the rusted hook, the hook having caught her rib. I told her how I had been unconscious on the floor afterwards.
“ ‘Jasmine said you fell down as if you’d been struck on the head. Your eyes never closed. And then you revived, just like that.’
“ ‘Did I have a seizure out there?’ I asked. ‘Is that what Jasmine really saw?’
“ ‘She didn’t see it,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘But we can talk about all this tomorrow afternoon on our way to Mayfair Medical. As for the mysterious intruder, we have guards everywhere. The Shed Men are in their glory. But regarding tomorrow morning …’
“ ‘Patsy’s been found and the will’s going to be read,’ I guessed.
“ ‘That’s it exactly. Now brace yourself for a scene. But I have my hopes. And I have my plans. Your grandfather was Gravier’s only living son. We’ll see what happens. Now you go on up now, Big Ramona’s probably waiting for you. Give me a sweet kiss. I love you.’
“I bent down to kiss her, to glory in her soft gray hair and her perfume. ‘Good night, my love,’ I said. ‘Where’s your bedfellow, Jasmine?’
“ ‘Oh, she is the most provoking creature. She’s tired from her trip to the island. She’s confused. She’s soon to be our salvation, and she knows it. I think she’s afraid of the challenge.’
“ ‘What do you mean?’
“ ‘Well, who’s to run this place when you and I leave?’ she said with a shrug. ‘Jasmine can do it.’
“I’d never even thought of this, and it seemed so right suddenly. How many times had I gone into the bungalow to find Jasmine and come across her rapping on her computer. And who did the tours better than Jasmine?
“ ‘That’s good, that’s really good!’ I said. ‘I want to talk to her.’
“ ‘No, let me explain it to her,’ Aunt Queen replied. ‘She’ll be coming later on. She’s gone up to fuss in Pops’ bedroom. I asked her to go through his jewelry, and she’s making a night of it up there. Just tell the darling girl to stop her inventory and come down at a reasonable hour. I’ll never go to sleep tonight if she’s not here.’
“Something clicked in my mind. It clicked in my body, too. Jasmine alone in Pops’ bedroom.
“I went up the stairs like a man going up to meet his bride. I looked in on Big Ramona and found her sound asleep. I went on to Pops’ room.
“The door was open.
“His bed is a big heavy four-poster—you saw it—it’s one of the oldest in the house. I saw Jasmine sitting on it, up against the velvet-covered pillows, and in her hand was a goblet of red wine. The bottle was on the nightstand.
“She was dressed all foxy, in one of her tightfitting leopard-skin tops that look brilliant with her mahogany skin, and close-cropped yellow hair, and a nothing of a leather skirt. One leg was up and the other stretched out. Spike heels. Flash of white panties. You never saw a more earnest invitation. And I was the only guest.
“I closed the door and locked it.
“She sighed and put the glass under the lamp on the nightstand. I sat beside her and then took her in my arms. I kissed her lips and felt the immediate fire. She pushed her breasts against me. I squeezed her breasts so desperately it was a wonder I didn’t hurt her. God, this is Heaven; you’re in the wrong place. I slipped my hand up her leg and touched her silk panties and the heat behind them.
“ ‘Pull’m down, tear’m off,’ she said in my ear. ‘Panties are cheap. Panties are nothing.’ She was crying. I could hear it.
“I kissed her on the mouth again, and her tongue shot between my lips. Oh, Lord, God. I kissed her plenty, and I ripped her panties over her ankles and off her spike-heel shoes, and I cradled her foot in my hand and kissed her instep.
“Under her breath she cried. I gobbled her wet tears.
“ ‘Lord, it’s wrong,’ she whispered. ‘I know it’s so wrong. You, my baby Tarquin, but I need it so bad!’
“ ‘So do I, lady,’ I said. ‘You can’t imagine!’ ”
18
“It was what we call the middle of the night. One, two in the morning—something like that. All of Blackwood Manor slept. I slept. Big Ramona snored. I woke now and then. I had a vague sense of a conversation with Rebecca. We were on the lawn, in the antique wicker chairs from the attic, and she was explaining to me that all the old wicker had been hers, that Manfred had bought it for her.
“She was so happy that I’d taken it down and had it restored, that Pops had painted it white. How handsome it was.
“ ‘You are my world, Tarquin,’ she said.
“But that was only part of what she tried to tell me. She was trying to talk of other things, things I must do, how justice would be achieved, and I was arguing with her.
“How thin and indistinct was all this. I woke and stared in front of me and all the fabric dissolved. Then I turned over again and I was talking to her.
“Suddenly, I was wrenched up out of the bed and dragged across the floor!
“I was fully awake in an instant.
“Into the bathroom I was forced by powerful hands that hurt my arms. My head was smacked against the wall. I was lifted off my feet and held that way, and by the thin light from the door through which I’d just been dragged I saw that it was a tall man who held me.
“His hair was cleanly brushed back from his high rounded temples, and his large dark eyes were fastened on me.
“ ‘Oh, so you burn my books, you little imp, do you!’ he whispered to me, his breath warm and odorless against my face. ‘You burn my books! You play with me!’
“I could feel my emotions coming together and I knew all of a sudden that what I felt wasn’t terror after all, it was rage, the same rage I’d felt when I’d done the thing that had so angered him.
“ ‘Get away from me and get out of my house!’ I cried. ‘How dare you come into my very room! How dare you trespass again!’
“I struggled violently to get free. I pushed against his chest with all my might. He was immovable.
“His eyes were a glare in the shadows. Of the rest of him, all I saw was an open white shirt with white cuffs and a black coat. And he let me down on my feet slowly.
“ ‘You little fool,’ he said, gripping my shoulders, and he smiled, and for the first time I saw his mouth, very finely shaped, with thick but perfectly sculpted lips.
“Again, I went wild in his grip. I pushed my knee against him, I kicked his shins. I gained nothing!
“ ‘Never go near the island again!’ he hissed. ‘Never touch what’s mine, do you hear me?’
“ ‘You’re a liar and a trespasser,’ I said. ‘Bring your claim in a court of law!’
“ ‘Don’t you realize I could kill you?’ he returned with blazing anger. ‘I have no qualms about it whatsoever. Why do you protest? Why do you do foolish things? What’s so precious to you?’
“ ‘What’s rightfully mine!’ I said. ‘Get out of my house before I bring it down on you.’
“Of course I knew that no one could hear me. Ramona slept like the dead. The house was too big, the walls too thick, and here we were in a windowless tiled bathroom.
“Suddenly he released his grip. My shoulders ached. He didn’t let me go, however. And then when he spoke it was more calmly:
“ ‘I’m not going to kill you. I don’t want you dead. I have a theory about you. But you ever go near that island again and I will kill you, you understand me? You warn everyone away from that island forever. You make it off limits to the world, or I’ll come back here and drag you out into that swamp and kill you slowly just the way Rebecca died, you impudent child.’
“He had scarcely finished the last two words when the big mirror to his right shattered and great dangerous pieces of glass f
ell with a loud noise all over the lavatory and the floor. I glimpsed Goblin behind him.
“Goblin’s hands came up around the stranger’s neck and I saw Goblin vanish as he obviously and fiercely exerted pressure.
“The man cursed in another language. He let me go, reaching for his own throat reflexively, and then the glass of the shower door broke and Goblin appeared again, tissue thin but visible to me and flashing a knifelike piece of glass at the stranger, which the stranger pushed away with his immense strength rather easily.
“Again the man cursed, looking hastily to the right and the left and then behind himself. I saw that his black hair was very long and worn in a slender wavy ponytail. He had sharply squared shoulders.
“He was maddened, pivoting and grabbing me again, but there came from Goblin another assault with both his fists, and more fine bits of glass hurled at the intruder, who let me go, backing up and twirling like a dancer.
“Glass was flying around the room. The stranger had to duck a fragment aimed right at his face. More glass clattered to the floor as the lower portion of the shower door broke into finer pieces.
“ ‘What is it?’ he hissed, warding off the shards with thrusts of his hands that came so fast I couldn’t follow them.
“Goblin bore down on him with his fists and then throttled him again. He threw off Goblin with visible effort, and furiously.
“The light flashed on, then off, then on again. I saw him fully illuminated, a young man with perfect skin and satin black hair, his black suit very fine and his face, even in its obvious hatred, no less than beautiful.
“ ‘What is it, damn you!’ he snarled at me. Daggers of glass were raining upon him and he batted them off like insects. The lights continued to flash.
“ ‘You think I’m going to tell you!’ I charged. ‘You’re in my house now, same as when you read your books on my island! Get out of it, or who knows what will happen? I can see the creature who fights you now. It’s plain as day that you can’t!’