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Chapter 6






" And now our contestants are in the isolation booths."

Jack Barry

Twenty‑ One

 

Three‑ thirty in the morning.

To Ray Garraty it seemed the longest minute of the longest night of his entire life. It was low tide, dead ebb, the time when the sea washes back, leaving slick mudflats covered with straggled weed, rusty beer cans, rotted prophylactics, bro­ken bottles, smashed buoys, and green‑ mossed skeletons in tattered bathing trunks. It was dead ebb.

Seven more had gotten tickets since the boy in the trenchcoat. At one time, around two in the morning, three had gone down almost together, like dried cornshocks in the first hard autumn wind. They were seventy‑ five miles into the Walk, and there were twenty‑ four gone.

But none of that mattered. All that mattered was dead ebb. Three‑ thirty and the dead ebb. Another warning was given, and shortly after, the guns crashed once more. This time the face was a familiar one. It was 8, Davidson, who claimed he had once sneaked into the hoochie‑ kooch tent at the Steubenville State Fair.

Garraty looked at Davidson's white, blood‑ spattered face for just a moment and then he looked back at the road. He looked at the road quite a lot now. Sometimes the white line was solid, sometimes it was broken, and sometimes it was double, like streetcar tracks. He wondered how people could ride over this road all the other days of the year and not see the pattern of life and death in that white paint. Or did they see, after all?

The pavement fascinated him. How good and easy it would be to sit on that pavement. You'd start by squatting, and your stiff knee joints would pop like toy air‑ pistols. Then you'd put bracing hands back on the cool, pebbled surface and snuggle your buttocks down, you'd feel the screaming pressure of your one hundred and sixty pounds leave your feet... and then to lie down, just fall backward and lie there, spread‑ eagled, feeling your tired spine stretch... looking up at the encircling trees and the majestic wheel of the stars... not hearing the warn­ings, just watching the sky and waiting... waiting...

Yeah.

Hearing the scatter of footsteps as Walkers moved out of the line of fire, leaving him alone, like a sacrificial offering. Hearing the whispers. It's Garraty, hey, it's Garraty getting a ticket! Perhaps there would be time to hear Barkovitch laugh as he strapped on his metaphorical dancing shoes one more time. The swing of the carbines zeroing in, then‑

He tore his glance forcibly from the road and stared blearily at the moving shad­ows around him, then looked up at the horizon, hunting for even a trace of dawn light. There was none, of course. The night was still dark.

They had passed through two or three more small towns, all of them dark and closed. Since midnight they had passed maybe three dozen sleepy spectators, the die‑ hard type who grimly watch in the New Year each December 31st, come hell or high water. The rest of the last three and a half hours was nothing but a dream montage, an insomniac's half‑ sleeping wakemare.

Garraty looked more closely at the faces around him, but none seemed familiar. An irrational panic stole over him. He tapped the shoulder of the Walker in front of him. " Pete? Pete, that you? "

The figure slipped away from him with an irritated grunt and didn't look back. Olson had been on his left, Baker on his right, but now there was no one at all on his left side and the boy to his right was much chubbier than Art Baker.

Somehow he had wandered off the road and fallen in with a bunch of late‑ hiking Boy Scouts. They would be looking for him. Hunting for him. Guns and dogs and Squads with radar and heat‑ tracers and‑

Relief washed over him. That was Abraham, up ahead and at four o'clock. All he'd had to do was turn his head a little. The gangling form was unmistakable.

" Abraham! " he stage‑ whispered. " Abraham, you awake? "

Abraham muttered something.

" I said, you awake? "

" Yes goddammit Garraty lea'me alone."

At least he was still with them. That feeling of total disorientation passed away.

Someone up ahead was given a third warning and Garraty thought, I don't have any! I could sit down for a minute or a minute and a half. I could‑

But he'd never get up.

Yes I would, he answered himself. Sure I would, I'd just‑

Just die. He remembered promising his mother that he would see her and Jan in Freeport. He had made the promise lightheartedly, almost carelessly. At nine o'clock yesterday morning, his arrival in Freeport had been a foregone conclusion. But it wasn't a game anymore, it was a three‑ dimensional reality, and the possi­bility of walking into Freeport on nothing but a pair of bloody stumps seemed a horribly possible possibility.

Someone else was shot down... behind him, this time. The aim was bad, and the unlucky ticket‑ holder screamed hoarsely for what seemed a very long time before another bullet cut off the sound. For no reason at all Garraty thought of bacon, and heavy, sour spit came into his mouth and made him feel like gagging. Garraty wondered if twenty‑ six down was an unusually high or an unusually low number for seventy‑ five miles into a Long Walk.

His head dropped slowly between his shoulders, and his feet carried them for­ward on their own. He thought about a funeral he had gone to as a boy. It had been Freaky D'Allessio's funeral. Not that his real name had been Freaky, his real name had been George, but all the kids in the neighborhood called him Freaky because his eyes didn't quite jibe...

He could remember Freaky waiting to be picked up for baseball games, always coming in dead last, his out‑ of‑ kilter eyes switching hopefully from one team cap­tain to the other like a spectator at a tennis match. He always played deep center field, where not too many balls were hit and he couldn't do much damage; one of his eyes was almost blind, and he didn't have enough depth perception to judge any balls hit to him. Once he got under one and jabbed his glove at a hunk of thin air while the ball landed on his forehead with an audible bonk! like a cantaloupe being whocked with the handle of a kitchen knife. The threads on the ball left an imprint dead square on his forehead for a week, like a brand.

Freaky was killed by a car on U.S. 1 outside of Freeport. One of Garraty's friends, Eddie Klipstein, saw it happen. He held kids in thrall for six weeks, Eddie Klipstein did, telling them about how the car hit Freaky D'Allessio's bike and Freaky went up over the handlebars, knocked spang out of his shitkicker boots by the impact, both of his legs trailing out behind him in crippled splendor as his body flew its short, wingless flight from the seat of his Schwinn to a stone wall where Freaky landed and spread his head like a dollop of wet glue on the rocks.

He went to Freaky's funeral, and before they got there he almost lost his lunch wondering if he would see Freaky's head spread in the coffin like a glob of Elmer's Glue, but Freaky was all fixed up in his sport coat and tie and his Cub Scouts at­tendance pin, and he looked ready to step out of his coffin the moment someone said baseball. The eyes that didn't jibe were closed, and in general Garraty felt pretty relieved.

That had been the only dead person he had ever seen before all of this, and it had been a clean, neat dead person. Nothing like Ewing, or the boy in the loden trenchcoat, or Davidson with blood on his livid, tired face.

It's sick, Garraty thought with dismal realization. It's just sick.

At quarter to four he was given first warning, and he slapped himself twice smartly across the face, trying to make himself wake up. His body felt chilled clear through. His kidneys dragged at him, but at the same time he felt that he didn't quite have to pee yet. It might have been his imagination, but the stars in the east seemed a trifle paler. With real amazement it occurred to him that at this time yes­terday he had been asleep in the back of the car as they drove up toward the stone marking post at the border. He could almost see himself stretched out on his back, sprawling there, not even moving. He felt an intense longing to be back there. Just to bring back yesterday morning.

Ten of four now.

He looked around himself, getting a superior, lonely kind of gratification from knowing he was one of the few fully awake and aware. It was definitely lighter now, light enough to make out snatches of features in the walking silhouettes. Baker was up ahead‑ he could tell it was Art by the flapping red‑ striped shirt‑ and McVries was near him. He saw Olson was off to the left, keeping pace with the halftrack, and was surprised. He was sure that Olson had been one of those to get tickets during the small hours of the morning, and had been relieved that he hadn't had to see Hank go down. It was too dark even now to see how he looked, but Olson's head was bouncing up and down in time to his stride like the head of a rag doll.

Percy, whose mom kept showing up, was back by Stebbins now. Percy was walking with a kind of lopsided poll, like a long‑ time sailor on his first day ashore. He also spotted Gribble, Harkness, Wyman, and Collie Parker. Most of the people he knew were still in it.

By four o'clock there was a brightening band on the horizon, and Garraty felt his spirits lift. He stared back at the long tunnel of the night in actual horror, and wondered how he ever could have gotten through it.

He stepped up his pace a little, approaching McVries, who was walking with his chin against his breast, his eyes half‑ open but glazed and vacant, more asleep than awake. A thin, delicate cord of saliva hung from the corner of his mouth, picking up the first tremulous touch of dawn with pearly, beautiful fidelity. Gar­raty stared at this strange phenomenon, fascinated. He didn't want to wake McVries out of his doze. For the time being it was enough to be close to someone he liked, someone else who had made it through the night.

They passed a rocky, steeply slanting meadow where five cows stood gravely at a bark‑ peeled pole fence, staring out at the Walkers and chewing thoughtfully. A small dog tore out of a farmyard and barked at them ratchetingly. The soldiers on the halftrack raised their guns to high port, ready to shoot the animal if he in­terfered with any Walker's progress, but the dog only chased back and forth along the shoulder, bravely voicing defiance and territoriality from a safe distance. Someone yelled thickly at him to shut up, goddammit.

Garraty became entranced with the coming dawn. He watched as the sky and the land lightened by degrees. He watched the white band on the horizon deepen to a delicate pink, then red, then gold. The guns roared once more before the last of the night was finally banished, but Garraty barely heard. The first red arc of sun was peering over the horizon, faded behind a fluff of cloud, then came again in an onslaught. It looked to be a perfect day, and Garraty greeted it only half‑ coherently by thinking: Thank God I can die in the daylight.

A bird twitted sleepily. They passed another farmhouse where a man with a beard waved at them after putting down a wheelbarrow filled with hoes, rakes, and plant­ing‑ seed.

A crow cawed raucously off in the shadowy woods. The first heat of the day touched Garraty's face gently, and he welcomed it. He grinned and yelled loudly for a canteen.

McVries twitched his head oddly, like a dog interrupted in a dream of cat‑ chas­ing, and then looked around with muddy eyes. " My God, daylight. Daylight, Gar­raty. What time? "

Garraty looked at his watch and was surprised to find it was quarter of five. He showed McVries the dial.

" How many miles? Any idea? "

" About eighty, I make it. And twenty‑ seven down. We're a quarter of the way home, Pete."

" Yeah." McVries smiled. " That's right, isn't it? "

" Damn right."

" You feel better? " Garraty asked.

" About one thousand per cent."

" So do I. I think it's the daylight."

" My God, I bet we see some people today. Did you read that article in World's Week about the Long Walk? "

" Skimmed it, " Garraty said. " Mostly to see my name in print."

" Said that over two billion dollars gets bet on the Long Walk every year. Two billion! "

Baker had awakened from his own doze and had joined them. " We used to have a pool in my high school, " he said. " Everybody'd kick in a quarter, and then we'd each pick a three‑ digit number out of a hat. And the guy holdin' the number closest to the last mile of the Walk, he got the money."

" Olson! " McVries yelled over cheerily. " Just think of all the cash riding on you, boy! Think of the people with a bundle resting right on your skinny ass! "

Olson told him in a tired, washed‑ out voice that the people with a bundle wa­gered on his skinny ass could perform two obscene acts upon themselves, the sec­ond proceeding directly from the first. McVries, Baker, and Garraty laughed.

" Be a lotta pretty girls on the road today, " Baker said, eyeing Garraty roguishly.

" I'm all done with that stuff, " Garraty said. " I got a girl up ahead. I'm going to be a good boy from now on."

" Sinless in thought, word, and deed, " McVries said sententiously.

Garraty shrugged. " See it any way you like, " he said.

" Chances are a hundred to one against you ever having a chance to do more than wave to her again, " McVries said flatly.

" Seventy‑ three to one now."

" Still pretty high."

But Garraty's good humor was solid. " I feel like I could walk forever, " he said blandly. A couple of the Walkers around him grimaced.

They passed an all‑ night gas station and the attendant came out to wave. Just about everyone waved back. The attendant was calling encouragement to Wayne, 94, in particular.

" Garraty, " McVries said quietly.

" What? "

" I couldn't tell all the guys that bought it. Could you? "

'No."

" Barkovitch? "

" No. Up ahead. In front of Scramm. See him? "

McVries looked. " Oh. Yeah, I think I do."

" Stebbins is still back there, too. "

" Not surprised. Funny guy, isn't he? "

" Yeah. "

There was silence between them. McVries sighed deeply, then unshouldered his knapsack and pulled out some macaroons. He offered one to Garraty, who took one. " I wish this was over, " he said. " One way or the other. "

They ate their macaroons in silence.

" We must be halfway to Oldtown, huh? " McVries said. " Eighty down, eighty to go? "

" I guess so, " Garraty said.

" Won't get there until tonight, then. "

The mention of night made Garraty's flesh crawl. " No, " he said. Then, ab­ruptly: " How'd you get that scar, Pete? "

McVries's hand went involuntarily to his cheek and the scar. " It's a long story, " he said briefly.

Garraty took a closer look at him. His hair was rumpled and clotty with dust and sweat. His clothes were limp and wrinkled. His face was pallid and his eyes were deeply circled in their bloodshot orbs.

" You look like shit, " he said, and suddenly burst out laughing.

McVries grinned. " You don't exactly look like a deodorant ad yourself, Ray. "

They both laughed then, long and hysterically, clutching each other and trying to keep walking at the same time. It was as good a way as any to put an end to the night once and for all. It went on until Garraty and McVries were both warned. They stopped laughing and talking then, and settled into the day's business.

Thinking, Garraty thought. That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them. It was enough to make you wonder what Socrates had thought about right after he had tossed off his hemlock cocktail.

At a little past five o'clock they passed their first clump of bona fide spectators, four little boys sitting cross-legged like Indians outside a pup tent in a dewy field. One was still wrapped up in his sleeping bag, as solemn as an Eskimo. Their hands went back and forth like timed metronomes. None of them smiled.

Shortly afterward, the road forked into another, larger road. This one was a smooth, wide expanse of asphalt, three lanes wide. They passed a truck‑ stop res­taurant, and everyone whistled and waved at the three young waitresses sitting on the steps, just to show them they were still starchy. The only one who sounded halfway serious was Collie Parker.

" Friday night, " Collie yelled loudly. " Keep it in mind. You and me, Friday night. "

Garraty thought they were all acting a little immature, but he waved politely and the waitresses seemed not to mind. The Walkers spread out across the wider road as more of them came fully awake to the May 2nd morning sunshine. Garraty caught sight of Barkovitch again and wondered if Barkovitch wasn't really one of the smart ones. With no friends you had no grief.

A few minutes later the word came back, and this time the word was a knock‑ knock joke. Bruce Pastor, the boy just in front of Garraty, turned around to Garraty and said, " Knock, knock, Garraty."

" Who's there? "

" Major. "

" Major who? "

" Major buggers his mother before breakfast, " Bruce Pastor said, and laughed uproariously. Garraty chuckled and passed it back to McVries, who passed it to Olson. When the joke came back the second time, the Major was buggering his grandmother before breakfast. The third time he was buggering Sheila, the Bedlington terrier that appeared with him in so many of his press releases.

Garraty was still laughing over that one when he noticed that McVries's laugh­ter had tapered off and disappeared. He was staring with an odd fixity at the wooden‑ faced soldiers atop the halftrack. They were staring back impassively.

" You think that's funny? " he yelled suddenly. The sound of his shout cut cleanly through the laughter and silenced it. McVries's face was dark with suffused blood. The scar stood out in dead white contrast, like a slashed exclamation mark, and for one fear‑ filled moment Garraty thought he was having a stroke.

" Major buggers himself, that's what I think! " McVries cried hoarsely. " You guys, you probably bugger each other. Pretty funny, huh? Pretty funny, you bunch of motherfuckers, right? Pretty goddam FUNNY, am I right? "

Other Walkers stared uneasily at McVries and then eased away.

McVries suddenly ran at the halftrack. Two of the three soldiers raised their guns to high port, ready, but McVries halted, halted dead, and raised his fists at them, shaking them above his head like a mad conductor.

" Come on down here! Put down those rifles and come on down here! I'll show you what's funny! "

" Warning, " one of them said in a perfectly neutral voice. " Warning 61. Sec­ond warning. "

Oh my God, Garraty thought numbly. He's going to get it and he's so close... so close to them... he'll fly through the air just like Freaky D'Allessio. McVries broke into a run, caught up with the halftrack, stopped, and spat on the side of it. The spittle cut a clean streak through the dust on the side of the half­track.

" Come on! " Mc Vries screamed. " Come on down here! One at a time or all at once, I don't give a shit! "

" Warning! Third Warning, 61, final warning. "

" Fuck your warnings! "

Suddenly, unaware he was going to do it, Garraty turned and ran back, drawing his own warning. He only heard it with some back part of his mind. The soldiers were drawing down on McVries now. Garraty grabbed McVries's arm. " Come on-"

" Get out of here, Ray, I'm gonna fight them! "

Garraty put out his hands and gave McVries a hard, flat shove. " You're going to get shot, you asshole. "

Stebbins passed them by.

McVries looked at Garraty, seeming to recognize him for the first time. A sec­ond later Garraty drew his own third warning, and he knew McVries could only be seconds away from his ticket.

" Go to hell, " McVries said in a dead, washed‑ out voice. He began to walk again.

Garraty walked with him. " I thought you were going to buy it, that's all, " he said.

" But I didn't, thanks to the musketeer, " McVries said sullenly. His hand went to the scar. " Fuck, we're all going to buy it."

" Somebody wins. It might be one of us."

" It's a fake, " McVries said, his voice trembling. " There's no winner, no Prize. They take the last guy out behind a barn somewhere and shoot him too."

" Don't be so fucking stupid! " Garraty yelled at him furiously. " You don't have the slightest idea what you're sa‑ "

" Everyone loses, " McVries said. His eyes peered out of the dark cave of his sockets like baleful animals. They were walking by themselves. The other Walk­ers were keeping away, at least for the time being. McVries had shown red, and so had Garraty, in a way‑ he had gone against his own best interest when he ran back to McVries. In all probability he had kept McVries from being number twenty‑ eight.

" Everyone loses, " McVries repeated. " You better believe it."

They walked over a railroad track. They walked under a cement bridge. On the other side they passed a boarded‑ up Dairy Queen with a sign that read: WILL RE­OPEN FOR SEASON JUNE 5.

Olson drew a warning.

Garraty felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. It was Stebbins. He looked no better or worse than he had the night before. " Your friend there is jerked at the Major, " he said.

McVries showed no sign of hearing.

" I guess so, yeah, " Garraty said. " I myself have passed the point where I'd want to invite him home for tea. "

" Look behind us."

Garraty did. A second halftrack had rolled up, and as he looked, a third fell in behind it, coming in off a side road.

" The Major's coming, " Stebbins said, " and everybody will cheer. " He smiled, and his smile was oddly lizardlike. " They don't really hate him yet. Not yet. They just think they do. They think they've been through hell. But wait until tonight. Wait until tomorrow. "

Garraty looked at Stebbins uneasily. " What if they hiss and boo and throw can­teens at him, or something? "

" Are you going to hiss and boo and throw your canteen? "

" No.'

" Neither will anyone else. You'll see."

" Stebbins? "

Stebbins raised his eyebrows.

" You think you'll win, don't you? "

" Yes, " Stebbins said calmly. " I'm quite sure of it." And he dropped back to his usual position.

At 5: 25 Yannick bought his ticket. And at 5: 30 AM, just as Stebbins had pre­dicted, the Major came.

There was a winding, growling roar as his jeep bounced over the crest of the hill behind them. Then it was roaring past them, along the shoulder. The Major was standing at full attention. As before, he was holding a stiff, eyes‑ right salute. A funny chill of pride went through Garraty's chest.

Not all of them cheered. Collie Parker spat on the ground. Barkovitch thumbed his nose. And McVries only looked, his lips moving soundlessly. Olson appeared not to notice at all as the Major went by; he was back to looking at his feet.

Garraty cheered. So did Percy What's‑ His‑ Name and Harkness, who wanted to write a book, and Wyman and Art Baker and Abraham and Sledge, who had just picked up his second warning.

Then the Major was gone, moving fast. Garraty felt a little ashamed of himself. He had, after all, wasted energy.

A short time later the road took them past a used car lot where they were given a twenty‑ one‑ horn salute. An amplified voice roaring out over double rows of flut­tering plastic pennants told the Walkers-‑ and the spectators-‑ that no one out-­traded McLaren's Dodge. Garraty found it all a little disheartening.

" You feel any better? " he asked McVries hesitantly.

" Sure, " McVries said. " Great. I'm just going to walk along and watch them drop all around me. What fun it is. I just did all the division in my head‑ math was my good subject in school‑ and I figure we should be able to make at least three hundred and twenty miles at the rate we're going. That's not even a record distance. "

" Why don't you just go and have it on someplace else if you're going to talk like that, Pete, " Baker said. He sounded strained for the first time.

" Sorry, Mum, " McVries said sullenly, but he shut up.

The day brightened. Garraty unzipped his fatigue jacket. He slung it over his shoulder. The road was level here. It was dotted with houses, small businesses, and occasional farms. The pines that had lined the road last night had given way to Dairy Queens and gas stations and little crackerbox ranchos. A great many of the ranchos were FOR SALE. In two of the windows Garraty saw the familiar signs: MY SON GAVE HIS LIFE IN THE SQUADS.

" Where's the ocean? " Collie Parker asked Garraty. " Looks like I was back in Illy‑ noy. "

" Just keep walking, " Garraty said. He was thinking of Jan and Freeport again. Freeport was on the ocean. " It's there. About a hundred and eight miles south."

" Shit, " said Collie Parker. " What a dipshit state this is."

Parker was a big‑ muscled blond in a polo shirt. He had an insolent look in his eye that not even a night on the road had been able to knock out. " Goddam trees everyplace! Is there a city in the whole damn place? "

" We're funny, up here, " Garraty said. " We think it's fun to breathe real air instead of smog."

" Ain't no smog in Joliet, you fucking hick, " Collie Parker said furiously. " What are you laying on me? "

" No smog but a lot of hot air, " Garraty said. He was angry.

" If we was home, I'd twist your balls for that."

" Now boys, " McVries said. He had recovered and was his old sardonic self again. " Why don't you settle this like gentlemen? First one to get his head blown off has to buy the other one a beer. "

" I hate beer, " Garraty said automatically.

Parker cackled. " You fucking bumpkin, " he said, and walked away.

" He's buggy, " McVries said. " Everybody's buggy this morning. Even me. And it's a beautiful day. Don't you agree, Olson? "

Olson said nothing.

" Olson's got bugs, too, " McVries confided to Garraty. " Olson! Hey, Hank! "

" Why don't you leave him alone? " Baker asked.

" Hey Hank! " McVries shouted, ignoring Baker. " Wanna go for a walk? "

" Go to hell, " Olson muttered.

" What? " McVries cried merrily, cupping a hand to his ear. " Wha choo say? "

" Hell! Hell! " Olson screamed. " Go to hell! "

" Is that what you said." McVries nodded wisely.

Olson went back to looking at his feet, and McVries tired of baiting him, if that was what he was doing.

Garraty thought about what Parker had said. Parker was a bastard. Parker was a big drugstore cowboy and Saturday night tough guy. Parker was a leather jacket hero. What did he know about Maine? He had lived in Maine all his life, in a little town called Porterville, just west of Freeport. Population 970 and not so much as a blinker light and just what's so damn special about Joliet, Illy‑ noy anyway?

Garraty's father used to say Porterville was the only town in the county with more graveyards than people. But it was a clean place. The unemployment was high, the cars were rusty, and there was plenty of screwing around going on, but it was a clean place. The only action was Wednesday Bingo at the grange hall (last game a coverall for a twenty‑ pound turkey and a twenty‑ dollar bill), but it was clean. And it was quiet. What was wrong with that?

He looked at Collie Parker's back resentfully. You missed out, buddy, that's all. You take Joliet and your candy‑ store ratpack and your mills and you jam them. Jam them crossways, if they'll fit. He thought about Jan again. He needed her. I love you, Jan, he thought. He wasn't dumb, and he knew she had become more to him than she actually was. She had turned into a life‑ symbol. A shield against the sudden death that came from the halftrack. More and more he wanted her because she symbolized the time when he could have a piece of ass‑ his own.

It was quarter of six in the morning now. He stared at a clump of cheering housewives bundled together near an intersection, small nerve‑ center of some un­known village. One of them was wearing tight slacks and a tighter sweater. Her face was plain. She wore three gold bracelets on her right wrist that clinked as she waved. Garraty could hear them clink. He waved back, not really thinking about it. He was thinking about Jan, who had come up from Connecticut, who had seemed so smooth and self‑ confident, with her long blond hair and her flat shoes. She alnost always wore flats because she was so tall. He met her at school. It went slow, but finally it clicked. God, had it clicked.

"... Garraty? "

" Huh? "

It was Harkness. He looked concerned. " I got a cramp in my foot, man. I don't know if I can walk on it. " Harkness's eyes seemed to be pleading for Garraty to do something.

Garraty didn't know what to say. Jan's voice, her laughter, the tawny caramel‑ colored sweater and her cranberry‑ red slacks, the time they took his little brother's sled and ended up making out in a snowbank (before she put snow down the back of his parka)... those things were life. Harkness was death. By now Garraty could smell it.

" I can't help you, " Garraty said. " You have to do it yourself."

Harkness looked at him in panicked consternation, and then his face turned grim and he nodded. He stopped, kneeled, and fumbled off his loafer.

" Warning! Warning 49! "

He was massaging his foot now. Garraty had turned around and was walking backwards to watch him. Two small boys in Little League shirts with their baseball gloves hung from their bicycle handlebars were also watching him from the side of the road, their mouths hung open.

" Warning! Second warning, 49! "

Harkness got up and began to limp onward in his stocking foot, his good leg already trying to buckle with the extra weight it was bearing. He dropped his shoe, grabbed for it, got two fingers on it, juggled it, and lost it. He stopped to pick it up and got his third warning.

Harkness's normally florid face was now fire‑ engine red. His mouth hung open in a wet, sloppy O. Garraty found himself rooting for Harkness. Come on, he thought, come on, catch up. Harkness, you can.

Harkness limped faster. The Little League boys began to pedal along, watching him. Garraty turned around frontward, not wanting to watch Harkness anymore. He stared straight ahead, trying to remember just how it had felt to kiss Jan, to touch her swelling breast.

A Shell station came slowly up on the right. There was a dusty, fender‑ dented pickup parked on the tarmac, and two men in red‑ and‑ black‑ checked hunting shirts sitting on the tailgate, drinking beer. There was a mailbox at the end of a rutted dirt driveway, its lid hanging open like a mouth. A dog was barking hoarsely and endlessly somewhere just out of sight.

The carbines came slowly down from high port and found Harkness.

There was a long, terrible moment of silence, and then they went back up again to high port, all according to the rules, according to the book. Then they came down again. Garraty could hear Harkness's hurried, wet breathing.

The guns went back up, then down, then slowly back up to high port.

The two Little Leaguers were still keeping pace. " Get outta here! " Baker said suddenly, hoarsely. " You don't want to see this. Scat! "

They looked with flat curiosity at Baker and kept on. They had looked at Baker as if he was some kind of fish. One of them, a small, bulletheaded kid with a wiffle haircut and dish‑ sized eyes, blipped the horn bolted to his bike and grinned. He wore braces, and the sun made a savage metal glitter in his mouth.

The guns came back down. It was like some sort of dance movement, like a ritual. Harkness rode the edge. Read any good books lately? Garraty thought in­sanely. This time they're going to shoot you. Just one step too slow‑

Eternity.

Everything frozen.

Then the guns went back up to high port.

Garraty looked at his watch. The second hand swung around once, twice, three times. Harkness caught up to him, passed him by. His face was set and rigid. His eyes looked straight ahead. His pupils were contracted to tiny points. His lips had a faint bluish cast, and his fiery complexion had faded to the color of cream, except for two garish spots of color, one on each cheek. But he was not favoring the bad foot anymore. The cramp had loosened. His stocking foot slapped the road rhythmically. How long can you walk without your shoes? Garraty wondered.

He felt a loosening in his chest all the same, and heard Baker let out his breath. It was stupid to feel that way. The sooner Harkness stopped walking, the sooner he could stop walking. That was the simple truth. That was logic. But something went deeper, a truer, more frightening logic. Harkness was a part of the group that Garraty was a part of, a segment of his subclan. Part of a magic circle that Garraty belonged to. And if one part of that circle could be broken, any part of it could be broken.

The Little Leaguers biked along with them for another two miles before losing interest and turning back. It was better, Garraty thought. It didn't matter if they had looked at Baker as though he were something in a zoo. It was better for them to be cheated of their death. He watched them out of sight.

Up ahead, Harkness had formed a new one‑ man vanguard, walking very rap­idly, almost running. He looked neither right nor left. Garraty wondered what he was thinking.

 

 


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