Skeleton Crew

" 'I should never have come,' he groaned. 'But I was so desperate for any kind of human fellowship that I... I...' Without thinking, I reached out to touch him—the most elemental gesture of one human being to another when he is grief-stricken—but Brower shrank away from me and cried, 'Don't touch me! Isn't one enough? O God, why don't I just die?'

"His eye suddenly lit feverishly on a stray dog with slat-thin sides and mangy, chewed fur that was making its way up the other side of the deserted, early-morning street. The cur's tongue hung out and it walked with a wary, three-legged limp. It was looking, I suppose, for garbage cans to tip over and forage in.

" 'That could be me over there,' he said reflectively, as if to himself. 'Shunned by everyone, forced to walk alone and venture out only after every other living thing is safe behind locked doors. Pariah dog!'

" 'Come now,' I said, a little sternly, for such talk smacked more than a little of the melodramatic. 'You've had some kind of nasty shock and obviously something has happened to put your nerves in a bad state, but in the War I saw a thousand things which—'

" 'You don't believe me, do you?' he asked. 'You think I'm in the grip of some sort of hysteria, don't you?'

" 'Old man, I really don't know what you might be gripping or what might be gripping you, but I do know that if we continue to stand out here in the damp night air, we'll both catch the grippe Now if you'd care to step back inside with me—only as far as the foyer, if you'd like - - I'll ask Stevens to—'

"His eyes were wild enough to make me acutely uneasy There was no light of sanity left in them, and he reminded me of nothing so much as the battle-fatigued psychotics I had seen earned away in carts from the front lines husks of men with awful, blank eyes like potholes to hell, mumbling and gibbering

" 'Would you care to see how one outcast responds to another'?' he asked me, taking no notice of what I had been saying at all 'Watch, then, and see what I've learned in strange ports of call"

"And he suddenly raised his voice and said imperiously, 'Dog"

"The dog raised his head, looked at him with wary, rolling eyes (one glittered with rabid wildness, the other was filmed by a cataract), and suddenly changed direction and came limping, reluctantly, across the street to where Brower stood

"It did not want to come, that much was obvious It whined and growled and tucked its mangy rope of a tail between its legs, but it was drawn to him nonetheless It came right up to Brower's feet, and then lay upon its belly, whining and crouching and shuddering Its emaciated sides went in and out like a bellows, and its good eye rolled horribly in its socket

"Brower uttered a hideous, despairing laugh that I still hear in my dreams, and squatted by it 'There,' he said 'You see" It knows me as one of its kind and knows what I bring it1' He reached for the dog and the cur uttered a snarling, lugubrious howl It bared its teeth

" 'Don't1' I cried sharply 'He'll bite1'

"Brower took no notice In the glow of the streetlight his face was livid, hideous, the eyes black holes burnt in parchment 'Nonsense,' he crooned 'Nonsense I only want to shake hands with him as your friend shook with me!" And suddenly he seized the dog's paw and shook it The dog made a horrible howling noise, but made no move to bite him

"Suddenly Brower stood up His eyes seemed to have cleared somewhat, and except for his excessive pallor, he might have again been the man who had offered courteously to pick up a hand with us earlier the night before.

" 'I'm leaving now,' he said quietly 'Please apologize to your friends and tell them I'm sorry to have acted like such a fool Perhaps I'll have a chance to redeem myself another time '

" 'It's we who owe you the apology,' I said 'And have you forgotten the money" It's better than a thousand dollars '

" 'O yes1 The money1' And his mouth curved in one of the bitterest smiles I have ever seen

" 'Never mind coming into the lobby,' I said 'If you will promise to wait right here, I'll bring it Will you do that?'

" 'Yes,' he said 'If you wish, I'll do that ' And he looked reflectively down at the dog whining at his feet 'Perhaps he would like to come to my lodgings with me and have a square meal for once in his miserable life ' And the bitter smile reappeared

"I left him then, before he could reconsider, and went downstairs Someone—probably Jack Wilden, he always had an orderly mind—had changed all the markers for greenbacks and had stacked the money neatly in the center of the green felt None of them spoke to me as I gathered it up Baker and Jack Wilden were smoking wordlessly, Jason Davidson was hanging his head and looking at his feet His face was a picture of misery and shame I touched him on the shoulder as I went back to the stairs and he looked at me gratefully