nature of their exchanges, worried that he understood even less of the
situation than he thought he did and that his ignorance might lead him
to say the wrong thing and somehow put Toby into even greater danger
than he already was.
'Tell me!'
Overwhelmed by fear and confusion and frustration, Jack grabbed Toby by
the shoulders, stared into his strange eyes.
'Who are you?'
No answer.
'What's happened to my Toby?'
After a long silence: 'What's the matter, Dad?'
Jack's scalp prickled. Being called
'Dad' by this thing, this hateful
intruder, was the worst affront yet.
'Dad?'
'Stop it.'
'Daddy, what's wrong?'
But he wasn't Toby. No way. His voice still didn't have its natural
inflections, his face was slack, and his eyes were wrong.
'Dad, what're you doing?'
The thing in possession of Toby apparently hadn't realized that its
masquerade had come undone. Until now it had thought that Jack
believed he was speaking with his son. The parasite was struggling to
improve its performance.
'Dad, what did I do? Are you mad at me? I didn't do anything, Dad,
really I didn't.'
'What are you?' Jack demanded.
Tears slid from the boy's eyes. But the nebulous something was behind
the tears, an arrogant puppetmaster confident of its ability to
deceive.
'Where's Toby? You sonofabitch, whatever the hell you are, give him
back to me.'
Jack's hair fell across his eyes. Sweat glazed his face. To anyone
coming upon them just then, his extreme fear would appear to be
dementia. Maybe it was. Either he was talking to a malevolent spirit
that had taken control of his son or he was insane. Which made more
sense?
'Give him to me I want him back!'
'Dad, you're scaring me,' the Toby-thing said, trying to tear loose of
him.
'You're not my son.'
'Dad, please!'
'Stop it! Don't pretend with me--you're not fooling me, for Christ's
sake!'
It wrenched free, turned, stumbled to Tommys headstone, and leaned
against the granite.
Toppled onto all fours by the force with which the boy broke away from
him, Jack said fiercely, 'Let him go!'
The boy squealed, jumped as if surprised, and spun to face Jack.
'Dad! What're you doing here?'
