In This Place

Lay Your Hands on Me

"These are the ghosts that haunt the story, these are the things we'll carry to the end"—Belle Mt.

"Cory...what are you..."

"Wait...stop...that hurts..."

"Cory....stop..."

"No! Why are you—No---please...no..."

Cory could feel the cool air coming off the mountains and her face was damp, but from the air or her own tears, she didn't know. She'd always had the uncanny ability to know when she was dreaming but the knowing had never changed the course of events being played out. Sometimes that was good, other times bad and the grass around her was long and moving in the mountain breeze as she looked down at the girl beneath her.

A savage joy swept over her at the sight of Kris's tear-stained face and the warm, heavy feeling between her legs as she settled herself into the girl.

"Shut. Up." She breathed then looked back up at the dark outline of the mountains. She was back in Wild Dog Meadow and the dogs prowled nearby. She could hear them moving through the grass and she'd caught sight of a few, tails tucked, heads down, and eyes glowing a feral yellow. And her daddy was there, nothing but a flash then gone, and then she was sitting on the top step of the cabin, the moon magnificent upon her.

"Now Cory-gal, that ol' devil wasn't stupid. He took Jesus up to the highest mountain and showed him all the glories below. And he told Jesus, "All of this can be yours...if you fall to your knees and worship me."

Her daddy was on the porch with her, his black eyes unreadable, as he gazed off towards the Appalachians. His moonshine cup was beside him and she innately knew it had been emptied several times.

"You know what I think though is...all those foreign places...Galilee...Capernaum...out beyond the ol' Jordan...Jesus wasn't just for those people there, because Jesus is for everyone, right, gal? And when that devil took him up to the highest mountain...I think it was here. Up past the Devil's Bed, and on up to Abandoned Peak. Come here gal, sit on my lap, I'm a mite chilled."

She went and sat, and those hands, big and warm, those hands that made her feel safe and sick at the same time, roamed with abandon.

"Now...'course that ain't the highest peak. Not even close. But..."

Cory could feel the hardness of him beneath his threadbare jeans.

"...I think it's a place the devil loves to roam. And what did he show the Nazarene? Why, Devil's Eye of course! Because here...you can have whatever you want." His voice dropped to a savage whisper. "Ain't that right, baby girl? When the devil goes walkin', you can have anything."

"Yes, Daddy."

His fingers nudged her legs open, and she felt his fingers exploring, plundering around inside of her. She rested her head against his shoulder and breathed in the scent of him, the earthy bitter aroma that was uniquely his own and looked at the dark outline of the Appalachians against the sky.