Part 24 (1/2)
But the idea seemed to taint the power of the legend. Could it really be that bland? ”Satanism, then. The Gast myth is just a painted-up version of that?”
”Probably. Inventing stories is part of our nature, I guess-as the highest animal. Detractors of religion say the same thing about Christianity. It's just a caveman legend: the savior comes and plucks the good people out of their h.e.l.lhole existence and takes them to paradise.”
”A fair point, for people who consider religion objectively.”
”Of course it is. But seeing is believing. Those detractors never get a chance to really see, because they don't believe in anything strong enough to ask to be shown. They believe in concrete and steel and Ford and Mercedes. They believe in Starbucks and Blockbuster and Super Bowl Sunday and reality TV. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are all the saviors they need. And their paychecks, of course. All that s.h.i.+t in their lives prevents them from seeing anything everlasting.”
”Money and fas.h.i.+on is the new G.o.d?”
”The new golden calf,” she said. When she crossed her ankles under the table, her toes brushed his leg. ”Sorry. Wasn't trying to kick you.”
Baby, you can kick me anytime you want...and I'd LIKE it... ”So with your caveman a.n.a.logy, and objectively speaking, we create ghost stories because we've always been intrigued by them-”
”Not just intrigued. We need them,” she said. A squid tentacle slipped between her lips into her mouth. ”Cavemen wanted to believe there were ghosts, because the idea reinforced ancient myths of the afterlife.”
Collier's brow furrowed.
”Not only are ghosts proof of an afterlife, but they're also proof of a netherworld-or h.e.l.l. If the caveman really believes there are ghosts haunting the woods, what else can they be but unsaved spirits? And if there are unsaved spirits, then surely there must be saved spirits, too. Follow the code and you go to heaven. Don't follow the code, and you're a ghost prowling the woods at night.”
Collier tried to make more observations without being the devil's advocate. ”So...not objectively speaking?”
”I don't worry about it because I see the reality of G.o.d every day.”
”What does that look like, exactly?”
”You have to ask G.o.d to see, Justin,” she nearly exclaimed. ”It's personal. It's between G.o.d and the individual. If I say anything more, I'll only sound like a Holy Roller again. I don't have to explain why I believe that Christ is my Savior-”
”No, no, I wasn't asking you to do that,” Collier hastened. ”I understand that it is personal.” He feared the conversation was growing too touchy. If he touted any serious Christian ideals himself, Dominique would smell him out as a fake. ”I believe in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount and all that. My problem is following them. Back to what we were talking about earlier. Weakness.”
She just looked at him and nodded. ”Humans aren't strong-not since Eve bit the apple. That's why G.o.d gives us an out. We either find it or we don't.”
He tried to a.s.similate. ”Then what did Harwood Gast find? You say that you know there's a G.o.d because you've seen evidence of him in your life-”
”Sure. A bunch of times.”
”So if you know there's a G.o.d, then you know there's a heaven, and if you know there's a heaven, then you know there's a h.e.l.l?”
She laughed. ”Yeah.”
”So then maybe all those cotton fields are cursed. Maybe the Gast House really is haunted, and maybe Harwood Gast genuinely made a pact with the devil, or, well, a demon, which is what Sute suggested. Maybe all those stories are true.”
She shrugged. ”I agree with the possibility.”
”So what about you? I believe you when you say you've seen evidence of G.o.d in your life. Have you ever seen any evidence of anything else?”
Her gorgeous eyes narrowed. ”As in what?”
”At lunch, didn't you imply that you had seen something at the inn? I just want to know if you've ever witnessed anything around here that might suggest it's not all a bunch of-”
”Bulls.h.i.+t? Well, in all honesty I can say...maybe. But I won't say what it was.”
Collier sighed.
Now she was grinning. ”I know. I hate it when people do that, too. But I don't want to say anything 'cos then you really will think I'm a crackpot.”
”I swear I won't,” he about pleaded. Collier was getting the same jive from everyone around here. ”There's no way I'll think you're a crackpot.”
”Well...” Her gaze darted up to the waitress. ”Oh, here's the check. This is Dutch treat-”
”I'm not Dutch.” Collier gave the waitress cash, with a big tip. Then he leaned into the table. ”Tell me.”
Her reluctance was genuine. ”All right, but not here. You paid for dinner, so I'll get dessert...”
A hot fudge sundae on top of...squid, Collier thought in disbelief. He opted for a large shortbread cookie and followed Dominique out of the corner ice-cream parlor. They sat on a bench facing a semicircular half wall of old brick and mortar, which highlighted a large cannon. The cannon had no wheels but sat on a round track and swivel; a pyramid of fat sh.e.l.ls rested beside it. Collier half noticed one of the omnipresent historical plaques: LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY BARBETTE BUNKER AND MODEL 1861 6.4-INCH PINTLE-MOUNTED CANNON. A world of hurt, Collier thought. Beyond them, tourists seemed to emerge from the settling dusk.
Dominique dug into the sundae as if ravenous. As each spoonful was savored, Collier saw the wet s.h.i.+ne of her lips and tongue-tip in a Daliesque clarity; nightfall hovered around the radiant face and the gem-s.h.i.+ne of her eyes. ”I'm such a pig, but this is so good,” she reveled. ”You sure you don't want some?”
”No, thanks, I'm stuffed.” When he imagined his stomach's reaction to ice cream mixing with Korean spices and squid, beef, and half-cooked egg-plus all the beer he'd had today-he s.h.i.+vered. In all, he had to force himself to eat the cookie.
Then he imagined something else: when she raised the next spoonful to her parted lips, she froze. Suddenly she was topless and sitting spread-legged on the bench, the quirky Christian reverting to her college-tramp roots...
Her mouth sucked the ice cream off the spoon, where it sat on her tongue till it melted, and then her lips expelled it. The slew of white cream marbled with hot fudge began to run a slow line down her chin, over the hollow of her throat, and between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. It stopped to pool in her belly b.u.t.ton, and that's when the fantasy put Collier on his knees licking it out. His hands molded her hips and slid up her ribs as his tongue followed the track in reverse. He evacuated the adorable navel, then sucked upward over a quivering stomach. His mouth could feel excited blood beating in vessels beneath succulent, perfect flesh. No thoughts formed in his own mind, just the carnal craving. She had become his own ice-cream sundae. When his tongue laved her cleavage, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s vised his cheeks.
When his tongue slathered over the fudge-covered cross, he recoiled- It burned like a tiny branding iron.
”-and, see? Those are some of the very first tracks, right there.”
Collier's head surfaced from the dirty delusion like a bubble breaking sewer water. She'd been talking but he hadn't heard any of it.
”What's that?”
She pointed past the cannon, to the brick-paved street. Two parallel lines crossed the quaint lane, and the lines seemed sunken beneath the bricks.
”Oh, railroad tracks,” he finally recognized. ”Gast's railroad, I presume.”
”Right. See that plaque there?”
Another old brick wall sported the plaque: ORIGINAL SITE OF DEPOT NUMBER ONE, OF THE EAST TENNESSEE AND GEORGIA RAILROAD COMPANY-1857.
Collier looked at the strangely rustless rails. ”So the original track still exists?”
”Oh, no. Most of it was taken up after the war-for reparations. But they left these here, and there are a few more sections around the town, even with the original ties. But this site, right here where we're sitting, is where the madness of Harwood Gast officially began in 1857. It ended less than five years later in an area in Georgia called Maxon.”
”Maxon,” Collier uttered. ”I don't think I've ever heard of the place.”
”That's because it doesn't exist anymore. The Union army razed the entire area. There's nothing there now except scrub.”
Collier thought back. ”Mr. Sute told me that Gast actually built the railroad to take prisoners to some sort of concentration camp. Was that this Maxon place?”
”Yes,” Dominique grimly replied. ”And the prisoners weren't captured Union soldiers, they were-”