High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale

  Morley took a deep breath, stood in the chair and hung the lantern on a low rafter. There was something else up there too. A coiled chain. Morley pulled it down and it clattered to the floor. At the sound of it Chum leaped against his leash and flecks of saliva flew from his mouth and Dennis felt them fall lightly on his hands and face.

  Morley lifted one end of the chain toward Dennis. There was a thin, open collar attached to it.

  “Once this closes it locks and can only be opened with this.” Morley reached into his coat pocket and produced a key, held it up briefly and returned it. “There’s a collar for Chum on the other end. Both are made out of good leather over strong, steel chain. See what I’m getting at here, Dennis?”

  Morley leaned forward and snapped the collar around Dennis’s neck.

  “Oh, Dennis,” Morley said, standing back to observe his handiwork. “It’s you. Really. Great fit. And considering the day, just call this my valentine to you.”

  “You bastard.”

  “The biggest.”

  Morley walked over to Chum. Chum lunged at him, but with the muzzle on he was relatively harmless. Still, his weight hit Morley’s legs, almost knocked him down.

  Turning to smile at Dennis, Morley said, “See how strong he is? Add teeth to this little engine, some maneuverability…It’s going to be awesome, lover boy. Awesome.”

  Morley slipped the collar under Chum’s leash and snapped it into place even as the dog rushed against him, nearly knocking him down. But it wasn’t Morley he wanted. He was trying to get at the smell. At Dennis.

  Dennis felt as if the fluids in his body were running out of drains at the bottoms of his feet.

  “Was a little poontang worth this, Dennis? I certainly hope you think so. I hope it was the best goddamn piece you ever got. Sincerely, I do. Because death by dog is slow and ugly, lover boy. They like the throat and balls. So, you watch those spots, hear?”

  “Morley, for God’s sake, don’t do this!”

  Morley pulled a revolver from his coat pocket and walked over to Dennis. “I’m going to untie you now, stud. I want you to be real good, or I’ll shoot you. If I shoot you, I’ll gut shoot you, then let the dog loose. You got no chance that way. At least my way you’ve got a sporting chance—slim to none.”

  He untied Dennis. “Now stand.”

  Dennis stood in front of the chair, his knees quivering. He was looking at Chum and Chum was looking at him, tugging wildly at the leash, which looked ready to snap. Saliva was thick as shaving cream over the front of Chum’s muzzle.

  Morley held the revolver on Dennis with one hand, and with the other he reproduced the aerosol can, sprayed Dennis once more. The stench made Dennis’s head float.

  “Last word of advice,” Morley said. “He’ll go straight for you.”

  “Morley...” Dennis started, but one look at the man and he knew he was better off saving the breath. He was going to need it.

  Still holding the gun on Dennis, Morley eased behind the frantic dog, took hold of the muzzle with his free hand, and with a quick ripping motion, pulled it and the leash loose.

  Chum sprang.

  · · ·

  Dennis stepped back, caught the chair between his legs, lost his balance. Chum’s leap carried him into Dennis’s chest, and they both went flipping over the chair.

  Chum kept rolling and the chain pulled across Dennis’s face as the dog tumbled to its full length; the jerk of the sixty-pound weight against Dennis’s neck was like a blow.

  The chain went slack, and Dennis knew Chum was coming. In that same instant he heard the door open, glimpsed a wedge of moonlight that came and went, heard the door lock and Morley laugh. Then he was rolling, coming to his knees, grabbing the chair, pointing it with the legs out.

  And Chum hit him.

  The chair took most of the impact, but it was like trying to block a cannonball. The chair’s bottom cracked and a leg broke off, went skidding across the floor.

  The truncated triangle of the Doberman’s head appeared over the top of the chair, straining for Dennis’s face. Dennis rammed the chair forward.

  Chum dipped under it, grabbed Dennis’s side. It was like stepping into a bear trap. The agony wasn’t just in the ankle, it was a sizzling web of electricity that surged through his entire body.

  The dog’s teeth grated bone and Dennis let forth with a noise that was too wicked to be called a scream.

  Blackness waved in and out, but the thought of Julie lying there in ragged display gave him new determination.

  He brought the chair down on the dog’s head with all his might.

  Chum let out a yelp, and the dark head darted away.

  Dennis stayed low, pulled his wounded leg back, attempted to keep the chair in front of him. But Chum was a black bullet. He shot under again, hit Dennis in the same leg, higher up this time. The impact slid Dennis back a foot. Still, he felt a certain relief. The dog’s teeth had missed his balls by an inch.

  Oddly there was little pain this time. It was as if he were being encased in dark amber; floating in limbo. Must be like this when a shark hits, he thought. So hard and fast and clean you don’t really feel it at first. Just go numb. Look down for your leg and it’s gone.

  The dark amber was penetrated by a bright stab of pain. But Dennis was grateful for it. It meant that his brain was working again. He swiped at Chum with the chair, broke him loose.

  Swiveling on one knee, Dennis again used the chair as a shield. Chum launched forward, trying to go under it, but Dennis was ready this time and brought it down hard again the floor.

  Chum hit the bottom of the chair with such an impact, his head broke through the thin slats. Teeth snapped in Dennis’s face, but the dog couldn’t squirm its shoulders completely through the hole and reach him.

  Dennis let go of the chair with one hand, slugged the dog in the side of the head with the other. Chum twisted and the chair came loose from Dennis. The dog bounded away, leaping and whipping its body left and right, finally tossing off the wooden collar.

  Grabbing the slack of the chain, Dennis used both hands to whip it into the dog’s head, then swung it back and caught Chum’s feet, knocking him on his side with a loud splat.

  Even as Chum was scrambling to his feet, out of the corner of his eye Dennis spotted the leg that had broken off the chair. It was lying less than three feet away.

  Chum rushed and Dennis dove for the leg, grabbed it, twisted and swatted at the Doberman. On the floor as he was, he couldn’t get full power into the blow, but still it was a good one.

  The dog skidded sideways on its belly and forelegs. When it came to a halt, it tried to raise its head, but didn’t completely make it.

  Dennis scrambled forward on his hands and knees, chopped the chair leg down on the Doberman’s head with every ounce of muscle he could muster. The strike was solid, caught the dog right between the pointed ears and drove his head to the floor.

  The dog whimpered. Dennis hit him again. And again.

  Chum lay still.

  Dennis took a deep breath, watched the dog and held his club cocked.

  Chum did not move. He lay on the floor with his legs spread wide, his tongue sticking out of his foam-wet mouth.

  Dennis was breathing heavily, and his wounded leg felt as if it were melting. He tried to stretch it out, alleviate some of the pain, but nothing helped.

  He checked the dog again.

  Still not moving.

  He took hold of the chain and jerked it. Chum’s head came up and smacked back down against the floor.

  The dog was dead. He could see that.

  He relaxed, closed his eyes and tried to make the spinning stop. He knew he had to bandage his leg somehow, stop the flow of blood. But at the moment he could hardly think.

  And Chum, who was not dead, but stunned, lifted his head, and at the same moment, Dennis opened his eyes.

  The Doberman’s recovery was remarkable. It came off the floor with only the slightest wobble and jumped. r />
  Dennis couldn’t get the chair leg around in time and it deflected off of the animal’s smooth back and slipped from his grasp.

  He got Chum around the throat and tried to strangle him, but the collar was in the way and the dog’s neck was too damn big.

  Trying to get better traction, Dennis got his bad leg under him and made an effort to stand, lifting the dog with him. He used his good leg to knee Chum sharply in the chest, but the injured leg wasn’t good for holding him up for another move like that. He kept trying to ease his thumbs beneath the collar and lock them behind the dog’s windpipe.

  Chum’s hind legs were off the floor and scrambling, the toenails tearing at Dennis’s lower abdomen and crotch.

  Dennis couldn’t believe how strong the dog was. Sixty pounds of pure muscle and energy, made more deadly by Morley’s spray and tortures.

  Sixty pounds of muscle.

  The thought went through Dennis’s head again.

  Sixty pounds.

  The medicine ball he tossed at the gym weighed more. It didn’t have teeth, muscle and determination, but it did weigh more.

  And as the realization soaked in, as his grip weakened and Chum’s rancid breath coated his face, Dennis lifted his eyes to a rafter just two feet above his head; considered there was another two feet of space between the rafter and the ceiling.

  He quit trying to choke Chum, eased his left hand into the dog’s collar, and grabbed a hind leg with his other. Slowly, he lifted Chum over his head. Teeth snapped at Dennis’s hair, pulled loose a few tufts.

  Dennis spread his legs slightly. The wounded leg wobbled like an old pipe cleaner, but held. The dog seemed to weigh a hundred pounds. Even the sweat on his face and the dense, hot air in the room seemed heavy.

  Sixty pounds.

  A basketball weighed little to nothing, and the dog weighed less than the huge medicine ball in the gym. Somewhere between the two was a happy medium; he had the strength to lift the dog, the skill to make the shot—the most important of his life.

  Grunting, cocking the wiggling dog into position, he prepared to shoot. Chum nearly twisted free, but Dennis gritted his teeth, and with a wild scream, launched the dog into space.

  Chum didn’t go up straight, but he did go up. He hit the top of the rafter with his back, tried to twist in the direction he had come, couldn’t, and went over the other side.

  Dennis grabbed the chain as high up as possible, bracing as Chum’s weight came down on the other side so violently it pulled him onto his toes.

  The dog made a gurgling sound, spun on the end of the chain, legs thrashing.

  It took a long fifteen minutes for Chum to strangle.

  When Chum was dead, Dennis tried to pull him over the rafter. The dog’s weight, Dennis’s bad leg, and his now aching arms and back, made it a greater chore than he had anticipated. Chum’s head kept slamming against the rafter. Dennis got hold of the unbroken chair, and used it as a stepladder. He managed the Doberman over, and Chum fell to the floor, his neck flopping loosely.

  Dennis sat down on the floor beside the dog and patted it on the head. “Sorry,” he said.

  He took off his shirt, tore it into rags and bound his bad leg with it. It was still bleeding steadily, but not gushing; no major artery had been torn. His ankle wasn’t bleeding as much, but in the dim lantern light he could see that Chum had bitten him to the bone. He used most of the shirt to wrap and strengthen the ankle.

  When he finished, he managed to stand. The shirt binding had stopped the bleeding and the short rest had slightly rejuvenated him.

  He found his eyes drawn to the mess in the corner that was Julie, and his first thought was to cover her, but there wasn’t anything in the room sufficient for the job.

  He closed his eyes and tried to remember how it had been before. When she was whole and the room had a mattress and they had made love all the long, sweet, Mexican afternoon. But the right images would not come. Even with his eyes closed, he could see her mauled body on the floor.

  Ducking his head made some of the dizziness go away, and he was able to get Julie out of his mind by thinking of Morley. He wondered when he could come back. If he was waiting outside.

  But no, that wouldn’t be Morley’s way. He wouldn’t be anxious. He was cocksure of himself, he would go back to the estate for a drink and maybe play a game of chess against himself, gloat a long, sweet while before coming back to check on his handiwork. It would never occur to Morley to think he had survived. That would not cross his mind. Morley saw himself as Life’s best chess master, and he did not make wrong moves; things went according to plan. Most likely, he wouldn’t even check until morning.

  The more Dennis thought about it, the madder he got and the stronger he felt. He moved the chair beneath the rafter where the lantern was hung, climbed up and got it down. He inspected the windows and doors. The door had a sound lock, but the windows were merely boarded. Barrier enough when he was busy with the dog, but not now.

  He put the lantern on the floor, turned it up, found the chair leg he had used against Chum, and substituted it for a pry bar. It was hard work and by the time he had worked the boards off the window his hands were bleeding and full of splinters. His face looked demonic.

  Pulling Chum to him, he tossed him out the window, climbed after him clutching the chair leg. He took up the chain’s slack and hitched it around his forearm. He wondered about the other Dobermans. Wondered if Morley had killed them too, or if he was keeping them around. As he recalled, the Dobermans were usually loose on the yard at night. The rest of the time they had free run of the house, except Morley’s study, his sanctuary. And hadn’t Morley said that later on the spray killed a man’s scent? That was worth something; it could be the edge he needed.

  But it didn’t really matter. Nothing mattered anymore. Six dogs. Six war elephants. He was going after Morley.

  He began dragging the floppy-necked Chum toward the estate.

  · · ·

  Morley was sitting at his desk playing a game of chess with himself, and both sides were doing quite well, he thought. He had a glass of brandy at his elbow, and from time to time he would drink from it, cock his head and consider his next move.

  Outside the study door, in the hall, he could hear Julie’s dogs padding nervously. They wanted out, and in the past they would have been on the yard long before now. But tonight he hadn’t bothered. He hated those bastards, and just maybe he’d get rid of them. Shoot them and install a burglar alarm. Alarms didn’t have to eat or be let out to shit, and they wouldn’t turn on you. And he wouldn’t have to listen to the sound of dog toenails clicking on the tile outside of his study door.

  He considered letting the Dobermans out, but hesitated. Instead, he opened a box of special Cuban cigars, took one, rolled it between his fingers near his ear so he could hear the fresh crackle of good tobacco. He clipped the end off the cigar with a silver clipper, put it in his mouth and lit it with a desk lighter without actually putting the flame to it. He drew in a deep lungful of smoke and relished it, let it out with a soft, contented sigh.

  At the same moment he heard a sound, like something being dragged across the gravel drive. He sat motionless a moment, not batting an eye. It couldn’t be lover boy, he thought. No way.

  He walked across the room, pulled the curtain back from the huge glass door, unlocked it and slid it open.

  A cool wind had come along and it was shaking the trees in the yard, but nothing else was moving. Morley searched the tree shadows for some tell-tale sign, but saw nothing.

  Still, he was not one for imagination. He had heard something. He went back to the desk chair where his coat hung, reached the revolver from his pocket, turned.

  And there was Dennis. Shirtless, one pants leg mostly ripped away. There were blood-stained bandages on his thigh and ankle. He had the chain partially coiled around one arm, and Chum, quite dead, was lying on the floor beside him. In his right hand Dennis held a chair leg, and at the same moment Morley no
ted this and raised the revolver, Dennis threw it.

  The leg hit Morley squarely between the eyes, knocked him against his desk, and as he tried to right himself, Dennis took hold of the chain and used it to swing the dead dog. Chum struck Morley on the ankles and took him down like a scythe cutting fresh wheat. Morley’s head slammed into the edge of the desk and blood dribbled into his eyes; everything seemed to be in a mixmaster, whirling so fast nothing was identifiable.

  When the world came to rest, he saw Dennis standing over him with the revolver. Morley could not believe the man’s appearance. His lips were split in a thin grin that barely showed his teeth. His face was drawn and his eyes were strange and savage. It was apparent he had found the key in the coat, because the collar was gone.

  Out in the hall, bouncing against the door, Morley could hear Julie’s dogs. They sensed the intruder and wanted at him. He wished now he had left the study door open, or put them out on the yard.

  “I’ve got money,” Morley said.

  “Fuck your money,” Dennis screamed. “I’m not selling anything here. Get up and get over here.”

  Morley followed the wave of the revolver to the front of his desk. Dennis swept the chess set aside with a swipe of his arm and bent Morley backwards over the desk. He put one of the collars around Morley’s neck, pulled the chain around the desk a few times, pushed it under and fastened the other collar over Morley’s ankles.

  Tucking the revolver into the waistband of his pants, Dennis picked up Chum and tenderly placed him on the desk chair, half-curled. He tried to poke the dog’s tongue back into his mouth, but that didn’t work. He patted Chum on the head, said, “There, now.”

  Dennis went around and stood in front of Morley and looked at him, as if memorizing the moment.

  At his back the Dobermans rattled the door.

  “We can make a deal,” Morley said. “I can give you a lot of money, and you can go away. We’ll call it even.”

  Dennis unfastened Morley’s pants, pulled them down to his knees. He pulled the underwear down. He went around and got the spray can out of Morley’s coat and came back.