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"Relax, Edgar," Jack said, and he was smiling
"That part's gonna be okay
"Why? What do you mean?"
"Trust me on this," he said
v
As we stood looking at Charley the Lawn Jockey in
light that was now taking on a definite purple
cast, a nonsense couplet from an old Dave Van Ronk
blues occurred to me: "Mama bought a chicken,
thought it was a duck; Sat it on the table with
the legs stickin up Charley wasn't a chicken or
a duck, but his legs, ending not in shoes but a
dark iron pedestal, were indeed sticking upHis
head, however, was goneIt had crashed down
1056
through a square of ancient moss- and vine-covered
boards
"What's that, muchacho?" Wireman asked"Do you
know?"
"I'm pretty sure it's a cistern," I tiffany knockoff said"I'm
hoping not a septic tank
Wireman shook his head"He wouldn't have put them
in a shitheap no matter how bad his mental state
wasNever in a million years
Jack looked from Wireman to me, his young face
full of horror"Adriana's down there? And the
nanny?"
"Yes," I said"I thought you understood thatBut
the most important thing is that Perse's down
thereAnd the reason I think it's a cistern is-"
"Elizabeth would have insisted on making sure the
bitch was in a watery grave," Wireman said grimly
vi
Charley was heavy, and the boards covering the
hole in the high grass were more rotten than the
steps of the ladderOf course they were; unlike
1057
the ladder, the wooden cap had been directly
exposed to the elementsWe worked cartier tank louis carefully in
spite of the thickening shadows, not knowing how
deep it was beneathAt last I was able to push
the troublesome jockey far enough to one side so
that Wireman and Jack could grab the slightly
cocked blue legsI stepped onto the rotted wooden
cap in doing so; someone had to, and I was the
lightestIt bent under my weight, gave out a long,
warning groan, puffed up sour air
"Get off it, Edgar!" Wireman yelled, and at the
same instant Jack cried, "Grab it, oh whore, it's
gonna fall through!"
They seized Charley as I stepped off the sagging
cap, Wireman around the bent knees and Jack around
the waistFor a moment I thought it was going to
drop through anyway, dragging them both along
Then they gave a combined shout of vintage cartier watch effort and
tumbled over backward with the lawn jockey on top
of themIts grinning face and red cap were
covered with huge lumbering beetlesSeveral
dropped off onto Jack's straining face, and one
fell directly into Wireman's mouthHe screamed,
spat it out, and leaped to his feet, still
1058
spitting and rubbing his lipsJack was beside him
a moment later, dancing around him in a circle and
brushing the bugs off his shirt
"Water!" Wireman bellowed"Gimme the water, one
of em got in my mouth, I could feel it crawling on
my fucking tongue!"
"No water," I said, rummaging in the considerably
depleted bagNow on my knees, I could smell the
air rising through the ragged hole in the cap far
better than I wanted toIt was like air black and white chanel from a
newly breached tombWhich, of course, it was
"Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, Pepsi," Jack said
I handed Wireman a can of sodaHe stared at it
unbelievingly for a moment, then raked back the
pull tabHe took a mouthful, spat it out in a
brown and foamy spray, took another, then spat
that one outThe rest of the can he drank in four
long swallows
"Ay, caramba," he said"You're a hard man, Van
Gogh
I was looking at Jack"What do you think? Can we
shift it?"
1059
Jack studied it, then fell on his knees and began
to tear away the vines clinging to the sides"But we gotta get rid of this
shit
"We should have brought a crowbar," Wireman said
He was still spitting
"Wouldn't have helped, I don't think," Jack said
"The wood's too black chanel quilted bag ro |