Something intruded, though. A pair of delicate hands rested upon my shoulders. A scent of patchouli lightly caressed my nostrils. I could feel Her warmth.
'Take a walk, sister' the Stranger said. His gaze never deviated from me. 'You never trusted Me.'
'That's because he cheats,' She whispered in my ear. 'That's simple enough reason not to trust him. Ask for proof of his honesty.'
I stuck my hand out like a department store dummy. 'May I see the cards?'
He scooped them up off the table. 'No one can see all three! You've got to trust Me!'
'Why?'
I didn't really need to ask. His boys stepped away from the bar toward our table. They'd stopped grinning.
'Because,' He said, 'those are the rules!'
'Then I don't want to play.' I stood defiantly. No one suckers Dell Ammo.
'Then you lose.' He leaned forward across the table, one fist clutching the cards, the other clenching up.
The lovely voice behind me whispered, 'You can't win or lose if you don't play the game. He's bluffing and terrified that anyone might find out.'
Her hands squeezed my shoulders. The Stranger swung His fist at my jaw. I ducked, thrusting my hand forward to seize His wrist.
Laughing, She snatched the cards from His hand. All three were kings.
'He palms the ace. The whole game's fixed.' She threw the cards down on the table.
'You never trusted Me,' He accused Her again. His voice was as petulant as a child's. He stiffened, regained His composure. 'You might have won if You'd trusted Me.'
She laughed like spring rain on crystal. 'I've always won, precisely because I don't trust you.' She released His hand. 'You, however, can never win. Why else do you continue to play so desperately?'
'You-' He stared at me with vicious hatred. 'You couldn't face Me alone, could you? You had to run to Mother for help like a little child.'
'At least,' She said, 'I help those who ask. And I don't require their souls in exchange.'
Somewhere, a coyote-or maybe it was a wolf-howled heartily. Suddenly, like a movie frame caught in a projector, all motion froze. A burst of flames evaporated everyone and everything except for the table and the cards. I turned them over.
All three had become queens of hearts.
25
Wheels Without Wheels
The street was littered with corpses.
I turned around to return to the saloon, suspecting that I was in for more fun.
The building had vanished. In its place lay an unending field of lifeless bodies. Some were mere skeletons with hardly any flesh at all. Others looked fresh. Most of them were in a condition somewhere in between, exuding that ripe putrescence that someone described as 'the sickly sweet stench of freshly baked bread.'
Only this smelled far worse. It choked the lungs and gagged the throat.
Animals and beasts of all kinds lay mixed in with the people. The flies might have gorged themselves if there had been any. Scattered over the corpses, though, were the husks of dead insects. Nothing lived. Nothing moved.
Except for whatever was making that repulsive smell. And me.
And one other... person.
Of course.
He dragged the body of a woman across that of a man in an attempt to lay them together, arm in arm. The woman's left arm separated at her shoulder, though, and he was forced to arrange the vignette as best he
