Children of the Corn Read online

  Why?

  It wasn't the Grace Baptist Church any more, that was why. So what kind of

  church was it? For some reason that question caused a trickle of fear and he

  stood up quickly, dusting his fingers. So they had taken down a bunch of

  letters, so what? Maybe they had changed the place into Flip Wilson's Church of

  What's Happening Now.

  But what had happened then?

  He shook it off impatiently and went through the inner doors. Now he was

  standing at the back of the church itself, and as he looked towards the nave, he

  felt fear close around his heart and squeeze tightly. His breath drew in, loud

  in the pregnant silence of this place.

  The space behind the pulpit was dominated by a gigantic portrait of Christ, and

  Burt thought: If nothing else in this town gave Vicky the screaming meemies,

  this would.

  The Christ was grinning, vulpine. His eyes were wide and staring, reminding Burt

  uneasily of Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera. In each of the wide black

  pupils someone (a sinner, presumably) was drowning in a lake of fire. But the

  oddest thing was that this Christ had green hair hair which on closer

  examination revealed itself to be a twining mass of early-summer corn. The

  picture was crudely done but effective. It looked like a comic-strip mural done

  by a gifted child - an Old Testament Christ, or a pagan Christ that might

  slaughter his sheep for sacrifice instead of leading them.

  At the foot of the left-hand ranks of pews was a pipe Organ, and Burt could not

  at first tell what was wrong with it. He walked down the left-hand aisle and saw

  with slowly dawning horror that the keys had been ripped up, the stops had been

  pulled out . . and the pipes themselves filled with dry cornhusks. Over the

  organ was a carefully lettered plaque which read: MAKE NO MUSIC EXCEPT WITH

  HUMAN TONGUE SAITH THE LORD GOD.

  Vicky was right. Something was terribly wrong here. He debated going back to

  Vicky without exploring any further, just getting into the car and leaving town

  as quickly as possible, never mind the Municipal Building. But it grated on him.

  Tell the truth, he thought. You want to give her Ban 5000 a workout before going

  back and admitting she was right to start with.

  He would go back in a minute or so.

  He walked towards the pulpit, thinking: People must go through Gatlin all the

  time. There must be people in the neighbouring towns who have friends and

  relatives here. The Nebraska SP must cruise through from time to time. And what

  about the power company? The stoplight had been dead. Surely they'd know if the

  power had been off for twelve long years. Conclusion: What seemed to have

  happened in Gatlin was impossible.

  Still, he had the creeps.

  He climbed the four carpeted steps to the pulpit and looked out over the

  deserted pews, glimmering in the half-shadows. He seemed to feel the weight of

  those eldritch and decidedly unchristian eyes boring into his back.

  There was a large Bible on the lectern, opened to the thirty-eighth chapter of

  Job. Burt glanced down at it and read: 'Then the Lord answered Job out of the

  whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without

  knowledge? . . . Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

  declare, if thou hast understanding.' The lord. He Who Walks Behind the Rows.

  Declare if thou hast understanding. And please pass the corn.

  He fluttered the pages of the Bible, and they made a dry whispering sound in the

  quiet - the sound that ghosts might make if there really were such things. And

  in a place like this you could almost believe it. Sections of the Bible had been

  chopped out. Mostly from the New Testament, he saw. Someone had decided to take

  on the job of amending Good King James with a pair of scissors.

  But the Old Testament was intact.

  He was about to leave the pulpit when he saw another book on a lower shelf and

  took it out, thinking it might be a church record of weddings and confirmations

  and burials.

  He grimaced at the words stamped on the cover, done inexpertly in gold leaf:

  THUS LET THE INIQUITOUS BE CUT DOWN SO THAT THE GROUND MAY BE FERTILE AGAIN

  SAITH THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS.

  There seemed to be one train of thought around here, and Burt didn't care much

  for the track it seemed to ride on.

  He opened the book to the first wide, lined sheet. A child had done the

  lettering, he saw immediately. In places an ink eraser had been carefully used,

  and while there were no misspellings, the letters were large and childishly

  made, drawn rather than written. The first column read:

  Amos Deigan (Richard), b. Sept. 4, 1945 Sept. 4, 1964

  Isaac Renfrew (William), b. Sept.19, 1945 Sept.19, 1964

  Zepeniah Kirk (George), b. Oct.14, 1945 Oct.14, 1964

  Mary Wells (Roberta), b. Nov.12, 1945 Nov.12, 1964

  Yemen Hollis (Edward), b. Jan. 5, 1946 Jan. 5, 1965

  Frowning, Burt continued to turn through the pages. Three-quarters of the way

  through, the double columns ended abruptly:

  Rachel Stigman (Donna), b. June21, 1957 June 21, 1976

  Moses Richardson (Henry), b. July 29, 1957

  Malachi Boardman (Craig), b. August 15, 1957

  The last entry in the book was for Ruth Clawson (Sandra), b. April 30, 1961.

  Burt looked at the shelf where he had found this book and came up with two more.

  The first had the same INIQUITOUS BE CUT DOWN logo, and it continued the same

  record, the single column tracing birth dates and names. In early September of

  1964 he found Job Gilman (Clayton), b. September 6, and the next entry was Eve

  Tobin, b. June 16, 1965. No second name in parentheses.

  The third book was blank.

  Standing behind the pulpit, Burt thought about it.

  Something had happened in 1964. Something to do with religion, and corn. . . and

  children.

  Dear God we beg thy blessing on the crop. For Jesus' sake, amen.

  And the knife raised high to sacrifice the lamb - but had it been a lamb?

  Perhaps a religious mania had swept them. Alone, all alone, cut off from the

  outside world by hundreds of square miles of the rustling secret corn. Alone

  under seyenty million acres of blue sky. Alone under the watchful eye of God,

  now a strange green God, a God of corn, grown old and strange and hungry. He Who

  Walks Behind the Rows.

  Burt felt a chill creep into his flesh.

  Vicky, let me tell you a story. It's about Amos Deigan, who was born Richard

  Deigan On 4 September 1945. He took the name Amos in 1964, fine Old Testament

  name, Amos, one of the minor prophets. Well, Vicky, what happened - don't laugh

  - is that Dick Deigan and his friends - Billy Renfrew, George Kirk, Roberta

  Wells, and Eddie Hollis among others - they got religion and they killed off

  their parents. All of them. Isn't that a scream? Shot them in their beds, knifed

  them in their bathtubs, poisoned their suppers, hung them, or disembowelled

  them, for all I know.

  Why? The corn. Maybe it was dying. Maybe they got the idea somehow that it was

  dying because there was too much sinning. Not enough sacrifice. They would have

  done it in the corn, in the rows.

  And somehow, Vi
cky, I'm quite sure of this, somehow they decided that nineteen

  was as old as any of them could live. Richard 'Amos' Deigan, the hero of our

  little story, had his nineteenth birthday on 4 September 1964 - the date in the

  book. I think maybe they killed him. Sacrificed him in the corn. Isn't that a

  silly story?

  But let's look at Rachel Stigman, who was Donna Stigman until 1964. She turned

  nineteen on 21 June, just about a month ago. Moses Richardson was born on 29

  July - just three days from today he'll be nineteen. Any idea what's going to

  happen to ole Mose on the twenty-ninth?

  I can guess.

  Burt licked his lips, which felt dry.

  One other thing, Vicky. Look at this. We have Job Gilman (Clayton) born on 6

  September 1964. No other births until 16 June 1965. A gap of ten months. Know

  what I think? They killed all the parents, even the pregnant ones, that's what I

  think. And one of them got pregnant in October of 1964 and gave birth to Eve.

  Some sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl. Eve. The first woman.

  He thumbed back through the book feverishly and found the Eve Tobin entry. Below

  it: 'Adam Greenlaw, b. July 11, 1965'.

  They'd be just eleven now, he thought and his flesh began to crawl. And maybe

  they're out there. Someplace.

  But how could such a thing be kept secret? How could it goon?

  How unless the God in question approved?

  'Oh Jesus,' Burt said into the silence, and that was when the T-Bird's horn

  began to- blare into the afternoon, one long continuous blast.

  Burt jumped from the pulpit and ran down the centre aisle. He threw open the

  outer vestibule door, letting in hot sunshine, dazzling. Vicky was bold upright

  behind the

  steering wheel, both hands plastered on the horn ring, her head swivelling

  wildly. From all around the children were coming. Some of them were laughing

  gaily. They held knives, hatchets, pipes, rocks, hammers. One girl, maybe eight,

  with beautiful long blonde hair, held a jackhandle. Rural weapons. Not a gun

  among them. Burt felt a wild urge to scream out: Which of you is Adam and Eve?

  Who are the mothers? Who are the daughters? Fathers? Sons?

  Declare, if thou hast understanding.

  They came from the side streets, from the town green, through the gate in the

  chain-link fence around the school playground a block further east. Some of them

  glanced indifferently at Burt, standing frozen on the church steps, and some

  nudged each other and pointed and smiled the sweet smiles of children.

  The girls were dressed in long brown wool and faded sun-bonnets. The boys, like

  Quaker parsons, were all in black and wore round-crowned flat-brimmed hats. They

  streamed across the town square towards the car, across lawns, a few came across

  the front yard of what had been the Grace Baptist Church until 1964. One or two

  of them almost close enough to touch.

  'The shotgun!' Burt yelled. 'Vicky, get the shotgun!'

  But she was frozen in her panic, he could see that from the steps. He doubted if

  she could even hear him through the closed windows.

  They converged on the Thunderbird. The axes and hatchets and chunks of pipe

  began to rise and fall. My God, am I seeing this? he thought frozenly. An arrow

  of chrome fell off the side of the car. The hood ornament went flying. Knives

  crawled spirals through the sidewalls of the tyres and the car settled. The horn

  blared on and on. The windshield and side windows -went opaque and cracked under

  the onslaught. . . and then the safety glass sprayed inwards and he could see

  again. Vicky was crouched back, only one hand on the horn ring now, the other

  thrown up to protect her face. Eager young hands reached in, fumbling for the

  lock/unlock button. She beat them away wildly. The horn became intermittent and

  then stopped altogether.

  The beaten and dented driver's side door was hauled open. They were trying to

  drag her out but her hands were wrapped around the steering wheel. Then one of

  them leaned in, knife in hand, and -His paralysis broke and he plunged down the

  steps, almost falling, and ran down the flagstone walk, towards them. One of

  them, a boy about sixteen with long long red hair spilling out from beneath his

  hat, turned towards him, almost casually, and something flicked through the air.

  Burt's left arm jerked backwards, and for a moment he had the absurd thought

  that the had been punched at long distance, Then the pain came, so sharp and

  sudden that the world went grey.

  He examined his arm with a stupid sort of wonder. A buck and half Pensy

  jack-knife was growing out of it like a strange tumour. The sleeve of his J. C.

  Penney sports shirt was turning red. He looked at it for what seemed like for

  ever, trying to understand how he could have grown a jack-knife. . . was it

  possible?

  When he looked up, the boy with red hair was almost on top of him. He was

  grinning, confident.

  'Hey, you bastard,' Burt said. His voice was creaking, shocked.

  'Remand your soul to God, for you will stand before His throne momentarily,' the

  boy with the red hair said, and clawed for Burt's eyes.

  Burt stepped back, pulled the Pensy out of his arm, and stuck it into the

  red-haired boy's throat. The gush of blood was immediate, gigantic. Burt was

  splashed with it. The red-haired boy began to gobble and walk in a large circle.

  He clawed at the knife, trying to pull it free, and was unable. Burt watched

  him, jaw hanging agape. None of this was happening. It was a dream. The

  red-haired boy gobbled and walked. Now his sound was the only one in the hot

  early afternoon. The others watched, stunned.

  This part of it wasn't in the script, Burt thought numbly. Vicky and I, we were

  in the script. And the boy in the corn, who was trying to run away. But not one

  of their own. He stared at them savagely, wanting to scream, How do you like it?

  The red-haired boy gave one last weak gobble, and sank to his knees. He stared

  up at Burt for a moment, and then his hands dropped away from the shaft of the

  knife, and he fell forward.

  A soft sighing sound from the children gathered around the Thunderbird. They

  stared at Burt. Burt stared back at them, fascinated . . . and that was when he

  noticed that Vicky was gone.

  'Where is she?' he asked. 'Where did you take her?'

  One of the boys raised a blood-streaked hunting knife towards his throat and

  made a sawing motion there. He grinned. That was the only answer.

  From somewhere in back, an older boy's voice, soft: 'Get him.'

  The boys began to walk towards him. Burt backed up. They began to walk faster.

  Burt backed up faster. The shotgun, the god-damned shotgun! Out of reach. The

  sun cut their shadows darkly on the green church lawn. . . and then he was on

  the sidewalk. He turned and ran.

  'Kill him!' someone roared, and they came after him.

  He ran, but not quite blindly. He skirted the Municipal Building - no help

  there, they would corner him like a rat -and ran on up Main Street, which opened

  out and became the highway again two blocks further up. He and Vicky would have

  been on that road now and away, if he had only listened.

  His loafers slapped against the si
dewalk. Ahead of him he could see a few more

  business buildings, including the Gatlin Ice Cream Shoppe and - sure enough -

  the Bijou Theatre. The dust-clotted marquee letters read NOW HOWING L MITED EN

  AGEMEN ELI A TH TAYLOR CLEOPA RA. Beyond the next cross street was a gas station

  that marked the edge of town. And beyond that the corn, closing back in to the

  sides of the road. A green tide of corn.

  Burt ran. He was already out of breath and the knife wound in his upper arm was

  beginning to hurt. And he was leaving a trail of blood. As he ran he yanked his

  handkerchief from his back pocket and stuck it inside his shirt.

  He ran. His loafers pounded the cracked cement of the sidewalk, his breath

  rasped in his throat with more and more heat. His arm began to throb in earnest.

  Some mordant part of his brain tried to ask if he thought he could run all the

  way to the next town, if he could run twenty miles of two-lane blacktop.

  He ran. Behind him he could hear them, fifteen years younger and faster than he

  was, gaining. Their feet slapped on the pavement. They whooped and shouted back

  and forth to each other. They're having more fun than a five-alarm fire, Burt

  thought disjointedly. They'll talk about it for years.

  Burt ran.

  He ran past the gas station marking the edge of town. His breath gasped and

  roared in his chest. The sidewalk ran out under his feet. And now there was only

  one thing to do, only one chance to beat them and escape with his life. The

  houses were gone, the town was gone. The corn had surged in a soft green wave

  back to the edges of the road. The green, swordlike leaves rustled softly. It

  would be deep in there, deep and cool, shady in the rows of man-high corn.

  He ran past a sign that said: YOU ARE NOW LEAVING GATLIN, NICEST LITTLE TOWN IN

  NEBRASKA - OR ANYWHERE ELSE! DROP IN ANYTIME!

  I'll be sure to do that, Burt thought dimly.

  He ran past the sign like a sprinter closing on the tape and then swerved left,

  crossing the road, and kicked his loafers away. Then he was in the corn and it

  closed behind him and over him like the waves of a green sea, taking him in.

  Hiding him. He felt a sudden and wholly unexpected relief sweep him, and at the

  same moment he got his second wind. His lungs, which had been shallowing up,

  seemed to unlock and give him more breath.

  He ran straight down the first row he had entered, head ducked, his broad