Behind the Smile

45

 "Delmer Ray Smoots! Look at you! Drunk as a skunk 'n no good for nuthin'."

"Don't start harpin' on me, Ole Woman."

"I'll harp on you all I want. Lettin' the fields go, drinkin' night 'n day. Keep this up, 'n we won't make a decent crop. Come winter, we'll be scroungin' acorns 'n eatin' grass. What in tarnation's got into you? I'm worried sick over Delrae. She didn't come home last night. Her bed ain't been slept in."

"It's happenin' agin', Ona. All over agin'," Delmer whispered.

His white unshaven whiskers made him look like a derelict. His eyes had a hunted look about them and the hollows of his cheeks were shadowed blue.

"Del!" Ona shouted. "You're piss-ant drunk. Stop talkin' nonsense. I'm worried sick about Delrae. Where in tarnation can that girl be!

She's a good girl. It just ain't like her to worry me like this. She's gonna miss school, Del. You know Delrae always so good 'bout her schoolin'. I know that lately she's been mooning some, but Delmer, do you think she's found herself some snot-nose boyfriend?

Oh, I hope not. She's too young for that nonsense. Delmer, you listenin' to me?

Delmer, I tell you she didn't come home last night. You hear me? Delmer, go out 'n see where she is. This is killing me. I cain't live through this again.

Delmer, you don't think something bad's happened to our daughter, do you. Delmer?"

Delmer swayed drunkenly before his wife. His skin was ghostly white.

"I surely cain't go through this again, neither. I don't know what's got into that girl. She ain't the same child she was. Gawd, he'p me. I cain't live through this again."

"Delmer, you're drunk. You ain't talkin' sense."

"But Ona. Ain't you seen her? How she's changed? It's Suzanna. She's come back to haint us."

"Suzanna?" Ona asked. "She ain't dead, Delmer. Suzanna's just off somewhere's livin' it up. You know that. Why, even you've said so yer'self a hundred times.

Besides, ain't no spooks 'n haints in these parts. Never has been.

You done drunk so mucha that damn whiskey that you're talkin' outta your head. A stiff drink now 'n then never hurt nobody, 'n Lord knows you like yourn, but these past few days you been pourin' liquor down your throat like they's no tomorrah."

Her voice softened as she spoke of her daughter.

"I want to see Suzanna agin' as much as you do, Delmer, but poisonin' yourself with whiskey ain't no way to go 'bout it. Suzanna will walk through that door one day, Del. I just know she will. I feel it in my heart. She'll come back. You'll see. One day . . ."

His voice was flat and lifeless.

"The girl's dead, Ona."

"Wha? . . . What did you say?"

"I said the girl's dead."

"What girl, Delmer? You're drunk. I can't make heads ner tails what you're talkin' 'bout. Who's dead, Delmer?"

"Suzanna."

"No," she said releasing the cup she was holding. It shattered on the floor. "What do you mean Suzanna's dead? She cain't be. She just cain't be."

"I mean she's dead, gawdamit!" he shrieked.

For a long time, life stopped.

When Ona recovered from shock, she looked at the sobering Delmer.

"The night of the party," he finally began, "we fought. 'Member? I wuz so mad at you that I knowed if I went inside the house, I'd probably blow your brains out. I decided to go hunting. I wuz juiced up enough to go gunnin' for bear.

I didn't have no place in mind when I set out. Decided to go wherever my feet took me. Ended up at the turnoff to the Landing. Thought I'd try my luck in that dang kudzu grove.

Black as coal in there. Couldn't see a hand in front of my face. Got turned around. Couldn't place where I wuz.

Then I heard it.

A voice hollerin' like all git out. Sounded like a man 'n I stumbled around in that infernal darkness tryin' to go in the direction where I thought it came from.

Finally broke out at the clearing by the Landing.

Voice screamed agin'. Sent chills down to the marrow 'o my bones, Ona."

Delmer let his face rest in his hands.

"Gawd in heaven," he said. "He wuz cryin' out Suzanna's name."

Wiping his nose on his shirt sleeve, he continued in a calmer voice. The scene replayed before his eyes.

* * * 

As he stumbled into the clearing, the voice screamed again. Delmer stopped dead in his tracks. It felt as if his whole insides dropped to his feet. He knew he should be running towards the water, trying to save his daughter, but his feet and legs were heavily leaded with fear.

With great effort he began to walk, slowly, very slowly, past a parked car, past a pile of clothing, moving as in a dream.

The man was in the shallow water, about fifteen feet from shore. He flailed and splashed in his frantic search. Delmer saw the white skin of the man's back glisten in the moonlight.

He must have sensed another's presence, for the man in the water turned towards shore and faced Delmer. As he opened his mouth to plead for Delmer's help, deafening sounds emanated from the waters around him. The shrieks of hell's demons filled the air with malevolent horror.

Delmer heard a roaring sound almost like a freight train, and the waters began to boil and churn and form an angry froth around the man. In the blink of an eye, the waters parted and a swirling luminescence swallowed the man. Delmer heard the man's cries above the demonic wails and blanched at the sounds of breaking bones and gnawing flesh.

The lake was eating him alive!

It was over in a few seconds.

The waters calmed, and all became as still as death. Delmer looked out over the unbroken surface of the lake and tried to control his trembling body.

"Sweet Jesus," he whispered.

"Oh, Daddy," a voice behind him said.

He spun around.

"You're such a naughty, naughty boy!"

Luscious auburn hair framed a face dripping with foulness. Her naked torso was split from the nape of her neck to the triangle of coarse black hair below her navel. Half-eaten organs lay mangled and dangling from the wound. Her breasts were splayed apart and hung at odd angles, the nipples resting against her arms.

His scream caught in his throat.

"What fuckin' bad luck to go huntin' tonight," she said.

Before he thought, he raised the gun and fired.

The shot echoed like a cannon, and the abhorrent evil exploded into a million tiny pieces. They rained down upon Delmer in a fine ashen shower.

He was laughing and crying at the same time.