Page 67

Out in the hall I heard a muffled pair of soft-shoed footsteps, and I knew our time was all but up. Kitty heard them too. I was almost disappointed; I felt like we were only just starting to communicate, and I think she would have rather kept talking as well.

“Let me know how it works out,” she said, beginning her slow curl back into the cramped position I’d found her in. “You can come back, if you want. I don’t mind. We could talk, if you want. I’m tired of talking to all these crazies. ”

I didn’t make her any promises, but I thanked her for her time and let the orderly lead me away. I fled the premises with a sense of relief, and a touch of sadness.

I was terribly glad to go.

13

Back to the Battlefield

I met Benny at his home about twenty minutes after midnight, after calling Lu and Dave and telling them I’d be out for another few hours. God bless them for not asking any questions; I think when I told them Jamie was involved they assumed I’d gone out dancing, which I do almost exclusively when Jamie drags me. We usually go to the gay bar out in the bad part of town, because the drinks are strong, the music is good, and the worst thing that happens to Jamie there is that he gets hit on because he acts gay—which he finds more palatable than just plain getting hit because he acts gay. This is a tough town for a guy to be so femme in, and if there’s anything I respect about Jamie it’s that he doesn’t let that stop him from doing as he pleases. Dave and Lu think he’s funny, and they don’t mind if I stay out late with him—which aided my small deception.

My uncle hadn’t noticed that I’d made off with one of his older cameras. I figured the missing equipment would fly under his radar, since I’d selected an older manual number that he’d set aside for a newer model a year or two before.

I was pretty sure I remembered how to use it.

Jamie was waiting at Benny’s too, as previously arranged. Between us, we ran through a final rundown and made sure we had everything we needed. We even played back some of the EVP for Jamie, who hadn’t heard it yet.

“You think we’ll catch more of the same?” he asked, clicking the mouse on the play key again.

“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. ” I reached around him and picked up the tape recorder, and I stuffed it into my bag. “If we’re lucky, maybe some generous dead guy will recognize us from last time as friends, not foes, and lead us to where the action is. ”

“What about the Marshalls?” Benny let fly a half-smile that said he didn’t object too deeply to the thought of running into them.

“Let’s hope we miss them altogether,” I said, hoping to nip his apparent enthusiasm in the bud. I didn’t want any subconscious sabotage, and I sure as hell didn’t want to meet the Marshalls any more up close and personal than we had earlier.

“But what if we do run into them?” he pressed.

“Then we will run the other way and hope they don’t see us. Back me up here, Jamie. ”

“Sure. What she said. ”

“Thanks, I guess. I’ve got the camera. You got the film?”

Benny shook the baggie until the canisters fell out. “I got the film. ”

I tossed my head over at Jamie. “What’ve you got?”

“Passion. Charm. Talent. And an irrepressible desire to charge around a battlefield while I’m being pursued by the dead. ”

“Okay,” I agreed. “If that’s all you’ve got, it’ll have to do. We ready?”

“We ready,” they said, and I believed them. Benny was carrying his same khaki bag with the military flashlight and assorted peripherals; I had the tape recorder and a camera bag with Dave’s manual camera and the infrared film clattering around next to it. We were as ready as we were going to get.

I drove, for the same reasons I always drive: Benny drives for a living and refuses to do so during his extracurricular activities, and Jamie’s car is a piece of shit that none of us trust to go fifty feet without exploding.

At least he offered to chip in for gas money, a gesture which was appreciated, if refused. I had a full tank, and he needed the five bucks worse than I did.

We made it out to the battlefield just before 1:00 A. M. and parked back near Ted’s place. In the event that we were stopped by authorities, Ted wouldn’t care if we used him as an excuse for being there. And even if no one believed us, it was good to have a backup plan. Saying that we had wandered over to the battlefield while visiting a friend was less incriminating than admitting, “We drove all the way out from north Chattanooga for the sole purpose of trespassing on federally protected property. ”

So that was our story, and we were sticking to it.

The excursion began cleanly. There was no sign of anyone else in the fringe neighborhood—a crowded maze of half-paved streets interspersed with trailers, and without regular streetlights.

We kept it low-key, just the crunch of our shoes where there was no asphalt. Benny?

??s flashlight led us with its telltale red halo, drawing us back to our starting point at the Tower. Dyer’s field was off to the right and across a road, but we liked being able to approach the position by skimming through the edge of the tree line.