Heartfelt murmurs of "Amen" echoed throughout the crowd of men and women gathered in the darkness.
The preacher looked toward the church where, faintly, he could hear the sound of hammering.
Three more days.
It was going to be glorious.
Sue sat on the floor of her grandmother's room, her nostrils filled with the mingled scents of ginseng and chrysanthemum. It was nearly dawn. John and her parents would be up soon. Although she and her grandmother had been talking since they'd returned from the police station, Sue did not feel the least bit tired. In many ways, she felt more awake than she ever had.
She'd learned a lot this night. Legends and facts and the connective bridges between the two. The tales and truths her grandmother told her she would have dismissed two months ago, cringing with embarrassment at the old woman's uneducated backwardness. But, since then, her attitudes had changed, her mind was not as closed as it had been, and she knew that there was nothing her grandmother could say that she would not believe.
For the past two hours, the old woman had been lying on her bed, eyes closed, but now she sat up, turning to look at Sue. "Are you a virgin?" she asked.
Sue stared at the carpet, at her toes, anywhere but into the eyes of her grandmother. Her face burned with the heat of embarrassment, and she found that she could not answer the question.
"Have you had sex?" her grandmother asked gently.
Sue knew her answer must be important, knew that it had to have some relevance to the cup hugirngsi, but still she could not meet her grandmother's eyes. "Not really," she said.
"You have not accepted or tasted the seed of a male?" Tasted? Was this her grandmother speaking? Sue shook her head quickly, not looking up, wishing she was anywhere but here.
"Good," her grandmother said, touching her head.
"You are the second of the seven." "Who is the first?" Sue asked. "I am."
"And the others?
"I do not know. Perhaps the mirror man, perhaps the policemam" "Pee Wee and Robert? What about Rich, my editor?" Her grandmother's gaze darkened. "No."
A wave of cold washed over her. Sue nodded, wanting to ask why but not daring to question her grandmother's wisdom. "What about Father?" she asked. She felt guilty for the way her parents, her father in particular, had been pushed aside during this whole affair. It did not seem right, and she felt that despite the communication problems her parents had, both in their family and among other people, it was only right that they should share center stage with her grandmother and herself.
"No," her grandmother said.
Sue stared again at her feet, licked her lips. "Why is it important that I am... a virgin?" She had a tough time even saying the word.
"What if I had not been?"
"It would make no difference."
Now Sue looked up at her. "Then why did you ask?"
Her grandmother smiled slightly. "I just wanted to know."
Sue blinked dumbly, then started to grin. Tasted? In the midst of all the horror, in the middle of the craziness, this struck her as funny.
And for the first time since the beginning of this long, long night, she began to laugh.
Rich awoke to feel a hand on his penis, fingers firmly grasping his shaft as a thumb rubbed the sensitive area directly below the tip' trying to stimulate him" He pened morning," up his eyes, looked at Corrie, pulled away, out of her grasp.
"Not this he said. "I don't feel to it."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "I just don't. I'm not in the mood."
Corrie glared at him. "Who've you getting it from then, that Oriental slut?"
"What?"
"Has she been servicing you, your big white studlil'less?" "What the hell are you talking about? You're the one who never wants to do it anymore. You're the one who's been acting for a month like sex is something good Christians don't do."
"Yeah? Well, I want it now."
"Well, I don't."
"Why? Aren't you man enough?"
He rolled over, faced away from her. "I'm not going to listen to---"
"Or did little Miss Hong Kong Whore suck it all out of you last night?"
He sat up. "That's it. I've had enough of your bullshit."
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" There was a malicious smile on her face, cruel derision in her eyes, and he thought to himself that this was not Corrie, this was a person he did not know.
Anna was already awake and watching cartoons, and he forced himself to put on a cheerful front as he made breakfast. Corrie came out, already dressed for work, as he was wiping egg yolk from Anna's face with a washcloth.
"Hi, Mommy," Anna said. There was a formality to her voice that seemed unusual, and Rich looked at her.
Corrie smiled at her daughter, pulled back her hair, kissed her forehead. "Morning, cutie"
Anna wiped off the kiss, frowned.
"I'll take you to school, but Daddy'll have to pick you up, okay?"
"I want to go with Daddy," Anna said.
"You go with your mother," Rich told her.
Ii
Anna said nothing.
Corrie straightened, fixed Rich with a flat gaze. "I may be late tonight. Don't wait up."
Rich tossed the washcloth in the sink, He looked at her, frowned. "I want you to be careful."
She appraised him coolly. "You don't think I can take care of myself?
"It's not that."
"What is it, then?"
"I'm worried about you. I care. I'm concerned." "Oh. So dictating what I do shows concern." "I just said be careful."
"I can take care of myself. I'm in better shape than you are. At least I get out and exercise. All you do is sit in front of that damn computer all day." "You're not in better shape than Manual Torres or Terry Clifford."
She turned away from him. "Fine."
Rich turned to Anna. He bent down, gave her a light tap on the rear.
"Go brush your teeth," he said.
Mommy is getting ready to go." Anna hurried down the hall, and he again faced Corrie. "Why are we even fighting?" "Because I don't like the way you treat me."
"The way I treat you? There've been all these murders here, so I tell you to be careful, and you jump down my
"I don't like your condescending attitude."
"Go to hell." He walked into the kitchen, grabbed his and Anna's plates from the counter, and placed them in the sink.
Corrie started down the hall, "Don't take it out on me because you can't perform your manly duties," she said sweetly She smiled daintily at him as she went to get Anna.
Things were different at the paper. Especially in the early afternoon.
As he sat at his desk, proofreading the account of the council meeting he'd written, he glanced over at Anna and Sue, talking together at the far desk, and smiled. Being here with them, it felt almost as though they were a family. There was that same sort of easy naturalness, that comfortable familiarity. It was a very different feeling than the one he experienced with Corrie. When he, Corrie, and Anna were together, it was like the meeting of two single parents sharing joint custody of their child. There was none of the sense of togetherness that had once marked their relationship or which now characterized his relationship with Sue.
Maybe Corrie was right. Maybe they should have left, gotten out of town, blown this burg. Maybe they would have had a chance someplace else.
Were his loyalties to this town, to this newspaper, really more important to him than his marriage?
He didn't know. That was the truth: he didn't know. He wished he could come to the revelation that always came to movie protagonists, realizing in one clear thinking instant that it was family that was really important; everything else in life was superfluous.