Again, the gasoline.
And gasoline darkened the concrete under her bare feet. It had spread out around her, forming a shallow and lopsided puddle in the middle of her cage.
When I looked up from the puddle, she gave me a shrug.
Like a little girl who’d peed on the floor, couldn’t help it, and was left embarrassed and resigned.
Why was she standing in the middle of the gas?
Wesley’s orders, I supposed.
He must’ve commanded her to stand still while he poured the gasoline onto her head, while it ran down her body and made the puddle. Then he’d ordered her to remain standing in the same place.
Move a muscle, and I’ll torch you.
And I had no bucket of water for her. Because I’d stayed too long with Erin and Alice, because of Erin’s hand on my leg.
And because of Connie’s roaring jealousy.
I should’ve had the water for Billie.
Her toilet bucket was off in a rear corner of her cage, upside-down. Apparently, she’d been using it as a seat. Obviously, it had nothing in it.
She’s gonna burn!
I could think of only one way to save her: stop Wesley from setting the gas on fire.
“Look at you, look at you,” he said. “You’ve gone quite native.”
“What do you want?”
“My first order of business is to neutralize you, don’t you think?”
“I’ll do anything you say,” I told him.
“Excellent. Drop your weapons.”
“Don’t,” Billie said, her voice firm and clear. “You’re the only chance we’ve got.”
“Shut up, Billie darling.”
“He’ll burn you,” I said.
“Let him.”
“No, I can’t.”
Above her, Wesley bent over. He reached into the cardboard box with his left hand, and came up with a paperback book. He lifted it by a comer of its front cover, so that the book hung open. Then he lowered the torch and held its flame beneath the pages.
“No!” I shouted.
Fire crawled up the book.
“Don’t do it!”
I threw down my spear and machete.
Wesley tossed the book underhand. It tumbled through the night, blazing. And dropped onto the grass near my feet.
“That was sure a close call,” he announced.
“Fucking bastard,” I said, stomping out the flames.
“Oooo, such language! You’ve been listening to Connie. A very bad influence, that girl.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Let me see. What do I want? I want you to step into your new accommodation, over there.” Swinging his torch, he pointed out the empty cage beside Billie’s cage. “Step right in and shut the door.”
With my first step in that direction, Billie gasped, “No! Rupert, you can’t honey. If he locks you up…”
“I’m not gonna let him burn you.”
“Very wise, little buddy.”
“You have to take him down,” she said.
“Shut up with that kind of talk, bitch! I’ll cook your cunt right now!”
Ignoring him, staring me in the eyes, Billie said, “Kill Wesley. At least maybe you’ll be able to save the others. Let him burn me, but kill him.”
“You asked for it!” Wesley yelled. He bent down and reached into the cardboard box.
“Wait!” I blurted. “Wait a minute!”
He looked at me.
“If you burn her up, you won’t have her to mess with anymore.”
He grinned. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“You get turned on by her pain, don’t you? If she’s dead, she won’t even feel what you do to her. She won’t flinch or cry out or bleed or anything. It won’t matter how hard you whip her, or…”
“Who needs her?” Wesley asked. Even as he said it, though, he took his arm out of the box, no book in his hand, and stood up. “I’ve got all the rest of them. And there’ll be plenty more, once they start having babies for me.” Grinning, he shook his head. “Good old Thelma, she always wanted babies. God save us all. Can you picture it? What if they came out looking like her? Who’d want ’em? Wouldn’t be good for shit, girls ugly as that.”
“Billie’ll have beautiful babies,” I said. “Just look at Connie. That’s proof of how her babies will look. And you want to burn her up? Are you nuts?”
“You’ve got a point there, little buddy. I tell you what, go on and step into that cage, and maybe we can give her a stay of execution.”
“Okay.”
“Wait,” Kimberly said. “What happened to Thelma? Where is she?”
Wesley let out a harsh laugh. “Gosh! I forgot to ask! How’s my Thelma? I sure hope you didn’t hurt my dear, sweet little wife.”
I looked over at Kimberly’s cage. She stood at its nearest corner, facing me. “I’m really sorry,” I told her. “She was trying to kill me, and I… I’m pretty sure she’s dead. She went down in the cove.”
Kimberly was silent for a moment. Then she murmured, “It’s all right. I mean…”
“All right?” Wesley blurted. “It’s fucking perfect. Thank you very much for ridding me of the ugly cow! She did have her uses, but… I do believe that we’re all much better off without her. My God, what a pig! Three cheers for Rupert! Hip hip hooray!” On hooray, he thrust his torch high. “Hip hip… hooray!” Up went the torch. “Hip hip… hooray!” He rammed the torch at the sky.
Then, laughing, he performed a weird little dance on top of Billie’s cage: stomping his feet on the bars, waving the torch, twisting and shaking, swinging his hips, thrusting with his pelvis. He probably would’ve jumped and twirled, but was afraid of stepping between the bars.
I hoped for him to slip and fall. I even thought about snatching up the spear and making a try for him while he danced. But Billie would burn if anything happened to make him drop the torch.
His wild gyrations sent sweat pouring down his body, flying off his hair and skin.
“So long, Thelma!” he yelled. “Nice knowing you! Nice, my ass! Ha hah!”
Billie, looking straight up at him, suddenly blinked and ducked her head and rubbed her face.
Then she began to dance.
In silence, she swayed and turned, swung her shoulders, jumped from one foot to another.
Wesley noticed. He quit dancing himself, and bent over. Huffing for breath, he looked down at Billie through the ban. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Dancing.”
“Knock it off.”
She didn’t stop. Though she remained in the center of her cage as if shackled there by Wesley’s threats, she hopped from foot to foot, waved her arms, bowed, twirled, shook and leaped.
“You’ve got nothing to dance about,” Wesley said.
“Do, too,” she called out.
“Knock it off.”
“It’s my rain dance!” she shouted. “I’m calling up a storm!”
And her dance suddenly broke into a savage frenzy. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before. The way she leaped and writhed, she must’ve had manic drumbeats in her head.
Instead of ordering her to halt, Wesley stared down at her, captivated by the view.
