Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [131]
“And the coffin was in a vault of lead. Yeah, it was lead. And well sealed. Though the vault went down some three feet there was no sign that moisture had ever penetrated it.
“I stepped down into the vault, and for a long time I stood there, inside the mausoleum—in the vault—merely staring at the empty coffin. There was just room to walk around it, which I did.
“I climbed back up and out into the sunshine.
“ ‘Do you know how many of us it took to open that gold door?’ Allen asked. ‘What do you make of all this? What’s that writing up there? You can read that, can’t you, Quinn?’
“I shook my head. ‘Manfred,’ I said. ‘Manfred had some plan to be buried out here, and those whom he trusted never fulfilled his dream. And so we have an empty coffin and an empty mausoleum. We have gold plates and an inscription in Latin. Look up there, that’s Latin. I wrote that down. Manfred did all this. Manfred had this thing built when he built the Hermitage. Manfred did it all. And so we close it back up.’
“ ‘But what about all this solid gold!’ Clem said. ‘You can’t just leave all this gold here for people to steal.’
“ ‘Do people still kill each other for gold these days?’ I asked. ‘Are any of you going to come back out here to steal this gold? Are we going to have a shoot-out over this gold? Let’s go back where we came from. I can only take this place for so long. I don’t like that a trespasser came into the house. Let’s get out of here.’
“There was one more thing I wanted to check. I went back into the Hermitage.
“I was right!
“On the marble desk there were new books, books on philosophy and history, books on current events, novels. It was all new—a nice slap in the face. Even the candles were new, though the wicks were blackened. Oh, yes, the fearless one, my trespasser, had been here.
“ ‘So what are you going to do next, I wonder?’ I said aloud. I flew into a rage. I grabbed up as many of the books as I could and threw them down the front steps of the Hermitage. I went back for the rest and threw them after the first. Then I hurried down the steps and pulled and tossed and kicked them all together.
“I took out my lighter. I set a small paperback volume aflame, and then another and another. It was going on its own now, with all the men just watching as if I was crazy, which I was.
“ ‘His books!’ I said. ‘He has no right on this property, and he leaves these books for me to see that he’s been here again.’
“ ‘Lord God,’ Jasmine said, as the flames rose and the fire crackled. ‘We got a dead girl, a strange building, a bunch of weird books, and a regular tomb of gold with an empty iron coffin in it, and a crazy boy standing here!’
“ ‘Well put,’ I said in her ear, ‘and don’t forget your promise to me, Milk Chocolate. It’s you and me alone tonight.’
“ ‘I never made you any promise!’ she said.
“ ‘I told you, I’m unsure of my masculinity,’ I whispered. ‘You’ve got to sacrifice yourself.’ I kicked the fire to make it flare again. I hated burning books. I could hardly stand it to see a Merriam-Webster dictionary go up in smoke. But I had to do this.
“One or two more kicks and everything was incinerated. I turned and looked at Jasmine, expecting some wise remark, but all I saw was a sort of dreamy thoughtfulness in her face.
“Then she said:
“ ‘You know, boy, you really have me thinking about it. You should be more kind to a woman my age. You scamp. You think I don’t have any feelings like that just ’cause I rocked your cradle?’
“ ‘How kind can I get?’ I asked. ‘You think I take up with just anybody?’
“Her expression never changed. She looked fine in her tight jeans. Her Afro was clipped close and the shape of her head and her face was beautiful.
“She lived like a nun. I knew that for a fact. There had been no men at all in her life since her husband died years ago. And her sister, Lolly, had had three husbands.
“ ‘I’m crazed,’ I said, staring at her, staring at her buxom breasts and her small waist. ‘I have these visions; what