A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

NOTICE

IF YOU ARE JUST NOW FINDING THIS "BLOGNOVEL," YOU'RE MISSING OUT ON A REAL TREAT.

A NEW, UPDATED, VERSION OF THIS STORY APPEARS AT MY WEB SITE. TO READ THE COMPLETELY NEW "THE MUNSON CHAPTERS" UNDER ITS NEW TITLE, "AUGUST WINTER," GO TO

WWW.MICHAELRIGG.COM

AND FOLLOW THE "FICTION OF..." TAB TO THE NOVEL




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank the following people, without whom I would never have even attemtped to write another novel - after 10 years - and online - and exposed as a first draft for the world to see

My loving wife, Melanie
Your support and love for my art moves my soul. You make me want to create. It's a tough job: muse, but you do it so well. I love you!

My friends and fellow bloggers:
Patti Tobin Davis (Circle Everything), Cynthia (View From a Convertible). You are the best first readers I could ever hope for. You keep me inspired.

My friend and "technical encouragement," Kris Julius
Kris introduced me to the ease of Blogger and WordPress. He's also the author of quite a few works himself. Check out KrazyKakeBakers.com for a hint.

My contributor, fellow writer, and "contest winner," Eve Nielsen
Author of the Quest Writer and Creative Explosions 'blogs.
Thank you for suggesting Maggie. I hope I did her justice.

I also want to thank my friends, family, Kris and Amanda, and anyone not mentioned here (I've been typing for a loooong time. Please forgive the oversightage). You can't do something as crazy as publishing a first draft novel online for the world to see without having a dynamite support staff.

I can't wait to unveil the "finished version"
stay tuned for
AUGUST WINTER

45. EPILOGUE (D1)

__ "That's one hell of a story," the man said around a mouth full of sandwich.
__ The woman he arrived with glared at him. "Jim!"
__ The man - Jim - forced a large swallow. "I mean come on! Deer head? God forgiving the devil? What kind of shit is this?"
__ "Jim!"
__ "It's okay," the old man smiled and waved a dismissing hand toward the woman's husband. "Like the truth of the August Winter, it's all down to faith."

__ The couple came in to the roadside novelty store on their way through Indiana toward Colorado. It was their honeymoon and they were playing out an extended cross-country road trip in lieu of the usual cruise or flight. "The way things are these days," the wife had said with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, we can really get to know each other intimately this way."
__ "Yes, you can," the old man had nodded and winked.
__ The couple had told him they were intrigued by the sign: "PSYCHIC" spelled out in unlit glass neon tubes above an eye and the word CHURCH painted on the glass underneath. The shop looked like a run down wild west saloon, the imagery heightened by the vast acres of dead farmland surrounding it - and nothing else. The sign on the door said OPEN, so they stopped.
__ The old man who greeted them at the door smiled with dark yellowed teeth and an old GOD IS MY CO-PILOT baseball cap. He wore a scarf around his neck despite the 90-degree heat. With the assistance of a bamboo cane, the old prospector stepped aside and used a sweeping motion with a papery thin arm to invite the pair in. "I get so few visitors, as you might imagine. Please excuse the dust. It's been a dry summer."
__ "Yup," the man said, unwrapping a subway sandwhich as he crossed the threshold and taking a huge bite of it.
__ The woman playfully smacked his arm and said, "Jimmy!" as she pointed to a NO FOOD OR BEVERAGES sign behind the dusty glass. Both 'Jimmy' and the old man waved it off. The old man saying, "You kiddin'? C'mon in. Can I getcha some lemonade?"
__ "No thank you," said the wife.
__ "Nup," said Jim.
__ The couple eyeballed the strange collection of items scattered about the main room of the PSYCHIC CHURCH and smiled nervously as if they had just found themselves wandering into a psychotic wonderland of the bizarre and unpredictable.
__ An old faded pizza box under glass, barely readable as PIZZA KING, had a price tag of $150. The bench seat from an old car with a hole punched through the passenger seat was listed at $750. A shovel, rope, and satchel bag was selling as a "unique set" for $800. There were crumpled men's suit jackets, salt and pepper shakers, horribly stained - "Was that blood?" - woman's tee shirts, a battered car bumper, and what looked like a large collection of splintered wood and organ pieces in a box. The box was labeled, ARDY'S CRUCIFIX and was listed at $2,000.
__ "Quite a collection ya got here," the man snickered around a chomp of roast beef and lettuce and who-knows-what.
__ "The sign says 'church'," the woman pointed out.
__ And that's when the old man told the story about the day a serial killer stepped into this very room and met a beautiful young psychic girl and how, on that day-turned-night over fifty years ago.
__ The whole time the old man spoke, pointing to different items around the store, the wife stared wide-eyed and the man rolled his eyes as if to say, That's why you want all that money for an old pizza box. Now I get it - forget it!
__ But for a time the husband - Jim - stopped munching on his foot-long and glared, sometimes catching himself in disbelief, other times sneering and glancing at his watch.
__ During the times he was caught up in the story, his wife was completely wrapt, leaning forward with her hand on her chest or fanning her face and muttering, "Oh, my God," and "Really?"

__ They had looked around, taken pictures, chomped on his sandwich, giggled and huffed for what seemed like an hour or two as the old man recounted the story of Ardy, Doug, Maggie and the killer Munson in mysteriously smart detail for such an old story.
__ When it was over, the old man said, "Care to purchase?"
__ The man laughed. The woman asked, "Do you have a restroom?"
__ The old man pointed to a side door. "Through the bedroom there. Forgive the mess, but the can is clean."
__ As she stepped away, Jim shoved the last bite of his sub into his maw and attempted to to compact it with his teeth. His cheeks inflated and he pushed the drool in with his finger.
__ The old man smiled crookedly, a look that simultaneously called Jim a pig and said 'to each his own.' He turned toward a broken set of antlers hanging on the wall, glazed with some kind of reddish brown stain, and said, "Oh, these are from Deer Head - still intact. I forgot the price tag. Six hundred."
__ Jim thought of something funny, or perhaps he was going to make an observation about the price. Whatever the case, his voice cut as the wad of half-chewed sub was inhaled into his throat and jammed his windpipe.
__ The old man heard the scuffle and turned toward the man. He rushed to him to see if he could help.
__ Jim, rapidly turning purple and making the "I. Am. Chocking." hand gestures, stared at the old man with his eyes bugging out and tears streaming down his cheeks. The old man stood in front of him with his powdering fingertips on Jim's chest and saying, "Eh? You're choking? Are you chocking?"
__ Jim clenched his left fist and wrapped it with his right hand. He attempted weakly and with no success to give himself the Heimlich maneuver five or six times before stumbling backwards and collapsing to the floor.
__ The old man raced to his side and lowered himself slowly with his cane. He leaned over the man who reached up and pulled at the scarf, his dying watery eyes practically screaming, For God's sake, help me! and darting from side to side as if to yell, Where is my wife!?
__ The scarf pulled away from the old man's neck revealing a savage dark brown bruise that looked clearly like a thumb on the left and four fingers on the right. The neck itself looked pinched and weathered.
__ Jim's eyes fluttered with the realization. Then he died.

__ Rose Bloomfield checked her makeup in the splotchy and greasy bathroom mirror after trying to balance herself on one leg while she flushed the toilet with her foot.
__ This was kind of neat. The old man's story went on and on, but it was fascinating to listen to. Wow, the old people in these backwards hole-in-the-wall towns sure could spin a yarn. She loved Jim and was glad he bowed to her whimsies like that.
__ "Oh, wow! Stop there. Stop there!"
__ They had only crossed two states and two camera cards were already filled. Maybe, she thought, they could stop at a Walgreens or something and download what they had so far. Eighty terrabites wasn't that much, was it?
__ She wondered vaguely if Jim would continue to be that way throughout their marriage. Would he still be willing to turn the car around to check out an antique store run by a one-armed farmer, or will he spend their post-nuptuals in a recliner watching the Bears?
__ Rose shrugged and applied a fresh coat of lipstick. She smacked her lips and noticed a faded picture stuck to the far right side of the mirror. It was so faded it was almost transleucent and that's why she hadn't noticed it. It was a photograph from a deeply yellowed - almost browned - newspaper. She leaned close to see what she could make out. It looked like a photo in an obituary column. It appeared to be of a woman in her thirties in a baseball cap. Her smile was bright, but the death notice type belied the emotion depicted. The caption was faded and partially obscured by a message in long evaporated ink - maybe a love note? - the type read, "ARDELENE R. JACOBI."
__ "Aww," Rose blinked. "How sad." She didn't know who the old man was. She supposed he could be one of the characters in the story, but he had introduced himself as Gus and said he bought the old Psychic Parlor intending to make it into a gas station.
__ Why isn't Jim calling me to get back on the road? He's probably caught in another long story with old Gus. I better save him.

__ Rose came out and saw Jim sitting on a folding chair near the front door. Old Gus was taking a half glass of water from him. Jim looked like he had been crying.
__ "Honey!?" The doting newlywed, Rose jogged to her husband.
__ Jim waved her off. "I'm okay [sniff]. I'm ready to go."
__ To Gus, "Is he okay? What happened?"
__ Gus smiled and shrugged. "Bit too much o' the sandwich. Down the wrong pipe."
__ Rose patted her husband lightly on the back as he turned for the door. "Honey. What have I told you about that? You're going to choke to death one of these days."
__ Jim looked over his shoulder, past Rose, and gave old Gus a confused but familiar look.
__ In moments they were gone, Gus waving after them.

__ Old Man Testerbird, as he was called - sometimes Gus because that's what he told people, turned and cane-hobbled back inside. Once inside he allowed himself to collapse on the dusty couch where he once held the only love of his life all those years ago.
__ "There's another one for ya, Ardy," Douglas wrinkled his chin and nodded. "Another one."

44. Tricking the Trickster (D1)

__ Doug had stopped outside the side door to St. Paul's the same way R. Lee Munson had with the Archangel Michael perched invisibly on the shoulder of his soul. The only difference with Doug was that he had no archangel support. And he was wrestling with the massive waves of guilt at listening to Maggie's tortured screams and final quiet gurgle.
__ "I could have saved her," Doug whispered in prayer with his forehead on the door. The shadow cast by the security light above gave him a harsh and useless silhouette in the snow between his feet. His faceless self stared up at him not offering anything close to hope. "God, give me strength. I don't understand any of this. I don't know what's going on or what I'm doing. I couldn't save Ardy, but I could have ran back and taken Maggie out of here. I could have...."
__ He let it trail off. He knew God wouldn't answer. All of this was a test of his faith. But there was more to it than that. In Maggie's little otherworldly pep-talk, she had given him some instruction as what to do. She couldn't give him the whole psychic profile - that would defuse the whole "faith thing." All she could say was, "You'll know what to say when you get there, but remember, he's a trickster."
__ Doug had blinked, "W-Who is? Who's a trickster?"
__ "The devil, silly."
__ "But I-"
__ "All you need is your faith. Your trust in Him. It's easy, Mr. Testerbird. Just leave me to die."
__ Doug couldn't argue with her because she wouldn't have it. In fact, he didn't believe it. After all, the diminutive Yuri Gellar had an inside track with the murderous Munson. Doug still didn't know who to trust, why, or when.
__ You couldn't have a greater test of faith.
__ He took three deep breaths, armed with nothing but his faith, and opened the door.
__ Maggie had been wrong. There was no devil here. What Doug saw was a tall, hard-bodied (and naked - let's not forget naked) bronzed blue-eyed male model in the midst of some ranting soliloquy.
____ "...You send me a man distracted by false gods, instead of a redeemer of light.
__ "And they all fell before me. They all fail when you send them. Because they are only human, they fall. All of them."
__ Doug took one more deep breath. "Not all of them."


__ Lucifer was not God, hadn't heard God's whispers in his ears for thousands of years, and hadn't had the gift of precognition since The Fall. So, he jumped at the sound of the scrawny man's voice. The devil jumped and rested his hand on his chest. "Who-?"
__ "I'm Douglas. I'm here to stop you from whatever it is you're doing."
__ It was obvious by the stiff way the intruder held his neck that he was avoiding letting his gaze fall upon the ruin that was Ardelene Jacobi. Perhaps they had something? Lust? Something I can use, Lucifer mused.
__ "Sinner!" the devil accused, pointing dramatically at Douglas's chest with a muscular finger. "Your fate is sealed. You will join me in hell."

__ Doug hadn't expected that kind of response (yeah. What kind of response was expected from your first conversation with a fallen angel?) and looked around the floor for something to use as a weapon. A leaky vial of holy water perhaps, a silver bullet and a convenient revolver, mandrake root, a mirror. How do you fight the devil himself?
__ Lucifer stood and stepped around an overturned pew. Doug glanced up before stepping back, surprised to find the dark angel was endowed - actually well endowed. He didn't know why - maybe it was a movie or something - but he always expected that angels were sexless.
__ "You can run from me, earth crawler. Your soul will be mine upon your death and I will sup upon it like I did the entrails of your beloved bitch there."
__ Doug pinched his eyes closed, almost tripped backing around some wreckage from the pipe organ, and stammered, "Y-You can't. I have faith. I believe."
__ Lucifer continued stalking Doug. With a powerful arm, he uprighted a statue pedastal and tossed it aside. He took another stride toward the shivering store owner as Doug arched his way around the other side of the church. The devil sneered, "You believe in aliens. You believe in reality TV. You believe in Star Trek. You don't even know God."
__ Doug stopped. Stood firm. "You're right."
__ Lucifer stopped pursuing, but he didn't look surprised at Doug's response. Instead, he lowered his head slightly and gazed out from under a malevolent brow, his grin of perfect white teeth almost a ferrel expectation of flesh.
__ Doug said, "I'm a sinner."
__ "You confess to me?"
__ "I confess to God. Though I'm not worthy of His redemption." Where were these words coming from? Doug was silently thankful for all the years of churchgoing. The various memorized and rote-induced creeds were coming back to him though he never expected to recite them like this.
__ "A shame. But you are worthy of mine," Lucifer leered.
__ "I don't want - or need - yours," Doug said and continued backpedaling.
__ The devil pursued. Doug was walking backwards, glancing over his shoulder more rapidly, watching his step. Lucifer was closing the distance.
__ Doug was now almost to the crook of the makeshift cross that held Ardy's ruined body. That's where Lucifer would trap him. What now, Lord? What do I do now? I could have saved the girl and now the dark angel is going to strangle the life out of me and eat my soul like candy. What am I supposed to do to stop this?
__ God answered by allowing Doug's heel to catch a step up to the podium across from the pulpit. He stumbled back, his arms pinwheeling uselessly. He landed on his rear with a thump and reflexively held his arms up to protect his face.
__ Lucifer closed the gap growling. "When I am through with you, meat, you will pray with all your heart to a darkness that never answers." He lunged for Doug and lifted him by the shirt collars. He slammed him back against the cross-bar of the cross.
__ The altar wreckage-converted-to-crucifix was hard and heavy. The air was knocked out of Doug's lungs as Lucifer slammed his back against the bar. He winced and glanced right to see Ardy's upturned impaled palm. He closed his eyes against it as Lucifer lifted him and pushed the back of his head against Ardy's ruined ribcage.
__ The devil's hands closed around Doug's throat and began to crush his esophagus like an old tin can. And that's when it occurred to him.
__ Doug's eyes widened with the realization. He's one of us! He's human!
__ His mind raced marathons at the speed of light. Crazy thoughts (like anything today could be crazy by comparison to this day itself) darted from ear to ear. Doug thought this wasn't really Lucifer but an impersonator, maybe an alterling possessing a man as with the cop.
__ But in those ice blue eyes Doug saw an eternity. And in that eternity, regret and suffering. Thousands of ears of suffering. As Christ walked the earth as a human being so that God could taste of mankind's guilt and sin, suffering and cruelty; Lucifer was now walking the earth to taste of love and regret, fear and forgiveness.
__ Just before the vertebrae in his neck snapped, Doug managed a harsh whisper, "I forgive you."
__ Lucifer relaxed his grip and leaned closer as if he could see the truth of Doug's words in the soon-to-be-dead man's eyes. As with the killer before, there was Truth here, a deep and impenetrable light. God was present in this soul after all. He dropped the store owner who landed on the floor in a heap with his hands clawing at his collar, gasping for air.
__ "I DON'T WANT YOUR FORGIVENESS!" Lucifer roared. "I WANT HIS!"

__ And with that, the prince of darkness glanced up into Ardy Jacobi's dead eyes which were now very much alive. He saw the girl's throat move as she swallowed against the stiffness and waves of renewed pain. He saw her eyes blink. He saw the tears well in them. He saw her ruined limbs twitch and her face scrunch up against the agony.
__ In a language he hadn't heard in centuries, Ardy said, "You have it, Lucifer. You are forgiven."

43. The Testerbird of Faith (D1-end change)

__ "Test of faith. Test of faith. Test of faith."
__ Doug kept repeating the mantra as he left Maggie alone in the dark behind him. He kept picturing her standing their, the tall black shadows of winter-laden trees surrounding her. No light. Coldness. Silence. But he had to.
__ Doug didn't know exactly what God's plan was, why he chose him, or how he was going to carry out the mission. All he knew was that he would confront the devil.
__ And the devil would gloat over Maggie's corpse. Something that could easily be prevented if Doug just turned and went back to the little girl. Lucifer would spare her - and Doug - if he just went back, snatched up the child, and ran until there was no more darkness and no more frozen summer.
__ The voice came from behind him. It was a tone he had heard as a teenager. It was vile and cruel. It was the voice that hurt.
__ "Testerbird!"
__ Doug stopped, but didn't turn around. In his mind, he felt Maggie prod him on, "Don't stop. Go!" But he held fast. The moment, the test of his faith, was at hand.
__ "Testerbird, I'm talkin' to you!"
__ It was Munson's voice - or was it the Pizza King kid's? He couldn't be sure. He wanted to turn and see who it was, but -
__ Doug continued walking, hands in his pockets, head down, tears burning his eyes.
__ "We're going to rip her to pieces, you coward! Don't you care!?"
__ Maggie screamed. The sound of a brief scuffle found his retreating ears.
__ Doug stopped again. "No," he muttered. It was a silent command to them to stop though he felt he possessed no such power. It was a command to himself to not stop but to follow his course though he couldn't in good conscious.... But I can't leave the child like that? I can't -
__ "Here comes an arm, Dougie," the voice called. More screaming. Maggie's cries were like knives flying into his ears. The muffled cracking sound -
__ "No! No! No!" Doug broke into a run, away from the shrieks of Maggie's torture and the tormenting laugh of her otherworldly attackers.
__ "Come back, coward!" They cried, a little farther back now. Something thrown tumbled through the air to Doug's right and kicked some snow off tree limbs. It was only a couple feet long, swaddled in a wrinkled man's suit sleeve, and had five fingers.
__ "No! Damn you! No!"
__ Maggie's screams continued like a shrill siren announcing the end of the world.


__ Lucifer spat out the chunk of Ardy's heart he was chewing like gum. He cocked his head, studied her ruined body torn open by his own fury, the beautiful blacks, purples, reds, and browns of her entrails spilled out onto the floor. Her heart had no flavor. It was gone. She had been taken up and would not be his.
__ The light bearer looked over his shoulder to the hanging Pizza King boy. Legad, formerly known as Todd, had failed miserably.
__ He knew how this happened. It was his own fault.
__ For centuries, Lucifer had been waiting for this day, the Second Coming. He knew it would be at such a time when God would harken back to the Great Flood. "Your second failure," the dark lord sneered. The first, Lucifer maintained, was creating man in the first place.
__ "We had paradise." The bitterest three words the fallen angel had ever known.
__ "Now we have nothing. Well," he allowed a smile. "You have nothing. I have hell."
__ The return of the Son was supposed to be heralded by the Great Conversion. All souls pointing heavenward with the shocking realization: The Christians Were Right.
__ "Doomed to failure," Lucifer whispered turning away from the crucified psychic. He sat next to the altar, on the step leading up to the bashed-in pulpit, and rested his head in his hands. The devil wept. "If you had kept me with you. If you had forgiven me, instructed me. I would have been there to warn you of your mistake, the lapse. Your damn pride!
__ "Not mine! Yours!"
__ Now God's world had changed. The great teams of society were split even more than in His time. Even if more than the pathetic third of humanity were Christian, there are still less than one percent who claim themselves as God. Colleges teach existentialism. War in the holy land paints an even darker picture. Patriotism is the new Christianity, and that makes for strange and prideful bedfellows. "Science is the new Christ," the devil sneered.
__ Lucifer scratched his eyebrow.
__ "Media. Entertainment. Movies, television, the internet - the Almighty Internet." He looked toward the ceiling, scowled as if he was making direct eye contact with God. "These golden idols your Moses cannot cast down for you."
__ Lucifer's victory would be bittersweet. He had planned for this day, saw it coming. He saw the rise of distraction. He saw the numbers of human souls as they fell into his hands increase thousands fold. He even held the beating hearts of so-called Christians in his hands. They confirm their religion, they may even speak kindly of Christ, then they lust in church over the kneeling skirts at communion. They covet the neighbor's new car in the church parking lot. They hate the pastor for not allowing their marriage. "It is decay, as this flesh," Lucifer sniffed as he plucked a piece of Clye Morrow from his bronze forearm.
__ All of this.
__ All the world's distractions, the absence of love for God, enabled the fallen angel to rise again. Lucifer was walking God's earth because, as he figured, it wasn't God's earth at all. It now belonged to these worms, the two-legged imps. The mockery of creation itself.
__ He was made whole. The irony was that he was made whole in a house of God. His Son returns, and the devil walks among those who will crucify him a second time.
__ "What then? The promised fire?"
__ Lucifer stood and stretched. "Only too happy to oblige."
__ He shouted to the ceiling, "You sent me one who peddles lies for a living instead of your legions of angels. You sent me a murderer, a sinful lamb, instead of your archangel assassin. You send me a man distracted by false gods, instead of a redeemer of light.
__ "And they all fell before me. They all fail when you send them. Because they are only human, they fall. All of them."


__ "Not all of them," Doug said from the doorway.