Christy showed him all the points of interest that were not on the tourist maps, and not necessarily even open to the public. They got chewed out and chased off on several occasions. The last one she took him to was a tiny hole-in-the-wall shop that had no name or any kind of sign out front. It was in a back alley, and Henry would have never noticed it if she didn’t show him where it was.
“I’ve heard there’s something funny about this place,” she whispered. “You need some kind of private membership to go in. I don’t know what it is, but my dad told me never to come here. I think it’s a whorehouse.”
The doorway was dim as a cave, the window draped in black. A huge green dragonfly was trapped inside the window.
“I dare you to go in and catch it,” she said.
“I dare you.”
“I will if you will.”
“Go ahead.”
“You go first.”
Trying to impress her, Henry crept through the doorway and into a tiny foyer. Inside was a second door padded with red leather, and he pushed on through to a dingy white-tiled room. It was chilly inside, lit with buzzing fluorescents. In the back was a refrigerated display case full of meat. Several spindly café tables and chairs stood against the walls, and at one table sat two emaciated old women, frozen mid-spoonful to stare at Henry. Trying to ignore them, he hurriedly pushed aside the heavy window curtain.
There it was against the glass, the biggest dragonfly he had ever seen, perfect and still as a metallic green toy. Normally Henry had no fear of bugs, but this was an unusually large specimen, and he didn’t quite know how to take hold of it. He didn’t think it could bite or sting him, but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure. He also didn’t want to hurt or kill it by accident. He had never caught a dragonfly with his bare hands before.
As he hesitated, the dragonfly suddenly came to life, its cellophane wings battering between the drapes and the windowpane. Panicking, Henry hesitantly grabbed at the madly-whirring object, almost catching it but then fumbling so that it was loosed in the room. He ran after it, following below as the dragonfly sputtered against the ceiling. With Henry in hot pursuit, it flew over the counter and disappeared through a back doorway.
Shoot, he thought.
Creeping behind the counter, he could see something peculiar beyond that door. Behind a beaded curtain was a large metal tub. There was a naked person lying in the tub face down—Henry could make out waxy legs and callused yellow feet. He couldn’t see the whole body, but he could see bare buttocks and a bowl with something red in it. An array of shiny steel knives was laid out on a tray.
It made him think of all the secrets he had glimpsed in the weird rooms of his grandparents’ hotel; visions into the scary inner workings of the adult world. Henry didn’t know what any of it meant, and didn’t want to know. All he knew—and not for the first time in his life—was that this was someplace he was not supposed to be. Then he heard approaching footsteps.
Backing out as fast as he could, he ran into someone—a bony, unyielding body. Cool fingers pinched his earlobe, their long nails pricking sharply. He looked up.
It was one of the old women, staring walleyed at him out of a face like a withered brown apple.
“What’s your hurry?” she cooed. Before he could react, the woman put her nose in his hair and sniffed deeply. “Mmmm,” she breathed, nibbling at his scalp as if grazing.
The other woman was pressing in on him as well, her claw-like hand caressing his face, her thumb in his mouth. And now Henry could see the figure of the Butcher charging out of the kitchen in his spattered apron. “Hold on, son, I gotcha,” the man called briskly. “I gotcha, hold on.”
Henry dodged like a rabbit, moving faster than he ever had in his life. Without thinking, he spun clear of the women and barreled through the exit.
“Wudja see, wudja see?” Christy pressed eagerly when he darted out. She hadn’t come inside at all.
“Run!” he screamed, and the two of them flew halfway across town in delicious fright.
When they finally ran out of steam, Christy gasped, “What—what happened?”