"Only me. Can I use the phone? Culvert's washed out a half mile back. Folks gonna be some suprised when they drive into it, that's fer sure." He lowered his hands and I recognized his face; not a face I could put a name to, but a vaguely familiar face, like the other familiar faces that had been part of my life since I could remember.
I opened the door. "The phone's dead. The lightning musta done it."
"Yeah? Figures." He stripped off a sodden, tattered coat, dumped it in the porch and stepped inside. He was filthy, dressed in rags. He ignored us as he stared in awe at the kitchen, savouring the cracked plaster like childhood candy. "Ferguson's, don't they live here no more?"
"Archie and Edna? No, they're in town."
He turned slowly, completely around. Then: "Your folks not here?"
"Back soon," said Jum.
The man glanced at Jum, looked away, then back again. He collapsed into a chair, candlelight gleaming on his wet face as it flooded with shock. "Jake! My God, it's Jake!"
"No!!" yelled Jum. "My name is 'Jim'!
It was as if the man hadn't heard. "Oh, Jake!" he husked softly, shaking his head, shuddering, wiping his face with a blackened hand.
"Jim!!" Jum shrieked. "Jim!! Jim!! Jim!! Jim!!" He wailed a high, keening wail.
"His name is 'Jim'!" I shouted. "He's my brother, so I should know!" I was shaking, my teeth chattering.
The man turned to me. "His name is 'Jake'," he said. "I bloody guess I should know." Black holes bore into me. With the candles behind him it was like he had no eyes.
Jum screamed. It wasn't a 'no' or any kind of a word, it was just a scream, and as he screamed, he backed away from the table, up against the wall, away from the man who was staring at him again.
Something stank. I thought Jum had lost control but it stank a lot worse than that.
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