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here to live in our grave. She had me. All her people were killed by the Indians."
"Is your mother down there too, then?" Chime asked.
The starlight that stroked Chime's face with such tenderness only deepened the grime and ugliness of
Eve's sickly pale skin.
"Have you never seen the sun?" Mike interrupted.
She shrugged. "Sorta. I used to see it when I was little, but I don't remember it very well. Pa says it will
burn me."
"What does your mother say?" Chime asked.
"She said she would just be a minute. But she didn't come back for a long time and then therewas the
loud noises and the grave shook."
"Grave?"
She smiled again through her sharp broken teeth."Grave-cave, home-sweet-home. There." She nodded
at the ground.
Mike told himself that this woman was a victim of ignorance and great tragedy, that she couldn't help the
way she looked-probably had no idea that she looked any different from them-that the sinister cast to her
eye was the result of being cramped away in what he presumed was a small hole in the ground for most
of her life. At least she was willing to talk to them. He told himself he was only cold as they talked
because he'd been still so long, sleeping, and he needed to get his circulation going. Still, looking at her
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ragged teeth and popped rolling eyes, eyes with too much white around them-sanpaku eyes, Auntie
Dolma called them, sign of the evil eye in old times, certainly a sign of instability even in modern
Shambala-he wished dawn would come and she'd bolt for her hole so they could continue their journey
without her.
"Could you convince your father to come out and talk to us too?" Chime asked.
"You said you had food.Food to share?"
"Only if you share yours with us," Mike answered for Chime, feeling that traveling with a compassionate
saint had more than its share of liabilities. "We have a long journey and many people to try to save. You
can come with us if you want to, but we need to conserve food."
"Pa's sleeping, but when he wakes up I'll ask him," she said.
"Couldn't you wake him?" Chime asked.
The woman's eyes popped wider in alarm."Oh, no. Don't wake Pa. Not if you don't want a chunk bit
out of you. I'll ask later," she said, and popped down the hole.
Mike took Chime by the elbow, raised her to her feet and shone his light on the path again. "Let's get out
of here," he said.
"Meekay, this is what we came to this place to do."
"Chime Cincinnati, she as much as said her father looks upon other people as food and punishes her by
biting chunks out of her.I may be wrong but I think that such people are part of the reason the elders
didn't want us to come outside."
"This is possible. Still, we must try to help as many survivors as we can."
"We'll be able to help more if we don't get killed by the first ones we meet. Comeon."
He pulled at her, and finally she said, "Oh, very well. But only because I think we can travel faster by
ourselves. We can return to help Eve later."
"Much later," he said.
With only the starlight to show them the way, they started up the mountain pass that led to the next
valley. The path was not too steep, and they were about a quarter of the way up when they heard the
scrape of rock below. They stood in darkness on the side of the mountain while the wind whipped
around them, tearing at the spirit catchers each of them still carried, and penetrating their coats.
A torch sprouted from the ground below them, itsflickering a fitful jig of shadows and light that lit the
cul-de-sac between rock and mountain with dancing demons.
The emergence of Eve's pa was not as slow as hers-he popped out of the cave with a single boost, like
a jack-in-the-box-reached into his belt and pulled forth something that gleamed dully in the torchlight.
"Okay, now," he said. "Don't be shy. I can hear you out there. I reckoned when you come by earlier,
Eve was talkin' to the ghosts again, but she said you're alive and healthy and invited her for dinner. We
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haven't seen enough live folks for Eve to learn manners and know to invite y'all down to our place for
dinner, but I want you to come on back now and do that little thing.Us survivors should be friendly. Y'all
come on back down here an' tell ol' Buzz what's goin' on out there these days."
He picked up the torch and it lit his face with hellish lickings of flame. His eyes were as popped as his
daughter's and his mouth gleamed in the torchlight with wetness or possibly grease.
"Th-Thanks, but we need to be going," Mike called down. "We'll return for you on our way back."
"Don't be so hasty, son. It's nighttime now-the monsters will be out." He grinned when he said this, and
his teeth looked funny-as if he had a mouthful of little yellow needles. They're filed, Mike thought. Like
Queequeg the cannibal's inMoby Dick. "They come around here 'cause Evie leaves out food for stuff, no
matter what I tell her. You stay out here roamin' around by yourselves, though, you're advertisin'
yourselves asa entree. You come on down to the cave with Eve and me and we'll make you comfy."
The firelight flickered off his eyes, shining and predatory.
"We'll return for you, we promise," Chime called down, and then added slowly and quietly to Mike,
"I've known this man before, in another life." Her eyes held Mike's for a long time, there in the darkness.
He could feel the presence of the man grinning up at them from below, hear the excited thump of his
heart,smell the fetid breath blowing from his mouth, read the terrible thoughts rolling through that head.
Mike felt recognition wash over him like cold rain, turning his skin to gooseflesh.
"Chime, Buzz is the name of the man in Mom's diaries, the one who raped her before she came to the
camps. He was an AmCan agent for the Chinese." When Mike said it aloud, it didn't sound like enough
to provoke such a strong reaction in him, but the recognition of this man as the one who had harmed his
mother shook him profoundly. "Isn't it strange for us to meet this particular man here? Like he messed up
Mom's life and has waited through the end of the world, and all these years, to get us too?"
"Not so strange when you consider that one meets the same people life after life-though usually they've
undergone rebirth in the meantime too. My karma seems to be bound up with this fellow. . . ." She [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]