The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (27 page)

And then, one by one, everyone sampled the red
liquid except Sally's mother. And everyone agreed it was blood.

"Can blood even last twenty years or more like
that?" her mother said as she took another sip of coffee.

Everyone shrugged. "I reckon," one said.

"Why not?" Steve said. "Cops got them dogs now
that can sniff out blood even years after a crime." He looked at
Tim. "You still wantin' ta take this thing apart?"

"Your damned straight!" Connie said. "We ain't
leavin' it a mystery no more!"

Tim looked a little nervous, now. "Well, reckon
we can pull the back and take a look." He bent down and looked
closer at the back panel and ran his fingers over a few of the
screws. "Gonna need a Philip's head screwdriver and a flat one to
hold some tension on the panel."

Connie rummaged through the box and handed Mary
the tools Tim needed. Against her better judgment, she slid off the
stool and walked them over to him. He grabbed the Philip's and
quickly removed a few screws from the top edge, then used the flat
screwdriver to pry it open a bit. He tried to look through the
crack but it was too dark inside to see anything.

"Don't be in a hurry," Steve said. "Just take
them bottom screws out and that whole panel will lift right
off."

He removed one, then another, and was about to
undo the last one when the panel seemed to pop out slightly, and
fall open, held only by the bottom left corner screw. But what
caused him to jump up and everyone else to back away was a slug. A
lead bullet fell from the back and onto the floor.

"That there's the bullet," Steve said.

"What?" Connie yelled. "Ya found the bullet that
killed Julie Black?"

But before anyone could answer, the old jukebox
started up, playing the last song the murdered woman ever heard,
and the song some still heard at 3:00am in the morning, sometimes,
when walking past.

Sally stepped closer and touched the old
machine, but just as she did, there was a loud bang, and then smoke
boiled out from the record player. It had burnt the wiring and
blown a fuse, apparently, because it stopped playing and the lights
went out on the front.

Everyone jumped, most were scared enough to need
a seat, but not Sally, the one everyone assumed would be crying and
scared out of her senses. She simply turned to everyone else and
smiled. "Julie Black has left the building," she said.

"Yeah, yeah," her mother said. "So has Elvis."
She walked through the men and motioned for Sally to follow her.
"Get back over here and finish eating. It's still a long time
before dinner."

Minnie was keeping her distance, but trying to
look through the glass at the record player. It wasn't turning; the
machine was dead. It was as if a spell had been broken. "I reckon
it's still filled with her blood, though."

"Best for a couple of us ta wrestle the damned
thing out back and just let it sit," Steve said. "Ain't worth
nothin'."

"Yeah, and git that old mop out there while ya's
at it and wash up that floor, will ya?" Bonnie said. "We can sit
somethin' there, maybe one of them fake palm trees. Not sure now
why we ever kept the damned thing in the first place."

"That'd look real nice," Tim said. "Them fake
palm trees from Heck's is real nice."

Minnie heard Sally burp. "Be right there,
sweetie!"

She kept a small wooden box hidden in the back
of her dresser drawer. Nothing ornate or the least bit rare or
expensive, it was just a small wooden box, velvet lined but empty.
But the old red velvet showed the outline of something, a large
ring perhaps, stained silver-black, that must have been in the box
for a long time before she ended up with it. She realized that
whatever had been in the box was expensive, at least compared to
the things she owned, and the box was just a container, not much
more than a wrapper, but still, just having the box made her feel a
part of the luxury that must have surrounded it at one time. She
sometimes got it out and pretended it was a gift from some rich,
handsome boy and she would put it on her bed and dream about the
contents, opening the box and finding exactly what she wanted. But
she dreamed too much, her mother said. And Katie knew she was
right; still, dreams were so much more important than real life.
She smiled to herself. She knew that wasn't right, but real life
was a stone pressing against her chest and pinning her to the dirty
ground. In dreams she could soar like a bird.

"Katie!" her mother yelled from downstairs. "If
you don't get down here to supper right now I'm gonna fling it out
to the chickens!"

"Okay, momma, I'm comin'," she said, but she
wasn't sure if she spoke loud enough for anyone else to hear. It
didn't matter, dinner would be on the table whenever she finally
got down to the kitchen.

"Ya ain't done your chores yet, either, little
lady!"

"Okay, momma!" She yelled that time. She picked
up the small box and placed it carefully in the back of the drawer,
covered it with several pairs of panties and socks, and shoved the
drawer closed. "I reckon some day I'll be ownin' whatever was in
there," she said. "It wouldn't be fair for God ta keep that away
from me forever since I been keepin' its box for so long."

She plodded down the narrow old stairway,
jumping over a step each time until she jumped and landed on both
feet on the hardwood hallway. "Hey momma, there's somebody at the
door!"

Her mother came through the kitchen doorway
wiping her hands on a stained dishrag. "I didn't hear no body
knockin'," she said.

Katie pointed to the door with a large shadow
outside it. It wasn't moving, but was definitely the shape of a
person. But then as her mother walked toward it, the shadow
disappeared and by the time she got to the door and looked out the
window, there was nothing there at all. She opened the door and saw
nothing.

"It just disappeared," Katie said. "Like a ghost
or somethin'."

"Well, I'm almost certain it weren't no ghost,"
her mom said. "Musta been than Williams boy playin' a prank on us.
His momma's gonna hear about it, I'll promise ya that." She shut
the door and turned around. "Now, git in there and eat,
young'un!"

"Fried tater's?"

"Didn't have no lard, so I had to stew 'em," she
said.

"Poo!" Katie said.

"They are the same food," she said. "I saved you
the fatty part of the side pork, though."

Katie smiled. She loved the fatty parts. Another
girl at school said they would make her fat, but then the teacher
said, no, they will make you
dead
! But she didn't care; the
fatty parts were the
best
parts. "We got any salt?" she said
as she hopped up in the big chair.

"They's some packets in the cream jar that
Bernie Lynn brought from the diner," her mom said. "You take it
easy on that salt, it ain't good for ya."

"I'm eatin' a big piece a fat, momma," Katie
said. "I ain't needin' to worry about the salt."

"I want you ta burn the garbage and stay there
till it's done," she said. "We're s'posed to have some rain comin'
in tonight so if it gets wet it'll be layin' out there a week
before it dries out enough to finish burnin'."

Katie nodded with a piece of pork in her mouth,
holding it with both hands. "You think aunt Bernie is gonna bring
those clothes over for me?"

"She said she would," he mom said. "Guess she's
been busy."

Katie nodded. "I seen her with a different man
every night this week down at theater."

"She ain't never pretended to be a saint," her
mother said. "Just wish she'd be a sinner where other people
couldn't see her."

"My friend Tammy says if aunt Bernie gives me
her old clothes then I'd be a whore, too." She took another bite of
meat, pulling it loose with some difficulty and then chewing
noisily.

"Your friend Tammy needs a good slap 'cross the
mouth," her mother said. "B'sides, ain't no reason for a nine year
old girl ta be hearin' words like that, no matter who says
'em."

"I heared a lot worse," Katie said. "Some of the
kids with television sets say they hear all kinds a stuff on there.
Even see people havin' sex."

"We're gonna end this here conversation, young
lady," her mother said. "Before
you
get a slap 'cross the
mouth."

"I'd call them Wayne County do-gooders on ya in
a second," Katie said with a smile. "But I'd come and visit ya in
prison, I guess."

Her mother grabbed the empty plate and held it
up and Katie tossed the clean bone into it. She shook her head and
took it over to the sink. "I know I ain't raised you the way ya
need raised up," she said.

Katie hopped out of the chair and hugged her
mother from behind. "I know ya been doin' the best you could since
daddy died, momma," she said. "I ain't complainin' as long as I get
the fatty parts."

There was a knock on the door and they both
walked through the house. "Might be Bernie with my whorin'
clothes!"

But as they entered the hallway they both saw
the same shadow figure they had seen earlier. There was definitely
someone outside the door but as her mother approached again, it
again disappeared. "I'll be damned!"

"They was definitely somebody there," Katie
said. "I seen 'em plain as day."

"I think they's runnin' when they see me comin'
to the door. Next time it happens,
you
try answerin'."

Katie burped. "I need me a big glass a water.
Hey, Tammy said she heard they were talkin' about ending the war."
She walked back into the kitchen and waited until the water got
cold from the faucet and then held a jelly jar under it. She turned
it up to her lips and gulped it down, then burped again. "Ain't
nothin' better than cold water. President Nixon said he was
bringin' the soldiers back home." She heard another knock on the
door and went back into the hall.

Her mother waved her toward the door. "You try
answerin'."

She took a few steps toward the door and saw the
figure hadn't disappeared, so she jumped quickly across the floor
and pulled the door open quickly "Gotcha!" Her face turned as red
as her hair as she backed away. There was an older man standing in
front of her. He was small and frail and dressed in an old black
suit, not worn or tatty, but obviously from a past decade. His
short black hair was greased back and he was clean-shaven and Katie
instantly took him for a missionary or bible salesman because he
was wearing shiny black leather shoes. "Sorry, mister!"

Her mother was almost instantly standing between
the old man and her daughter. "We don't want none a whatever you're
sellin'," she said. "And if yer a givin' it away it prob'ly ain't
worth
havin'."

"I'm neither selling or giving anything away,
madam," he said. He bowed.

"Ya ain't from 'round these parts, are ya?" she
said.

"Was it you who was knockin' and runnin' away?"
Katie said. "I think you're too old to be prankin' people."

"I believe I found an item that belongs to you,
miss," he said.

"Me?" she said and pushed past her mother.
"What?"

The old man reached into his pocket and pulled
out an old, tarnished silver ring and held it up. "This is yours,"
he said.

She bent in to take a closer look. "I think ya
got the wrong person," she said.

"Please, look closer," he said and held it out
for her to take.

She took it from his fingers and turned it
around on her finger. It was an odd ring, with a design she had
never seen. There was a star shape in the middle of a design that
seemed to be vines and the whole top seemed to be a locket of some
sort. "Nope, ain't mine."

"It belongs in the box," he said.

"The box?" she said. She turned around to her
mother and shrugged. "Should I take it? Wait, how do you know about
the box?"

But he was not there to hear the question. She
stepped through the door and looked both directions. The yard
stretched out flat for fifty yards before it ran into the old
county road, and the closest neighbors were a hundred yards down
the road in either direction. He had simply disappeared.

"This is somethin' ya don't want," her mother
said. "Throw that ring away right now."

"Ya act like it's somethin' evil or somethin',"
Katie said. She looked at the ring and then pushed it down her
finger and held her hand up. "It fits."

"This just ain't a good thing, trust me."

"He's just some kinda salesman," Katie said.
"Passin' off these weird rings then he'll be back tomorrow to try
an' sell us the matching bracelet and necklace. Prob'ly heard about
the box from down the road. Becky knowed about it and so does
Jinxie."

Her mother grabbed her hand and took a closer
look at the ring. "Ya need to throw that away," she said.

"It grows on ya," Katie said. "Kinda neat how
the star thing glows when the light is behind it. It ain't nothin'
like belongs in my box, though. I'm expectin' that to have big ol'
jewels and diamonds and stuff all over it." She rubbed it with her
thumb and then saw her thumb was silver-black. "It's real silver,
though. Might be worth a dollar."

"Yeah, well, go git your old clothes on so ya
can take out the trash and feed the chickens," her mother said.
"And put your boots on. Don't ya go out there barefooted again,
you'll get tetanus."

Katie stomped up the stairs; she wasn't angry,
she just felt like stomping because it annoyed her mother. She had
her good school pants around her knees by the time she walked
through her door and quickly stepped out of them and kicked them on
to her bed and then pulled her shirt over her head and grabbed her
old blue cotton dress and slid in over her body. She preferred to
do her chores in a dress, it was easier to keep her body clean. She
sat back on her bed and looked at the ring for a moment before
digging her boots out from under the bed. She stepped into them and
headed back downstairs without tying the laces.