VISION

, exactly, the devil had been doing in Chicago John didn’t know and the devil wasn’t saying. What Jo

in the last few days something had changed. In those long, hushed moments as the sun went down and the world went still, John had found himself shuffling cl

e had first hea

When John put his ear close to the crack in the door, the devil always greeted him by name. Sometimes

inexplicably fallen silent. The silence

. He didn’t relish the thought of going down there again. The chain was

didn’t want to go down the

ted forks waiting to be washed stuck up from a cracked green plastic tumbler. Ordinarily, John prided himself on

have to wait; the de

same track he’d been walking for the past hour as regret kept building, bringing on the familiar

at now. He should have thought it through. P

been so unexpected. He had to do somethin

irst. Chain up the devil;

ould b

g out to be n

knew he should. There were tools in the basement—beyond the reach of the

he devil had been unconscious, but he hadn’t had the courage then, either. Even as he t

om time to time she would come to see him, to show

was sitting on the top of the phone, leaning against the wall. She had left it

maybe he shou

the phone, though. He di

nfused on

different from the tim

is time she might

ven get in

elled up. What i

he first job that he’d ever had. He liked his job of fitting the colorful plastic pieces together, but mostl

ould do most things on his own. She said that

t want to lose his job. He didn’t w

ctive Janek. He didn’t want her to be afrai

in the basement, of course, but this was

nek might not believe him. He suddenly

might happen to him if he was arrested. The very thought of going to jail and

ator. He drew his collar tight at his throat and told himself that he ha

d down to the basement, but John just didn’t have it in him to kill, either by a quick blow

ing him this way and that, it seemed that there was someth

ere all still there. John hated the stark look of the white refrigerator, so he frequently taped items that inte

anything especially meaningful. Pictures of animals, headlines about holidays, or sometimes

erator door with word magnets. He smiled back at his sister smiling out at him from a

lidays and sunny forecasts, looking for something new,

otted what

. He liked to arrange the words so that they rhymed, or so that they said something cheerful. The words stuck to the white metal door always seemed welco

arranging the magnets was stil

man’s home was his castle. Except for going to work and the store, John didn’t

e most daring thing John had

y arranged into A CASTLE KEEPS YOU SAFE were no lo

nged into a circle, leaving a cleared, round, white patch near the refrigera

rds arranged in a neat li

rds said N