The Year's Best Horror Stories 7 (31 page)

But Laming was under bad influences. "Who's Kelly?" he asked.

"A friend," she replied. "But you haven't seen him."

He glared brazenly at the universe.

Then he pushed rudely past her, and all the way home his head sang a popular song to him, as heads do in times of trouble.

His mother spoke with urgency. "Oh, Laming. I'm so glad to see you back."

He stared at her like a murderer who had the police car in the next street.

"You look tired. Poor Laming! It's a girl isn't it?"

He could only gaze at the floor. His leg was about to fall right off. His brain had gone rotten, like an egg.

"There's always the one you take, and the one you might have taken."

He continued to stare at the eroded lentil-colored carpet

"Lie down and rest. I'll come back for you soon."

Agonizingly he flopped onto the hard chesterfield, with its mustard-and-cress covering, much worn down in places.

In the end, she was with him again. She wore a short-sleeved nightdress in white lawn, plain and pure. Her hair had long been quite short. She looked like a bride.

"It's too hot for a dressing gown," she said, smiling. He smiled wanly back.

"Let me help you to take your things off," she said.

And when they were in bed, her bed, with the windows open and the drawn blinds carelessly flapping, she seemed younger than ever. He knew that she would never change, never disappoint. She did not even need to be thought about.

"Laming," she said. "You know who loves you best of all."

He sank into her being.

His leg could be forgotten. The heat could be forgotten. He had sailed into port. He had come home. He had lost and found himself.

THE END

Table of Contents

1: Dennis Etchison - The Pitch

2: Stephen King - The Night Of The Tiger

3: Charles Saunders - Amma

4: Manly Wade Wellman - Chastel

5: Tanith Lee - Sleeping Tiger

6: Janet Fox - Intimately, With Rain

7: Jack Vance - The Secret

8: Charles L. Grant - Hear Me Now, My Sweet Abbey Rose

9: Darrell Schweitzer - Divers Hands

I

II

III

IV

10: Ramsey Campbell - Heading Home

11: Lisa Tuttle - In The Arcade

12: David Drake - Nemesis Plage

13: Michael Bishop - Collaborating

14: Robert Aickman - Marriage