Jake's Wake Read Online Free Page B

enough…”
    “Couldn’t share in the grief and mourning…”
    “I said my good-byes in private…”
    “Couldn’t bear to face his loving congregation…”
    “Oh, please.” Now Esther’s voice took on a bitter condescension. “How many women were at the viewing today?”
    Emmy blushed. “I don’t see…”
    “How many panties got stuffed in that coffin, in the course of the viewing?” Esther trembled as she spoke. “How many tearful ladies, dressed to the nines, came up to pay their respects, knelt down and dribbled tears? Dribbled tears”—she swigged on her drink—“as you say, on my husband?”
    “I—”
    “With all due respect to your feelings,” Esther continued, “and the feelings of his ‘congregation,’ I think I’ve suffered enough. If any further explanations are due, then they are owed to me, and not the other way around.”
    The half-reborn spirits huddled in the chill darkness and observed, with great glee, the banked and blossoming human flames. The more brightly they blazed, the more profoundly they might flare up when extinguished. And thereby feed the deeper dark.
    What fools! What food! And they hardly had to hide…
    Between the wailing wind, the unheeded alarm of the fire, and the clamor of their own voices, the living would never hear the others coming.
    The spirits laughed, also unheard, except by each other.
    As they reveled in the gathering Change.

Chapter Five
     
    The weathered wooden gate to Jake’s shithole hacienda was propped open, so Jasper Ellis gratefully drove on through. It wouldn’t be good to have his tricked-out extended-cab pickup truck parked on the street, where the cops might see it, and start to draw all the wrong conclusions.
    The whole idea was to get in and get out, as quickly as possible.
    And let their scarlet Mystery Woman have her say, if that was what she really wanted.
    But it wasn’t exactly like they were trying to sneak in. The music was cranked, just the way he liked it, and as usual, Christian’s mix disk had cued up something uncannily appropriate: a superdramatic hair-metal version of the military burial anthem, “Taps.”
    “Bah-bah-BAH!” Christian howled from the passenger seat, singing along with the melody while frenetic fifth-generation Van Halen clones noodled bombastically in the gap. Christian sang with an eerie Bruce Dickinson/Iron Maiden falsetto that—at another time, in another world—might have made him a star.
    Jasper laughed, took one hand off the wheel, and vigorously air-guitared like a guy who actually knew wherethe notes might land. “Bah-bah-BAH! Wah-wah-wah!” he warbled atonally, while Christian joined in, exhaling pot smoke like a musical chimney.
    “JESUS CHRIST!” yelled a womanly voice from the back.
    But it was too late—almost time for the crescendo—and at this point, there was no way they weren’t going for broke.
    So Jasper took the joint from Christian, toked hard as they rolled by the black metal backyard gate, the garage, and then the house itself, exhaling hugely as they rounded the corner to a bleak playground, where two other cars were already parked.
    “BAH-BAH-BAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” they howled in unison, with painful sustain, until even the Mystery Woman laughed…
    “BAH! BAH! BAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
    There was a great flurry of tom-toms and dope smoke, to go with the how-fast-can-you-riff arpeggiations and the warbling screeches of the clowns in the front seat.
    Then an awesome silence fell, as Jasper slipped it into park, right behind the white sedan.
    And they all sang, softly, “Bah-bah-baaaaah.”
    Jasper cut the engine.
    From the backseat, the very soft sound of applause, and the voice, now sultry and cool.
    “Thank you, boys, for cheering me up.”
    “Not a problem,” said Jasper. Christian toked intently, but nodded his head.
    “And I’m sure everyone within ten square miles is feeling much better now, too.”
    Jasper laughed, took the joint from Christian, hit it like