Think about the game, he ordered; think about all that good feeling, all that cheering, the rush when Pratt caught that first pa.s.s, the lucky sonofab.i.t.c.h.

His stride lengthened, the whistle became audible, and when 294.

he had to stop at the Snowden driveway to let Chris pull in, he even saluted her and gave her a grin.

And waited.

To watch as she slid out, long legs white in the streetlight, braidsslipping and sliding over her chest as she turned toward him and grinned, grabbed her pompons from the backseat and rounded the back of the car.

"Hi!" she said, cheeks flushed, eyes bright.

"Hi yourself."

"Gonna celebrate?"

"d.a.m.n right."

"Me too. See ya."

She ran up the walk, up the steps, and he didn't stop watching, knew what he was doing and didn't give a d.a.m.n. Right now Joyce was fussing with her hair, her makeup, and beating herself to death over what Don had seen. It wouldn't hurt to wait a few minutes, to let her calm down.

"Mr. Boyd?"

He looked. She was standing at the open doorway.

"Mr, Boyd, my father-" And she gestured inside.

What the h.e.l.l, he decided; a celebratory drink with a rich surgeon wouldn't hurt. Maybe a check for the campaign kitty if he played his cards right.

He made a show of deliberation before nodding and following her into the house.

Where the door closed silently, where the lights were all out.

"Hey, Chris," he said, suddenly nervous.

"I was going to say," she said softly, "that he was out of town, but wouldn't mind if I offered you something to celebrate the great game.

Mother wouldn't either. She's in Florida for a vacation."

They were shadows and half-light, and he reached for the doork.n.o.b, looked stupidly at her fingers when they caught his wrist and held it.

For a second. For two. One by one 295.

lifting to release him, the rustle of the pompons as they dropped to the floor.

"Chris," he warned, but didn't reach again.

Dumb, Boyd. Dumb, you stupid a.s.shole.

"I have to change," she said, and walked slowly up the stairs he hadn't noticed on his left. She didn't look back, her hips and legs pulling him as if they were beckoning.

He considered only for a moment what he was doing, what he was getting himself into, then decided with a sharp nod that being a saint hadn't kept him his wife, hadn't kept him his son, and wasn't it about time hetook what he wanted, had what he deserved.

So he followed, on his toes, and walked into a dark bedroom where he saw her on the mattress. In dimlight, naked, her hands slipping across her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, across her stomach, spreading to either side and kneading the sheet.

He stood at the foot of the bed. He unb.u.t.toned his shirt.

He almost stopped when he saw her smile and thought it was a sneer.

"Celebrate," she said.

He nodded, undressed, and crawled over her legs, held himself above her and looked into her eyes. In the dark they were dark, showing nothing at all; and the smile was still there, the upper lip curled.

"I know what you're doing," he said in a whisper.

She nodded and shifted to bring his gaze to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"It won't work."

"Sure," she said, and grabbed for his shoulders.

He resisted just long enough to show her he meant it, to show her who was boss, then lowered himself while she guided him, and heard himself gasp. Felt himself thrust. Looked up at her face and saw her staring at the ceiling.

Falcone pushed in and closed the door, took Joyce by the shoulders and practically dragged her into the dark living 296.

room. "He found out, didn't he? The sonofab.i.t.c.h knows what's going on, doesn't he?"

'' Of course he does "Jesus Christ!" he said, dropping his hands and turning to the bay window. "Joyce, what the h.e.l.l were you thinking of?"

"Me? All I wanted was someone to talk to. You were the one who couldn't keep his hands to himself."

"I didn't notice you screaming rape," he said quietly.

Streetlight reached weakly into the room, building shadows out of furniture, adding pits and slopes to his profile.

"But you know what you do to me," she answered. "You know, and you shouldn't have."

"Ah, Christ, don't give me that, okay? That's soap opera stuff. You're a grown woman and-"

She saw his eyelids drop into a squint and she leaned around Norman's chair to look out onto the lawn. No one could see in without a lamp on, but he might have seen Donald coming up the walk; or worse, it could beNorman.

"What?" she whispered.

He pointed. "You got me crazy, Joyce. I could have sworn I saw some kind of animal out there."

She laughed. It was going to be all right. Harry was making jokes now; it was going to be all right.

"Look, Harry, this isn't going to work. I've got to get back to Norman, so why don't you-"

"d.a.m.n, there it is again."

With a smile she shook her head and moved to his side, looked out the window and saw it in the yard.

Under the trees the slope of its back nearly reaching the lower branches. Around it a drifting fog, snaking through the gra.s.s and dropping from the leaves, blurring its outline but not the green glow of its eyes.

"It's a gag," Harry said. "Plaster or something. A 297.

costume. Is this one of your kid's things?" His voice hardened. "Is that kid out there playing games with us, Joyce?"

"His name is Donald," she said quietly, and gasped when its head rose and it looked straight at her.

"Jesus," Harry whispered, his head shaking slightly.

A foreleg pawed the gra.s.s, and emerald flame curled into the air, strands of green webbing that poked through the fog and reached for the house.

"I haven't been drinking," Falcone said aloud to himself. "I swear to G.o.d I haven't been drinking. What the h.e.l.l is it, Joyce?"

But she was staring up at the ceiling, toward the back where she knew Don's room to be, remembering the poster and the horse that had been there.

"It's a gag," Harry insisted, "and I don't think it's funny."

She looked out the window, and could see the stallion's muscles bunch at the shoulders, shift at its haunches, and she barely had time to scream before it leapt from the gra.s.s and came through the bay window.

She dove to one side, her leg cracking against the armrest of Norman's chair, a snowstorm of gla.s.s winking over her to the back where it bounced from the wall and fell to the carpet, tinkling like bells in the dead cold of winter. She twisted around as she fell and saw the stallion fill the room, saw Falcone backpedal to the hearth, where he s.n.a.t.c.hed up the poker and brandished it over his head.

The horse looked around and saw her pushing herself into the foyer. It snorted, and the room filled with fog; it lashed out with a rear hoofand Norman's chair was dashed into the corner, collapsing upon itself as it writhed in greenfire; it turned back to Falcone and he swung the poker at its head, missed, and was drawn offbalance a step off the hearth.

A wedge of gla.s.s dropped from the ceiling where it had been stuck like a knife blade.

Joyce drew herself to her feet and sagged against the newel 298.

post as the stallion lifted its head, lowered it, and grabbed Harry's jacket with its bright long teeth. He screamed and tried to hit the beast again, but the horse shook him ragdoll side to side; the smoke-fog thickened, greenfire flared, and as Joyce shrieked and took the stairs, she heard the distinct sound of bones snapping, a spine breaking, Harry's body released and slammed against the wall.

"Don," she whispered as she ran to the landing. "Don, save me, please save me."

When she turned to run into the hall, the stallion was in the foyer, green eyes watching, the fog drifting up ahead of it and sweeping around her ankles, filling her with a chill that made her bones ache, that made her eyes widen, that slowed her when she ran to hide in her room.

On the stairs then-hooves against wood, echoing, hollow.

The pool in the oval was calm despite the wind, though every few minutes a gust would escape from the branches and send ripples across it, bobbing the dead leaves and sending some to the bottom. From the boulevard they could hear the continuing victory parade, but they felt no need to join it. Instead, they huddled together on a damp redwood bench and watched the black water.

"Divorce," Tracey said with a sympathetic shake of her head. She had changed into a shirt and jeans and was wearing a light sweater under her school jacket. "G.o.d, I don't know what to say."

Don sniffed several times to keep back the tears, determined not to let Tracey see him cry. "They hate me, you know."

"Don't be silly. They do not."

"Well, they don't care, then. All they care about is themselves. Jesus, do you know ... I can't believe it, but do you know that last week Mom called me Sam?"

299.

Tracey pried one of his hands loose from between his knees and held it, rubbed it to drive away the cold. "And I'm crazy, Tracey."

"Dumb."

i "No," he said earnestly, turning to her, leaning closer.

I "No, I mean it. I'm crazy." He kept her silent with a look and took a slow breath. Now was the time to do it, but the words he sought were impossible to order, and he shoved himself to his feet and began pacingthe oval. Tracey watched him patiently, biting at her lips, lifting her shoulders when the breeze came again.

He stopped on the other side of the pond and faced her, looking up at the trees and the dark above the leaves. "I don't get it," he said with a tremulous smile. "I mean, your folks fight, don't they? I mean, I know what your father is like and all, but they have fights, right? So why don't they get divorced? Why ... what's the matter with me that Brian can't leave me alone for one lousy minute?" His neck tightened, pulling his mouth down; he lowered his gaze and saw Tracey watching him, her hands deep in her coat pockets and forced together over her stomach. "I did something, Trace," he said softly. "I did something."

She stood and walked toward him, but he held out his hands to keep the water between them. "What, Don? That nonsense about killing Tar?" He nodded.

"That's stupid. You didn't do it."

He nodded again, and put a hand to his forehead, ma.s.saged it, and drove it back through his hair. "You don't understand." "I understand you're upset about Tar, and Mandy, and now this stuff with your mom and dad. I can see that, Don, but you-" "No."

The word was quiet, and as effective as a slap. She took a 300.

step back and turned her head away from the wind that engulfed them for a moment in a shower of dead leaves.

And at that moment Don started around the pond toward her, hoping the raw edges of the leaves would cut him to shreds, would bury and smother him, and when they blew away, there would be nothing left but a pile of slow shifting dust.

She met him and embraced him, and he almost decided not to say anything more.

"Don?"

"Tracey, look, let's go-"

She pushed him away and glared at him, black hair fanning over her eyes and fanning away. "Jesus," she said, "do you think you're the only kid with problems? What the h.e.l.l makes you so special that you're the only one?"

"Tracey!"

"You've never been called a spic, have you? You've never had someone try to feel you up just because you smiled at them."

"Hey, Tracey, please, I didn't-"

"You know why my folks don't get divorced? Because my father is a worse Catholic than the Pope, that's why. Because if it came to it, my mother and father would live together for the rest of their lives hating each other's guts, but G.o.d forbid they even think about divorce." She put a fist to her cheek and pressed it in hard. "I have to wear long skirts so you can't see my legs, and I have to wear baggy blouses because myfather doesn't want you to know I have any t.i.ts."

"Jesus, Tracey, I-"

"It's like living in a convent, Don! I love him, don't get me wrong, but there are times when I want to bust open his head. So ..." She pointed at him, her hand trembling violently. "So don't you dare tell me you're the only one 301.

around here with problems, all right? Don't you dare, Donald Boyd!"

"Tracey," he said, taking a step toward her, "I didn't mean that. I meant-"

"I know," she said, suddenly smiling though there was a tear on her cheek. "I know. But you don't seem to understand there's nothing you can do about it. You can't run away, and you're too good to end up like Brian." She closed the gap and took his hands. "You have to live with it, Don. Like me, I guess. You have to live with it."