The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (16 page)

"Some of us been buildin' up our shops fer
twenty years er more." Charlie Watts operated the town's farm
supply store. He'd seen the town through a painted window sign for
forty years, knew everyone and everyone knew him. He'd seen
generations grow up, some move on, some die, but he knew all the
ones who remained on a first-name basis. "I ain't got shit ta call
my own," he said and spit. "Didn't think I'd ever need ta own
anything legally, it were as good as mine anyway."

"I reckon most people felt the same, Charlie,"
the chief said. "We figured the worst we had ta fear is Mister
Williams stealin' too much from his safe ta pay that whore a his
over in Ashland."

Everyone nodded.

"Them girls b'long back up there on the hill,"
he said. "Ya shoulda never brung 'em down."

Steve Junior shook his head. "I can't believe
you people! I figured all of you were good folks, friends. We all
look out for each other and their kids, for fuck's sake. How can
any of you stand there and calmly talk about killing two children?
That beats the shit out of me."

"I'm sayin' to yer face, Stevie, ya messed up a
bringin' them young'uns down here," Charlie said. "Ain't nothin'
good in any a this."

"And them girls done killed two of our own, sure
as hell," Jake chimed in. "They was retributin'!" He looked down at
the girls and pointed. "Devils!"

Steve started to say something else, but then
simply looked at Jake. "I swear to god you get stupider by the
minute."

"Are you going to kill us?" Tamara said. Both
girls stepped from behind Steve and stood in front of him, holding
hands. "The dress-up ladies tried to choke us so we pretended to
die."

Everyone was silent.

Steve put his hands on their heads. "No, they're
just full of shit."

"The dress-up ladies were killed," Kimberly
said.

Steve bent down and put his head between them.
"You girls didn't have anything to do with that. It was an
accident."

"Grampa killed them," Tamara said.

Everyone stopped and came closer to the girls.
"God dammit, I ain't walkin' back and forth here all day," the
chief said. "Why don't ya all just go back home and let this alone
fer today."

"Them little devils said the old man killed the
paramedics," Jake said. "Now that's shit worth comin' back ta
listen to."

"Your grampa's dead, sweetie," Steve said. "Did
the women in the ambulance hurt you?"

They both shook their heads. "When they knew we
were pretending they tried again, but Grampa stopped them," Tamara
said.

"That's enough," the chief said. "Y'all git on
home, now, and let this matter be till we can get them bodies off
the hillside and let Williams sort out the details."

Everyone started to walk away again. Many of
them had been awake all night long fighting the fire. Everyone was
slumped over, exhausted, scared. The sun had refused to rise even
though it had had several hours to show itself, and the overcast
and gloomy sky did nothing to brighten anyone's mood.

"I'm taking the girls home with me," Steve said.
"I'll call Susie over to get them cleaned up."

"You shouldn't be draggin' your sister inta
this," Jake said.

"Come on, girls," Steve said and picked them up
and walked toward the crowd. They reluctantly parted and let him
pass. "Bad man!" Tamara said and pointed at Jake.

"She cursed me!" he yelled. "Y'all heard her!
The demon cursed me!"

"She just said you was a bad man," Jerry said.
"Maybe that applies ta all of y'all."

"Oh now, you're goin' against us too?" Jake
said.

"I just think we all need ta calm down and take
a break," he said. "Get some sleep and see how things look
then."

"All right," Mister Williams said. "If you all
want to meet down at the bingo hall tonight I'll know more about
what's going on. That will give me a few hours to go over the
papers."

"Can ya fix things?" Tom said.

"Old man Perry sent a new will to me a couple of
years ago, specifically mentioning the two girls as benefactors,"
he said. "I'm really afraid that everything belongs to them. But
let me check closer, see what I can do. But I know he sent a copy
out to the courthouse, too, so they'll get wind of this in a day or
two."

"We're a countin' on ya, Williams," Charlie
said. "If'n we ain't got nothin', you don't get nothin' from
us."

"That's right," Jake said. "So, you better do
somethin' 'cause you're in this as deep as we are."

Steve could barely hear the conversation behind
him as he stepped onto the sidewalk and started down Elm Street
toward his house. The girls were still looking over his shoulder at
the crowd of men as the conversation seemed to gain in volume
again. "Don't mind them, girls," he said. "They're loud-mouthed
idiots, but they don't mean most of what they say."

"Do you think we're devils?" Tamara said. "The
ugly police guy called us devils."

"Yeah, well, the ugly police guy was just being
mean," he said. "Don't pay him no mind; you're smarter than he is."
He stopped and re-adjusted the girls on his hips. "Don't reckon you
girls could walk for a while?" They both nodded and he sat them
down and then the three of them continued to walk toward his
house.

"We need to return to our room soon," Kimberly
said. Tamara nodded.

"But your house is completely destroyed," he
said.

"It's in the basement," Tamara said. "We got out
because of the fire."

"Got out?"

"They kept us locked up," Kimberly said. "Since
we were born."

Steve stopped and grabbed the girls by the
shoulders and turned them to face him as he knelt down. "What are
saying, sweethearts? You were locked in the basement?"

They both nodded. "But they let us out because
of the fire," Tamara said.

"My god," he said. "Why... why would they do
that?"

"Because they didn't want us to hurt
people."

"Who? Your parents? The old man?"

They both nodded. "Since we were born."

"But it makes no sense," he said. "The old man
even changed his will to include you. How could he keep you locked
in the basement?"

"Can you take us there?" Tamara said. "Please,
we need our things."

He nodded. "Let's get you cleaned up and dressed
in clean dresses, okay?" He stood up and they started walking
again. "After we get a little sleep we'll go back up. We'll need to
wait till that bunch back there clears out, anyway."

"Steve! Steve!" Someone was yelling from behind
them. "Hey, wait up!" It was Jerry and there was something wrong,
terribly wrong. Steve could hear it in his voice even before he
turned around to watch him running toward him.

"Jerry? What is it?"

He stopped quickly in front of Steve and the
girls, and then had to lean over with his hands on his knees to
catch his breath. "It's... it's Jake."

"Slow down, Jer, catch your breath," he said.
"Tell me slow."

"Jake is dead," he said. "Damnest thing, he
seemed to just step right in front of the coroner's car, like he
was trying to commit suicide or something!"

"What?!" When?! Just now?"

Jerry nodded. "Smashed 'im all up," he said
through heavy breaths. "Throwed 'im like fifty feet and pinned him
to a tree, limb went right through 'im! Stuck like a bug." He
looked up with tears in his eyes. "God, it was horrible."

Steve shook his head. Yet another death, it
seemed to be a chain reaction. "Well, they can't blame this on the
girls," he said. "They weren't there." He sniffed and shook his
head again. "Poor ol' Jake. We been through a hell of a lot
together."

"Your daddy said ta run ya down and tell ya
b'fore ya heard it from a stranger," he said. "I gotta get back
there, they's waitin' fer a chainsaw to get his body down."

"Okay, thanks Jerry," Steve said. "Go on back."
He watched Jerry as he ran away. "Just doesn't make sense." He
looked down at the girls who seemed totally uninterested in his
conversation with Jerry. "Sorry you girls had to hear that."

"We can still go home to get our things?" Tamara
said.

He nodded. "Yep, sooner we get you away from
that place, the better. So, we'll go this evening."

****

"You got 'em dressed yet, Susie?" Steve was
standing outside his bedroom door waiting for the girls and his
sister to come out.

"Yeah, just a sec," she said. She opened the
door and then closed it behind her. "Don't say anything about the
way they're dressed," she said. "They're very self-conscious about
it... I don't think flowery short dresses was the perfect
choice."

"I thought they looked cute," he said.

"I think they were meant for younger girls," she
said. "I bought those because you told me they were like
three."

"They are about three," he said.

She shook her head. "No way," she said. "I'm a
girl, I know about these things. They're closer to six or
seven."

"How can that be?" he said. He shrugged and
narrowed his eyes and held his hand out. "They're like three feet
tall."

"I guess they're just really stunted or
something, but they're already starting to develop," she said. She
cracked open the door. Okay girls, come on out."

They looked like perfectly normal three year
olds, childish faces, chubby cheeks, but after he knew what to look
for, he could tell they were older, too. Instead of embarrassing
the girls, he felt really stupid because of the way he was talking
to them. He also realized that being locked in the basement of the
old house was probably the reason they were still so small.

"Hey, you're clean!" he said. "Oh... yeah...
sorry for talking to you like you were babies."

"We just thought you were retarded," Tamara
said.

"Ha!" Susie said. "I been sayin' that since he
was born!"

"Yeah, okay," he said. "But you girls didn't say
much so I didn't think you could talk very well yet. I guess it was
just being in shock?"

"Is it time to go home, yet?" Kimberly said.

"Hey, you gonna be okay, bro?" Susie said. "I
got a hot date tonight and need ta get cleaned up before I head to
Ashland."

"Yep, we'll be fine," he said. "We'll hang here
till the weirdos all go down to the bingo, then head up the hill so
the girls can get their stuff."

"Oh, dad said they were gonna plan a police
funeral for Jake 'cause he was killed in the line a duty," she
said.

"Didn't he run out in front of a car?" Steve
said.

"Well, dad said he was yelling about chasing
something," she said. "No one could make it out, but something like
'It's the old fucker'."

Steve shook his head. "Still, it's tragic," he
said. "He had some faults, but..."

"He called us devils," Tamara said.

Susie smiled and rubbed Tamara on the head. "Be
good!" She waved at the girls, and they could hear the front door
open and shut as she left.

Steve shuffled around nervously, wanting to talk
to the girls, but he had to shift his mindset now, and it was
difficult to see the girls in another light. They were kids, old
enough to think and speak intelligently. "Uh... I guess you
understood all of that they were talking about earlier in the
field, huh?"

They both nodded. "They hate us because grampa
left everything to us."

"Hate... I don't know if it's hate, really," he
said. "I think they were mostly acting out of real
disappointment."

"Disappointed that we didn't die?" Kimberly
said.

"Oh... uh... no, no, just disappointed about the
will your grampa left. They all thought they were going to get the
businesses and property they worked hard to maintain for so many
years." He smiled. "You might have noticed, they're not terribly
bright people. They wouldn't have talked like that if they'd known
you were older girls who could understand what they were
saying."

The girls nodded again. "You are the first
stranger we've ever talked to," Tamara said.

"Oh, really?" he said. "You girls know it was a
terrible thing that your family kept you locked up, right? That's
not how the world works. You should have been free to run around
the yard and play and go to school, and, well, just be normal
kids."

Tamara looked around the room. "Is it time to
go, yet?"

"No, not yet. It will be a couple of hours,
yet."

"How long is that?" Kimberly said.

"You can't tell time?" Steve said. "Can you
read?"

Both girls shook their heads.

"Well, it will be a while, so let's make
something to eat," he said. "What do you like?"

"Chicken," Tamara said.

"Chicken," he said. "I don't have any chicken to
cook... oh wait, I have some canned chicken."

"Doesn't all chicken come from a can?" Kimberly
said.

"Ah, no, you actually buy the raw meat and cook
it," he said. "I have some instant rice, too, so I'll open a can of
green beans and we'll make a meal of it!"

"We would like to eat," Tamara said.

"You got it! Hey, have you ever watched TV?" He
motioned the girls through his house. "Come on, you can pass the
time watching cartoons while I fix dinner."

****

Steve put his hands on the girls' backs and
pushed them along quickly on the sidewalk. They were passing
Charlie Watts' house and Steve wasn't sure if he had gone to the
meeting or not. He had a tendency to drink scotch whiskey on his
front porch until he passed out and if they made too much noise,
they might rouse him. But they made it safely past and stepped off
the paved surface and into the field at the foot of the Perry hill.
He had waited until eight o'clock, overly cautious, but he didn't
want another scene with the rest of the people in town. But in
August, with an unfettered sun finally blazing, he still had an
hour or more of good daylight left.