getting dark in this ship.
âI have to go now, the bitch is coming back.â
Nadia!
âBut let me tell you something, Mister Andrew. Youâll be sorry soon. I know who you are now, and I will tell
her
.â
Your niece?
âYou poor fucker!â
It laughs now, shaking itself to pieces, its light almost completely gone. Its voice is strangled, as if it is drowning again.
âBut Iâll tell her to make it quick. If you do something for me.â
What?
âFind my dog. Find my little Caspar.â
31
Complete darkness.
Cold.
Andrew screams.
Cold arms find him, cradle his head, a stiff, cold nipple brushes his cheek down in the dead ship.
âYou idiot,â the rusalka says, kissing his mouth.
32
Light.
Warmth.
Andrew screams.
Warm arms find him, cradle his head, a soft breast beneath the cotton of a T-shirt.
Anneke is crying.
âYou idiot,â she says, kissing his mouth.
33
âI thought you were dead. You looked pretty dead.â
She uses a roll of paper towels and a bottle of rubbing alcohol to swab his upper lip and chin. While the weightless parts of Andrew were touring the depths of Lake Ontario, his body sprung the mother of all nosebleeds. It dropped its other ballast, too, but Anneke wonât let go of him yet.
He is lying under a blanket, the blanket topped with his leather jacket.
âI need to change my pants.â
She hugs his head to her chest one more time.
Salvador paces behind her.
âSend Jeeves for new pants. I donât want you walking yet.â
âSalvador, please get me a pair of jeans.â
Happy to have a task, the wicker man disappears from the buggy barn and heads for the main house.
âWell, since youâre my sponsor, I guess youâre the one I tell I really want a drink right now.â
He nods his head, shivering.
The lakeâs cold is in his bones.
âYou know what the worst thing was? When I thought Elvis had left the building for real, my first thought wasnât, âOh God, my friend is dead.â My first thought was, âTheyâll think I killed himâIâm going back to prison.â Howâs that for sucking? As a person, I mean. Whoâs that selfish?â
She wonât let herself cry.
He wrestles free of her, goes to the barn door, leans over and vomits. Cold lake water comes out of him.
She brings him a paper towel for his mouth.
âI donât understand half of what happened tonight,â he says. âBut somebodyâs coming for me. Somebody dangerous. And I think I know whoâs sending her.â
âWho?â
âI donât want to say her name. But I think itâs time I gave you a proper tour of my house. And I think itâs time I told you what happened to me in Russia.â
It stinks of lake now, worse than before.
âIs time you were telling me, too,â the naked woman with the dreadlocked auburn mane says. She walks dripping into the barn, eyeing Anneke territorially.
Anneke does some eyeing of her own.
âYou have cigarette for me?â
âYou know where they are.â
Nadia pads across the barn floor, reaches into the jacket pocket.
Anneke watches her, willing herself not to react to her smell.
Nadia pulls out a bright yellow cigarette pack, but the cigarette she pulls from it is broken in half.
âShit,â she says, smelling the blond strands of tobacco.
Anneke offers her a Winston.
The rusalka takes it.
34
He tells them what happened to him in Russia.
PART TWO
35
The man who forgot his own name has been living on the street in Syracuse since March. March was a hard, miserable month to be outdoors, but, with the help of the blanket from the Salvation Army, the down vest from Goodwill, and the shoplifted sleeping bag, he made it.
Heâs caveman strong.
A tribe of one.
He is proud of the sleeping bag. Not just for the tactical skill he showed in getting it past the sensors before the
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