Part 25 (1/2)
”At last, after some forty minutes of pus.h.i.+ng and pulling our way through the bog, we came to the bank overgrown with blackberries. There stood the house like a s.h.i.+p that had run aground, the violent th.o.r.n.y wisteria trying desperately to swallow it.
”I went onto the island, cracked open a beer and just watched as the men verified with their own eyes everything or almost everything that had been told to them. Allen and Clem, who had seen it all the first time around, also stood with me until the excitement was over.
”Then I said I would go and collect Rebecca's remains alone. I didn't want anybody trooping up there.
”There was immediate concern for my safety.
”Okay, Jasmine, you have your gun, you come with me,” I said, but I went up first and I had my thirty-eight pistol raised.
”The sun was breaking pretty strong through the open windows of the second story. For a moment I was dazzled and then gradually I made out a living being before me: it was Rebecca, her dress torn off down her arms, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s naked, the hook snaring her rib bone as she hung by the hook, her face white, and the blood streaming from her mouth. She blinked her eyes but she couldn't talk. There was too much blood in her mouth.
” 'Good G.o.d, Rebecca,' I said, and I plunged at the figure, trying to get the hook out of her without hurting her more. She writhed and I could hear her gasping.
”This was absolutely happening. 'Rebecca, I'm here!' I declared as I tried to lift her.
”Then I heard Jasmine's voice, and I saw Jasmine's face, and the faces of Allen and Clem. We were all on the second floor of the house. I was lying on my back. And the sun was winking again in the cypresses.
”There was no more Rebecca. Only the rusted chains dangling and the dark slop there. I climbed to my feet.
”Jasmine said, 'Clem, you come here, please, brother, and hold this box while I shovel up what I can of this poor girl. Hold the lid back.'
”I went off down on the island and got sick to my stomach.
”Men were talking, talking about damaging 'gorgeous' gold plates to open the grave. I said, 'Do it. I have to know what's inside.'
”I sat on the steps of the house and I drank another beer, realizing that this woman might haunt me forever. What I'd done with the cameos was not enough, and the dreams were not enough, and coming here to do this, to gather her remains, was not enough; what would be enough? I didn't know. I couldn't think. I was sick and drinking too much beer and it was killing hot, and the mosquitoes were 141.
biting right through my s.h.i.+rt, and the men kept saying, 'Granite, solid granite.'
”Finally, at the first narrow side of the rectangular structure that they approached they found an opening beyond the gold plate, and they were able to push it back. It was a heavy door.
”They were all talking at once, groaning and fussing. Flashlights, who had the flashlights, here was a flashlight, well, will you look at that. I'm not opening that.
” 'Not opening what?' I said.
” 'A coffin.'
” 'Well, what the h.e.l.l did you expect to find in a grave?' I asked. I was wildly stimulated. Ordinary things meant nothing to me.
” 'Now you mind your tone, Little Boss,' said Jasmine. She gave me another beer. What was this? Was I a mental patient she wanted to narcoticize? I said I was sorry. The beer was cold and good. I wasn't going to complain about an ice-cold beer.
” 'Have you packed up little Miss Stanford in her neat little box?' I asked.
” 'You're losing it, Little Boss,' she said. 'Now mind your manners. Don't talk to Allen and Clem the way you've been talking. You've always been Aunt Queen's gentleman, don't get rough now. Don't let this place make you contrary.'
” 'What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?' I asked.
”She looked up thoughtfully at the Hermitage, and then at me, her face positively exquisite with its cacao skin and large pale eyes, eyes that were green or golden.
” 'Take after your Aunt Queen,' she said. 'That's the only point I'm trying to make, and yes, I have the remains of your ghost girlfriend in the casket. G.o.d only knows whatever else I have in this casket.'
” 'Make love to me when we get home,' I said. 'I'm no good for ordinary life. You don't see the ghosts I see. You didn't see that girl hanging by the hook. I've been having ghosts. They've been having me. I have to have somebody real. Make love to me when we get home, you and me, all right? Be my chocolate candy. I'm real unsure of my masculinity.'
” 'You are?' she shot back. 'Well, you could have fooled me.'
”Clem stood over me. 'Quinn, it's an empty coffin. You better come take a look at this for yourself. This is sort of your show, sonny boy.'
”I did. It was made of heavy iron, very ornate, and lightly rusted, with a window in it through which one could see the face of the deceased, I presume, though I'd never seen one like it. It had taken five of them with two crowbars to open it. It was lined with something. I thought it was lead. It was dry and soft to my touch. It was lead.
”And the coffin was in a vault of lead. Yeah, it was lead. And well sealed. Though the vault went down some three feet there was no sign that moisture had ever penetrated it.
”I stepped down into the vault, and for a long time I stood there, inside the mausoleum --in the vault --merely staring at the empty coffin. There was just room to walk around it, which I did.
”I climbed back up and out into the suns.h.i.+ne.
” 'Do you know how many of us it took to open that gold door?' Allen asked. 'What do you make of all this? What's that writing up there? You can read that, can't you, Quinn?'
”I shook my head. 'Manfred,' I said. 'Manfred had some plan to be buried out here, and those whom he trusted never fulfilled his dream. And so we have an empty coffin and an empty mausoleum. We have gold plates and an inscription in Latin. Look up there, that's Latin. I wrote that down. Manfred did all this. Manfred had this thing built when he built the Hermitage. Manfred did it all. And so we close it back up.'
” 'But what about all this solid gold!' Clem said. 'You can't just leave all this gold here for people to steal.'
” 'Do people still kill each other for gold these days?' I asked. 'Are any of you going to come 142.
back out here to steal this gold? Are we going to have a shoot-out over this gold? Let's go back where we came from. I can only take this place for so long. I don't like that a trespa.s.ser came into the house. Let's get out of here.'
”There was one more thing I wanted to check. I went back into the Hermitage.
”I was right!
”On the marble desk there were new books, books on philosophy and history, books on current events, novels. It was all new --a nice slap in the face. Even the candles were new, though the wicks were blackened. Oh, yes, the fearless one, my trespa.s.ser, had been here.
” 'So what are you going to do next, I wonder?' I said aloud. I flew into a rage. I grabbed up as many of the books as I could and threw them down the front steps of the Hermitage. I went back for the rest and threw them after the first. Then I hurried down the steps and pulled and tossed and kicked them all together.
”I took out my lighter. I set a small paperback volume aflame, and then another and another. It was going on its own now, with all the men just watching as if I was crazy, which I was.
” 'His books!' I said. 'He has no right on this property, and he leaves these books for me to see that he's been here again.'
” 'Lord G.o.d,' Jasmine said, as the flames rose and the fire crackled. 'We got a dead girl, a strange building, a bunch of weird books, and a regular tomb of gold with an empty iron coffin in it, and a crazy boy standing here!'
” 'Well put,' I said in her ear, 'and don't forget your promise to me, Milk Chocolate. It's you and me alone tonight.'
” 'I never made you any promise!' she said.
” 'I told you, I'm unsure of my masculinity,' I whispered. 'You've got to sacrifice yourself.' I kicked the fire to make it flare again. I hated burning books. I could hardly stand it to see a MerriamWebster dictionary go up in smoke. But I had to do this.
”One or two more kicks and everything was incinerated. I turned and looked at Jasmine, expecting some wise remark, but all I saw was a sort of dreamy thoughtfulness in her face.
”Then she said: ” 'You know, boy, you really have me thinking about it. You should be more kind to a woman my age. You scamp. You think I don't have any feelings like that just 'cause I rocked your cradle?'
” 'How kind can I get?' I asked. 'You think I take up with just anybody?'