A sob broke loose from her.
'There's no grave for us, you bastard, you devil,' she cried. 'There's no grave for me or my mother! You can't make me leave here!'
I looked down into her face, though where my own body had fallen—onto the floor or onto the bed—I didn't know. Call on God under any name and go towards him! I told her.
Suddenly the strength that was resisting me contracted, and I felt its intense pressure dissolve. For one moment I thought I saw it, an amorphous shape rising above me. Then I realized I was lying on the floor. I was staring up at the ceiling. And I could hear Merrick, our Merrick crying once more.
'They're dead, Mr. Talbot, they're dead, Cold Sandra's dead and so is Honey in the Sunshine, my sister, Mr. Talbot, they're both dead, they've been dead since they left New Orleans, Mr. Talbot, all those four years of waiting, and they were dead the first night in Lafayette, Mr. Talbot, they're dead, dead, dead.' Slowly I climbed to my feet. There were cuts from the broken glass on my hands. I was physically sick. The child on the bed had shut her eyes. Her lips weren't sneering, they were stretched back as she continued her plaintive wails.
Mary was quick to lay a thick robe over her. Aaron was at her side. She rolled on her back and made a face suddenly.
'I'm sick, Mr. Talbot,' she said hoarsely.
'This way,' I turned her over, away from the perilous glass, and lifted her and carried her into the bathroom in my arms. She leant over the sink, and the vomit poured out of her.
I was shuddering all over. My clothes were drenched.
Mary urged me to step aside. It seemed quite outrageous to me for a moment, and then I realized how it must have seemed to Mary.
And so I withdrew.
When I glanced at Aaron I was amazed at the expression on his face. He had seen many cases of possession. They are all terrible, each in its own way.
We waited in the hallway until Mary told us we might come in.
Merrick was dressed in a white cotton gown to receive us, her hair brushed to a marvelous brown luster, and her eyes rimmed in red, but otherwise quite clear. She was in the armchair in the corner, under the light of the tall lamp. Her feet were safely protected with white satin slippers. But all the glass was gone. Indeed the dressing table looked quite fine with only one lamp and all of its intact bottles.
Merrick was still trembling, however, and when I approached her, she reached out and clasped my hand.
'Your shoulders will hurt for a little while,' I said apologetically.
'Here's how they died,' she said, looking at me and then at Aaron. 'They went with all that money to buy a new car. The man who sold it to them picked them up, you know, and he went with them to Lafayette, and there he killed them for the cash they had. He knocked them both hard over the head.'
I shook my head.
'Four years ago, it happened,' she said, going on intently, her mind on her story and nothing else. 'It happened the very next day after they left. He beat them in a motel room in Lafayette and put their bodies in that car and drove it into the swamps. That car just filled up with water. If they woke up, they drowned. There's nothing left of either one of them now.'
'Dear God,' I whispered.
'And all this time,' she said, 'I was so guilty for being jealous, jealous that Cold Sandra had taken Honey in the Sunshine and left me behind. I was guilty and jealous, guilty and jealous. Honey in the Sunshine was my older sister. Honey in the Sunshine was sixteen and she was 'no trouble,' that's what Cold Sandra told me. I was too little and she'd come back for me soon.'
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
'Where is she now?' I asked. Aaron let me know he had not been prepared for that. But I had to put the question to her. For a very long time she made no response. She lay staring, her body shivering violently, and then finally, she said:
'She's gone.'
'How did she come through?' I demanded.
Mary and Aaron shook their heads. 'David, leave her for the moment,' said Aaron as politely as he could. I had no intention of dropping the matter. I had to know.
Again, there was no immediate answer. And then Merrick heaved a sigh and turned to one side.
'How did she come through?' I asked again.
Merrick's face crumpled. She began very softly to cry.
'Please, Sir,' said Mary, 'let her alone just now.'
'Merrick, how did Honey in the Sunshine come through?' I demanded. 'Did you know she wanted to come through?' Mary took a stand to Merrick's left and glared at me.
I kept my eyes on the shivering girl.
'Did you ask her to come through?' I demanded softly.
'No, Mr. Talbot,' she said softly, her eyes drifting up to me again. 'I prayed to Great Nananne. I prayed to her spirit while it was still near earth to hear me.' Her tired voice could barely carry the words. 'Great Nananne sent her to tell me. Great Nananne will take care of them both.'
'Ah, I see.'
'You know what I did,' she continued. 'I called on a spirit that had only just died. I called on a soul that was still close enough to help me, and I got Honey, I got more than I ever wanted to get. But that's how it works sometimes, Mr. Talbot. When you call on
'Yes,' I responded. 'I know. Do you remember all that happened?'
'Yes,' she said, 'and no. I remember your shaking me and I remember knowing what had happened, but I don't really remember all the time that ticked by while she was in me.'
'I see,' I said gratefully. 'What do you feel now, Merrick?'
'Afraid of myself a little,' she answered. 'And I'm sorry she hurt you.'
'Oh, darling, for the love of Heaven, don't think about me,' I answered. 'I'm only concerned with you.'
'I know that, Mr. Talbot, but if it's any consolation to you, Joshua went into the Light when he died. He didn't hate you when he was falling down the mountain. Honey just made that up.'
I was stunned. I could feel Mary's sudden embarrassment. I could see that Aaron was amazed.
'I'm sure of it,' Merrick said. 'Joshua's in Heaven. Honey just read all those things from your mind.' I couldn't answer her. At the risk of more suspicion and condemnation from the vigilant Mary, I leant over and kissed Merrick on the cheek.
'The nightmare's over,' she said. 'I'm free of them all. I'm free to begin.' And so our long journey with Merrick began.
10
IT HAD NOT BEEN EASY for me to tell this story to Louis, and it was not finished. I had much more to say. But as I paused, it was as if I had wakened to the parlor around me, and to Louis's attentive presence, and I felt both immediate comfort and crushing guilt. For a moment I stretched my limbs and I felt my vampiric strength in my veins. We sat like two wholesome beings together, in the comfort of the glass-shaded lamps. For the first time since I'd begun the story, I stared up at the paintings along the walls of the room. These were all wonderfully colored Impressionist treasures which Louis had long ago collected and once kept in a small uptown house, where he lived until Lestat burnt that house, and, in reconciliation, begged Louis to come and join him here. I looked at a painting by Monet—one I'd come to neglect of late due to familiarity—a painting full of sunshine and greenery, of a woman at work on her needlepoint by a window under the limbs of delicate indoor trees. Like so many Impressionist paintings it was both highly intellectual, with its obvious brush strokes, and flagrantly domestic. And I let its stalwart sanctification of the ordinary soothe my suffering heart.
I wanted to feel our domesticity here in the Rue Royale. I wanted to feel morally safe, which of course I would never feel again.
