Sacrament

'Your cocktail, sir,' Adria

'It's not like Cornelius to miss vodka,' Adria

'You just want an excuse to check out the Brothers Grimm,' Will said.

Adria

'Is he the one with the beer belly?'

'Yep.'

'He's all yours. Anyway, I think they're a package deal. You can't have one without the other.'

Will picked up his cigarettes and wandered over to the front door, taking his martini with him. He turned on the porch-light, opened the door and leaning against the door-jamb lit a cigarette. The Tegelstrom kids had gone inside, and were probably tucked up in bed by now, but the lights Peter had put up to entertain them were still bright: a halo of orange pumpkins and white skulls around the house, rocking gently in the gusting wind.

'I've got something to tell you,' Will said. 'I was going to wait for Cornelius but ... I don't think there's going to be another book after this.'

'I knew you were fretting about something. I thought maybe it was me-'

'Oh God no,' Will said. 'You're the best, Adie. Without you and Cornelius I'd have given up on all this shit a long time ago.'

'So why now?'

'I'm out of love with the whole thing,' he said. 'None of it makes any difference. We'll show the pictures of the bears and all it'll do is make more people come and watch them getting their noses stuck in mayo

'What will you do instead?'

'I don't know. It's a good question. It feels like ... I don't know...'

'What does it feel like?'

'That everything's winding down. I'm forty-one and it feels like I've seen too much and been too many places and it's all blurred together. There's no magic left. I've done my drugs. I've had my infatuations. I've outgrown Wagner. This is as good as it's going to get. And it's not that great.'

Adria

'Are you mocking my e

'Yes.'

'I thought so.' 'You're tired. You should take a year off. Go sit in the sun with a beautiful boy. That's Dr Adria

'Will you find me the boy?'

'Oh Lord. Are you that exhausted?'

'I couldn't cruise a bar if my life depended upon it.'

'So don't. Have another martini.'

'No, I've got a better idea,' Will said. 'You make the drinks, I'll go fetch Cornelius. Then we can all get maudlin together.'

CHAPTER VI

Cornelius had spent the dregs of the afternoon with the Lauterbach brothers, and had a fine time of it, watching the wrestling flicks and smoking their weed. He'd left as darkness fell, intending to head back to the house for a couple of shots of vodka, but halfway along Main Street the prospect of dealing with Adria

As he walked, weaving between the houses, the wind carried flecks of snow from across the Bay, grazing his face. He stopped beneath one of the lamps that illuminated the ground between the back of the houses and the water's edge and turned his face up to the light so as to watch the flakes spilling down. 'Pretty ...' he said to himself. So much prettier than bears. When he got back, he'd tell Will he should give up with animals and start photographing snowflakes instead. They were a lot more endangered, his gently befuddled wits decided. As soon as the sun came out they were gone, weren't they? All their perfection, melted away. It was tragic.

Will didn't get as far as the Lauterbach house. He'd trudged maybe a hundred yards down Main Street - the wind getting stronger with every gust, the snow it carried thickening - when he caught sight of Cornelius, reeling around, face to the sky. He was obviously high, which was no great surprise. It had always been Cornelius' way of dealing with life, and Will had far too many quirks of his own to be judgmental about it. But there was a time and a place for such excesses, and the Main Street of Balthazar in bear season was not one of them.

'Cornelius!' Will yelled. 'Cornelius? Can you hear me?'

The answer was apparently no. Cornelius just kept up his dervish dance under the lamp. Will started down the street in the man's direction, cursing him ripely as he went. He didn't waste his breath shouting, the wind was too strong, but part of the way down the street he regretted not doing so because without warning Cornelius gave up his spi

He'd reached the spot where Cornelius had been dancing, and followed his tracks away from the comfort of the lamplight into the murky no-man's-land between the houses and the tidal flats. There he was pleased to discover Cornelius' phantom figure standing maybe fifty yards from him. He'd given up his spi

'Hey, buddy!' Will called to him. 'You're going to get pneumonia.' Cornelius didn't turn. In fact he didn't move so much as a muscle. What kind of pills had he been popping?, Will wondered. 'Con!' he yelled again. He was no more than twenty yards from Cornelius' back. 'It's Will! Are you okay? Talk to me, man.' Finally, Cornelius spoke. One slurred word that stopped Will in his friend's tracks.

'Bear.'

There was a cloud of breath at Will's lips. He waited, as still as Cornelius, while the cloud cleared, then sca

He dared a one-word question.

'Where?'

'Ahead. Of. Me.' Cornelius replied.

Will took a very slow sideways step. Cornelius' drug-induced senses were not deceiving him. There was indeed a bear maybe sixteen or seventeen yards in front of him, its form barely visible to Will through the snow- flecked murk.

'Are you still there, Will?' Cornelius said.

'I'm here.'

'What the fuck do I do?'

'Back off. But, Con: very, very slowly.'

Cornelius glanced back over his shoulder, his stricken face suddenly sober.

'Don't look at me,' Will said. 'Keep your eyes on the animal.'

Cornelius looked back towards the bear, which had begun its implacable approach. This wasn't one of the playful adolescents from the dump; nor was it the blind old warrior Will had photographed. This was a fully grown female; a good six hundred pounds.

'Fuck...' Cornelius muttered.

'Just keep coming,' Will coaxed him. 'You're going to be okay. Just don't let her think you're anything worth chasing.'

Cornelius managed three tentative backward steps, but his equilibrium was poor after the dervish act, and on the fourth step his heel slid on the slick ground. He flailed for a moment, then recovered his balance, but the harm was done. Hissing her intentions, the bear gave up her plod and came bounding at him. Cornelius turned and ran, the bear roaring in pursuit, her body a blur. Weaponless, all Will could do was dodge out of Cornelius' path and yell himself hoarse in the hope of distracting the animal. But it was Cornelius she wanted. In two bounds she'd halved the distance between them, jaws wide in readiness