Part 34 (1/2)

'No one knows,' said Ali.

'She does,' he said.

Later, Molly confessed. There was none of that Sister, Sister for her. At first it seemed like a joke. 'Hey, Al,' she opened. 'Wanna hear something off the wall?'

Small spasms clenched and unclenched the woman's long body. She strained to get control, at least from the neck up.

'Only if it's good,' Ali kidded. You had to be like that with Molly. They were holding hands.

'Well,' said Molly, and her small grin flickered on, then off. 'About a month ago, I guess, I started this thing.'

'Thing?' said Ali.

'Yeah. You know, what do they call it? s.e.x.'

'I'm listening.' Ali waited for a punchline. But Molly's eyes were desperate.

'Yes,' whispered Molly.

Now Ali understood.

'I thought he was a soldier,' Molly said. 'That first time.'

Ali let Molly orchestrate the tale. Sin was burial. Salvation was excavation. If Molly needed help with the shovel work, Ali would step in.

'He was in the shadows,' said Molly. 'You know the colonel's rules against soldiers fraternizing with us infidels. I had no idea which one he was. I don't know what came over me. Pity, I guess. I pitied him. So I gave him darkness, I let him be anonymous. I let him have me.'

Ali was not at all shocked. Taking a nameless soldier seemed perfectly Molly-like. Her bravado was legend. 'You made love,' said Ali.

'We f.u.c.ked,' Molly corrected. 'Hard. Okay?'

Ali waited. Where was the guilt?

'It wasn't the only time,' said Molly. 'Night after night, I went out into the darkness, and he was always there, waiting for me.'

'I understand,' said Ali, but did not. She saw no sin here. Nothing to reconcile.

'Finally it was like curiosity killed the cat. Who's Prince Charming, right? I had to know.' Molly paused. 'So one night I turned on my light.'

'Yes?'

'I shouldn't have done that.'

Ali frowned.

'He wasn't one of Walker's soldiers.'

'One of the scientists,' said Ali.

'No.'

'Well?' Whom did that leave?

Molly's jaw tightened with the fever. She began s.h.i.+vering.

After a minute, Molly opened her eyes. 'I don't know,' she said. 'I've never seen him before.'

Ali accepted that at the level of denial. If Molly was hiding from her lover's secret ident.i.ty, then it seemed to be part of Ali's task as confessor, in this case, to ferret out the incubus. 'You know, that's impossible,' she said. 'There are no strangers in this group. Not after four months.'

'I know. That's what I'm saying.' She was, Ali saw, horrified.

'Describe him to me,' Ali said. 'Before your light.' Together they would build the character. And then turn on the light.

'He smelled... different. His skin. When he was in my mouth. He tasted different. You know how a man has this taste? White or black or brown, it doesn't matter. His juices. His tongue. The breath from his lungs. They have this... flavor.'

Ali listened. Clinically.

'He didn't. My midnight man. It wasn't like he was a blank. But it was different. Like he had more earth in his blood. Darkness. I don't know.'

That didn't help much. 'What about his body? Was there anything that distinguished him? Body hair? The size of his muscles?'

'While I had him between my legs?' Molly said. 'Yeah. I could feel his scars. He's been through the wringer. Old wounds. Broken bones. And someone had cut patterns into his back and arms.'

There was only one among them like Molly had just described. It occurred to Ali that Molly might be trying to hide his ident.i.ty from her. 'And when you turned on the light -'

'My first thought was a wild animal. He had stripes and spots. And pictures and lettering.'

'Tattoos,' Ali said. Why prolong it? But this was Molly's confession.

Molly nodded yes. 'It all happened in an instant. He knocked the light from my hand. Then he disappeared.'

'He was afraid of your light?'

'That's what I thought. Later I remembered something. In that first second, I said a name out loud. Now I think it was the name that made him run. But he wasn't afraid.'

'What name, Molly?'

'I was wrong, Ali. It was the wrong name. They just looked alike.'

'Ike,' stated Ali. 'You said his name because it was him.'

'No.' Molly paused.

'Of course it was.'

'It wasn't. But I wish to G.o.d it had been. Don't you see?'

'No. You thought it was him. You wanted it to be him.'