Gary Brandner - The Howling

They settled for half a dozen slim green candles with a pair of plain glass holders. Not until Roy was paying the woman did Karyn notice that the candles matched the color of her eyes. When they left the shop Karyn felt a vast relief at being back in the fresh air. She reached down and absently scratched Lady behind the ear.

"Striking woman, wasn't she," Karyn said as casually as possible.

"Who? Oh, yes, I suppose you could say she was."

"You didn't notice, I suppose."

Roy snaked an arm around Karyn's waist and pulled her close to him. "Hell, yes, I noticed. Want to make something of it?"

Karyn smiled, happy to have her husband's full attention once again. "Maybe," she said. "Once we get home and get those romantic candles lit."

"Do we need any groceries?" Roy asked.

"I don't think so. You did a pretty good job of shopping yesterday. We could use bread and some milk."

"We can pick that up down at the Jolivets'. He doesn't say much, but she's a character. Anyway, I want you to know where the telephone is."

Karyn stopped suddenly and looked at him. "What telephone?"

"Our telephone. Didn't you notice that there isn't one in the house?"

"No, as a matter of fact, I didn't."

"There are no wires strung out there. Anytime we have to make a call we use the phone at Jolivet's store."

"When we go rural, we don't mess around," Karyn said.

They walked on up the street to a false-front wooden building with a faded sign reading Jolivet's General Merchandise . Inside, the store seemed to be stocked indiscriminately with hardware, clothes, and groceries. It had probably looked the same for the last forty years.

Standing at an ancient cash register was a round-faced little woman with a snub nose, rimless glasses, and a bright smile. "Hi, Roy," she said with easy familiarity. "I see the little woman got in all right."

"That's right," Roy said. "This is my wife, Karyn. Oriole Jolivet."

"My, you're pretty as a picture," said Oriole, coming around the counter and taking Karyn's hands. "I just knew a handsome devil like Roy would have a looker for a wife."

"Well, thank you," Karyn said, a little embarrassed, but flattered as well.

"That's my husband, Etienne, over there by the meat case," Oriole said.

A long-faced man looked up from the tray of chops he was arranging and gave Karyn a sad smile.

"You're the first new folks to move into Drago in quite a spell," Oriole told them. "Hope we'll be seein' you around from time to time."

"I'm sure you will," Karyn said.

"No need to wait till you have to buy something, just come on by anytime you feel like chewin' the fat."

"I'll do that," Karyn said.

"Good, good. Do you like coffee?"

"I love coffee."

Oriole's smile got even brighter. "That's the kind of talk I like to hear. Yes, indeed, you and me are goin' to get along fine, Karyn. Now you wait right there and I'll go out back and pour us all a cup."

"I don't want you to go to any trouble — "

"No trouble at all, honey. Be back in a jiffy."

Oriole bustled out and returned in a moment carrying a tray laden with cups of dark, rich coffee and thick slices of cinnamon-sprinkled coffee cake. Karyn sipped the coffee and chatted with Oriole while Roy prowled around the store. For the first time since arriving in Drago she felt at ease.

When they had finished the last of the coffee and cake, Roy bought a loaf of bread and two quarts of milk. He put the candles in the bag with the groceries and they left the Jolivets' store.

Lady, who seemed to sense that they were going home now, bounded off down the street. Watching the dog, Karyn touched Roy's arm and pointed toward one of the old houses. There a boy and girl of about twelve stood motionless in the front yard watching them. Their faces were grave, their eyes shadowed. A woman came out onto the porch and said something. The children turned silently and went inside.

"You know," Karyn said, "those are the first children I've seen in this town."

"The rest of them are probably in school."

"Where? I haven't seen anything in Drago that looks like a school."

"Maybe they go over to Pinyon," Roy said. "Does it matter?"

"I guess not," Karyn said, "but it does seem odd."

That night in bed Karyn gave the finest acting performance of her life. She twisted and moaned under her husband; she dug her nails into his back. She caressed him with her hands and with her mouth. She heaved her body to meet his thrusts and clamped her legs around his waist. She cried out words of passion as she felt his climax burst inside her.

And she felt nothing.

She could not be sure if Roy knew. He gripped her with his strong, square hands and tongued her ear and said all the right things as he approached orgasm, but Karyn was not sure that he believed her response. At least, she told herself, he had climaxed. Her performance was not wasted.

Afterward he rolled over and slept. Karyn lay beside him trying to sleep too. But as the minutes ticked into hours she gave it up and lay waiting, listening. She knew it would come, as surely as death. And it did come. The distant ululation. The mournful sinister night cry. The howling.

After that she slept fitfully, waking up time and again to listen breathlessly to the night. Finally she came awake with a start to find that it was light and Roy was gone from the bed. She could smell coffee perking in the kitchen, and hurried to join her husband.

That day, and the next, and the next, Karyn and Roy did not go into the village of Drago. They stayed close to the little house, walking on the trails in the forest and delighting in the birds and wild flowers. Lady loved these outings. She would rush joyfully ahead barking officiously at anything that moved, as though clearing the path for her people. Although Karyn and Roy kept up the pretense of enjoying each other, each was occupied with thoughts that could not be shared.

In the evenings they played cribbage or backgammon. Having no television set, they rediscovered the radio. Sometimes Karyn would read from the stack of paperbacks she had brought from the city while Roy worked at the kitchen table going over the list of his company's technical publications.

At night Karyn tried to let go during sex, but, it became harder all the time to pretend she was enjoying it. Roy's lovemaking became perfunctory, and at last he merely kissed her goodnight and turned away. Then while he slept Karyn would lie on her back, her muscles taut, and stare into the dark.

Every night now, the howling came. Karyn no longer asked Roy if he heard it. He never seemed to. Karyn was afraid that if she talked about it he would say it was all in her head. She knew better. Something was out there. Something.

By the end of the first week Karyn had dug out the bottle containing the remaining Seconals the doctor in Los Angeles had prescribed when she came home from the hospital. She had never liked taking pills, but at last she was able to sleep soundly.

Roy began to walk in the forest by himself. His excuse was that he wanted to gather wood for the fireplace but Karyn knew there was all the wood they needed within fifty yards of the house. The real reason had to be that he wanted to get away from her.

She became convinced of it the day of Roy's first trip into Los Angeles. Although he made a show of reluctance to leave their wilderness paradise, his eagerness was not hard to read. She watched the Ford disappear down the narrow lane with an increasing sense of fear and uneasiness.

The day was cool with a high overcast. Karyn vowed to pull herself out of her funk. She put on a heavy sweater and took Lady for a long walk through the woods. For a city girl, she had a remarkable sense of direction, and there was never any problem finding her way back.