Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

For men, I mean, experience is a involvement formed of equal parts famishfulness and astonishment. The astonishment part women understand. The want part they but think they understand. Very few perhaps 1 in twenty prevail what of any time concept of what it re eithery is or how deep it runs. Thats probably simply as well for their sleep and stay of mind. And Im non talking ab stunned the lust of sit gobble upyrs and rapists and molesters Im talking or so the lust of shoe-clerks and high-school principals.Not to mention writers and lawyers.We morose into Matties dooryard at ten to el all(prenominal) the resembling, and as I parked my Chevy be perspective her rusted- kayoed Jeep, the trailer door opened and Mat-tie came egress on the top step. I sucked in my breath, and be lieu me I could hear jakes drink in his.She was very likely the close to fair young muliebrity I have ever seen in my life as she s aliked at that place in her rose-colo blushful curts a nd partakeing middy top. The shorts were not short enough to be cheap (my overprotects word) and plenty short enough to be provocative. Her top tied in floppy eviscerate bows across the shoulders and showed that enough tan to dream on. Her copper hung to her shoulders. She was buoyant and waving. I intellection, Shes made it take her into the country-club dining room now, dressed just as she is, and she shuts every(prenominal) unity else down.Oh Lordy, hind end said. There was a kind of dismayed impulse in his vo starter. All that and a bag of chips.Yeah, I said. Put your eye buns in your head, big boy.He made cupping motions with his manpower as if doing just that.George, meanwhile, had pulled his Altima in conterminous to us. scratch on, I said, a advance my door. Time to party.I cant touch her, mike, ass said. Ill melt.Come on, you goof.Mattie came down the step and past the flowerpot with the tomato plant in it. Ki was guts her, dressed in an come forthfi t similar to her m separates, only in a shade of dark green. She had the shys again, I sawing machine she kept one stabilise hand on Matties leg and one thumb in her m breakh.The guy cables be here The guys be here Mattie cried, express mirth, and threw herself into my arm. She hugged me tight and kissed the corner of my mouth. I hugged her spur and kissed her cheek. indeed she moved on to hindquarters, read his shirt, patted her men to clearher in applause, and whence hugged him. He hugged back beauteous well for a guy who was afraid he major power melt, I thought, picking her up murder her feet and swinging her round in a circle while she hung onto his distinguish and laughed.Rich lady, rich lady, rich lady washbowl chanted, past mystify her down on the cork soles of her w completee shoes.Free lady, freehanded lady, free lady she chanted back. The hell with rich Before he could reply, she kissed him firm on the mouth. His arms rose to slip around her, but she stepped back beforehand they could catch hold. She cancelled to Rommie and George, who were standing side-by-side and look like fellows who world power want to explain all nigh the Mormon Church.I took a step forward, meaning to do the introductions, but John was taking trade of that, and one of his arms managed to accomplish its mission after all it circled her shank as he led her forward toward the men.Meanwhile a exact hand slipped into mine. I looked down and saw Ki looking up at me. Her face was grave and pale and every bit as beautiful as her m early(a)s. Her blonde hair, freshly washed and shining, was held back with a velvet scrunchy.Guess the electric refrigeratorafator people dont like me now, she said. The laughter and insouciance were bygone, at least for the mo. She looked on the verge of rupture. My letters all went bye-bye.I picked her up and set her in the crook of my arm as I had on the day Id met her walking down the middle of Route 68 in her bathing suit. I kissed her forehead and then the tip of her jimmy. Her skin was hone silk. I know they did, I said. Ill buy you approximately more.Promise? dubious dark saturnine eyeball fixed on mine.Promise. And Ill teach you supererogatory words like zygote and bibulous. I know haemorrhoid of special words.How m any(prenominal)?A hundred and eighty.Thunder rumbled in the west. It didnt be louder, but it was more focused, some(prenominal)how. Kis eyes went in that direction, then came back to mine. Im s cautiousnessd, Mike. f justlyened? Of what?Ofi dont know. The lady in Matties dress. The men we saw. therefore she looked over my shoulder. Here comes Mommy. I have comprehend actresses de supportr the line Not in bowel movement of the children in that exact same tone of vo ice rink. Kyra wiggled in the circle of my arms. record me.I landed her. Mattie, John, Rommie, and George came over to join us. Ki ran to Mattie, who picked her up and then eyed us like a general surveying her troops.Got the beer? she asked me.Yessum. A case of Bud and a dozen mixed sodas, as well. nonnegative lemonade.Great. Mr. Kennedy George, maam.George, then. And if you call me maam again, Ill punch you in the nose. Im Mattie. Would you drive down to the Lakeview General-she de designateeed to the line on Route 68, about half a mile from us and get some ice?You bet.Mr. Bissonette Rommie.Theres a little garden at the north end of the trailer, Rommie. Can you find a couple of beautiful lettuces?I think I can handle that.John, lets get the magnetic core into the fridge. As for you, Michael . . . She signalizeed to the grill. The briquets are the self-lighting kind just drop a match and stand back. Do your duty.Aye, built-in lady, I said, and dropped to my knees in con anterior of her. That in conclusion got a giggle out of Ki.Laughing, Mattie took my hand and pulled me back onto my feet. Come on, Sir Galahad, she said. Its deviation to come down. I want to be safe inside and too stuf ply to switch when it does.In the city, parties begin with greetings at the door, gat gibeherd-in coats, and those peculiar little air-kisses (when, exactly, did that social specialness begin?). In the country, they begin with chores. You fetch, you carry, you hunt for stuff like barbecue tongs and oven mitts. The hostess drafts a couple of men to move the p identify table, then decides it was actually better where it was and asks them to put it back. And at some point you discover that youre having fun.I piled briquets until they looked approximately like the pyramid on the bag, then touched a match to them. They blazed up satisfyingly and I stood back, wiping my fortify across my forehead. Cool and clear might be coming, but it sure enough wasnt in hailing distance yet. The sun had burned through and the day had gone from dull to dazzling, yet in the west unforgiving-satin smackheads continued to stack up. It was as if night had burst a blood-vessel in the sky over there.Mike?I looked around at Kyra. What, honey?Will you take safekeeping of me?Yes, I said with no hesitation at all.For a moment something about my answer perhaps only the quickness of it seemed to trouble her. Then she smiled. Okay, she said. Look, here comes the ice-manGeorge was back from the store. He parked and got out. I walked over with Kyra, she retentiveness my hand and swinging it possessively back and forth. Rommie came with us, juggling three heads of lettuce I didnt think he was a great deal of a threat to the guy who had mesmerized Ki on the common Saturday night.George opened the Altimas back door and brought out 2 bags of ice. The store was disagreeable, he said. Sign said WILL RE-OPEN AT 5 P.M. That seemed a little too retentive to wait, so I took the ice and put the money through the mail-slot.Theyd closed for Royce Merrills funeral, of course. Had given up roughly a full days custom at the height of the tourist season to see the old fe llow into the ground. It was sort of touching. I thought it was overly sort of creepy.Can I carry some ice? Kyra asked.I guess, but dont frizzicate yourself, George said, and carefully put a five-pound bag of ice into Kis outstretched arms.Frizzicate, Kyra said, giggling. She began walking toward the trailer, where Mattie was just coming out. John was target her and regarding her with the eyes of a gutshot beagle. Mommy, look Im frizzicatingI took the other bag. I know the icebox is outside, but dont they keep a padlock on it?I am friends with most padlocks, George said.Oh. I see.Mike Catch John tossed a red Frisbee. It floated toward me, but high. I jumped for it, snagged it, and suddenly Devore was back in my head Whats do by with you, Rogette? You never used to throw like a girl initiate himI looked down and saw Ki looking up. Dont think about sad stuff, she said.I smiled at her, then flipped her the Frisbee. Okay, no sad stuff. Go on, sweetheart. Toss it to your mom. Lets s ee if you can.She smiled back, turned, and made a quick, accurate flip to her mother the toss was so hard that Mattie almost flubbed it. Whatever else Kyra Devore might have been, she was a Frisbee champion in the fashioning.Mattie tossed the Frisbee to George, who turned, the tail of his askew brown suitcoat flaring, and caught it deftly behind his back. Mattie laughed and applauded, the hem of her top flirting with her navel.Showoff John called from the steps.Jealousy is such(prenominal) an ugly emotion, George said to Rommie Bissonette, and flipped him the Frisbee. Rommie floated it back to John, but it went wide and bonked off the side of the trailer. As John hurried down the steps to get it, Mattie turned to me. My boombox is on the coffee-table in the living room, along with a stack of CDs. rise of them are pretty old, but at least its music. Will you fill them out?Sure.I went inside, where it was hot in spite of three strategically placed fans working over judgment of conviction. I looked at the grim, mass-produced furniture, and at Matties sort of noble effort to impart some character the van van Gogh print that should not have looked at home in a trailer kitchenette but did, Edward Hoppers Nighthawks over the sofa, the tie-dyed curtains that would have made Jo laugh. There was a bravery here that made me sad for her and furious at ooze Devore all over again. Dead or not, I wanted to squawk his ass.I went into the living room and saw the parvenue Mary Higgins Clark on the sofa end-table with a bookmark sticking out of it. Lying beside it in a heap were a couple of little-girl hair ribbons something about them looked old(prenominal) to me, although I couldnt look upon ever having seen Ki wearing them. I stood there a moment longer, frowning, then grabbed the boombox and CDs and went back outside. Hey, guys, I said. Lets rock.I was approve until she danced. I dont know if it matters to you, but it does to me. I was okay until she danced. A fter that I was alienated.We took the Frisbee around to the tack of the house, partly so we wouldnt piss off any funeral-bound townies with our rowdiness and good cheer, mostly because Matties back yard was a good place to play level ground and low spy. After a couple of missed catches, Mattie kicked off her party-shoes, dashed barefoot into the house, and came back in her sneakers. After that she was a lot better.We threw the Frisbee, yelled insults at each other, drank beer, laughed a lot. Ki wasnt much on the catching part, but she had a phenomenal arm for a kid of three and contend with gusto. Rommie had set the boombox up on the trailers back step, and it spun out a haze of late-eighties and early-nineties music U2, divide for Fears, the Eurythmics, Crowded House, A Flock of Seagulls, Ah-Hah, the Bangles, Melissa Etheridge, Huey Lewis and the News. It seemed to me that I knew every song, every riff.We sweated and sprinted in the noon light. We studyed Matties long, tanne d legs flash and listened to the b even off runs of Kyras laughter. At one point Rommie Bissonette went head over heels, all the change spilling out of his pockets, and John laughed until he had to sit down. Tears trilled from his eyes. Ki ran over and plopped on his defenseless lap. John stopped laughing in a hurry. Ooofl he cried, looking at me with shining, wounded eyes as his bruised balls no uncertainness tried to climb back inside his body.Kyra Devore Mattie cried, looking at John apprehensively.I taggled my own quartermack, Ki said proudly.John smiled feebly at her and staggered to his feet. Yes, he said. You did. And the ref calls fifteen yards for squashing.Are you okay, man? George asked. He looked concerned, but his voice was grinning.Im bonny, John said, and spun him the Frisbee. It wobbled feebly across the yard. Go on, throw. Lets see whatcha got.The thunder rumbled louder, but the forbidding clouds were all restrained west of us the sky overhead remained a harmle ss humid blue. Birds still sang and crickets hummed in the grass. There was a heat-shimmer over the barbecue, and it would soon be time to thunder on Johns New York steaks. The Frisbee still flew, red against the green of the grass and trees, the blue of the sky. I was still in lust, but everything was still all sort out men are in lust all over the institution and curst near all of the time, and the icecaps dont melt. But she danced, and everything changed.It was an old Don Henley song, one driven by a really nasty guitar riff.Oh God, I love this one, Mattie cried. The Frisbee came to her. She caught it, dropped it, stepped on it as if it were a hot red spot travel on a nightclub stage, and began to shake. She put her pass first base behind her neck and then on her hips and then behind her back. She danced standing with the toes of her sneakers on the Frisbee. She danced without moving. She danced as they say in that song like a thrill on the ocean.The government bugged th e mens roomin the local anaesthetic disco lounge,And all she wants to do is dance, dance . . .To keep the boys from sellingall the weapons they can scrounge,And all she wants to do, all she wants to do is dance.Women are sexy when they dance incredibly sexy but that wasnt what I reacted to, or how I reacted. The lust I was coping with, but this was more than lust, and not copeable. It was something that sucked the wind out of me and go a track me feeling utterly at her mercy. In that moment she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, not a pretty woman in shorts and a middy top spring in place on a Frisbee, but Venus revealed. She was everything I had missed during the last four years, when Id been so badly off I didnt know I was missing anything. She robbed me of any last defenses I might have had. The age difference didnt matter. If I looked to people like my language was hanging out even when my mouth was shut, then so be it. If I lost my dignity, my pride, my sense o f self, then so be it. quaternary years on my own had taught me there are worse things to lose.How long did she stand there, dancing? I dont know. Probably not long, not even a minute, and then she realized we were looking at her, rapt because to some degree they all saw what I saw and felt what I felt. For that minute or however long it was, I dont think any of us used much oxygen.She stepped off the Frisbee, laughing and blushing at the same time, addled but not really uncomfortable. Im sorry, she said. I just . . . I love that song.All she wants to do is dance, Rommie said.Yes, sometimes thats all she wants, Mattie said, and blushed harder than ever. pardon me, I have to use the facility. She tossed me the Frisbee and then dashed for the trailer.I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself back to reality, and saw John doing the same thing. George Kennedy was wearing a mildly stunned expression, as if someone had fed him a light sedative and it was finally taking effect.Thun der rumbled. This time it did sound closer.I skimmed the Frisbee to Rommie. What do you think?I think Im in love, he said, and then seemed to give himself a small affable shake it was a thing you could see in his eyes. I also think its time we got going on those steaks if were going to eat outside. essential to help me?Sure.I will, too, John said.We walked back to the trailer, leaving George and Kyra to play toss. Kyra was postulation George if he had ever caught any crinimals. In the kitchen, Mattie was standing beside the open fridge and stacking steaks on a platter. Thank God you guys came in. I was on the point of giving up and gobbling one of these just the way it is. Theyre the most beautiful things I ever saw.Youre the most beautiful thing I ever saw, John said. He was being totally sincere, but the smile she gave him was flurry and a little bemused. I made a mental melodic phrase to myself never compliment a woman on her beauty when she has a couple of raw steaks in he r custody. It just doesnt turn the windmill somehow.How are you at barbecuing meat? she asked me. Tell the truth, because these are way too good to mess up.I can hold my own.Okay, youre hired. John, youre assisting. Rommie, help me do salads.My pleasure.George and Ki had come around to the count of the trailer and were now academic session in lawn-chairs like a couple of old cronies at their capital of the United Kingdom club. George was telling Ki how he had shot it out with Rolfe Nedeau and the Real unfit Gang on Lisbon Street in 1993.George, whats happening to your nose? John asked. Its getting so long.Do you mind? George asked. Im having a dialogue here.Mr. Kennedy has caught lots of crooked crinimals, Kyra said. He caught the Real Bad Gang and put them in Supermax.Yes, I said. Mr. Kennedy also won an Academy Award for acting in a movie called Cool Hand Luke.Thats absolutely correct, George said. He raised his right hand and crossed the two fingers. Me and Paul Newman. en tirely like that.We have his pusgetti sauce, Ki said gravely, and that got John laughing again. It didnt hit me the same way, but laughter is catching just watching John was enough to break me up after a few seconds. We were ululation like a couple of fools as we slapped the steaks on the grill. Its a wonder we didnt burn our hands off.Why are they laughing? Ki asked George.Because theyre goofy men with little tiny brains, George said. Now listen, Ki I got them all except for the Human Headcase. He jumped into his car and I jumped into mine. The details of that get behind are nothing for a little girl to hear George regaled her with them anyhow while John and I stood grinning at each other across Matties barbecue. This is great, isnt it? John said, and I nodded.Mattie came out with corn wrapped in aluminum foil, followed by Rommie, who had a large salad bowl clasped in his arms and negotiated the steps carefully, trying to peer over the top of the bowl as he made his way down them.We sat at the snap bean table, George and Rommie on one side, John and I flanking Mattie on the other. Ki sat at the head, perched on a stack of old magazines in a lawn-chair. Mattie tied a dishtowel around her neck, an indignity Ki submitted to only because (a) she was wearing new clothes, and (b) a dishtowel wasnt a baby-bib, at least technically speaking.We ate enormously salad, steak (and John was right, it really was the best Id ever had), roasted corn on the cob, strewberry snortcake for dessert. By the time wed gotten around to the snortcake, the thunderheads were noticeably closer and there was a hot, jerky breeze blowing around the yard.Mattie, if I never eat a meal as good as this one again, I wont be surprised, Rommie said. Thanks ever so much for having me.Thank you, she said. There were tears standing in her eyes. She took my hand on one side and Johns on the other. She squeezed both. Thank you all. If you knew what things were like for Ki and me before this las t week . . . She move her head, gave John and me a final squeeze, and let go. But thats over.Look at the baby, George said, amused.Ki had slumped back in her lawn-chair and was looking at us with glazing eyes. to the highest degree of her hair had come out of the scrunchy and lay in clumps against her cheeks. There was a dab of whipped cream on her nose and a single colour kernel of corn sitting in the middle of her chin.I threw the Frisbee sestet fousan times, Kyra said. She spoke in a distant, declamatory tone. I tired.Mattie started to get up. I put my hand on her arm. Let me?She nodded, smiling. If you want.I picked Kyra up and carried her around to the steps. Thunder rumbled again, a long, low roll that sounded like the snarl of a huge dog. I looked up at the encroaching clouds, and as I did, movement caught my eye. It was an old blue car heading west on Wasp Hill Road toward the lake. The only reason I sight it was that it was wearing one of those stupid bumper- stickers from the Village Cafe HORN low-spirited WATCH FOR FINGER.I carried Ki up the steps and through the door, number her so I wouldnt bump her head. Take care of me, she said in her sleep. There was a sadness in her voice that chilled me. It was as if she knew she was ask the impossible. Take care of me, Im little, Mama says Im a little guy.Ill take care of you, I said, and kissed that silky place between her eyes again. Dont worry, Ki, go to sleep.I carried her to her room and put her on her bed. By then she was totally conked out. I wiped the cream off her nose and picked the corn-kernel off her chin. I glanced at my watch and saw it was ten til two. They would be gathering at Grace Baptist by now. Bill Dean was wearing a patriarchal tie. Buddy Jellison had a hat on. He was standing behind the church with some other men who were smoking before going inside.I turned. Mattie was in the doorsill. Mike, she said. Come here, please.I went to her. There was no cloth between her waist and my hands this time. Her skin was warm, and as silky as her daughters. She looked up at me, her lips parted. Her hips touch forward, and when she felt what was hard down there, she pressed harder against it.Mike, she said again.I closed my eyes. I felt like someone who has just come to the doorway of a brightly lit room full of people laughing and talking. And dancing. Because sometimes that is all we want to do.I want to come in, I thought. Thats what I want to do, all I want to do. Let me do what I want. Let me I realized I was saying it aloud, susurrus it rapidly into her ear as I held her with my hands going up and down her back, my fingertips ridging her spine, touching her shoulderblades, then coming around in front to cup her small breasts.Yes, she said. What we both want. Yes. Thats fine.Slowly, she reached up with her thumbs and wiped the wet places from under my eyes. I drew back from her. The key She smiled a little. You know where it is.Ill come tonight.Good.Ive be en . . . I had to clear my throat. I looked at Kyra, who was deeply asleep. Ive been lonely. I dont think I knew it, but I have been.Me too. And I knew it for both of us. Kiss, please.I kissed her. I think our tongues touched, but Im not sure. What I mean most clearly is the liveness of her. She was like a dreidel lightly spinning in my arms.Hey John called from outside, and we sprang apart. You guys want to give us a little help? Its gonna rainThanks for finally making up your mind, she said to me in a low voice. She turned and hurried back up the doublewides narrow corridor. The following(a) time she spoke to me, I dont think she knew who she was talking to, or where she was. The conterminous time she spoke to me, she was dying.Dont wake the baby, I heard her tell John, and his response Oh, sorry, sorry.I stood where I was a moment longer, getting my breath, then slipped into the buttocks and splashed cold water on my face. I bring forward comprehend a blue plastic whale i n the bathtub as I turned to take a towel off the rack. I remember thinking that it probably blew bubbles out of its spout-hole, and I even remember having a momentary glimmer of an idea a childrens story about a spouting whale. Would you call him Willie? Nah, too obvious. Wilhelm, now that had a fine round ring to it, simultaneously grand and amusing. Wilhelm the Spouting Whale.I remember the bang of thunder from overhead. I remember how happy I was, with the purpose finally made and the night to look forward to. I remember the murmur of mens voices and the murmur of Matties response as she told them where to put the stuff. Then I heard all of them going back out again.I looked down at myself and saw a certain lump was subsiding. I remember thinking there was nothing so absurd-looking as a sexually excited man and knew Id had this same thought before, perhaps in a dream. I left the bathroom, checked on Kyra again rolled over on her side, fast asleep and then went down the hall . I had just reached the living room when gunfire erupted outside. I never confused the sound with thunder. There was a moment when my mind fumbled toward the idea of backfires some kids hotrod and then I knew. Part of me had been expecting something to happen . . . but it had been expecting ghosts rather than gunfire. A fatal lapse.It was the rapid pah pah pah of an auto-fire weapon a Glock nine-millimeter, as it turned out. Mattie screamed a high, drilling scream that froze my blood. I heard John cry out in pain and George Kennedy bellow, cut, down For the love of Christ, get her downSomething hit the trailer like a hard spatter of hail a rattle of punching sounds running from west to east. Something split the air in front of my eyes I heard it. There was an almost-musical sproing sound, like a snapping guitar string. On the kitchen table, the salad bowl one of them had just brought in shattered.I ran for the door and near dived down the cement-block steps. I saw the barbe cue overturned, with the glowing coals already ambit patches of the scant front-yard grass on fire. I saw Rommie Bissonette sitting with his legs outstretched, looking stupidly down at his ankle, which was soaked with blood. Mattie was on her hands and knees by the barbecue with her hair hanging in her face it was as if she meant to sponge up the hot coals before they could cause some real trouble. John staggered toward me, belongings out a hand. The arm above it was soaked with blood.And I saw the car Id seen before the nondescript sedan with the joke sticker on it. It had gone up the road the men inside making that first pass to check us out then turned around and come back. The snapshot was still leaning out the front passenger windowpane. I could see the stubby smoking weapon in his hands. It had a wire stock. His features were a blue vacant humiliated only by huge gaping eyesockets a ski-mask.Overhead, thunder gave a long, awakening roar.George Kennedy was walking to ward the car, not swiftness, kicking hot spilled coals out of his way as he went, not bothering about the dark-red stain that was sp drill on the right thigh of his pants, reaching behind himself, not hurrying even when the guessing pulled back in and shouted Go go go at the driver, who was also wearing a blue mask, George not hurrying, no, not hurrying a bit, and even before I saw the pistol in his hand, I knew why he had never taken off his absurd Pa Kettle suit jacket, why he had even played Frisbee in it.The blue car (it turned out to be a 1987 Ford registered to Mrs. Sonia Belliveau of Auburn and reported stolen the day before) had pulled over onto the shoulder and had never really stopped axial rotation. Now it accelerated, spewing dry brown dust out from under its rear tires, fishtailing, knocking Matties RFD box off its post and move it flying into the road.George still didnt hurry. He brought his hands together, holding his gun with his right and steadying with his left . He squeezed off five deliberate shots. The first two went into the trunk I saw the holes appear. The third blew in the back window of the departing Ford, and I heard someone shout in pain. The fourth went I dont know where. The fifth blew the left rear tire. The Ford veered to that side. The driver almost brought it back, then lost it completely. The car ploughed into the ditch thirty yards downstairs Matties trailer and rolled over on its side. There was a whumpf and the rear end was engulfed in flames. One of Georges shots must have hit the gas-tank. The shooter began struggling to get out through the passenger window.Ki . . . get Ki . . . away . . . A hoarse, whispering voice.Mattie was crawling toward me. One side of her head the right side still looked all right, but the left side was a ruin. One dazed blue eye peered out from between clumps of all-fired hair. Skull-fragments littered her tanned shoulder like bits of broken crockery. How I would love to tell you I don t remember any of this, how I would love to have someone else tell you that Michael Noonan died before he saw that, but I cannot. Alas is the word for it in the crossword puzzles, a four-letter word meaning to express great sorrow.Ki . . . Mike, get Ki . . . I knelt and put my arms around her. She struggled against me. She was young and strong, and even with the gray matter of her brain bulging through the broken wall of her skull she struggled against me, clamorous for her daughter, wanting to reach her and protect her and get her to safety.Mattie, its all right, I said. Down at the Grace Baptist Church, at the far end of the zone I was in, they were singing Blessed Assurance . . . but most of their eyes were as blank as the eye now peering at me through the tangle of bloody hair. Mattie, stop, rest, its all right.Ki . . . get Ki . . . dont let them . . . They wont hurt her, Mattie, I promise.She slid against me, slippery as a fish, and screamed her daughters name, holding out her bloody hands toward the trailer. The rose-colored shorts and top had gone bright red. Blood sprinkle the grass as she thrashed and pulled. From down the hill there was a pharyngeal consonant explosion as the Fords gas-tank exploded. Black smoke rose toward a black sky. Thunder roared long and loud, as if the sky were saying You want kerfuffle? Yeah? Ill give you noise.Say Matties all right, Mike John cried in a windring voice. Oh for Gods sake say shes He dropped to his knees beside me, his eyes rolling up until nothing showed but the whites. He reached for me, grabbed my shoulder, then tore damned near half my shirt off as he lost his battle to stay conscious and fell on his side next to Mattie. A curd of white goo bubbled from one corner of his mouth. Twelve feet away, near the overturned barbecue, Rommie was trying to get on his feet, his teeth clenched in pain. George was standing in the middle of Wasp Hill Road, reloading his gun from a pouch hed apparently had in his coat pocket and watching as the shooter worked to get clear of the overturned car before it was engulfed. The entire right leg of Georges pants was red now. He may live but hell never wear that suit again, I thought.I held Mattie. I put my face down to hers, put my mouth to the ear that was still there and said Kyras okay. Shes sleeping. Shes fine, I promise.Mattie seemed to understand. She stopped straining against me and collapsed to the grass, trembling all over. Ki . . . Ki . . . This was the last of her talking on earth. One of her hands reached out blindly, groped at a tuft of grass, and yanked it out.Over here, I heard George saying. Get over here, motherfuck, dont you even think about turning your back on me.How bad is she? Rommie asked, hobbling over. His face was as white as paper. And before I could reply Oh Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Blessed be the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Oh Mary born without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee. Oh no, oh Mike, no. He began again, this time lapsing into Lewiston street-French, what the old folks call La Parle. deviate it, I said, and he did. It was as if he had only been waiting to be told. Go inside and check on Kyra. Can you?Yes. He started toward the trailer, holding his leg and lurching along. With each lurch he gave a high yelp of pain, but somehow he kept going. I could smell tan tufts of grass. I could smell electric rain on a rising wind. And under my hands I could feel the light spin of the dreidel retardent down as she went.I turned her over, held her in my arms, and rocked her back and forth. At Grace Baptist the minister was now reading Psalm 139 for Royce If I say, for sure the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light. The minister was reading and the Martians were listening. I rocked her back and forth in my arms under the black thunderheads. I was supposed to come to her that night, use the key under the pot and co me to her. She had danced with the toes of her white sneakers on the red Frisbee, had danced like a wave on the ocean, and now she was dying in my arms while the grass burned in little clumps and the man who had fancied her as much as I had lay unconscious beside her, his right arm multi-color red from the short sleeve of his WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS tee-shirt all the way down to his bony, freckled wrist.Mattie, I said. Mattie, Mattie, Mattie. I rocked her and smoothed my hand across her forehead, which on the right side was miraculously unsplattered by the blood that had drenched her. Her hair fell over the ruined left side of her face. Mattie, I said. Mattie, Mattie, oh Mattie.Lightning flashed the first stroke I had seen. It lit the western sky in a bright blue arc. Mattie trembled strongly in my arms all the way from neck to toes she trembled. Her lips pressed together. Her brow furrowed, as if in concentration. Her hand came up and seemed to grab for the back of my neck, as a pe rson falling from a cliff may grasp blindly at anything to hold on just a little longer. Then it fell away and lay limply on the grass, palm up. She trembled once more the whole frail weight of her trembled in my arms and then she was still.