The Talisman

into quarters and I played all these different games like Pac-Man and Laser Strike until it was gone! That was money she had put away against the gas bill, and that’s how come for a while they turned off our heat!’ He blinked around at them. ‘And my brother got sick and had to go in the hospital up in Indianapolis with pneumonia! Because I stole that money!
    ‘That’s my confession.’
    Roy Owdersfelt sat down.
    Sunlight Gardener said, ‘Can Roy be forgiven?’
    In unison the boys replied, ‘ Roy can be forgiven .’
    ‘Can anyone here forgive him, boys?’
    ‘No one here.’
    ‘Who can forgive him?’
    ‘God through the power of His only begotten Son, Jesus.’
    ‘Will you pray to Jesus to intercede for you?’ Gardener asked Roy Owdersfelt.
    ‘Sure am gonna!’ Roy Owdersfelt cried in an unsteady voice, and tweaked the pimple again. Jack saw that Roy Owdersfelt was weeping.
    ‘And the next time your momma comes here are you going to tell your momma that you know you sinned against her and your little brother and against the face of God and you’re just as sorry a boy as ever there was?’
    ‘You bet!’
    Sunlight Gardener nodded to Andy Warwick.
    ‘Confession,’ Warwick said.
    Before confession was over at six o’clock, almost everyone except Jack and Wolf had his hand up, hoping to relate some sin to those gathered. Several confessed petty theft. Others told of stealing liquor and drinking until they threw up. There were, of course, many tales of drugs.
    Warwick called on them, but it was Sunlight Gardener they looked to for approval as they told . . . and told . . . and told.
    He’s got them liking their sins , Jack thought, troubled. They love him, they want his approval, and I guess they only get it if they confess. Some of these sad sacks probably even make their crimes up.
    The smells from the dining hall had been getting stronger. Wolf’s stomach rumbled furiously and constantly next to Jack. Once, during one boy’s tearful confession of having hooked a Penthouse magazine so he could look at those filthy pictures of what he called ‘sexed-out women’, Wolf’s stomach rumbled so loudly that Jack elbowed him.
    Following the last confession of the evening, Sunlight Gardener offered a short, melodious prayer. Then he stood in the doorway, informal and yet resplendent in his jeans and white silk shirt, as the boys filed out. As Jack and Wolf passed, he closed one of his hands around Jack’s wrist.
    ‘I’ve met you before.’ Confess , Sunlight Gardener’s eyes demanded.
    And Jack felt an urge to do just that.
    Oh yes, we know each other, yes. You whipped my back bloody.
    ‘No,’ he said.
    ‘Oh yes,’ Gardener said. ‘Oh yes. I’ve met you before. In California? In Maine? Oklahoma? Where?’
    Confess.
    ‘I don’t know you,’ Jack said.
    Gardener giggled. Inside his own head, Jack suddenly knew, Sunlight Gardener was jigging and dancing and snapping a bullwhip. ‘So Peter said when he was asked to identify Jesus Christ,’ he said. ‘But Peter lied. So do you, I think. Was it in Texas, Jack? El Paso? Was it in Jerusalern in another life? On Golgotha, the place of the skull?’
    ‘I tell you—’
    ‘Yes, yes, I know, we’ve only just met.’ Another giggle. Wolf, Jack saw, had shied as far away from Sunlight Gardener as the doorway would allow. It was the smell. The gagging, cloying smell of the man’s cologne. And under it, the smell of craziness.
    ‘I never forget a face, Jack. I never forget a face or a place. I’ll remember where we met.’
    His eyes flicked from Jack to Wolf – Wolf whined a little and pulled back – and then back to Jack again.
    ‘Enjoy your dinner, Jack,’ he said. ‘Enjoy your dinner, Wolf. Your real life at the Sunlight Home begins tomorrow.’
    Halfway to the stairs, he turned and looked back.
    ‘I never forget a place or a face, Jack. I’ll remember.’
    Coldly, Jack thought, God, I hope not. Not until I’m about two thousand miles away from this fucking pris—
    Something slammed into him hard. Jack flew out into the hall, pin-wheeling his arms madly for balance. He hit his head on the bare concrete floor and saw a tangled shower of stars.
    When he was able to sit up, he saw Singer and Bast standing together, grinning. Behind them was Casey, his gut pouching out his white turtleneck. Wolf was looking at Singer and Bast, and something in his tensed-down posture alarmed Jack.
    ‘No, Wolf!’ he said sharply.
    Wolf slumped.
    ‘No,