The Traveling Vampire Show(131)

 

Some applause came from the crowd, but not much.

 

“PERHAPS HE DESERVED WORSE THAN HE GOT.”

 

With that comment, Stryker won over a good portion of the remaining spectators. They laughed and cheered.

 

“BUT THE SCRAWNY LITTLE BASTARD CAME WITHIN A MERE SEVENTEEN SECONDS OF WALKING HOME WITH FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS CASH MONEY IN HIS POCKET! HE LASTED THAT LONG, FOLKS. IF HE CAN STICK IT OUT—NO PUN INTENDED....”

 

Laughter, groans, applause.

 

“IF CHESTER CAN LAST THAT LONG, WHY NOT YOU? OUTLAST HIM BY A MEAGER SEVENTEEN SECONDS AND YOU’LL WIN THE BIG PRIZE. NOW, HOW ABOUT IT, FOLKS? DO WE HAVE A VOLUNTEER?”

 

“I’ll take her!” shouted someone behind me.

 

I recognized the voice.

 

As shouts and cheers erupted from the crowd, I twisted around and saw Scotty Douglas near the top of the bleachers. Though standing up, he wasn’t going anywhere yet. He stood there smirking, flanked by five or six of his hoodlum friends including a couple of tough-looking gals. Not letting the hot night get in the way of fashion, they all wore black leather jackets. I didn’t know any of the others, but I had no trouble recognizing Scotty.

 

Even though I hadn’t seen him in a long time (he’d dropped out of high school after his junior year and moved to Clement), the sight of him gave me a sickish feeling in my stomach. It was pretty much the same feeling I’d gotten a couple of years earlier when he and his two buddies, Tim and Smack, went after Slim and Rusty and me when we were at Janks Field for archery practice.

 

He looked about the same as always: greasy hair piled high on his head, long sideburns, black leather jacket, white T-shirt and blue jeans. He wore a familiar sneer on his face. A cigarette dangled from a comer from his lips.

 

“YOU!” Stryker announced. “YOU UP THERE IN THE LEATHER JACKET!”

 

Scotty nodded, winked toward Stryker, then turned to his friends. He spoke to them for a few seconds—probably cracking wise about how he would decimate Valeria. After that, he stripped off his leather jacket and handed it to one of the gals. Then he started to work his way across the row.

 

He’d gained a scar on his left cheek since the last time I’d seen him. Also, he looked as if he’d gained about twenty pounds of muscle.

 

Rusty said, “Jesus H. Christ, is that who I think it is?”

 

“It’s him, all right,” I said.

 

“The Douglas kid?” Lee asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I knew his big brother. A real ... jerk.”

 

“Must run in the family,” I said.

 

I watched Scotty make his way down the bleachers and enter the arena. He didn’t seem to have a limp anymore, but I bet he still had a scar from Slim’s arrow.

 

He was wearing motorcycle boots, the same as always.

 

Cigarette hanging off his lower lip, he took the clipboard from Valeria and signed it. Then he tossed his butt into the dirt, climbed the stairs and entered the cage.

 

“NAME’S SCOT DOUGLAS,” he said into Stryker’s microphone. “I’M HERE TO COLLECT MY FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS.”

 

The grandstands went wild with shouts and hoots and whistles. The worst of the noise came from behind us. Looking over my shoulder, I saw what I expected: Scotty’s friends were on their feet, a couple of them waving and shrieking while three were busy giving out ear-splitting whistles with the help of fingers buried in their mouths.

 

“THINK YOU CAN BEAT CHESTER’S RECORD?” Stryker asked.

 

“DAMN RIGHT, SPORT.”

 

“WELL, GOOD LUCK TO YOU.” Spurs jingling, Stryker walked out of the cage and trotted down the stairs to the ground. He raised his stopwatch. “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET THE CONTEST BEGIN!”

 

For a while, Scotty and Valeria stood a few feet apart, looking each other over ... Scotty smirking, Valeria glaring back at him with narrow eyes. Then they started circling like a couple of wrestlers.

 

The crowd went silent.

 

Scotty peeled off his T-shirt. Holding it in one hand, he swung it like a towel, sweeping it past Valeria’s face, snapping it at her bare midriff.

 

Way off beyond the other bleachers, the sky flashed as if a monstrous light bulb had burst to life inside a thunderhead, shuddered and quickly died.

 

Scotty whipped his T-shirt at Valeria’s face. She tore it from his hands and the wind tossed it across the cage.

 

Thunder grumbled through the night.

 

Here it comes, I thought. All day long, the sky had been grim with clouds, the air heavy and moist and hot. Now the storm would come ... in time to spoil the show.

 

It isn’t here yet, I told myself.