“You’re the one calling me!” Javier shouted. “You’re the one calling and now you have the, the, the nerve to ask why you’re calling? I’m the one asking why! I ask, you answer!”
“Javier, I really think we’re getting our wires crossed here …”
“Dementia, is it?” Javier said. “You know that you owe me an apology, but you can’t remember why, is that it? Y’know something? I’m glad. I’m glad your mind is leaving you. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fella.”
“My mind is fine, Javier, but to be honest you’re starting to irritate me here.”
Javier hooted down the phone. “Oh, is that right? Oh, is that right?”
“I just called to check on you,” said Virgil. “I’ve been thinking about the old days a lot and I saw someone last night who could have been your double from back then, someone who I would have sworn was you if I hadn’t known what age you were. I’m calling to ask if you have a son or a grandson and if they’re anywhere close to Desolation Hill.”
“I don’t know where that is,” said Javier, “but it sounds like just the place you deserve to be.”
“Do you have anyone in your family that looks just like you did forty years ago, or not?”
“No!” Javier yelled. “I don’t have any children, you dirty, lying, treacherous sonofabitch! I never had children and I never got married! The only woman in the world I ever loved looked at me like I was a joke and it was all your fault!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Darleen!”
Virgil frowned. “Who?”
“Darleen! Darleen Hickman!”
“I don’t know who that is.”
“The wardrobe lady on set,” Javier said, anger biting at his words. “I fell in love with her and you knew it. There was a future there. A possibility. But you couldn’t let that happen, could you? You couldn’t stand the thought of any pretty girl being with anyone but you, the star of the show.”
“What is it you think I did, Javier?”
“You know damn well what you did. You gave me that nickname.”
“What nickname?”
“Don’t make me say it.”
“I don’t know what it is we’re talking about.”
There was another silence, and then, “The Goat-molester.”
Virgil’s laugh was as loud as it was unexpected, and he immediately felt bad. “Oh right, yeah. That. Uh … and that damaged your relationship with the wardrobe lady?”
“Darleen,” said Javier. “And of course it did. Everyone was laughing at me behind my back. Nobody took me seriously from that moment on. She had feelings for me – real, actual feelings – but how could she look at me in the same way once she’d lost all respect for me?”
“I’m … I’m really sorry, Javier. I’d forgotten all about that.”
“I hadn’t,” said Javier bitterly. “That ruined my life, Abernathy. Ruined it. And it’s all your fault.”
“I’m sorry,” said Virgil. “I am genuinely sorry, Javier, I really am. I had no idea it would cause you such hardship. The only thing I can say is that it wasn’t done with any degree of maliciousness. It wasn’t personal.”
“It felt personal.”
“And I regret that. I do. Please accept my apology.”
“You know what?” Javier said. “I don’t. I’ve been waiting forty years for you to say sorry, and now that you have, it means nothing to me. You were a sonofabitch then and you’re a sonofabitch now. I hope you do get dementia. I hope you get dementia and you die a slow, horrible death.”
“Right,” said Virgil. “Well, in my defence—”
“Your defence can go to hell.”
“In my defence,” Virgil persisted, “and taking all things into account, with the benefit of hindsight and whatnot, I don’t know … maybe you shouldn’t have molested that goat.”
Javier hung up.
SOMEONE KNOCKED ON HER door and Amber woke immediately and went to spring out of bed. As she was moving, she realised two things. The first was that she had shifted during the night and was now in full demon mode. The second was that she was about to put her full weight on to her left hand, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
The pain hit her like an electric shock. She pulled her hands into her chest, rolled off the bed, and landed on her feet in a crouch, gritting her teeth to keep from crying out.
That knock again. It was calm. Unhurried. No urgency to it.
Amber waited for the worst of the pain to pass, then straightened, and moved slowly to the door. “Who is it?” she called.
“Me,” said Milo.
“Anyone else with you?”
“No.”
She gripped the key between her palms and turned it, and the lock clicked and she stepped back as Milo opened the door.
He saw the look on her face and frowned. “Hurting?”
“A little. I’ll take the painkillers.”
“You shift when you were sleeping?”
“Yeah. You?”
He nodded. He was clean-shaven and his eyes were calm – the benefits of a good night’s rest. “I’m going to head out to the edge of town,” he said, “keep watch for the Hounds.”
“Let me get dressed.”
“No need. I’m just going to be sitting there. You take a look around, see what’s what. If we can hide out here, it’d be nice to know what the town has to offer.”
Amber frowned. “You mean … we’re going to be apart? During the daytime?”
“Is that okay with you?”
“Sure. It’s just … I haven’t been alone in the daytime for … a while.”
“You’ll adjust.”
“What do I do?”
“Whatever you want. Go for a walk. Have some breakfast. Relax. It’ll come back to you. Oh, and …” He pointed to her face.
“What?”
“You can’t go out horned up.”
“Oh yeah. Sure.”
He nodded, and walked off, and Amber closed the door behind him and locked it again. Then she looked around and wondered what the hell she was going to do.
She swallowed some painkillers and brushed her teeth and peed, and as she was peeing she looked at the tub and tried to remember the last time she’d had a real bath. She filled the tub and added in all kinds of crazy liquids until the bubbles nearly spilled out on to the floor. Then she took off her clothes and climbed in, one long red leg at a time. Bracing her bandaged palms on the tub’s edge, she lowered herself into the water, gasping, until her ass touched the bottom. She laughed,