Not now. Not since Reba. Don't think Reba.

"WHO IS ACCEPTABLE?" the Dragon asked.

"Mrs… erhman – Sherman." It was hard for Dolarhyde to say.

"SPEAK UP. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU. WHOM ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?"

Dolarhyde, his face set, turned to the barbell. Up. Over his head. Much harder this time.

"Mrs… erhman wet in the water."

"YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR LITTLE BUDDY, DON'T YOU? YOU WANT HER TO BE YOUR LITTLE BUDDY, DON'T YOU?"

The weight came down with a thud.

"I on't have a li'l… buddy." With the fear his speech was failing. He had to occlude his nostrils with his upper lip.

"A STUPID LIE." The Dragon's voice was strong and clear. He said the /s/ without effort. "YOU FORGET THE BECOMING. PREPARE FOR THE SHERMANS. LIFT THE WEIGHT."

Dolarhyde seized the barbell and strained. His mind strained with his body. Desperately he tried to think of the Shermans. He forced himself to think of the weight of Mrs. Sherman in his arms. Mrs. Sherman was next. It was Mrs. Sherman. He was fighting Mr. Sherman in the dark. Holding him down until loss of blood made Sherman's heart quiver like a bird. It was the only heart he heard. He didn't hear Reba's heart. He didn't.

Fear leeched his strength. He got the weight up to his thighs, could not make the turn up to his chest. He thought of the Shermans ranged around him, eyes wide, as he took the Dragon's due. It was no good. It was hollow, empty. The weight thudded down.

"NOT ACCEPTABLE."

"Mrs…"

"YOU CAN'T EVEN SAY 'MRS. SHERMAN.' YOU NEVER INTEND TO TAKE THE SHERMANS. YOU WANT REBA MCCLANE. YOU WANT HER TO BE YOUR LITTLE BUDDY, DON'T YOU? YOU WANT TO BE 'FRIENDS'."

"No."

"LIE!"

"Nyus mhor a niddow wyow."

"JUST FOR A LITTLE WHILE? YOU SNIVELING HARELIP, WHO WOULD BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? COME HERE. I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT YOU ARE."

Dolarhyde did not move.

"I'VE NEVER SEEN A CHILD AS DISGUSTING AND DIRTY AS YOU. COME HERE."

He went.

"TAKE DOWN THE SWEATSHIRT."

He took it down.

"LOOK AT ME."

The Dragon glowed from the wall.

"TAKE DOWN THE KIMONO. LOOK IN THE MIRROR."

He looked. He could not help himself or turn his face from the scalding light. He saw himself drool.

"LOOK AT YOURSELF. I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU A SURPRISE FOR YOUR LITTLE BUDDY. TAKE OFF THAT RAG."

Dolarhyde's hands fought each other at the waistband of the sweatpants. The sweatpants tore. He stripped them away from him with his right hand, held the rags to him with his left.

His right hand snatched the rags away from his trembling, failing left. He threw them into the corner and fell back on the mat, curling on himself like a lobster split live. He hugged himself and groaned, breathing hard, his tattoo brilliant in the harsh gym lights.

"I'VE NEVER SEEN A CHILD AS DISGUSTING AND DIRTY AS YOU. GO GET THEM."

"aaaymah."

"GET THEM."

He padded from the room and returned with the Dragon's teeth.

"PUT THEM IN YOUR PALMS. LOCK YOUR FINGERS AND SQUEEZE MY TEETH TOGETHER."

Dolarhyde's pectoral muscles bunched.

"YOU KNOW HOW THEY CAN SNAP. NOW HOLD THEM UNDER YOUR BELLY. HOLD YOURSELF BETWEEN THE TEETH."

"no."

"DO IT… NOW LOOK."

The teeth were beginning to hurt him. Spit and tears fell on his chest.

"mleadse."

"YOU ARE OFFAL LEFT BEHIND IN THE BECOMING. YOU ARE OFFAL AND I WILL NAME YOU. YOU ARE CUNT FACE. SAY IT."

"i am cunt face." He occluded his nostrils with his lip to say the words.

"SOON I WILL BE CLEANSED OF YOU," the Dragon said effortlessly. "WILL THAT BE GOOD?"

"good."

"WHO WILL BE NEXT WHEN IT IS TIME?"

"mrs… ehrman…"

Sharp pain shot through Dolarhyde, pain and terrible fear.

"I'LL TEAR IT OFF."

"reba. reba. i'll give you reba." Already his speech was improving.

"YOU'LL GIVE ME NOTHING. SHE IS MINE. THEY ARE ALL MINE. REBA MCCLANE AND THEN THE SHERMANS."

"reba and then the shermans. the law will know."

"I HAVE PROVIDED FOR THAT DAY. DO YOU DOUBT IT?"

"no."

"WHO ARE YOU?"

"cunt face."

"YOU MAY PUT AWAY MY TEETH. YOU PITIFUL WEAK HARELIP, YOU'D KEEP YOUR LITTLE BUDDY FROM ME, WOULD YOU? I'LL TEAR HER APART AND RUB THE PIECES IN YOUR UGLY FACE. I'LL HANG YOU WITH HER LARGE INTESTINE IF YOU OPPOSE ME. YOU KNOW I CAN. PUT THREE HUNDRED POUNDS ON THE BAR."

Dolarhyde added the plates to the bar. He had never lifted as much as 280 until today.

"LIFT IT."

If he were not as strong as the Dragon, Reba would die. He knew it. He strained until the room turned red before his bulging eyes.

"i can't."

"NO YOU CAN'T. BUT I CAN."

Dolarhyde gripped the bar. It bowed as the weight rose to his shoulders. UP. Above his head easily. "GOOD-BYE, CUNT FACE," he said, proud Dragon, quivering in the light.

Francis Dolarhyde never got to work on Monday morning.

He started from his house exactly on time, as he always did. His appearance was impeccable, his driving precise. He put on his dark glasses when he made the turn at the Missouri River bridge and drove into the morning sun.

His Styrofoam cooler squeaked as it jiggled against the passenger seat He leaned across and set it on the floor, remembering that he must pick up the dry ice and get the film from…

Crossing the Missouri channel now, moving water under him. He looked at the whitecaps on the sliding river and suddenly felt that he was sliding and the river was still. A strange, disjointed, collapsing feeling flooded him. He let up on the accelerator.

The van slowed in the outside lane and stopped. Traffic behind him was stacking up, honking. He didn't hear it.

He sat, sliding slowly northward over the still river, facing the morning sun. Tears leaked from beneath his sunglasses and fell hot on his forearms.

Someone was pecking on the window. A driver, face early-morning pale and puffed with sleep, had gotten out of a car behind him. The driver was yelling something through the window.

Dolarhyde looked at the man. Flashing blue lights were coming from the other end of the bridge. He knew he should drive. He asked his body to step on the gas, and it did. The man beside the van skipped backward to save his feet.

Dolarhyde pulled into the parking lot of a big motel near the U.S. 270 interchange. A school bus was parked in the lot, the bell of a tuba leaning against its back window.

Dolarhyde wondered if he was supposed to get on the bus with the old people.

No, that wasn't it, He looked around for his mother's Packard.

"Get in. Don't put your feet on the seat," his mother said.

That wasn't it either.

He was in a motel parking lot on the west side of St. Louis and he wanted to be able to Choose and he couldn't.

In six days, if he could wait that long, he would kill Reba McClane. He made a sudden high sound through his nose.

Maybe the Dragon would be willing to take the Shermans first and wait another moon.