[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

bones of their faces. Their eyes were too clear, too liquid to really be eyes. And when they
stuck their reptilian tongues out to lick their thin lips, their teeth were large and sharp and
yellow. And then he saw the squeaky things. Images lent to the sounds that had infected
him since childhood. Something like bloated cockroaches with legs that were too thin and
antennae that were too long, fat swollen sacs sagging behind their mid-sections. They
came out of the men s mouths, crawled from the cuffs of their suits, swarmed over Janey.
 Oh God, Walt whispered to himself as he heard their thirsty suckling.
He looked up at the moon. It seemed whiter now than it had earlier. He thought it
seemed, somehow, angry. The sand felt like a welcomed mattress beneath him.
Janey moved closer to him, her wolf mask eclipsing the moon.
 I guess Tag s over, huh, you big sillyhead?
 I tried, girly-girl. I tried.
 C mon. I ll help ya up. You remember that time you helped me up?
 Don t recall. He stuck out his hand, bracing himself.
Janey wrapped her little hand around his big hand.
The moon screamed bloody murder.
Nausea gnawed at Walt s soul but blossomed into a kind of ecstatic knowledge.
He had the answer now.
He got to his feet, the latest vision burning just behind his eyes.
He saw Janey from above. She lay on the ground and from the impossible cant of
her head and limbs, her overall deflatedness, he knew she was dead. And then, spilling
over the vision was the blood and the squeaky things all over Janey, all over the trees
surrounding her, all over the fallen leaves on some unknown forest floor.
 That was real fun, Mr. Silly, she said.  I guess I better go now.
Walt stood silently and watched as the little girl walked toward the ocean, toward
her lonely purgatory. He watched as the water crept up to her waist. He watched as she
became somehow less substantial.
 Janey! Walt called.
She stopped and turned her wolf face toward him.
 You want some comp ny? he shouted, already walking toward the ocean.
She stood still until he reached her.  You know where we re going? she asked.
 Nope. I got a question for ya, though. You ever hear of the squeaky things?
She looked at him, the moon lighting off the blue of her eyes. He saw something
like a flash of recognition. Maybe it was a look of fear.
 They any squeaky things where we re goin?
 No, Janey said, shaking her wolf mask from side to side.
 Then I m all fer it.
 You ll be my company.
 That s right, Walt said, waiting for the ocean to rise up through his nose and
suffocate the squeaky things away.
Together, they walked out into the ocean, toward a moon that had never been
quieter. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]