Mystery Walk

he'd expected, and he feared the influence her presence might have on Wayne. His bulk dwarfed her, but somehow, under her hard and appraising stare, he felt very vulnerable and small.

'Have you brought your boy here to heal?' she asked him.

'No. Only to minister, alongside me.'

Ramona turned her attention to the boy, and stepped a pace closer to him. Billy saw her eyes narrow, as if she'd seen something that scared her about Wayne Falconer, something he wasn't able yet to see, perhaps. Wayne said, 'What're you looking at?'

'Don't mind her. She's crazy.' Falconer took the boy's arm and started to herd him away; suddenly a hollow- eyed man in blue jeans and a T-shirt stood up from his seat and grasped Wayne's hand. 'Please,' the man said, his voice sad and raspy, 'I know who you are and what you can do. I've seen you do it before. Please ... my son's hurt bad, they brought him in a little while ago and they don't know if he's gonna . . .' The man clung to Wayne's hand as if he were about to collapse, and his bathrobed wife rose to support him. 'I know what you can do,' he whispered. 'Please . . . save my son's life!'

Billy saw Wayne glance quickly at his father. The man said, 'I'll give you money. I've got money, is that what you want? I'll turn to the Lord, I'll go to church every Sunday and I won't drink or gamble no more. But you've got to save him, you can't let those . . . those doctors kill him!'

'We'll pray for him,' Falconer said. 'What's his name?'

'No! You've got to touch him, to heal him like I've seen you do on television! My son's all burned up, his eyes are all burned!' The man gripped at Falconer's sleeve as other people thronged around. 'Please let your boy heal him, I'm begging you!'

'Well just look who's here, everybody!' Falconer suddenly boomed, and pointed toward Ramona. 'The Creekmores! Wayne, you know all about them, don't you? The mother's a Godless witch, and the boy calls up demons like he did at a certain sawmill around here! And now here they stand, on the eve of the worst disaster in Fayette history, turning up like bad pennies!'

'Wait,' John said. 'No, you're wrong, Reverend Falconer. Billy was at the high school, and he got hurt—'

'Hurt? You call that hurt? Look at him, everybody! Why isn't he all burned up, like the son of this poor soul here?' He gripped the man's shoulder. 'Why isn't he dyin', like some of your sons and daughters are right this minute? He was out there with the other young people! Why isn't he burned up?'

All eyes turned toward Ramona. She was silent, unprepared for Falconer's attack. But she understood that he was trying to use her and Billy as scapegoats, to avoid explaining why Wayne couldn't go from room to room in this hospital and heal everyone in them.

'I'll tell you why,' Falconer said. 'Maybe there are forces working behind this woman and boy that are better left alone by Christian folk! Maybe these forces, and God only knows what they are, protected this boy. Maybe they're inside him, and he carries Death and destruction with him like a plague—'

'Stop it!' Ramona said sharply. 'Stop trying to hide behind smoke! Boy!' She'd addressed Wayne, and now she moved past the evangelist to face his son. Billy rose painfully to his feet and held onto his father's arm. 'Do you know what you're doing, son?' she asked softly, and Billy saw him wince. 'If you do have a healing gift, it's not to be used for wealth or power. It can't be part of a show. Don't you understand that by now? If you're pretending to heal folks, you've got to stop giving them false hope. You've got to urge them to see a doctor, and to take their medicines.' Her hand came up, and gently touched Wayne's cheekbone.

He suddenly thrust his jaw forward and spat in her face.

'Witch!' he shouted in a strident and frightened voice. 'Get away from me!'

John leaped forward, his fists clenched. Instantly two men blocked his way, one of them shoving him back against the wall, the other pinning him there with an arm across his throat. Billy didn't have a chance to fight, for he was facing a knot of desperate and fearful people who wanted to stomp him under their shoes.

Falconer's voice raised above the din of shouting. 'Hold on now, folks! We don't want any trouble on our hands, do we? We've got enough to concern ourselves with tonight! Leave 'em be!'

Ramona wiped her face with the back of her hand. Her gaze was gentle but full of deep sadness. 'I'm sorry for you,' she told Wayne, and then turned to Falconer 'And for you. How many bodies and souls have you killed in the name of God? How many more will you destroy?'

'You're Godless trash,' the evangelist said. 'My son carries Life inside him, but yours spreads Death. If I were you, I'd take my trash with me and get out of this county.' His eyes glinted like cold diamonds.

'I've said my piece.' She took a few steps, stopped, and stared at a man and woman who blocked her path. 'Move,' she said, and they did. John was shaking, rubbing his throat and glaring at Falconer. 'Let's go home,' Ramona told her men; she was close to tears, but damned if she'd let any of these people see her cry!

'We gonna just let this filth walk out of here?' someone shouted from the other side of the waiting room.

'Let them go,' Falconer said, and the crowd quietened down. 'Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord! You'd better pray, witch! You'd better pray real hard!'

Ramona stumbled on her way across the room, and Billy took her weight on his shoulder to lead her out. John kept looking back, afraid of being jumped. Shouts and catcalls followed them all the way. They got in the Olds and drove away, passing ambulances that were bringing dead teen-agers wrapped in black rubber bags.

J.J. Falconer hurried Wayne out of the waiting room before anyone else could stop them. His face was flushed, his breathing rapid, and he motioned Wayne toward a utility room. Amid brooms and mops and cans of detergent, Falconer leaned against a wall and dabbed his face with a handkerchief.

'Are you all right?' Wayne's face was shadowed and grim; a single light bulb hung on a cord just above his head.

'Yeah. It's just ... the excitement. Let me get my breath.' He sat down on a detergent can. 'You handled yourself pretty good out there.'

'She scared me, and I didn't want her touching me.'

He nodded. 'You did real fine. That woman's pure trouble. Well, we'll see what we can do about her. I've got friends in Hawthorne. Yeah, we'll see. . . .'

'I didn't like what she said to me, Dad. It . . . made me hurt to hear her.'

'She speaks in Satan's language, trying to trick and confuse you, and make you doubt yourself. Somethin's got to be done about her and that . . . that mongrel of hers. Vic Chatham told me the whole story, about what his brother Lamar saw up at the mill. That boy spoke to the Devil up there, and went wild and almost tore the place apart. Somethin's got to be done about both of them, and soon.'

'Dad?' Wayne said after another moment. 'Could I . . . could I heal a dying person, if I . . . tried hard enough?'

Falconer carefully folded his damp handkerchief and put it away before answering. 'Yes, Wayne. If you tried hard enough, and prayed strong enough, you could. But this hospital is not the proper place to heal.'

Wayne frowned. 'Why not?'

'Because it's . . . not a house of God, that's why. Healing is only right in a sanctified place, where people have gathered to hear the Lord's Word.'

'But . . . people have a need right here.'

Falconer smiled darkly and shook his head. 'You've got that witch's voice in your head, Wayne. She's confused you, hasn't she? Oh sure, she'd like to see you go from room to room in this hospital, and heal everybody. But that wouldn't be right, because it's God's Will that some of these young people die here tonight. So we let the doctors work on 'em, and do all they can, but we know the mysterious ways of the Lord, don't we?'

'Yes sir.'

'That's right.' When he stood up, he winced and gingerly touched his chest. The pain was almost gone now, but it had felt like an electric shock. 'Now I'm feelin' a bit better. Wayne, I want you to do me a favor. Will you go outside and wait in the car?'

'Wait in the car? Why?'

'These poor folks will expect you to heal if you stay here, so I think it's best if you wait while I pray with them.'

'Oh.' Wayne was puzzled, and still disturbed by what the witch had said to him. Her dark eyes had seemed to