Jack Vance

by Take My Face (epub)

  The next day he waited beside Barbara Fisher’s locker until she came. “What’s going on at this affair?” he asked her.

  She glanced at him sidelong, then looked away, into her locker. “Just the usual stuff. An initiation. There’ll be a party afterwards. Don’t you want to come?”

  “No,” said Robert, “not especially.”

  “The rest of the team’s invited, too,” said Barbara.

  “Oh,” said Robert. He had thought they wanted him there alone.

  She turned him another swift glance. “Are you coming?”

  “I don’t know for sure.”

  “What’s the matter?” she asked. “Scared?”

  “Okay,” said Robert woodenly. “I’ll come.”

  “Sure now?” said Barbara.

  “Yes,” said Robert.

  She nodded casually and went off down the hall.

  When Robert went to bed that night, the vision persisted. He fell asleep to a dream that he was dancing with Julie in the gymnasium, at one of the dances to which he never went. The music stopped; Julie turned up her face, gave him a look of heart-stopping significance. He reached out his arms, but she laughed and skipped off. Then she ran back, caught his hands, led him outside to a big sedan parked under the trees. He opened the door, she got in; he got in after her … Robert awoke.

  He lay with his heart pounding. He wanted to go back to sleep, back to the dream … He

  reached up, felt his face. The coils felt hard, smooth as sausages. “I wonder,” whispered Robert to himself. “I wonder …”

  The next day, remembering the dream, he watched Julie in the study hall. He studied the swell of her young hips, the jaunty little breasts. Somehow he felt closer to her. She looked up, saw him watching her, made a friendly grimace, half-nod, half-wrinkling of her nose, went back to work.

  Robert bent over his books. What went on in her mind? Did she realize that she was responsible for his face? She seemed perfectly unconscious … Had she forgotten? He looked up again and found her watching him. She wasn’t smiling; she was chewing thoughtfully on her pencil. He wondered if he dared ask for a date …

  CHAPTER IV

  The Saturday of the initiation was an open date on the football schedule; there was no game.

  Elsbeth came home from work and went straight to bed, and Robert got his own dinner. When it came time for him to leave, Elsbeth was asleep.

  Robert went over to Bob Goble’s house and found Bob in his car, a stripped-down V-8. With him were the two big tackles: John Strykos and Babe Bazzari. They sat in the front seat passing a jug of sherry back and forth; in the back were two more jugs.

  The three hailed Robert as a long-lost brother, and bundled him into the back seat. Robert was pleased and embarrassed.

  Bob started to pass the jug back to Robert. John Strykos said, “Hell, give Robert a full one; he’s a big boy.”

  Robert murmured something deprecatory. But he opened a jug, took a pull. The stuff was

  pretty good; it had an olive-and-nut flavor and puckered the inside of his mouth.

  “Don’t suppose the coach would go much for this,” said Robert humorously.

  “This stuff is good for a guy,” said Bazzari. “It puts steam in his pipes.”

  “Yeah,” said Robert, and took another swallow.

  “Hey,” said John, “it’s eight o’clock. Let’s get the show on the road.”

  “C’mon, c’mon,” agreed Bazzari, “let’s get go-mg!

  The Martin house on Vinedale Road had been vacant for eight months. It was an old-fashioned barn of a place, brown-shingled, half-submerged in ivy. The front door opened into an echoing living room, paneled with dark wood; an arch connected to the dining room, with the kitchen beyond. A hall gave access to two bedrooms and a bathroom. A big old house full of ghosts and faint sounds. A dozen redwood trees crowded the sky; the ground was dark and sour and dank. Hamilton Duncan, the present owner, had taken the house in satisfaction of a debt; now he found it impossible to get rid of.

  Dorothy Duncan was TriGamma. Her father had given her permission to use the house for the initiation. “Just be careful,” he warned her.

  “Don’t light any fires. And don’t raise too much hell, or you’ll have the sheriff out.”

  At two o’clock Saturday afternoon, eight of the nine members—all except Barbara Fisher—arrived at the Martin house; they opened the doors and windows, ran dust mops over the hardwood floors, laid out the secret properties of the order.

  There was only a sagging sofa and a few rickety chairs in the house; the girls arranged them in the living room, and spread blankets on the floor alongside the walls.

  At four o’clock, Barbara Fisher arrived with the four pledges and refreshments, which the pledges had been required to buy. The pledges were taken to the porch, blindfolded, led through the living room into one of the bedrooms; here they were allowed to remove their blindfolds. On the floor they found a pile of burlap sacks and a pair of scissors.

  “Okay, kids,” said Anne Bresdick. “There’s your clothes for the day.”

  “What are we supposed to do?” Julie asked.

  “Take off your outer clothes, shoes and socks. The rest of it’s up to you. There’s two sacks apiece.”

  Cutting appropriate holes, the girls made themselves costumes, using one sack for a skirt, the other as a blouse.

  At four-thirty, Barbara Fisher and Anne Bresdick came into the bedroom. They blindfolded the pledges and took them into the living room, lined them up with their backs to the sacred table.

  The pledges were sprayed with purifying fluids. Anne Bresdick, president of the order, addressed them in a solemn voice, and the rites began.

  At six o’clock they were allowed to remove the blindfolds, and now came the candlelighting ceremony. The room was dark: there was only the glow of a single big green candle. Each member held his own candle; the pledges were given new ones.

  “Each of these thirteen candles represents one of us,” said Anne. “They’ll be with us all our lives. They’re our sacred candles, and during the great moments of our lives we light them.

  “Each of you may now light your candle from the sacred green candle of the order.”

  Each of the four pledges lighted her candle, faces solemn and pale. The nine members approached the table and did likewise.

  The pledges were next sworn; they bound themselves never to reveal the secrets of the order, to stand by their sisters through thick and thin.

  Then came a ceremony with faintly erotic overtones. Each pledge lowered her burlap skirt and her step-ins and stood with her face to the wall.

  Lucia Small made restless rebellious sounds. Dean Pendry was flushed, excited. Cathy McDermott stood rigid as a statue. Julie Hovard waited.

  “A TriGamma now is a TriGamma always,” Anne Bresdick chanted. And the initiates chanted back, “A TriGamma now is a TriGamma always.”

  “A TriGamma now is a TriGamma always,” sang Anne, and the initiates sang dolefully back —over and over again, interrupting the liturgy with squeals as their buttocks were touched with black ink, pricked three times with a needle: tattooed.

  “Wherever you go, you now are proven TriGammas!”

  “Must I show my bottom every time somebody asks if I’m TriGamma?” growled Lucia, as they pulled up their garments.

  Each pledge wrote her name on a gummed slip, sealed it with a drop of blood, and pasted it over the name of the girl whose place she was stepping into. The candles were blown out; the initiates were congratulated at having passed the first phase of the ordeal.

  “First phase?” cried Julie. “Golly, do we have to go through more stuff?”

  “You’re all on probation until exactly one week from tonight—and then you become full members.”

  Cathy McDermott rubbed her new tattoo. “It itches … There’s nothing more like that, is there?”

  “No questions,” Anne said sternly.

  It was now 7:30; the boys would b
e arriving at any minute. The pledges were instructed in their duties; the members retired to the kitchen for Cokes.

  At eight o’clock, two cars arrived almost simultaneously. The boys piled out, climbed noisily up on the porch.

  Julie opened the door with a flourish, stepped back, knelt submissively as the boys marched in. Cathy, Lucia Small, and Dean Pendry performed low curtsies, ushered them into the room.

  Anne, looking through a crack in the door, whispered, “They’ve been drinking.” She giggled.

  Beaming aimlessly in all directions, Robert steered himself into a chair in the corner. He was still clasping his jug of sherry; to display his innate deviltry, he lifted the bottle and took a gulp.

  “Robert,” said Julie, “you’d better stop that, you’ll be so pie-eyed you won’t know what you’re doing.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” said Robert, and indeed he did; never before had he felt so astonishingly rational. He reached an arm out for Julie, who sprang back.

  “Easy, Robert,” called Bob Goble. “That’s for later.”

  The nine members made their entry. The pledges stood to the side, bowing deeply. Anne turned, flourished her arm in a regal gesture. “Slaves! Serve the ceremonial banquet!”

  “Oh, boy! We eat!” cried Babe Bazzari. “What-cha got?”

  The pledges came crouching in with sandwiches, potato chips, Cokes, and a case of canned beer.

  “In case somebody was thirsty,” said Barbara, slanting a look at Robert.

  “A noble sentiment!” said Omar Williams, the flashy left halfback. Omar was a great admirer of Robert’s; he felt in Robert something of the old crusader spirit, a ruthless hell-for-leather recklessness.

  Robert, totally unaware that anyone respected or admired him, sat quietly eating his second sandwich, and drinking beer.

  Somebody asked what was the program for the evening; Barbara asked provocatively what they wanted to do.

  “Hell,” said John Strykos, “this here is an initiation; we figure you girls want to be initiated.”

  “You forget,” said Anne with dignity, “that this is a serious occasion—a TriGamma initiation.”

  “Let’s drink to the initiation and hope it takes.”

  “If you like. Make mine a Coke.”

  “Aw, come on. Take a slug of the sherry. It’s good!”

  “No, sir. You drink it if you like it so much.”

  Robert, in the corner, took a drink; and presently realized it had been a mistake. His head was spinning; the room was bright and dim at the same time. Maybe if he walked around—or better, rested a moment or so in the other room …

  He rose to his feet, staggered out through the hall and into one of the bedrooms. Somebody ran after him: one of the girls. He never knew who it was.

  “It’s not in here, Robert—in fact, there isn’t any. Water’s shut off. You’ll have to go outside.”

  “Just want to rest,” Robert mumbled in a thick voice. “Just want to sit down a few minutes.”

  “Oh. Well, there’s nothing but the floor … If you want to go outside, that door opens on the porch.”

  “Thanks.” Robert sat down hard, his back to the wall, his head down over his chest.

  From the living room came a jumble of sound: voices, laughing, music from a portable radio, the shuffle of feet dancing …

  Anne said, “Now we’re going to have a command performance—a real talent show! TriGamma has just acquired four lovely young ladies, and tonight—just for tonight—they’ll do anything you ask them.”

  “Anything, eh?” John Strykos said. “Within certain limits. After all, this is the TriGamma.”

  “Okay, let’s see them dance the cancan.” Julie, Cathy, Lucia, and Dean danced their interpretation of the cancan.

  “Now they can do a strip-tease.” “I don’t know how,” said Julie simply. “There’s nothing to it. You just take off your clothes.”

  “That’s outside the limits,” said Dorothy Duncan.

  “Well, they can do a strip-tease without taking their clothes off. Just pretending.”

  “Well—I suppose it’s part of their education.” The four girls went awkwardly through the motions of throwing off their clothes.

  “Now,” said Bob Goble, “they’ve all got to go in the other room and kiss Robert.”

  Robert was feeling better. He was drawing deep breaths; his head felt securely anchored on his neck. Out in the living room he heard a great laugh, some voices raised in protest, other voices arguing. He heard footsteps in the hall; the door opened. Cathy McDermott came in holding a candle, followed by Dean Pendry and Lucia Small. Julie, opening cans of beer in the kitchen, had been delayed. Robert closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.

  There was silence. He felt their eyes on his face. The blood began to pound in his scars. He heard Cathy whisper, “He’s out. Dead drunk.”

  Robert breathed a little harder, and fought the temptation to open his eyes.

  “Listen,” said Lucia in a whisper, “let’s go back and say we kissed him. We don’t need to do it.”

  “Gaaa,” said Dean. “I just couldn’t take it.” “I couldn’t, either,” said Cathy. “Anybody but Robert. Simply anybody.”

  Fires were lighting inside Robert’s brain; he wanted to jump up, to smite, curse, hurt …

  Cathy said anxiously, “He is drunk, isn’t he? I thought I saw his face move.”

  “Hurry,” said Lucia. “Here, rub lipstick on him.”

  “You do it,” giggled Cathy. “I don’t want to touch him.”

  “Oh, we don’t need the lipstick. Let’s go back. And remember, we’ve got to make faces, and act disgusted . . .”

  He heard them leave the room, and he jumped to his feet, pressed back against the wall, staring

  into the blackness. Something hard and hot began to move up into his brain. He clenched and unclenched his hands, feeling the muscles twist in his arms.

  It was all so clear, suddenly. He’d sensed it a long time—but now it was like crystal. They hated him. And he hated them …

  Julie came into the room, holding a candle. She looked at him and grinned sheepishly.

  “They told me you were asleep.”

  “I’m not asleep.”

  She came a hesitant step nearer. “I’m supposed to kiss you.”

  Robert took a great breath; all the oxygen in the world entered his lungs, his blood stream; it rang up into his head. The dream … The dream … He remembered the dream …

  “Julie, put down the candle.”

  “Oh—Robert—let’s not make this too involved.”

  A bitter voice muttered inside Robert’s brain. Remember the dream? sang another voice. The blood pumped in his ears. He stepped forward. Julie said, “Robert, look out! The candle!”

  Robert spoke in a thick, rapid voice. “What are you staring at?”

  “You, of course.” She laughed nervously.

  “Don’t like my face, do you?”

  “Well—it could be improved.”

  “Yeah. I guess so.”

  “Oh, Robert, you shouldn’t talk like that. I’ve got to kiss you … Stand still …”

  In the living room, John Strykos noticed that Julie had been gone quite a while. “Robert seems to be making the grade.”

  Bob Goble, looking out the window, said, “Gripes! It’s the law!”

  A car with glaring red searchlights had quietly pulled into the driveway.

  “Ditch the sherry,” said John. “Hide the beer.”

  “Let’s get outa here,” said Babe Bazzari.

  “Is this all of you?” Sheriff Hartmann asked Dorothy Duncan.

  “This is all,” she said with great dignity. “We’re not doing anything wrong; this is my father’s house.”

  “All but Robert and Julie,” said Barbara.

  The sheriff sent a man into the house to check.

  Three or four minutes later the deputy called the sheriff to the house. After a minute, he came out. He seem
ed excited. “Okay. Give your names to the deputy, and go home, do you hear? Go home!”

  “But what about Julie—and Robert?”

  The sheriff smiled sourly. “You kids go home.”

  The hearing was conducted at a closed session of the juvenile court. Darrell Hovard had signed the complaint in his first flood of fury, with the image of Julie’s tear-swollen face stamped on his mind.

  Julie, after a medical examination and a good cry, seemed to have suffered small physical damage and certainly less psychological trauma than either Darrell or Margaret Hovard.

  Judge Theresa Kleiderle, presiding at juvenile court, remanded Robert to the Las Lomas Detention Home until his majority.

  “You got off lucky, kid,” said the beetle-browed deputy sheriff. “In this state it’s the gas chamber. Yeah, you got off easy.”

  “Yeah,” said Robert.

  Elsbeth had not been able to visit him in the jail; the fabric of her life had suddenly separated into shreds and ravels. She gave in to a fit of hysterics and was hustled to emergency hospital. During treatment a swelling on her lower abdomen was noticed, which under examination proved to be a tumor. Luckily Elsbeth was covered by health insurance sponsored by Hegenbels, and there would be no medical bills.

  The deputy took Robert to see his mother before they set out for Las Lomas. Robert was aghast to find her so drawn and pale, such a pitiful bundle of bones under the white coverlet.

  “Be a good boy, Robert. Always remember …”

  “Yes, Mother,” said Robert. He and the deputy caught the afternoon train.

  At school there was a clatter of talk. Julie dealt with the excited questions calmly enough. She said that Robert had merely tried to get fresh; that she had her hands full holding him off. She seemed so casual and unruffled that the event was no more than a nine-day wonder.

  By Christmas, Robert was hardly more than a name; at the end of the school year he was almost forgotten.