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Chapter 34
  Marty’s Happening

Marty heard the crack of bone from deep within his body. It was an odd sound, powerful and triumphant, and no pain came with it. He heard the rending of flesh, and thought of the crack-tear of chicken bones. Along with those sounds was the thump of flesh on the unforgiving metallic frame of the Marsh’s air-conditioner unit. His head snapped back, his legs snapped back, and with Sadie’s weight adding to the impact, Marty Michael Jameson was quite literally broken in half.

The air rushed out of his lungs, and he found he could not draw in a breath to make up for the emptiness. Sadie, dazed, coughed in his ear as they both struggled to breathe.

Finally, Sadie pushed herself off him and rolled to the grass beside the unit. She hoisted herself up to where he could see her. His head was cocked toward her, bent backward such that both his lungs and spine were pinched closed. He tried to move his lips, but nothing responded. He had no command over his tongue and certainly none over his arms and legs. He was paralyzed but for his eyes, which he found he could still blink, and he could still see and hear.

It was quiet inside his body without breath or heartbeat to disrupt the silence. He heard the flutter of wings and the pad of bird-feet as they landed on the rooftop and clicked their claws across the shingles. He heard Sadie gasp and cough.

A Boogerbear flopped down behind Sadie and pecked at her legs. Sadie’s face winced, so she must have felt it, but she made no gesture to stop the pain. Another Boogerbear landed beside her, swayed over to Marty, and jabbed its beak into his living eye.

There was a sharp pain inside his head, but through it Marty managed to close and open the Dead-Eye. It was enough of a wink to cause a flash of brilliant blue light, but not as strong as it had been before. The two Boogerbears flapped their wings in a graceful bird retreat, giving themselves one flap between them and Marty. They circled him then, knowing what Marty knew, waiting for him to end so they could feast on him and Sadie.

Uncle Cooper appeared, along with Mrs. Marsh, materializing as a palm materializes from an opening fist. Mrs. Marsh blanketed Sadie with her body, covering her in a way that would have been physically impossible in life. She enveloped her daughter in a warm fog of her presence. Sadie’s eyes changed, and Marty knew she could feel her mother working to protect her, even if she did not understand what her mother was protecting her from.

Uncle Cooper ran into the yard and swept his arms at the Boogerbears in a shoo-bird motion. They hopped away from him but did not fly. They shrieked, and soon two more Boogerbears fell into the yard, hopping and antagonizing Uncle Cooper, whose idle threats had long ago stopped startling the creatures. They encircled him, and whenever one managed to find Uncle Cooper’s back, it stabbed its beak into his legs and kidneys. With each attack, Uncle Cooper stumbled more and more, until at last he slumped to the ground. The Boogerbears fell on him in a rapid and sudden fury, flapping their wings as they ravaged him with beaks and claws.

Marty tried to hoot, but he had no air. He tried to wink one more time, but when he closed his eyes, he found he no longer had the will to open them.

The world fell silent. Marty had no sense of bodily self, but was reduced to a free-floating consciousness. He could think, and he could reason, and he could exist, but he could not
feel
. No sounds reached out to him, because he had no ears. He felt no heat from the flames because he had no flesh. He felt no passage of time or movement but existed wholly in a non-existent state, where the bodily senses were denied to him.

Marty realized it was a dream-state, only now dreaming was his primary being, rather than something he did between awakenings. He lay in the darkness for so long that he forgot his body. He forgot the sensations of pain and fear. He forgot his heartbeat. He forgot his breath, and he forgot the feel of touch and taste.

As he forgot his mother and father, out of the darkness appeared a light. It was a dim star at first, but grew in magnitude as it either approached him, or he approached it. Marty was about to reach out to it when he suddenly remembered something.

It was important that he remember, but he was not sure what it was. The
something
was lost to him. It escaped him by hopping one step out-of-reach every time he grasped for it. There was a longing of loss and responsibility. He had to do something. It was important. It was critical.

He remembered the name Sadie. A pretty face appeared in his mind, along with a pair of wood-carved legs. Marty clung to the memory as it tried to hop away, willing it to expose its origins, and remembered a knife with a carven handle. There was a man’s face, with a missing eye. The left eye socket was empty. The man closed his eyes, and when he opened them, a green-eyed orb stared back at Marty from the left socket.

The image of a blue-faced owl shone out in the darkness, overpowering the light he was approaching. The owl swept him away and as the light receded, Marty heard the distant sound of the owl hooting.

Marty began to feel his feet. It was an odd feeling, and he flexed and manipulated his feet in ways he had no way of remembering. His feet felt like strong and dangerous things used to break bones and rip flesh.

He spread his arms and clapped them together. They were huge and sharp-edged. His chest felt abundantly powerful and as thick as he was wide. He clapped his arms again, and again, and again, and with each stroke he grew stronger.

His ears heard the rushing of wind and when he opened his eyes, he saw a world far below him. Despite the distance and despite the darkness, his eyes picked up the minute details of a scene of wreckage along a freeway. Bloody victims lay beneath white sheets. Others sat beside ambulances and inside police cruisers. All around them the Boogerbears crouched, hopped, and feasted.

None of the people or Boogerbears looked up as Marty beat his arms against the wind and shot downward. His feet instinctively tore into a Boogerbear as he passed. Marty lifted it skyward with him, tearing with his feet until it ripped in half. He let it fall and watched it spiral downward.

Wind roared in his ears as he banked and dove into the scene of chaos again. He wove between an ambulance and fire truck, along the way clutching another Boogerbear in his claws. This one managed to swipe his leg before he snapped it in half. He would have to be quicker, he thought, and as he rocketed skyward, he hooted.

Marty sliced the air in a huge arc until he was above Sadie’s house. She lay on the ground with her mother fending off what she could of the four Boogerbears surrounding her. Her mother swatted at the creatures, but her threats were even less effective than Uncle Cooper’s had been. The Boogerbears hopped around her, pecking her with tiny jabs each time she turned away from them.

Swooping down, Marty ripped one of the Boogerbears off the ground and slung it into the sky. It tried to find its wings as it tumbled, but Marty banked and fell on the creature with beak and claw. It flapped in futile resistance as Marty’s claws opened its chest. He dropped it and circled, ready for the other three, but when he looked down on Sadie and her mother, the three Boogerbears had taken to wing and were shooting upward toward him.

The three Boogerbears parted as Marty sliced between them. One tried to turn on him, but Marty’s wings were those of a quick predator, while theirs were those of a casual-soaring scavenger. Marty turned sharp and caught the Boogerbear as it banked. His claw dug into its spine, sunk into flesh and with a twist he heard the creature’s bones snap. It corkscrewed downward, its wounded wings spread wide and limp.

The two remaining Boogerbears beat their wings in desperation, pounding the air into submission with their gaudy, unkempt feathers. They extended their arms in front of them as if that might increase their speed.

Marty drifted downward to the Marsh’s burning house. Flames leapt through the windows and licked out of the rooftop. Smoke billowed up in a massive black cloud. He could not feel the heat, but he sensed the energy roaring through the house as the fire consumed it.

Sadie was still on the ground next to the air-conditioner. His body was atop the unit, kinked backward in an odd and painful-looking manner. Mrs. Marsh covered her daughter as best she could. Uncle Cooper lay in the grass unmoving.

Landing next to his uncle, Marty leaned down and hooted near the man’s face. Large chunks of him had been torn free by the Boogerbears. His flesh, if Marty could call it flesh, had the appearance of a scored tree, as if the top layer of bark had been hacked away to expose the soft under-flesh of moist wood. Uncle Cooper did not appear to be in pain, but he was weakened, and his movements were fragile and uncertain.

He looked at Marty and for a moment did not appear to recognize him. Then a wave of recognition washed over his face and Uncle Cooper smiled. “
Marty, son, what did you up and do to yourself
?
”

Marty hooted. It was the only word he had but it was enough for Uncle Cooper to understand.

His uncle’s eyes softened, and he said, “
Son, I’m sorry. Me and your Aunt Loretta will be waiting on you. I done got licked, and can’t stay here no more. Now why don’t you go on and tend to that young girlfriend of yours. You can’t feel it, but she can, and the heat’s getting hot on this side of the house. I’ll be heading home about now.
”

At Marty’s feet was nothing but grass where his uncle had been. Marty did not linger, because he knew where his uncle had gone.

He hopped to Sadie’s side and hooted at her. She made no sign that she had heard him, but Mrs. Marsh said, “
Is that you, Marty?
”

He hooted and Mrs. Marsh reached out a hand and touched his chest. She pet him through his feathers and stroked one of his wings. “
We have to help Sadie-love
,” she said.

Marty looked at her, and Mrs. Marsh nodded and said what he was thinking. “
I know. There’s nothing more we can do, is there
?
”

Sadie clung to Marty’s body and shook it in disbelief. A window shattered above her. Smoke swept outward along with huge orange flames, and the heat at once turned Sadie’s cheeks a bright splotchy red. She screamed, and then managed to pull Marty’s body off the air-conditioner unit, and drag him painfully and slowly across the yard, one arm-pull at a time. There was a look of shock and panic on her face, one of complete indecision as she hauled Marty’s body through the grass.

Chapter 35
  Watching It Burn

Sadie dug her fingers into the dirt and pulled with all the strength she could. In the other hand, she towed Marty behind her. The heat bore down on her with oppressive force, and if she had not already been bound to the earth from lack of legs, she would have fallen to the ground and crawled anyway. The air above her boiled with heat.

She heard a distant call for help, followed by voices approaching. The voices grew louder and someone rattled the hurricane fence as they jumped it.

“Got two over here!” a voice said. It was a woman, and when Sadie looked that way, she saw a paramedic running toward her. The woman knelt quickly next to Sadie, and with a glance to Marty’s body she leaned into her shoulder and fingered the walkie-talkie. “Need a backboard and neck brace. Bring a bag. Move your ass, Kat, and bring Brian.” Then she turned to Sadie. “You hurt? Are your legs busted? Can you move?”

“No,” Sadie said. “I mean, yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I was paralyzed a long time ago. My mom is in there.” She pointed to the house, but the paramedic didn’t bother looking toward it.

“Let’s get you safe first.” She looped her arms around Sadie’s shoulders and below her knees, lifted her, and carried her across the driveway, almost to Marty’s property. She lay Sadie in the grass and ran back to Marty, put her fingers to his throat and her ear to his chest, and then began chest compressions.

Two firefighters ran past Marty and the paramedic, toward the back door, but stopped in the carport beside the blue minivan. One put his hand to the door, shook his head, and motioned for his partner to back off. “Can’t get in!” he yelled. “Too hot. She’s gonna breathe if we breach her. Get the water truck in here. Everybody back!”

A few seconds later, another team of paramedics jogged into the yard with a brace and backboard. They leaned over Marty, and despite the heat pressing down on them, managed to stabilize his neck and back, and lifted him off the ground. Sadie’s paramedic worked a breathing bag over Marty’s face while the other two jogged him down the driveway. They did not take notice of Sadie or the fire truck that was backing through the front yard. They wound around the truck carrying Marty, squeezing the breathing bag, and disappeared toward the freeway.

Sadie watched alone in the grass, in her usual prostrate position, as the fire truck backed into place. Red lights flashed from the front of the truck, and with the flickering of the fire from the house, seemed to make the oak in Marty’s yard come to life. She glanced up at Marty’s attic and in her mind imagined him sitting there, whittling away his afternoon.

A police officer walked in front of the fire truck as the ladder extended. Two firefighters unraveled a hose and sprayed through Sadie’s bedroom window, while another drove the ladder and a stream of water toward a breach in roof.

The officer was DPS, in the standard khaki with the hard-brimmed cowboy hat they wore. He shook his head as he approached Sadie, winced, spit a black glob of saliva brought on by the pinch of tobacco in his mouth, and then knelt next to her.

“I’m Officer Lancome, sweetie. You, um. What’s your name, baby?”

“Sadie Marsh.”

“Hmm.” He looked over his shoulder at the house and the firefighters cutting through the attic roof. “They said your momma’s up in there. Is that right?”

Sadie nodded her head.

“Anyone else up in there?”

“Just my momma.”

“Hmm. I’m right sorry about that. If she’s in a good way, them firefighters gonna get her out, you can bet your buck teeth on it.” It sounded to Sadie that he said,
buck teat.
He patted her head, and stayed with her the few minutes it took for another team of paramedics to reach her.

The two paramedics carried an oxygen tank, which they hooked to Sadie as Officer Lancome walked around the burning house. They read Sadie’s vitals, determined her to be stable, and left her alone, hooked to the oxygen tank, and ran back toward the freeway.

Officer Lancome came around the carport and stood at Sadie’s feet. He looked to the back of her yard. “Them peach trees?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Love me some peaches. You like peaches?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ain’t nobody don’t like peaches. ’Bout near the perfect food, right up there next to some good ol’ venison sausage.” He looked down at her and his eyes softened. “You doing okay, Sadie? You got someone we need to be calling?”

Sadie thought a moment and suddenly felt very alone. Her mind had stopped, and it felt like her head was full of mashed potatoes. She had no capacity for thinking, but a cool breeze touched her neck and a voice in her ear whispered, “
Aunt Laura.
”

Sadie repeated the name to Officer Lancome, who wrote it down and nodded. “She live nearby?”

“Houston.”

“All right then.”

The officer looked over the fence to Marty’s house next door. He seemed about to say something but then he shook his head, spit, and decided to say it anyway. “You know that family next door?”

“Yes, sir,” Sadie said.

“Trouble, ain’t they. Lots of trouble. You all are the ones called us out, am I right?”

“My momma did.”

“Hmm.” He glanced at the burning house and the firefighters and then back at Sadie. “I can’t do nothing about your momma, baby, but can you listen to me hard for one second and answer a couple of questions, real honest like? See, we got something going on around here, something bad and all.”

He knelt, put a hand on Sadie’s shoulder, took off his hat, and put his face so close that she could smell the sweet tobacco on his breath. “Girl,” he said, “we got an all-points out for two sheriff’s officers. You know what that means?”

She shook her head.

“It means we got every car in the goddamned county looking for ’em. Wouldn’t you know we done found their cruisers not ten minutes ago on response to this pileup and all. You know where we found ’em? Right down yonder about half a mile on the feeder road. Just the cars, keys still in ’em. You know anything about that?”

He was silent after he asked that last question, and so still that even the chaos of the firefighters kicking in the back door and crashing into her house seemed to be put on pause.

He waited, and she had the impression he would wait as long as it took. He was still as a spider on a web, ready to skitter across when it felt the vibrations. Her head fell just as silent. In the distance she heard a hooting noise. The officer’s eyes broke away from hers for that instant, and then came back and rested on hers, almost unblinking.

Finally, Sadie said, “I think you need to look over there.” She pointed at Marty’s house, and the officer squeezed her shoulder and stood.

“That’s about what I thought. You a good girl. I can smell it on you. You a good one, and I’m praying for you all, you and your momma. You got to be strong. You got to be strong.”