The
lights came on, and I lost sight of the... The
lights came on, and I lost sight of the Perse - of
everything beyond the Florida room - in their
bright, no-nonsense glareI reached for the phone,
then stopped
There was a man in my kitchenHe was standing by
my refrigeratorHe was wearing soaked rags that
might once have been blue jeans and the kind of
shirt that's called a boat-neckWhat appeared to
be moss was growing on his throat, cheeks,
forehead, and forearmsThe right side of his
skull was crushed inPetals of bone protruded
832
through the lank foliage of his dark hairOne of
his eyes - the right - was goneWhat remained was
a spongy socketThe other was an alien,
disheartening silver that had nothing to do with
humanityHis feet were bare, swollen, purple, and
burst through to the bone at the
cartier santos 100 chronograph ankles
It grinned at me, lips splitting as they drew back,
revealing two lines of yellow teeth set into old
black gumsIt raised its right arm, and here I
saw what must have been another relic of the PerseOne old and rusty circlet was
clamped around the thing's wristThe other one
hung open like a loose jaw
The other one was for me
It emitted a loose hissing sound, perhaps all its
decayed vocal cords could produce, and began to
walk toward me under the bright no-nonsense
fluorescentsIt left footprints on the hardwood
floorI could hear a faint
creaking and saw it was wearing a soaked leather
belt - rotten, but for the time being, still
holding
A queer soft paralysis had come over meI was
conscious, but I couldn't run even though I
833
understood what that open manacle
watch replicas cartier meant, and what
this thing was: a one-man press gangHe would
clamp me and take me aboard yonder frigate, or
schooner, or barquentine, or whatever-the-hell-itwas
I would become part of the crewAnd while
there might not be cabin boys on the Perse, I
thought there were at least two cabin girls, one
named Tessie and one named Lo-LoAt least clock it one with the
phone, for Christ's sake!
But I couldn'tI was like a bird hypnotized by a
snakeThe best I could do was to take one numb
step backward into the living roomNow I was in the shadows
againIt stood in the kitchen doorway with the
white light of the fluorescents striking across
its damp and rotted face and throwing its shadow
across the living room carpetI
considered closing my eyes and trying to wish it
away,
fendi chocolate b mix bag but that wasn't going to work; I could smell
it, like a Dumpster behind a restaurant that
specializes in fish dinnersAnd -
"Time to go, Edgar
834
- it could talk, after allThe words were slushy
but understandable
It took a step into the living roomI took
another of my numb steps backward, knowing in my
heart it would do no good, that compensation
wasn't enough, that when it got tired of playing
it would simply dart forward and clamp that iron
manacle on my wrist and drag me, screaming, down
to the water, down to the caldo largo, and the
last sound I'd hear on the living side would be
the grating conversation of the shells under the
houseThen the water would fill my ears
I took another step back just the same, not sure I
was even moving toward the door, only
rolex watches discount hoping, then
anotherand a hand fell on my shoulder
vii
"What the fuck is that thing?" Wireman whispered
in my ear
"I don't know," I said, and I was sobbingLook out at the
Gulf, WiremanI don't dare take my eyes off it
But the thing in the doorway had seen Wireman now
- Wireman who'd come in through the open door just
as it had itself, Wireman who had arrived like the
cavalry in a John Wayne Western - and had stopped
three steps inside the living room, its head
slightly lowered, the manacle swinging back and
forth from its outstretched arm
"Christ," Wireman said"That ship! The one in the
paintings!"
"Go on," the thing said"We have no business with
youGo on, and you may live
"It's lying," I said
"Tell me something I don't know," Wireman said,
then raised his
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