‘Well isn’t that a bitch,’ Dick said. ‘Go on, Todd. Get over there and ease the man’s mind.’
‘I thought he had someone to read to him,’ Monica said. ‘A new boy.’
‘He does,’ Todd said, suddenly hating his mother, hating the half-formed intuition he saw swimming in her eyes. ‘Maybe he wasn’t home, or maybe he couldn’t come over this late.’
‘Oh. Well… go on, then. But be careful.’
‘I will. You don’t need anything at the store?’
‘No. How’s your studying for that calculus final going?’
‘It’s trig,’ Todd said. ‘Okay, I guess. I was just getting ready to call it a night.’ This was a rather large lie.
‘You want to take the Porsche?’ Dick asked.
‘No, I’ll ride my bike.’ He wanted the extra five minutes to collect his thoughts and get his emotions under control — to try, at least. And in his present state, he would probably drive the Porsche into a telephone pole.
‘Strap your reflector-patch on your knee,’ Monica said, ‘and tell Mr Denker hello for us.’
‘Okay.’
That doubt was still in his mother’s eyes but it was less evident now. He blew her a kiss and then went out to the garage where his bike — a racing-style German bike rather than a Schwinn now — was parked. His heart was still racing in his chest, and he felt a mad urge to take the .30-.30 back into the house and shoot both of his parents and then go down to the slope overlooking the freeway. No more Apt Pupil 241 worrying about Dussander. No more bad dreams, no more winos. He would shoot and shoot and shoot, only saving one bullet back for the end.
Then reason came back to him and he rode away towards Dussander’s, his reflector-patch revolving up and down just above his knee, his long blond hair streaming back from his brow.
‘Holy Christ!’ Todd nearly screamed.
He was standing in the kitchen door. Dussander was damped on his elbows, his china cup between them. Large drops of sweat stood out on his forehead. But it was not Dossander Todd was looking at It was the blood. There seemed to be blood everywhere — it was puddled on the table, an the empty kitchen chair, on the floor.
‘Where are you bleeding?’ Todd shouted, at last getting his frozen feet to move again — it seemed to him that he had been standing in the doorway for at least a thousand years. This is the end, he was thinking, this is the absolute end of everything. The balloon is going up high, baby, all the way to the sky, baby, and it’s toot-toot- tootsie, goodbye. All the same, he was careful not to step in any of the blood. ‘I thought you said you had a fucking heart attack!’
‘It’s not my blood,’ Dussander muttered.
‘What?’ Todd stopped. ‘What did you say?’
‘Go downstairs. You will see what has to be done.’
‘What the hell is this?’ Todd asked. A sudden terrible idea -had come into his head.
‘Don’t waste our time, boy. I think you will not be too surprised at what you find downstairs. I think you have had experience in such matters as the one in my cellar. First-hand experience.’
Todd looked at him, unbelieving, for another moment, and then he plunged down the cellar stairs two by two. His first look in the feeble yellow glow of the basement’s only light made him think that Dussander had pushed a bag of garbage down there. Then he saw the protruding legs, and the dirty hands held down at the sides by the cinched belt.
‘Holy Christ,’ he repeated, but this time the words had no force at all — they emerged in a slight, skeletal whisper.
He pressed the back of his right hand against lips that were as dry as sandpaper. He closed his eyes for a moment… and when he opened them again, he felt in control of himself at last.
Todd started moving.
He saw the spade-handle protruding from a shallow hole in the far corner and understood at once what Dussander had being doing when his ticker had seized up. A moment later he became fully aware of the cellar’s fetid aroma — a smell like rotting tomatoes. He had smelled it before, but upstairs it was much fainter… and, of course, he hadn’t been here very often over the last couple of years. Now he understood exactly what that smell meant and for several moments he had to struggle with his gorge. A series of choked gagging sounds, muffled by the hand he had clapped over his mouth and nose, came from him.
Little by little he got control of himself again.
He seized the wino’s legs and dragged him across to the edge of the hole. He dropped them, skidded sweat from his forehead with the heel of his left hand, and stood absolutely still for a moment, thinking harder than he ever had in his life.
Then he seized the spade and began to deepen the hole. When it was five feet deep, he got out and shoved the derelict’s body in with his foot Todd stood at the edge of the grave, looking down. Tattered bluejeans. Filthy, scab-encrusted hands. It was a stewbum, all right The irony was almost funny. So funny a person could scream with laughter.
He ran back upstairs.
‘How are you?’ he asked Dussander.
‘Ill be all right Have you taken care of it?’
‘I’m doing it, okay?’
‘Be quick. There’s still up here.’
‘I’d like to find some pigs and feed you to them,’ Todd said, and went back down the cellar before Dussander could reply.
He had almost completely covered the wino when he began to think there was something wrong. He stared into the grave, grasping the spade’s handle with one hand. The wino’s legs stuck partway out of the mound of dirt, as did the tips of his feet — one old shoe, possibly a Hush Puppy, and one filthy athletic sock that might actually have been white around the time that Taft was President.
One Hush Puppy? One?
Todd half-ran back around the furnace to the foot of the stairs. He glanced around wildly. A headache was beginning to thud against his temples, dull drillbits trying to work their way out. He spotted the old shoe five feet away, overturned in the shadow of some abandoned shelving. Todd grabbed it, ran back to the grave with it, and threw it in. Then he started to shovel again. He covered the shoe, the legs, everything.
When all the dirt was back in the hole, he slammed the spade down repeatedly to tamp it Then he grabbed the rake and ran it back and forth, trying to disguise the fact the earth here had been recently turned. Not much use; without good camouflage, a hole that has been recently dug and then filled in always looks like a hole that has been recently dug and then filled in. Still, no one would have any occasion to come down here, would they? He and Dussander would damn well have to hope not.
Todd ran back upstairs. He was starting to pant.
Dussander’s elbows had spread wide and his head had sagged down to the table. His eyes were closed, the lids a shiny purple — the colour of asters..
‘Dussander!’ Todd shouted. There was a hot, juicy taste in his mouth — the taste of fear mixed with adrenalin and pulsing hot blood. ‘Don’t you dare die on me, you old fuck!’
‘Keep your voice down,’ Dussander said without opening ins eyes. ‘You’ll have everyone on the block over here.’
‘Where’s your cleaner? Lestoil… Top Job… something like that. And rags. I need rags.’
‘All that is under the sink.’
A lot of the blood had now dried on. Dussander raised his head and watched as Todd crawled across the floor, scrubbing first at the puddle on the linoleum and then at the drips that had straggled down the legs of the chair the wino had been sitting in. The boy was biting compulsively at his lips, champing at them, almost, like a horse at a bit. At last the job was finished. The astringent smell of cleaner filled the room.
‘There is a box of old rags under the stairs,’ Dussander said. ‘Put those bloody ones on the bottom. Don’t forget to wash your hands.’
‘I don’t need your advice. You got me into this.’
‘Did I? I must say you took hold well.’ For a moment the old mockery was in Dussander’s voice, and then a bitter grimace pulled his face into a new shape. ‘Hurry.’
Todd took care of the rags, then hurried up the cellar stairs for the last time. He looked nervously down the
