Seeds of Fear

headlights to indicate the offer of a job. 'Sure, I see her. Disease carrier.'

'Oh, you're a cruel man. They're not all so bad. I even did it now and then to keep body and soul together while I waited for you to come through. I know these girls. And I have an idea for tonight if you're willing.'

'Yeah? Like what?' Just the thought of a new sexual game made the blood rise to his head.

'Let's take her to your old place.'

'What?'

'Let's offer her some money and drive her out to the swamp. We can have some fun and we can kill some ghosts at the same time. You do feel the ghosts out there, don't you? We shouldn't leave here and take them with us. It'll spoil our future together.'

Bastine shivered where he sat. 'I don't wanna talk about that. I don't think about. them… if I can help it.'

'But you could go back if I was with you, couldn't you? It would be fun, Bastine. We'll play with the girl. Chase her. There's so many places there she can get lost and so many places I know where to hide. It would be terrifying!'

Bastine considered the proposition. Ever since he'd walked into the truck stop his entire life had taken a decided tilt. He felt he was moving on a conveyor belt on a slight angle up to the top floor of a malevolent fun house. What Shaw proposed scared him, but at the same time it thrilled him to imagine the things they could do. And he did need to slay, for all time, the lingering, tormenting visages of his mother and his father.

'She looks sweet and vulnerable,' Shaw said. 'We'd better hurry.'

Yes, he thought. Yes, yes, oh Christ, things were different now. He could have Shaw and the girl too, he could make them his slaves for the night, send them with torches to light the forest like nymphs dispatched by a god. They could be his audience while he spent his rage on the land that stole half his life.

'Yes,' he said, climbing from the cab. 'I'll get her. Wait here.'

'I'll pay extra because it'll be a threesome,' Bastine told the girl, holding her around the waist as he walked her to his truck. She was slim with small breasts, short bleached hair, a dimple in her chin. She made him think of a cured ham, plain, bony, but sturdy, enough meat for a meal.

'I don't mind anything if there's enough money,' she said. Her voice was high and piping, the trill of a monkey. An annoying sound that Bastine immediately decided to tune out as soon as he had the preliminaries completed. Let Shaw talk to her.

'And you don't mind we drive out to my old home place, huh? It's not far. We'll have room there. Can't move around much, not three of us, in my goddamn sleeper.'

She laughed easily enough. 'Naw, I don't mind. We don't wanna crowd each other, hon.'

Shaw had moved into the sleeper and let the girl take the passenger seat. Bastine unhitched his load and slid the rig from beneath it. He bobtailed it out of the truck stop while the girl, who called herself Dory, babbled in her tinny voice to Shaw. He wished he could erase her dimple. And he had to silence that noise coming out of her mouth.

He had not forgotten the dirt and mud back roads that led to the old house. He'd dreamed of it often enough since he'd left.

When he pulled into the bare ground of the front yard, mud clung to the rig's wheels and coated the mud flaps. The headlights outlined the leaning porch, the grimy windows where curtains had never hung.

'Bitch of a place,' Dory said. 'Creepy.'

'Let's go check it out.' Shaw pressed the girl through the door and crawled out behind her.

Bastine picked up his flashlight and turned off the motor. He couldn't stop shaking. They were plunged into darkness unrelieved by starlight. Bare trees hung with Spanish moss circled the yard like hairy skeletons, and above their heads the sky was black as the oil in his truck's crankcase.

He heard Shaw calling him and swung the light toward her. 'I'm not sure this was such a great idea,' he said. A burning tenseness bunched the muscles of his neck as if to ward off a blow from behind. He fiercely controlled the idiotic urge to turn and check for an assailant. He made sure Dory stood next to Shaw. He must keep them in sight at all times. That's what he had to do when he was at home. Keep them in sight. Never let them get the advantage. They were always sneaking up and surprising him, grabbing his collar and hauling him off his feet, the willow switch swinging in that blurred arc to sprinkle his back and legs with furious sparks of pain.

'It's going to be all right,' Shaw said. She gestured toward him, pulling him forward with invisible strings. 'It's going to be fun, Bastine. Remember? We can kill the fear. We can murder it here where it was born.'

'What's that mean?' Dory's high-pitched voice rose another register. 'What's wrong with him anyway? Why's he acting so funny?'

'You just do as you're told.' Shaw's harsh retort shut the girl up. 'This is our night and you do what we want you to do, you got that?'

'Sure. Whatever you say.'

Bastine lifted the light beam to the porch steps. He watched the two girls climb them, testing each riser before treading on the next. The creaks were loud and grating.

Creaks. His father approaching. When he was hiding in the cubbyhole beneath the kitchen sink. He could hear him, feel his imminent presence through the bare floorboards. There was always something he had done or hadn't done, something he'd forgotten or something he'd ruined, for which he was to be punished. Holding his breath didn't work. Begging for mercy made it last longer. Nothing saved him, ever.

'Come, Bastine. Come with us inside.'

He settled the light beam on Shaw's face and did not recognize her for several seconds. She was fiercely ugly. Her face was all stark planes and protruding knobs.

'Come, Bastine. Don't be afraid.'

Oh, that's what they always said, the motherfuckers, the cocksucking bastards. Don't be afraid, we won't hurt you, we just want to talk to you, Daddy's not going to use his belt, Mama's not mad at you, you didn't do anything wrong, Bastine. They lied!

'Liar,' he whispered.

'No, Bastine. Don't get upset. Come inside first. We have Dory with us, remember? Dory, go get him. Take his hand.'

'I'm not sure. uh.»

'Do it!'

The girl skipped down the steps and grabbed for Bastine's free hand. She turned to pull him up the steps. He resisted. She tugged, grunting.

Bastine finally relented and let himself be led up the steps that creaked, across the porch boards that threw him off balance, and to the door where Shaw ran a soothing hand down his chest to cup his crotch. 'Soon, Bastine. Inside. Push the door open for us.'

Bastine turned his shoulder in to it and the door gave with a sharp crack, then stuck. He had to push again, wood scraping wood as they walked single file into the big dusty room.

Though it was empty except for beer bottles and trash left over from squatters, Bastine watched for someone to slither from the darkness. Every time he swung the light, the dark followed and swallowed the area again. They could be there. Dead or not, they could certainly still be waiting and watching just as always. He hadn't any evidence that they couldn't. Or they could be through the doorway, hiding in the kitchen. Or in the pantry there. Or in the hall closet. Or in one of the two bedrooms. They could even be in the room with the tub, hiding in it. They had to be somewhere because he felt them.

'You're shaking, sugar,' Dory said, taking his hand again. 'Maybe we should go back to the truck. There's a mattress there and there ain't nothing here. This is one spooky trip.'

'Shut up,' Shaw said. 'We want to do it here. In this house. You'll just have to accept that.'

'It's pretty dirty. There might be snakes.»

Bastine couldn't take the banging pain of her voice any longer. He reached out reflexively with the flash light and smashed her in the mouth. Oh God, he hadn't meant… he really didn't mean. She screamed and that anchored him to the present long enough to know what he had done.

'Easy, baby,' Shaw said. 'Go slow now. We want a long night, don't we?'

Dory was on her knees, hands to face, blood drip ping onto the floor. She was moaning and swaying. Bastine