“I can see the whole room.”
“In the dark?”
“I can see a lot of it.”
“Yeah?”
“I can see the mantel.”
“Yeah?”
“Where he lined up the heads.”
As if he were drawn by a magnet stronger than his will, Colin stepped up beside Roy and bent forward and peered into the Kingman house. It was extremely dark in there, but he could see a bit more than he had seen a while ago: strange shapes, perhaps piles of broken furniture and other rubble; shadows that seemed to be moving but, of course, were not; and the white-marble mantel above the enormous fireplace, the sacrificial altar upon which Robert Kingman had offered up his family.
Suddenly Colin felt that this was a place he must get away from at once, a place he must stay away from forever. He knew it instinctively, on a deep animal level; and as if he were an animal, the hairs rose on the back of his neck, and he hissed softly, involuntarily, through bared teeth.
Roy said,
11
Midnight.
They cycled down Hawk Drive to Broadway and followed Broadway until it ended at Palisades Lane. They stopped at the head of the wooden steps that led down to the public beach. On the other side of the narrow street, elegant old Spanish houses faced the sea. The night was still. There was no traffic. The only sound was the steady pounding of the surf fifty feet below them. From here they would go separate ways: Roy’s house was several blocks north, and Colin’s lay to the south.
“What time will we get together?” Roy asked.
“We won’t. I mean, we can‘t,” Colin said unhappily. “My dad’s coming up from L.A. to take me fishing with a bunch of his friends.”
“You like to fish?”
“Hate it.”
“Can’t you get out of it?”
“No way. He spends two Saturdays a month with me, and he makes a big production out of it every time. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s important to him. If I tried to back out, he’d raise hell.”
“When you lived with him, did he even spend two days a month with you?”
“No.”
“So tell him to take his fishing pole and shove it up his ass. Tell him you won’t go.”
Colin shook his head. “No. It’s not possible, Roy. I just can’t. He’d think my mom put me up to it, and then there’d be real trouble between them.”
“What do you care?”
“I’m in the middle.”
“So let’s get together tomorrow evening.”
“That’s out, too. I won’t be home until ten o‘clock.”
“I really think you should tell him to shove it.”
“We’ll get together Sunday,” Colin said. “Come over about eleven. We’ll swim for an hour before lunch.”
“Okay.”
“Then we can do whatever you want.”
“Sounds good.”
“Well … see ya then.”
“Wait a minute.”
“Huh?”
“Someday soon, if I can arrange it for us, you want to get a piece?”
“A piece of what?”
“A piece of
“Oh.”
“Do you?”
Colin was embarrassed. “Where? I mean, who?”
“You remember those girls we saw tonight?”
“At the Pinball Pit?”
“Nah. They’re just kids. Teasers. I told you that. I’m talking about real girls, the ones in that movie.”
“What about them?”
“I think I know where I can get something that good for us, a girl just like one of those.”
“You been drinking?”
“I’m serious.”
“I’m Colin.”
“She’s got a beautiful face.”
“Who?”
“The girl I think we can get.”
“Jeez.”
“And really big boobs.”
“Really big?”
“Really.”
“Big as Raquel Welch?”
“Bigger.”
“Big as weather balloons?”
“I’m serious. And she has a pair of gorgeous legs.”
“Good,” Colin said. “One-legged girls never turn me on.”
“Will you stop it? I told you I’m serious. She’s hot stuff.”
“I’ll bet.”
“She really is.”
“How old is she?”
“Twenty-five or twenty-six.”
“First of all,” Colin said, “you’ll have to put on a false mustache. Then you can stand on my shoulders, and we can dress up in one suit, just one suit to cover us both, so she won’t realize we’re only a couple.of kids. She’ll think we’re a tall, dark, handsome man.”
Roy scowled. “I’m serious.”
“You keep saying that, but you sure don’t sound very serious to me.”
“Her name’s Sarah.”
“A beautiful, twenty-five-year-old girl won’t be interested in you and me.”
“Maybe not at first.”
“Not in a million years.”
“She’ll just need some persuading.”
“Persuading?”
“You and me together should be able to handle her.”
Colin gaped at him.
“You willing to try?” Roy asked.
“Are you talking about-
“What if I am?”
