Slow Dance in Purgatory

“So where did he go?” the boy spoke to her, and Maggie scrambled backwards, stunned.

“Where did you go, Johnny?” The boy poked at the mirage in front of him. Johnny’s image did not respond to the query. The boy who spoke was no longer part of the re-run Maggie had seen unfolding from the upper balcony. He wasn’t simply a ghostly imprint playing his part in a decades old slide show. He wasn’t a ghost at all, but a spirit…a living entity without a physical body. There was something very familiar about this boy. He was handsome in a clean-cut, freshly scrubbed, GQ kind of way. He looked at Maggie, and his mouth twisted cruelly. She knew that smile.

“Roger?!” She trembled, not believing her eyes.

“I think Uncle Roger would be more appropriate, don’t you, Margaret?”

***

Johnny worked his way up to the third floor. Shad’s terror worked like a homing beacon once he had finally been able to zero in on it. There was an odd energy pulsing through the school, though, and Johnny kept getting flashes of strong competing emotions. Fear, hate, love, desire, and jealousy rolled over him without rhyme or reason. It had been harder for him to find Shad as a result. The emotions he was buffeted by weren’t his own emotions. It was almost like the school was coming apart at the seams, and as it splintered and broke, all the absorbed tragedy and teenage angst of five decades was being released like thousands of mini grenades popping and sizzling through the air.

The smoke on the third level was thick. Johnny was unaffected, but he knew Shad would not be. He hoped the kid was still holding on. Focusing all his might ,he began popping locker doors open – the going was slower than usual, but he found Shad within seconds. Shad was almost unconscious and was dripping wet with perspiration, but he was still breathing. Shad didn’t even put up a fight when Johnny slung him over his shoulder. He was disoriented, and his eyes were half-closed. Thank goodness for small miracles. He could just imagine trying to rescue the Shad who had ripped him up one side and down the other a while back.

Johnny moved quickly down the stairs and out into the hallway where he had left Maggie. The smoke and heat were almost unbearable, and Johnny cursed desperately when he realized Maggie wasn’t there. Reaching out, he felt for her, tuning in to the frequency that sung in him constantly. He felt her immediately; her grief and fear almost buckled his knees. Why hadn’t she stayed put? Torn, he paused, considering his options. He had to get the kid out now. Shad was in bad shape, but Johnny didn’t want to physically throw him through the door. Goodness knows he would love to carry him out himself.

“Miss Margaret! Shadrach? Margaret!” The cry was coming from the direction of the west side entrance. Johnny recognized the voice. It was Gus. Gus could help him. He ran toward the voice, praying that this would be one of the days Gus would be able to see him. If his theory held out, he would. Gus seemed to be able to see Johnny only when Gus’s own emotions were high and his reserves low. This moment should qualify.

Gus almost collided with him, unable to see either him or Shad through the hazy gloom. Gus rebounded in fear, his eyes rocketing between Johnny and his unconscious grandson. Johnny transferred the precious cargo from his shoulder to Gus’s. The old man wobbled a little and then straightened determinedly, holding up under the weight. With a grateful nod, he acknowledge Johnny and rushed back for the door he had just come through.

Now Johnny had to find Maggie. He called out to her, flying through the blackened hallways, feeling the heat of the school coming apart around him. He blasted into the rotunda, and his heart nearly collapsed. Maggie lay in a heap in the middle of the floor, occupying the spot where he and Billy had once lain, in the exact spot where Billy died and Johnny had unknowingly pled for Purgatory. Her arms were wrapped around something Johnny couldn’t see; it reminded him of the day he had observed their embrace in the costume room mirror…a beautiful woman holding nothing.

“Maggie…oh, no…Maggie! Not here, baby. Not now.” Johnny sunk to the ground beside her and scooped her up in his arms. Her head lolled against his chest and violent coughing shook her.

“Roger told me I could be with you. That’s what I want. I want to stay with you. Lay here with me Johnny.”

A sick cold hate curled its way through Johnny’s gut.