I.
ou"ve read the phrase: His brain reeled, haven"t you?
Ifs a literal description, friends.
My brain reeled. The world had been upended. I could not think, only stare. Blankly.
As she"d come in, Ca.s.sandra had said (to Ca.s.sandra!), "That"s enough."
And the corpse had looked around.
"Thafs it?" she said. "You didn"t give me much time."
"There was enough," said living Ca.s.sandra.
"For you, maybe," responded corpse Ca.s.sandra.
And pulled off her wig.
Brian in white makeup.
Max, unable to move, stared up at Brian.
As Ca.s.sandra exploded at her brother.
"What the h.e.l.l was me idea of leaving me unconscious on the floor like that?" she demanded.
NowYouSfteH... 199
My brain mumbled Vfhat? Hadn"t that been Brian made up as Ca.s.sandra?
Brian had exploded back at his sister.
"What the h.e.l.l else could I do?" he cried. "Obviously, he put too much drug in mat dart. I tried to bring you around, but I couldn"t!
"And there was no time!" he ranted on. "I had to hide Harry in the cellar underneath me burial-case apparatus!
Put mat rubber mask over his head! Telephone the Sheriff!
Make sure you were ready! Get into makeup and your clothes again! Be ready to be hanging in that G.o.ddam freezer! I hardly had all afternoon, did I?"
She did not relent
"I thought Harry was really dead!" she raged.
"Why?" He looked confused. "You knew Max"s plan! I told you every bit of it!"
"Well, I didn"t know that!" she responded. "I thought-"
He cut her off, twisting around to look at me. "Can"t we take him out of here?" he asked.
"Forget him!" she snarled. "He"s a cabbage!"
"He"s a helpless old man!" Brian cried.
"Wrong!" she said- "He"s a G.o.ddam enc.u.mbrance, and I can"t vwit to get him out of here!"
(Merd, Ca.s.sandra. Stay as sweet as you are.)
"Jesus G.o.d," she muttered angrily. "I had to go through mat whole f.u.c.king charade thinking all the time mat Harry was really dead."
Her voice was loud again.
"It threw me off completely!" she stormed. "It was a nightmare! I did everything wrong! If it hadn"t been for Max"s failing eyesight and hearing-"
Brian scowled.
"What the h.e.l.l"s the difference?" he said. "All"s well that ends well, right?" His tone was bitter-
200 Richard Matheson
Ca.s.sandra regarded him tensely, then managed to con- trol her temper.
With a forced smile, she moved to him and kissed him several times on the lips, her hands on his cheeks.
They were not sisterly kisses.
Which, doubling my bafflement, added (in a moment"s time) an entirely new dimension to the lay of me land (if I may so refer to my daughter-in-law).
"Pool," she said to him in a chiding voice.
She slapped him lightly on the cheek.
"Now put him in the freezer, then get out of here."
He blew out a surrendering breath.
"Yes, ma"am," he murmured sadly.
Ca.s.sandra frowned at him. "What"s wrong?"
"Nothing," he said. "Everything is peachy."
"You"re not going to fall apart on me now, are you?" she asked. She gave him a Ca.s.sandra look.
"No, I"m not," he murmured.
"Well, do what you"re told, then/" she said.
"Sure."