Slow Dance in Purgatory

by Amy Harmon

  He giggled to himself as he asked a couple of lewd questions and got appropriately lewd responses. He fished a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, using one of the low burning candles, rationalizing that if anyone smelled smoke in the big auditorium on Monday, they would never know who to blame. He took a deep drag and blew it out happily.

  “Why didn’t anybody bring food, man? I’m starving,” he grumbled, leaning back over the Ouija board and trying to think of something else to ask. Maybe he would try to get a name out of the ghost. He wasn’t convinced there wasn’t one. Maybe Tasha just didn’t have the touch.

  “Who are you?” He asked, tapping his ashes on the slippery floor. The dial started to slowly respond.

  “Hey guys, I think it’s gonna give us a name!” he called out. But no one seemed especially interested in the ghost anymore. One of the football players was snoring loudly from the carpeted steps rimming the stage. The lone player finished his cigarette as the letters slowly spelled out….”

  “We got a R, then an O. Hmmm. R-O-G…..” He tossed the butt aside, his eyes fixed on the board in front of him. Two more letters and the dial slid to a stop.

  “Who the hell is Roger?” he puzzled, raising his voice in question.

  The curtains behind him whooshed suddenly, making the sound a low flying plane makes as it passes overhead. A column of fire engulfed the alcohol soaked fabric and greedily lapped up the trail of harder liquor spilled across the stage. The curtains were old and dry, providing ideal fodder for the hungry flames. Another section of curtain ignited, and the inebriated students ran screaming and stumbling for the exit doors. Derek tripped over his sleeping teammate and slapped him awake, pulling Dara out behind him. With a quick glance around he assured himself that everyone was out.

  ***

  Shad eventually managed to wedge his stocking clad foot in between the lid and the base of his phone, opening it and sending a ray of blue light gleaming up at him from the bottom of the locker.

  “Hallelujah, and praise the Lord,” he celebrated briefly. He was sweating profusely, and he wiped his face against his tee-shirt clad shoulder that was smashed in to the back of the locker. Now came the really tough part. Maggie was on speed dial. If he could use a fine enough touch with his big toe he might be able to ring her up. Of course, he would have to press the speaker button too if she had any chance of hearing him.

  Grunting and holding his breath, he punched at the keypad awkwardly. If only he could get his sock off! It created a floppy mess at his toes, making dialing impossible. Sliding his left foot to his right foot, he bore down on the floppy end of the sock and pulled. Little by little, wedging the excess sock under his other foot, and pulling in inch long increments, he was finally able to pull his bare foot free.

  “You are Mr. Elastic Shadrach,” he told himself exuberantly. ‘Now we dial…” He stabbed at the buttons with his toes, managing to shut the phone three times and having to maneuver it back open each time. He managed to depress the speaker button, and then with another little stab, not too hard, not too soft, he got an audible ringing. From what he could see of the little display, the phone was calling Maggie.

  “Please answer, please answer, please answer,” Shad begged. She didn’t answer. Groaning in frustration, his muscles shaking with exertion, he punched at the redial button with his cramping big toe.

  Calling Maggie…..Calling Maggie…..Calling Maggie…..

  “Hello?” Maggie’s voice had never sounded so good. No voice had ever sounded so good.

  “Maggie!” Shad screamed. “Can you hear me?”

  “Uh, yeah, Shad. Take me off speaker! You sound like you’re in a tin can!”

  Shad burst into hysterical laughter. “You have no idea how close that is to the truth. Maggie! You have to come to the school, ASAP! You gotta get me out of here– “

  Shad’s phone sounded that series of cascading tones that lets the owner know the battery is almost dead.

  “Shad! I didn’t catch the last part. Did you say you’re at the school?” Maggie pressed her own phone to her head, trying to hear Shad through the waterfall of tones beeping in her ear.

  Shad shouted down at his phone, his muscles quaking, and his voice cracking.

  “Yes! I’m at the school. They stuffed me in a locker! You gotta get me out of here!” He shifted ever so slightly, attempting to alleviate the screaming pain in his weight bearing leg. Just a tiny adjustment and his foot snapped down on the lid, shutting the phone once more, denying him Maggie’s response.

  “ARGHHHH!” Shad moaned in defeat. His phone was almost dead, and Shad was dead tired. Hopefully, Maggie heard enough information and would be coming soon. His phone started ringing almost immediately, but the phone was pushed too far back beneath the heel of his bottom foot now, and he couldn’t do anything but listen helplessly as it rang and rang. He wished futilely for smaller feet and giant miracles. He was going to need one or the other to get himself out of this mess, because he hadn’t told Maggie which locker he was in – or even which hallway.

  He exhaled slowly, then inhaled deeply and repeated the process several more times. He just had to stay calm until Maggie came. He breathed in again and then stopped, sniffing the air in confusion. Was that smoke?

  19

  “GREAT BALLS OF FIRE”

  Jerry Lee Lewis - 1958

  Maggie grabbed her glasses and her sweatshirt and flew down the stairs. Shad had sounded freaked out. Did he really say he was inside a locker?? Maggie couldn’t imagine that, but he had definitely said the school.

  “Aunt Irene? I’m taking the car! Be back in a few. I’ll call you!!!” Maggie raced through the kitchen, not stopping to see if it was okay with her aunt. She didn’t have time to explain or plead her case if her aunt didn’t want her to go.

  She jumped in the Caddie and was out, heading down the road, less than five minutes after Shad called. She punched in Gus’s number as she drove, knowing that to leave him out of the loop if Shad were really in trouble would be foolish.

  “Gus?..... Hi, it’s Maggie. Do you know where Shad is?” Maggie listened impatiently as Gus gave his typical warm greeting and eventually got around to answering her question.

  “Shadrach told me he was goin’ to a party. He seemed real excited about it, too. I was glad for him. Seems like maybe he’s finally making some more friends.”

  Maggie was instantly suspicious. “Who? Who invited him to a party?”

  Gus seemed a little taken back by her sharp response. “Well…. let’s see. I think he said some of the football players were gonna be there. Derek….that was the kid’s name he mentioned. Derek. Do you know him, Miss Margaret?”

  “Ohhh, man,” Maggie moaned. Did she know him? Did she ever.

  “Gus, I got a call a few minutes ago from Shad. He said he was at the school. I didn’t hear everything. His phone was beeping like an old man’s hearing aid – um, sorry, no offense, Gus. Anyway, I think he’s in trouble. I’m heading down there right now.”

  Gus hemmed and hawed for a minute, and then he sighed, “Thank you for calling, Miss Margaret. Will you give me a call if there is trouble? Shad might not want me swoopin’ in. For all we know the party went bad, and he went to the school to shoot some hoops. ‘Course if there’s a bunch of kids down there I need to know.”

  Maggie agreed and clicked off, resisting the urge to floor the old car and get to the school. She had a bad feeling, and it was getting worse the closer she got to Honeyville High. As she turned onto the winding lane leading to the school, Maggie gasped and cried out. Black smoke was billowing from the roof and some of the upper windows on the east side.

  She hit redial and when Gus picked up she yelled into the phone.

  “The school’s on fire!! I’ve got to find Shad! Call the fire department!”

  “Miss Margaret, wait….don’t go in the school! Wait until help gets there –“

  Maggie clicked her phone shut. She didn’t have time to debate the issue. If S
had was inside and stuck in some locker, which is what Maggie thought he had said, she couldn’t wait. She roared to a stop and leaped out of the car, not even bothering to shut off lights or take the keys from the ignition. She ran for the side entrance, key in hand, thankful that for the moment all the smoke seemed to be concentrated on the east side. She was through the locked door in seconds. She ran into the school, calling for Johnny.

  “Johnny? Johnny! I need you!” Maggie ran down a long corridor. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, but the halls were still relatively clear. Her legs felt like rubber, and fear and desperation pounded in her chest. She ran to the section of hallway that housed the freshmen lockers.

  “Shad! I need you to yell as loud as you can so I can find you!” Maggie tried to control her breathing, listening intently for any shouts or moans or any sign at all that Shad was trapped nearby.

  “Maggie!” Johnny was suddenly there, and Maggie went limp with relief, allowing herself to be pulled into his strong arms as he immediately started to propel her toward the exit she had entered moments before.

  “Maggie, the school is on fire. You’ve got to get out. I don’t know if I can stop it!”

  “Johnny! No. Listen to me!” She gripped Johnny’s forearms, demanding that he stop and face her. She would have to talk fast; she could see by his face that he wouldn’t brook any argument.

  “Shad is here in the school, and I don’t know what happened or why, but he’s here, and I have to find him.”

  Johnny cursed, whipping around in a circle, his head lifted as if trying to catch a scent. “The fire and smoke are messing with my abilities. It’s as if all the energy is being drawn into the fire.” He turned back to Maggie and began herding her back towards the door. “You have to go, Maggie. I promise you I will find Shad, and I will get him out. Everything is going to be okay, but you’ve got to get out of here.”

  Maggie had no interest in being soothed or coddled. She wouldn’t be leaving without Shad. Suddenly, the enormity of the situation descended upon her. Shad wasn’t the only one trapped in the school. Johnny would find Shad. She had no doubt about that. But he wouldn’t be able to leave. If the school was destroyed, what would happen to Johnny? She stared up into his beloved face with dawning horror.

  “We have to find Shad, and then we have to get this fire out!” Terror pulsed through her, far worse than before, and she was sprinting back down the hall before Johnny could even react.

  “Maggie! Stop. Please!” Johnny swooped down on her, obviously still able to convert some energy into speed. “You can’t go running off without knowing where he is, or worse, whether or not the next corner you come to will lead you straight into a blazing inferno.” He took a deep breath, clearly trying to rein in his need to grasp her in his arms and physically expel her from the school to the safety beyond. He knew she would just turn around and come right back in. He had to find Shad and get them both out of the school – now.

  “Stay right here….please! If you love me at all, just wait here. Let me find Shad. If I focus I will be able to feel him through this smoke, but I need to hurry. We don’t know where he is.” What he left unspoken was that it might be too late.

  “Go!” Maggie cried. “I’ll wait, I promise.”

  Johnny was gone immediately.

  “I won’t leave without either of you,” Maggie vowed, sinking down to the floor. The air was clearer down there, and Maggie coughed a little, praying that Shad wasn’t anywhere near the east end. She had only been waiting a couple of minutes when, from the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of movement. Was it Shad? Had he broken free on his own but been disoriented enough by the smoke that he was heading further into the building instead of out to freedom and fresh air?

  Maggie called out, but the figure didn’t pause. She didn’t stop to consider that she wasn’t keeping her word.

  “Hey – come back! You’re going the wrong way!” She raced after the swiftly moving form, the smoke getting denser and denser as she neared the rotunda. She reached the place where the hallway split, leading up a flight of stairs to the third floor or down a flight to the main. The smoke would be thicker the further she rose – surely the person she was following wouldn’t ascend the stairs into thicker smoke. She ran down the stairs and out into the open circle of the rotunda. She hunched down and struggled to see where the elusive figure had gone. He didn’t move like Shad….could it be that Derek and his friends were still in the school? Someone had put Shad in that locker, that was for sure. Were those voices? It sounded like someone was arguing above her. The rotunda made the sound echo oddly. Maggie wasn’t sure where the voices were coming from, but they were boy’s voices, and she thought one of them said Johnny’s name. Shouts were heard and someone yelled, “Look out!”

  A gunshot rang out above her. Maggie screamed and covered her head, peering up through the haze to find the source of the shot. Three figures stood on the highest balcony. As she watched, two of them whirled and, in movie-like slow motion, fell over the balcony, limbs tangled like a human spider. The figure next to them stepped forward, watching as the ground rose up to meet them.

  Maggie screamed again, horror and nausea washing over her in ghastly waves. She crawled to where the figures lay, one bleeding profusely, one his head bent oddly, staring off at nothing. Déjà vu washed over Maggie.

  “Johnny?”

  This was all too familiar. She reached her hands out to stem the blood seeping from the wound on the bleeding man’s chest. Her hands passed through him without resistance. This was Johnny, but it wasn’t. This wasn’t really happening – not now. She was watching a re-run play out before her, complete with original cast members long since departed. Johnny lay there gasping, his eyes on his brother, not seeing her at all. He spoke his brother’s name and cried out in wrenching despair. He was close to the end. It was almost more than she could bear, even knowing what happened next.

  “Noooo! I won’t go. You can’t make me leave,” Johnny fought against death’s grasp.

  A figure suddenly loomed over them, and Maggie cried out, staring up into the face of the third person from the balcony.

  “So where did he go?” the boy spoke to her, and Maggie scrambled backwards, stunned.

  “Where did you go, Johnny?” The boy poked at the mirage in front of him. Johnny’s image did not respond to the query. The boy who spoke was no longer part of the re-run Maggie had seen unfolding from the upper balcony. He wasn’t simply a ghostly imprint playing his part in a decades old slide show. He wasn’t a ghost at all, but a spirit…a living entity without a physical body. There was something very familiar about this boy. He was handsome in a clean-cut, freshly scrubbed, GQ kind of way. He looked at Maggie, and his mouth twisted cruelly. She knew that smile.

  “Roger?!” She trembled, not believing her eyes.

  “I think Uncle Roger would be more appropriate, don’t you, Margaret?”

  ***

  Johnny worked his way up to the third floor. Shad’s terror worked like a homing beacon once he had finally been able to zero in on it. There was an odd energy pulsing through the school, though, and Johnny kept getting flashes of strong competing emotions. Fear, hate, love, desire, and jealousy rolled over him without rhyme or reason. It had been harder for him to find Shad as a result. The emotions he was buffeted by weren’t his own emotions. It was almost like the school was coming apart at the seams, and as it splintered and broke, all the absorbed tragedy and teenage angst of five decades was being released like thousands of mini grenades popping and sizzling through the air.

  The smoke on the third level was thick. Johnny was unaffected, but he knew Shad would not be. He hoped the kid was still holding on. Focusing all his might ,he began popping locker doors open – the going was slower than usual, but he found Shad within seconds. Shad was almost unconscious and was dripping wet with perspiration, but he was still breathing. Shad didn’t even put up a fight when Johnny slung him over his shoulder. He was disoriented, and h
is eyes were half-closed. Thank goodness for small miracles. He could just imagine trying to rescue the Shad who had ripped him up one side and down the other a while back.

  Johnny moved quickly down the stairs and out into the hallway where he had left Maggie. The smoke and heat were almost unbearable, and Johnny cursed desperately when he realized Maggie wasn’t there. Reaching out, he felt for her, tuning in to the frequency that sung in him constantly. He felt her immediately; her grief and fear almost buckled his knees. Why hadn’t she stayed put? Torn, he paused, considering his options. He had to get the kid out now. Shad was in bad shape, but Johnny didn’t want to physically throw him through the door. Goodness knows he would love to carry him out himself.

  “Miss Margaret! Shadrach? Margaret!” The cry was coming from the direction of the west side entrance. Johnny recognized the voice. It was Gus. Gus could help him. He ran toward the voice, praying that this would be one of the days Gus would be able to see him. If his theory held out, he would. Gus seemed to be able to see Johnny only when Gus’s own emotions were high and his reserves low. This moment should qualify.

  Gus almost collided with him, unable to see either him or Shad through the hazy gloom. Gus rebounded in fear, his eyes rocketing between Johnny and his unconscious grandson. Johnny transferred the precious cargo from his shoulder to Gus’s. The old man wobbled a little and then straightened determinedly, holding up under the weight. With a grateful nod, he acknowledge Johnny and rushed back for the door he had just come through.

  Now Johnny had to find Maggie. He called out to her, flying through the blackened hallways, feeling the heat of the school coming apart around him. He blasted into the rotunda, and his heart nearly collapsed. Maggie lay in a heap in the middle of the floor, occupying the spot where he and Billy had once lain, in the exact spot where Billy died and Johnny had unknowingly pled for Purgatory. Her arms were wrapped around something Johnny couldn’t see; it reminded him of the day he had observed their embrace in the costume room mirror…a beautiful woman holding nothing.