Peculiar Tales Read Free Page B

under a full moon all night and you’re still you.”
    “My dear new friend. If there are were-animals doesn’t it make sense that there must also be were-humans?”
    As she turned to look at me the first rays of the rising sun topped the horizon ahead of us and fell fully onto her face. Her pale skin seemed to become incandescent, like white-hot iron, and for a moment I imagined her face melting in the glare.
    “Good grief!” I said. “I had no idea that your eyes were so big and round!”
    “All the better to see my handsome new friend!”
    “Your ears, too! I never noticed before how large they were!”
    “All the better to listen to the wonderful things you say to me!”
    “And your mouth...Holy smoke! Your teeth!”
    “Oh, Creighton, all the better to eat with!”
    Fortunately, there was a roadside diner just around the next bend. I wasn’t terribly hungry after everything I’d been through and just picked at my food but Susi ate like a wolf.

THE BRIDGE
    S he had one long, slim leg over the railing when I first spotted her. It was nearly midnight and what with that and the fog rolling over the bridge I would have missed her if I’d been on the other walkway. I trotted over and laid a hand on her arm. She hadn’t heard me coming and turned with a sharp gasp. I spoke before she could.
    “Jesus, lady, you gotta be more careful.”
    She shook her hair out of her face so she could see me. It was very nice hair and a very nice face. And the leg she swung back onto the walk was very nice, too.
    “What the hell is it to you?”
    “Nothing, I guess...”
    “Then why don’t you leave me the hell alone?”
    “I guess it’s just not in me to stand by and let someone have an accident.”
    “This wasn’t going to be no accident.”
    “That’s kind of what I figured. Want to talk about it?”
    “There’s nothing to talk about. And what’s it to you, anyway?”
    “Nothing. But what difference is it going to make one way or the other?”
    “You some sort of missionary or something? You trying to save my soul?”
    “Don’t make me laugh. I ain’t got a soul I’m aware of, so I’m in no position to try to save anyone else’s.”
    “Yeah, well, why don’t you just keep on heading toward wherever you were heading and let me get on with my...”
    “Life?”
    “Jesus Christ, mister—if I ain’t got enough problems already...”
    “We all got problems, lady.”
    I pulled out my last two Luckies and handed her one. I lit it for her. In the brief flare of the match her pale face looked as cold and smooth as vanilla ice cream. I sat on the curb and dragged on my butt. There was no traffic. It was late and the bridge went nowhere.
    Behind me, the girl was quiet. Then she said, “I made a mistake... I—I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I—I saw something I shouldn’t have. I talked about it. It—it made some people angry...very angry. They—they want to hurt me. Hurt me real bad.”
    “So jumping off a bridge is an improvement? Kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face, ain’t it?”
    “Not if you know these people. Better this way. Quicker.” She shuddered. “I know for sure it’d be quicker.”
    “Why not just run? Why not get out of town?”
    “What with? I ain’t got a dime to my name. How far could I get?”
    “I guess I can’t argue with you there. I ain’t had a job in two years. Got a wife and kid back in Oklahoma I ain’t seen in all that time. All I can do is send ‘em a couple a bucks whenever I can get work. It’s been pretty tough.”
    “It’s been tough all over, mister.”
    It was starting to drizzle and I stood up. I had a hat and even if my coat didn’t look like much any more it could still keep me dry. The girl didn’t have a hat or coat. She was shivering in a thin, damp dress and her wet hair looked like butterscotch poured over that ice cream face of hers. She took a final drag on her butt and threw it over the railing.
    “Yeah,”