Hungry Moon (10 page)

Read Hungry Moon Online

Authors: Ramsey Campbell

Tags: #Druids and Druidism, #England, #Christian Ministry, #Science Fiction, #Horror, #Evangelistic Work, #General, #Fiction, #Religion, #Evangelism

BOOK: Hungry Moon
7.68Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

FOURTEEN

 

On Sunday Mann called a rally at the cave. Geraldine heard hymns as she picked flowers behind the bookshop. At that distance she found the hymns moving; they made the town sound like a church. They felt appropriate as she strolled with Jeremy to the far end of the town, to the church where Jonathan's grave would be.

That had to be what her vision meant, the gravestone she'd seen in the moonlight, the stone with Jonathan's name. She'd gazed at it until the cold had driven her away, but it hadn't changed or vanished. It was real, or would be. She would make it real.

She'd wanted to tell Jeremy her vision when she'd run home in the moonlight, but Benedict had been tinkering with the alarm. The next morning she'd wakened anxious to see Jonathan's grave in Sheffield - she didn't know what she might find there. But when they'd driven to Sheffield that evening, the gravestone was still there.

Jonathan had been telling her he didn't want to be so far away. He wanted to be buried in Moonwell. She'd gone to the superintendent of cemeteries and stifled her impatience with all the paperwork, tried not to feel too disappointed that Jonathan might not be in Moonwell in time for his birthday. Jeremy assumed that she wanted the grave moved so that she could visit it more easily, and she didn't enlighten him: he might ask questions that she didn't want to ask herself, make Jonathan feel threatened. Besides, he was worrying about Diana Kramer, worrying that he'd made the situation at the school worse for her by speaking up.

They were passing the school now on their way to the churchyard. 'Don't worry, she's going to see her union next week,' she said, and took his hand as they approached the church.

The newly oiled gate opened silently. Geraldine remembered the silence and the moonlight, the feeling that the light had turned into white ice. She laid the flowers at the edge of the new graves, where Jonathan's would be. 'Be seeing you, Jonathan,' she murmured, and Jeremy squeezed her hand.

That made her feel secretive, unfair to him. Her doubts preoccupied her all the way home through the deserted town, and he didn't try to make her talk. She was still debating with herself halfway through dinner, when Andrew knocked at the door. 'My mum says I have to give this back,' he told her, and fled.

It was a book of fairy tales illustrated by Maurice Sendak. 'What's wrong with it?' Jeremy wondered, leafing through unhappily. 'I can't see anything even Godwin Mann could object to.'

'We'll find Andrew something else tomorrow,' Geraldine said, to cheer him up. But the next day was when Godwin Mann came to the shop.

It was almost Monday lunchtime, and they hadn't had a customer. They'd spent the morning rearranging some of the display, moving books about the Peaks to the table by the door, children's books to the far end of the shop. They'd hardly finished when June and another woman marched in. 'Tell them what you told me,' June said, then faltered. 'They've hidden them, hidden the children's books.'

‘I can see it.' Her companion, a lanky young woman with grey hair straggling out of a hairband, strode up the aisle between the tables. 'This is what I meant. They don't let children read this where I come from.'

She'd grabbed Maurice Sendak's
In the Night Kitchen.
June cried out in disgust at the page she was displaying.

'I thought that kind of thing was supposed to be against the law.'

'What kind of thing, June?' Geraldine asked quietly.

'Children exposing themselves. And you gave a book by this man to our Andrew. If I'd known what you were up to I'd never have let him near you.'

'Now, June, this isn't like you,' Jeremy said. 'The little boy in the book has a penis, that's all. Little boys do have them.'

'Maybe, but they don't show them to people, not in our town.' June's eyes narrowed. 'How come you know so much about little boys? I've often wondered why you were so interested in Andrew.'

'I know about them because I used to be one.'

Geraldine couldn't contain herself. 'We've been showing interest in Andrew because he needed someone to, June, and it's about time you realized.'

'The only people he needs are his parents,' June said furiously, and fell silent as Godwin Mann strode into the shop.

He looked paler than ever, his face pared down, cheekbones thrusting forward as if his skin were being stretched by his struggle to arrive wherever he was going. 'Look what they're selling to children, Godwin,' June's companion cried. 'They've books like this where the altar should be.'

"Thank God I was called here in time.' Mann sank to his knees in front of the children's books. 'Forgive them, O Lord, for they don't know what they're doing. Jeremy and Geraldine aren't bad people, they don't mean to drive You out of Your house . . .'

Jeremy stooped to him. 'Don't think I'm rude, but this isn't a church any more, it's a bookshop.'

Mann gazed heavenward. 'Nobody has the right to cast You out of a house You've been invited into, least of all one that was built for You.'

'It's not just a bookshop, actually, it's our home. You can see the deeds if you like.'

'We can see the evidence of your deeds right here, Jeremy.' Mann crossed himself and stood up, looking saddened. 'There's no more time for argument. Time is running short. Won't you invite God back into His house and into your lives?'

'Time's running short for what?' Geraldine said.

The evangelist looked suddenly wary. T should like to tell you, but not until you've asked God back into His house.'

'Then we'll do without knowing,' Jeremy said.

Mann glanced at him, then made for the door. 'If you won't let God's love reach you, perhaps you won't be able to ignore your neighbours.' He stood on the pavement and called out, more loudly than he had at the rally. 'Come and see the devil's church. Come and see the evil that's been festering in your midst.'

'Damned fool,' Jeremy muttered. 'As for you, June, if you're ashamed of how you used to carry on that's your affair, but you shouldn't take it out on us. I'd appreciate it if you'd just go away now.'

'I've nothing to be ashamed of since I've been forgiven. You can't get rid of me that easily, nor these people either.'

Several of their neighbours had come out of houses or shops and were converging on the bookshop. 'What's the row?' the baker, a balding man with floury eyebrows, said.

"They're trying to make out we're a dirty bookshop, Mr Mellor,' Geraldine said, forcing a laugh. 'I'll bet you didn't realize that was the sort of place you buy your wife her books.'

'Why should anyone want to make that out?'

'Because every foothold you leave for evil in your town gives it more strength,' Mann said behind him. 'Now that we're winning it has to be more determined than ever. Why else do you think there was a fire on the moor?'

June brought Mr Mellor the Sendak picture book. 'This is the sort of thing they sell to children. This is what we let into our town because we didn't listen to Mrs Scragg.'

The other neighbours crowded round, making disgusted noises. Nearly all of them had given house room to Mann's followers, Geraldine realized, but even so - 'I didn't realize,' Mr Mellor said. 'A book is a guest you invite into your house, after all, and you don't expect guests to suddenly start being offensive.'

'For heaven's sake, that's a book by a respected American artist.'

Several people turned on Jeremy. 'We know all about artists,' one sneered.

Jeremy moved quickly to intercept Mann, who was stalking toward the children's books. 'What are you up to now?'

'Ask yourself what Christ would have done if He'd found such things being sold in the temple.'

'You lay a finger on those books unless you mean to buy them and you'll find yourself leaving very suddenly.'

All the neighbours except Mr Mellor ran to Mann's aid. 'Don't you dare touch him,' screeched the woman from the wool shop. 'He's a man of God.'

Mann held up one hand. 'Thank you, my friends, but violence won't be necessary. I think I may be able to shame Jeremy and Geraldine into realizing what they've been doing.'

He strode off to the Christian shop. Mr Mellor blinked uneasily at the others, then sidled out, back to the bakery. June went to scrutinize the shelves, and the others joined her. 'So long as you mean to buy something,' Jeremy said, but even when he repeated it they ignored him. They were still pawing at the shelves when Mann came back.

He marched straight to the children's books and seized the copies of
In the Night Kitchen.
'And I see
Lolita
and some drug books over there. If there's anything else that your town doesn't need, just show me where it is.'

'Put those down and get out of here,' Jeremy said in a quiet stiff voice, 'or I'll call the police.'

'They'd think that pretty strange, you calling them because someone was buying your books. Here's fifty pounds to start with and if we go over that, just tell me.'

He slapped the notes down on the children's table and set off to search. Soon all his helpers were carrying piles of books: Henry Miller, William Burroughs, Von Daniken,
The Joy of Sex, A Handbook of Witchcraft. Life on Earth, A Child's Book of English Folklore . . .
'You won't get much change out of two hundred,' Jeremy said, and Mann's followers stared at him contemptuously while Mann paid him the balance.

The evangelist picked up the largest pile of books and led out his helpers. As soon as they'd dumped the books in the gutter outside the shop, he emptied a tin of lighter fuel over the books and set fire to them. They caught with a whoof that brought more people out of their houses. 'Shall I call the fire brigade?' an old lady cried.

'We're just burning some filth they were selling in the bookshop,' June told her. 'Do you know, they made Godwin pay for every book. That's money that could have been given to God.'

'Maybe you should realize books that sell as well as those just did are worth re-ordering,' Jeremy shouted, then turned away, furious with himself for having been provoked. Geraldine watched until the fire died down and Mann and his helpers left the ashes to scatter. "There they go,' Jeremy muttered, 'the true faces of small-town life.'

'They're not like that really. I wouldn't be surprised if they apologize to us once Mann goes away, if not before.'

'You've more faith in them than I have. Small-town minds that want to reduce everything to what they can cope with. The good minds go to university or just get out as soon as they can.'

'I know how you feel, Jerry, but -'

'I wonder if you do know. You don't seem to care as much about our shop as you used to.' His anger changed the subject. 'My God, that American talks about evil, but that's evil if anything is, people trying to suppress anything they find disturbing, as if shoving it out of sight will make it go away.'

'You know I still care about our shop.' He meant she'd been preoccupied, but this was certainly not the time to explain about Jonathan. For the rest of the day, whenever she heard footsteps in the street she grew tense, thinking that it might be another invasion of the faithful or one of them returning to apologize. However, when closing time dragged round, nobody else had come into the shop.

Later she went out for a walk with Jeremy, though not until it was almost dark; she didn't want to meet any of the neighbours. Oily scraps of ash whispered in the gutter. She felt as if she'd been barred from all the lit houses. The High Street was deserted except for Father O'Connell, who hailed them as Jeremy started to turn away. 'May I walk along with you?'

'Christ, not another sermon,' Jeremy snarled under his breath.

'I was on my way to see you both. I only just heard what happened at your shop. I wish I'd been there.'

'You'd have helped, would you?'

'I hope I could have made them think twice. I'll be raising the subject on Sunday if I still have a congregation. There may still be a few who prefer the church to that show on the moor.'

'I misjudged you,' Jeremy admitted. 'I thought at first you meant you'd have helped Mann.'

'God forbid, especially since he came to tell me I ought to make my preaching more like his. I don't care much for this homogenized religion, and I told him so.

This notion that you mustn't think your way to faith is obviously not far from the intolerance that leads to burning books.'

'May we quote you?' Geraldine said.

Other books

About That Night by Julie James
Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman
WrappedInThought by Viola Grace
Between Now & Never by Laura Johnston
The Traitor by Sydney Horler