Michael Marshall - The Straw Men

'Versus what nature, Harold? If this is true, and all this happened, why the big fear about the nature of

the babies?'

'Well,' he said. 'Because of your genes, of course. Because you were so non-viral. So pure.'

'Jesus Christ,' I shouted, 'You don't believe that shit, do you? You don't really think…' I stopped,

suddenly blindsided. 'Wait a minute. This has to do with the social virus idea?'

'Of course. But how do you know about it?'

'We found The Straw Men's Web site.'

'But how do you even know about them?'

'Dad left a video,' I said. 'I had just found it when you came to the house that time. It had all of you on

it, though I didn't realize at first. He left me a note, too. Saying they weren't dead.' Davids shook his head, and smiled faintly. 'Don,' he said. 'He always planned ahead.' His smile was

affectionate, but not only that.

'But if all this happened in Hunter's Rock,' Bobby said, 'how come you all came here?'

'We hung together for a few more years. We had some good nights, but it wasn't the way it had been. After a while I left. I came to Dyersburg. To start again. Mary came out a year later. It didn't work. But she stayed in town. For a long time after that, we were out of contact with the others. Partly it was thought to be for the best. Also, well… we'd done some pretty bad things. On the night it had seemed the right thing to do. We got caught up in it, I guess. Frustration that nothing in the world had changed, despite everything we had done, and we were still at the mercy of men like that. But afterwards it wasn't something that any of us really wanted to remember. For Mary and Ed it wasn't so bad. They hadn't actually been there. But they were our friends, and so part of the blame bled off onto them. They knew about it, and kept it a secret with us.'

'My father and Ed bumped into each other once,' I said. 'Long time ago. I was there. They pretended they'd never met each other.'

'Not surprised,' Davids said. 'I don't think your father really trusted Ed to keep quiet. Though he did.'

'Did you know he was dead?'

'Not until you said so,' he said. 'I knew about Mary. I didn't think they'd go back for him. He wasn't

even there.'

A car drove past outside, and Davids's head turned like it was on a string. He waited until the sound had disappeared. I'd never seen a man who looked more as if he was expecting bad things to turn up at

his door.

'If you guys were supposed to be keeping apart, how come my parents relocated up here?'

'After over twenty years, and nothing happening, nobody coming for us, I guess Don started to feel that it was over. He was sometimes out this way on business, and he visited me a couple of times, and we shot a little pool, got to talking about old times. Before that bad night. The fun we'd had. The period when we felt like we were going to change the world. At first it was strange, and then it was like the other decades hadn't happened. He brought your mother up here for a weekend, and eventually they decided to move. Get the old gang back together. Be young again.'

'So how come they never told me that you'd known each other before?'

'Because…' Davids sighed. 'Because The Halls started construction just before they settled here, and Don got to hear about it. He got in touch, pitched to them. He wanted the business. He got it. And after a while he started to think there was something weird going on. After that, he decided we had to go back to pretending. He didn't really grow old, Don. Not like the rest of us. Your mother either, I guess. Most of us, comes a time when you're prepared to let things lie. Not Don. You put a secret in front of him, and

he had to know what it was. He had to understand.'

I nodded. This was true. 'So what happened?'

'He started poking around. Trying to find out who was behind the development, what they were up to. He became convinced it was the same people he'd run into years before, in Oregon. Well, not the same guys, but a better connected example of the same kind of people. That they were part of some worldwide movement. Some hidden group, moving behind the scenes.' He shook his head.

'You didn't think so?'

'I don't know what I thought. I just wanted him to leave it alone. Some people put too high a premium on the truth, Ward. Sometimes the truth isn't what you want to know. Sometimes the truth is best left to

itself.'

'And they found him out.'

'They realized someone was poking around. Couldn't tie it to him, but there were a very limited

number of people it could be. Things started to get harder for Don. Little things. I think they must have someone here in town.'

'They do,' I said. 'He's the man who shot Bobby. He's a policeman.'

'Oh Christ,' Davids said. 'Tell me he's dead.'

'What happened to my parents, Harold? What happened that night?'

'Don decided they had to leave, to disappear. It wasn't a story he could take to anyone. Even if they believed it, he'd have been admitting to murder. But I think he'd also decided that he was going to deal with them for good. I don't know how the hell he thought he was going to do that. The four of us had a combined age of about two hundred and fifty years. But… we were going to fake their death, make it look like they were out of the picture. Let The Straw Men think it was over. It was all organized.'

My heart skipped a beat, remembering the note left inside my father's chair, and realizing that he could have closed up UnRealty to make The Straw Men think it was all over, before coming back for them in some way. He'd done it to protect me. It wasn't because he'd distrusted me, and it didn't mean that they were…

Davids saw my face, and shook his head.

'They got to them first,' he said. 'Two days before we were going to do it. They were going to drive up to Lake Ely on the Sunday, go boating in the afternoon. Have an accident. Bodies never found. Then on Friday… well, you know what happened. They're dead, Ward. I'm sorry. They weren't supposed to be. But they're really dead. And soon, probably tonight, I will be too. And then it will all be over.'

'Fuck that,' Bobby said. 'Fuck that from here to there.' He unwrapped the towel from his arm. It was pretty bloody, but no more came out of the hole in his shirt. 'I'm good to go. Let's get up there and start

fucking these people around.'

Davids just shook his head. He looked jumpy. 'We're better off staying here.'

'Sir, with respect, I think not,' Bobby said. 'Last couple days have seen concerted culling of your old

crew. If they knew about Lazy Ed, they sure as fuck know about you.'

I was only dimly aware of either of them. I was trying to absorb what I had been told, was trying to realign everything I had thought I'd known about my family. About myself. Davids looked at me.

'It's all true,' he said. 'And I can prove it. Give me a minute, and I can prove it.' He stood up and left

the room.

'This is some weird shit,' Bobby said, when Davids was out of earshot. 'You believe any of it?'

'Why not?' I said, though I didn't know what to think. 'It fits, sort of. And why would he lie? He's

definitely the guy in the video, so he knew then. We know I wasn't born in Hunter's Rock. And I don't see him just making it up on the spot.'

Outside I heard the sound of another car going past, but nothing came of it. I stared at the wall until it began to sparkle in front of my eyes.

'My mother called me, about a week before the accident.'

'Did she hint at any of this?'

'I didn't speak to her. She left a message. I didn't get around to calling back. But usually she didn't call. If it was either of them, it was Dad, and generally they waited for me to get in touch.'

'So you think…'

'I don't know what to think, Bobby, and it's too late to find out.'