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CHAPTER ELEVEN
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Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER TWELVE1TOMMY TRUITT’S RAMSHACKLE little house had no front porch steps. They had disintegrated into nothingness over the years. This is what Richard noticed first about the place, and the way the whole structure leaned. Just a pinch to one side.“Didn’t know I’d be renting a lean-to,” joked Tom as he showed him around, “when I read the ad in the paper. Woops . . . renting with option to buy, make that.” Truitt hopped up onto the porch with the ease of someone who’d done it countless times, offering a hand back to Richard and helping hoist him up over the space where the stairs should have been. “I’ll get to that one of these days.”Richard nodded. His friend lived alone out here, so the house was sparsely furnished: an opened sofa bed in the living room surrounded by various used, thrift-store items, obligatory big-screen TV on a stand against the wall, some rickety chairs circling an old cottage drop-leaf table in the kitchen.A tattered color photograph of Kyoko was at
Blackwater Val CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER THIRTEEN1JULIAN EXCUSED HIMSELF and was at last able to slip away inside his church. He needed solitude, just a brief respite from their tedium and banalities before the commencement at hand: the setting in motion of it all—faith against doubt, and everything that would follow. Besides, William Salt would occupy them, keep them assuaged with food and drink until he returned.He made his way slowly, achingly, feeling the corrosions of his own body, the shrinking of his bones. Each day he applied the pepperwort and menthol for their deep heating attributes, but they did little good. This vessel was at its end, was breaking down and deteriorating with every step he took—twice already had the heart stopped beating, once upon the operating table during a routine knee replacement procedure and once while shoveling snow from the front walkway of Nain Trinity Lutheran. Twice he had waited patiently, hidden within, prepared to abscond and move on to another if necessary, and twice
Blackwater Val CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN1“ROBERT PLANT,” began Richard, tilting his Michelob. His friend leaned, clinking his bottle to Franklin’s. “Planty,” Tom Truitt said and they took respective drinks.Katie was fine. When he called the house, George had put her on and she was doing fine. She told him of her day so far, how Granna had fixed her hair, doing it up with clips and a polka-dot bow, and of the games they’d played and the cartoons they had watched. She told of the food they were having: the grilled chicken George was fixing, and macaroni salad, and the tray of assorted vegetables and dip.A menu devised by Glee, no doubt.He talked a bit longer with her—at one point she held the receiver to Blondie’s ear so he could say hello to her, too—and, once Richard’s mind had been put at ease, he told Katie he’d be there soon. By the time he had hung up, sliding the cell phone back into his pocket, Tommy was outside again with two more Michs. Richard mentioned catching that string of Zeppelin trac
Blackwater Val “THEY POISON THE HEART”
“THEY POISON THE HEART”by Michelle Brooke Deadmond(an excerpt)Those that bled out and died quickly were among the lucky, they who never knew what hit them. All up and down the Mississippi near the mouth of Bad Axe River their frantic drums sounded. No one came, though, no allies rose to the call—promises of British assistance were not kept. Even when a second white flag of surrender was hoisted in desperation, the slaughter continued unabated, insatiably. Thus had begun the~~ Fugue ~~History tells us there were numerous other skirmishes leading up to this, before the end came for them at the Battle of Bad Axe that summer. In May of 1832, appointed war chief Black Hawk and his dwindling band of followers scored a surprise victory over drunken, attacking, and then abruptly fleeing soldiers at Old Man’s Creek, in what would shamefully come to be known later as Stillman’s Run.This spark ignited the fire, and the Black Hawk War was on.It’s said that a green, 23-year-old captai
Blackwater Val CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN1“WHAT’S THE STORY, boys?” said Chief Priewe. “Everything all right?”“Everything’s great,” Tommy answered, emptying his bin into the recycling dumpster. “No stories here. Might want to try the library there, Chip.”Priewe went a light shade of red, standing next to his cruiser. Rich and Tom had decided to run the bottles and cans down to the drop-off lot, near the exit road across from Aubel Farms. They took Richard’s Blazer, and no sooner than they’d pulled into the lot—wouldn’t you know it—reliable old Chief of Police Prick-we had steered right in behind them and gotten out, adjusting his mirrored sunglasses. Just like a bad penny, Tommy had time to think.“That your bin, Tom?”Truitt shook the items out and dropped the blue plastic bin to the ground, slamming the dumpster lid closed. “No,” he said, irritated, “my friend came all the way from Maine so he could dump his recyclables—you got us.” He laughed. “Whose do you think it is?”“Easy, Thomas. Don’t get e
Blackwater Val CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN1NAIN TRINITY LUTHERAN’S chapel was filled and Glee Deadmond had them in the palm of her hand. Studio lights on tripods illuminated her, while a camera operator kept her in frame, directed by a second man in a white short-sleeve shirt and tie. There was a hanging backdrop of crushed muslin with the words THE GLEE CLUB—WE ARE UNANIMOUS IN THIS! emblazoned in gold, and Glee wore a wireless mic clipped to her lapel so she could move about unencumbered before it.To one side of this was the brightly lit oratory, the church’s choir at attention within. They had opened services with a hymn: “All the Earth Will Sing for Joy”, and Richard recognized the leggy young girl with the yellow ten-speed from yesterday as one of the satin-robed singers.Glee spoke with a natural ease, addressing the congregation as if accustomed to doing so her entire life. She had started off haltingly, gaining steam as she engaged them on the necessity of healthcare for seniors, and local job gro
Blackwater Val CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN1THEY WHEELED THE dead baby out at exactly 6:41 PM; Richard knew this because he was glancing at his watch when he heard the sound of the serving cart, and looked up.Wheeled him out on a metal serving cart, he would later think, appalled. My sweet God . . .Before this happened the Reverend had stood silent for a time, eyes closed in meditation, his palms pressed together, fingers pointing like little church steeples. The rest of the assemblage shuffled their feet and fidgeted impatiently, some of them coughing into fists. When he opened his eyes and began to speak, Richard jumped.“Welcome, everyone. We’ve all been acquainted—at one time or another—with the expression ‘culling the herd’, have we not?” A few nods came, some muttered affirmations. “But what does this mean, precisely: an eradication of the sick? Does it mean reducing the parasitic overpopulation? Getting rid of those too frail and weak among us, perhaps, as your forebears once did right here in B
Blackwater Val CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN1“WELL?” ASKED RICHARD from where he crouched in Deadmond’s front yard.“Don’t know,” said Tommy honestly. “Never seen anything like that in my life, man. Maybe I need to hit church more often.”Richard had resigned to staying the night at George and Glee’s, so here they were. Otherwise, Katie and he would be out at the motel now, for sure. “Something wasn’t right about it. Not right.” He chewed the tender inside lining of his cheek, staring at a gruesome Latex lawn zombie which sprouted from the neighbor’s darkened yard across the street.“Nope,” Tommy agreed, hands stuffed into his pants pockets against the chill.They had been outside the Deadmond home for half-an-hour or so, hashing over what had happened, the resurrection they’d witnessed. Richard couldn’t shake the feeling it was no miracle, but instead, that—like the rubber zombie rising up across the street—what they had seen in the church was more than just unnatural. Unclean, was a word that leapt to m
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- Blackwater Val EPILOGUE
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
- Blackwater Val “THEY POISON THE HEART”
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
