He had three longbilled
hats stacked on his... He had three longbilled
hats stacked on his headJohn Eastlake's
harpoon pistol was tucked under his arm
"Flashlight's in the basket," he said"Ditto Deep
Woods Off, and three pairs of gardening gloves I
found in the shed
"Brilliant," I saidBut it's quarter of one, EdgarIf we're
going, can we please go?"
I looked at the heron on the tennis courtIt
stood by the net, as still as a hand on a broken
clock, and looked back at me pitilesslyThat was
all right; it is, for the most part, a pitiless
world
vii
Now I had memoryIt was no longer in perfect
working order, and to this day I sometimes get
confused about names and the order in which
certain things happened, but every moment of our
expedition to the house at the south end of Duma
933
Key remains
omega pocket watches clear in my mind - like the first
movie that ever amazed me or the first painting
that ever took my breath away (The Hailstorm, by
Thomas Hart Benton)Yet at first I felt cold,
divorced from it all, like a slightly jaded patron
of the arts looking at a picture in a second-rate
museumIt wasn't until Jack found the doll inside
the staircase going up to nowhere that I started
to realize I was in the picture instead of just
looking at itAnd that there was no going back
for any of us unless we could stop herI knew she
was strong; if she could reach all the way to
Omaha and Minneapolis to get what she wanted, then
all the way to Providence to keep it, of course
she was strongAnd still I underestimated her
Until we were actually in that house at the
roxanne mulberry south
end of Duma Key, I didn't realize how strong Perse
was
viii
I wanted Jack to drive, and Wireman to sit in the
back seatWhen Wireman asked why, I said I had my
reasons, and I thought they'd become apparent in
934
short order"And if I'm wrong about that," I
added, "no one will be any more delighted than
me
Jack backed onto the road and turned southMore
out of curiosity than anything else, I punched on
the radio and was rewarded with Billy Ray Cyrus,
bellowing about his achy breaky heartJack
groaned and reached for it, probably meaning to
find The BoneBefore he could, Billy Ray was
swallowed in a burst of deafening static
"Jesus, turn it off!" Wireman yelped
But first I turned it downReducing the volume
made no differenceIf anything, the static
omega automatic geneve grew
louderI could feel it rattling the fillings of
my teeth, and I punched the OFF button before my
eardrums could start bleeding
"What was that?" Jack asked
"Call it bad environment, why don't you," I said
"A little something left over from those Army Air
Corps tests sixty years ago
"Very funny," Wireman said
Jack was looking at the radio"I want to try it
again
935
"Be my guest," I told him, and placed my hand over
my left ear
Jack pushed the power buttonThe static that came
roaring out of the Mercedes's four speakers this
time seemed as loud as a jet fighter's engine
Even with my palm over one ear, it ripped through
my headI thought I heard Wireman yell, but I
wasn't sure
Jack pushed the power button again and the hellish
blizzard of noise cut
chanel jewelry online out"I think we should skip
the tunes," he said
"Wireman? All right?" My voice seemed to be coming
from far away, through a steady low ringing noise
ix
Jack might have made it a little way beyond the
point where Ilse got sick; maybe notIt was hard
to tell once the growth got highThe road
narrowed to a stripe, its surface humped and
buckled by the roots running beneath itThe
foliage had interlaced above us, blotting out most
of the skyIt was like being in a living tunnel
936
The windows were rolled up, but even so, the car
was filling with a green and fecund jungle smell
Jack tested the old Mercedes's springs on a
particularly egregious pothole, thumped up over a
ridge in the pavement on the far side, then
slammed to a stop and put the transmission in
omega aqua terra watch PAR