The Talisman

the one. You gonna do it.’
    ‘How’s my mom, Speedy?’ Jack asked. ‘Please tell me. She’s still alive, isn’t she?’
    ‘You can call her soon’s you can, find out she’s okay,’ Speedy answered. ‘But first you got to get it, Jack. Because if you don’t get it, she be dead. And so be Laura, the Queen. She be dead, too.’ Speedy hitched himself up, wincing, to straighten his back. ‘Let me tell you. Most everybody at the court gave up on her – gave her up for dead already.’ His face expressed his disgust. ‘They all afraid of Morgan. Because they know Morgan’ll take they skin off they backs if they don’t swear allegiance to him now. While Laura still got a few breaths in her. But out in the far Territories, two-legged snakes like Osmond and his gang been goin around, tellin folks she already dead. And if she dies, Travellin Jack, if she dies . . .’ He levelled his ruined face at the boy. ‘Then we got black horror in both worlds. Black horror. And you can call your momma. But first you has to get it. You has to. It’s all that’s left, now.’
    Jack did not have to ask him what he meant.
    ‘I’m glad you understand, son.’ Speedy closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the stone.
    A second later his eyes slowly opened again. ‘Destinies. That’s what all this is about. More destinies, more lives, than you know. You ever hear the name Rushton? I spect you might have, all this time gone by.’
    Jack nodded.
    ‘All those destinies be the reason your momma brought you all the way to the Alhambra Hotel, Travellin Jack. I was just sittin and waitin, knowin you’d show up. The Talisman pulled you here, boy. Jason. That’s a name you heard, too, I spect.’
    ‘It’s me ,’ Jack said.
    ‘Then get the Talisman. I brought this l’il thing along, he’p you out some.’ He wearily picked up the blanket, which, Jack saw, was of rubber and therefore not a blanket after all.
    Jack took the bundle of rubber from Speedy’s charred-looking hand. ‘How can I get into the hotel, though?’ he asked. ‘I can’t get over the fence, and I can’t swim in with Richard.’
    ‘Blow it up.’ Speedy’s eyes had closed again.
    Jack unfolded the object. It was an inflatable raft in the shape of a legless horse.
    ‘Recognize her?’ Speedy’s voice, ruined as it was, bore a nostalgic lightness. ‘You and me picked her up, sometime back. I explained about the names.’
    Jack suddenly remembered coming to Speedy, that day that seemed filled with slashes of black and white, and finding him sitting inside a round shed, repairing the merry-go-round horses. You be takin liberties with the Lady, but I guess she ain’t gonna mind if you’re helpin me get her back where she belongs . Now that too had a larger meaning. Another piece of the world locked into place for Jack. ‘Silver Lady,’ he said.
    Speedy winked at him, and again Jack had the eerie sense that everything in his life had conspired to get him to precisely this point. ‘Your friend here all right?’ It was – almost – a deflection.
    ‘I think so.’ Jack looked uneasily at Richard, who had rolled on his side and was breathing shallowly, his eyes shut.
    ‘Then long’s you think so, blow up ole Silver Lady here. You gotta bring that boy in with you no matter what. He’s a part of it, too.’
    Speedy’s skin seemed to be getting worse as they sat on the beach – it had a sickly ash-gray tinge. Before Jack put the air nozzle to his mouth he asked, ‘Can’t I do anything for you, Speedy?’
    ‘Sure. Go to the Point Venuti drugstore and fetch me a bottle of Lydia Pinkham’s ointment.’ Speedy shook his head. ‘You know how to he’p Speedy Parker, boy. Get the Talisman. That’s all the he’p I need.’
    Jack blew into the nozzle.
    3
    A very short time later he was pushing in the stopper located beside the tail of a raft shaped like a four-foot-long rubber horse with an abnormally broad back.
    ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to get Richard on this thing,’ he said, not complaining but merely thinking out loud.
    ‘He be able to follow orders, ole Travellin Jack. Just sit behind him, kind of he’p hold him on. That’s all he needs.’
    And in fact Richard had pulled himself into the lee of the standing rocks and was breathing smoothly and regularly through his open mouth. He might have been either asleep or awake, Jack could not tell which.
    ‘All right,’ Jack said. ‘Is there a pier or something out