has keeled over in her absence! We’ve got to get Granny out, assuming that Granny has not already been unceremoniously dumped into the drink! And what drink, what slime! The smell was the greenest smell she had ever smelled, oh, but when she looked up, the sky was that glowing pink that it can be in the Louisiana night, and the disappearing trees stuck their futile little branches out to connect with each other, and the moss became translucent, veils and veils of moss. The birds, listen to the birds crying. The very topmost branches were thin and covered over with webs, silvery webs, were they spiders or silkworms?
“I do see the charm of this place,” she said. “If only that house wasn’t about to topple.”
Mama.
I’m here, Morrigan.
There was a sound on the road behind her. Christ, Mary Jane was running towards her, all alone in the dark. The least she could do was turn around and hold up the lantern. Her back ached now almost unbearably, and she wasn’t even lifting anything or trying to reach anything, just holding up this awfully heavy lantern.
And is this theory of evolution supposed to account for absolutely every species on the planet at this time? I mean, there is no secondary theory, perhaps, of spontaneous development?
She shook herself awake all over. Besides, she didn’t know the answer to that question. Truth was, evolution had never seemed logical to her. Science has reached a point where once again various kinds of beliefs, once condemned as metaphysical, are now entirely possible.
Mary Jane came right out of the blackness, running like a little girl, clasping her high-heeled shoes together in the fingers of her right hand. When she got to Mona, she stopped, bent over double, and caught her breath and then looked at Mona.
“Jesus Christ, Mona Mayfair,” she said with anxious gasps, her pretty face gleaming with a thin polish of sweat, “I’ve got to get you to that house pronto.”
“Your panty hose are split to pieces.”
“Well, I should hope so,” said Mary Jane. “I hate them.” She picked up the ice chest and started running down the pier. “Come on, Mona, hurry it up. You’re going to die on me right here.”
“Will you stop that? The baby can hear you!”
There was a loud noise, a splash. Mary Jane had heaved the ice chest into the boat. So that meant there was a boat. Mona tried to hurry across the creaky, splintery boards, but each step was excruciating for her. Then, quite suddenly, she felt the real thing, had to be. A pain like a whip wrapping around her back and her waist, or what was left of her waist. She stopped, biting down hard not to shout.
Mary Jane was running back to the boat already with her second load.
“I want to help,” said Mona, but she could barely get out the last word. She walked slowly to the edge of the pier, thinking she was glad she had on her flat slippers, though she couldn’t really remember thinking to put them on, and then she saw the wide shallow pirogue as Mary Jane put in the last of the sacks, and all the tumbling pillows and blankets.
“Now gimme that lantern and you stay right there till I back her up.”
“Mary Jane, I’m kind of, well, sort of, scared of the water? I mean I feel real clumsy, Mary Jane, I don’t know if I should climb into the boat.”
The pain flashed again. Mama, I love you, I’m afraid.
“Well, don’t be afraid, shut up!” said Mona.
“What did you say?” asked Mary Jane.
Mary Jane jumped in the big metal pirogue, grabbed the long stick that was somehow anchored to the side, and then backed up the boat with some quick dipping pushes. The lantern stood at the very front, like there was a little bench or something especially for it. All the stuff was behind her.
“Come on now, honey, just step into it, quick-like, yeah, that’s right, both feet.”
“Oh God, we’re going to drown.”
“Now, darlin’, that’s plain silly, this water isn’t six feet deep here! We’ll get filthy, but we won’t drown.”
“I could easily drown in six feet of water,” said Mona. “And the house, Mary Jane, look at the house.”
“What about it?”
The world mercifully ceased to rock and roll. Mona was hurting Mary Jane’s hand, probably. And now Mary Jane had to let go. Okay, easy! Mary Jane had both hands on the pole, and they were moving away from the pier.