Insomnia | Page 7

hold he had over the man, and a tenuous one at best.

"Just shaken up from the crash. He needs a few seconds to calm d-"

"Ask him what he's got under that tarp! " Ed yelled suddenly, and
pointed over Ralph's shoulder. Lightning flashed, and for a moment the
pitted scars of Ed's adolescent acne were thrown into sharp relief, like
some strange organic treasure map- Thunder rolled. "Hey, hey, Susan
Day!" he chanted in a high, childlike voice that made Ralph's forearms
break out in goosebumps. "How many kids did you kill today."

"He ain't shook up," Heavyset said. "He's crazy. And when the cops get
here, I'm gonna see he gets tooken in."

Ralph glanced around and saw a blue tarpaulin stretched across the bed
of the pickup. It had been tied down with bright yellow hanks of rope.
Round shapes bulked beneath it, "Ralph?" a timid voice asked.

He glanced to his left and saw Dorrance Marstellar-at ninety something
easily the oldest of the Harris Avenue Old Crocks standing just beyond
Heavyset's pickup truck, There was a paperback book in his waxy,
liverspotted hands, and Dorrance was bending it anxiously back and
forth, giving the spine a real workout.

Ralph supposed it was a book of poetry, which was all he had ever seen
old Dorrance read. Or maybe he didn't really read at all; maybe he just
liked to hold the books and look at the artfully stacked words.

"Ralph, what's wrong? What's happening?"

More lightning flashed overhead, a purple-white snarl of electricity.

Dorrance looked up at it as if unsure of where he was, who he was or
what he was seeing. Ralph groaned inside.

"Dorrance-" he began, and then Ed lunged beneath him, like some wild
animal which has lain quiet only to regain its strength.

Ralph staggered, then pushed Ed back against the crumpled hood of his
Datsun. He felt panicky-unsure of what to do next or how to do it.

There were too many things going on at once. He could feel the muscles
in Ed's arms humming fiercely just below his grip; it was almost as if
the man had somehow swallowed a bolt of the lightning now loose in the
sky.

"Ralph?" Dorrance asked in that same calm but worried voice.

are you. I can't see your hands."

Oh, good. Another lunatic to deal with. just what he needed.

Ralph glanced down at his hands, then looked at the old man.

"What are you talking about, Dorrance?"

"Your hands," Dorrance said patiently. "I can't see your-"

"This is no place for you, Dor-why don't you get lost?"

The old man brightened a little at that. "Yes!" he said in the tone of
one who has just stumbled over a great truth. "That's just what I
oughtta do!" He began to back up, and when the thunder cracked again, he
cringed and put his book on top of his head. Ralph was able to read the
bright red letters of the title: Buckdancer's Choice.

"It's what you ought to do, too, Ralph. You don't want to mess in with
long-time business. It's a good way to get hurt."

"What are you-" But before Ralph could finish, Dorrance turned his back
and went lumbering off in the direction of the picnic area with his
fringe of white hair-as gossamer as the hair on a new baby's
head-rippling ing in the breeze of the oncoming storm.

One problem solved, but Ralph's relief was short-lived. Ed had been
temporarily distracted by Dorrance, but now he was looking daggers at
Heavyset again. "Cuntlicker!" he spat. "Fucked your mother and licked
her cunt!"

Heavyset's enormous brow drew down. "What"

Ed's eyes shifted back to Ralph, whom he now seemed to recognize.

"Ask him what's under that tarp!" he cried. "Better yet, get the
murdering cocksucker to show you!"

Ralph looked at the heavyset man. "What have you got under there?"

"What's it to you?" Heavyset asked, perhaps trying to sound truculent.
He sampled the look in Ed Deepneau's eyes and took two more sidling
steps away.

"Nothing to me, something to him," Ralph said, lifting his chin in Ed's
direction. "Just help me cool him out, okay?"

"You know him?"

"Murderer!" Ed repeated, and this time he lunged hard enough under
Ralph's hands to drive him back a step. Yet something was happening,
wasn't it? Ralph thought the scary, vacant look was seeping out of