Noveen said nothingJack, I thought,...
Noveen said nothingJack, I thought, looked
exhausted even though he hadn't moved at all
I answered for Noveen"Perse said, 'Try to get
rid of me again and the twins are just the
beginningTry again and I'll take your whole
family, one by one, and save you for last' Isn't
that right?"
Jack's fingers flexedNoveen's rag head nodded
slowly up and down
Wireman licked his lips
"Exactly whose ghost is it?"
"There are no ghosts here, Wireman," I said
"I don't know what he's been doing, amigo, but
he's done," Wireman said
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"Yes, but we're not I reached for the doll - the
one that had gone everywhere with the child artist
And as I did, Noveen spoke to me for the last time,
in a voice that was half hers and half Jack's, as
if both of them were struggling to come through at
the same time
"Nuh-uh, not dat hand - you need dat hand to draw
wit'
And so I reached chanel bags to buy fake out the arm I used to lift Monica
Goldstein's dying dog out of the street six months
ago, in another life and universeI used that
hand to grasp Elizabeth Eastlake's doll and lift
it off Jack's knee
"Edgar?" Jack said, straightening up"Edgar, how
in hell did you get your-"
- arm back, I suppose he said, but I don't know
for sure; I didn't hear the finishWhat I saw
were those black eyes and that black maw of a
mouth ringed with redAll these years she
had been down there in the double dark - under the
stair and in the tin box - waiting to spill her
secrets, and her lipstick had stayed fresh all the
while
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Are you set? she whispered inside my head, and
that voice wasn't Noveen's, wasn't Nan Melda's (I
was sure of that), wasn't even Elizabeth's; that
was all RebaYou all set and ready to draw, you
nasty man? Are you ready to see the rest? Are cartier santos demoiselle you
ready to see it all?
I wasn'tbut I would have to be
"Show me your pictures," I whispered, and that red
mouth swallowed me whole
How to Draw a Picture (X)
Be prepared to see it allIf you want to create -
God help you if you do, God help you if you can -
don't you dare commit the immorality of stopping
on the surfaceGo deep and take your fair salvage
Do it no matter how much it hurts
You can draw two little girls - twins - but anyone
can do thatDon't stop there just because the
rest is a nightmareDo not neglect to add the
fact that they are standing thigh-deep in water
that should be over their headsA witness - Emery
Paulson, for instance - could see this if he
1006
looked, but so many people aren't prepared to see
what is right in front of their eyes
Until, of course, it's too late
He's come down to the beach to smoke a cigarHe
can do this on the back chanel shopping purse porch or on the veranda,
but some strong compulsion has urged him down the
rutted road Adie calls Drunkard's Boulevard and
then down the steeper, sandy path to the beach
This voice has suggested his cigar will taste
better hereHe can sit on a fallen log the waves
have cast up and watch the after-ashes of the
sunset, as orange fades to tangerine and the stars
go blueThe Gulf will look pleasant in such light,
the voice suggests, even if the Gulf has had the
bad taste to mark the beginning of his marriage by
swallowing two of his beloved's little sisters
But there's more to watch than just a sunset, it
seemsThere's a ship out thereIt's an oldfashioned
one, a pretty, slim-hulled thing with
three masts and furled sailsInstead of sitting
on the log, he walks down the beach to where the
dry sand becomes wet and firm and packed,
marveling at that swallow-shape latest dior bag against the fading
sunsetSome trick of the air makes it seem as if
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the day's last red is shining right through the
hull
He is thinking this when the first cry comes,
chiming in his head like a silver bell: Emery!
And then comes another: Emery, help! The undertow!
The rip!
That is when he sees the girls, and his heart
gives a springing leapIt seems to rise all the
way to his throat before falling back into place,
where it dashes double-timeThe unlit cigar
tumbles from his fingers
Two little girls, and they look just the same
They appear to be wearing identical jumpers, and
although Emery should not be able to distinguish
colors in this dying light, he can: one jumper is
red, with an L on the front; the other is blue,
with a T
The rip! the girl with the T on her jumper calls,
holding out her arms in supplication
The undertow! calls the girl with omega automatic watches the