XII

Sherwood had intended to retreat to the vestibule, away from the courtroom and the smell of burning there, which turned his stomach. But in the guttering darkness he took the wrong route, and instead of being delivered to the front of the building, he found himself lost in a labyrinth. He tried to double back, but he was too frightened to think clearly. All he could do was stumble on, tears stinging his eyes, as it got darker and darker.

Then, a glimmer of light. It wasn’t starlight—it was too warm—but he made for it anyway, and found himself delivered into a small chamber in which somebody had been working.

There was a chair and a small desk, and on the desk a hurricane lamp, which shed its light on a selection of items. Wiping away his tears, Sherwood went to look. There were bottles of ink, maybe a dozen of them, and some pens and brushes, and open in the midst of this equipment a book, about the size of one of his schoolbooks but much thicker. The binding was stained and the spine cracked, as though it had been carried around for years.

Sherwood reached to flip it open, but before he could do so, a soft voice said, “What’s your name?”

He looked up and there, emerging from the doorway on the other side of the chamber, was the woman from the courtroom.

Sherwood felt a little shudder of pleasure pass through him at the sight of her. Her blouse was unbuttoned and her skin fairly shone.

“My name’s Rosa,” she said.

“I’m Sherwood.”

“You’re a big boy. How old are you?”

“Almost eleven.”

“You want to come here, so I can see you better?” Sherwood wasn’t sure. There was definitely something exciting about the way she was looking at him, smiling at him, and maybe if he got a little closer he’d see that unbuttoned place better, which was certainly a temptation. He knew all the dirty words from school, of course, and he’d glimpsed a few well-thumbed pictures that had been passed around. But his schoolmates kept him out of the really smutty conversations, because he was a little daft. What would they say, he thought, if he could tell them he’d set eyes on a pair of naked bosoms, in the flesh?

“My, but you stare,” Rosa said. Sherwood flushed. “Oh it’s quite all right,” she said. “Boys should see as much as they want to see. As long as they know how to appreciate it.” So saying, she reached up and unbuttoned herself a little further. Sherwood tried to swallow, but he couldn’t. He could see the swell of her breasts very easily now. If he stepped a little closer he’d see her nipples and, by the look of welcome on her face, she would not censure him for doing so.

He stepped toward her. “I wonder what you could get up to,” she said, “if I let you loose?” He didn’t entirely understand what she was talking about, but he had a pretty good idea.

“Would you lick my titties for me?” she said.

His head was throbbing now, and there was a pressure in his pants so intense he was afraid he was going to wet himself.

And as if her words weren’t exciting enough, she was opening her blouse a little further, and there were her nipples, large and pink, and she was rubbing them a little, smiling at him all the time.

“Let’s see that tongue of yours,” she said.

He stuck out his tongue.

“You’re going to have to work hard,” she said. “It’s a little tongue and I’ve got big titties. Haven’t I?” He nodded. He was three steps from her, and he could smell her body. It was a strong smell, like nothing he’d quite breathed before, but she could have smelled like manure and it couldn’t have kept him from her now. He reached out and laid his fingers upon her breasts. She sighed. Then he put his face to her flesh and began to lick.

“Will . . .”

“He’s fine,” said the man in the dusty black coat. “He’s just overcome with excitement. Why don’t you just leave him be and run off home?”

“I won’t go without Will,” Frannie said, sounding a good deal more confident than she felt.

“He doesn’t need your help,” the man replied, his tone scoured of threat “He’s perfectly happy here.” He looked down at Will. “He’s simply a little overwhelmed.” Keeping her eye on the man, Frannie went down on her haunches beside Will and, reaching for him, shook him violently. He made a moan, and she chanced a quick look down at him.

“Get up,” she said. He looked very befuddled. “Up,” she said.

The man in black had meanwhile settled back in his seat and was shaking the contents of his hand out onto the table.

Bright, burning fragments fluttered down. Will was already turning back in the man’s direction, though he was not yet standing upright

“Come back here,” the man said to Will.

“Don’t . . .” Frannie said. The flames on the table were dying down, the room giving away to darkness. She was afraid as she was only afraid in dreams. “Sherwood!” she yelled.

“Sherwood!”

“Don’t listen,” the woman said, pressing Sherwood to her breast.

“Sherwood!”

He couldn’t ignore his sister’s summons, not when it had such a measure of panic in it. He pulled away from Rosa’s hot skin, the sweat running down his face.

“That’s Frannie,” he said, pulling himself free of the woman. She was wearing, he saw, a strange expression—her panting mouth open, her eyes quivering. It unnerved him.

“I have to go—” he started to say, but she was plucking at her dress, as if to show him more.

“I know what you want to see,” she said.

He retreated from her, his hand thrown out behind him for support.

“You want what’s under here,” she said, pulling up her hem.

“No,” he said.

She smiled at him and kept raising her skirt. Panicked, and confused by the stew of feelings that were bubbling up in him, he stumbled backward, and his weight struck the table. It tipped.

The books, the inks, the pens, and, worst of all, the lamp went to the floor. There was a moment when it seemed the flame went out, but then it bloomed with fresh gusto, and the trash around the desk caught on fire.

Mrs. McGee dropped her skirts. “Jacob!” she shrieked. “Oh Jesus Lord, Jacob!”

Sherwood had more reason to panic than she did, surrounded as he was by combustible materials. Even in his dazed state, he knew he had to get out quickly or be numbered among them. The easiest route was the door by which he’d entered.

“Jacob! Get in here, will you?” Rosa was yelling, and without so much as glancing in Sherwood’s direction again, she left the chamber to find her companion.

The blaze was getting bigger by the moment, smoke and heat filling the chamber, driving Sherwood back. But as he turned to leave, his body trembling from the excesses of the last few minutes, he caught sight of the book, lying there on the ground.

He had no idea what it contained, but it felt like proof. He would have it when his schoolmates scoffed, to show them and say, “I was there. I did all I told you and more.” Daring the flames, he ducked and snatched the book off the ground. It was a little singed, no more. Then he was away, back through the labyrinth of passages, toward his sister’s voice.

“Sherwood!”

She and Will were at the Courtroom door.

“I don’t want to go,” Will growled, and tried to pull himself free of Frannie. But she was having none of it. She kept a bruising grip on his arm, all the while yelling her brother’s name.

Jacob, meanwhile, had risen from his place at the table, alarmed by the sound of conflagration, and now by the sight of Mrs. McGee in a state of disarray, demanding that he come right now, right now.

He went with her, glancing back at Will once, and nodding such a tiny nod as if to say: Go with her. This is not the moment then he was gone, away with Rosa, to put out the flames.

As soon as he was out of sight, Will felt a curious calm pass over him. There was no need to struggle with Frannie anymore.

He could simply go with her, out into the open air, knowing that there would be another time, a better time, when he and Jacob would be together. “I’m all right—” he said to Frannie. “I don’t need anyone to hold me up.”

“I’ve got to find Sherwood,” she said.

“Here!” came a holler from the smoky darkness, and out he came, his face smeared with dirt and sweat.

There were no further words. They pelted down the passage to the front door and out, past the pillars, and down the steps, into the cold grass. Only when they were past the hedge, out onto the track, did they halt for breath.

“Don’t tell anybody what we saw in there, okay?” Will gasped.

“Why not?” Frannie wanted to know.

“Because you’ll spoil everything,” Will replied.

“They’re bad, Will—”

“You don’t know anything about them.”

“Neither do you.”

“Yes, I do. I’ve met them before. They want me to go away with them.”

“Is that true?” Sherwood piped up.

“Shut up, Sherwood,” Frannie said. “We’re not going to talk about this any longer. It’s stupid. They’re bad and I know they’re bad.” She turned to her brother. “Will can do whatever he likes,” she said. “I can’t stop him. But you’re not coming here again, Sherwood, and neither am I.” With that she picked up her bicycle and mounted, telling Sherwood to hurry up and do the same.

Meekly, he obeyed.

“So you won’t say anything?” Will pleaded.

“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Frannie replied in an infuriatingly snotty tone. “I’ll have to see.” With that she and Sherwood pedaled off down the track.

“If you do I’ll never speak to you again,” Will shouted after her, only realizing when they were out of sight that this was a hollow threat from a boy who’d just declared that he was leaving forever someday soon.