John Saul - Comes the Blind Fury

“I wouldn’t if you pushed harder.”

Michelle ignored her, and kept steadily pushing, reaching out with her right hand to give Annie a little shove each time she swung past.

But Annie was getting impatient. She wanted Michelle to push her harder. There had to be a way to make her. Then she had an idea. Even as she thought of it, she knew it was mean. But still, if it would make Michelle push her harder.…

“You just can’t push any harder, that’s all. You’re crippled, so you can’t push!”

Crippled!

The word hit her as it always did, like a hammer. Her stomach turned over, and she felt dizzy. Dizzy, and angry.

The fog crashed in on her this time, coming out of nowhere. She could see nothing — only the gray impenetrable mists swirling around her, blocking her vision.

And Amanda.

Amanda, coming toward her out of the grayness, smiling to her, encouraging her.

“You can push her, Michelle,” Amanda was saying. “Show her how hard you can push her.”

The pain in Michelle’s hip, the constant, nearly unbearable throbbing suddenly cleared up, and she felt that she could move easily, without the help of her cane. And if she needed help, Amanda was there — Amanda would help her.

She stepped behind the swing, and the next time Annie came drifting toward her through the fog, she was ready. She put her hands on Annie’s back, and as the little girl reached the apex of her arc, and started backward once more, Michelle prepared to push her.

Annie squealed with delight as she surged forward again, and clung more tightly to the chains. This was better — she’d never been this high before. Valiantly, she tried to pump, but she still didn’t have the hang of it.

Back she came, and once more she felt Michelle’s hands on her shoulders. “Harder!” she yelled. “Push harder!”

Again she shot forward, and her eyes widened as she saw the ground rushing up at her. Then she leveled off, and started the upswing, and the ground was replaced by the sky. What was she supposed to do?

Lean forward?

Kick back?

She leaned back, and as the swing reached its forward peak, she was suddenly unbalanced — the chains, so tight in her hands a moment before, abruptly loosened, and Annie felt herself start to fall.

She screamed, but then it was over — the chains were tight again, and she was on her way back, the weight at the end of the pendulum.

“Not so hard this tune,” she said when she felt Michelle’s hand on her back again.

But if Michelle heard her, she gave no sign. Annie found herself shooting forward again, higher than ever. Once more, as she reached the top, she leaned the wrong way and the chains went slack in her hands.

“Stop!” she yelled. “Please, Michelle, stop!”

But it was too late.

Back and forth she flew, ever higher, and each time the slack in the chain took longer to tighten again.

And then, inevitably, it happened.

The chain went loose in Annie’s hands, and she plunged straight down, her body lying across the seat of the swing, her eyes closed tight in terror.

And then there was no more chain.

As the seat of the swing reached the bottom and the hard links of the chain snapped taut, Annie Whitmore’s back broke.

A stab of pain shot through her, but it was over almost before it had begun — her head smashed against the ground, the momentum of her fall crushing her skull. She twitched spasmodically, and her broken body fell in a heap at Michelle’s feet.

“See?” Amanda whispered. “You can push as hard as you want. After a while, they’ll learn. They’ll learn, and then they’ll stop laughing.”

She took Michelle’s hand and began leading her out of the playground.

By the time they reached the street, the fog had lifted.

But Michelle didn’t look back.

• • •

Corinne opened the door to Tim’s house without knocking and let herself in.

“Tim? Tim!”

“In the kitchen,” Tim called.

Corinne hurried through the house and found Tim at the sink, elbow deep in dishwater.

“Guess what?”

Tim looked at her curiously. “Well, it must be something special, or you wouldn’t be here. And it must have something to do with Michelle Pendleton, since that’s who we were fighting about. You don’t look particularly upset, so it can’t be anything bad. So, you must have seen Michelle, and she must be better.”

Deflated, Corinne poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down. “You know what? You know me too well.”

“Then I was right?”

“Mmm-hmm. I saw Michelle today. She was in the schoolyard, playing with Annie Whitmore. And she was actually making fun of her own limp! Tim, you should have seen her. She was dragging her leg along, flapping her arms, panting like crazy, and all just to make Annie Whitmore laugh. What do you think of that?”

“I think it’s great,” Tim said. “But I don’t see what all the excitement’s about — it had to start sooner or later.”

“But I thought — last night you said—”

Tim dried off his hands and came to sit with her. “Last night I was doing a lot of wild speculating, and I might have said some things I didn’t mean. And you might have, too. So, shall we have a truce?”

Corinne threw her arms around him. “Oh, Tim, I love you.” She kissed him thoroughly, then grinned. “But isn’t it exciting? About Michelle, I mean? It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her do anything like that. She’s usually so self-conscious about her limp, and if anyone tries to talk to her about it, she just clams up. But she was making fun of it!”

“Well, before you declare her a perfectly adjusted child, let’s see what happens, shall we?” Tim cautioned her. “It might not have been what you thought it was, and it might have been just a momentary thing.” Then he grinned mischievously. “And what about Amanda? Have you forgotten all about the famous Amanda?”

“No. Well, not really. Oh, let’s not talk about her,” Corinne said. “I’ll just get all upset again. I was probably overdoing it last night too, and you’re probably right — she probably is only a figment of my imagination.”

“Well, in that case, Lisa’s going to be pretty upset.”

“Lisa?”

Tim nodded. “I’m afraid I changed my mind. I mean, we did have a fight, after all. So this morning, when Lisa started in on me, I gave in. She’s out hunting ghosts.”

Corinne stared at him.

“Oh, Tim, you didn’t!”

Tim’s smile faded at her expression of consternation.

“Well, why not?” he said irritably. “She’s with Alison and Sally. What can possibly happen?”

It was at that moment that Billy Evans died in the Paradise Point Clinic, as Cal Pendleton, Josiah Carson, and the neurologist from Boston looked helplessly on.

If any of them had glanced out the window, they would have seen Michelle, standing outside, staring into the room in which Billy lay, a tear running slowly down her cheek.

Amanda’s voice whispered in her ear.

“It’s done,” the strange voice crooned.

Michelle, knowing what had just happened inside, turned away and continued on her long walk home.

“I still don’t think we should be here,” Jeff Benson said. He glanced over his shoulder toward his house, half expecting his mother to appear at the kitchen window, calling him home. If he’d had his way, he wouldn’t have come into the cemetery in the first place, but when Sally Carstairs, Alison Adams, and Lisa Hartwick had appeared that morning, he’d gone with them, thinking they wanted to go down to the cove.

But they hadn’t.

Instead, they’d wanted to go looking for the ghost. Mostly, he realized, it was Alison and Lisa who wanted to find Amanda, even though both of them claimed she didn’t exist. It had been Sally’s idea to start in the cemetery, and when Jeff had protested, she’d accused him of being scared. Well, he wasn’t scared — he wasn’t scared of the ghost, if there really was one, and he wasn’t scared of the cemetery. But there was still his mother, and Jeff didn’t want to get into trouble with her.