The Talisman

warmth. He didn’t know what to do next. Confession was being held just down the hall, he knew, and that’s where he wanted to be – confession was safe, and here in the kitchen he felt very, very nervous – but Rudolph hadn’t dismissed them. Best to stay right here.
    ‘I heard someone,’ George said.
    Donny laughed: ‘ Hyuck! Hyuck! Hyuck! ’
    ‘Jesus, that laugh of yours barfs me out,’ George said. ‘I got a new Captain America funnybook under my mattress. If you take a look out there, I’ll let you read it.’
    Donny shook his head and honked his donkey-laugh again.
    George looked toward the door. Sounds. Scratching. That’s what it sounded like. Scratching at the door. Like a dog that wanted to be let in. A lost, homeless pup. Except what sort of lost, homeless pup scratched near the top of a door that was nearly seven feet tall?
    George went to the window and looked out. He could see almost nothing in the gloom. The Box was just a darker shadow amid shadows.
    George moved toward the door.
    8
    Jack shrieked so loud and so hard he thought that surely his throat would rupture. Now Casey had also joined them, Casey with his big swinging gut, and that was a good thing for them, because now it took three of them – Casey, Warwick, and Sonny Singer – to grapple with Jack’s arm and keep his hand applied to the flame.
    When Gardener drew it away this time, there was a black, bubbling, blistered patch the size of a quarter on the side of Jack’s hand.
    Gardener got up, took the envelope marked JACK PARKER from his desk, and brought it back. He brought out the guitar-pick.
    ‘What’s this?’
    ‘A guitar-pick,’ Jack managed. His hands were burning agony.
    ‘What is it in the Territories?’
    ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
    ‘What’s this?’
    ‘A marble. What are you, blind?’
    ‘Is it a toy in the Territories?’
    ‘I don’t—’
    ‘Is it a mirror?’
    ‘—know—’
    ‘Is it a top that disappears when you spin it fast?’
    ‘—what you’re—’
    ‘ YOU DO! YOU DO TOO, YOU FAGGOT HELLBOUND WHELP!’
    ‘—talking about.’
    Gardener drove a hand across Jack’s face.
    He brought out the silver dollar. His eyes gleamed.
    ‘What’s this?’
    ‘It’s a lucky piece from my Aunt Helen.’
    ‘What is it in the Territories?’
    ‘Box of Rice Krispies.’
    Gardener held up the lighter. ‘Your last chance, boy.’
    ‘It turns into a vibraphone and plays “Crazy Rhythm”.’
    ‘Hold out his right hand again,’ Gardener said.
    Jack struggled, but at last they got his hand out.
    9
    In the oven, the turkey pies had begun to burn.
    George Irwinson had been standing by the door for almost five minutes, trying to get up nerve enough to open it. That scratching noise had not been repeated.
    ‘Well, I’ll show you there’s nothing to be afraid of, chicken-guts,’ George said heartily. ‘When you’re strong in the Lord, there’s never any need to be afraid!’
    With this grand statement, he threw open the door. A huge, shaggy, shadowy thing stood on the threshold, its eyes blazing red from deep sockets. George’s eyes tracked one paw as it rose in the windy autumn dark and whickered down. Six-inch claws gleamed in the kitchen’s light. They tore George Irwinson’s head from his neck and his head flew across the room, spraying blood, to strike the shoes of the laughing Donny Keegan, the madly laughing Donny Keegan.
    Wolf leaped into the kitchen, dropping down to all fours. He passed Donny Keegan with hardly a look and ran into the hall.
    10
    Wolf! Wolf! Right here and now!
    It was Wolf’s voice in his mind, all right, but it was deeper, richer, more commanding than Jack had ever heard it. It cut through the haze of pain in his mind like a fine Swedish knife.
    He thought, Wolf is riding with the moon . The thought brought a mixture of triumph and sorrow.
    Sunlight Gardener was looking upward, his eyes narrowed. In that moment he looked very much like a beast himself – a beast who has scented danger downwind.
    ‘Reverend?’ Sonny asked. Sonny was panting slightly, and the pupils of his eyes were very large. He’s been enjoying himself , Jack thought. If I start to talk, Sonny’s going to be disappointed .
    ‘I heard something,’ Gardener said. ‘Casey. Go and listen to the kitchen and the common room.’
    ‘Right.’ Casey took off.
    Gardener looked back at Jack. ‘I’m going to have to leave for Muncie soon,’ he said, ‘and when I meet Mr Morgan, I want