Gateways. Part 16

"Course you do. I bought mine years ago. Was one of the first around here to get one. Hung it by my front door and anytime someone came in it started singin'. Pretty soon everyone in the trailer park had one, but I was first." He shook his head. "Haven't used it much lately, though. Got pretty tired of havin' to listen to those same two songs every time I walked by. So I let the batteries run out. But just the other night I remembered that it had a motion detector inside that set it off every time you pa.s.sed." He waved the circuit board. "And here it is."

"I get it," Jack said. "You're going to attach the motion detector to the camera, and when Anya comes out to water, you'll catch her."

"That's the plan. I made sure I popped off the speaker, though." He chuckled. "Wouldn't do to have that fish voice start singin' 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' in the middle of the night, now would it."

"I guess not. You think this'll work?"

"Oh, it works. I checked it out at home."

"You really think you'll catch her?" Jack didn't like the idea of Anya getting in trouble.

"Nup. But don't tell Dr. Dengrove that, and don't you go tellin' her I'm doin' this. I don't want her mad at me."

"And you also don't want her tipped off that she's being watched." He nudged Carl with his elbow. "Won't you feel bad if you get her in trouble?"

"I would, cept that's not gonna happen. Like I told Dr. Dengrove, all this work's gonna be for nothin'. We ain't never gonna catch Miss Mundy waterin'."

"Why not?"

"Because she don't. All she does is sit and watch TV all night. Just like everbody else. Reruns of either Matlock Matlock or or Golden Girls Golden Girls. That and the Weather Channel's all anybody round here ever seems to watch." He licked his lips. "But there's somethin' else."

"What?"

"She looks dead when she's watchin' TV."

"How do you know?"

"I peeked in last night while I was settin' up, and I thought she was dead. I seen my share of dead folks-I'm the one found Mr. Ba.s.s dead in a chair on his front porch awhile back, and Miss Mundy looked just like him. Boy, was I glad to see her up and about this mornin'."

"Didn't you call anyone?"

"Hey, I wasn't supposed to be there. And if she was as gone as she looked, there wasn't nothin' n.o.body could do anyhow. Tonight I looked in again, just a few minutes ago, and it was the same thing. Gwon. Look for yourself."

Jack shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Gwon. See if I ain't lyin'. It's creepy, I tell you."

The last thing Jack needed was to get caught acting like a Peeping Tom, but his curiosity was piqued. He crept up to the lighted window that looked in on the front room and peeked through the lower right corner.

Still in her kimono, Anya lay back in her recliner, mouth slack, eyes half open and staring straight ahead. A Law and Order Law and Order episode was playing-Jack recognized the music-but Anya wasn't watching it. Her gaze was fixed on a spot somewhere above the TV. Oyv was stretched across her lap, looking equally dead. episode was playing-Jack recognized the music-but Anya wasn't watching it. Her gaze was fixed on a spot somewhere above the TV. Oyv was stretched across her lap, looking equally dead.

Jack watched her for signs of breathing but she was still as, well, death. His comatose father showed more signs of life. Jack straightened and was about to head around front to knock on her door, when he saw her chest move. She took a breath. Oyv took a breath too, at exactly the same time. Just one each. Then they went dead still again.

Okay. So she was alive. Maybe it was all that wine-she must have put away three liters-that put her into such a deep sleep.

Shaking his head, he returned to where Carl waited.

"You weren't kidding," he said. "But I saw her breathe. She's okay." He put a hand on Carl's shoulder. "But you haven't explained how she can have such a healthy lawn without watering."

"Magic," Carl said, looking around as if someone besides Jack might be close enough to hear. "You may think I'm loco, but that's the only explanation."

Jack remembered Abe telling him about Occam's razor earlier in the year. It went something like: the simplest, most direct explanation-the one that requires the fewest a.s.sumptions-is usually the right one. Magic required a lot of a.s.sumptions. Water didn't.

"I like water better as an explanation."

"Nuh-uh. Not when you look at where her green gra.s.s ends and the brown begins. It runs in a perfect line twenty feet from her house all the way around in a big circle. And when I say line, I mean it's got sharp edges. I know, cause I cut it. I may not know much about lots a things, but I know you can't water like that."

Jack couldn't see the line in the low light. He figured Carl was exaggerating. Had to be.

"I think it's them doohickies she's got all over her yard," Carl said. "And that writin' on her walls."

"Writing?" Jack didn't remember seeing anything on Anya's walls.

"Yup. You can't see it lookin' at it reglar, but-here." He handed Jack the camera again. "You look through that while I put my flashlight on. Now I'm only goin' to put it on for a second so you look real hard."

Jack peered through the viewfinder at the blank wall, avoiding the glare of the lighted window. A section of the wall lit as Carl's flash beam hit it. And there, flaring to life, a collection of arcs and angles and squiggles, very much like the symbols on the homemade ornaments dotting her lawn.

And like the symbols he'd found behind his father's headboard.

"Y'see 'em? Didja see 'em?"

"Yeah, Carl. I saw them." But what did they mean? He'd never seen anything like them. On a hunch, Jack did a one-eighty turn. "Flash that on my father's place, will you?"

When Carl complied, the same symbols appeared.

Dumfounded, Jack lowered the camera. "He's got them too."

"Hmmm," Carl said. "They sure ain't doin' nothin' for his lawn. Wonder what they's for?"

"Let's do a little research," Jack said.

With Carl in tow, Jack used the same procedure to check out three other nearby houses, but their walls were blank.

Returning to Carl's original spot, he handed back the camera. That feeling of being watched was back and stronger than ever. He scanned the area and spotted a bunch of dead leaves scattered across the remains of his father's lawn. Hadn't noticed them before. Not unexpected, though. He'd seen trees drop leaves in a hot dry spell.

While Carl attached the motion detector to the camera-still no sign of a right hand, just a screwdriver poking from the cuff-Jack turned toward Anya's house.

He had to admit he was baffled. That strange old lady was the common factor here: She lived next door to his father...visited him in the hospital...the symbols on her house were also on his dad's place. Jack knew his father hadn't painted them on his hospital bed. Not while comatose. So that left Anya.

She must have painted them with some sort of clear lacquer so they'd be invisible. But what did they mean? And what did she think she was accomplis.h.i.+ng with them?

Maybe he should just ask her. But then he'd have to explain how he knew.

He glanced around again and noticed even more leaves on the lawn. Their number had doubled or tripled since his last look. Where the h.e.l.l were they coming from? They were small, maybe three inches long; light from the parking area glinted off their s.h.i.+ny, reddish brown surfaces. Odd...dead leaves usually lost their gloss.

Jack looked around for the source but couldn't see any trees in the vicinity with that kind of leaf.

"There," Carl said. Jack turned and saw him on his feet, dusting off his knees. He'd duct taped the camera to the slender trunk of a young palm. "All set."

"Tell me something, Carl," Jack said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Where'd all those leaves come from?"

Carl was facing the light when he glanced past Jack. Jack saw his expression change from curiosity, to puzzlement, to shock. He turned and looked and knew his expression must be mirroring Carl's.

No gra.s.s was visible. The leaves had multiplied till they now covered every square inch of the lawn.

"Those ain't leaves," Carl said in a hushed, awed tone. "Them's palmettos!"

"What's a palmetto?"

"A bug! A Florida roach!"

"You mean like a c.o.c.kroach?"

"Yeah. But I can't remember ever seein' more'n half a dozen palmettos in one spot at the same time."

Jack had encountered his share of c.o.c.kroaches-couldn't live in New York without seeing them-but never this size. These were c.o.c.kroaches on steroids. His skin crawled. He wasn't the squeamish type, but these were big, and there had to be thousands of them, all just a few feet away. If they started scuttling his way...

"What're they doing here?" Jack said.

"Dunno. There ain't nothin' for them to eat on that lawn, that's for sure." He looked over his shoulder. "Tell you what I'm gonna do. My car's parked in the shadows on the other side of your daddy's place. I'm gonna head around the front of the house and get to it that way."

"Why don't you just s.h.i.+ne your flashlight at them. c.o.c.kroaches hate light. Turn one on and they disappear."

"Not Palmettos. Light don't bother them ay-tall. They actually like like the light." He turned and took a step away. "Be back tomorrow." the light." He turned and took a step away. "Be back tomorrow."

That step seemed to trigger the bugs. With a chittering whir of wings they took to the air in a cloud.

"They fly fly ?" Jack shouted as he started backing away. "c.o.c.kroaches don't fly!" ?" Jack shouted as he started backing away. "c.o.c.kroaches don't fly!"

"Palmettos do!" Carl broke into a run.

Jack felt a surge of fear and didn't know why. They were just roaches; not as if they were going to eat him alive or anything. But his adrenaline was kicking in, pus.h.i.+ng his heart rate up a few notches. He quickened his backpedal.

At that instant the churning ma.s.s of bugs turned as one and swept toward him in a swirling cloud. Jack whirled and dashed after Carl.

"Here they come!" he shouted.

Carl didn't even turn his head; instead he put it down and upped his speed.

But neither stood a chance of outrunning the bugs. The palmettos were too fast. They swirled around Jack, engulfing him, clinging to his face, his arms, his hair, buzzing in his ears, scratching at his eyelids, wiggling their antennaed heads into his nostrils, digging at his lips. The clatter of their wings sounded like a million tiny hands applauding. He felt countless little nips all over his exposed skin. Were they biting him? Did they have teeth?

He swept a ma.s.s of them from his face but they poured back in on him. He couldn't see and he was afraid to open his mouth to breathe-they might crawl down his throat. He tore them again from his face and stole a quick look ahead. The last thing he needed now was to run into a wall or tree trunk and knock himself silly.

He saw that he'd reached the corner of the house. Carl was still ahead, waving his arms wildly about, all but unrecognizable under a swarming ma.s.s of palmettos, but still maintaining a stumbling run. Jack cupped a hand over his mouth, took a quick, bug-free breath, and shouted.

"Carl! Forget the car! Go into the house!"

But Carl either didn't hear the m.u.f.fled advice or chose to ignore it. Jack had to close his eyes again against the storm of palmettos. He angled to his right-the front door was somewhere in that direction-and hoped he wouldn't trip over one of the front porch chairs.

He slammed into a wall and heard some of the bugs crunch against the siding. He felt to his left, found the handle to the screen door, and pulled it open.

The front door-had he locked it? He hoped to h.e.l.l not. This being a gated community and all, why would he bother? But he was a New Yorker, and New Yorkers never- He fumbled around, found the k.n.o.b, turned it, pushed it open, and leaped inside. As he moved he was trying to think of ways to kill the bugs that made it through the door with him, but then he realized that wouldn't be necessary. They were peeling off of him at the threshold line, like vacuum wrap being stripped from a piece of meat. Jack stopped two feet inside the door and looked down at his arms, his clothes-not a single bug had made it in with him.

He turned and stared through the door as the screen banged shut. The palmettos were buzzing off in all directions, scattering like...like the leaves he'd first mistaken them for.

What the h.e.l.l was going on here?

14.

"Semelee! Semelee, answer me! Are you all right?"

Semelee opened her eyes and saw Luke's big face and hulking form hangin' before her. No...hangin' above her. She shook her head, propped herself up on her elbows, and looked around.

"What happened?"

"You was us in the sh.e.l.l, had it over your eye, and you was smilin' and laughin' and then all of a sudden you yelled and fell back on the floor. What happened?"

Good question. Real good question. But it was startin' to come back to her now.

She'd spotted the old man's kid, the special one, outside his daddy's house and followed him through palmetto eyes to one of the buildings in the old folks' village. She'd been hopin' he'd show her that he had her other eye-sh.e.l.l but he surprised her by breakin' into the building. She tried to follow him inside but he closed the window too quick. She peeked through the windows and saw him lookin' at some papers. She had no idea what they were and didn't care. She was lookin' for her eye-sh.e.l.l.

Pretty soon he was out again. She followed him back to the house where he met someone outside. She thought there was somethin' familiar about the stranger but couldn't place him.

It was about then that she'd started feelin' the strain of controllin' mindless little creatures like palmettos with just one eye-sh.e.l.l. She had to make somethin' happen, get the special one into the house where she could have a look around for her eye-sh.e.l.l.

So she'd gathered as many as she could and attacked. She'd been havin' a good time chasin' him and seein' what he was made of, and was gonna follow him into the house and give him a good scare-maybe have the bugs gather in the air and spell out somethin' spooky-so he'd leave and let her search the place. But as she approached the front door she started feelin' strange, a little sick even. And then when she tried to follow him inside it was like runnin' into a wall. She was slammed back and things got a little fuzzy after that.

"It's him," she told Luke. "It's him made me sick in the hospital room this mornin'."

"How you know that?"

"Cause I felt the same way just now tryin' to follow him into his daddy's house."

She'd sensed he was special, but she hadn't known just how special.

"You think he's got your other eye-sh.e.l.l then?"

"I'm willin' to bet on it."

"What're we gonna do?"