'I'm taillights.' Junior opened the door and walked away, still limping a little.
Carter was surprised at how relieved he was when Junior was gone.
26
Barbie woke to the sound of the fire whistle and saw Melvin Searles standing outside his cell. The boy's fly was unzipped and he was holding his considerable c**k in his hand. When he saw he had Barbie's attention, he began to piss. His goal was clearly to reach the bunk. He couldn't quite make it and settled for a splattery letter S on the concrete instead.
'Go on, Barbie, drink up,' he said. 'You gotta be thirsty. It's a little; salty, but what the f**k.'
'What's burning?'
'As if you didn't know,' Mel said, smiling. He was still pale - he must have lost a fair amount of blood - but the bandage around his head was crisp and unstained.
'Pretend I don't.'
'Your pals burned down the newspaper,' Mel said, and now his smile showed his teeth. Barbie realized the kid was furious. Frightened, too. 'Trying to scare us into letting you out. But we... don't... scare!
'Why would I burn down the newspaper? Why not the Town Hall? And who are these pals of mine supposed to be?'
Mel was tucking his c**k back into his pants. 'You won't be thirsty tomorrow, Barbie. Don't worry about that. We've got a whole bucket of water with your name on it, and a sponge to go with it.'
Barbie was silent.
'You seen that waterboarding shit in I-rack?' Mel nodded as if he knew Barbie had. 'Now you'll get to experience it first hand.' He pointed a finger through the bars. 'We're gonna find out who your confederates are, f**kwad. And we're gonna find out what you did to lock this town up in the first place. That waterboarding shit? Nobody stands up to that.'
He started away, then turned back.
'Not fresh water, either. Salt. First thing. You think about it.'
Mel left, clumping up the basement hallway with his bandaged head lowered. Barbie sat on the bunk, looked at the drying snake of Mel's urine on the floor, and listened to the fire whistle. He thought of the girl in the pickemup. The blondie who almost gave him a ride and then changed her mind. He closed his eyes.
ASHES
1
Rusty was standing in the turnaround in front of the hospital, watching the flames rise from somewhere on Main Street, when the cell phone clipped to his belt played its little song. Twitch and Gina were with him, Gina holding Twitch's arm as if for protection. Ginny Tomlinson and Harriet Bigelow were both sleeping in the staff lounge. The old fellow who had volunteered, Thurston Marshall, was making medication rounds. He had turned out to be surprisingly good. The lights and the equipment were back on and, for the time being, things were on an even keel. Until the firewhistle went off, Rusty had actually dared to feel good.
He saw LINDA on the screen and said,'Hon? Everything okay?'
'Here, yes. Kids are asleep.'
'Do you know what's bur - '
'The newspaper office. Be quiet and listen, because I'm turning my phone off in about a minute and a half so nobody can call me in to help fight the fire. Jackie's here. She'll watch the kids.You need to meet me at the funeral home. Stacey Moggin will be there, too. She came by earlier. She's with us.'
The name, while familiar, did not immediately call up a face in Rusty s mind. And what resonated was She's with us.There really were starting to be sides, starting to be with us and with them.
'Lin - '
'Meet me there. Ten minutes. It's safe as long as they're fighting the fire, because the Bowie brothers are on the crew. Stacey says so.'
'How did they get a crew together so f - '
T don't know and don't care. Can you come?'
'Yes.'
'Good. Don't use the parking lot on the side. Go around back to the smaller one.' Then the voice was gone.
'What's on fire?' Gina asked. 'Do you know?'
'No,' Rusty said. 'Because nobody called.' He looked at them both, and hard.
Gina didn't follow, but Twitch did. 'Nobody at all.'
'I just took off, probably on a call, but you don't know where. I didn't say. Right?'
Gina still looked puzzled, but nodded. Because now these people were her people; she did not question the fact. Why would she? She was only seventeen. Us and them, Rusty thought. Bad medicine, usually. Especially for seventeen-year-olds. 'Probably on a call,' she said.'We don't know where.'
'Nope,' Twitch agreed. 'You grasshoppah, we lowly ants.'
'Don't make a big deal of it, either of you,' Rusty said. But it was a big deal, he knew that already. It was trouble. Gina wasn't the only kid in the picture; he and Linda had a pair, now fast asleep and with no knowledge that Mom and Dad might be sailing into a storm much too big for their little boat.
And still.
'I'll be back,' Rusty said, and hoped that wasn't just wishful thinking.
CHAPTER 17
2