There's Blood on the Moon Tonight (85 page)

             
“It is what it is, Rusty…The tide has turned, son…The battle lost…You understand what I’m saying?”

             
Rusty’s eyes widened. “Y-yes, sir.”

             
“Good. Then be careful. Be
oh, so
careful. You know I love you, don’t you, son?”

             
“Of course. I love you too, Daddy. Is Momma—”

             
“Go topside, son. I need to talk to Bud alone.”

             
“Daddy—”

            
 
“DO AS I SAY!!!”

             
The boys flinched at the throaty roar coming through the hatch. Ham’s voice had begun to change, sounding ominously similar to Betty Anne’s guttural voice that morning.

             
Running blindly up the gangway, Rusty cried, stumbling every step of the way.

             
“Is he gone?”

             
Bud looked up at the empty hatchway above him. “Yes, sir. He’s gone.”

             
Ham hitched a sob. “O-okay. Have you tried to call in a May Day yet?”

             
“Yeah. And all we got for the effort was static. There’s a Coast Guard cruiser sitting right offshore. A whole bunch of ‘em, in fact. I don’t think they’re here to help us, though. Something’s up, Ham. Something
big
. I’m going to go get Bill, and then we’ll be right back with some help. Josie and Tubby went to go find Dr. Bidwell, to see about getting you and Mr. Tolson the vaccine.”

             
Silence.

             
“Ham? Did you hear what I said?”

             
“I heard you. It’s too late for a vaccine, son.”

             
Bud glanced up at the hatchway above him, to make sure Rusty wasn’t eavesdropping. He pressed his face to the door.
“What do you mean, it’s too late for the vaccine?”

             
“Mr. Tolson is dead, Bud.”

             
“Oh, no. That poor man. Oh, God. Shit, Ham! What the hell am I gonna tell Tubby?”

             
“Don’t tell him a thing! Not a
got
-damned thing! I don’t want that poor boy to know what happened down here. I’m sure he’ll imagine it all well enough. Bad enough he had to see his mother dead like that. Her head—”

             
Bud didn’t need Ham to draw him a picture. A similar bloody canvas was already hanging front and center in his head. “What about Betty Anne? Is she…”

             
“I put her to rest. She ain’t suffering no more.”

             
“I’m so sorry, sir.”

             
“I know you is. You’re a good boy, Bud. Been a good friend to my son all these years. To my goddaughter, too. You’re their only hope now. It’s over for me.”

             
“C’mon, Ham. Don’t say that! We can still help you! The vaccine will get you—”

             
“Hush! Rusty’ll hear you!
Now listen to what I have to say. You’re the strong one, Bud. In fact, you’re the strongest person I’ve
ever
known—and that’s saying something, coming from a
Huggins
. The way you carried yourself after seeing…Well, I never could’ve done that with my head held so high. Lord knows you’re going to need every bit of that strength in the days to come. That’s why I’m counting on you, Bud. You and your daddy! To take care of my boy and Josie. That’s the most important thing! And that Ralph boy, too, of course. Mercy, his
whole
family. I think Betty Anne give this bug to me yesterday, and already it’s working its evil on me. I’m thinking things no God-Fearing-man ought to
ever
think! Listen to me, Bud…I don’t want to end up like my wife…”

             
“I know that, Ham. That’s why a vaccine—”

             
“Even if there is a vaccine, I ain’t never heard of one curing rabies
after
the symptoms done start showing! I figure I got another hour or so before I start acting like some wild fool with no mind or will of its own. No sir, not
me
! You can’t save my life, son…but you can still save
me
.

             
“Just like I saved Betty Anne,” Ham finished.

             
“I don’t understand,” Bud said, knowing it was a lie. He understood Ham perfectly. 

             
“Go on down to the engine room and spill out that spare gasoline I bought in Wilmington—”

             
Bud backed up a step. “No, sir! I won’t do it!”

             
Rusty poked his head around the corner of the hatch at the top of the stairs. “Bud! What is it? What’s wrong?”

             
“Nothing! Go wait for me on the dock.”

             
“Bud—”

             
“GET THE HELL OFF THE BOAT, RUSTY!”

             
Bud sat on the stairs, listening to Rusty’s retreating footsteps. “Please, Ham.
Please
don’t ask me to do this.”

             
“You’re the only one strong enough. If I leave this cabin, I don’t think the engine room is where I’ll be going.”

             
“But the vaccine—”

             
“Shut up about that motherfucking vaccine! It was
me
that killed Frank! You hear me, boy!”

             
“No.”

            
 
“And I liked it
!
Dear God, please forgive me
…
I liked it!”

             
That voice again. Bud shivered. “O-okay, Ham…okay…But Rusty will smell the smoke even before I can get off the boat. I’ll have to beat him unconscious just to keep him from coming back on board.”

             
“You won’t have to set the fire, son. I wouldn’t ask that of you. I’ll do that from in here. I’ll give you fifteen minutes before I light the match. That’ll give me time to say my prayers and get right with the Lord. See if He and I can come to some understanding. Just let some of that gas run down the stairs to this hatch. Maybe run a trail to the fuel tanks, too. Leave the tanks uncapped. We’re standing right over the engine room, and the sooner the fire reaches it…the better it’s gonna be for me. If you get my meaning.”

Silence filled the next two minutes. Bud didn’t want to leave. For once he walked up those stairs his course would be irrevocably set.

“There ain’t no other way, son! Already I’m feeling the urge to get past this here door and…and…”

             
“And what, Ham? Hurt me?”

             
“It’s Josie I got my mind on! Do you hear me, boy? It’s my goddaughter
!
She’s on her monthly and I can smell it!
”

             
Bud stood there, stunned. That wasn't Ham. He didn't know
who
that was in there, but it sure as hell wasn't Ham. His skin broke out in a cold rash. Speaking of cold, Bud could see his breath in front of the door. As if he was standing inside of a walk-in freezer. “Ham? Is someone else in there with you?”

             
“You’ve got to protect her, Bud. She ain’t safe on Moon. None of you are. But especially that girl! And look after my boy! Promise me that, and my last moments on earth won’t be such an agony! Promise me, Bud!”

             
At last Bud relented. “All right. I promise you.” If Ham was willing to die, rather than risk hurting them (
Josie…It’s Josie he has his mind on
), then the least Bud could do was honor the man’s last wishes.  “I’ll do my best, sir. I’ll take care of Rusty. I’ll watch over them
all. To my very last breath, Mr. Huggins. You have my word.” 

             
Bud was heading up the stairs when Ham called him back. “I almost forgot! I got something I want you to give Rusty.” One of the louvered slats in the hatch started to bend upward and Ham’s thick fingers pushed through. Bud realized the only thing separating him from death right now was Ham’s indomitable spirit. If the big man had a mind to, that flimsy door wouldn’t stop him for a second.

             
In the blink of a bug’s eye it would all be over.

The sight of a necklace hanging from Ham’s calloused fingers broke this morbid musing. A silver dolphin pendant twinkled merrily at the end. It seemed to smile at Bud. “Give this to him, son. Tell him I’m sorry it had to be this way. Tell my little boy his parents loved him so. Lord, how we
loved him! Tell my boy to remember his momma for what she was…not that red-eyed
fiend
he saw in here today! That…that wasn’t his momma.

             
“I’ll tell him, Ham.” Bud took the necklace and tucked it deep into his pocket.

Ham’s fingers retreated into the dark. The louvers creaked back into place. The blood, it continued to drip…

                            *******

A few minutes later, Ham toyed with the pack of matches he’d found in Frank Tolson’s pocket.

                             
The Moonlite Drive-In:

             
    Where the Stars always come out at night!

             
                    (803) 555-SHOW

             
Ham turned off the flashlight and sat as far away from the bloody lump of sheets as he could. The linen, he’d pulled off the bed, sat puddled over Emma Tolson’s head, in the middle of the floor. To keep it still. That shit alone had been enough to drive him insane.

             
Betty Anne lay on their bunk, underneath a muslin shroud, her soul hopefully at peace now. Frank Tolson lay beside his poor wife, their terror at last over.

             
Ham sniffed the air.
Yes!
He could smell the petrol. Hear it, too. Running down the stairs. A dieselfall of salvation. Coming to set him free!
Lord, yes!
The gas began soaking into his pants. Cold. So very, very cold.

             
Lord, please hear my prayer…

             
He said his prayers until at last that deviant chill left his side. The strange crimson light, which had filled his eyes with that unnatural glow, it too was gone now. The Lord was with him. At least for a little while. It wouldn’t do to wait too long, though. Ham didn’t want to die with that other spirit clinging once more to his soul. Better to ascend to Heaven without that dark weight in tow. The cabin was once again humid and rank. It stank of diesel fuel and blood. The blood was the worst, though. Worse even than those nasty chum buckets his daddy used to slop from, whenever they went shark fishing. The way the blood would ripen and rot in the heat, until Ham would start to puke over the side of the boat.

             
Human blood, spilt in vast quantities, seemed even worse. He pulled a match loose from the book and set the head against the strike pad.
Not yet,
he thought.
Not yet
!
Don’t die with that unhappy thought in your head! Think back…think back to the best day of your life…

             
Ham closed his eyes and smiled, remembering that starry, starry night. Taking his best girl to the picture show for the first time. Knowing he’d found his
True Love
. For the life of him he couldn’t recall what was playing that evening.
All he could see was Betty Anne’s lovely face…

             
The match flared bright in the darkness.

             
                            *******

Right away they could tell something was wrong. Josie and Tubby hadn’t seen a soul since leaving their friends on the docks. They stopped at the corner of Town Hall Lane.

              From where they were, they could see the storm damage down along Main Street. Tubby pointed up the road. “Look, Josie! The marquee is gone!”

             
Sure enough, the beautiful, multi-bulbed marquee, which had once hung so proudly over the sidewalk, was literally gone with the wind. Jack had plucked it from the main building and taken it to parts unknown. Josie wondered if the clubhouse on top of the building had met the same windy fate. 

             
“Check out that sailboat in the middle of the road!”

             
“
The Wilky Way,”
said Josie.
“That’s the Wilky’s sloop. I sure hope they weren’t on it.”