"Yeah, and an old-timey suit that's all black and worn out, like it had been picked over. I can't really see his face, it's like the brim of the hat throws a shadow over it." Jett didn't mention that she'd seen him three times: in the barn loft, in English class, and in the boiler room at school. If the man was Teal, then Gordon might know something about him. But if Jett's acid trips had eaten a permanent hole in her brain, she didn't want to arouse any suspicions or she might end up in lockdown at a psychiatric ward. Not that a vacation would be all bad, but Mom was already a basket case and that might send her over the edge. And good old Dad would probably drop his job and his new girlfriend and make a beeline to Solom to straighten things out, fucking everything up in his usual bumbling way.
"I won't lecture you on the chemical changes caused by substance abuse," Gordon said. "Drugs can do permanent damage. Hallucinations, confusion, memory loss."
Jett nodded absently, focusing on the brittle grind of Trent Reznor's voice leaking from the headphones. And don't forget that good old side effect of 'fun. So quit fucking lecturing already.
"Okay, Gordon. I promised you and Mom I'd stay clean. No sweat."
Gordon reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, as if he'd been studying parental techniques in a textbook. "Hang in there, Jett. We'll make this family work."
"I know. But I'd better get back to this homework."
"The satisfaction of academic achievement is the best drug of all."
Whatever.
He paused at the door. "Dinner in fifteen minutes."
After he left the room, Jett locked the door and popped the Nine Inch Nails out of the Walkman. Hitchcock's "Element of Light" was the ticket now. She retrieved the Baggie from her backpack, sprinkled a pinch of grass in her aluminum-foil pipe, and carried it with the lighter to her window. She eased the window up and the evening chill sliced its way into the room. If she took small puffs and exhaled through the gap, then even Gordon's big hairy nose couldn't detect the scent.
Beyond the glass, the world was dark and still. Even the insects were tucked away, as if hungry predators roamed the night. The stars were scattered like grains of salt on a blue blanket, the quarter moon sharp as a scythe. The mountains made sweeping black waves along the horizon. She had to give it to Solom on that count: it had Charlotte beat all to hell on scenery.
She was about to thumb her lighter when she saw movement out in the cornfield. The tops of the dead stalks stirred. She expected a wayward goat to walk out from the rows. The animals were renowned for breaking through their fences. The Fred-faced fuckers never seemed to get enough to eat. They probably chewed in their sleep.
But it wasn't a goat. It was a man. In the scant moonlight, she could just make out the brim of bis hat. The brim lifted in her direction, as if the man were staring at the window.
She looked down at the dried leaves in the curled bowl of the pipe. "Hallucination, my ass," she said.
Jett sparked the lighter and touched the flame to the weed, inhaling deeply. She planned on losing her mind, at least for a little while. Because if her mind was gone, then she wouldn't have to remember. And if she didn't remember, then the man in the black hat didn't exist.
Drug problem.
Oxymoron.
Drug problem equals no problem.
She closed her eyes and let the smoke seep out her mouth into the Solom sky.
Odus took a drink of Old Crow, the best four-dollar bourbon around. Preacher Mose didn't bat an eye as the man pulled the bot-de from the hip pocket of his overalls, though it was the first time anyone had ever brought liquor into the church during his tenure. Mose almost reached for the bottle himself, but figured now wasn't a good time to let his principles slide. They sat side by side in a front pew of the church, staring straight ahead as if expecting a sermon from the silent pulpit.
"Now do you believe me?" Odus asked.
"I believe in the Lord and just at the moment, that's the only thing I believe in."
"That was him. Harmon Smith."
"People don't come back from the dead."
"I thought that was what the Bible was all about. Hell, if you don't get resurrected, then why miss out on all the fun of sinning?"
"That happened in the Bible," Mose said. "This is real life."
"Fine words, coming from a preacher."
Mose still had the hammer in his hand. He hadn't relaxed his grip since the mysterious figure had appeared at the church door. The man in the black hat stood there for the space of three heartbeats, his head tilted down, face hidden. There were holes in his dark wool suit, and the cuffs were frayed. The flesh of his hands was the color of a peeled cucumber. He turned up one palm, like a beggar seeking alms. Neither Mose nor Odus had spoken, and the man finally lowered his hand and stepped out of the church without turning.
Or moving his feet, Odus thought. Except now he couldn't be sure what he'd seen or if he had merely imagined the whole scene. By the time he'd finally unlocked his muscles and run to the door, the strange man was nowhere to be seen. Despite his poor church attendance and his fondness for illicit activities, Odus was true to his word, which was why his reputation was good among the people who hired him for odd jobs.
"What are you going to do about it?" Odus asked.
"Do? Why does anything have to be done?"
"You know the stories."
"That's just a folktale, Brother. I can't give it any credence. I'm an educated man."
"Well, a preacher has to believe in miracles, so what's to say a bad miracle can't happen now and again?" Odus sipped the bourbon again as if he'd been giving the matter a great deal of thought over the course of many pints.
"Okay, then," Mose said. "Just supposing-and I'm doing this like maybe I was writing a spooky movie or something-supposing Harmon Smith did come back to life after two hundred years? What would he want? What would be the point? Because he'd have been swept right up to Glory when he died, and wouldn't have any reason to come back."
"Except for the oldest reason ever."
"What's that?"
"Revenge."
"The church records say he died in an accident. He had no reason not to rest in peace."
"What else would you expect them to say, Preacher? That he got conked on the head and thrown in the river because he was doing missionary work?"
"A folktale, I told you."
"The Primitive Baptists didn't cotton to Harmon Smith's ideas. Neither did the Free Willers."
"We believe in salvation. Why would our people want to kill him?"
"Ask Gordon Smith. He'll tell you all about it."
Mose ran his thumb over the head of the hammer and stared at the wooden cross that hung on the wall behind the pulpit. "If I told you something, would you think I was crazy?"
"No crazier than you think I am."
"I saw the Circuit Rider when I was a kid. He snuck up behind me like a shadow one afternoon while I was skipping stones down at the trout pond. I thought he was going to grab me, but he just shook those long fingers at me. I ran all the way home and didn't go outside for a week. That was about the time that Janie Bessemer took infection from a cut foot and died from blood poisoning. I always thought it was the Circuit Rider's doing."
Odus took a deep gulp of the Old Crow and coughed. "I was wrong. You are crazier than me."
Mose stood up. "I'd better get this molding nailed down before dark so it will be ready for services tomorrow."
Odus grabbed Mose's arm. "Didn't one of the disciples deny Jesus Christ after the Last Supper?"
"Peter. Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed."
"Maybe you're like Peter. You believe in Harmon Smith, but you're not going to admit it to anybody."