“Something like that. She’s staying with Doctor Crowder and his busybody wife.”

“After she cooked us such a nice lunch, too,” remarked Harry.

Neil snapped, “Aren’t you ever serious? My boy’s going crazy with some Red Indian spirit inside him, and my wife’s walked out on me, and all you can do is crack half-assed jokes.”

Harry pulled an apologetic face. “Just tell me what else you can do when you’re faced with almost certain extinction.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Harry took out another cookie, and started to munch it. “It means that we don’t stand a chance. Did you see that car blow up? Do you know what did that?”

“I don’t know. Was it Toby?”

“Unh-hunh. It was Andy. He just folded his arms and said a few words and that whole damn car went up like a torch.”

Neil said, “I don’t understand it. He might have hurt Toby, and if Toby has Misquamacus inside of him…”

“I don’t suppose it would have mattered if you’d left Toby sitting right where he was. Misquamacus has as much control over fire as he does over wood and water. I didn’t want to take any risks, that was all.”

Neil let out a long, dispirited sigh. “Maybe I should call Susan,” he suggested.

Harry shook his head. “She’s probably safer where she is right now. It’s you and me and Singing Rock who are going to have to face up to the brunt of this thing. As I said, I don’t think we stand much of a chance. Misquamacus is determined to get us this time, and a few hundred thousand more white folks, and he’s not going to fail.”

There was a long, silent pause. Then Neil said quietly, “Harry.”

“What is it?”

“Well, it’s something that occurred to me last night, when those sheets were attacking Susan.”

Harry deliberately didn’t look at him, but finished his cookies and then took out his pack of Camel Lights.

Neil continued, “I figured that one of the reasons why Misquamacus chose Toby and all the rest of those children was because he wanted to make his reappearance inside people that the community normally goes out of its way to protect. I mean, if he’d chosen twenty-two convicts at Folsom, it might have been an easier choice for us to get rid of them.”

There was another pause, and then Neil said, “Last night, I seriously considered going for my shotgun and blowing Toby’s head off.”

Harry lit a cigarette and eyed Neil narrowly through the rising smoke.

“Sure you considered it,” he said.

“You’re not shocked?”

“Why should I be? Plenty of fathers have sent their sons off to die to protect their countries. Why should you be any different?”

“He’s my only son, Harry.”