Devil's Kiss

'You guys are all crazy!' the lieutenant said, his face pale, lips bloodless in pain. 'We're miles over the line. We're so close you can hear the Chicoms fart! You know we've all got bounties on our head. Get out of here!'

'Shut up, Matt,' Sam told him. 'We got in this together—we'll get out together.'

'We'll go out, all right,' the officer gritted his teeth against the pain. 'It's miles back to a friendly—'

'You sure talk a lot,' Sam said, picking up the smaller man, slinging him onto his back. 'Hold on. We'll take turns carrying you until we can rig a litter.'

'Crazy bastards!' the lieutenant said.

Only four of the eight-man patrol made it back to their own lines. It took four days, traveling at night. The lieutenant's leg swelled up, turning black with gangrene. Sam cut off the infected leg with a heavy knife, cauterizing the stump. Sam Balon was awarded the Silver Star and promoted to sergeant.

In the cool silence of the church, Sam's head slumped forward. He was deep in sleep.

'Oh, Sam!' the cheerleader moaned in the back seat of the 1940 Ford. Her fingers dug at his back, her legs spread wide. 'Will you love me forever and ever?'

Stardust played softly on the radio.

'You know I will,' he lied, touching the wetness of her, moving forward, sinking into the damp velvet.

She cried out, biting his bare shoulder in passion.

Sam stirred in his sleep. He remembered the moment, but could not remember her name or her face. Her face—in his dream—was that of Jane Ann.

'HIT THE CHARGES!!' someone yelled. 'They're on top of us.'

The Americans stood between the enemy and retreating UN forces, in an area that would be known later as Pissed-Off Pass. The UNPIK guerrilla fighters, who would later be known as Special Forces, strong in name but weak in number, fought back wave after wave of North Koreans, until they were finally overpowered by the sheer numbers of the enemy.

When Sam regained consciousness, he was in a hospital in Japan, a doctor smiling down at him.

'The war's over for you, Sergeant. You're going home.'

'How many made it out alive?' Sam asked, his voice no more than a whisper.

The doctor shook his head, hesitated, then said, 'Not very many.'

'What a waste,' Sam said.

'Yes,' he heard the doctor say.

Someone touched him on the shoulder and Sam came up fighting.

'Whoa, Sam! It's me—Chester. Take it easy, preacher.'

Despite the coolness of the church, Sam was sweating. He opened his fists. He had almost hit Chester Stokes. He was not in Korea; he was in Whitfield, in his church, on the corner of Bran-ford and Elm. Sam steadied his breathing, wiping away the sweat with the back of his hand.

'You were moaning in your sleep, Sam,' the older man told him. 'Nightmare?'

Sam nodded. 'I suppose you could call it that.'

'You were calling out a name, Sam.'

'What name?'

'Does it really matter, now?'

'It might if anyone but you heard it.'

'She's a good girl, Sam, and she loves you.'

'I happen to be married, Chester.'

'To a woman who is running around on you. And I know with whom. You do, too, probably. Come on, Sam! You're human. Just because you're a minister doesn't make you a rock, void of feelings.'

I have feelings, Sam wanted to tell him. I have feelings a minister should not have.

'Let's go into the study, Chester.'

While Chester sat reading a pamphlet, Sam washed his face in the small bathroom just off the study. He glanced at his watch. Three-thirty. Friday afternoon.

'Jane Ann's still pretty shaken up,' Chester said, watching Sam sit down behind his desk. 'But she's tough, she'll recover quickly.'

'I hope you and Faye don't mind her staying for a while.'

'You know we don't, Sam.'

The minister drummed his fingertips on the desk top. 'Chester, what do you know about highway 72 being closed for a week, beginning next Thursday?'

'What!?'

'That was my reaction. Yes, Tony just told me.'

'First I've heard of it. Closed? Sam, we'd be cut off except for a few county roads, half of which don't lead anywhere. Tony must be mistaken.'

'No, I don't believe so, Ches.'

Chester reached across the desk toward the phone. Sam stopped his hand. 'If you're calling the highway department, play it like you've known all along, but you just want a verification of the date.'

The older man arched one eyebrow. 'You know something I don't, Sam; something maybe I should know?'

'Could be. Humor me.'

Sam received an odd look, then Chester dialed the number of the District Headquarters of the State Highway Department, located in the eastern part of Fork County. He talked for several minutes, then hung up, a puzzled look on his face.

'We were notified back in March, according to Wayne. The county board requested the closing to repair the bridges. They were supposed to notify the citizens. Wayne says the mail will be picked up by the sheriff's department and taken by patrol car to the north bridge, then transferred to a regular mail truck. The deputy will bring back any mail for Whitfield. It's all been okayed by the post office.'

'And the board is composed of—?'

'Karl Sorenson, Dalton Revere, Paul Merlin, Otto Stockman, and Max Steiner. Wayne says he has a public notice from the Crusader on his desk. The notice ran for six weeks. Excuse me, Sam, but it's damn funny I didn't see it!'

'It never ran in the paper,' Sam said glumly, an idea of what might be happening taking better shape in his brain. He did not like what he was thinking, but for now, kept his ideas to himself.

'He has the notice on his desk,' Chester objected.

'He has a notice. It could have been printed anywhere, and probably was.'

'But why, Sam?'

The minister shook his head. He fumbled in a desk drawer until he found attendance records—a graph he'd been keeping since March. 'Look here, Chester,' he laid the graph on the desk. 'December through the middle of February we had a two percent increase in church attendance. The last two weeks of February we began to slide a bit. By the first of April, that slide had increased to a five percent loss, then a ten percent loss by the last of April. May, it was down to twenty-five percent. Last month, almost fifty percent. I'll predict that by this Sunday, there won't be forty people in church, and most of them will be elderly.'

'I thought it was just a fluke,' Chester said, sighing. 'Summer's here, vacation time. But that's not it, is it, Sam?'

'No, Chester, it isn't.' Sam put his hand on the phone to call an old friend and pastor of the largest Christian church in the state.

'My kids,' Chester said, then let the words trail off into silence.

'What about your kids?'

The church elder shook his head. 'Nothing, Sam. Forget it. Who are you calling?'

'Chris Farmer up in North Platte. You know him—he held our revival last year. As soon as I dial, you pick up the extension in the nursery. I want you to hear this.'

Popping noises for a few seconds, then the ringing. The two ministers chattered for a few minutes, then Sam asked the man about his church attendance.

'Couldn't be better, Samuel. I'm up nine percent from this time last year. People are coming back to Jesus. Going to be a great year for religion, my boy—a great year. I can feel it in my bones, and loving every minute of