Part 22 (1/2)

'Maybe,' he said. 'In the meantime, let's be clear on one thing. I'm sure you can wipe us out if you choose to, you've obviously got the numbers, but unless you plan to hang back at Command HQ, someone else is going to be in charge of things tomorrow. Because I'll personally make sure you're the first one to go.'

The Raggedy Man put his hands to his cheeks and widened his eyes: Oh dear! Oh dear! The others behind him were as expressionless as robots. Clay looked a moment longer, then gently closed the door. The others behind him were as expressionless as robots. Clay looked a moment longer, then gently closed the door.

'I'm sorry,' Alice said dully. 'I just couldn't stand listening to them scream.'

'It's okay,' Tom said. 'No harm done. And hey, they brought back Mr. Sneaker.'

She looked at it. 'Is this how they found out it was us? Did they smell it, the way a bloodhound smells a scent?'

'No,' Jordan said. He was sitting in a high-backed chair beside the umbrella stand, looking small and haggard and used-up. 'That's just their way of saying they know you. know you. At least, that's what I think.' At least, that's what I think.'

'Yeah,' Clay said. 'I bet they knew it was us even before they got here. Picked it out of our dreams the way we picked his face out of our dreams.'

'I didn't-' Alice began.

'Because you were waking up,' Tom said. 'You'll be hearing from him in the fullness of time, I imagine.' He paused. 'If he has anything else to say, that is. I don't understand this, Clay. We We did it. We did it and they did it. We did it and they know know we did it, I'm convinced of that.' we did it, I'm convinced of that.'

'Yes,' Clay said.

'Then why kill a bunch of innocent pilgrims when it would have been just as easy-well, almost almost as easy-to break in here and kill us? I mean, I understand the concept of reprisals, but I don't see the point in this-' as easy-to break in here and kill us? I mean, I understand the concept of reprisals, but I don't see the point in this-'

That was when Jordan slid off his chair and, looking around with an expression of suddenly blossoming worry, asked: 'Where's the Head?'

31.

Clay caught up with Jordan, but not until the boy had made it all the way to the second-floor landing. 'Hang on, Jordan,' he said.

'No,' Jordan said. His face was whiter, shockier, than ever. His hair bushed out around his head, and Clay supposed it was only because the boy needed a cut, but it looked as if it were trying to stand on end. 'With all the commotion, he should have been with us! He would have would have been with us, if he was all right.' His lips began to tremble. 'Remember the way he was rubbing himself? What if that wasn't just his acid reflux stuff?' been with us, if he was all right.' His lips began to tremble. 'Remember the way he was rubbing himself? What if that wasn't just his acid reflux stuff?'

'Jordan-'

Jordan paid no attention, and Clay was willing to bet he'd forgotten all about the Raggedy Man and his cohorts, at least for the time being. He yanked free of Clay's hand and went running down the corridor, yelling, 'Sir! Sir!' Sir!' while Heads going back to the nineteenth century frowned down at him from walls. while Heads going back to the nineteenth century frowned down at him from walls.

Clay glanced back down the stairs. Alice was going to be no help-she was sitting at the foot of the staircase with her head bent, staring at that f.u.c.king sneaker like it was the skull of Yorick-but Tom started reluctantly up to the second floor. 'How bad is this going to be?' he asked Clay.

'Well* Jordan thinks the Head would have joined us if he was all right and I tend to think he's-'

Jordan began to shriek. It was a drilling soprano sound that went through Clay's head like a spear. It was actually Tom who got moving first; Clay was rooted at the staircase end of the corridor for at least three and perhaps as many as seven seconds, held there by a single thought: That's not how someone sounds when they've found what looks like a heart attack. The old man must have botched it somehow. Maybe used the wrong kind of pills. That's not how someone sounds when they've found what looks like a heart attack. The old man must have botched it somehow. Maybe used the wrong kind of pills. He was halfway down the hall when Tom cried out in shock-'Oh my G.o.d Jordan don't look'-almost as if it were one word. He was halfway down the hall when Tom cried out in shock-'Oh my G.o.d Jordan don't look'-almost as if it were one word.

'Wait!' Alice called from behind him, but Clay didn't. The door to the Head's little upstairs suite was open: the study with its books and its now useless hotplate, the bedroom beyond with the door standing open so the light streamed through. Tom was standing in front of the desk, holding Jordan's head against his stomach. The Head was seated behind his desk. His weight had rocked his swivel chair back on its pivot and he seemed to be staring up at the ceiling with his one remaining eye. His tangled white hair hung down over the chairback. To Clay he looked like a concert pianist who had just played the final chord of a difficult piece.

He heard Alice give a choked cry of horror, but hardly noticed. Feeling like a pa.s.senger inside his own body, Clay walked to the desk and looked at the sheet of paper that rested on the blotter. Although it was stained with blood, he could make out the words on it; the Head's cursive had been fine and clear. Old-school to the end, Jordan might have said.

alienegeisteskrank insano elnebajosvansinnigfou atamagaokashugekdolzinnig hullu gila meschugenebun dement Clay spoke nothing but English and a little high school French, but he knew well enough what this was, and what it meant. The Raggedy Man wanted them to go, and he knew somehow that Headmaster Ardai was too old and too arthritic to go with them. So he had been made to sit at his desk and write the word for insane insane in fourteen different languages. And when he was done, he had been made to plunge the tip of the heavy fountain pen with which he had written into his right eye and from there into the clever old brain behind it. in fourteen different languages. And when he was done, he had been made to plunge the tip of the heavy fountain pen with which he had written into his right eye and from there into the clever old brain behind it.

'They made him kill himself, didn't they?' Alice asked in a breaking voice. 'Why him and not us? Why him and not us? What do they want?' Why him and not us? What do they want?'

Clay thought of the gesture the Raggedy Man had made toward Academy Avenue-Academy Avenue, which was also New Hamps.h.i.+re Route 102. The phone-crazies who were no longer exactly crazy-or were crazy in some brand-new way-wanted them on the road again. Beyond that he had no idea, and maybe that was good. Maybe that was all for the best. Maybe that was a mercy.

FADING ROSES, THIS GARDEN'S OVER.

1.

There were half a dozen fine linen tablecloths in a cabinet at the end of the back hallway, and one of these served as Headmaster Ardai's shroud. Alice volunteered to sew it shut, then collapsed in tears when either her needlework or her nerve did not prove equal to such finality. Tom took over, pulling the tablecloth taut, doubling the seam, and sewing it closed in quick, almost professional overhand strokes. Clay thought it was like watching a boxer work an invisible light bag with his right hand.

'Don't make jokes,' Tom said without looking up. 'I appreciate what you did upstairs-I never could have done that-but I can't take a single joke right now, not even of the inoffensive Will and Grace Will and Grace variety. I'm barely holding myself together.' variety. I'm barely holding myself together.'

All right,' Clay said. Joking was the farthest thing from his mind. As for what he had done upstairs* well, the pen had to be removed from the Head's eye. No way were they going to leave that in. So Clay had taken care of it, looking away into the corner of the room as he wrenched it free, trying not to think about what he was doing or why it was stuck so f.u.c.king tight, and mostly he had succeeded in not thinking, but the pen had made a grinding sound against the bone of the old man's eyesocket when it finally let go, and there had been a loose, gobbety plopping sound as something fell from the bent tip of the pen's steel nib onto the blotter. He thought he would remember those sounds forever, but he had succeeded in getting the d.a.m.n thing out, and that was the important thing.

Outside, nearly a thousand phone-crazies stood on the lawn between the smoking ruins of the soccer field and Cheatham Lodge. They stood there most of the afternoon. Then, around five o'clock, they flocked silently off in the direction of downtown Gaiten. Clay and Tom carried the Head's shrouded body down the back stairs and put it on the back porch. The four survivors gathered in the kitchen and ate the meal they had taken to calling breakfast as the shadows began to draw long outside.

Jordan ate surprisingly well. His color was high and his speech was animated. It consisted of reminiscences of his life at Gaiten Academy, and the influence Headmaster Ardai had had on the heart and mind of a friendless, introverted computer geek from Madison, Wisconsin. The brilliant lucidity of the boy's recollections made Clay increasingly uncomfortable, and when he caught first Alice's eyes and then Tom's, he saw they felt the same. Jordan's mind was tottering, but it was hard to know what to do about that; they could hardly send him to a psychiatrist.

At some point, after full dark, Tom suggested that Jordan should rest. Jordan said he would, but not until they had buried the Head. They could put him in the garden behind the Lodge, he said. He told them the Head had called the little vegetable patch his 'victory garden,' although he had never told Jordan why.

'That's the place,' Jordan said, smiling. His cheeks now flamed with color. His eyes, deep in their bruised sockets, sparkled with what could have been inspiration, good cheer, madness, or all three. 'Not only is the ground soft, it's the place he always liked the best* outside, I mean. So what do you say? They're They're gone, they still don't come out at night, that hasn't changed, and we can use the gas lanterns to dig by. What do you say?' gone, they still don't come out at night, that hasn't changed, and we can use the gas lanterns to dig by. What do you say?'

After consideration, Tom said, 'Are there shovels?'

'You bet, in the gardening shed. We don't even need to go up to the greenhouses.' And Jordan actually laughed.

'Let's do it,' Alice said. 'Let's bury him and have done with it.'

'And you'll rest afterwards,' Clay said, looking at Jordan.

'Sure, sure!' Jordan cried impatiently. He got up from his chair and began to pace around the room. 'Come on, you guys!' As if he were trying to get up a game of tag.

So they dug the grave in the Head's garden behind the Lodge and buried him among the beans and tomatoes. Tom and Clay lowered the shrouded form into the hole, which was about three feet deep. The exercise kept them warm, and only when they stopped did they notice the night had grown cold, almost frosty. The stars were brilliant overhead, but a heavy ground-mist was rolling up the Slope. Academy Avenue was already submerged in that rising tide of white; only the steeply slanted roofs of the biggest old houses down there broke its surface.

'I wish someone knew some good poetry,' Jordan said. His cheeks were redder than ever, but his eyes had receded into circular caves and he was s.h.i.+vering in spite of the two sweaters he was wearing. His breath came out in little puffs. 'The Head loved poetry, he thought that stuff was the s.h.i.+t. He was*' Jordan's voice, which had been strangely gay all night, finally broke. 'He was so totally totally old-school.' old-school.'

Alice folded him against her. Jordan struggled, then gave in.

'Tell you what,' Tom said, 'let's cover him up nice-cover him against the cold-and then I'll give him some poetry. Would that be okay?'