Gateways. Part 11

"Where does she live?"

"In the Glades."

"How do I find her?"

"You don't. Whatever it is, mister, leave it be."

Suddenly another guy, thinner and only marginally better looking, jumped into the pickup's pa.s.senger seat.

Where'd he come from?

The new guy slapped the driver on the shoulder and nodded. Neither looked too bright. If someone suggested playing Russian roulette with a semiautomatic, they'd probably say, "Cool!"

The driver gave Jack a little two-finger salute. "Welp, nice talkin' to ya. Gotta go now."

Before Jack could say anything the guy threw the truck into gear and roared off. Jack raced back to his car. If he couldn't follow the girl, then he'd tail these two. Sooner or later they had to- He skidded to a halt when he saw the Buick's flat front tire, and the gash in its side wall.

"Swell," he muttered. "Just swell."

5.

"I don't get it," Luke said as he piloted the Chicken-s.h.i.+p Chicken-s.h.i.+p deeper into the swamp. "Who was that guy?" deeper into the swamp. "Who was that guy?"

Semelee pulled off the black wig and shook out her silver white hair. She didn't feel like talkin'. Her stomach still wasn't right.

"He saw me in the room. I think he might be the old guy's kin."

"That why he was trailin' you?"

"Maybe. I don't know. All I know is I felt so strange in that room. It started as soon as I stepped through the door and got worse and worse the closer I got to the old man's bed. I started feeling sick and weak, and the air got so thick I could barely breathe. I tell you, Luke, all I wanted to do was get out of there and get far, far away as fast I could."

"Think it was the guy?"

"Could've been, but I don't think so."

This man wasn't just a guy, wasn't just one of the old man's kin. This man was the one she'd sensed coming for the past two days, and he was special. She sensed something about him...a destiny, maybe. She didn't know exactly what, she just knew he was special.

So am I, she thought. But in a different way.

Maybe she and this new man was destined to be together. That would be wonderful. She liked the way he looked, liked his hair, his build-not too beefy, not too slight-liked his brown eyes and hair. She especially liked his face, his regular, normal face. Hangin' round the clan like she did, she didn't see too many of those.

Maybe he'd been sent to her. Maybe he was here for for her. Maybe they was meant to share their destinies. She sure hoped so. She needed someone. her. Maybe they was meant to share their destinies. She sure hoped so. She needed someone.

"Well, if you don't think it's him made you sick," Luke said, "what was it?"

Semelee pulled the white dress off over her head, leaving her wearing nothin' but a pair of white panties. She looked down at her small, dark-nippled b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Losers in the size sweepstakes, maybe, but at least they didn't sag. One of the guys she'd screwed in high school had called them "perky." They were that, she guessed.

Keepin' her back to Luke-she didn't want him gettin' all hot and bothered out here on the water-she slipped into her cutoffs and a green T-s.h.i.+rt.

"I don't know. It was like..." She shuddered as she remembered that awful sick feelin' runnin' through her body, like she was being turned inside out..."like nothin' I ever felt before. And I hope I don't never feel it again."

She turned and whacked Luke on the leg as hard as she could.

He jumped. "Hey, what-?"

"And I wouldna had to feel it in the first place if you and Corley had done the job you was upposed to!"

"Hey, we did just what we was upposed to. You was there."

"I wasn't there."

"Well, you was watchin'. You saw what happened. The sacrifice was goin' exactly accordin' to plan when that cop showed up outta nowhere. I said all along we shoulda just flattened the old guy inside his car and have done with it."

She hit him again. "Don't you never learn? The old man had to be done in by somethin' from the swamp or else it ain't a sacrifice, it's just a killin'. And we ain't about just killin'. We got a purpose to what we're doin', a duty. You know that."

"Awright, awright. I know that. But I still can't figure why that cop had to come along just then. We never seen him out there before."

"Maybe he was sent," Semelee said as the thought struck her.

"Whatchoo mean?"

"I mean maybe whoever was protectin' the old man today was protectin' him the other night as well."

"How can that be? We was the only ones who knew we'd be out there."

"I don't know how and I don't know why, but someone's protectin' that old man."

"You mean like with magic?"

"Maybe."

Lotsa people'd see what Semelee could do as magic, so why couldn't there be someone else out there who could do somethin' different but just as magical? Might be all sorts of magical people out there no one ever dreamed of.

"I ain't got no idea who right now, but I'm gonna find out. And when I do..."

She reached down and removed a palm-sized toad from the pocket of the discarded white dress. She held it up and stroked its back. This little feller was a relative to the big African marine toads some fool had brought into Florida sometime in the last century. It had only three legs-its left arm was nothing but a nubbin-but it had these swollen glands startin' behind each eye and runnin' down its back in a pair of lines. Those glands was full of poison. Every so often a dog would lick or bite one of its bigger cousins and die. This little guy came from the clan's lagoon where his family had bathed in the glow of the lights for generations, and he was even more poisonous. Just a little drop on a tongue was enough to stop a grown man's heart.

That had been Semelee's plan: sneak into the room, press the toad's back against the old man's lips, then get out. A minute or so later he'd be on his way to his maker and the job would be done.

She'd have to think of another plan now.

After she set the toad on the front seat of the boat, where it squatted and watched her with its big black eyes, her hand instinctively went to her breastbone to touch- She stiffened. What? Where is it?

Then she remembered-the thong had broken in the hospital room. As she'd fled the terrible feelin', she recalled stuffin' it into a pocket.

She rummaged in the uniform's other pocket and heaved a sigh of relief when she felt the slim thong. She pulled it out, expecting to see the pair of black freshwater clam sh.e.l.ls she wore around her neck. She gasped when she saw only one.

"What's wrong?" Luke said.

Semelee didn't answer him. Instead she lifted the uniform and pawed through one pocket then the other.

"Oh, no! It's gone!"

"What's gone?"

"One of my eye-sh.e.l.ls is missin'!"

"Check around your feet. Maybe it fell out when you was gettin' changed."

She checked, running her fingers along the slimy bottom through the inch or so of water.

"It's gone!" she cried, feeling panic rising like a tide. "Oh, Luke, what am I gonna do? I need them!"

She'd had the eye-sh.e.l.ls ever since she was twelve. She'd never forget that moment. Her mother'd taken her to her daddy's funeral. That was the first time she'd ever seen him...or at least remembered seein' him. He'd up and left Momma when Semelee was just a baby, soon after they moved to Tallaha.s.see. He was Miccosukee Indian, banished from the tribe for somethin' Momma never knew. She'd hooked up with him at the lagoon-lots a people livin' round the lagoon back then was on the run from somethin' or other-and the three of them moved outta there along with everyone else shortly after Semelee was born.

Her daddy-or rather the man who'd knocked up her momma-had been killed in a bar fight. Some of his Miccosukee kin had decided to give him a proper Indian send-off and his wife and child was invited.

She'd been scared of the whole idea of lookin' at a dead man, so she'd hung back, as far away from the body as she could. Just getting her first period the day before and feelin' sick and tired didn't help none. That was when she spotted the old Indian woman in a beaded one-piece dress starin' at her from across the room. She had eyes black as a bird's and hair like Semelee's, but also the wrinkles to go with it. She remembered how the old lady'd come close and sniffed her. Semelee'd shrunk back, scared, embarra.s.sed. Did her period smell?

The old woman'd nodded and showed her gums in a toothless smile. "You wait right here, child," she'd whispered. "I've got something for you."

And then she'd gone away. Semelee'd hoped she wouldn't come back but she did. And when she did she came carryin' two black freshwater clam sh.e.l.ls. They'd been drilled through near their hinges and was strung on a leather thong.

She took Semelee's hand, pried open her tight-clenched fingers, and pressed the sh.e.l.ls into her palms. "You got the sight, child. But it's no good without these. You take them and keep them close. Always keep them close. You'll need them when you're ready, and you'll be ready soon."

Then she'd walked away.

Semelee's first thought had been to throw them away, but she changed her mind. n.o.body hardly ever gave her anything, so she kept them. She didn't know what the old lady had been talkin' about-"You got the sight," and all that-but it made her feel special. Till that time in her life she'd never run into nothin' that had made her feel special. As for "the sight"...maybe someday she'd find out what that meant.

And one day she did find out. And it had changed her life.

"Now just relax, Semelee," Luke was sayin'. "It's got to be somewheres. Probably fell out while you was sittin' in the truck. We'll find it."

"We got to!"

She needed those eye-sh.e.l.ls to do her magic. She'd kept them slung around her neck so's they'd never be away from her. But now...

Those eye-sh.e.l.ls'd saved her life...or rather, stopped her from killing herself.

It had been a day, a Tuesday in May in her sixteenth year, when everything that could go wrong did. She'd tried new hair dye the night before. Every other one she'd ever tried in the past-and she'd tried them all-didn't take. The dye just ran off her hair like water off wax. This one was touted as different, and promised to turn her hair a luxurious chestnut brown. And it looked like it might work. It didn't run off like the others.

But when Semelee looked in the bathroom mirror that morning she saw that instead of chestnut brown her hair had turned fire-engine red. Worse, it wouldn't wash out.

Maybe the color woulda been okay for the dopers and weirdoes who just wanted attention or wanted to show how they were rejecting their parents or society or whatever, but it was awful for Semelee. She'd spent her whole life bein' rejected. She wanted to belong belong.

After crying for a few minutes-she would have liked to scream but Momma and her new boyfriend Freddy were in the bedroom down the other end of the trailer-she tried to figure what to do. She would've liked to call out sick and spend the day was.h.i.+n' her hair, but that would leave her alone with Freddy, and the way she kept catchin' him lookin' at her gave her the creeps. Not that she was a virgin or nothin'-she was havin' plenty of s.e.x-but Freddy...yuck.

So she dried her bright red hair, jammed a cap over it, and headed for school. Not a good start to the day but it got worse as soon as Suzie Lefferts spotted her. She'd had it in for Semelee since grammar school and never pa.s.sed up a chance to torment her. She yanked off Semelee's cap just for sport, but when she saw the color of her hair she raised a holler and called all the other girls over, sayin' look who's here: Lucy Ricardo!

Their laughter and cries of "Luuuuceeeeee!" chased her down the hall, right into the arms of Jesse Buckler. She was Jesse's latest squeeze-or rather, he was hers. Depended on how you looked at it. Semelee had discovered that the way to a boy's heart was through his fly. Dates for her had been as few as turtle teeth until she turned fifteen and started puttin' out. After that it was a different story. She knew she had a rep but so what? She liked screwin', and durin' s.e.x was the only time she was sure she had a boy's undivided attention.

Jesse pulled her into the boy's room and for a minute she thought they was gonna have s.e.x there-screw in school, how cool. But when she saw Joey Santos and Lee Rivers standin' there with their flies open and their p.e.c.k.e.rs at attention, she got scared. She tried to run but Lee grabbed her and said Jesse told them how she gave the best b.l.o.w. .j.o.b in school and they wanted a sample. She said no and how she'd report them and they laughed and said who'd believe the school s.l.u.t? They called her "Granny" and Jesse said how he got off doin' it to an old lady.

The words shocked Semelee. She'd thought of herself as somethin' of a goodtime gal, of easy virtue maybe, but not the school s.l.u.t. And it wasn't like Semelee loved Jesse or nothin', or ever even entertained the idea that he loved her, but...he'd been talkin' about her like she was a pull of chewin' tobacco that he was gonna pa.s.s around between his friends.

With some kickin' and clawin' she broke free and ran out-not just out of the boys room, but out of the school as well. She could've gone to the princ.i.p.al, but it would be the word of three of the football stars against the school s.l.u.t, and besides, nothin' had happened.

So she'd run home. And there was Freddy. Alone. Drinkin a beer. And h.o.r.n.y. He offered her a brew, then started touchin' her. Semelee just snapped. She started screamin' and throwin' things and the next thing she knew Freddy was out the door and headin' for his car.

He must'a called Momma because half an hour later she came stormin' in, started slappin' at Semelee, callin' her a little wh.o.r.e for playin' hooky so she could come on to Freddy. Now look what she'd done! Freddy was gone, sayin' he wasn't stayin' in no house with a freaky piece of jailbait tryin' to get him in trouble.

Momma wouldn't listen to her, and Semelee'd been hurt that her own momma was takin' Freddy's side over hers. But then Momma crushed her, sayin' she wished Semelee'd never been born, wished she'd died like all the other girls been born to the lagoon folk round that time, that she'd been a weight around her neck ever since, draggin' her down, her white hair scarin' off the men interested in Momma.

That did it. Semelee busted out through the door with no direction in mind and kept goin'. She wound up on the beach where she collapsed on the sand. Her momma, who she'd thought of as her best friend, her only true friend, hated her, had always hated her. She wanted to die.

She thought about drowning herself but didn't have the energy to jump in the water. The tide was out so she decided to just lie here on the sand and let the water come to her, wash her out to sea, and that would be the end of it. No more ha.s.sles, no more names like "Granny," no more heartbreak, no nothin'.

She lay there on her back in the sand with her eyes closed. The sun was so bright it blazed through her lids, botherin' her. She didn't have her sungla.s.ses on her but she did have those two sh.e.l.ls around her neck. They was just the right size to go over her eyes. It'd be like layin' in a tannin' booth.

As she sat up to untie the thong, she saw the gulls glidin' overhead and wished she had wings like them so she could fly away.

She lay back on the sand and fitted a sh.e.l.l over each eye- What?

She s.n.a.t.c.hed the sh.e.l.ls away from her eyes and levered back up to sittin'.

What just happened?

She'd put the sh.e.l.ls over her eyes expectin' to see black. But she'd seen white instead...white sand...and she'd been above it, lookin' down on a girl lyin' in the sand...a girl with sh.e.l.ls over her eyes.

Semelee put those sh.e.l.ls over her eyes again and suddenly she was lookin' down on a girl sitting in the stand-a girl with fire-engine hair.

That's me!

She pulled off the sh.e.l.ls again and looked up. A seagull hovered above, looking down at her, probably wondering if she had a sandwich and might throw it a crust or two.

She started experimentin' and found she could look through the eyes of any bird on the beach. She could soar, she could hover, she could spot a fish near the surface of the water and dive for it. Then she discovered she could see through fishes' eyes, swim around the rocks and coral and stay underwater as long as she pleased without comin' up for air.

It was wonderful. She spent the rest of the day testin' her powers. Finally, after the sun had set, she headed home. She didn't want to go there, didn't want to see her momma's face, but she had no place else to go.

When Semelee opened the door to the trailer Momma was all tears and apologies, sayin' she hadn't really meant what she'd said, that she was just upset and talkin' crazy. But Semelee knew the truth when she heard it. Momma had said what was deep in her heart and meant every word of it.