When we arrived outside the smal , reservation town of Lapwai, I was a complete write-off. There was no hope left for me. I pushed and tried and projected and did what I could to get control back but I was too tired and too weak to be any threat. I spent the entire car ride trapped in my body and under the demon’s rule. I spoke in tongues, I writhed and screamed and tried to bite Ada and Dex until she was stealth enough to put a piece of duct tape over my mouth.
She then proceeded to tape me down to the actual seat, using al three rol s of the tape they’d purchased from the gas station.
It was good timing that as soon as Dex navigated the Highlander up to a desolate rancher on the sage-brushed outskirts, the tape began to come loose from the seat and my thrashing was at an al -time high. Any longer and the thing would have propel ed me into Dex and taken the car off the road again, for the final time. You only get to cheat the devil once.
Dex slammed the car into park and he and Ada jumped out of the car while I remained writhing inside. The rusty door to the smal house banged open and a tal , slim native man in jeans and an old, grey San Francisco Giants sweatshirt stepped out. He was surprisingly young, you know, for an exorcist, maybe a few years older than Dex.
Dex shook the man’s hand vigorously and then, as the man shook Ada’s, someone else emerged from the trailer.
It was Bird. Stoic Bird from Red Fox, with his dusty denim jacket, weather-beaten face and imitation Raybans.
Aside from a quick slap on the back, and Bird motioning to Dex’s head wound with concern, there was no time for a reunion. Dex pointed at the car and they al came running for me.
I tried with al my heart to get the creature away from me, to be able to act as myself to Bird and to tel him how much I appreciated him for trying to help me once again, but I couldn’t. If anything, my attempts made it push me back even farther. A layer of film settled over my vision, like I was looking through a thick piece of laminate, and al sound came at me as through underwater channels.
Dex opened the door and the exorcist and Bird peered down at me, sussing me out. I puffed in and out the piece of duct tape instead, tried to wriggle myself free and uttered supernatural groans.
The man, who I assumed was Roman, shook his head defiantly and started muttering in his native tongue. Then he began yel ing at Bird in that language, pointing at me and frowning. Bird laid his hands on Roman and answered him back calmly, stil in another language.
Final y, Dex asked, “Excuse me but what’s the problem?”
Bird looked at me and then at Dex with a tight-lipped smile. “Roman’s upset because I didn’t tel him how bad she real y was.”
“I didn’t know,” Dex said to him, then he turned to Roman. “I didn’t know until last night. You speak English, right?”
“Yes, I speak English,” Roman snapped. He gestured at me without much concern. “She’s too far gone; this is unfixable.”
If I had a heart that stil belonged to me, it would have been shattered wide open.
I was unfixable.
I was going to die.
Dex grabbed Roman by the front of his sweatshirt and brought him right up to his face.
“You’re going to fix her,” he snarled, his dark eyes sparking as they bore holes into Roman’s. “She’s a lot stronger than she looks. She is stil in there and you’re going to help her, or so help me God.”
“You’l need your God if you think you’re going to win this battle,” Roman said. He exchanged a measured look with Bird and then gave a short nod. “OK. Let’s see what we can do. Just, please release me.”
Dex stared at him intensely for a few seconds, the dried blood down the side of his face making him look borderline homicidal, before he backed off and unclenched his hands from the sweatshirt. He took a quick look at me and then walked away, shaking his shoulders, trying to cool off.
I was foaming at the mouth, the spil age leaking out underneath the duct tape. Roman brought his face in deeper to mine and started muttering in his language again. Even though he was Nez Perce, it sounded like Navajo to my faraway ears and would explain why he and Bird could talk to each other.
Bird nodded and replied back. Then as Roman started to undo the duct tape, Bird’s warm face fil ed my line of sight as he leaned close to me.
“Perry,” he said gently. “I can see past these eyes. I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me. I know you must be scared right now but we’l need you to listen to us.
You must do what we say. This is going to be very complicated. But it’s not impossible. You must have faith.
You must cal on your faith. Faith in God, if you stil believe.
Faith in the universe if you don’t. Faith in love. Faith in yourself and faith in others. Faith wil give you courage and grant you hope. Use that.”
Roman said something else as he ripped off the duct tape from my legs.
“What was that?” Bird asked.
This time Roman whispered it. Bird looked back at my face and eyed it distrustful y.
“I see,” Bird said softly. His jaw set.
Neither Dex nor Ada had caught the exchange. They were standing outside the trailer, Dex with his arms crossed and tapping his foot nervously, Ada babbling distressingly. They were too far away to hear. But I knew something was going on, something that only Bird and Roman knew. I wished I could have asked but al I did was continue to make shuddering groans.