"Blackburn's Lady" was first published in the 2000 World Fantasy Convention Program Book, El Dia de los Muertos, in Corpus Christi, Texas.  It was also published as the chapbook Blackburn's Lady by Subterranean Press in 2001 (Cover Art by John Picacio; Interior Design by Tim Holt).

    This story is dedicated to my Ax Nelson bandmates -- Ben Armendariz, Cameron Gordon, and Efraim Armendariz.

    "Blackburn's Lady" Copyright 2000 by Bradley Denton.  Please do not post or publish any part of this story without the author's permission.

    Blackburn's Lady

          by Bradley Denton

                               ***

                     para Ben, Cameron, y Efraim

                               ***

     Working on the roof of what would become Port Isabel Bait & Grocery wasn't too bad. Sure, the stuff on the radio was awful -- it was political ads, "Muskrat Love," and "Disco Duck" over and over again -- but Blackburn didn't mind. The fall weather was clear and warm, and the view eastward across the Laguna Madre was entertaining. Blackburn was able to nail shingles and watch for dolphins at the same time. Once or twice an hour, he saw some. They played in the wakes of powerboats or raced alongside sailboats, leaping up in perfect arcs and then vanishing without a splash. There always seemed to be two of them, as if they were lifelong partners.

     Blackburn had been thinking about partnership a lot lately, so he took frequent breaks to go down into the store for a Dr Pepper. He wasn't all that thirsty, because it was only eighty degrees up on the roof. But Laura was in the store getting the place ready for her Halloween party tonight. And although she had already turned him down fifty or sixty times, the good humor of her refusals only encouraged him. Blackburn thought she knew it, too.

     She was standing on a stepladder in the center of the empty floor when he came inside for the tenth time at 4:15. Her back was to him, so he stood in the doorway for a while and admired the fit of her jeans and T-shirt.

     "Cut that out," she said without looking back. She was pushing a thumbtack into a ceiling tile and having trouble getting it to stay. A cardboard skeleton dangled on a string below the thumbtack, and it grinned past Laura's ear at Blackburn.

     He came across and stood behind her. "I'll give you a hand," he said.

     "I'll bet you will."

     "No, really. I've been pounding nails all day. I bet I can get that tack in."

     "Don't make me turn the hose on you, Jimmy." Laura pushed the tack home with a grunt, then waved Blackburn back and came down off the ladder. The cardboard skeleton spun on its string, its arms and legs swinging.

     Blackburn reached past Laura to steady it. It was an excuse to let his arm brush against her shoulder.

     Laura stepped to one side. "Go put on a shirt, for crying out loud."

     "But I'm all hot and sweaty."

     "Uh-huh. You're still on the clock, too. I know it's Sunday, but you have to finish this afternoon. It's not supposed to rain until after midnight, but you've only got 'til 5:30 because the party starts at 6:00. Instead of working, though, you've been down here slurping up soda pop every ten minutes."

     Blackburn spread his hands. "It's all done up there. I'm young and strong, and I drove every one of those nails home. Each shingle is a snug and perfect fit."

     "Hoo boy."

     "I just came in to see what I can do for you next."

     Laura rolled her eyes. "Well, after putting on a shirt, you can finish nailing up the party lights around the eaves. Take the stepladder. The other one's too big."

     "Gotcha," Blackburn said. "I know all about proper tool usage."

     "That's just about enough." Laura went behind the counter where the cash register would go. "Look, I don't mean to be harsh -- but I'm the boss, you're the employee, and I don't want you making those comments anymore. Okay?"

     Blackburn looked at her opal eyes and saw that she meant it. "Sure," he said. "I'm sorry." He folded up the stepladder and started toward the door with it.

     "Jimmy."

     He stopped, his face burning, and almost didn't look at her. But then he did. He couldn't not look at her.

     "I'm not mad, all right?" Laura said.

     "If you say so." Blackburn squeezed the stepladder.

     Laura brushed her mahogany hair away from her face. "I just don't want things to get weird, that's all. And I'll tell you why. I'm opening in a week, and I think I can ask you to stay on. I want to give it a try, anyhow, because you've been a hard worker. I couldn't have gotten the place fixed up without you."

     "It's been fun," Blackburn said.

     Laura smiled, and Blackburn was thrilled to see it. "For me too," she said. "Besides, you've been a friend to David -- and he's needed all the friends he can get since our mother and his dad died. My grandfather was right about you. So, do you think you might want to be a store clerk and general gofer?"

     Blackburn wasn't sure he was the store-clerk-and-general-gofer type, but he would have considered being a knife-thrower's assistant if Laura had suggested it.

     "I don't see why not," he said.

     "Good." Laura's expression turned serious again. "But the flirting has to stop."

     "You've been flirting back," Blackburn pointed out.

     Laura made a tsk sound. "I know, but I'm going to stop too. What are you, sweetie, nineteen?"

     "Eighteen and a half. So what?"

     "I've got fifteen years on you, that's what. You're too young for me, kid. Besides, you'll take one look at the girls here tonight, and then all I'll be is that rotten Ol' Lady Arocho who doesn't pay you enough."

     "You pay me plenty," Blackburn said. "Especially with the room and board." He took another step toward the door, then stopped again. "I don't think thirty-three is old."

     "I didn't say I was too old for you, muchacho. I said you were too young for me."

     Blackburn wasn't sure he saw the difference. "I think the real reason is Billy." He tried not to sound grumpy about it.

     Laura dropped her elbows to the counter and put her head in her hands. "You're giving me such a headache. Now get going before I give the clerk-and-gofer job to David. Child-labor laws be damned."

     Blackburn went out to put up the lights. Where he had grown up they would have been Christmas lights and nothing more, but things were different down here. People were different. Holidays were different. Here, Halloween bled into the Day of the Dead, and folks partied for three days straight if they could.

     He liked it here. Seventeen months ago, he had been heading south with the idea that he would go to Mexico. But his stolen Ford had broken down in Harlingen, so he had wound up working from truck farm to truck farm for over a year. And then he had run out of land at Port Isabel.

     At first he had worried that the law would track him down if he stayed anywhere in the U.S. for more than a few weeks. But so far nothing had happened. He had a forged Social Security card and driver's license in the name of "James Baines," and no one had questioned them. In fact, he thought he could have used his real name and gotten away with it. After all, the deaths of a sadistic cop in Kansas and a wife-beater in the Ozarks wouldn't bother too many people in South Texas.

     He looked in through the windows at Laura putting another skeleton on the wall. Yes, he liked it here a lot.

                                        #

     Blackburn nailed up the last of the lights at the back of the store, where a concrete patio sloped down to a wooden pier that extended forty feet northeast into the Laguna. So when he came down from the stepladder, he walked out to the end of the pier so he could look back and admire the job he had done on the roof. But he had to squint. The sun was low enough to touch the shingles now.

     It was too bright, so he turned toward the southeast, enjoying the salt breeze on his chest, and could see the white cone of the old lighthouse rising up downshore. He kept turning, trying to catch more of the breeze coming off the water, and his gaze followed the three-mile arc of the causeway across to South Padre Island. He could just make out a few cars scurrying back and forth like soldier ants. A barge was sliding underneath, heading north along the Intracoastal Waterway ship channel.

     Then the breeze died, leaving a dead-fish odor, so Blackburn turned to go back up to the store. As he did, he glanced at Laura's house next door and saw that her half-brother, David, and her grandfather, Luis, had come outside. They were standing in the narrow back yard, looking across the Laguna as Blackburn had done. Luis was leaning on his cane and peering out from under his straw hat as if trying to see something far away.

     David saw Blackburn walking in off the pier and waved. Blackburn waved back, and David came running over. He met Blackburn on the patio.

     He was a little kid, small for a ten-year-old. He only came up to Blackburn's waist. He was wearing cut-offs, flip-flops, and a Batman T-shirt that was two sizes too big. His hair was straight and black. He looked up at Blackburn and grinned.

     "Did you try to kiss Laura today?" he asked. He had picked up on Blackburn's desire for Laura almost before Blackburn had. That had been three and a half weeks ago, and he had been teasing Blackburn about it ever since.

     "Nope," Blackburn said, folding up the stepladder. He opened the back door to the stockroom and took the stepladder inside, and David followed him.

     "Will you try at the party tonight?" David asked.

     Blackburn propped the stepladder against the wall next to his cot. Then he looked down at the grinning boy and tried to put on a stern face. "Let me explain something. You don't try to kiss a girl. You do it, or you don't."

     "Okay," David said. "So are you going to or not?"

     "It's looking like not."

     David's grin faded. "I guess that means you'll go work for someone else now. Grampa Luis says you've finished the roof."

     "He's right," Blackburn said. "But Laura says I can maybe work for her in the store."

     Immediately, David was grinning again. "So you might kiss her after all."

     "That's up to her."

     But David didn't hear that. He was backing outside, making puckered-lipped faces and smooching sounds.

     Blackburn knew it was an invitation to give chase, so he did. David fled to his back yard, shouting in Spanish to his grandfather. Blackburn couldn't understand all of it, but he had picked up enough from the guys at the truck farms to know that David was telling Luis that Jimmy was staying after all.

     Luis turned from the Laguna Madre, and he smiled at David and nodded to Blackburn as they came running up. Blackburn nodded back. He and Luis had known each other for two months and were good friends even though they had never exchanged an understandable word. Luis spoke no English, and Blackburn couldn't understand Luis's Spanish. Luis didn't have many teeth left, and he spoke in a low voice. They had David or Laura translate for them when it was necessary, but it usually wasn't.

     Blackburn had met Luis by becoming a regular at the Bueno Cafe on Garcia Street. Unlike the touristy restaurants, the Bueno was the sort of gritty cafe where working-class men met for breakfast, lunch, and bullshit -- and there, Blackburn and Luis had forged a language between them that consisted of coffee, migas, dominoes, and the occasional cerveza.

     Luis had seen something in Blackburn and had insisted that Laura hire him to help with the repairs on the Bait & Grocery. So Laura had done so, paying him a hundred and fifty a week plus room and board. It was a fortune. Of course, she was also breaking his heart. So there was a downside too.

     Luis said something to David, and David translated.

     "He says you'll stay here until your lady takes you away," David said to Blackburn. Then he frowned. "I think he means he's glad you're not going."

     Luis patted Blackburn's arm, then said something else.

     "He says you should go wash up," David said. "The party will start soon."

     So Blackburn started to go. But then he saw that Luis was once again gazing off toward South Padre.

     "What's he looking at?" Blackburn asked. "Dolphins?"

     David asked Luis, and Luis answered without shifting his gaze.

     "He's expecting someone," David said.

                                        #

     Blackburn took a sponge bath in the stockroom sink and then fell asleep on his cot, more tired than he had realized from finishing the roof. So the fiesta  was already underway when he opened the stockroom's inner door and stepped into the store. He had combed his sandy hair and was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and a decent pair of jeans. The shirt was the only one he owned with buttons, and he hoped Laura would notice that he had dressed up for the occasion.

     A few people were in the store chatting, but Blackburn didn't know them. So he just smiled and walked out to the parking lot, where most of Laura's guests were gathering. There were about twenty so far. Dusk had fallen, and the parking lot's floodlights and the multicolored bulbs around the store's eaves were lit. A big pot-bellied guy Blackburn recognized as a semi-regular at the Bueno Cafe was firing up a barbecue made from a fifty-five-gallon drum. Conjunto music was blaring from the speakers in the open doors of one of the pickup trucks parked off the edge of the pavement, and kids in costume -- mostly skeletons, with a few vampires and devils -- were running around squealing. It was shaping up to be a great party.

     David, dressed in a red devil suit complete with a horned hood and a tail, split off from the pack and came running up to Blackburn. He had the arrow-shaped end of his tail in one hand, and he pointed it at Blackburn.

     "I want your soul!" he said in a deep devil-voice.

     Blackburn grinned. "Too late."

     David broke character. "What took you so long? I wanted to look for you, but Laura wouldn't let me. She said you'd show up in your own sweet time."

     That didn't sound good. "I fell asleep for a while," Blackburn said. "But I wouldn't miss your Halloween party."

     "It's a Day of the Dead party, too," David said. "See all the skeletons?"

     "Pretty spooky."

     "It's not supposed to be spooky," David said. "It's supposed to be fun. Ask Laura."

     Blackburn scanned the parking lot. "Where is she?"

     David scowled. "She's with Uncle Billy, getting ice or something. It's taking them a long time." He looked toward the house. "I think he might kiss her. You'd better go stop him."

     Blackburn considered it, then gave David a soft thump on the shoulder. "You're trying to tempt me, Satan."

     David looked up, back in character again. "It's my job," he growled. "Moohoohahahaa!" Then he ran off in response to a shout from one of his friends.

     More vehicles were arriving now, and several ladies were bringing Tupperware dishes and aluminum pans to tables at the northwestern edge of the parking lot. Blackburn was hungry, so he wandered over, trying not to think that if he walked a few dozen yards farther, he would be at Laura's house.

     The ladies setting out the food told him to dig in. Others were already digging in too, so Blackburn accepted a cardboard picnic plate and loaded it with tamales, guacamole, cabrito, and a couple of sweet rolls with bone-shaped decorations on top. Kids dove in and out between the adults, grabbing skull-shaped candies and skeleton cookies. Some of the ladies shouted at the kids in Spanish -- telling them, Blackburn guessed, to eat something besides sweets, for God's sake. But the kids paid no attention. They were whirling like dervishes.

     When Blackburn's plate was full, he carried it around back, thinking that he would sit on the pier to eat. But when he came around the corner onto the patio, he saw Laura and Billy standing under the patio floodlight. They were looking out toward the end of the pier, where Luis was leaning on his cane. Blackburn almost turned around, but it was too late. Billy was waving him over.

     Blackburn tried not to grimace. Billy owned a Gulf station in Brownsville, but he showed up here almost every day. Blackburn didn't like him, but he knew that was only because Billy was after Laura. And Blackburn couldn't fault him for that. Not as long as Laura didn't mind. And she didn't seem to. After all, Billy was about her age.

     So Blackburn went on over, trying not to stare at Laura in her ruffled white blouse and long black skirt. But that meant he had to look at Billy, who was short but handsome in a leathery sort of way. He was wearing a charcoal-gray Stetson, a long-sleeved Western shirt with pearl buttons, a tooled-leather belt with a big brass buckle, and brand-new Wranglers with snakeskin boots. Blackburn guessed that Laura wouldn't be impressed with a short-sleeved shirt with buttons after all.

     "Lemme ask you something, Jimmy," Billy said in a loud drawl. "What d'you figure Grampa Luis is doin' out there? We hollered at him to come on 'cause the party's startin', and I even went out and tried to steer him back. But he won't have it."

     "He's expecting someone," Blackburn said. He was annoyed that Billy had called Luis "Grampa." Billy was Laura's mother's second husband's younger brother, which made him David's uncle . . . but he wasn't related to Luis at all. Besides, only David ought to be allowed to call Luis "Grampa" in any case. Even Laura didn't do that. It didn't sound respectful coming from an adult.

     Laura didn't seem to notice the transgression. She just looked worried. "He acts so confused sometimes," she said. "But he's as stubborn as ever." She looked at Blackburn. "Maybe if you go talk to him. He likes you."

     Blackburn thought about it. "I don't know," he said. "If he wants to stand out on the pier, what's the harm?"

     "He had a stroke last winter," Laura said. "He could lose his balance. He could fall."

     Blackburn looked into her eyes and thought he might fall himself. So he walked on out to the end of the pier.

     Luis glanced at him and nodded. Blackburn nodded back and offered his plate. Luis took a tamale, shucked the cornhusk, and took a bite. He made a satisfied noise and then looked out over the water again.

     Blackburn ate a tamale as well, and then a pastry. It was sugary and sticky. He offered Luis the other one. Luis took it and made another satisfied noise. Together, they cleaned up the plate.

     "Hey, Jimmy!" Billy yelled from the patio. "You bringin' him in or not?"

     "When he's ready," Blackburn called without looking back. "I'll just stay and make sure he doesn't fall."

     Luis popped a last morsel of cabrito  into his mouth, then pointed toward South Padre.

     Blackburn looked out and saw a light approaching, gleaming on the water. And as it came closer, he heard the putt-putt-putt of an old outboard motor.

     Laura and Billy joined Luis and Blackburn at the end of the pier as a low-riding boat pulled up and its motor stopped. It was a twenty-foot fishing skiff occupied by three men wearing black jeans, T-shirts that were silk-screened to look like mariachi outfits, and black baseball caps with the letters FAB in fancy script. They were surrounded by guitar cases and amplifiers. Luis threw them a line, and they pulled the boat close and tied it.

     "Oh my God!" Laura said. "It's the Flying Armendariz Brothers! I didn't think you guys could make it."

     One of the Brothers handed up a guitar case, then clambered onto the pier and turned to receive an amplifier from the others. "We couldn't," he said to Laura. "But Luis caught us having lunch at the Bueno last week and said we were spending too much time playing for tourists. Said if we didn't come, he couldn't be responsible for the spiritual consequences."

     Laura accepted another guitar case. "So that's why you came? Because my brujo grandfather threatened to put a curse on you?"

     "Not exactly," the Brother said. "Truth is, we just had a hotel Halloween party yanked out from under us."

     "Por que?"

     "Oh, our new drummer stabbed the manager. Only a flesh wound, but he fired us and had the drummer arrested." The Brother shook his head. "The man's just vindictive, that's all there is to it."

     Luis took Blackburn's empty plate, and Blackburn stepped over to help haul up what he guessed was a bass amplifier. "So what'll you do for a drummer now?" he asked, grunting at the weight.

     A second Brother hopped onto the pier and gave Blackburn a mock sneer. "Drummer?" he said in an exaggerated accent. "We don' need no steenking drummer!"

     Laura laughed. "Jimmy Baines, these two are Chico and Bennito. That's Doc in the boat. And you Brothers all know Billy, don't you?"

     It seemed to Blackburn that the Flying Armendariz Brothers all exchanged a look. And that they were silent for a moment too long.

     "Aye, we know Billy," Doc said then.

     "Nice to see you boys," Billy said. "You learned any Conway Twitty songs yet?"

     Chico didn't seem to hear Billy, but extended his hand to Blackburn. "Que paso, Jimmy?"

     They shook hands, and then Blackburn and Bennito shook as well. In the boat, Doc tipped his hat and said, "Ah, Jimmy."

     Blackburn couldn't be sure in this light, but he thought Chico and Bennito had coppery skin and similar features. Doc, however, seemed to be as light-skinned as Blackburn, and he looked nothing like the other two. Besides which, he had an uncommon accent.

     Chico and Bennito turned to take another piece of equipment from Doc, and Blackburn leaned toward Laura.

     "How come one of the Armendariz Brothers sounds Scottish?" he asked.

     Laura grabbed Blackburn's arm, pulled him aside, and said, "We don't ask questions about the Armendariz Brothers."

     Blackburn could appreciate that. He turned back to Chico and Bennito. "You guys need a roadie for the night?"

     "You're hired," Bennito said. He jumped back into the boat. "We'll put you in charge of the most valuable piece of equipment we have." Then he pulled a tarp away from the biggest metal ice chest Blackburn had ever seen. It looked as if it could hold a heifer, and it was padlocked.

     "The cerveza!" the Brothers said in unison.

     "Geez, guys," Laura said. "I have a keg out front."

     "So we'll keep this in back until the keg runs out," Bennito said. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a key. "And I'm putting our roadie in charge of beer security. That means you keep the band supplied in exchange for whatever you feel like drinking yourself." He tossed the key up to Blackburn. "Or just use your discretion."

     Blackburn caught the key and put it in his pocket. Then he helped the Brothers heft the enormous ice chest onto the pier, after which he and Chico grabbed the handles on either end and lugged it to the patio. Blackburn thought he probably could have dragged it by himself, but he was glad he didn't have to. They set it against the wall beside the stockroom door, then joined Bennito, Doc, Laura, and Billy in carrying the band equipment around front.

                                        #

     There were fifty or sixty people in the parking lot now, and they all cheered when the Flying Armendariz Brothers began to set up in front of the store. Blackburn asked the Brothers if there was anything else he could do to help, but they said they were fine for now. So Blackburn got out of their way and found himself in the center of the parking lot beside Laura and Billy.

     "Oh, for crying out loud," Laura said. "Grandfather must still be out on the pier."

     "I'll check on him," Blackburn said.

     He was glad for the excuse to go. Billy had his arm around Laura's shoulders, and Blackburn wanted to tear it off and beat Billy over the head with the wet end. But he knew he didn't have a good enough reason.

     "I'd appreciate it," Laura said. She looked around at the festivities. "And I don't see David, so I'd better find him too. He's probably playing hide-and-seek with those kids running around the cars."

     "I'll go with you," Billy said. "I haven't had a chance to spend any time with the little rascal yet."

     Laura and Billy started toward the parked cars, and Blackburn went around back again. Sure enough, Luis was still at the end of the pier, looking out over the water. But he wasn't alone. The devil-suited David was with him, tugging at his elbow.

     "Hey, David!" Blackburn called. "Your grandfather isn't still holding my supper plate, is he?"

     As Blackburn spoke, Luis turned and started toward the patio, the tip of his cane making thunk-thunk sounds on the pier. He handed the plate to David, who came running up to Blackburn with it.

     Blackburn took it and tossed it into the barrel beside the stockroom door. He felt terrible for having left Luis holding his trash.

     "Come into the store and play Loteria  with us," David said to Blackburn as Luis reached the patio.

     "I don't know how," Blackburn said. He was thinking of skipping the rest of the fiesta altogether. He would send the ice-chest key back to Bennito via David, and then he would go into the stockroom and lock the doors. He didn't want to see Laura with Billy anymore tonight.

     "Loteria's easy," David said. "It is the way we play it, anyway. And Grampa Luis tells your fortune when you win. All my friends are going to play."

     Luis made a come on  gesture to Blackburn.

     Blackburn gave up. "Give me a minute," he said.

     David and Luis disappeared around the corner, and Blackburn went into the stockroom. He turned on the light, sat down on the edge of his cot, and rummaged in his duffel bag until he came up with the key to his 1964 Dodge pickup. It was the third vehicle he'd owned since coming to Texas, and it was most rust-eaten and scabrous of the three. But it ran. And he thought he might need to go for a drive tonight to clear his head. Maybe he could find a girl at the party who would go with him.

     He stood, dropped the Dodge key into his pocket with the ice-chest key, and started toward the inner door to the store. But then it occurred to him that he should go around to see if the Armendariz Brothers needed anything before he went in to play David's game. So he turned, stepped back outside, and came face to face with Billy.

     "Jimbo," Billy said. "What say we crack open that ice chest and see what the boys brought?"

     Blackburn glanced around. He and Billy were alone on the patio.

     "Did the Brothers send you?" Blackburn asked.

     "Naw, but they know me. They won't mind."

     Blackburn was dubious. "Is the keg empty already?"

     Billy lowered his voice. "Not yet," he said. "But there's a lot of Mexicans around it, and I don't want to start a ruckus. Comprende?"

     "No."

     "No?" Billy shrugged. "I guess you're used to all this mish-mashing around. But where I was raised, things were a little more . . . separate. Everybody kept to their own places. Know what I mean?"

     Blackburn knew what he meant. "Where were you raised?"

     "Midland. Crown jewel of West Texas."

     Blackburn made a mental note to stay the hell away from Midland.

     "Don't get me wrong," Billy continued. "God knows I love my little nephew. And that half-sister of his is a peach. But on average, they're just damned strange people. The way some of 'em say 'vaya con Dios,' you can't tell whether they mean 'go with God' or 'Fuck off.' And then there's things like this. Now, why would you throw a big-ass Halloween party when the kids are supposed to be in school the next day?"

     "Because Halloween fell on a Sunday," Blackburn said.

     Billy took off his Stetson and scratched his slick hair. "Yeah, but it's not just a one-night deal for them. This is only a warm-up for tomorrow, when they flat-out worship dead folks."

     "No, tomorrow's a day to pray for deceased children," Blackburn said. "And Tuesday's a day to pay respects to ancestors. It's no more strange than Memorial Day."

     Billy snorted. "They lay out picnics in the goddamn cemeteries! You can't tell me that's sanitary." He put his Stetson back on and gave Blackburn a narrow look. "Or maybe you can. You seem to know a lot about it for an Anglo."

     "I just know what Laura told me. She said the traditions vary depending on where you are."

     "Well, where we are at the moment is the U.S. of A.," Billy said. "And here, the day after tomorrow's not the Day of Anything Mexican. Matter of fact, it's Election Day, my friend. Who you votin' for? Bad Golfer or Peanut Farmer?"

     "I'm not registered."

     "Most of them ain't either." Billy rubbed his eyes. "Aw, don't listen to me. I'm just testy from lack of beer. And the testier I get, the less I'd rather get elbow-to-elbow with, uh, folks on my way to the keg."

     "I guess you won't be drinking, then."

     Blackburn turned his back on Billy and walked away. He hoped that Billy would follow and lay a hand on him, but it didn't happen.

     He stepped into the parking lot just as the Armendariz Brothers shouted "Uno! Dos! Tres! Cuatro!" and kicked into a drumless but rousing "Woolly Bully." He went up to Doc and asked if they needed anything, but Doc just smiled and waved him off.

     So Blackburn went into the store, then glanced out through the windows and saw people starting to dance. He also saw Billy come into the lot and head for the keg. There weren't many people around it now.

     In the store, David and several other costumed children were gathered at the counter. Luis and Laura were standing on the other side. Laura was shuffling a deck of oversized cards, and Luis was shuffling a deck of smaller ones. As Blackburn watched, Luis took off his hat and dropped the small cards inside.

     Laura looked over at Blackburn. "I see David talked you into playing Loteria with the kids."

     "I've been told I'm a kid myself," Blackburn said.

     She didn't rise to the bait. Instead, she held the large cards upside-down and fanned them. The kids each grabbed one, and then Blackburn chose one as well and turned it over. The card contained nine pictures of various items arranged in three rows of three. Each picture was numbered, and the Spanish name of each item appeared below it.

     The kids sat down at a round table under the hanging skeleton Laura had put up that afternoon. They grabbed handfuls of foil-wrapped chocolate kisses from a bowl, ate some, and placed the rest beside their cards.

     Blackburn looked at Laura. "How's this work?"

     "It's like Bingo," she said. "Grandfather pulls a card from his hat and holds it up, and I call it out. You have to mark your card fast, because he goes right to the next one. First player to mark three in a row in any direction wins a prize. The way we play, the winner usually just yells 'Bingo.'"

     One of the kids said something in Spanish, and the others laughed. Blackburn looked at David for a translation.

     David giggled. "He said you can yell 'Gringo' instead."

     Blackburn laughed too, and then he took a seat beside David and grabbed some chocolates. Outside, the Armendariz Brothers finished "Woolly Bully" and went into "La Bamba."

     Luis reached into his hat and held up a card with a picture of a fish.

     "El Pescado!" Laura cried.

     David and a few other kids slapped chocolate kisses onto their cards. David grinned up at Blackburn. "Sell me your soul," he said in his devil-voice again, "and I'll let you win."

     Blackburn grinned back. "Let me win," he said, "and I'll give you my prize."

     Luis held up another card. "La Escalera! " Laura called.

     Blackburn's card had a picture of a ladder in its upper left corner, so he placed a chocolate on it.

     "Ha!" he said to David. "Tied!"

     Then, rapidly, Laura called: "La Dama! El Corazon!"

     Blackburn cried "Gringo!" and the kids laughed again.

     He had candies covering his top three pictures, left to right: the ladder, a well-dressed woman, and a bright red heart with veins and arteries. An arrow through the heart dripped blood.

     "Okay, Mister Winner," Laura said. "You should know that Grandfather made up this next part of the game himself." She turned to Luis.

     Luis spoke to her, and Laura looked taken aback. She replied sharply in Spanish. Then Luis spoke again, pointing at David.

     "She doesn't want to translate it," David whispered to Blackburn. "But if she won't, he'll just have me do it."

     The other kids looked apprehensive, so Blackburn gave them a raised-eyebrow, I-dunno-either look to let them know that whatever was happening wasn't his fault.

     "All right, all right," Laura said. She sounded flustered. "Here's your fortune, Jimmy. You've been working on a ladder. While working on the ladder, you met a woman. And the woman -- " She stopped and glared at Luis.

     Blackburn looked down at the heart with the bloody arrow through it. "Never mind," he said. "I get it."

     His prize was a chocolate coffin, which he handed to David. A deal was a deal.

     Then Luis began pulling cards from his hat again, and Laura called out, "La Arana! El Diablito! El Alacran!"

     Blackburn was astonished. His middle three pictures, right to left, were a spider, a devil, and a scorpion.

     "Gringo!" Blackburn cried again, but this time only a few of the kids giggled.

     "You're kidding," Laura said.

     David looked at Blackburn's card. "Nope, he's got 'em."

     Luis spoke to Laura again, and Laura cleared her throat. "A spider builds a web to catch the devil," she said. "But a scorpion stings the spider."

     "Huh?" Blackburn asked.

     "Hey, I don't make the news," Laura said. "I just report it."

     The prize was a sugar skull decorated with pink icing. Blackburn handed it to the little skeleton-girl on his left.

     Luis drew more cards.

     "El Mundo! El Soldado! La Muerte!"

     This time Blackburn said "Bingo," because he didn't think "Gringo" would be funny again.

     "Bingo" wasn't funny either. The kids all stared at him. But there were the pictures on the bottom row of his card: The man with the world on his shoulders. The soldier standing guard. And the skeleton carrying a scythe.

     Luis told Laura the fortune.

     "Hoo boy," Laura said, but then she translated. "Your burdens will be heavy. But you will bear them because you are a soldier for -- " She made a face. "Lady Death."

     Blackburn looked at Luis. There was no hint of playfulness in Luis's eyes.

     "Okay, then," Blackburn said. He stood and looked down at David. "I'll see you later."

     David was disappointed. "Aren't you having fun?"

     "You bet," Blackburn said, tugging on one of David's horns. "But I think I've won enough for tonight, don't you?"

     He started for the door then, but Laura stopped him.

     "Don't forget your prize," she said, holding it out.

     It was a small plastic skeleton holding a scythe. Except for the elastic loop in its skull, it looked just like the last picture on Blackburn's winning Loteria card. He put it in his pocket with the Dodge and ice-chest keys, then nodded to Luis and went out.

     The Armendariz Brothers had turned "La Bamba" into "Twist and Shout," and now they were starting "Johnny B. Goode," singing some of the lyrics in Spanish.

     "Y'know, I think maybe we could use a drummer after all," Bennito shouted as Blackburn went by. Bennito was playing bass.

     "Can't help you," Blackburn said. "If I hit something, it falls over. Need a beer?"

     "Not yet, vato."

     So Blackburn went on through the crowd to where the paved lot gave way to packed dirt. This was where most of the cars were parked. Blackburn's Dodge was out here too, off at the edge, pointing toward the lighthouse.

     Blackburn looked around to be sure no one else was nearby, and then he dug out his Dodge key and let himself into the truck. It smelled musty and oily in here, but he liked it. He lay down on the bench seat and reached up under the console where the radio guts would have been if he hadn't ripped them out. The radio hadn't worked anyway, and in its place now was a metal shell on a bracket, hidden from the front by an old faceplate and knobs.

     The bracket was fitted with wing nuts. Blackburn spun them off, caught the shell on his palm, and brought it out onto the seat.

     Inside the shell was a package held down with duct tape. Blackburn tore off the tape, then opened the plastic bread sack and pulled out a cloth bundle. He looked out the Dodge's windows one more time to be sure no one was watching, and then he unwrapped the Colt Python he had taken from Officer Johnston on his seventeenth birthday.

     After killing Johnston and the wife-beater, he'd had only two .357 Magnum cartridges left. But last spring he had bought seven more from a co-worker near Harlingen. So now there were five in the Python -- with an empty chamber under the hammer -- and four extras in a baggie. Blackburn thought about it for a moment, then put everything except the Python under the seat. Five would be plenty.

     He loosened his belt a notch, pulled his shirt from his jeans, and tucked the Python into his waistband at the small of his back. It would be uncomfortable, but no one would know it was there. His shirttail would cover it.

     Blackburn got out of the Dodge and fished out the key to lock it. But the key didn't fit, and then he realized that it went to the padlock on the Armendariz Brothers' ice chest. He rubbed it between his fingers for a moment, then put it back into his pocket and found the Dodge key stuck in the plastic skeleton's ribs.

     He locked the truck and returned to the party.

                                        #

     A few hours later, Blackburn was leaning against the wall behind the Armendariz Brothers, watching Laura and Billy dance to "Time Is on My Side." And although it wasn't fun to watch, the truth was that Billy didn't seem so bad now. He had gone to the keg, talked to folks, shaken hands all around, and brought food to Laura. Maybe he really had just been "testy" before. It was possible. Blackburn didn't want to be unfair.

     When the song ended, Billy headed for the keg again, and Laura went over to the band and told David it was time for him to go to bed. David had been sitting in with the Armendariz Brothers ever since he had won a Loteria game with El Tambor, El Musico, and La Estrella . Luis had said that this meant David would play percussion with fine musicians and become a star. And then he had surprised David with an old steel snare drum, a stand, and drumsticks. David had run outside with these treasures, and the Brothers had let him play. Blackburn thought he had sounded pretty good most of the time.

     But now it was almost 11:00 P.M., and David had gone as far toward becoming a star as he could go in one evening. Laura put a hand on his back and steered him toward the house as Billy walked up, empty-handed.

     "Keg's empty," Billy said.

     "Oh-oh," Doc said. He looked over his shoulder at Blackburn. "Sounds like the band might need the Chief of Security to implement emergency procedures."

     Blackburn got the message. He pushed away from the wall and started around back again. As he did, he watched Billy, Laura, and David heading up the gravel path to the front door of the house. David was tuckered out and his tail was dragging, but he waved good-night to Blackburn. Blackburn waved back.

     Then one of the ladies at the food tables called to Laura for help. So she gave David a kiss and dashed back to lend a hand. Billy and David continued on to the house, and Blackburn continued on to the patio.

     When he came around the corner, he saw Luis sitting on the giant metal ice chest. He seemed to be dozing. And as Blackburn was trying to think of a polite way to wake him, all three Armendariz Brothers came around the other end of the store.

     "We just thought of something," Chico said.

     "We brought bottled beer," Bennito said.

     "And we don't have an opener," Doc said.

     The back of Blackburn's neck tingled. "I'll bet there's one in the store."

     Now Luis raised his head, and Blackburn could see that he hadn't been dozing at all. He raised his cane and pointed at Laura's house.

     "Good idea," Chico said. "Would you go look for a bottle opener in the house, Jimmy?"

     "Luis says Laura won't mind," Bennito said.

     Luis hadn't said a word. But he was still pointing at the house, and he was looking at Blackburn.

     "All right," Blackburn said. "I'll go find an opener."

     "Good man," Doc said.

     Blackburn turned and walked off the patio, then cut across the scrubby grass to the gravel path. Once there he glanced back. Luis and the Brothers had gone around to the front of the store, leaving the ice chest alone on the patio. Beyond the patio, the pier was a dark finger pointing into the Laguna Madre, and heat lightning was flashing in the sky over South Padre.

     By the time Blackburn reached the house, the Brothers were playing "Sympathy for the Devil" behind him. Someone was drumming on the snare as if he had been doing it all his life.

     The music echoed from the house's walls and eaves, and Blackburn didn't hear a sound from the front door as he opened it. He went inside and closed it behind him, and it made only a soft click.

     The house was dark. He had thought that Billy would turn on some lights when he came in with David. But the only light Blackburn could see was a blue glow from the hallway entrance to his right. It was from the night-light in David's room.

     It was enough. Blackburn had been in the house many times and knew his way around. The kitchen was straight back from the front door, and that was where he would find a bottle opener. He took two steps and came abreast of the hallway entrance. Then he stopped.

     He had heard David sob. And now he heard the smack of an open hand on skin.

     Blackburn had a quick thought of his old man. And then of Officer Johnston and the man in the Ozarks. And then of something else.

     He stepped into the hallway, and three more steps brought him to the door to David's room. It was halfway open, and in the blue glow Blackburn could see David in his little devil costume sitting on the edge of the bed. He was looking at the floor. He was sniffling.

     Billy stood before him. He reached out and touched David's wet cheek, and David flinched.

     "It's all right," Billy said. His voice was soothing. "It's just a secret, that's all." And then his hand moved to his big brass belt buckle.

     Blackburn reached in and flipped on the overhead light, and Billy's hand jumped up to his chin. He scratched his stubble and squinted at Blackburn.

     "Jimmy," Billy said. "I'm tryin' to put this boy to bed. That light's not gonna help."

     Blackburn looked at David, and David looked back at him. Neither of them said anything.

     "Why you here, anyway?" Billy asked.

     Blackburn looked at Billy and smiled. He reached into his pocket and brought out the key to the ice-chest padlock. "I'm tired of waiting for them Armendariz Boys to say I can open their beer cooler," he said. "So I was hopin' you'd be my partner in crime."

     Billy smiled back. "Now you're talkin'," he said. "You go get 'er open, and I'll be along in a minute. I still got to get this boy to bed."

     Blackburn looked back at David. "You can get yourself ready for bed, can't you?" he asked. "And you can do it just the way your sister would tell you to, right?"

     David nodded. "I promise." His voice didn't quaver. He was a macho guy. Blackburn admired him.

     "There you go," Blackburn said to Billy. "Let's get us some beer."

     Billy's jaw worked for a few seconds as if he were chewing something. But then he grinned. "All right, pardner." He left the bedside and stepped past Blackburn into the hallway. "Goodnight, little cowboy," he said over his shoulder.

     David didn't answer Billy. Instead, he looked up at Blackburn. His eyes looked just like his grandfather's.

     "Goodnight, Jimmy," he said.

     "Adios, David."

     Blackburn followed Billy outside and along the path that led to the store. From there, he could see both the patio behind the store and the parking lot in front. No one was on the patio. And the party out front had thinned, but the people who remained were all dancing as the Flying Armendariz Brothers finished "Sympathy for the Devil." Luis was playing the snare, and he kept playing after the end of the song. So the Brothers started another. It was a Cream-like version of "Crossroads."

     Everyone kept dancing. Blackburn could see Laura spinning and laughing in the midst of the revelers, and he wanted to go to her.

     Instead, he cut across the grass with Billy and went to the ice chest on the patio. He unlocked the padlock, removed it, and opened the lid. The patio floodlight gleamed from mounds of ice and from the clear glass longnecks and golden beer of a hundred bottles of Corona.

     "Hot damn," Billy said. "We done struck the mother lode. You got an opener?"

     Blackburn pulled a glistening bottle from the ice and then stepped back to let Billy get to the chest.

     "Yep," he said. "I got an opener."

     Billy stepped in front of Blackburn and squatted at the ice chest, rolling up a sleeve. "Now, Jim, I don't know what-all you heard at the house just now, but I hope you don't think I'm too strict with that nephew of mine," he said. "Thing is, it's startin' to look like I might have to be his uncle and his daddy too. And a daddy has to exert some discipline. Know what I mean?"

     "I do," Blackburn said.

     Billy took off his Stetson and set it aside, then plunged his arm into the ice and rooted around. "God damn, ain't there anything in here but Mexican beer?" he asked.

     "Keep looking," Blackburn said. He took a firm grip on the neck of his Corona.

                                         #

     Lightning was crisscrossing itself over the Laguna Madre by the time Blackburn tied up the boat again, and thunder was rolling across from South Padre in waves. The rain wasn't here yet, but it would be soon. Blackburn hoped the Flying Armendariz Brothers weren't planning to go back to the Island tonight, because it wouldn't be safe.

     He could hear them playing a slow blues tune as he climbed onto the pier and tossed the padlock key into the water. It was something about meeting them in the morning. And so he would. It was just after midnight.

     The song was over before he reached the patio, and a few moments later the Brothers came around the corner. They met him at the mound of ice and beer.

     Chico reached into his pocket, brought out a Swiss Army knife, and snapped out the bottle-opener blade. Then he leaned down, plucked a bottle from the melting ice, and flipped off the cap.

     "Welly welly well," Doc said. "We had an opener after all."

     Bennito nudged some broken glass with his foot. "Looks like somebody opened one without it."

     "Maybe we should get a hose," Chico said. "There's a little something else there."

     "Nah," Doc said. "Rain's coming." He plucked three more bottles from the ice, then handed one to Bennito and another to Blackburn. "Let's just have a beer."

     Chico flipped off the caps for them, then raised his own bottle. "Here's to a good gig," he said.

     They clicked bottles and drank as the wind began to pick up.

     Blackburn drained his bottle and tossed it into the barrel beside the stockroom door. Then he went into the stockroom and came out with his duffel bag.

     "I'm sorry about your ice chest," he said.

     "What ice chest?" Bennito asked.

     Blackburn didn't insult them by asking them to keep an eye on Laura, David, and Luis. He knew they would. So he left them there and went around to the parking lot.

     The last party guests were driving away, and Blackburn could see Laura inside the store. She was wiping off the table where the kids had played Loteria and eaten their Halloween treats. Before long she would come outside to fold up the food tables. Blackburn watched her through the windows for just a minute longer.

     Then he went out to his Dodge. Luis was standing next to the driver's-side door, leaning on his cane, holding a brown paper bag in his free hand. Blackburn could smell that the bag was full of barbecue and baked goods.

     He unlocked the door, tossed his duffel inside, and climbed in after it. Luis handed him the paper bag, then stepped back so he could close the door.

     Blackburn rolled down his window. "Gracias, Don Arocho."

     Luis raised his hand and spoke. And for the first time, Blackburn understood him.

     "Vaya con Muerte," Luis said.

     That was all. Blackburn rolled up his window, started the truck, and left. But he had to stop after a few blocks so he could take the Colt Python from his waistband. It was starting to dig into his back something awful.

     He reloaded it with his last four cartridges, wishing he could have saved the other five. For a while he had thought he wouldn't have to use any at all -- but then the chest had refused to sink. And it had started to drift. So, with thunder masking the noise, Blackburn had shot it full of holes.

     Fortunately, it had gone under while still in the ship channel. Most of the Laguna Madre was only a few feet deep, so if it had sunk anywhere else, a skiff or sailboat might have hit it. And Blackburn wouldn't have wanted that on his conscience.

     He put the reloaded Python under the seat where it would be handy. And as he leaned over, he felt something jab his thigh. So he reached into his pocket and brought out the plastic skeleton-and-scythe he had won playing Loteria. He hung it from his rearview mirror and then headed west just as the rain came down hard.

     Blackburn was driving on bald tires in bad weather, and he didn't know where he was going. But he wasn't going alone.

                                  *     *     *

                             Contact:  braddenton@aol.com

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