evil.
'Robert?' Miss Foley turned, calling through the dark blue always-falling beads of rain. She took Will's hand and gently pulled him inside. 'Come meet two of my students.'
The rain poured aside. A fresh candy-pink hand broke through, all by itself, as if testing the weather in the hall.
Good grief, thought Will, he'll look me in the eye! see the merry-go-round and himself on it moving back, back. I know it's printed on my eyeball like I been struck by lightning!
'Miss Foley!' said Will.
Now a pink face stuck out through the dim frozen necklaces of storm.
'We got to tell you a terrible thing.'
Jim struck Will's elbow, hard, to shut him.
Now the body came out through the dark watery flow of beads. The rain shushed behind the small boy.
Miss Foley leaned toward him, expectant. Jim gripped his elbow, fiercely. He stammered, flushed, then spat it out:
'Mr Crosetti!'
Quite suddenly, clearly he saw the sign in the barber's window. The sign seen but not seen as they ran by:
CLOSED ON ACCOUNT OF ILLNESS.
'Mr Crosetti!' he repeated, and added swiftly. 'He's. . .dead!'
'What. . .the barber?'
'The barber?' echoed Jim.
'See this haircut?' Will turned, trembling, his hand to his head. 'He did it. And we just walked by there and the sign was up and people told us - '
'What a shame.' Miss Foley was reaching out to fetch the strange boy forward: 'I'm so sorry. Boys, this is Robert, my nephew from Wisconsin.'
Jim stuck out his hand. Robert the Nephew examined it, curiously. 'What are you looking at?' he asked.
'You look familiar,' said Jim.
Jim! Will yelled to himself.
'Like an uncle of mine,' said Jim, all sweet and calm.
The nephew flicked his eyes to Will, who looked only at the floor, afraid the boy would see his eyeballs whirl with the remembered carousel. Crazily, he wanted to hum the backward music.
Now, he thought, face him!
He looked up straight at the boy.
And it was wild and crazy and the floor sank away beneath for there was the pink shiny Hallowe'en mask of a small pretty boy's face, but almost as if holes were cut where the eyes of Mr Cooger shone out, old, old, eyes as bright as sharp blue stars and the light from those stars taking a million years to get here. And through the little nostrils cut in the shiny mask, Mr Cooger's breath went in steam, came out ice. And the Valentine candy tongue moved small behind those trim white candy-kernel teeth.
Mr Cooger, somewhere behind the eye-slits, went blink-click with his insect-Kodak pupils. The lenses exploded like suns, then burnt chilly and serene again.
He swivelled his glance to Jim. Blink-click. He had Jim flexed, focused, shot, developed, dried, filed away in the dark. Blink-click.
Yet this was only a boy standing in a hall with two other boys and a women. . .
And all the while Jjm gazed steadily, back, feathers unruffled, taking his own pictures of Robert.
'Have you boys had supper?', asked Miss Foley. 'We're just sitting down - '
'We got to go!'
Everyone looked at Will as if amazed he didn't want to stick here forever.
'Jim - ' he stammered. 'Your mom's home alone - '
'Oh, sure,' Jim said, reluctantly.
'I know what.' The nephew paused for their attention. When their faces turned, Mr Cooger inside the nephew went silently blink-click, blink-click, listening through the toy ears, watching through the toy-charm eyes, whetting the doll's mouth with a Pekingese tongue. 'Join us later for dessert, huh?'
'Dessert?'
'I'm taking Aunt Willa to the carnival.' The boy stroked Miss Foley's arm until she laughed nervously.
'Carnival?' cried Will, and lowered his voice. 'Miss Foley, you said - '
'I said I was foolish and scared myself,' said Miss Foley. 'It's Saturday night the best night for tent shows and showing my