where the air tasted as sweet as that in a primeval forest, lacking the slightest scent of soot. The tsunami of smoke still rushed at them, over them, and past them, providing this impossible refuge, this saving eye of calm in the tumult.
And unto them, out of the blinding masses, came a creature of such heart-stopping beauty that Noah might have fallen to his knees before it if he had not already been on the floor. As white as a fresh winter mantle in a pristine wilderness, the entity arrived utterly un-soiled by the storm of filth through which it had passed. The huge luminous golden eyes, which should have terrified Noah by virtue of their strangeness and by the directness of their regard, did not instill terror, however, but fostered a sense of peace. He was overcome by the humbling perception that this visitor saw him as no one previously had ever seen him, gazed into the secret heart of him, and was not offended by what it discovered there. No terror, no fear troubled him except the reverential fear called awe; instead, set loose was a joy that he hadn’t been aware he contained, that all his life had been caged in his breast, and now flew free.
Rising slowly to his feet, he looked wonderingly at Cass… Micky… Leilani. They were in the grip of the same emotions by which he himself had been overwhelmed. Magic was the moment, as when doves are delivered from thin air, but these wings were Noah’s, the wings of pure elation.
The enchanted being had arrived like a leopard, but it rose now and stood like a man, barely taller than Leilani, whom it approached and to whom it spoke, incredibly, in the voice of a young boy. In fact, this was perhaps the voice of Curtis Hammond: “You still shine, Leilani Klonk.”
“You too,” said the girl.
“You can’t be broken.”
“I came broken.”
“Not in the heart.”
Tears overwhelmed the girl, and Noah — with Micky and Cass— moved to her. He didn’t know what was happening here, didn’t understand how this magical entity and Curtis Hammond could be one and the same, but his long-worn yoke of despair had lifted, and for the moment, he did not need to understand more than that the world had changed for him, forever. He touched Leilani’s shoulder, Cass touched Noah’s arm, and Micky took the girl’s withered hand in hers.
The golden eyes regarded each of them before lowering to Leilani once more. “Not in the heart,” the apparition repeated. “Suffering can’t crack you. Evil can’t turn you. You’re going to do great things in your life, Leilani Klonk, great and wonderful things. And I ain’t just shovelin’ horseshit at you, neither.”
Leilani laughed through her tears. Self-consciously, as though embarrassed by what had been said of her, she looked away from her enchanted rescuer, blinked up at the sea of soot and fumes churning across the top of their protective bubble, and said, “Hey, spaceboy, this sure is some neat trick with the smoke.”
“Smoke is just fine particles of matter. On the micro level, where will can win, I can move some of the particles from where they are to where I want them to be. It’s really fewer molecules than in a deadbolt. It’s a little trick. I only have three tricks, really, and they’re all little ones, but useful.”
“Better than Batman,” Leilani said.
The apparition’s smile proved to be as luminous as his eyes. “Gee, thanks. But it’s an energy-intensive trick, uses up a lot of frankfurters and moo goo gai pan, so we better get out of here.”
Through a tempest of smoke and fire, they traveled in cool clean air, following the signs in blood that Noah had left to mark the true path.
Along angular passageways, around a cochlear spiral, into the kitchen, through the vault of empty bottles…
Breathtaking gray sky, the beautiful shades of silver polished and of silver patinated. Rain, rain falling less forcefully than when they’d gone inside, rain as Noah had never felt it before: pure, fresh, exhilarating.
Polly waited in the backyard, holding Curtis Hammond’s soaked clothes and shoes. Soaked herself, mud- spattered, bedraggled, she grinned like a holy fool oblivious of the storm.
As graceful as water flowing, his white fur appearing to repel the rain, the golden-eyed apparition went to Polly, recovered the boy’s clothes from her, and then turned to meet the stares of all assembled until they took the hint and, as one, turned their backs to grant him privacy.
For a moment they stood in silence, still stunned, struggling to wrap their minds around the enormity of their experience, and then Leilani giggled. Her mirth infected the twins, Micky, and even Noah.
“What’s so funny?” asked the apparition.
“We already saw you naked,” Leilani said through her laughter.
“Not when I’m being Curtis Hammond, you didn’t.”
“It’s sure nice to know,” Leilani said, “you’re not the kind of tacky alien, come to save the world, who has to shake his booty at everybody.”
As they leave the Teelroy farm in their two cars, only wisps of smoke escape from under the eaves, as well as from a few chinks here
and there. Then the firestorm in the house begins to blow out windows, and great black plumes churn upward through the rain.
They reach the county road and head toward Nun’s Lake without encountering any traffic.
By stepping out of his human disguise and then returning to it, the motherless boy has reestablished the original biological tension that made him easier to trace during his first few eventful days of being Curtis Hammond. For a while, if worse scalawags come scanning for him, his unique energy signal will be detectable and quickly recognized.
Immediately upon their return to the Fleetwood, they must break camp and roll out, keep moving. Motion is commotion, and all that, but he will regret departing Nun’s Lake without having seen any nuns water-skiing, parasailing, or jet-boat racing. Perhaps when the world is saved, they can return here to visit, for in those better days to come, the nuns are more likely to be lighthearted and in a mood for recreation.
He looks through the back window of the Camaro to be sure that Polly and Cass are still following in Noah’s rental car. Yes, Polly is behind the wheel, and Cass is riding shotgun. No doubt they have their purses on the seat beside them, open for easy access.
If ever he loses the twins, his fabulous sisters, he will be heartbroken beyond endurance, and therefore he must never lose them. Never. He has lost too much already.
Micky drives the Camaro, and Noah rides up front beside her. Leilani shares the backseat with Curtis, and Old Yeller lies between them. Exhausted from an eventful day, the dog dozes.
They ride in silence, each occupied with his thoughts, which Curtis entirely understands. Sometimes socializing is easy, sometimes hard, and sometimes socializing does not require words.
By the time they arrive at the campground, the rain stops. The washed pine trees are an enthralling green; the graceful boughs have been diamond-strung; saturated trunks and limbs as dark as chocolate shed singing birds and inquisitive squirrels into the aftermath of the storm. This is an exquisite world, and the motherless boy loves it desperately.
To reach the Fleetwood, they must pass the Prevost, and as they approach that vehicle, which had been Leilani’s prison, Curtis sees emergency vehicles parked near it. The swiveling, roof-racked beacons on a police car cannot chase off the beauty of the overarching trees, but they do remind him that, although exquisite, this world turns in turbulence and is not at peace.
A uniformed police officer, standing by his cruiser, motions for Micky to drive past, to keep moving.
An ambulance stands ready, its back door open.
Two paramedics, flanking a gurney, guide it along the oiled lane, through puddles, to the ambulance.
On the stretcher lies a woman. Though Curtis has never seen her, he knows who she must be.
For her own safety and most likely for the safety of those who want to help her, Leilani’s mother is strapped to the gurney. She rages against her restraints, strains furiously to slip free of them. Wildly tossing her head, she curses the paramedics, curses onlookers, and screams at the sky.
Leilani looks away, lowers her head, and stares at her hands, which are folded in her lap.
On the seat between them, sister-become has not been roused from her nap by the scene at the Prevost. Her damp flank rises and falls with her slow breathing.
As the Camaro rolls past the ambulance, Curtis reaches out and lifts the girl’s deformed hand from her
