Hunger and Thirst Page 5

  “What are they doing?”

  “Who knows. Let's go back,” she said.

  Jack checked behind them several times. The howling grew fainter with distance, but it did not stop.

  ....

  Natalie put a stack of three plates on the counter and slid a large covered dish next to them. Next to these, she fanned out three cloth napkins.

  “Cloth?” Jack said.

  She nodded. She was busy.

  He felt like he was just along for the ride, but with Natalie in the room, competence packed the air. He looked out the front window for the twentieth time. No one.

  “They're almost here,” she said quietly.

  “Very soon?”

  “Almost now.”

  “Besides being alert, anything else I should do?”

  “Be pleasant.”

  “I can be pleasant. Is it going to be hard to be pleasant?”

  “It might be.” She turned and had him in her arms before he knew it. “Be your normal beloved pleasant self.”

  “And everything will be all right.”

  “It will. You have my bones on it.”

  A fist banged on the front door and rattled the locked knob at the same time. “Anyone in there? Hey! Any one—!”

  Natalie opened the door with an understated flourish and a smile. Today, she had chosen to stun the strangers with white — white pants and a white man's shirt — which made her black hair blacker. “Yes?” she said politely, as though it were fifty years ago.

  The three of them gaped in silence.

  The man in front, the one who had shouted at the door, late twenties, wore a melange of clothing and a dirty brown cowboy hat. His face and body language did not indicate intelligence.

  “Whoa! Look here, civilized people!” He came inside; Natalie moved out of the way.

  Behind him followed a younger woman, in her twenties, in boots, gangly, in a shirt and pants, but wearing a very old and ragged cocktail dress over them.

  The third person to pass into the house was of indeterminate sex, taller and bigger than either of the others, and probably around thirty, wearing a desert cap with a neck flap. This person purposefully scanned the room upon entering and gave Jack a second look.

  “Please come in,” Natalie said, closing the door.

  The man circled the area with his arms out. “Waaooo! A kitchen! Waaooo! A fireplace! I bet you guys got beds! Like the old days! I see heaven! I see heaven!”

  “My name is Natalie.” She held out her hand.

  The man shook with her, but he was looking at Jack.

  “Howdy do.”

  “My name's Jack.” He offered his hand and the man shook it, squeezing very hard.

  “Good to meet you.”

  “Which way are you going? California?” Jack asked. He looked at the other two, but they were preoccupied by staring at Natalie.

  “This is quite a, quite a place. No broken windows. And it's really clean. Waaooo! Do I smell dinner cooking? I feel like I fell into a shit hole and it was filled up with dollar bills.”

  “Do you?” Natalie asked.

  “I do, I do. I went off the highway to take a crap and saw your windmill. I bet not one person in a hundred ever sees this place.”

  “How long have you been on the road,” Jack asked pleasantly.

  “Hey,” the man said to the scrawny blond, “you remember that place in Kansas City? Waaooo! They had a butt-load of food. Gasoline, a generator, lights! But it wasn't as clean as this.”

  “It was dirty,” the blond said.

  “I said that.”

  “Thank you for the compliment,” Natalie said, the brightest white, next the the three people in dusty rags. “I've fixed some lunch for you.”

  The three visitors focused their attention on her.

  “Food?” the man said. “You're offering us food?”

  “I'm giving you food,” Natalie said. “Roasted rabbit, a few vegetables.” She turned to the counter, uncovered the platter with the rabbit, and spread out the three plates beside the cloth napkins.

  The three of them converged on the rabbit and without a word, picked it apart with their fingers till it was stripped to bones. They didn't eat like savages, but they ate like intent hungry people, determined that nothing edible should remain. They ate from the sauce pans with the serving spoons, handing the pans from one to the other after a few bites.

  Jack and Natalie stood aside and watched till the visitors finished feeding.

  After wiping their hands on their clothes, they found the napkins and dabbed their mouths with them.

  “Man! What a feed!” He was followed by the blond to the sofa, where they both fell back on it. The other person, the biggest one in the room, stood aside, observed, and said nothing.

  Jack sat on the hearth. Natalie stood near him. “Where are you headed?” Jack asked.

  “Who says we're headed anywhere?”

  “Well,” Jack said, “if you weren't headed anywhere, were you just standing around?”

  “Ha ha. Maybe we was going east.”

  “Maybe you was,” Jack said.

  “Do you have anything to trade?” Natalie asked.

  The man did a giggle and slid his hand between the blond's thighs. “Only our good looks.”

  The blond ignored everyone and went slack, as though her bones had gone soft. She tilted her head back and let her mouth fall open.

  “She your girlfriend?” the man asked Jack, nodding at Natalie.

  “Yes. Is she your girlfriend?”

  “I found her back a ways. You can use her if you want. I trained her. Your woman idden near as bony as mine.”

  “I eat well,” Natalie said. Jack saw that her eyelids hooded her eyes.

  “I bet you do. She eat good?” he asked Jack. “Yuk yuk.”

  “You have a brother named Hewitt?”

  “What the fuck kinda question is that?”

  “Just trying to be pleasant. Someone I met on the road.”

  “Well, you just make me tired. We want to turn in. Where do we sleep?”

  “You can't sleep here,” Natalie said.

  “Say what?”

  The blond's eyes snapped open; she seemed to have bones again, but now no one moved.

  “I'm sorry,” Natalie said. “I thought you were asking where you could sleep in my house. You're not sleeping in my house. Did I misunderstand?”

  The blond looked at the man with big eyes. “We could sleep here?” She was incredulous.

  “Shut up,” he said to her. He looked up at Natalie, his face a rigid sneer. “Lemme get this. We been travelin' for months, sleepin' in dirt, and now, you with this house, you tell us, 'Not in my house.' Put us out like dogs? Like trash?” He was standing up now, waving his arms. “You know what it's like out there — people kill you for a blanket, and you got all this and you tell us to go sleep in the dirt again?” He was outraged. To Jack he said, “You stand there and let the skinny bitch talk for you? She wear your balls around the house?”

  “You should sleep warmer with the meal you just had,” Jack said pleasantly.

  “Really? Really! You think I'm gonna sleep warm? You're right, nutless, I'm gonna sleep warm because I'm going to sleep in here, in your bed, in your woman.” He came nearer Jack. “And my filthy part's gonna sleep at her body temperature.”

  The big person seized Natalie from behind, a thick arm around her neck and a pen knife poised next to Natalie's right eye.

  “I can-not-be-lieve, how easy this is! Damn it! Are we that good?”

  The blond woman on the sofa whipped her head back and forth, keening, “Can't you just stop shoving and stabbing people, why do we always—”

  The man had taken a step back and gave her a swift kick in the calf. “Shut up or I'll sell you to the Leks for meat.” He went toward Natalie. In a surprisingly swift move, he had taken the other person's knife with one hand and swung Natalie around in a hammer lock. He pressed the point against her sternum. A sm
all red spot seeped into her white shirt, yet Natalie showed no alarm.

  At the same time, the blond woman began yammering again. “Look, see, you could do it to her and Jack could do me and Who's-it could do whoever, and we'd all get along, see? We could all get a—”

  Their friend took three long steps across the room, grabbed the blond woman by the front of her ratty clothes and slammed her against the wall hard enough that they heard a picture fall in another room.

  After a moment of silence, the blond slid to the floor.

  “Well, now. It's partner assignment time. I get this one, and you, dude, you get that one.”

  The big person grinned at Jack. The teeth were so gray they could have been painted. The person pulled on black gloves with metal-tipped knuckles. From a cargo pocket, one gloved hand pulled out a collapsible baton.

  The red spot on Natalie's chest had started to elongate. The man said, “Even I don't know if that's a man or a woman, maybe you find out, but from what I do know, you'll look at tomorrow with a totally different point of view.”

  “Can't we, can't we just be quiet for a change?” the blond whimpered from the floor.

  “We are, honey. We are. Everything's been settled. It's the misunderstandings in human relationships that cause all the trouble in the world, and I just eliminated those pesky misunderstandings. See? All figured out and settled.”

  When Jack turned his focus from the metal-tipped gloves and baton back to Natalie, she was looking at him — then she glanced at the finger bones on the table near him, within easy reach.

  “It's gonna be so much fun learning to be friends, doin' you up and down, topside and back, whichever way I can make you bend.” To Jack he confided, “Your young lady is very calm, considering, but maybe she's feeling a little hint—” (He pushed into her.) “—of what a big surprise she's got coming.” He licked her hair over her ear. “As for you, I don't think you're going to have any fond memories.” He yukked at that. “Of anything.”

  When the big person moved toward Jack, he dodged sideways, snatched up the finger bones and slung them in an arc at the three intruders.

  The three of them froze in position, as though they had been netted, except for their eyes, which went huge and wide and darted between Jack and Natalie.

  Natalie picked the knife from the man's hand with her thumb and forefinger. Then she stepped away, turned, and examined him, a specimen.

  “What happened?” Jack said. “What did I do?”

  “You saved our lives, I'd say. As I knew you would.” Natalie carefully gathered up her bones.

  As the three captives struggled, their arms and legs were pulled more tightly to their bodies. They squirmed and mewled on the floor, ending up in fetal positions.

  “I thought they'd only work for you.”

  Jack had gone over to her and opened her blouse to see her wound.

  “It's nothing. Maybe what I do is rubbing off on you. Probably ruined the blouse.” She rebuttoned it.

  “What do we do with them now? If we turn them loose, they could come back.”

  “Even if they don't come back, we can be sure the next people they meet, or the next, they'll do to them what they were going to do to us.” Natalie squatted down in front of the man and spoke into his face. “We fed you, we didn't poke you with sticks or step on you, and in return you were going to use us for your fun until we died. For your fun.”

  The man tried to shake his head; he made desperate noises but couldn't open his mouth.

  “Animals kill for food. You were going to kill us on a full stomach.” Natalie gazed impassively at him. Then in an almost serpentine movement, she craned her head down till her face was inches from his. “You lose,” she whispered.

  The man shivered with exertion, trying to force his way out of what held him. All three of them whimpered in long high-pitched squeaks.

  Natalie picked up the baton and dropped it into her pocket.

  “I don't want to hear you anymore. You ate with your hands, none of you said 'Thank you' for what you ate, and then you promised to rape your hostess.”

  Jack heard something different in her voice.

  “Natalie....”

  Icily, she said to Jack, “Don't ever ask me to do something that might cause you harm. I'm not going to risk your safety or let these... humans... give the highway near me such a bad reputation that I'll end up going hungry. To think, these people came into my house—”

  Faster than Jack could think, Natalie had the baton out, extended, and brought it down in a slashing blow on the man's jaw. The man's lips had been sealed by whatever the bones had done, but blood squirted then sprayed out his nose. His jaw had a different shape.

  “How many people have you three killed already?” Natalie demanded, even though they couldn't speak. Jack had never seen her angry. “How many? Four? Fourteen? Forty?”

  She reached behind her for the finger bones and then quickly dropped them on the leather disk.

  “Nine. They've only killed nine people, Jack. Should we cut them loose with their promise to be not to kill a tenth?” Natalie looked at him a moment, all the tension went out of her, and she tossed the baton over on the sofa. She put her arms around his neck. “Okay. We'll be nice guys. We'll split them up and throw them back. Your mother would be pleased.”

  “If we have to kill people in order to live here, in order to live happily....”

  “It would be an ugly price.”

  “It would be.”

  ....

  The blond woman and the indeterminate companion lay on the floor, on their stomachs, hands and ankles tied, with a single line tied to the wrists, looped around the ankle ties, and then once around the neck. Any hand or leg movement would choke them; they lay motionless.

  It was evening, three candles around the room, and only Jack sat watching over them. Natalie had taken the man out to the road over an hour before. He was damaged enough they suspected he would be dead of infection in a week. The plan was that Natalie would accompany him in one direction down the highway and then send the other the other direction. The blond woman didn't seem a huge danger to anyone, so they would just turn her loose.

  Jack started at the noise at the door, but it was Natalie, already inside. “Okay, that's one. He was so happy to get away from me, he even said thank you. What a guy.” To the blond woman, she said, “He's stupid and cruel and he runs like a girl. I can see why you find him appealing.”

  “I don't like your being out there at night. Let me take this one.” He indicated the big person. “You can rest for a bit.”

  “No, no. I know the land a lot better than you do, especially at night. You can take that one out and shoo her away. Let her keep her shoes. I want her to do some traveling.”

  Natalie took the man's pen knife and held it in front of their big friend's face. Natalie cut the ankle rope and the tie-line and gave the person a hard kick below the ribs. “Stand.”

  Still gagged, hands still tied behind in the back, the person struggled to get on both feet and stand up.

  Jack wasn't quite sure what he saw but he thought he saw Natalie in one place, and then she was another, up against the big person. One of Natalie's hands in the small of the person's back, and the other holding the pen knife tip-deep, no blood, just under the person's right eyeball.

  Natalie whispered, “Don't fuss with me.”

  The big person's head shook No-no-no.

  “If I see you after tonight, I'll cripple you and tie you out for the dogs.”

  No-no-no.

  Natalie was away from her in an eyeblink. She picked up the baton and tossed it to Jack. “Take that one out to the highway in half an hour. Beat her if she gives you the slightest reason.”

  “Which direction should I send her.”

  “It doesn't matter. Either way, she won't last a week. She's too stupid to live.”

  She opened the door for her captive, the big person, who staggered out into the darkness.

  “I
'll see you in an hour,” she said over her shoulder and closed the door behind her.

  Jack gazed at the blond woman on the floor. She stared at him with wide dark eyes and whimpered through her wet gag.

  He wondered what, for her, would be merciful?

  ....

  The little moonlight was enough to see their way around to the highway. Still gagged with her hands tied behind her, the blond woman scuffed in front of Jack, sobbing and whimpering. At the highway, Jack cut her hands free. She threw off the gag and immediately began talking.

  “Don't, please don't make me leave. I never been alone in my life! Please help me! We could still be friends. Everything was all their ideas! I never did nothing! Did I? I never did nothing!” When she stepped toward him, he poised the baton over his shoulder, like a batter.

  “But I don't have no food, no water! I'll die out here! Please save me, mister! What did I ever do to you? I got hooked up with some bad people and they used me! Both of 'em used me and beat me. I got bruises all over — look.”

  Jack pulled a plastic liter bottle of water out of his jacket and tossed it to her. “You're on your own.”

  “I'll do whatever you want! I'll be your slave, anything, the rest of your life! I'll live outside like a dog!” She dropped to her knees. “Just don't leave me out here to die!” she bawled at him.

  “Stand up.”

  “Just kill me here.... Kill me now....”

  Jack wondered what Natalie would do. Probably break her neck and walk away.

  “What's your name?” Jack asked. He had to repeat the question several times, and louder, to get her to hear.

  “Brigit,” she finally said.

  “Brigit, if you get up and walk, I'll walk with you a while. If you don't get up, I'll knock your brains out with this and leave you here for animals.”

  She slowly got to her feet. She boo-hooed shamelessly, pathetically, but she began walking, arms limp at her sides and her head thrown back. Jack asked her a few questions — how old was she, where had she been — but all she said was variations on

  “You're making me die! I'm gonna die out here and you don't even care!”