Dean Koontz - Strange Highways

by Steven Leonard

  Now, Frank held the black pumpkin, grinning as he studied its malevolent features. He squinted into the thing's slitted pupils as if the jack-o'-lantern's eyes were real, as if there were thoughts to be read in those depths - and for a moment he seemed to be mesmerized by the pumpkin's gaze.

  Put it down, Tommy thought urgently. For God's sake, Frank, put it down and let's get out of here.

  The carver watched Frank intently. The old man was still, like a predator preparing to pounce.

  Clouds moved, blocking the sun.

  Tommy shivered.

  Finally breaking the staring contest with the jack-o'-lantern, Frank said to the carver, "I give you whatever I like?"

  "You get what you give."

  "But no matter what I give, I get the jack-o'-lantern?"

  "Yes, but you get what you give," the old man said cryptically.

  Frank put the black pumpkin aside and pulled some change from his pocket. Grinning, he approached the old man, holding a nickel.

  The carver reached for the coin.

  "No!" Tommy protested too explosively.

  Both Frank and the carver regarded him with surprise.

  Tommy said, "No, Frank, it's a bad thing. Don't buy it. Don't bring it home, Frank."

  For a moment Frank stared at him in astonishment, then laughed. "You've always been a wimp, but are you telling me now you're scared of a pumpkin?"

  "It's a bad thing," Tommy insisted.

  "Scared of the dark, scared of high places, seared of what's in your bedroom closet at night, scared of half the other kids you meet - and now scared of a stupid damn pumpkin," Frank said. He laughed again, and his laugh was rich with scorn and disgust as well as with amusement.

  The carver took his cue from Frank, but the old man's dry laugh contained no amusement at all.

  Tommy was pierced by an icy needle of fear that he could not explain, and he wondered if he might be a wimp after all, afraid of his shadow, maybe even unbalanced. The counselor at school said he was "too sensitive." His mother said he was "too imaginative," and his father said he was "impractical, a dreamer, self-involved." Maybe he was all those things, and perhaps he would wind up in a sanitarium someday, in a boobyhatch with rubber walls, talking to imaginary people, eating flies. But, damn it, he knew the black pumpkin was a bad thing.

  "Here, gramps," Frank said, "here's a nickel. Will you really sell it for that?"

  "I'll take a nickel for my carving, but you still have to pay the usual price of the pumpkin to the fella who operates the lot."

  "Deal," Frank said.

  The carver plucked the nickel out of Frank's hand.

  Tommy shuddered.

  Frank turned from the old man and picked up the pumpkin again.

  Just then, the sun broke through the clouds. A shaft of light fell on their corner of the lot.

  Only Tommy saw what happened in that radiant moment. The sun brightened the orange of the pumpkins, imparted a gold sheen to the dusty ground, gleamed on the metal frame of the chair - but did not touch the carver himself. The light parted around him as if it were a curtain, leaving him in the shade. It was an incredible sight, as though the sunshine shunned the carver, as though he were composed of an unearthly substance that repelled light.

  Tommy gasped.

  The old man fixed Tommy with a wild look, as though he were not a man at all but a storm spirit passing as a man, as though he would at any second erupt into tornadoes of wind, furies of rain, crashes of thunder, lightning. His amber eyes were aglow with promises of pain and terror.

  Abruptly the clouds covered the sun again.

  The old man winked.

  We're dead, Tommy thought miserably.

  Having lifted the pumpkin again, Frank looked craftily at the old man as if expecting to be told that the nickel sale was a joke. "I can really just take it away?"

  "I keep telling you," the carver said.

  "How long did you work on this?" Frank asked.

  "About an hour."

  "And you're willing to settle for a nickel an hour?"

  "I work for the love of it. For the sheer love of it." The carver winked at Tommy again.

  "What are you, senile?" Frank asked in his usual charming manner.

  "Maybe. Maybe."

  Frank stared at the old man, perhaps sensing some of what Tommy felt, but he finally shrugged and turned away, carrying the jack-o'-lantern toward the front of the lot where their father was buying a score of uncarved pumpkins for the big party the following night.

  Tommy wanted to run after his brother, beg Frank to return the black pumpkin and get his nickel back.

  "Listen here," the carver said fiercely, leaning forward once more. The old man was so thin and angular that Tommy was convinced he'd heard ancient bones scraping together within the inadequate padding of the desiccated body.

  "Listen to me, boy ... ."

  No, Tommy thought. No, I won't listen, I'll run, I'll run.

  The old man's power was like solder, however, fusing Tommy to that piece of ground, rendering him incapable of movement.

  "In the night," the carver said, his amber eyes darkening, "your brother's jack-o'-lantern will grow into something other than what it is now. Its jaws will work. Its teeth will sharpen. When everyone is asleep, it'll creep through your house ... and give what's deserved. It'll come for you last of all. What do you think you deserve, Tommy? You see, I know your name, though your brother never used it. What do you think the black pumpkin will do to you, Tommy? Hmmm? What do you deserve?"

  "What are you?" Tommy asked.

  The carver smiled. "Dangerous."

  Suddenly Tommy's feet tore loose of the earth to which they had been stuck, and he ran.

  When he caught up with Frank, he tried to persuade his brother to return the black pumpkin, but his explanation of the danger came out as nothing more than hysterical babbling, and Frank laughed at him. Tommy tried to knock the hateful thing out of Frank's hands. Frank held on to the jack-o'-lantern and gave Tommy a hard shove that sent him sprawling backward over a pile of pumpkins. Frank laughed again, purposefully tramped hard on Tommy's right foot as the younger boy struggled to get up, and moved away.

  Through the involuntary tears wrung from him by the pain in his foot, Tommy looked toward the back of the lot and saw that the carver was watching.

  The old man waved.

  Heart beating double time, Tommy limped out to the front of the lot, searching for a way to convince Frank of the danger. But Frank was already putting his purchase on the backseat of the Cadillac. Their father was paying for the jack-o'-lantern and for a score of uncarved pumpkins. Tommy was too late.

  2

  AT HOME, FRANK TOOK THE BLACK PUMPKIN INTO HIS BEDROOM AND stood it on the desk in the corner, under the poster of Michael Berryman as the demented killer in The Hills Have Eyes.

  From the open doorway, Tommy watched.

  Frank had found a fat, scented decorative candle in the kitchen pantry; now he put it inside the pumpkin. It was big enough to burn steadily for at least two days. Dreading the appearance of light in the jack-o'-lantern's eyes, Tommy watched as Frank lit the candle and put the pumpkin's stem-centered lid in place.

  The slitted pupils glowed-flickered-shimmered with a convincing imitation of demonic life and malevolent intellect. The serrated grin blazed bright, and the fluttering light was like a tongue ceaselessly licking the cold-rind lips. The most disgusting part of the illusion of life was the leprous pit of a nose, which appeared to fill with moist, yellowish mucus.

  "Incredible!" Frank said. "That old fart is a real genius at this stuff."

  The scented candle emitted the fragrance of roses.

  Although he could not remember where he had read of such a thing, Tommy recalled that the sudden, unexplained scent of roses supposedly indicated the presence of spirits of the dead. Of course, the source of this odor was no mystery.

  "What the hell?" Frank said, wrinkling his nose. He lifted the lid of the jack-o'-la
ntern and peered inside. The inconstant orange light played across his face, queerly distorting his features. "This is supposed to be a lemon-scented candle. Not roses, not girlie crap."

  In the big airy kitchen, Lois and Kyle Sutzmann, Tommy's mother and father, were standing at the table with the caterer, Mr. Howser. They were studying the menu for the flashy Halloween party that they were throwing the following night - and loudly reminding Mr. Howser that the food was to be prepared with the finest ingredients.

  Tommy circled behind them, hoping to remain invisible. He took a can

  of Coke from the refrigerator.

  Now his mother and father were hammering the caterer about the need for everything to be "impressive." Hors d'oeuvres, flowers, the bar, the waiters' uniforms, and the buffet dinner must be so elegant and exquisite and drop-dead perfect that every guest would feel himself to be in the home of true California aristocracy.

  This was not a party for kids. In fact, Tommy and Frank would be required to remain in their rooms tomorrow evening, permitted to engage only in the quietest activities: no television, no stereo, no slightest peep to draw attention to themselves.

  This party was strictly for the movers and shakers on whom Kyle Sutzmann's political career depended. He was now a California State Senator, but in next week's election he was running for the United States Congress. This was a thank-you party for his most generous financial backers and for the power brokers who had pulled strings to ensure his nomination the previous spring. Kids verboten.

  Tommy's parents seemed to want him around only at major campaign rallies, media photography sessions, and for a few minutes at the start of election-night victory parties. That was okay with Tommy. He preferred to remain invisible. On those rare occasions when his folks took notice of him, they invariably disapproved of everything he said and did, every movement he made, every innocent expression that crossed his face.

  Lois said, "Mr. Howser, I hope we understand that large shrimp do not qualify as finger lobster."

  As the nervous caterer reassured Lois of the quality of his operation, Tommy sidled silently away from the refrigerator and quietly extracted two Milanos from the cookie jar.

  "These are important people," Kyle informed the caterer for the tenth time, "substantial and sophisticated people, and they are accustomed to the very best."

  In school, Tommy had been taught that politics was the means by which many enlightened people chose to serve their fellow men. He knew that was baloney. His parents spent long evenings plotting his father's political career, and Tommy never once overheard either of them talk about serving the people or improving society. Oh, sure, in public, on campaign platforms, that was what they talked about "the rights of the masses, the hungry, the homeless" - but never in private. Beyond the public eye, they endlessly discussed "forming power bases" and "crushing the opposition" and "shoving this new law down their throats." To them and to all the people with whom they associated, politics was a way to gain respect, make some money, and - most important - acquire power.

  Tommy understood why people liked to be respected, because he received no respect at all. He could see why having a lot of money was desirable. But he did not understand this power thing. He could not figure why anyone would waste a lot of time and energy trying to acquire power over other people. What fun could be gotten from ordering people around, telling them what to do? What if you told them to do the wrong thing, and then what if, because of your orders, people were hurt or wound up broke or something worse? And how could you expect people to like you if you had power over them? After all, Frank had power over Tommy - complete power, total control - and Tommy loathed him.

  Sometimes he thought he was the only sane person in the family. At other times, he wondered if they were all sane and if he was mad. Whatever the case, crazy or sane, Tommy always felt that he did not belong in the same house with his own family.

  As he slipped stealthily out of the kitchen with his can of Coke and two Milanos wrapped in a paper napkin, his parents were querying Mr. Howser about the champagne.

  In the back hallway, Frank's door was open, and Tommy paused for a glimpse of the pumpkin. It was still there, fire in every aperture.

  "What you got there?" Frank asked, stepping into the doorway. He grabbed Tommy by the shirt, yanked him into the room, slammed the door, and confiscated the cookies and Coke. "Thanks, snotface. I was just thinking I could use a snack." He went to the desk and put the booty beside the glowing jack-o'-lantern.

  Taking a deep breath, steeling himself for what resistance would mean, Tommy said, "Those are mine."

  Frank pretended shock. "Is my little brother a greedy glutton who doesn't know how to share?"

  "Give me back my Coke and cookies."

  Frank's grin seemed filled with shark's teeth. "Good heavens, dear brother, I think you need to be taught a lesson. Greedy little gluttons have to be shown the path of enlightenment."

  Tommy would have preferred to walk away, to let Frank win, to go back to the kitchen and fetch another Coke and more cookies. But he knew that his life, already intolerable, would get far worse if he didn't make an effort, no matter how futile, to stand up to this stranger who was supposedly his brother. Total, willing capitulation would inflame Frank and encourage him to be even more of a bully than he already was.

  "I want my cookies and my Coke," Tommy insisted, wondering if any cookies, even Milanos, were worth dying for.

  Frank rushed him.

  They fell to the floor, pummeling each other, rolling, kicking, but producing little noise. They didn't want to draw their folks' attention. Tommy was reluctant to let his parents know what was happening because they would invariably blame the ruckus on him. Athletic, well-tanned Frank was their dream child, their favorite son, and he could do no wrong. Frank probably wanted to keep the battle secret because their father would put a stop to it, thereby spoiling the fun.

  Throughout the tussle, Tommy had brief glimpses of the glowing jack-o'-lantern, which gazed down on them, and he was sure that its grin grew steadily wider, wider.

  At last Tommy was driven into a corner, beaten and exhausted. Straddling him, Frank slapped him once, hard, rattling his senses, then tore at Tommy's clothes, pulling them off.

  "No!" Tommy whispered when he realized that in addition to being beaten, he was to be humiliated. "No, no."

  He struggled with what little strength he still possessed, but his shirt was stripped off; his jeans and underwear were yanked down. With his pants tangled around his sneakers, he was pulled to his feet and half carried across the room.

  Frank threw open the door, pitched Tommy into the hallway, and called out, "Oh, Maria! Maria, can you come here a moment, please?"

  Maria was the twice-a-week maid who came in to clean and do the

  ironing. This was one of her days.

  "Maria!"

  Naked, terrified of being humiliated in front of the maid, Tommy scrambled to his feet, grabbed his pants, tried to run and pull up his jeans at the same time, stumbled, fell, and sprang up again.

  "Maria, can you come here, please?" Frank asked, barely able to get the words out between gales of laughter.

  Gasping, whimpering, Tommy somehow reached his room and got out of sight before Maria appeared. For a while he leaned against the closed door, holding up his jeans with both hands, shivering.

  3

  WITH THEIR PARENTS OFF AT A CAMPAIGN APPEARANCE, TOMMY AND Frank ate dinner together, after heating up a casserole that Maria had left in the refrigerator. Ordinarily, dinner with Frank was an ordeal, but this time it proved to be uneventful. As he ate, Frank was engrossed in a magazine that reported on the latest horror movies, with heavy emphasis on slice-and-dice films and with lots of color photographs of mutilated and blood-soaked bodies; he seemed oblivious of Tommy.

  Later, when Frank was in the bathroom preparing for bed, Tommy sneaked into his older brother's room and stood at the desk, studying the jack-o'-lantern. The wicked mouth glowed. The n
arrow pupils were alive with fire.

  The scent of roses filled the room, but underlying that odor was another more subtle and less appealing fragrance that he could not quite identify.

  Tommy was aware of a malevolent presence - something even worse than the malevolence that he could always sense in Frank's room. A cold current raced through his blood.

  Suddenly he was certain that the potential murderous power of the black pumpkin was enhanced by the candle within it. Somehow, the presence of light inside its shell was dangerous, a triggering factor. Tommy did not know how he knew this, but he was convinced that if he was to have the slightest chance of surviving the coming night, he must extinguish the flame.

  He grasped the gnarled stem and removed the lid from the top of the jack-o'-lantern's skull.

  Light did not merely rise from inside the pumpkin but seemed to be flung at him, hot on his face, stinging his eyes.

  He blew out the flame.

  The jack-o'-lantern went dark.

  Immediately, Tommy felt better.

  He put the lid in place.

  As he let go of the stem, the candle refit spontaneously.

  Stunned, he jumped back.

  Light shone from the carved eyes, the nose, the mouth.

  "No," he said softly.

  He removed the lid and blew out the candle once more.

  A moment of darkness within the pumpkin. Then, before his eyes, the flame reappeared.

  Reluctantly, issuing a thin involuntary sound of distress, Tommy reached into the jack-o'-lantern to snuff the stubborn candle with his thumb and finger. He was convinced that the pumpkin shell would suddenly snap shut around his wrist, severing his hand, leaving him with a bloody stump. Or perhaps it would hold him fast while swiftly dissolving the flesh from his fingers and then release him with an arm that terminated in a skeletal hand. Driven toward the brink of hysteria by these fears, he pinched the wick, extinguished the flame, and snatched his hand back with a sob of relief, grateful to have escaped mutilation.