Free Crackpot Palace by Jeffrey Ford

vampires?”
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Mr. Cabadula and cocked the hammer of one of the pistols. “You watch too many movies.”
    â€œCome on,” said Darene. She put her arm around Luke’s back and pulled him down the altar steps and up the aisle toward the door.
    Out in the parking lot the air was so fresh. There was a ribbon of light at the horizon. A bird sang. They got into the black Mercedes. Darene started it and pulled out of the parking lot. Neither of them spoke, and Luke dozed briefly before the car eventually came to a halt. He opened his eyes and saw that she had driven them to the lake.
    They sat on a bench beneath the pines, facing the water and the dawn. He had his arm around her and she leaned against him.
    â€œThat was sick,” he said. “What’s with your family?”
    â€œDo you still love me?” she said.
    â€œI loved it when you spiked Gracie. You and your dad are like a circus act or something.”
    â€œThey teach you that when you’re a kid,” she said.
    â€œSo what’s with Sfortunado? He’s not gritchino ?” asked Luke. “I thought your father was going to ice him.”
    â€œRelax,” she said and brought her hand up to lightly trace, with the nail of her index finger, an invisible design on his forehead. Luke felt the tension leave his muscles. His eyes closed and a moment later he was asleep. When he woke with the sunlight in his face, Darene was gone, as was the Mercedes.
    Luke played sick on Monday and Tuesday and stayed home from school. He spent those days on the computer going randomly from one site to another or playing Need for Speed. The implications of the gritchino made him dizzy. He wanted to call Darene, or at least text her, but when he reached for his phone, the memory of her flying upside down and striking that nail into Gracie’s skull made her even more a mystery to him than the wind of eternity.
    When he did return to school Wednesday, he found out that Darene hadn’t been to class that week, either. He looked for her at all the times and places they’d usually meet on a school day, and asked around for her. By fifth period he knew she wasn’t there. He cut his seventh-period class and slipped out the side door of the gym. On the path through the woods, he smoked a joint. A half hour later, he stood in front of Darene’s house.
    The windows had been stripped of their curtains and the whole place was sunk in that eerie stillness of the vacant. There was a FOR SALE sign in the ground next to the driveway. “She’s gone,” he said aloud, realizing he wasn’t sure if it was for the best or the worst.
    Two nights later, Luke was awakened from a nightmare of the church by a light nudging at his shoulder. “Shhhh,” whispered a voice. At first he thought it was his mother who’d heard him crying out from his dream. He turned to see her, but instead saw a ghastly visage illuminated from beneath and appearing to be floating in the dark. Luke gasped, then groaned, backing up against the headboard.
    â€œFashtulina,” said the voice. The figure moved and the glow that had lit the face revealed itself to be a flashlight.
    â€œUncle Sfortunado?” said Luke.
    â€œWho else?”
    â€œWhat do you want?” asked Luke, turning on the lamp next to his bed.
    The old man came into view, wearing a long black coat and a beret. “Surprised to see me, gaduche ?” he said, turning off the flashlight and putting it in his coat pocket.
    â€œHow’s your leg?” asked Luke, trying to swallow.
    â€œThe wasp makes the eye cry out,” said the old man with a sigh. “That Gracie, she could bite.”
    â€œWhat are you doing here? Where’s Darene?”
    â€œI’m here to give you this . . .” Sfortunado reached his gloved hand into the breast pocket of the coat and brought out a thick roll of cash circled by a red