Out of the Ashes

“Good heavens, no! My wife has been dead for ... umm ... well, a long time, I suppose—haven't seen her around. No, you see, April was a student of mine—last year. She survived the ... ah, what did happen, son?”

Ben told him what he knew and what he surmised.

“Is that right? Umm? Well, I've often wondered about it.”

“There wasn't anyone you could ask? No one came around here?”

“Only those rather large, boorish types. Very hostile. But you've informed me, so I won't worry about it any further.” He peered at Ben through his thick glasses. “What were we talking about?”

“April.”

“April? It's not yet April, is it?”

“No, sir,” Ben replied patiently. “It's March. April was a student of yours.”

“Oh, yes! Now I remember. Yes, well ... April took it upon herself to look after me. Not that I need any looking after, mind you. And she is beginning to annoy me with all her fussing about. She's not my type of woman at all. Not at all. She is ... rather ... a clinging-vine type. Not that there is anything wrong with that—not at all. She just doesn't have big titties. I like women with big titties. My wife—God rest her soul, wherever she is—had big titties. I used to love to play with her big titties. Don't you like big titties?”

Ben nodded his head in agreement. Even Juno was looking at the man rather strangely.

“Well...” The professor selected a pill from a tiny pillbox. A white pill. He swallowed it. “Now that April is going to be all right, I can go without guilt.”

“What did you teach, Professor?”

“Chemistry.”

“And what was that you just took?”

“KCN.”

“And that is?”

“Potassium cyanide.”

The man stood up, smiled, waved bye-bye to Ben and Juno; then grabbed at his chest and fell to the ground in convulsions. A moment later, he was dead.

“Shit!” Ben said.

He walked over to the dorm the man had pointed out and entered the cool hall. “April,” he called. “April! Are you here?”

“No! Go away.”

“April, I'm Ben Raines. I had the ... ah ... misfortune to encounter your friend, the professor. He told me about you and then the old fool took cyanide. He's dead.”

Footsteps on the stairs and a heart-shaped face peered around the corner. A very pretty face with large dark eyes. Huge glasses in front of the eyes. “He's really dead?”

“Yes. I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, me, too.” She stepped from around the corner of the stairwell. “But that son of a bitch was about to worry me to death. Always complaining about my titties.”

She came a bit closer. She was dressed in jeans and denim shirt. Maybe her titties weren't large enough to suit the professor, but the pert little lady was unmistakably female and well enough endowed to suit Ben.

“He said you were a student of his—last year.”

She laughed. “Yeah, he would. Hell, mister, he wasn't a professor. That was just his nickname. He was a dealer.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“A dealer, man. Like in dope. Hell, every kid on this campus knew the old ‘Professor.'”

Ben shook his head. “Well, every man is entitled to make a fool of himself once in a while. He sure had me fooled.”

“Oh, he was well-educated, for a fact. And he used to be a professor. But that was a long time ago. He kept messin’ with the female students. No telling how many he got pregnant. He finally was barred from teaching in this state.”

Ben stepped closer. She did not seem afraid of him. “He did seem genuinely concerned about you.”

“I think he was, in his own strange way. He was all right until about two months ago. That's when his wife died.”

“He told me his wife had been dead a long time!”

“Yeah? Well, he lied a lot. His wife's upstairs in a box.”

“Jesus!”

“Yeah, you can say that again. That's when he started slippin’ downhill. Quickly. Called me his daughter at one point and then wanted me to give him a hand job with the next breath. As if he could get it up.”

Ben could but shake his head.

Her eyes went from Ben to Juno. “That's a pretty dog. Does he bite?”

“I guess he would if you made him angry. April what?”

“Simpson. I guess the professor told you to take care of me, right?”

“He mentioned something to that effect, yes.”

“Well ... you don't look too old. Can you get it up?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Keep a hard-on. Man, I'm horny!”

“I'll do my best,” Ben said dryly.

“I'll get my things. What are you going to do with the professor?”

“What do you want done with him?”

She shrugged. “He loved the campus. I'd leave him where he is.”

“All right.”

“Ben Raines, right?”

“Yes.”

“So I'll be with you in a shake, Ben Raines.”

And Ben had found yet another survivor.

TWELVE

Heading back to his house just a mile south of Ike's place, now deserted, Ben answered the girl's seemingly endless chain of questions and asked a few of his own.

“Why didn't you leave campus, April? If the professor was giving you such a bad time?”