The casket was lowered, dirt was thrown, words were said, people started to leave, many of them crying. Sue looked up, saw Robert on the other side of the grave. Through her tears, she smiled at him, he smiled at her, but neither of them made the effort to speak. She knew how he felt, she could feel his pain almost as clearly as her own, but she had nothing to say to him.
Could they have done something sooner? It seemed so obvious to her now the killings had begun at the same time that Wheeler had started adding on to his church Was there some way they could have discovered this earlier before everything had gone so far? Couldn't comm or sense have told them what was happening? Had they really] had to wait for her grandmother's Di Lo Ling Gum to happen?
Maybe, maybe not. She didn't know, and she would never know. But she did know one thing: laht sic was no set in stone. She did not have to wait passively to see what fate had in store for her. She could act instead of react, make her own decisions, steer her own course, live her own life.
But maybe that, too, was lair sic.
Maybe.
She turned away from the gravesite. The day was cool and clear, the sky a deep-sea blue, the kind of day Rich would have loved. In the distance, she heard the sound of hammers and buzz saws--the black church being dismantled.
Her grandmother had wanted to come to the funeral, had asked to come, but Sue had asked her not to. She did not know why, but she had not wanted her family to be here with her. Her grandmother, somehow, had understood.
She walked across the newly installed squares of grass, and saw Carole as she headed back to the car. The secretary turned in her direction, attempted a wave, but Sue hurriedly moved away.
As she walked, as her feet carried her over the recently restored ground, something shifted inside of her, something changed. The sadness and despair that had begun to take root within her disappeared, and she felt inappropriately light-headed, almost giddy. She knew, suddenly, with certainty, that everything was going to be all right, that she would be okay, that she and her family would live long and happy lives.
It was a strange, childishly simple thing to think, but it was what she wanted to hear, what she needed to hear, and it affected her in a way that nothing else could have. Di Lo Ling Gum ?
Perhaps it was. Or perhaps it was simply a voice within herself.
Perhaps it was merely what she wanted to believe.
She didn't care. All she knew was that she suddenly wanted to go home, to see her parents, to see John and her grandmother, to be with them ...... She looked back at Robert, now standing alone with the pastor at the edge of the grave, and thought that maybe later, maybe tomorrow, she would call him, talk to him.
No matter what happened from here on in, no matter what life threw at her, everything was going to turn out all right, everything was going to be okay.
She got in the station wagon, turned on the radio, and headed for home.
About the Author
BENTLEY LITTLE was born in Arizona a month after his mother attended the world premiere of Psycho. He now lives in California. He has worked as a newspaper reporter/photographer, video arcade attendant, window washer, rodeo gatekeeper, telephone book deliveryman, library aide, typesetter, furniture mover, salesclerk, and technical writer. He is the author of THE MAILMAN, DEATH INSTINCT and the Bram Stoker Award-winning THE REVELATION.
His girlfriend, Wai Sau, is Chinese.
