Zombies

by Otto Penzler

  It was deep twilight by the time they had two graves dug and both coffins lowered into the ground with thick hemp ropes. They finished packing down the mounds of earth, leaving the rope ends aboveground for easy lifting the next morning. Mr. Deakin built a small fire to make coffee and warm their supper.

  He felt stiff and sore as he bedded down for the night, taking a blanket from the wagon bed. Now that the cool night air smelled clean around him, with no corpse odor hanging about, he wished he had saved some of that camphor for his aching muscles.

  Clancy Tucker lay across the fresh earth of the two graves. Mr. Deakin grabbed another blanket and tossed it toward him, but the other man did not look up. Clancy placed his ear against the ground, as if listening for sounds of something stirring below.

  ONE OF THE townspeople had used a heated iron spike to burn letters on a plank. WELCOME TO COMPROMISE, ILLINOIS. The population tally had been scratched out and rewritten several times, but it looked as if folk no longer kept track. The townspeople watched them approach down the dirt path.

  The flat blandness of unending grassland and the corduroy of cornfields swept out to where the land met the sky. On the horizon, gray clouds began building into thunderheads.

  “Don’t see no church here,” Clancy said, “not one with a steeple anyway.”

  “Town’s too small probably,” Mr. Deakin answered.

  Clancy set his mouth. “Tucker’s Grove might be small, but the very first thing Jerome’s building will be his church.”

  Mr. Deakin saw a building attached to the side of the general store and realized that this was probably a gathering place and a saloon. Some townspeople wandered out to watch their arrival, lounging against the boardwalk rails. A gaunt man with bushy eyebrows and thinning steel-gray hair stepped out from the general store like an official emissary.

  But when the storekeeper saw the coffins in back of the wagon, he wrinkled his nose. The others covered their noses and moved upwind. Without a word of greeting, the storekeeper wiped his stained white apron and said, “Who’s in the coffins?”

  “My beloved parents,” Clancy said.

  “Sorry to hear that,” the storekeeper said. “Not common to see someone hauling bodies cross country in the summer heat. I reckon the first thing you’ll want is some salt to fill them boxes. It’ll cut down the rot.”

  Mr. Deakin felt his mouth go dry. He didn’t want to say that they had little to pay for such an extravagant quantity of salt. But Clancy interrupted.

  “Actually,” he looked at the other townspeople, “we’d prefer a place to bury these coffins for the night. If you have a graveyard, perhaps? I’m sure after our long journey—” he patted the dirt-stained tops of the coffins, “they would prefer a peaceful night’s rest. The ground is hallowed, ain’t it?”

  The storekeeper scowled. “We got a graveyard over by the stand of trees there, but no church yet. A Presbyterian circuit rider comes along every week or so, not necessarily on Sundays. He’s due back anytime now, if you’d like to wait and hold some kind of service.”

  Mr. Deakin didn’t know what to say. The entire situation seemed unreal. He tried to cut off his companion’s crazy talk, but Clancy Tucker wouldn’t be interrupted.

  “Presbyterian? I’m a good Methodist, and my parents were good Methodists. My brother Jerome is even a Methodist minister, self-ordained.”

  “Clancy—” Mr. Deakin began.

  Clancy sighed. “Well, it’s only for the night, after all.” He looked at Mr. Deakin and lowered his voice. “Hallowed ground. They won’t try to come back up, so we don’t need to dig so deep.”

  The storekeeper put his hands behind his apron. “Digging up graves after you planted the coffins? If you want to bury them in our graveyard, that’s your business. But we won’t be wanting you to disturb what’s been reverently put to rest.”

  Mr. Deakin refrained from pointing out that these particular coffins had been buried and dug up a number of times already.

  “You wouldn’t be wanting me to break a sacred oath either, would you?” Clancy turned his bulging eyes toward the man; he didn’t blink for a long time. “I swore to my parents, on their deathbeds, that I would bring them with me when I moved to Wisconsin. And I’m not leaving them here after all this way.”

  Seemingly from out of nowhere, Clancy produced a coin and tossed it to the storekeeper, who refused to come closer to the wagons because of the stench. “Are you trying to buy my agreement?” the storekeeper asked.

  “No. It’s for the horses. We’ll need some oats.”

  THOUGH THE GRAVEYARD of Compromise was small, many wooden crosses protruded like scarecrows. The townspeople did not offer to help Mr. Deakin and Clancy dig, but a few of them watched.

  Mr. Deakin pulled the wagon to an empty spot, careful not to let the horses tread on the other graves. As the two of them fell to work with their shovels, Clancy kept looking at the other grave markers. He jutted his stubbled chin toward a row of crosses, marking the graves of an entire family that had died from diphtheria, according to the scrawled words.

  “My parents died from scarlet fever,” Clancy said. “Jerome caught it first, and he was so sick we thought he’d never get up again. He kept rolling around, sweating, raving. He wouldn’t let our Negro Maggie go near him. When the fever broke, his eyes had a whole different sparkle to them, and he talked about how God had showed him a vision of our promised land. Jerome knew he was supposed to found a town in Wisconsin.

  “He kept talking about it until we got fired up by his enthusiasm. He wanted to pack up everything we had and strike off, but then Ma and Dad caught the fever themselves, probably from tending Jerome so close.”

  Mr. Deakin pressed his lips together and kept digging in the soft earth. He didn’t want to wallow in his own loss, and he didn’t want to wallow in Clancy Tucker’s either.

  “When they were both sweating with fever, they claimed to share Jerome’s vision. They were terrified that Jerome and I would leave them behind. So I promised we would bring them along, no matter what. Oh, they wanted to come so bad. Maggie heard them and she said she could help.”

  Clancy didn’t even pause for breath as he continued. “I could see how bothered Jerome was, because he wanted to leave right away. Our parents were getting worse and worse. They certainly couldn’t stand a wagon ride, and it didn’t look like they had much time left.

  “One day, after Jerome had been sitting with them for a long time, he came out of their room. His face was frightful with so much grief. He said that their souls had flown off to Heaven.” Clancy’s eyes glowed.

  “He left the day afterward, going alone to scout things out, while I took care of details until I could follow, bringing the family. Jerome is waiting for us there now.”

  Clancy looked up. He had a smear of mud along one cheek. His eyes looked as if they wanted to spill over with tears, but they didn’t dare. “So you see why it’s so important to me. Ma and Dad have to be there with us. They have their part to play, even if it’s just to be the first two in our graveyard.”

  Mr. Deakin said nothing; Clancy didn’t seem to want him to.

  THE SUN BEGAN to rise in a pool of molten orange. Mr. Deakin dutifully went back to Clancy Tucker, who had slept up against a wagon wheel. Mr. Deakin’s head throbbed, but he had not gotten himself so drunk in the saloon that he forgot his obligations, bizarre though they might be.

  He and Clancy set to work on the dewy grass with their shovels, digging out the loosened earth they had piled into graves only the night before.

  Mr. Deakin looked toward town, sensing rather than hearing the group of people moving toward them. Clancy didn’t notice, but Mr. Deakin halted, propped the shovel into the dirt where it rested against the coffin lid. Clancy unearthed the top of the second coffin, and then stopped as the group approached. He went over to stand by the wagon.

  The people carried sticks and farm implements, marching along with their faces screwed up and squinting as they stared i
nto the rising sun. They swaggered as if they had just been talked into a fit of righteous anger.

  At the front of the group strode a tall man dressed in a black frock coat and a stiff-brimmed black hat. Mr. Deakin realized that this must be the Presbyterian circuit rider, just in time to stir up trouble.

  “We come to take action against two blasphemers!” the circuit rider said.

  “Amen!” the people answered.

  The preacher had a deep-throated voice, as if every word he uttered was too heavy with import to be spoken in a normal voice. He stepped close, and the sunlight shone full on his face. His weathered features were stretched over a frame of bone, as if he had seen too many cycles of abundance and famine.

  The bushy-browed storekeeper stood beside him. “We ain’t letting you dig up graves in our town.”

  “Grave robbers!” the circuit rider spat. “How dare you disturb those buried here? You’ll roast in Hell.”

  “Amen!” the chorus said again.

  Mr. Deakin made no move with his shovel, looking at the group and feeling cold. He had already lost everything he had, and he didn’t care about Clancy Tucker’s craziness—not enough to get lynched for it.

  Clancy stood beside the wagon, holding Mr. Deakin’s shotgun in his hands and pointing it toward the mob. “This here gun is loaded with bird-shot. It’s bound to hit most everybody with flying lead pellets. Might even kill someone. Whoever wants to keep me from my own parents, just take a step forward. I’ve got my finger right on the trigger.” He paused for just a moment. “Mr. Deakin, would you kindly finish the last bit of digging?”

  Mr. Deakin took the shovel and went to work, moving slowly, and watched Clancy Tucker’s bulging eyes. Sweat streamed down Clancy’s forehead, and his hands shook as he pointed the shotgun.

  “I’m done, Clancy,” Mr. Deakin said, just loud enough for the other man to hear him.

  Clancy tilted the shotgun up and discharged the first barrel with a sound like a cannon. Morning birds in the outlying fields burst into the air, squawking. Clancy lowered the gun toward the mob again. “Git!”

  The circuit rider looked as if he wanted to bluster some more, but the townspeople of Compromise turned to run. Not wanting to be left behind, the circuit rider turned around, his black frock coat flapping. His hat flew off as he ran, drifted in the air, then fell to the muck.

  CLANCY TUCKER SHIVERED on the seat of the wagon, pulling a blanket around himself. He had cradled the empty shotgun for a long time as Mr. Deakin led the wagon around the town of Compromise, bumping over rough fields.

  “I would’ve shot him,” Clancy said. His teeth chattered together. “I really meant it. I was going to kill them! ‘Thou shalt not kill!’ I’ve never had thoughts like that before!”

  Mr. Deakin made Clancy take a nap for a few hours, but the other man seemed just as disturbed after he awoke. “How am I going to live with this? I meant to kill another man! I had the gun in my hand. If I had tilted the barrel down just a bit I could have popped that circuit rider’s head like a muskmelon.”

  “It was only bird-shot, Clancy,” Mr. Deakin said, but Clancy didn’t hear.

  As the horses followed the dirt path, Mr. Deakin reached behind to the bed of the wagon where they kept their supplies. He rummaged under the tarpaulin and pulled out a two-gallon jug of whiskey. “Here, drink some of this. It’ll smooth out your nerves.”

  Clancy looked at him, wide-eyed, but Mr. Deakin kept his face free of any expression. “I traded my little silver mirror for it last night in the saloon. You could use some right now, Clancy. I’ve never seen anybody this bad.”

  Clancy pulled out the cork and took a deep whiff of the contents. Startled, stinging tears came to his eyes. “I won’t, Mr. Deakin! It says right in Leviticus, ‘Do not drink wine nor strong drink.’ ”

  “Oh, don’t go giving me that,” Mr. Deakin said, pursing his lips. “Isn’t there another verse that says to give wine to those with heavy hearts so they remember their misery no more?”

  Clancy blinked, as if he had never considered the idea. “That’s in Proverbs, I think.”

  “Well, you look like you could forget some of your misery.”

  Clancy took out a metal cup and, with tense movements, as if someone were about to catch him at what he was doing, he poured half a cupful of the brown liquid. He screwed up his face and looked down into the cup. Mr. Deakin watched him, knowing that Clancy’s lips had probably never been sullied by so much as a curse word, not to mention whiskey.

  As if realizing that he had reached his point of greatest courage, Clancy lifted the cup and gulped from it. His eyes seemed to pop even farther from his head, and he bit back a loud cough. Before he could recover his voice to gasp, Mr. Deakin, hiding a smile, spoke from the corner of his mouth. “My gosh, Clancy, just pretend you’re drinking hot coffee! Sip it.”

  Looking alarmed but determined, Clancy brought the cup back to his lips, then squeezed his eyes shut and took a smaller sip. He didn’t speak again, and Mr. Deakin ignored him. Morning shadows stretched out to the left as the wagon headed north toward Wisconsin.

  Mr. Deakin made no comment when Clancy refilled the metal cup and settled back down to a regular routine of long, slow sips.

  By noon the sky had begun to thicken up with thunderheads, and the air held the muggy, oppressive scent of a lumbering storm. The flies went away, but mosquitoes came out. The coffins in back of the wagon stank worse than ever.

  Clancy hummed “Bringing in the Sheaves” over and over, growing louder with each verse. He turned to look at the coffins in the back of the wagon, and giggled. He spoke for the first time in hours. “Can you keep a secret, Mr. Deakin?”

  Mr. Deakin wasn’t sure he wanted to, and avoided answering.

  “I don’t think I know your Christian name, Mr. Deakin.”

  “How do you know I even have one?” he muttered. He had lived alone and made few friends in Illinois, working too hard to socialize much. The neighbors and townsfolk called him Mr. Deakin, and it had been a long time since he’d heard anyone refer to him as anything else. Clancy found that very funny.

  “Yes, I can keep a secret,” Mr. Deakin finally said.

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  Clancy dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “Jerome lied!” He paused, as if this revelation were horrifying enough.

  “And when did he do that?” Mr. Deakin asked, not really interested.

  “When he came out of my parents’ room and said that their souls had flown off to Heaven—that wasn’t true at all. And he knew it! When he went into that room, after Ma and Dad were sick for so long, after he wanted to go found the new town so bad, Jerome smothered them both with their pillows!”

  Mr. Deakin intentionally kept his gaze pointed straight ahead. “Clancy, you’ve had too much of that whiskey.”

  “He did Dad first, who still had some strength to struggle. But Ma didn’t fight. She just laid back and closed her eyes. She knew we had promised to take them both to Tucker’s Grove, and she knew we would keep our word. You always have to keep your word.

  “But when Jerome said their souls had flown off to Heaven, well, that just wasn’t true—because by smothering them with the pillow, he trapped their souls inside!”

  Clancy opened his eyes. Mr. Deakin saw bloodshot lines around the irises. “What makes you say that, Clancy?” Mr. Deakin asked. He wasn’t sure if he could believe any of this.

  “Maggie said so.” Clancy stared off into the gathering storm. “Right after they died, our Negro Maggie sacrificed one of our chickens, danced around mumbling spells. Jerome and I came back from the coffin maker’s and found her inside by the bodies. He tried to whack her on the head with a shovel, then he chased her out of our house and said he’d burn her as a witch if she ever came back.”

  “And so Jerome left while you packed everything up and made ready to move?” Mr. Deakin asked. He had no idea what to make of killing chickens and chanting spells.r />
  “I’m the only one who didn’t see the vision. But Ma and Dad wanted to come so bad. Maggie said she was just trying to help, and it worked. That’s why we have to keep burying the coffins—so the bodies stay down!” Clancy glanced at Mr. Deakin, expectant, but then his own expression changed. With a comical look of astonishment at himself, he covered his mouth with one hand, still grimy from digging out the graves at dawn.

  “I promised Jerome I wouldn’t tell anybody, and now I broke my promise. Something bad’s bound to happen for sure now!” He closed his eyes and began to groan in the back of his throat.

  In exasperation, Mr. Deakin reached over and yanked on the floppy brim of Clancy’s hat, pulling it over his face. “Clancy, you just take another nap. Get some rest.” He lowered his voice and mumbled under his breath, “And give me some peace, too.”

  CLANCY SLEPT MOST of the afternoon, lying in an awkward position against the backboard. Mr. Deakin urged the horses onward, racing the oncoming storm. He hadn’t seen another town since Compromise, and the wild prairie sprawled as far as he could see, dotted with clumps of trees. The wagon track was only a faint impression, showing the way to go. A damp breeze licked across Mr. Deakin’s face.

  The first droplets of water sprinkled his cheeks, and Mr. Deakin pulled his own hat tight onto his head. As the storm picked up, the breeze and the raindrops made a rushing sound in the grasses.

  Clancy grunted and woke up. He looked disoriented, saw the darkened sky, and sat up sharply. “What time is it? How long did I sleep?” He whirled to look at the coffins in the back. The patter of raindrops sounded like drumbeats against the wood.

  Mr. Deakin knew what Clancy was going to say, but maintained a nonchalant expression. “Hard to tell what time it is with these clouds and the storm. Probably late afternoon . . .” He looked at Clancy. “Sunset maybe.” A boom of thunder made a drawn-out, tearing sound across the sky.