The Stake

“But you’ve got it?”

“But of course.” She dropped her denim bag on the sofa, unstrapped its top and slipped out a tall, thin volume. “It has to be returned tomorrow morning.”

“No problem.” Larry reached for it.

Lane clutched it to her chest and shook her head. “You owe me.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, that’s open to negotiation. I’ve had to make considerable sacrifices on your behalf. In particular, I’m obliged to help Mr. Kramer grade papers after school every day this week to pay him back for the favor.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I wouldn’t kid you.”

“He shouldn’t make you do that.”

“Well, I kind of made the offer, and he didn’t refuse.”

“Ah. Well, that’s different.”

“It’s still because of this,” she said and, gri

“Okay. What do you want?”

Her eyes rolled upward. “Let me think. My services don’t come cheap, you understand.”

“They never have.”

“Daaad!”

“Laaane.”

“You make me sound absolutely mercenary.”

“But you’re not.”

“Of course not. However, I just happened to notice an absolutely radical pair of denim boots a while back.”

“And you didn’t buy them?”

“I didn’t think I should. I’d already made a few purchases that day.”

“If you’re talking about the day your mother and I went on our last outing with Pete and Barbara, I remember it well.”

“I reallywanted those boots. But I held back. For your sake.”

“I’m touched. Truly.”

“So, can I have them?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Oh, Dad, you’re great!” She thrust the book at him. As Larry took it, she threw herself against him and gave him a quick kiss. Then she hurried toward the kitchen.

Larry retrieved his beer.

He heard Lane call out, “Yo! Mom! What’ve we got to eat around here? I’m dying.”

Larry shut the door to his office. He placed his beer on the coaster beside his word processor. He leaned back in his chair and rested the bottom of the book against his stomach. The blue cover was embossed with gold lettering that read, BUFORD MEMORIES ‘68.

This is it, he thought. My God, this is it.

His heart was racing. His stomach felt tight and shaky.

He opened the book. A quick riffle revealed glossy pages of black and white photographs. At the back was an index. The final page of the index listed students with S names. Larry slid his eyes down the column:

Sakai, Joan

Samilson, Pamela

Sanders, Timothy

Satmary, Maureen

Schaefer, Ronald

No Saxon, Bo

Come on! Larry thought. She hasto be in here.

Despairing, he flipped pages toward the front of the index. And spotted a subheading: FRESHMEN.

“Thank God,” he muttered.

In 1968, Bo

He thumbed the pages over, passing the lists of sophomores and juniors. Just above the heading JUNIORS was the name Zimmerman, Rhonda. Tail end of the senior class. He lifted his eyes to the left-hand corner. A senior named Simpson, Ke

Simpson. An S!

Larry clamped his lower lip between his teeth. He turned the page and worked his way up from the bottom:

Simmons, Dan

Seigel, Susan

Sefridge, John

Sclar, Toni

Schultz, Fred

Just another name in the index. Saxon, Bo

To the right of her name were page numbers. Six of them.

Six pages with photos of Bo

God almighty!

Larry sca

Bo

She must’ve been busy, Larry thought. And popular.

Popular girls are almost always pretty.

The first page number after her name was 34. Larry slipped a matchbook into the index to mark his place, turned to the front of the a

The first name in the upper left-hand corner was Bo

Larry shifted his eyes to the photo.

He moaned.

She was lovely. Radiant, adorable. Her gleaming blond hair swept softly across her brow, flowed down to her shoulders. Her eyes seemed to be directed at something wonderful just beyond the camera. They looked eager, cheerful. She had a small, cute nose. Her high cheeks curved smoothly above the corners of her mouth, as if lifted and shaped by her smile.

This was Bo

She looked quite a bit like Lane.

She looked very little like the corpse in the attic of his garage, but her hair and teeth and the general shape of her face convinced him that he had made no mistake: the body was Bo

The hideous cadaver had once been the girl in this photo — beautiful, glowing with youth.

Larry gazed at the picture.

Bo

He felt very strange: excited by his find, enthralled by her beauty, depressed. When the photo was taken, she must’ve thought a whole, wonderful life waited in her future. But she had only months, and then someone ended it all by pounding a stake through her chest.

This was no vampire.

This was a sweet, i

Probably a real heartbreaker. Every guy in school must’ve longed for her.

Had one of them killed her? A jealous boyfriend? She’d broken his heart, so he drove a stake through hers? Possible, Larry thought. But the stake in her chest and the crucifix on the staircase wall sure made it seem that somebody believed she was a vampire.

Larry gazed a little longer at the photo, then checked the index and turned to page 124. There, he found group pictures of the Public Relations Committee, the Program Committee, and the Art Club. He didn’t bother studying the lists of names. He wanted to search for Bo

The Public Relations Committee photo was overexposed. Most of the faces were little more than pale blurs, their features washed out and faint. Bo

Then he went on to the Program Committee photo. He half expected to find her here. Though he wasn’t sure about the functions of the Program Committee, Bo

He found her with the Art Club.

In the front row, second from the left, between a couple of gals who looked fat and dumpy.

Bo

Larry lifted the book, watching her grow as the page neared his eyes. He studied her face. In spite of the distance from which the photo had been taken, it had very good definition. All her features were clear. The collar of her blouse was open. He looked at her neck and saw the hollow of her throat, the faint curves of her collar bones. Lower, the rise of her breasts was no more than a hint. Larry followed her arms down to her hands. Her hands were open, fingers curled slightly inward against the fabric of her skirt. His gaze lingered on the slender curves of her bare legs.

One of her white socks was slightly lower than the other. If she’d known that, she probably would’ve fixed it. Larry could almost see her bending over and pulling up the sock. The image gave him a little ache, as if he’d missed something important by not being there.