She points to the harpoon pistol, which hangs...
She points to the harpoon pistol, which hangs on
the wall, along with several short harpoonsThe
tips are steel, not silver, and the shafts are
heavyShe knows; hasn't she carried them in the
basket enough times?
1036
He says What are you talking about?
She says I cain't be takin time to explainYou
got to come to the beach right now, less you want
to lose another oneHe doesn't ask which daughter, or inquire
again why he should want the harpoon pistol; he
just snatches it off the wall, takes two of the
harpoons in his other hand, and strides out
through the open study door, first beside Melda
and then ahead of herBy the time he reaches the
kitchen, where Melda has last seen Adie, he's at a
full-out run and she is falling behind even though
she's running herself, holding her skirts before
her in both handsAnd is she surprised by this
sudden break in his torpor, this sudden
galvanizing action? NoBecause, despite the
blanket of his grief, the Mister has also known
that something here is wrong and going wronger all
the time
The back door stands openAn evening breeze
frisks in, stirring it back farther on its
hingesonly now it's actually a night chanel quilted handbag breezeThere will still be light on
Shade Beach, but here at Heron's Roost, dark has
1037
already comeMelda dashes across the back porch
and sees the Mister already on the path to the
beachShe looks around for
Libbit, but of course she doesn't see her; if
Libbit is doing what she is supposed to be doing,
then she's already on her way to the swimming pool
with her heart-box under her arm
The heart-box with the monster inside it
She runs after the Mister and catches him at the
bench, where the path drops down to the beachHe
is standing there, frozenIn the west, the last
of the sunset is a sullen orange line that will
soon be gone, but there is enough light for her to
see Adie at the edge of the water, and the man who
is wading to greet her
Adriana screams Emery! She sounds mad with joy, as
if he's been gone a year instead of a day
Melda shouts No, Ade, keep away from him! from
beside the frozen, gaping man, but she knows Adie
will pay no attention, and she doesn't; Adie runs
to her husband
John Eastlake says What - and that's all
He's broken free of his torpor long enough to run
this far, but now he's frozen againIs it because
1038
he sees the two other forms, omega watches for sale farther out but also
wading toward shore? Wading in water that should
be over their heads? Melda thinks notShe thinks
he is still staring at his oldest daughter as the
dim figure of the man coming out of the water
reaches for her with his dripping arms and lays
hold of her neck with his dripping hands, first
choking off her glad cries and then dragging her
into the surge
Out there in the Gulf, waiting, ticking back and
forth on the mild swell like a clock that tells
time in years and centuries rather than minutes
and hours, is the black hulk of Perse's ship
Melda grabs the Mister's arm, sinking her hand
deep into the bicep, and speaks to him as she has
never spoken to a white man in her life
She says Give a help, you son of a bitch! 'Fore he
drownds her!
She yanks him forwardShe doesn't wait
to see if he keeps on or freezes up again, and she
has forgotten all about Libbit; all she can think
about is AdieShe has to stop the Emery-thing
from dragging her into the water, and she has to
1039
do it before the dead babby-uns can get there to
help him
She cries Turn loose! Turn loose of her!
Flying down the beach with her skirt belling out
behindEmery new cartier watches has gotten Adie in almost up to her
waistAdie is now fighting, but she's also
chokingMelda flounders toward them and throws
herself on the pallid corpse who has his wife by
the throatHe screams when Melda's left arm, the
one with the bracelets on it, touches himIt is a
bubbling sound, as if his throat is full of water
He writhes in Melda's grip like a fish, and she
rakes him with her fingernailsFlesh sloughs away
beneath them with sickening ease, but no blood
flows from the pale woundsHis eyes roll in their
sockets, and they are like the eyes of a dead carp
in the moonlight
He pushes Adriana away so he can grapple with the
harpy that has attacked him, the harpy with the
cold, repelling fire on its arm
Adie wails No, Nanny, stop, you're hurting him!
Adie flounders forward to pull Melda off, or at
least separate them, and that's the moment when
John Eastlake, standing shin-deep in the Gulf,
1040
fires the harpoon pistolThe triple-bladed bit
takes his oldest daughter high in the throat, and
she stands bolt-upright, with two inches of steel
poking out in front of her and four more jutting
out behind, just below the base of her skull
John Eastlake shrieks quilted white bag Adie, no! Adie, I DIDN'T
MEAN TO!
Adie turns toward the sound of her father's voice
and actually begins to walk toward him, and that
is all Nan Melda has time to seeAdie's dead
husband is trying to tear itself free of her grip,
but she doesn't want to let it go; she wants to
end its terrible half-life and perhaps by doing so
warn off the two baby-horrors before they can get
too closeAnd she thinks (so far as she can think)
that she can do that, because she has seen a
smoldering scorch-mark on the thing's pale, wet
cheek and understands that her bracelet has made
it
The thing reaches for her, its wrinkled mouth
yawning in what might be either fear or fury
Behind her, John Eastlake is screaming his
daughter's name, over and over
1041
Melda snarls You done this! and when the Emerything
seizes her, she lets it
You and the bitch been runnin you, she would add,
but its white hands close on her throat as they
closed on poor Adie's, and she can only gurgle
Her left arm is free, however, the one with the
bracelets on it, and that arm feels very powerful
She draws it back and swings it forward in a great
arc, connecting with the right side of the balenciaga yellow bag Emerything's
he