The Fire Night Ball (22 page)

When the sky was pitch dark, the first bonfire of Christmas Fire Night was lit at Hatter's Field. With a roar of the crowd, the sulphurous flames leapt into the frigid air.

Next up was Mill's Creek, the juniper bonfire that was fairest of them all. It had been prepared singlehandedly by Apollo Nelson. He proudly set it off, then dutifully stayed in the shadows near the pond to take up a surveillance posture. The flames were reflected in the icicles glistening from the lower branches of the juniper, creating around the humble young man an aura of eternal brightness.

It seemed in keeping with his buoyant spirit. After a bit, Apollo took a lap around the pond to keep himself warm.

On the side of the pond nearest the house, the decorated millwheel was the crowd favorite. They stood transfixed as it rotated clockwise and the water softly splashed, a soothing sound which softened the grinding note of the mechanism.

Apollo checked its operation and then began a sharp lookout for small children wandering astray from the purview of their parents. He’d been charged by Annie to make sure no one fell into the fire, the water, or the mill wheel, so he had his hands full.

Foremost on his mind, however, was watching out for Marlena. She’d been looking dejected today, and he’d heard rumblings about her in the community, even as far afield as Bulette. He was troubled in his mind about her safety and dedicated to making sure nothing bad happened to her tonight.

Other young people were preoccupied with evading the watchful eyes of mothers and grandmothers. They slunk away into dark crevices of the mountain, near enough to the bonfires to enjoy the flames, far enough away so as not to be seen or heard as they made love.

At eight o'clock, the hostess entered the makeshift ballroom. At her signal, the Dewey Balfa Band started to play, opening with an homage to Clifton Chenier. Couples eagerly came forward from clustered chairs along the walls to sway to the music and dance.

Once the music was well underway, Chloe stopped at the bar to check in with her cousins. "Where's your mother?" she asked Marlena.

"Faith is out by the pond, presumably enjoying the bonfire. I'm having a rip-roaring time on the dance floor with my friends."

"Are you sure you're all right?"

Awful.
"Never better."

"I need to greet a few more guests--I don't know where they're all coming from! But then I'll be right back, Lena, I promise."

"Don't worry about me, darling. I'm in good hands."

As Chloe walked away, her mind remained on Marlena's expression, which looked tragic and forlorn despite her brave words.

Harry and Lila Drake hadn't yet shown their faces, so perhaps Marlena was disappointed by Harry’s absence.

Suddenly Ron appeared at Marlena's side, and she felt a thrill of pleasure when he said, "May I have this dance? They're uncorking a slow one."

"Certainly."

He added, "I would've been here sooner, but I needed to talk to two patients who are in labor at the hospital. There's a full moon tonight."

"Anything else going on?"

"Oh, the usual assortment of gunshot wounds, but so far no fatalities. I'll go in after midnight."
I'd prefer to go into you.

"Gunshot wounds?"

"Oh, you don't know." He then explained a tradition, dating back to pioneer days, allowing a public display of personal firearms on two days– Christmas Day and the Fourth of July. "Didn't you hear gunshots ricocheting off the mountain?"

"I thought it was firecrackers."

"Some here are packing."

"No!"

"Courtesy demands they check their firearms at the door. I saw a few in line."

"You're kidding! Don't they know what goes up must come down?"

I'm up every time I see you, my dearest love.
Ron agreed it was a dangerous tradition, that every year the local hospital entertained an assortment of merry-makers who didn't understand Newton's Law and were its hapless victims.

They were moving to a nice ballad, and she would have thoroughly enjoyed their dancing, if it weren't for all the malicious eyes following them as they waltzed around the dance floor, pressed together.

Despite this distraction, she felt herself physically attracted to the hardness of Ron's cock against her leg as they danced. Instinctively she pressed back, and then she rested her head on his shoulder.
God, this feels good; I wish the dance would last forever.

But the band was taking a break. The local D.J. came on and spun "Proud Mary," and then an eager circle of fruggers quickly formed. Marlena dispatched Ron to drag the lesbians into the circle. As the four commenced dirty dancing, heads flopping and hips grinding, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Harry and Lila Drake enter the room.

They were strolling toward the far end. On Harry's arm, Lila looked like a vision, more like the lady in the painting than ever before. Her dress had a gossamer sheen, and her taut breasts showed through the filminess; all she needed was a pair of leopards at her feet and a bowl of white roses in her arms to complete the picture.

Marlena felt an unusual lurch--was it jealousy, remorse, or something else?

"Are you all right?" Ron asked.

"Just another ghost sighting. Nothing to worry about."

Surely Harry would seek her out later.
But what if he continued to ignore her? She would die. Yes, she would surely die, if he delivered one more blow to her pride.

Around ten o'clock, as she glanced in their direction, she saw Harry was standing up. He bowed to another couple nearby, then strolled out of sight, probably to the bar.

She was wondering if she dare attempt to follow him and entice him upstairs, where they could talk privately.

"Ron, do you mind if I go and see if Chloe needs any help?"

"Sure thing. Right after this next number. Let's two-step. "

Ron whirled her around and then took a stab at the move. She couldn't help but laugh. Ron was terrible at two-stepping, but his heart was in the right place.

After the number was over, they retreated to a side wall, and Ron nudged her. Harry was now sitting nearby, with his back to them. Lila was gulping down her drink. They seemed to be quarreling. Lila stood up on wobbly legs, mouthed something at Harry, her lips curling, and then wandered off, drink in hand.

She and Ron returned to the dance floor. Harry promptly strolled over and tapped Ron on the shoulder.

"I hope you don't mind, Huddleston."

"Not unless the lady does," said Ron.

Then, looking at Marlena's face, he said quickly, "Now you mention it, I was just about to see if I could make myself useful to our hostess."

“Oh, you’re a darling, Ron,” said Marlena.

Her face grew quite pale as Harry gathered her in his arms.

Ron reluctantly left the floor. "Hang tough, Lena," he muttered, fighting his way to the crowd to get to Chloe. He was all too painfully aware of feeling territorial toward the beautiful damsel in distress, whose love Harry so richly didn't deserve.

Fifteen minutes later, the star-crossed lovers sat facing each other on Cassandra's bed.

"Your hair seems longer," Marlena observed sadly, tracing with fingers where Harry's black hair curled around behind his ears.

It made her depressed to think of all the failed opportunities during this week when they might have had this meeting, might have kissed and made up.

And now that the all-important moment was here, she was unclear on what she wanted to say to him, even what she wanted from Harry.

The line of incoming revelers showed no sign of coming to an end. Chloe was still greeting guests at the door when Ron came up alongside her and asked her if there was anything he could do to help.

"Well, some of these folks have brought their kids, and we don't want any of them straying off and falling into the pond. Would you be a darling and check how Apollo is doing with that situation?"

"Be glad to. I'll come back with a full report."

The borders of the pond were secure, Apollo told him, as was the bonfire at the far end of it on a knell that overlooked the town. But when he returned to Chloe's side, Ron did have a trouble report, though of a different and unexpected sort.

He’d happened upon a small group of people who were clustered near the mill wheel. In the flickering shadow of the turning wheel, he had spotted the Hawkers, man and wife. Hawker was outfitted in a loose pilgrim's coat, which overwhelmed his small frame. Letty was in pioneer garb, a heavy dress that covered her all the way to her beefy ankles.

When Ron had come up to the outer edges of the inner circle, he could hear they were taking turns loudly declaiming "the presence of the devil's whore in their midst" and "the drunkenness and debauchery that has been going on in this town, threatening the very fabric of our native society."

"I didn't invite the Hawkers," said Chloe wonderingly.

"Then they're loudest, most ballsy gate-crashers I've ever seen. Shall I go back out there, take him aside, and firmly suggest they leave?"

"Well, I don't know that would do any good. Attempting to throw them out would just make them holler all the louder. But, if you could alert Apollo to their presence, that would be a good precaution. He might have to round up more security on quick notice, in case they don't simmer down."

After dispatching Ron on his mission, she turned back to her oncoming guests, a continuous stream.

Where were all these people coming from? She’d invited over seventy, but it appeared the entire town was showing up at her doorstep. She was flattered, but soon there wouldn't be room for anyone to move.

She recalled what Marlena had told her, about how all great parties are very crowded ones, with nowhere to sit. Well, if that was the criterion, this one was turning out to be a huge success.

Still, she couldn't very well relax into her role of gracious hostess, worried as she was about her cousin's state of mind. She wished she had quizzed Ron on this subject.

At that moment, Ron again appeared at Chloe's elbow.

"Oh, you must be a mind-reader," said Chloe. "There's one other favor I need to ask of you."

"Anything, but I'm afraid there's one thing I have to tell you first."

"What is it?"

He spoke softly into her ear. "Faith is out there in the crowd listening to Letty, nodding her head in agreement to every word. I think she's unaware Marlena is Letty's actual target."

"Ye gods. That's not good. Let's both go see what Letty's up to."

Chloe shook one last hand, pulled on her snow boots, and took Ron's arm. They set off at a fast clip along a dirt path close to the house that was a shortcut to the millwheel by the pond.

Meanwhile, in the flickering light-and-shadow stage cast by the turning wheel, Letty Brown-Hawker was hitting her stride, galvanizing the growing crowd against the evils of liquor and loose women, warning them darkly that Satan and his legion had reappeared among them in the guise of prominence and beauty.

Her husband had begun his circumnavigation of the pond. It was his assigned mission to find Marlena Bellum and bring the slut before Letty to face her accuser--by force, if necessary. In his voluminous coat pocket Hawker carried a loaded firearm, which he had not checked at the door. Hawker was sure that at some point, Marlena would be drawn to the bonfire, witch that she was, so he hovered in its vicinity.

Hawker had no way of knowing that his intended prey, at this very moment, was safely sequestered in her bedroom with Harry.

Now that Letty had the audience mesmerized, she was making full use of their attention. Her voice grew louder as the crowd increased. And she’d just spotted Faith Bellum standing foremost among the gaping onlookers.

Letty knew who Faith was. She was first cousin to a known witch who had caused the deaths of several natives in the early part of the century. Faith was also the New Yorker who’d brought disgrace to a native family by leaving her child and imposing on an old woman to take care of the precocious brat. Finally, she was the mother of a modern witch, the precocious brat who had lived up to Letty's expectations of evil reincarnating itself and had shown herself to be Cassandra Vye reborn and Satan's red-haired whore. Marlena had even emblazoned Satan's name on the hotel masthead. If that wasn't enough, Faith's grand-child was Satan's spawn!

"MOTHER OF SATAN'S WHORE!" roared Letty, pointing a fat finger at Faith.

Faith looked around, her face alight with curiosity about the poor, quivering culprit, unaware it was she who was being addressed. When the other people had stepped away, she hadn't noticed. Her eyes were fixed on Letty, who was moaning and drooling as if in a trance. Now Faith was left alone in the shadowy circle, face-to-face with Mrs. Brown-Hawker.

Letty madly believed she was channeling a spiteful Native American by the name of Red Cloud
,
an Indian rightfully incensed about Harry Drake and his nefarious real estate deals with a scam artist known as "The Prince of Darkness."

From the sideline arose a loud cackle from Thomas Hawker. He had not yet succeeded in rounding up Marlena, so he had quickly returned in time to witness the crescendo of his wife's Act One.

"Speak out, Letty! Tell Faith what her daughter is! Speak of the CURSE!"

"YOU, THERE, WOMAN. THE SPIRIT OF RED CLOUD SPEAKS THROUGH ME. HE SAYS THE WHORE WHO IS CARRYING SATAN'S CHILD IS A MENACE TO THE COMMUNITY. GET THY DAUGHTER GONE FROM HERE! FLY, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE! THE CURSE OF GOODY BROWN LIES ON YOUR DAUGHTER AND HER EVIL SPAWN. GOD WILL PUNISH HER WITH TWO DEATHS TONIGHT UNLESS SHE LEAVES!"

The crowd murmured as Letty held her beefy hands over her turban and her head began to gyrate.

Faith was non-plussed. The medium seemed to be staring right at her. What was this all about? She now realized the crowd had stepped away, leaving her exposed. Instinctively, she put her brown plastic purse on the ground and readied herself for whatever might come next.

The wrath of Letty and her spirit continued to pour forth, thick as pitch, into Faith's reddening ears.

"MOTHER OF SATAN'S WHORE, DO YOU REFUSE THE WARNING OF RED CLOUD? REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO AID THE WITCH! RED CLOUD HAS SPOKEN TO GOODY BROWN IN THE AFTERLIFE. SHE SAYS THE CURSE RESIDES RIGHT HERE. TWO MORE DEATHS WILL BE LAID AT THE DOOR OF THE WITCH YOU SUCKLED AT YOUR BREAST. MARLENA BELLUM IS THE EVIL REINCARNATION OF CASSANDRA VYE! NATIVES OF ALTA, BEWARE!"

As if on cue, the ground rumbled beneath the hag's feet. Faith blinked her eyes and shifted her stance, but stood her ground.

"I SAY UNTO ALL, THE FRUIT OF FAITH'S WOMB IS THE DEVIL'S OWN SPAWN. FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, NO MAN, WOMAN OR CHILD IN THIS TOWN IS SAFE FROM THE EVIL THAT LURKS WITHIN HER DAUGHTER. TWO DEATHS ARE FORETOLD UNLESS SATAN'S WHORE LEAVES THIS TOWN TONIGHT!"

Seemingly overcome by the exertions of the spirit within, Letty abruptly sat down at the pond's edge, her legs splayed out under her voluminous, antique petticoats. She was oblivious to the proximity of the revolving mill wheel, though her head was only a foot away from the line along which it rotated.

A shadow crossed her line of vision, and she looked up, her sweaty forehead creased and her mouth drooping. The Bellum woman was standing over her, with face ablaze, fists clenched, arms akimbo, in a military striking pose.

"How dare you slander me and my daughter?" Faith demanded. "Who do you think you are? You don't speak for God, lady. You're a bully, a fraud, and a blasphemer. God loves and protects my daughter. He'll judge the likes of you!"

"Step aside, woman," said Letty sternly, but in a weaker voice than before. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

“Oh yes I do. I’m dealing with a slanderer!”

Letty struggled to stand upright, but the weight of her old-fashioned dress was so encumbering she couldn't do it. As Faith remained in her threatening posture, Letty slowly wiped her beet-red face, which was soaked with sweat, and then spat at her.

The crowd groaned, but Faith simply wiped her eyes and jutted out her chin.

Just then, the Wyoming wind, strong as a mule and random as a roulette wheel, came up and caught the frayed end of the long cloth that was wound as a turban around Letty's large head. As the wind picked up, the turban began to unwind on both ends; yards of fringed cloth were unraveling. When the wind suddenly veered, it whipped one end of the cloth around Letty's neck and the other straight into the mill wheel housing, where it rapidly spooled.

As if a hand had reached out and grabbed her, Letty was yanked backwards into the water. In a few seconds, she appeared in the air again, but now she was bald and floundering wildly, her angry face purplish, with a long scarf tightly wound around her neck.

Huskily she shouted: "Get this off me! Shoot her, Thom!"

But Thomas was out of earshot, having resumed his pursuit of Marlena at the bonfire. Thom wasn't there with his firearm when Letty needed his assistance, and she cursed her bad luck.

Then Faith leaped into the water and began to flail at the slanderer. The older, heavier woman took a few blows before recovering and rallying. She pushed back at Faith violently. But meantime she was sinking ever lower, and her turban continued to wind ever more tightly around her neck.

Ron and Chloe arrived just in time to see both Letty and Faith in the water under the revolving mill wheel, a few feet from the pond's edge. Faith with her military posture and her agility at first had the upper hand, but Letty butted her massive head into her opponent's stomach, taking the breath out of her, and then pounded her with her fists.

Behind them, the mill wheel, glittering with its string of lights, continued to pull the turban tighter. Letty didn't seem to notice the ribbon of cloth rewinding itself around her thick neck ever more tightly and rapidly as she continued to utter increasingly soundless curses.

"Marlena Bellum carries Satan's child! Red Cloud demands she leave, or he predicts two deaths on her head this very night!" Letty pulled Faith under.

Chloe screamed and Ron went rushing forward. Faith resurfaced, gasping, managed to clamber out of the pond, and then she fainted. The ground ominously rumbled once again.

Letty was lifted up bodily from the water and spun around twice, as though she were having a fit. She fell heavily backward into the water, with the entire length of the turban tightly wound around her neck. Then she dropped from sight.

A sudden hush came over the scene.

Onlookers later said it looked as though the pond itself had heaved Letty up into the air, which offered support for the contention that the cause of death was a supernatural force.

However, there was a perfectly natural explanation for the phenomenon: Alta Mountain was experiencing an earthquake along the fault line that underlay the defunct silver mines, the first such upheaval since 1947. And this was only the opening round of tremors.

Ron jumped into the pond after Letty went down for the last time. He continued diving into it, but to no avail. Her large, limp body was too heavy a weight for him to carry aloft. Then Apollo came running up and jumped in alongside Ron.

Between the two of them, they were able to lift Letty to the surface and then out of the pond, where Ron immediately began to perform CPR. Chloe had already called for an ambulance on a guest's mobile phone, but Ron told Chloe in a quick aside that the madwoman was dead, strangulated and drowned.

While Apollo spelled Ron in the futile attempt to revive Letty, Ron turned to Faith, who was dazedly struggling to get herself up.

"Stay right there, Faith, " Ron said in a commanding voice. "Don't get up. I'll be right back." He put Chloe in charge of Faith and ran to meet the ambulance stretcher-bearers.

There was a brief lull in the action and the sound of weeping. The bulk of the crowd had fled, fearful for their own lives.

Then, Chloe was startled to hear a woman's voice in her ear.

"One down and one to go."

"Lila?"

"She's better off dead, that old publicity hound," murmured Lila drunkenly to Chloe. "She's the victim of her own ridiculous curses. By the way, have the cute doctor check her underwear. SHE is a HE; you can bet on it. Amazing party."

Then Lila trailed off in her gossamer gown, cocktail in hand, looking like a ghost from the roaring twenties. Overhead, the gathering clouds were ever darker and lightning flickered.

What next? Chloe wondered. And where were Marlena and Harry? She had not seen either of them all night. Had they chosen this accursed moment to go off by themselves? Thank God!

Among the small group of onlookers who remained, there was a general sigh of relief when, a few minutes later, Faith was pronounced by Dr. Ron to be in good condition, other than scared out of her wits and with several bumps and bruises.

Letty's mottled face already wore the rigid mask of death. After Ron pulled a sheet over her head, signaling her official demise, Chloe whispered to him what Lila had said about SHE being a HE.

"One more surprise on an unprecedented night. Please take Faith into her room," Ron said to Chloe. "I'll be up in a minute to give her a sedative."