Loony looked at Stone again.
"I know how it sounds, but this is the real thing. : Clyde, he"s moved into my head, like it"s some kind of doll house, you know."
Pausing, Loony said, "Yeah, sure."
"I know you think I"m crazy, but he tells me we got to do this."
"Don"t care if you are crazy," Loony said, then added quickly, "Not that I think you are. I mean you say we got to do this thing, then we"ll do this thing. I"m for whatever you say. I like being told what to do. Me, I f.u.c.k up too much. And Stone, he likes it too.
Huh, Stone?"
Stone nodded.
"You see, Clyde"s inside me now," Brian said. "Living in my head."
"Sure," Loony said. He"d been sniffing paint thinner, and nothing sounded odd to him.
"I say we get her soon," Brian said.
"Say when. Tonight if you like."
"No. I"m not wanting to go off half-c.o.c.ked. We"ve got to wait until the omens are right."
"Omens?"
"Signs."
"Like what?"
"October twenty-eighth."
"What"s with the twenty-eighth?"
"Clyde"s birthday. We go then."
"Sounds good to me. One night"s as good as the next."
"No. That would be the night. The night of Clyde"s birthday. He would have been eighteen. He wouldn"t want me to wait any later."
"Twenty-eighth it is."
"Okay then ... Is someone in the car?"
"Yeah."
"What the f.u.c.k you doing with someone in the car? Who is it?"
"Jimmy and his old lady."
"Who?"
"Don"t get mad, now. He"s been helping us out."
"How?"
"He works at the courthouse."
"I don"t want the f.u.c.ker"s life history. I want to know what you"re doing with him over here. That"s what I want to know."
"He"s a friend, I tell you."
"You mean he bought you a tube of glue."
"He works at the courthouse-"
"What"s that got to do with s.h.i.t?"
"I"m trying to tell you. Calm down and listen."
"Make it good."
"It"s good. I thought maybe he could help us out, on account of he works at the courthouse. Thought maybe he could give us the inside dope on Clyde, but Clyde hung himself, did himself in."
"He"s in my head."
"Well, right. Sure. I mean . . . thought Jimmy could maybe tell us how the jail was set up and all, thought we"d get Clyde out of there, but he hung himself . . . and that was all of that. But this Jimmy, he"s been letting us stay with him."
"He know about us? What we did?"
"Well . . ."
"Well what?"
"Well . . . kind of."
"s.h.i.thead!" Brian slapped Loony across the ear.
"G.o.dd.a.m.nit, man," Loony said. "He"s been helping us. He wants to be one of us. I mean Clyde used to bring in different people."
"He had the good sense to choose. You don"t,"
"He"s all right, ain"t he, Stone?"
Stone nodded.
"Great, Stone says he"s an all-right guy. I mean, that"s what I was waiting to find out, if Stone thought he was an all-right guy. I let you two a.s.sholes out of my sight for a minute-how long you been living there?"
"Since that night we decided not to go back to The House anymore. Listen to me."
Loony moved close to Brian. "You"d be proud of me. This guy is a patsy. He"s scared of us. He plays like he"s our friend, and in a way he is. He wouldn"t do nothing to upset us on account of his girlfriend. We"ve never told him what we"d do, but I"ve sort of hinted."
"You"ve sort of hinted."
"I tell you, he"s okay. One more man can"t hurt."
"A c.u.n.t can hurt."
"She"s all right for a girl."
"Christ, Loony. Why didn"t you just put a f.u.c.king ad in the paper?"
"He"s all right. If he ain"t all right, I"ll waste him myself. Right now. You don"t like him, I"ll cut his b.a.l.l.s off right here, suck the girl"s eye for a grape. Right here. Right now.
Say the word. Don"t even look at them if you don"t want. Say kill them, I"ll go over there and kill them. You tell me what to do. What you want, that"s what you get."
"Let me see them."
"Sure. You don"t like them, just give me the word. You say it, I"ll do it. Stone"s the same.
You the same, Stone?" Stone nodded.
Loony pulled up his sweatshirt. A sheathed knife was stuck in the front of his pants. "Just say it."
"All right, let"s meet this Jimmy and his c.u.n.t."
"Her name"s Angela."
"I don"t give a f.u.c.k what her name is."
"Just saying."
"Don"t say d.i.c.k, Loony. You"re smarter when your mouth is closed."
"Yeah, all right. I don"t know d.i.c.k."
They walked over to the car. A back door opened and a lanky boy with a pimpled face got out. A dark, attractive girl followed him.
"Love birds," Brian said.
They didn"t say anything. Angela slid her arm around Jimmy"s waist.
"You a spick?" Brian asked her.
"Yeah, I guess."
"You are or you aren"t. Which is it?"
"Yes."
"You two want in?"
"Yeah," Jimmy said. "Yeah, we want in."
"What about you?" Brian asked Angela.
She looked at Jimmy. "Sure."
"We play hardball here. You know that?"
"Yeah, we know."
"You don"t play the game right, may find yourself fertilizing center field. Know what I"m saying here?"
"Yeah, I know," Jimmy said. "We know."
"That"s good. You might be asked to play all positions on this team. First base, catcher, shortstop. Anything we want you to play, you play it. Got that?"
"Got it."
"And her."
"Got it," she said. "I do what Jimmy says."
"No, you do what I say."
"She will," Jimmy said.
"That"s good, real good. I like to see a girl that knows her place in the scheme of things.
One last thing, now that you"re in don"t think about flaking out. There aren"t enough places to hide or enough police to protect you."
"Got you," Jimmy said.
"You"re in then. Now, go ahead and get back in the car. I"m going to talk to Loony and Stone here."
They got back in. Brian walked with Loony and Stone to the middle of the yard.
"What do you think?" Loony asked.
"I don"t know. You watch them. They go to the police, something like that, and I"ll have your b.a.l.l.s to stuff with coffee beans so I can have me a rattle. Got me?"
"Got you. They won"t go no place. We"ll watch them, won"t we, Stone?"
Stone nodded.
"All right. I"m holding you to it. I don"t want to see you guys again until the twenty-eighth. And get a shotgun, and some knives. Be sure you bring the knives, sharp knives. I"m going to cut that G.o.dd.a.m.ned teacher"s heart out."
"We"ll get the knives,"