World Made by Hand (33 page)

"Don't you look purty now?" Wayne said, standing aside for the audience to see. More whistles, cheers, and catcalls, and cries of "Get 'er done, Wayne-o!" Wayne kicked the edge of the wheel into motion, shoving it round and round until it picked up speed. Soon Loren became a blur. I stopped counting after fifty revolutions. After quite a while, Wayne applied his foot as a brake to bring the wheel to a stop. As he did, and then brought the stocks back facing front, Loren could be seen vomiting.

"That's disgusting!" someone shouted from the audience.

Wayne seemed to inflate his chest, then leaned down to face Loren.

"Look what you done now," Wayne said. "Goodness gracious what a mess. Could we get a mop up here, please? I guess this explains why you went the church route instead of astronaut training`"

That was the moment when Loren spit into Wayne's face.

The crowd howled. Whatever Wayne said was lost in the welling noise. Meanwhile, he reared back and smacked Loren's head with the back of his hand and must have whaled on him five times more in each direction until blood the same color as the lipstick ran out Loren's nose and mouth. One of Wayne's men came forward with a mop and pail and handed Wayne a wet rag to wipe the vomit and spit off his face.

"Bring the got-damn instruments out here," Wayne shouted. "Let's get this underway."

Another man brought up a canvas tarpaulin. He laid it on the stage floor next to Wayne and opened it up. Inside was an array of items that might be used to punish a captive human body.

"You know, when you spit in my face, you spit in the face of everyone out there," Wayne said to Loren. "This isn't a democracy, exactly, but we do share the common burdens and enjoy the common benefits of life. So, here's how we'll do it, Preacher Man. I'm going to ask every one of my people to come up here and address your ass however they deem fitting, by whatever means they like. That sound okay to you? No, don't answer, it doesn't matter anymore what you think. Like I already said: try to relax, think happy thoughts, and go with the flow."

Wayne bent down and rummaged among the various implements at his feet, picking them up one after the other.

"Listen up, people. What we got here: a nice ash broomstick, a horsewhip, a light carriage whip for you ladies, a brass curtain rod, a canoe paddle, a length of rubber hose with some fishing sinkers inside, and last but not least, a genuine Adirondak brand, official American League centennial-year f Ingo bat-this here's probably a collector's item. Now, those of you that want a turn, form a line on this side of the stage, and we'll get 'er done in a nice, orderly, systematic way. Just remember, only one stroke per customer allowed. No hogging the spotlight. We don't want to be here all got-damn night. I'm sure we'll get the point across, which is: if you come up this way trying serve any got-damn papers impinging on the personal or property rights of the sovereign individual, then your sovereign got-damn ass will be mine."

Wayne spun the wheel half a turn so that Loren was facing the rear of the stage with his rear end presented to the audience.

"Step right up," Wayne said. "The glory wheel is now open for business."

A line formed quickly leaving the seats about three-quarters empty. Most of those in line were men and boys, and those who remained in the seats mostly women and girls. The first to swing at Loren was the middle Zito boy, the one who had shaken a piece of sheet metal as a percussion instrument earlier in the evening. He chose the brass curtain rod and laid a stroke full force against Loren's behind. Loren endured it stoically, as well as the next several. But then the hulking Bunny Willman stepped up to the stage. He didn't pick up any of the arrayed implements. Instead he reared back and delivered a fierce kick, with a heavyweight workman's boot, right in the cleft below the cheeks where Loren's privy parts were tucked in. Loren gave out a bellow of a kind I don't think I'd ever heard come from a human being. And so it continued for a good twenty minutes. At some point about halfway through, a red stain appeared on Loren's pants. The blows from the last ones on line were as vicious as the early ones. As the line wound down, Loren had gone from emitting a shriek at every blow to issuing a barely audible grunt. The blood had spread across his behind and began seeping down the legs of his pants, on the inside of his thighs. The very last person on line, the woman named Brenda who had answered the door to Wayne's abode hours earlier, actually broke the ash broomstick, she swung so hard.

"Don't worry, I'll just deduct it from your pay, darlin'," Wayne said as he resumed his position front and center. "I was going to lay a stroke or two on you myself, maybe even ram the back end of that horsewhip up your bunghole for good measure, but my people have spoken so eloquently by their actions that I really don't think it's necessary. Anyway, it made me tired just watching all that." He kicked the wheel so that Loren came around frontwise again. His head hung limply in the stocks.

"I suppose you can guess whose turn it is now," Wayne said, stalking over my way. I was numb all over. I couldn't feel my hands or feet. My pulse pounded so loudly, I thought the top of my skull might blow off. "Yeah, that's the bad news," Wayne said. "It is your turn. The good news is, I ain't going to make you ride Old Mary. I thought to myself, maybe I should fetch a claw hammer and take it to his hands, you know, bust 'em up so bad he'd never hold a knife and fork again, let alone a freakin' musical instrument. But got-dammit, I like you too much. For all the got-damned trouble you cause me, Fiddler Joe, I like the way you play that thing and I don't want to hurt you because we need all the got-damn good music we have around here-and besides, you ain't as mouthy as your compadre here. So I'm not going to hurt you. Physically. But I do want to give you a lesson that you ain't likely to soon forget. And if I do see your ass up this way again, I promise I will ream it out good and got-damned well next time plus break every last one of your golden fingers. Let's see that bucket, boys."

Wayne's factotums brought up a big white joint-compound bucket and set it down between where Wayne stood and where I sat. It reeked.

"What I got here is a generous dip of outhouse slops," Wayne said. The crowd cheered and applauded. "You still have nice bathrooms down in the Grove, I hear. Town water an' all. Well, things are a little more nitty-gritty up here, you know. All that heat we've been getting has worked this stuff pretty ripe. I can hardly stand it myself. I thought this might be a nice way to make an impression on you about overstepping your jurisdictional lines and at the same time offer a little memento from us to take back home with you. Or all over you, I should say. Anyway, here she comes. I'm sorry we couldn't serve it up fresh and warm for you. Bodie, Pinky, get 'er done."

Wayne stepped back gingerly where nothing would splash on him and let the other two do the pouring. It took two of them to hoist the heavy bucket above my head.

"Take her nice and easy, boys. Let him enjoy the flow of it."

The stuff ran down into my shirt and pants and over my eyes and lips, liquids, solids, and all the stuff in between. After a while, it just felt cold splashing over me. Finally, the two men turned the bucket over my head and left it there. I could hear the crowd yell its approval before I shook it off and heard it bounce across the stage. I struggled not to inhale or ingest any of the filth that was dripping off my face.

"Whooooo-weeeee," if you aren't the very lily of the dell," Wayne said. "Okay, everybody, that's the end of tonight's feature presentation. The show's over. Thanks for coming and let's keep up that artistic community spirit. Anybody wants a musical instrument, we got all kinds over to the general. Guitars up the ying-yang. Tubas. Clarinet. Whatever. Just come by and put in for it. Those of you who would like to sign up to perform in next Tuesday night's show, go see Brenda at my place. She's always there at suppertime between sundown and full dark. For Pete's sake, you Zito boys, learn another song or two. And practice, practice, practice! Get some gotdamn discipline, why don't you. Goodnight everybody."

There was a final smattering of applause. The filth still dripped off my ears and chin. I tried to spit out what was on my lips without getting any inside my mouth. I barely noticed that Wayne had cut my bonds until he said, "Go help your compadre, Fiddler. Get him up and get gone before I change my mind and kill you both."

Once I realized my hands were free, I desperately tried to wipe the stuff off my face. By now, they opened the top of the stocks on the wheel and Loren had slumped off into a heap below. I knelt down beside him on the wheel.

"It's me, Loren. Can you hear me?"

He squeezed his eyes and nodded, and then yielded to a spasm.

"I think they're letting us go."

"It hurts real bad," Loren said. His voice was a croak.

"Try to get up. I'll take you back."

I reached under his armpits and jerked him to his feet as though he were a two-hundred-pound barbell.

"Oh, Jesus," he said.

"Can you walk?"

He limped two steps with my assistance.

"I ... think something's ... torn up inside," he said.

"Put more of your weight on me."

Wayne had left the amphitheater. A few of his people still milled around, both onstage and off in the seats. They simply ignored us. Several men were mopping up the spot where my chair had been. Loren took tiny shuffling steps, grimacing, and contorting his head to the side in pain.

We struggled down the three stage steps, then off to the side of the amphitheater, uphill through the dust and weeds toward the village gate. Stragglers stood still and stared as we passed by. A few registered looks of disgust. One of the few young children there spit at us. A woman stepped forward and held out a raggedy T-shirt full of holes. I took it and wiped as much of the filth off my face as possible, though my hair was still full of it. When we got up to the gate I had to stop and throw up. But then we passed under the rampant motorcycle and onto the road, and I actually believed they had let us go for real.

Loren was in a lot of pain as we made our way down the road. He groaned continually and now and again cried out and cursed. I propped him up as best I could, but he stumbled several times. He said he could feel blood running down his legs. It seemed to take forever to get to the old bridge over Black Creek. We agreed to stop there. A path well trodden by fishermen led from the road down to the bank. The moon, now clear of the treetops, cast enough light to see by. I helped Loren down the path. The stream had a gravel bed, and there was a little beach beside a pool on the upstream side of the bridge. I left Loren there so he could drink some water while I went to wash the filth off myself downstream. The creek was no more than knee deep and quite chilly. I scrubbed as much as I could without soap and soaked my head, but the stench stayed with me. Then I went back to help Loren wash off. Finally I helped him struggle out of the water.

"I can't walk ... the rest of the way," he said. He was breathing in gasps. "You're going to have to ... send somebody up to get me in a ... a wagon or something. Let's not even ... argue about it."

"All right. Hold still a moment."

I hitched up a leg of his pants. The moonlight did not pick up color very well, but I could see a rivulet of something darker than water run down his leg.

"How am I ... doing?"

"I think you're still bleeding some."

"I think so too. Before you go ... get me a good stick. For the coyotes."

"All right."

I found him something like a war club. He said he didn't want to sit, it hurt too much, so I helped him creep over to a clump of alders he could hold onto and sort of lean on. I assured him I'd be back soon and left him there by the bridge in the moonlight. I doubted anyone from Karptown would come looking for us again. They'd had all the fun and excitement they needed.

It had been a long time since I ran any distance, but I jogged most of the way back to town. Much of it was downhill. I went directly to the high school and banged on the door at the front entrance, which was locked, naturally. I knew they ran regular watches around the building. In a little while, one of the brothers appeared. I didn't know this one's name, but he seemed to recognize me. He let me in. I asked him to get Joseph. He went directly. Two minutes later, Joseph strode down the hallway, lifting a suspender into place, with Elam right behind buttoning his shirt as he walked. I told them what had happened to Loren and me up at Karptown. Joseph said Brother Jobe had left him with instructions to help if I called upon him. I told him to get somebody over to Doctor Copeland's, tell him to have his wife prepare for surgery, have her fetch Bobbie Deland over to assist, and for Jerry to report here to the school with his wagon as soon as possible, to get Loren down.

Joseph turned to Elam. "Send Brother Jonah to get the doc," he said. "You go get Minor, Seth, Caleb, and Lazarus to tack up all the horses that are fit to ride and harness a rig. I'll get the rest of the men up. Let's all meet out front in half an hour."

Elam took off at a trot. I begged Joseph to take me to a shower and bring me some fresh clothes, including a pair of size-ten boots, if they could spare any. He showed me to the shower in the boys' locker room and then went to get the clothes. I'd last been in the locker room when Daniel was on the soccer team. Being there gave me another reason to rue and wonder at the strangeness of how our lives had gone in this century. The shower was warm but not hot. They had a wood-burning boiler up on the roof rigged up to the plumbing system. But they fired it only at breakfast and suppertime. Anyway, it was good enough. They had plenty of sharp lye soap on hand. I scrubbed my scalp raw. Joseph soon returned with some clothing and a towel. Also a bottle of whiskey.

"I thought maybe you'd like to wash your mouth out," he said. "And knock some back to ease your mind."

"Most considerate of you," I said and did exactly that. He'd brought me a good muslin shirt and dark linen pants, a pair of suspenders. They fit well enough. The boots were nicely broken-in.

"They're Brother Jobe's boots," he said.

"Imagine that."

We talked over a plan as I dressed. The objective was simple: to extract Wayne Karp and bring him to jail. I described the layout of Karptown, the location of Wayne's place inside it, and so forth. I knew Joseph was capable of accomplishing this. But I was worried he might take things too far.

"You are not to kill this man," I said. "Whatever he has done, he is going to answer in a court of law."

"Eventually he'll answer to something higher."

"I'm just asking you not to hasten that moment."

"Okay, sir."

"Nor kill anyone else up there if you can avoid it."

"I'll take care."

"This can't turn into an Indian war kind of thing where one raid leads back and forth to another and another."

"I understand."

"And don't burn the place down, either. Most of the people up there aren't guilty of anything."

"Of course."

"I'll be going with you as far as the Black Creek Bridge. We'll stop there and get Reverend Holder into Doc Copeland's rig. I'll accompany them back to the doctor's place while you and your men get Karp. I will meet you back at the jail, with your prisoner, somewhere between three and four in the morning."

"Okay on that, sir."

"How many men in all are you going to take?"

"We have twenty horses all told. Minus the rig. Minus a horse for you. Minus any horses unfit to ride tonight. Maybe fifteen, seventeen men."

"Is it enough?"

"Any more than that, you just increase the chance for something to go wrong."

I followed Joseph to what proved to be the men's quarters, along the far wing of the school, away from the gym wing. The brothers slept five or more to the classroom there, like a dormitory. We went through them with a lantern as Joseph handpicked the brothers best suited to this venture, the most experienced, boldest.

In a little while, we all began to marshal out in front of the school. The moon was at its zenith and the clear sky blazed with stars. Minor, Elam, and the others led a string of horses down from the pasture, along with a utility cart. Minor seemed in especially high spirits.

"Good to see you again, sir," Minor said. "Tell me: how do you stop a rooster from crowing on Sunday?"

"I don't know. How?"

"Fricassee him on Saturday."

A moment later, Jerry Copeland pulled in the high school drive in his rig, a two-wheeled box cart behind a Morgan horse named Buddy, with Brother Jonah in the seat beside him. He trotted up past the gardens to the school's entrance. Jonah jumped out as I hurried over. In the box behind the seat was a stretcher on an old mattress.

"What's this all about, Robert," Jerry said.

I told him what happened to Loren up in Karptown. By the strenuous way Jerry rubbed his eyes I knew that he was extremely concerned.

"What are you thinking?" I said.

"I'm thinking I hope the bastards didn't rip anything up in the peritoneal cavity. I don't have any antibiotics, Robert. You get a bunch of shit in there it's not good news."

Just then, Elam came to notify me they were ready to ride and had my old mount, Cadmus, saddled up for me. I went with Elam and climbed aboard.

"I'm hereby deputizing all of you, limited to this operation tonight," I said and turned things over to Joseph to explain what I'd outlined previously to him about bringing Wayne Karp back alive and not harming any innocent people. Then we trotted off under the stars.