Ghost Story

wildness- our paradise was crumbling all around us, and she kicked it into powder with every step. With every glance. She did seem like a devil; like something possessed. You know how when a woman gets angry, really angry, she can reach way back into herself and find rage enough to blow any man to pieces-how all that feeling comes out and hits you like a truck? It was like that. 'Aren't you little sissies going to drink?' she said. So we drank.'

'It was unspeakable,' Sears said. 'She seemed twice our size. I think I knew what was coming. There was only one thing that could be coming. We were simply too immature to know how to handle it.'

'I don't know if I saw it coming, but it came anyhow,' Ricky said. 'She tried to seduce Lewis.'

'He was the worst possible choice,' Sears said. 'Lewis was only a boy. He may have kissed a gal before that night, but he certainly had done no more than that. We all loved Eva, but Lewis probably loved her most-he was the one who found that Dowson poem, remember. And because he loved her most, her performance that evening and her hatred stunned him.'

'And she knew it,' Ricky said. 'She was delighted. It pleased her, that Lewis was so shocked he could scarcely utter a word. And when she pushed Edward away and went after Lewis, Lewis was frozen stiff with horror. As if he had seen his mother begin to act that way.'

'His mother?' Sears asked. 'Well, I suppose. At least it tells you the depth of his fantasy about her- our fantasy, to be honest. And he was dumbstruck. Eva snaked her arms around him and kissed him. It looked like she was eating half his face. Imagine that-those hate-filled kisses pouring over you, all that fury biting into your month. It must have been like kissing a razor. When she drew back her head, Lewis's face was smeared with lipstick. Normally it would have been a funny sight but it was somehow horrifying. As if he was smeared with blood.'

'Edward went up to her and said, 'Cool down, Miss Galli,' or something of the sort. She whirled on him, and we felt that enormous pressure of hatred again. 'You want yours, do you, Edward?' she said. 'You can wait your turn. I want Lewis first. Because my little Lewis is so pretty.'

'And then,' Ricky said, 'she turned to me. 'You'll get some too, Ricky. And you too, Sears. You all will. But I want Lewis first. I want to show him what that insufferable Stringer Dedham saw when he peeked through my windows.' And she started to take off her blouse.'

' 'Please, Miss Galli,' Edward said,' Sears remembered, 'but she told him to shut up and finished taking off her blouse. She wore no bra. Her breasts were in period. Small and tight, like little apples. She looked incredibly lascivious. 'Now, pretty little Lewis, why don't we see what you can do?' She began eating his face again.'

Ricky said, 'So we all thought we knew what Stringer had seen through her window. Eva Galli making love with another man. That, as much as her nakedness and what she was doing to Lewis, was a moral shock. We were hideously embarrassed. Finally Sears and I took a shoulder apiece and pulled her away from Lewis. Then she really swore. It was incredibly ugly. 'Can't you wait for it, you little so and sos and et ceteras and et ceteras?' She began unbuttoning her skirt while she swore at us. Edward was nearly in tears. 'Eva,' he said, 'please don't.' She dropped her skirt and stepped out of it. 'What's wrong, you pansy, afraid to see what I look like?'

'We were miles out of our depth,' Sears continued. 'She pulled off her slip. She went dancing up to your uncle. 'I think I'll take a bite out of you, little Edward,' she said and leaned toward him-toward his neck. And he slapped her.'

'Hard,' Ricky said. 'And she slapped him back even harder. She put all her weight behind it. It sounded as loud as a gun going off. John and Sears and I practically fainted. We were helpless. We couldn't move.'

'If we could have, we might have stopped Lewis,' Sears said. 'But we stood like tin soldiers and watched him. He took off like an airplane-he just flew across the room and tackled her. He was sobbing and slobbering and wailing-he had snapped. He gave her a real football tackle. They went down like a bombed building. And they made a noise as loud as Black Monday's crash. Eva never got up.'

'Her head hit the edge of the fireplace,' Ricky said. 'Lewis crawled up on her back and kneeled over her and raised his fists, but even he saw the blood coming out of her mouth.'

Both old men were panting.

'So that was that,' Sears said. 'She was dead. Naked and dead, with the five of us standing around like zombies. Lewis vomited on the floor, and the rest of us were close to it. We could not believe what had happened- what we had done. It's no excuse, but we really were in shock. I think we just vibrated in the silence for a while.'

'Because the silence seemed immense,' Ricky said. 'It closed in on us like-like the snow out there. Finally Lewis said, 'We'll have to get the police.' 'No,' Edward said. 'We'll all go to jail. For murder.'

'Sears and I tried to tell him that no one had committed murder, but Edward said 'How will you like being disbarred then? Because that'll happen.' John checked her for pulse and respiration, but of course there was none. 'I think it's murder,' he said. 'We're sunk.' '

'Ricky asked what we were supposed to do,' Sears said, 'and John said, 'There's only one thing we can do. Hide her body. Hide it away where it won't be found.' We all looked at her body, and at her bloody face, and we all felt defeated by her-she had won. That's how it felt. Her hatred had provoked us to something very like murder, if not murder under the law. And now we were talking about concealing our act- both legally and morally, a damning step. And we agreed to it.'

Don asked, 'Where did you decide to hide her body?'

'There was an old pond five or six miles out of town. A deep pond. It's not there anymore. It was filled in and they built a shopping center on the land. Must have been twenty feet deep.'

'Lewis's car had a flat tire,' Sears said, 'so we wrapped the body in a sheet and left him there with her and went off into town to find Warren Scales. He had come in to shop with his wife, we knew. He was a good soul, and he liked us. We were going to tell him that we ruined his car, and then buy him a better one- Ricky and I paying the lion's share.'

'Warren Scales was the father of the farmer who talks about shooting Martians?' Don asked.

'Elmer was Warren's fourth child and first son. He wasn't even thought of then. We went along downtown and found Warren and promised to bring his car back in an hour or so. Then we went back to Edward's and carried the girl down the stairs and put her in the car. Tried to put her in the car.'

Ricky said, 'We were so nervous and afraid and numb and we still couldn't believe what had happened or what we were doing. And we had great difficulty in fitting her into the car. 'Put her feet in first,' someone said, and we slid the body along the back seat, and the sheet got all tangled up, and Lewis started to swear about her head being caught and we pulled her halfway out again and John screamed that she moved. Edward called him a damned fool and said he knew she couldn't move-wasn't he a doctor?'

'Yet finally we got her in-Ricky and John had to sit in back with the body. We had a nightmarish trip through town.' Sears paused and looked into the fire. 'My God. I was driving. I just remembered that. I was so rattled that I couldn't remember how to get to the pond. I just backtracked and drove around and went four or five miles out of our way. Finally someone told me how to get there. And we got onto that little dirt road which led down to the pond.'

'Everything seemed so sharp,' Ricky said. 'Every leaf, every pebble-flat and sharp as a drawing in a book. We got out of that car and the world just hit us between the eyes. 'Do we have to do this?' Lewis asked. He was crying. Edward said, 'I wish to God we didn't.' '

'Then Edward got back behind the wheel,' Sears said. 'The car was ten-fifteen yards from the pond, which fell off almost immediately to its full depth. He switched on the ignition. I cranked it up. Edward retarded the spark, put it in first, popped the clutch and jumped out. The car crawled forward.'

Both men fell silent again, and looked at each other. 'Then-' Ricky said, and Sears nodded. 'I don't know how to say this…'

'Then we saw something,' Sears said. 'We hallucinated. Or something.'

'You saw her alive again,' Don said. 'I know.'

Ricky looked at him with a tired astonishment. 'I guess you do. We saw her face through the rear window. She was staring at us-grinning at us. Jeering at us. We damn near dropped dead. The next second the car splashed into the pond and started to sink. We all ran forward and tried to look into the side windows. I was scared silly. I knew she was dead, back in the apartment-I knew it. John jumped into the water just as