He looked at them disdainfully. "Well, you've made your proverbial bed, so lie in it. I'm leaving you here, but when I'm safely away, I'll call and have you delivered to the authorities."
Allander paused for a minute and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. He began to pace around the room, running his fingers through his hair and letting it fall back over his face.
"I'm sorry, my dears, that time doesn't allow me to continue your education. Just remember that your parents-or 'mentors,' whoever they'll be-will try to 'bring you up right,' but they'll have no concept of what that is. They'll raise you to be functional and to imitate them and indulge in petty little successes. Resist them with all your might.
"They won't ready you for the time when reality rears its head. They've worn blinders for so long they've become a part of their heads. Maybe that's what they desired all along-to have their vision restricted, expurgated."
Allander's words rose in excitement. He felt his voice come to him, clear and strong. The children began to cower from his voice, but the direction kept shifting as Allander moved around the room, sometimes even circling behind them. He didn't really address them; he seemed to be thinking aloud.
"God and country will step in to fill the void, offering you laws and equations, rules and punishments to carry you through those lonely, restless nights you spend tossing and turning in bed as the moon slides whispering in your window.
"They're worse than an opiate for the masses. They'll turn you into deaf sheep standing in line as the truth bleats fearfully at the altar. They'll have you standing in line for slaughter." His eyes narrowed. "They'll deafen you to the roar of your inner voice. That's what they do. Soon, you won't even be able to hear yourself."
Robbie choked on a sob and Leah clamped down on his hand. Not now, not here, she was telling him. They had to go unnoticed. She squeezed Robbie's hand, closed her eyes, and pretended she was shrinking away to nothing.
Allander continued, his words taking on the color of a rant. "Your educators will embark with you on a supposed journey for the truth, but they'll deceive you. They'll say things that mean nothing-they always do-and you'll be forced to nod and agree as if they're profound."
Leah held Robbie gently and quieted him as Allander paced and raved. "Sssshhhh," she whispered. "Just don't say anything and the man will go away."
"They'll tell you that when people are moved by the spirit of art or the Good, they are speaking in tongues," Allander continued. "What is it to speak in tongues? It's to babble incessantly, to fill the air with phrases and words that mean nothing, nothing at all. Your educators will think that they've been moved by an intellectual spirit, and they'll speak all the time, but in truth, they'll say nothing."
He paused and his shoulders rose and fell with his deep breaths. His nostrils flared and his eyebrows furrowed with rage.
"Blind, deaf, and dumb!" he shouted, pounding his first into his palm. The children jerked violently.
"They don't want to see or admit that which is difficult. And what happens to you when you're touched by an evil, one of their evils? They get you out of the way, sweep you under the carpet, into the closet, into prison!" His voice broke and he paused before continuing softly. "They repress you."
Allander felt the tears rising, but he fought them back. The children suffered through a long, painful silence as he gazed at the carpet.
Robbie whimpered again, and Allander's eyes snapped up to focus on him. He was suddenly back in their world again. Back where he could hurt them. His jaw shifted forward and his bottom lip stuck out as he clenched his teeth. He started toward the children.
Sensing his movement, Leah shook her head vehemently, warding off the uneasy darkness. Allander saw the line of duct tape around her eyes move back and forth, and halted. It would be too easy.
He cleared his throat and started again. As he heard his words, he relaxed.
"What I hope I have done is to show you, to show you what lies beneath all this corruption. Others want you to see, or hear, or speak their truths. I offer you no values, no workbooks, no catechisms.
"Peel back the unblemished flesh that covers the face of reality, and then you'll see the real truth pulsing beneath. More than that, you'll feel it, and that's my lesson for you-always reach for what you desire, what you truly desire. Your wishes lie like fish beneath the water's surface. Call to them and they'll come to you, and you'll understand and be alive.
"That's what I've done. I've looked beneath the surface and I've seen what's really there. I'm one of civilization's discontents, but I'm not forging any false paths. What we've called fantasy is reality. It always has been. We've just forgotten that." His eyes were distant, impassioned. "Well, it's time to remember. I've seen who's wrong and what needs to be done to them. And now I have the power to make them see, to understand."
The back of Allander's shirt was darkened with a circle of sweat; the fabric clung to him. He had been running his hand through his hair, pulling it in the back as he spoke. It was wildly disheveled now. A small trickle of blood ran from a scab on his upper lip that he had chewed open.
Allander focused again on the children. They squirmed at the sudden silence, for they couldn't see the expression on his face. The air was choked with tension.
Allander leaned over them and patted their cheeks, and both children drew back from his touch. "You'll be seeing me again, I'm quite sure of it," he said. "Not in body, of course, but surely in spirit."
The children felt a rush of air across their flushed cheeks as the door swung shut.
Chapter 24
Jade pressed on the accelerator and gunned his car to eighty-five. He swerved between lanes, cutting in and out to pass cars going the speed limit.
Joe Henderson blared from the speakers, and Jade tapped the wheel enthusiastically as he sped along, occasionally adjusting the treble and bass dials. His fingers stole to the line on his left cheek and ran gently over it.
After driving south on 280, Jade cut over to Highway 17 and exited at the Alameda. As he drove through back streets, he checked the directions that were lodged in his ashtray. He was looking for 624 Pepper Lane.
Through his windshield, Jade saw a small one-story house that looked comfortable, if slightly decrepit. A white knee-high fence ran along the front of the yard, blocking off the spotted brown grass from the street. A little gate stood open at the head of the walkway. It hung at an angle, clumsily but warmly inviting visitors.
Suspended from a large maple in the front yard was a rope swing. Jade could imagine Allander as a child swinging from the tree, kicking his legs up toward the summer sun, the smell of lemonade and mown grass in the air.
Jade adjusted his rearview mirror and noticed the dark Cadillac parked behind some bushes at the corner of the street. He opened his door, swinging his legs from the car. Admiring the sunflowers growing from the brown planter boxes, he walked along the sidewalk up to the gate. Decent place, he thought. A little midwestern, but decent.
Above the doorbell a small placard proclaimed, "Our House." A welcome mat showed a gaggle of geese in a pond.
He stepped up to the door.
The coolness of the white beauty mask calmed Allander. He saw the flashing red lights ahead and slowed the Mercedes to a halt before maneuvering it into the lineup of cars.
A young policeman with a mustache was peering intently into each car before clearing it with a thumbs-up. They always have a mustache, Allander thought.
He heard the officer shouting above the noise of traffic up ahead. "Yes, ma'am. No problem, ma'am. We're just on the lookout for somebody. No, you shouldn't be concerned."