A couple, guy and girl, came up next. The guy had a cheap Darth Vader mask but wore ordinary clothes, while the girl was done up in an elaborate Princess Leia costume.
“What’s the admission for just Saturday?” asked the guy. He sounded cranky, and the girl looked mad. Roni had a feeling they already knew and wanted to bitch.
“It’s twenty-seven dollars, the same as for Friday night. Covers admission for Sunday, too.”
“What about just for Saturday?”
“Twenty-seven dollars.”
“I’m sorry?” he said, raising his voice some, and the girl smirked.
“Twenty-seven dollars is the fee no matter what.” She pointed wearily to the sign.
“That’s the same as if you come Friday night.”
More people moved past. Roni noticed the guy she’d previously been arguing with about the price, with the knapsack, on the far side of them, going inside. She wasn’t going to stop him.
She wanted to talk to Hobie herself. She didn’t like this thing with the pink water in the water coolers. You wouldn’t think anybody would drink that stuff when it had rubber spiders and babydoll heads floating in it, but there were paper cups in a tube attached to the coolers, and she’d already seen two people sipping out of those cups.
CHAPTER 22
JAIME AND CLARE
“How much money do you have?” said Clare. They passed Wink-O Lanes, so Jaime was pretty sure he knew which way to go now.
“I don’t have none.”
“What about money for gas?”
He blanched. Hadn’t thought about that. Looking at his face, Clare shook her head, said, “Just drop me off at the bus station.”
He looked at the dashboard. Where was the gas? He thought the round dial was it. Looked like the needle was almost straight up.
“We got enough to get to Stankerton.”
“Why would I want to go there? I’m going to Los Angeles.”
“I thought you were coming with me.”
“Why would I do that?”
“You ain’t give me a chance to tell you.”
“I’m not interested in anything that has to do with Stankerton.”
“But you come with me from Aunt Beulah’s when I showed up.”
“I needed to get out of there. I had my bag packed already.”
“But it was like you knew I was coming.” He sounded like he was whining, something his brothers and sisters used to smack him around for. Remembering that Clare was his cousin, he raised one shoulder as a bulwark.
“I knew something would happen. It was time for me to go.”
“I come to tell you about this girl. She’s stayin’ there with Todd now.”
She spoke more sharply than before. “I don’t care what he does anymore.”
“But this girl, see, she’s not the only one. There was this other one. And she… do you get the news down here?”
“What news?”
“About the girls in Stankerton. All the girls that are gettin’ killed.”
Clare shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“It’s a serial killer, and he’s killing these girls. And this one girl, she got killed out in the woods. And right now there’s this Halloween thing at the movie theater, and there’s all these crowds because of the wall.”
“What wall?”
“The wall Todd was going to paint on. There’s a picture on there now.”
“You mean Todd finished the mural?” Now she sounded interested.
“No, it just got there. It was there this morning. Wasn’t there yesterday. And people are going to see it. They think it’s a Jesus picture.”
“A Jesus picture? An image of Christ?”
“Yeah.”
“Where Todd was working on his mural?” She stared at him wide-eyed.
“Yeah. The one with the little flying saucer on it.”
“So he finished the mural after all. Interesting. You’re sure about this?”
“Sure I’m sure.”
“I’m not sure I believe you.”
He hated being accused of lying, used to get that from his siblings a lot too. “Why would I say it? Come and see. Plus, Todd, you know, he’s—”
“These dead girls, do they say anything about their hearts?”
“Well…” How’d she know that? “Their hearts, they say they get cut out. Sometimes.”
Clare seemed very satisfied with this. “Cut out, hah! Those are the Qwiff.”
“The what?” A car passing them in the opposite direction honked as Jaime strayed slightly into the adjacent lane.
“Watch where you’re driving,” said Clare. “The exit is coming up. My my, the Qwiff and the mural. It’s all happening just as Delbert Wingdale said it would. And Todd in the middle of it all. I always told him he was fated.”
CHAPTER 23
TODD AND SKY
When Todd returned from the store, he found Sky still watching TV but not masturbating. She was still in his robe. She turned and smiled winningly.
“Hey, did you get some good stuff?”
“I think so. Wine and oysters. Got you a salad, too. Caesar salad.”
“Yummy! Did you get yourself one?”
“I’m not that hungry.”
“You like never eat, do you? That’s bad for you when you’re drinking.”
“Yeah, it probably is.”
“I’m not trying to scold you or anything. I’m just worried about you, darling.” She got up from the rocking chair, came toward him, embraced him. As she did, she grabbed him by one butt cheek. “I told you I love you. And I’m not nearly done with you yet, buster.”
Maybe she thought he couldn’t fuck because of malnutrition. “I have some stuff to eat, some baloney and potato chips and stuff. I’ll have some.”
“Oh, that sounds healthy,” she laughed.
“Speaking of healthy, you want some wine?”
“Yeah! Let’s have some oysters, too,” she said brightly. “I gotta go to the bathroom again. Hope nobody looks in the window and watches me pee.”
He went into the kitchen, set down the bags. The frying pans he’d cooked up the worm in the night before were still in the sink. Aphrodisiac effect. But what about Lenore? Maybe just a taste. He picked up a pan that had some residue in it, licked it. It was more bitter than he’d remembered and seemed to seethe on his tongue.
CHAPTER 24
RONI CONFRONTS HOBIE
Someone knocked at the door to the ticket booth, behind Roni. What? This wasn’t Hobie, was it?
“Me,” someone called from behind it. It was Stella. Roni jumped up, opened it.
“Hey,” said Stella. “I’m still sick as a dog, but I decided to come in.” She coughed softly twice, hand over mouth. Sounded fake, but she was here, thank God.
“Great. Could you take over the booth right now? I have to go find fucking Glenn. He’s not at his desk and people are just walking in for free.”
“I know, I saw. Asshole. We should have gotten a rent-a-cop.”
Hobie was too penny-foolish for that, but it wasn’t worth saying. “I’ll be back,” said Roni.
Roni couldn’t find Glenn anywhere through the hallways, decided to try the auditorium. She stepped inside, just in time to catch the finish of a preview, in which a screaming, decayed corpse/zombie’s head exploded, the scattered brain matter adhering to walls of a padded cell, coming alive with tarantulas. The audience whooped with approval. The words “Don’t Dare To See It Alone!” appeared on the screen but cut off abruptly and were replaced with an animated cartoon image of a happy-looking goateed beatnik in a striped jersey, sunglasses and beret playing bongo drums. The beatnik, still smiling broadly, pulled out a gun and shot his head completely off so that it disappeared, bringing more whoops. The words “Crazy cool! It’s from Bongoville, Daddy-O!” appeared under the stilled image and quickly blipped away.