Ritual Reality
14 Demon-Man
Tuesday, 3 June 1969
“…I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love with a wonderful gal!” sang Wayne as he and Glenn finished packing their suitcases.
“You’re insane. You’re insane. You’re insane,” Glenn mimicked back at his friend. “Who, prithee, dost thou love?”
“Aye, there’s the rub,” Wayne quoted then improvised. “Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of young love or take up arms with age and experience for new. Who would bear the whips and scorns of passion’s roller coaster, the pangs of despised love, when he might fly to others with love unrequited? Or shall he take up his cup, fill it with coffee and have a doughnut?”
“You’d part with the passionate princess to worship the ice-cold queen?” Glenn mocked.
“No. It’s the underlying enchantment, hidden glances, secret touches, but forbidden love. Like Lancelot and Guinevere.”
“You and your King Arthur,” Glenn grumbled. “Look where their secret love led them. You can’t survive on unrequited love for the rest of your life.”
“Not unrequited,” Wayne sighed, “just unconsummated.”
“Like I’ll die soon enough that I can see you live a life of chastity. You can’t put a woman on a pedestal and worship her these days.”
“Watch me!”
“Chip, chip, crumble, crumble. Shovel, shovel, out the rubble,” Glenn quipped. “Love from afar if you must, but I’ll take a goddess in the flesh any day.” A knock at the dorm room door cut Glenn off. “Who’s there?” he asked in his best falsetto.
“It’s Judith. Is Wayne there?” Glenn looked at Wayne questioningly.
“A goddess in the flesh,” Wayne said, stepping to the door. He swung it open and fell to the floor at Judith’s feet. She was wearing a short-sleeved sweater, a skirt that stopped where her legs began and sandals. “Oh, fair goddess! Is there a temple where men come to worship you? Or may I lay my life in adoration at your feet here beneath this humble roof?” Judith burst out laughing.
“God, Wayne. You’re so… What do you call this, Glenn?” she asked.
“Cornball,” he responded. “Certifiably insane. Cuckoo!”
“Melodramatic,” she added. “You’re so Midwestern.”
“Moonstruck!” exclaimed Wayne. “I can’t help myself. I slept beneath the full moon and it addled my wits. Let me introduce myself. Let me kiss your feet. Let me nibble your toes. Let me…”
“I’ll let you, already. Glenn, call off your dog.”
“Down, Fido!” Glenn yelled. “Stop sniffing.”
“Hey! What’s all the noise?” called a fourth voice from behind Judith. “Wow! Wayne’s in his proper place at last,” Gail continued as she stepped up beside Judith. She was similarly attired and did not appear to be there by accident. Wayne sat back on the floor looking up at the two of them.
“Can you believe this?” Wayne asked Glenn. “Venus and Aphrodite come knocking at our door.”
“Venus and Aphrodite are the same person, you dope,” said Judith.
“Split personality, I see. Well, it’s okay. Glenn and I are the same person, too. Apollo and… uh… Apollo 11.”
“Hey, Judith,” Gail cut in. “Sun gods, right? They ought to be able to get us something big, round, golden…” It was Glenn’s turn to cut in, singing.
I got spurs that jingle jangle jingle
as I go riding merrily along.
And they sing, ‘Oh, ain’t you glad you’re single?’
And that song ain’t so very far from wrong.
“The one and only Gene Autry, ladies!” Wayne announced.
“Pizza!” said Judith and Gail together. “How about pizza?”
“I think we were just invited out,” Wayne said to Glenn.
“How convenient. I just hate it when I have to make up my mind who to call. I bet I still have to drive, though.”
They left the dorm and piled into Glenn’s car. Judith slipped her hand into Wayne’s in the back seat and leaned over to kiss him.
“Not a bad intro,” she whispered. “What’s the second act like?”
“All improv,” Wayne smiled as he kissed her back.
After three hours of pizza and beer, the four parked in front of the dorm again. Glenn pulled Gail to him in the front seat and they kissed. Wayne and Judith broke from a kiss that had lasted most of the way home. They looked at the scene in the front seat and laughed. Wayne leaned over the passenger side and opened the door.
“’Scuse us, kids,” he said. “After all, it’s your car.” He and Judith climbed out of the back seat.
“Don’t go away mad,” Glenn said, reaching out a hand toward them. Wayne could see the joint extended to them and gently pushed it back to Glenn.
“Just go away,” he finished. “Enjoy yourselves.” He and Judith walked up the sidewalk a few steps before he stopped to kiss her again. “Want to go for a walk before we call it a night?” he asked.
“Mmm. Yes,” she answered through yet another kiss. Wayne’s hand wrapped happily around her left ass cheek as he pulled her tightly to him. “What time are you getting up?”
“Truck leaves at five, I’ll be up at four,” he answered. “Have to get that crate loaded before we all head to the airport.”
“Who ever invented the six-thirty flight?” she asked. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s stay up all night.”
“Together?”
“Of course, silly. This is my last night in America.”
“Well, now that you mention it, mine too,” he said. “We’re on the same flight.”
“That’s true.” Judith turned in his arms. “But you have a return ticket.”
“You mean you’re not coming back?”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
“But why?” It sounded whiny, even to Wayne.
“Because England is my home. I don’t fit here,” she said. “I didn’t want to come in the first place, but I had to.”
“You’ll have to tell me more about that. Every time I think I understand, my head gets all muzzy. It’s the weirdest thing. Is there anything I could do to make you change your mind?”
“You did once, but not this time. I didn’t mean to fall for you, Wayne.”
“I hit bottom right beside you, if it’s any comfort. What can I do, Judith?”
“Spend the night with me. God knows what may happen once we get to Kendall. Somehow I think we’ll walk between the worlds.”
“Where to?”
“Use your imagination.”
Wayne thought for a moment. The theatre was out. Either of their rooms was a possibility with relaxed summer security, but this should be special.
“I’ve got it,” he said with a flash of inspiration. “Stay here in the shadows so no one can see you. I’ll be back in a flash.”
He ran to the front entrance of the dorm and straight to his room. Two minutes later he came out the back with a blanket and a pillow under his arm. “Turf!” he said as they joined hands and skipped away from the dorm. They arrived at the locked gate of the school park a few minutes later. It was always locked at sundown. The school simply couldn’t afford enough security forces to keep it properly patrolled.
“Maintenance would shit if they knew I had this,” he said, inserting the key into the lock. It popped open.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was in a batch of old theatre keys I inherited,” he said as they walked into the park and shut the gate behind them. “Safe, secure, and private.”
“And a little spooky,” Judith whispered as they walked deeper into the park. “Is a girl safe with you out here?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never had a girl out here. How safe do you want to be?”
Judith wrapped her arms around Wayne’s neck and pulled herself up on him, wrapping her legs around him.
“As long as you don’t do damage, I don’t think there are any limits to what I’d do for you, baby. God, Wayne! I want you so much. I want so much more than we can have. Just for tonight, make me yours. Be the reason I came to America.”
“I want to be what you remember, Judith, because I’ll always remember you. I’ll always miss you. I want this to be the best night of your life.” Wayne’s hands supported her butt and he squeezed gently, eliciting a soft moan.
“Then make love to me. Show me. Show me.”
There was a note of desperation in her voice that Wayne barely registered. He spread the blanket where they stood and they lay down on it. Lips were on lips as Wayne found the clasp for her bra and slipped it open. He pulled her sweater and bra together over her head and she tugged at his t-shirt until he lifted so she could pull it off. They pressed their chests together and held each other.
“I love to feel your skin against my skin,” he whispered. “I can’t believe it. I haven’t had that much experience, but nothing I’ve done comes close to having your breasts pressed against my chest.”
“Show me you appreciate them.”
He let his hand drift up her side and pulled back far enough to cup her breast and lightly graze her nipple. He kissed down her cheek and neck, nestling into the crook of her neck and kissing as she pushed her head against him and her breast into his hand. He continued kissing his way down across her shoulder and onto the mound of her breast until his lips brushed her nipple.
“Oh! God, Wayne. You do so much for me.”
“I can do more,” he said with sudden confidence. He didn’t know where the words came from, but he placed kisses on her as he softly chanted. “Your lips breathe with the air of desire. Your breasts fire my passion. Your golden sex is liquid with lust for me. Your feet ground me in this earth. Your hands lift me to other realms.”
“The five-fold kiss? Oh goddess! Wayne, how did you know?”
“I think I dreamed it. Look!” As Wayne rose over her, they looked at the glowing dome arching over them.
“You have so much!” Thinking Judith was referring to the rod Wayne was pushing into her pussy, he couldn’t help but swell a little with pride. “I felt that!”
“Judith, I think I’ve fallen in love with you again.”
“Hush. Please don’t say that. I don’t know how to respond.”
“It seems you respond pretty dramatically,” he said. The walls of their glowing dome pulsed with every thrust into her hot core.
“I’ve never done this with any other man.”
“You’ve never made love?”
“Oh. I’ve had sex. I’ve never raised power with a man. It’s so… filling. More than you filling my cunny. It’s like I’m a vessel for your power.”
“I don’t understand it, Swordmaster.” Wayne’s voice became more distant as he rose toward his orgasm. He knew, though, that they were not just Wayne and Judith in this moment. “I feel like a god when I’m with you.”
“Make me your goddess, Unbound,” she whispered. The dome above them expanded and glowed white, containing their orgasm. “Make a wish, my love.”
“I wish for fun and adventure in England with a healthy dose of great sex,” he whispered without thinking. The glowing dome exploded.
“I’d have been a little happier if you’d have qualified that and said great sex with me,” Judith giggled as the two lay together watching the stars overhead. They’d pulled the blanket up around them and were holding each other tightly. As wonderful as the idea had been to lie under the stars all night, it was getting chilly and it was obvious they needed to dress and go inside.
“Who else would it be? I’m not going to be picking up any other British birds while we’re there.”
“Well, you’ve become awfully chummy with Dr. Allen. I’m a little jealous.”
“Judith, I won’t lie to you. I find Rebecca very attractive and we’ve become close friends. I even fantasize about her sometimes. But she nailed it when she reminded me that she’s nearly twice our age and she has a thirteen-year-old daughter. And she’s a professor. And she’s married and still believes her husband will return one day. All that means there’s an impregnable wall erected between us. I’m thankful for that. It means I can focus on you.”
“With this very pregnable erection between us?” Judith laughed, grasping his cock before he had it tucked into his pants. Even with her shirt and skirt on, it was cold and they hurried to finish dressing. “Still, she’s dangerous, Wayne. I wish I knew what she had planned.”
“Look,” Wayne said, pointing across the park. “I locked the gate when we came in, didn’t I?” There was a soft, flickering glow coming through the trees deeper in the isolated park. “Maybe someone else is turfing. I don’t like the idea of a fire out here, though.” He started pushing through the brush toward the glow.
“This give me a bad feeling, babe. I don’t think we should…”
They came into an opening and saw a dark figure huddled over a small fire. The glow did not entirely come from the fire—in fact, it seemed contained in a circle. The robed figure slowly circled the fire, casting handfuls of leaves and powder onto the flame, each one making it flare brighter.
“We really need to leave,” Judith said. “Let’s get out of here.” She turned to head to the gate. Wayne stood from where he crouched.
“But…”
As if suddenly aware of their presence, the figure spun toward him. In one smooth motion it flicked a hand out. Wayne saw the shining metal disk flash through the air like a Frisbee.
“Shit!” he yelled as he swung the pillow like a bat at the flying object. He felt the force as it ripped into the pillow, scattering feathers. Wayne didn’t wait to find out if the figure had anything else to throw at him. He ran toward Judith and the gate, fumbling with the keys in the lock.
“Hurry!” Judith screamed. “It’s coming!”
Over his shoulder, Wayne saw the dark figure on the path behind them. He jerked the gate open and slammed it shut as they ran from the park. They were out in the dark of night. The last glance Wayne took showed the figure standing silent at the gate watching. The eyes seemed visible even in the darkness as if they glowed. Wayne’s mind scrambled to make sense of what he saw.
“Shade of Memory!” cried I, with act adorant at her feet.
“By all the gloom hung round thy fallen house,
and by thyself, forlorn divinity.
Let me behold, according as thou saidst.
What in thy brain so ferments to and fro!”
He knew those eyes. He knew them.
They reached the dorm, breathless. Judith flung her arms around him, too exhausted to sob.
“That thing was evil,” she breathed into his chest. She reached up and touched the pentacles at his chest.
“What is it Swordmaster?” he asked. He pulled her into the shadows next to the dorm.
“Unbound, there is truly more in heaven and earth than your philosophies have dreamed. I’m frightened for you. I want you to be ready. You were so wonderful tonight raising a shield without even trying. Kissing me with the five-fold kiss. And by the way, I could stand to have the fifth fold kissed a few more times, lover. But there is still so much you don’t know.”
“Teach me, Swordmaster. When I looked into its eyes they looked familiar. But my head is so full of cotton most of the time that I can’t sort out what I should know. I almost knew how to fight it.”
“There are stories of dark grimoires—books of magic. I’ve never seen one. Please understand that in our circle we practice ritual magic and pray for the betterment of the world. We’re not evil beings. But some people just want more power. The Blade was one of those. He was certain that he’d found where there was an ancient goddess idol that would give him unlimited power. His search failed, we’re pretty sure. But he hasn’t been seen in fifteen years. I’m worried that he’s come back. This is where he started his search.”
“You think this thing might be The Blade returned? Swordmaster, I know that whoever it was, it was the same person we saw in the costume shop a few months ago,” Wayne said. “I need to go check on our crate. If he sabotages it, our trip could be ruined.” Wayne dropped his pillow and blanket to the ground to embrace Judith more fully. They heard the muffled metallic clink as it hit the concrete. Wayne kicked the pillow aside and a small metal disk rolled out on the walk. It was a saw blade from the shop. Drawn on it in ragged paint marks was a star with characters written on each point. Judith picked the object up.
“I have to go.” Wayne ran from the dorm leaving Judith to examine the saw blade.
Wayne’s stomach turned inside out and he wanted to vomit. He took the long way around the campus to approach the theatre from the side opposite the security guard’s shack. His rage and fear were in control. All he could think about was the crate, ready to ship to England. Even in light of the break-ins, it seemed he’d never got around to telling security about the doors on this side of the building. Saying something could only give rise to questions about how he knew. He looked through the glass doors to be sure they hadn’t been chained. Grasping the handles, he began to gently rock them back and forth, working up a rhythm as he watched the crash bars through the glass. They swung with the motion, a little further with each move. Finally, they swung back far enough to trip the latch and Wayne opened the door and slipped into the building.
He found his way down the dark corridors and into the basement where his workshop and tools would await him. And the crate. He’d come in early this morning and padlocked it just to be sure it couldn’t be broken into. He wished he’d thought of that when he’d put Rebecca’s things in it. He pushed his key in the door of the shop and it swung open. Unlocked.
Wayne’s stomach leapt into his throat and the nausea threatened to overwhelm him. What was it Judith was trying to tell him back at the dorm? Everything about the evening except the sensational sex and the mysterious ghoul in the park had receded in his memory. It seemed like it was important. He flattened himself against the wall willing his breathing to slow so he could hear. Not a sound broke the air. After some minutes of silence, Wayne crept back to the open door. Perhaps the thief had been and gone. It made no difference to Wayne. He had run from danger once tonight and he’d be damned if he’d run again. The crate was in there.
His eyes adjusted to the darkness, lit only by the glow of the ever-present exit sign in the hall. The shop was as clear in his mind as if he saw it in full daylight. The rack of flats was undisturbed. Two rehearsal thrones stood near the door. Table saw, bandsaw, lathe. Wayne ticked off the inventory in his mind. In the center of the room, the crate awaiting the pickup at five o’clock in the morning. Behind the crate, a man.
He was kneeling, hiding behind the crate, but Wayne could see the hat above the box. It was not his imagination. It was the hat. Wayne put out a hand to the tool rack on his right and felt the crowbar in its accustomed place. Once it was firmly in hand, he leapt.
“Got you!” he screamed as the crowbar came down on the hat. The jolt shook his arm with the impact. Wayne realized too late that the hat lay on the crate, not on a person’s head. He rolled frantically, flailing with his arms to get upright on the crate again. He could see the man now, towering over him. The crowbar wouldn’t come up from where he had struck. It weighed too much for him to lift. The eyes of the demon-man bore into him as he reached out a hand.
Demon-man. Everything flashed with crystal clarity in Wayne’s mind. Judith’s warning about dark magicians. But more than that. Everything he’d been taught by Rebecca, Lissa, Judith, and his uncle was sharp and at his instant recall, including all the spells he’d memorized from his uncle’s Book of Shadows. His sacred tools, cup, knife, and wand were in the crate a foot from him. His pentacles around his neck. As the demon’s hand reached for him, Wayne willed wards around himself. They flared and brightly lit the room throwing the man backward. He came again and again was thrown back. Wayne recited the banishing spell moving his fingers in the pattern prescribed by the book. The man moved toward him again and then turned to flee.
Wayne collapsed on the trunk. He was exhausted and emotionally drained. The wards dimmed around him and his eyelids grew heavy. Maybe he’d just sleep here tonight.
Wednesday, June 4 1969
He’d probably done stupider things in his life than spend the night—or what was left of it—sleeping on a wooden crate, but when Jim woke him up in the morning to load the truck, Wayne couldn’t think of what it was.
“I just was worried about it sitting here with all the break-ins,” he explained. “Geez! I hurt all over.”
“Well, these guys have a hydraulic hand lift and if they can maneuver it out of here you’ll have half an hour to get showered, dressed and on the bus.”
“Oh crap.” It was a tight fit. When Wayne figured the turning radius from the shop into the hall, he hadn’t figured the extra length of the cart. It fit, but just barely. They rolled the cart up onto the tailgate of the air-freight truck and then lifted it to the bed. The stupid thing was no longer Wayne’s responsibility. He ran for the dorm and got ready to go.
“What the fuck is this?” Glenn exclaimed as Wayne got on the bus. He’d managed to get showered, dressed, and his suitcase closed in time to make it to the airport bus. And he was proud of how he looked. It was hip.
“It’s a leisure suit,” Wayne answered. “Everybody’s wearing them.”
“What is this fabric?” Gail asked.
“It’s seersucker.”
“As in he got it at Sears and he was a sucker for buying it,” Glenn laughed.
“Hey. My big sister wanted to do something for my trip and made this.”
“But what is this fabric,” Gail insisted. “It’s not cotton.”
“Hundred percent polyester,” Wayne said. “Resistant to all kinds of stains and almost wrinkle-proof.”
“Bell-bottoms?” Judith said. “And a headband?”
“I figured with the long hair and beard, this stuff would look just right. Mom said I should dress up to fly. Why are you guys looking at me so funny?”
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