The Attraction by Douglas Clegg Read Free Book Online

brakes,” Josh said, only barely under his breath.
    “I want to go see the Great Unspeakable Mystery,” Bronwyn said. “It’s less than a buck and you enter in the back of the store.”
    9
    All of them went into the Sundries Shop for the free Cokes. Tammy wanted to look at the cheap jewelry they had near the Indian blankets. Bronwyn grabbed Griff by the elbow, and tugged him toward the back of the shop. There was a narrow door there, and it had a sign that read,
For the CHEAP ADMISSION PRICE of just 75 CENTS! See the Eighth Wonder of the World! The Mystery of the Southwest! The Aztec Demon Known as Xipe Totec! Found many miles south of here, smuggled up by an outlaw who believed it contained treasures! SEE THE UNSPEAKABLE SAVAGE MYSTERY OF THE ANCIENT PRE-COLUMBIAN WORLD!
    “Come on,” Bronwyn said, pulling on his arm. Griff pulled away.
    “I’m waiting for Tammy.”
    “Josh?” Bron let go of Griff, and stomped over to where Josh stood near the glass refrigerator, sipping his Coke.
    “Okay, but we’re not paying,” Josh said. “We’ve already blown tonight’s motel room budget on the car. I don’t intend to make Charlie Goodrow a little richer.”
    10
    Griff and Tammy followed them, and Ziggy showed up soon after, slurping his Coke through a straw. There was a little box for the quarters, but none of them put any in, and since it was honor system, they snuck through the entry feeling like delinquents. Josh didn’t, though. He felt damn good when he went in there and said, “Fifty bucks worth of the Unspeakable Mystery of the Universe.”
    The corridor was dark, but with fine spears of light that came through at the roof’s edge. They’d left the rectangular building of the Brakedown Palace and Sundries, and had entered on a concrete floor, down a walkway with corrugated metal walls and what seemed to be a curved roof.
    “It’s a Quonset hut,” Josh said. “They had them on the sub base when I was a kid.”
    “Navy brat,” Tammy said, in a way that was so sexy it nearly turned Josh on to hear her voice. She purred like a kitten sometimes.
    The spears of light became brighter. Bulbs had been strung along the roof, hanging down like clunky Christmas ornaments. The wiring above their heads was exposed as the lights brightened.
    “Jeez,” Ziggy said. “This is like some freak show.”
    He pointed to the metal walls. Small dried animals hung by strings—lizards, rats, rabbits, quail.
    “That’s sick.”
    “It’s just trash you find on the desert,” Griff said. “Dried-up crap and dead animals.”
    As they ventured forward, they entered a well-lit space that had a poorly made wood and stone sculpture. “The ancient Aztecs were a fierce, bloodthirsty people,” Bronwyn read from the sign above the sculpture. “Jesus, some moron wrote this up. Ignorant desert scum.” She glanced at the diorama. “Oh my God, look,” she said with a voice that seemed filled with childish wonder yet still held the possibility of being disgusted. “They’re little Aztecs, sacrificing someone. How adorable. And repulsive.”
    Josh crouched down and glanced over the divider that kept the diorama and sculpture protected from tourists. “That’s funky.” It was a replica of a Mexican pyramid, about knee high, and at the flat top, a little stone-carved man was cutting open another little stone-carved man. On the wall, beyond this, a cheap plastic replica of a Mayan calendar. “Someone’s obsessed with Aztecs and Mayans here.”
    “Some redneck who doesn’t know his history well enough,” Bronwyn said.
    “It’s like a dollhouse of death,” Tammy said, a sweet edge to her voice.
    “You’re my doll,” Griff said, pulling her tightly into him, and somehow managing to unbutton the top two buttons of her blouse at the same time.
    They moved on, down the long corridor that went alternately dark and then light again as various kinds of bulbs and lamps lit sections, highlighting pictures that had obviously been