Current Issues Facing Revenue Management

Current Issues Facing Revenue Management This dissertation provides an analysis on how revenue management developed through out the years in different industries with more focus on hotels. It discusses the different revenue management strategies including pricing, capacity control, overbooking and forecasting. Related issues such as economic concerns, customer perception, competition, and common techniques and approaches used for solving revenue management problems are also discussed. Finally, I give my suggestion on some important areas that warrant further research. Introduction Tradditionally the main purpose of revenue management has been to maximise revenue. It is the business practice with aim to see the right inventory to the right customer at the right price at the right time in order to maximise total revenue. (B.C Smith, J.F Leimkuhler and R.M.Darrow Vol 22). The concept of right in this definition means achieving the maximum revenue for the sellers, and gaining maximum value for the buyers(S.E Kimes Vol 40). The basic of revenue management is to offer discounted rates to stimulate demand for inventory that would otherwise go unsold, while limiting the availability of the discounts to customers who are willing to pay a higher price. Hotel companies reported revenue increases of 2 to 5% as a result of using revenue management (Ibid) The Brief History of Revenue Management According to Carroll and Grimes 1995; Hanks, Noland, and Cross 1992; Smith, Leimkuhler, and Darrow1992) Revenue management, also known as yield management, has been widely adopted in the airline, hotel, and rental car industries, but has only recently gained attention in other industries (Kimes 2000; Kimes et al. 1998). Companies using revenue management have reported revenue increases of 2% to 5% (Hanks, Noland, and Cross 1992; Smith, Leimkuhler, and Darrow 1992). In 1980s The airline industry launched revenue management practices. During that time yield management techniques became a common practice among airlines. On January 17, 1985 American Airlines launched its Ultimate Super Saver fares in an effort to compete with the low cost carrier People Express. ( www.ehotelier.com ) The need to fill at least minimum number of seats without selling every seat at discounted was the main reason that triggered the born by revenue management. ( www.ehotelier.com) As new Airline companies started to enter the market in the 1980s, Airline companies were eager to sell enough seats to cover fixed operating expenses. Then once fixed expenses were covered, and there were now fewer remaining seats to sell, the remaining seats could be sold at high prices in order to maximise on revenue and profits. According to (Boyd,1998), the application of correct revenue techniques by US Airlines and Delta Airlines resulted of an increase in revenue of US$500 and $300 million respectively, on the other hand Cross (1997) reports that revenue management helps Marriott Hotel to gainUS$100 million additional annual revenue Elliott (2003) presents how revenue management can contribute substantially to cost savings and revenue maximisation while helping maintain quality. Research on revenue management has extended to several industries, with three major streams of investigation: descriptive (whether revenue management will work for a particular industry), pricing control, and inventory control. Industries that can use revenue management can be classified further by their relative ability to exercise pricing- and demand-control levers. An important aspect of implementing revenue management is to ascertain the extent to which customers will view pricing controls as being fair. While customers may initially view nearly any manipulation as potentially unfair, research on perceived fairness has found that customers generally will accept price manipulations as long as they believe they are gaining a benefit at the same time the business is receiving a benefit from pricing changes. Duration control involves some combination of manipulating customer arrivals and managing actual duration of use, depending on the industry in question. Revenue management uses the basic principles of supply and demand economics, in a tactical way, to generate incremental revenues. There are three essential conditions for revenue management to be applicable: There is a fixed amount of resources available for sale. The resources to sell are very perishable. Customers are willing to pay a different price for using the same resources. The hotel industry fits these criteria extremely well. Obviously, hotels have a fixed inventory of rooms to sell; these rooms are also extremely perishable. Hotel rooms perish every day, any room that is unsold tonight is gone forever. There is also no question that different segments of business are willing to pay different rates under various circumstances. Revenue management is of especially high relevance in cases where fixed costs are high as compared to variable costs. The less variable costs there are, the more added revenue will contribute to overall profit. This makes revenue management perfect for the hotel industry. Effective market segmentation is the key to successful revenue management for hotels. Market segmentation begins with seasonal demand. For years, hoteliers recognized that almost all hotels experience periods of high and lower demand. This is even more obvious in hotels, located in resort and attraction areas. Hotels quickly recognized that consumers would also pay more for rooms with a superior view, such as ocean or mountain views and other unique features of their location; larger or unusual rooms; and rooms with unique features. Hotel revenue management hit its stride when hoteliers examined airline RM and realized that the factors of supply and demand, beyond natural seasonal demand, present opportunities to generate higher revenue. As room demand increases and room supply decreases, hotel rate opportunities also increase. The airlines have taught us that supply demand opportunities appear all year long because of conventions, group bookings, room production through web site marketing, special events and local attractions; all create revenue management opportunities.( Ehotelier ) This dissertation address the way revenue management is applied in hotels in UK and discusses the latest issues that faced revenue managers during the economic down turn last year This dissertation Study has been undertaken through detailed analysis on how revenue management is applied in hotels and then discuss the issues facing Revenue managers today through the analysis of responses to a survey that was sent to revenue managers working at hotels in UK. The research also include several working papers, conference proceedings and case studies that I believe are valuable in this study. Overall, 20 articles have been examined. Several review papers have provided an overview of research on revenue management. A list of these papers is in Table 1. In This dissertation will focus on the progress of revenue management in recent years, especially after 1999. Literature review How Revenue Management is Applied Gallego and Phillips (2004) introduce the concept of flexible products for revenue management. They define a flexible product as a menu of two or more alternative, typically substitute, products offered by a constrained supplier using a sales or booking process. In this context, products include not only physical products but also service offerings. Researchers have applied revenue management models in a wide variety of industries where suppliers offer flexible products. Airlines, hotels and rental car industries represent three major traditional applications of revenue management. These industries share some similar characteristics. All of their products are perishable, the demand for their products vary significantly over time, and they have large fixed costs while variable costs are small in the short run. Because of revenue managements success in these industries, researchers and practitioners have begun trying to adopt it in a wide range of miscellaneous industries such as resta urants, casinos, cargo, Internet services and apartment renting. These industries share some similar characteristics with the traditional industries. Some of these practices have acquired great success. In fact, all service providers can take advantage of revenue management theory. Just as ( Berman 2005) says, revenue management is an effective mechanism to allocate a service providers relatively fixed capacity and to provide discounts on a much broader scale. The table below provides examples of revenue management application in different industries. We are not going to discuss the application of revenue management in every industry. In the following section, we provide a brief overview and examples of revenue management research in three non-traditional industries Revenue management practices in different industries (Berman (2005) Industries Example of practices Hospitality Industries Hotels Provide special rate packages for periods of low occupancy; use overbooking policy to compensate for cancellation, no-shows. Restaurants Move customers to off-peak periods by offering discount coupons, or charging reservation fees and higher meal prices on Friday and Saturday nights. Attractions Set different admission charge levels, provide joint-entry tickets, group discounts, coupons, membership rates. Cruise lines and ferry lines Provide luxury class, economy class; change prices frequently according to demand; sell more tickets than seats to avoid cancellation and no show. Casinos Customize offers such as complimentary room, tickets, gifts, discounts, etc., based on customers profitability. Saunas Determine price based upon factors such as room type, duration, and service type. Resort Provide different resort packages to attract different customers. Golf Use different prices to reflect the value of different times of the golf course. Sports events and distribution Determine ticket price for an event based on based on factors such as customer tastes and area of seating; determine the price of season tickets; determine the number of tickets sold for each seat segment. Conference Provide different packages and rates to satisfy different customers requirements. Transportation related industries Airlines Provide business class, economy class; adjust prices frequently according to demand; provide more tickets than seats to avoid cancellation and no-show. Rental cars Adjust prices frequently according to demand; serve highvalued fleet utilisation with priority; accept or reject booking requests based on length-of-rent controls. Railways Divide customers into standard class and first class; provide different prices based on the day of travel and the time of the day. Subscription services IT Services and Internet Services Allocate resources such as human resource, computing capacity, storage and network capacity among segments of customers and determine appropriate price for each segment, high class customers will be served with priority. Cellular network services Control call admission based on customer priority, higher class customers will be served with priority. Major revenue management problems Revenue management problems can be categorized into several different, but related, areas: pricing, auctions, capacity control (or inventory control), overbooking, and forecasting. In the following subsections, we will review each of these areas, but before we start, there are two points that need to be mentioned. First, although we categorize revenue management into several areas, this does not mean that these areas are completely isolated. In fact, these areas are highly correlated and need to be considered jointly when solving practical problems and some researchers are indeed trying to solve these problems jointly. For instance, Feng and Xiao (2006) present a comprehensive model to integrate pricing and capacity allocation. Second, auction is a specific type of pricing strategy. Here we separate auctions from pricing, because we want to emphasise the importance of auctions in the future application of revenue management. In addition, in this section, we also discuss other related issues regarding revenue management, including economic theory, the impact of competition and consolidation, customer perception and behaviour, the development and implementation of revenue management, performance evaluation of revenue management and techniques used for solving revenue management problems Managing Seasonal versus Daily Demand Revenue management principles apply to all levels of demand. Resort hotels with seasonal rates have been using a form of revenue management for years by posting higher or lower rates based upon seasonal demand; this is the essence of revenue or yield management. If these hotels thought they could get in-season rates all year long, they certainly would. They are adjusting for supply and demand. ( ehotelier) Yield management provides the ability to build a base of business by posting a wide range of rates, low to high, to appeal to the broadest range of consumers. For hotels which are capable of handling group business, this is the theory behind quoting lower rates for groups; getting the business on-the-books. Once this base business is booked, either by groups or transient individuals, lower rates can then be closed for sale. This is daily demand. Its important to understand that yield management is the process of closing-out lower rates when there are fewer rooms to sell; leaving only higher rates as occupancy increases. Rates are not increased; lower rates are closed for sale. There is an important distinction between the two. As demand increases, there are more methods of yielding higher revenue; the use of restrictions. Many hotels use restrictions very effectively. E.g. hotels with high weekend demand often restrict weekend reservations to a minimum of two nights by placing a minimum of two nights stay on Saturday, the more popular night. This limits stays to Friday/Saturday or Saturday/Sunday, the two weaker nights. The same can be applied to holiday periods. The key to successful revenue or yield management is to review advance reservations and make rate close-out decisions as often as might be necessary; generally, three times per week. Hotels practicing revenue management gain an insight into the ebb and flow of business, knowledge of reservations booking pace, and a true understanding of factors which impact occupancy and average rate. Capacity control Koide and Ishii (2005) consider the hotel room allocation policies with early discount, cancellations, and overbooking, but without no-shows. The presented model can provide the optimal solution under certain conditions. They also derive an optimal allocation for a simplified problem, which considers early discount but ignores cancellations and overbooking. McGill and van Ryzin (1999) consider the allocation of capacity for rental businesses with two classes of customers. Their research suggests that the capacity reductions enabled by allocation schemes can help to lift profit margins significantly. Zhang and Cooper (2005) address the simultaneous seat inventory control of a set of parallel flights between a common origin and destination with dynamic customer choice among the flights. They solve this stochastic optimization problem through simulation based techniques. Most of the current capacity control practices are based on forecasting. However, forecasting is difficult, costly and the results are sometimes unsatisfactory. Therefore, researchers are trying to find alternative approaches. van Ryzin and McGill (2000) present a simple adaptive approach to optimize seat protection levels in airline revenue management. Instead of using the traditional method that combines a censored forecasting method with a seat allocation heuristic (EMSR-b), this approach uses historical observations of the relative frequencies of certain seat-filling events to guide direct adjustments of the seat protection levels. Their preliminary numerical studies suggest that this method can be used to augment traditional forecasting and optimisation approaches. Overbooking control A number of researchers have developed dynamic optimization approaches to the airline overbooking problem and the related problem in the hotel/motel industry. The usual objective in these formulations is to determine a booking limit for each time period before flight departure that maximizes expected revenue, where allowance is made for the dynamics of cancellations and reservations in subsequent time periods and for penalties for oversold seats. KOSTEN (1960) develops a continuous time approach to this problem, but this approach requires solution of a set of simultaneous differential equations that make implementation impractical. Rothstein (1968), in his Ph.D. thesis, describes the first dynamic programming (DP) model for overbooking and reviews the results of test runs of the model at American Airlines. ALSTRUP et al. (1986) describe a DP treatment of overbooking for a two-class, nonstop flight and describe computational experience with the approach at Scandinavian Airlines. A DP analysis similar to Rothsteins but developed for the hotel/motel industry and extended to two fare classes is described in LADANY (1976, 1977) and LADANY and ARBEL (1991). A control-limit type structural solution to the (one class) hotel overbooking problem is described in LIBERMAN and YECHIALI (1977, 1978 Since McGill and van Ryzin (1999) had already presented a list of publications in overbooking, we will only discuss the new publications. Zhang and Cooper (2005) focus on the overbooking problem for hotels with multiple tour-operators and conclude that an overbooking policy that treats the capacity of the hotel as a whole gives better cost savings than an overbooking policy that allocates the capacity to each tour-operator separately. Zhang and Cooper (2005) proposes two models (stationary-fares model and nonstationary-fares model) to deal with a multi-period airline-overbooking problem for a single-leg flight with a single service class and use the model to calculate the optimal booking limits. Coughlan (1999) presents an airline revenue maximisation-overbooking model at a fare class level for one service compartment-cabin where class level demand is used to determine the number of bookings for each class. He concludes that this model shows significant improvement over previous methods by testing the model with data of Irelands national airline, Aer Lingus. Biyalogorsky et al. (1999) propose that a strategy using overbooking with opportunistic cancellations can increase expected profits and improve allocation efficiency, then derive a rule of how to allocate capacity to consumers optimally. Under their strategy, the seller can oversell capacity when high-paying consumers show up, even if capacity has already been fully booked, then the seller will cancel the sale to some low-paying customers while providing them with appropriate compensation. Toh and Dekay (2002) create an overbooking model for hotels to find the optimal level of overbooking considering customer service level, unexpected stayovers, and cost of walking displaced guest. Forecasting Forecasting is a critical part of revenue management. The quality of revenue management decisions, such as pricing, capacity control, or overbooking, depends on an accurate forecast. PÃ ¶lt (1998) estimates that a 20% reduction of forecast error can translate into a 1% incremental increase in revenue generated from the revenue management system. Revenue management forecasting includes demand forecasting, capacity forecasting, and price forecasting, each of which has its specific requirements. All forecasting tasks need to address issues such as what to forecast, the type of forecasting method, the aggregation level, the data to use and the accuracy of forecast. Forecasting can have different aggregation levels, from full aggregated forecasting to semi-aggregated forecasting and to fully disaggregated forecasting. The data used in forecasting can be based on historical arrivals or bookings. In addition, forecasting must be adjusted according to special An overview of research on revenue management 111 events, for example, holidays. Zaki (2000) gives a summary of forecasting for airline revenue management. Weatherland et al. (2001) discuss different ways to forecast demand for hotel revenue management systems and assess the effectiveness of aggregated approach and desegregated forecast. Furthermore, Weatherford and Kimes (2003) use data from Choice Hotels and Marriott Hotels to conduct a comparative test on a variety of forecasting methods for hotel revenue management systems to find the most accurate method. Their research suggests that exponential smoothing, pickup method and moving average models provide the most robust forecasts. Despite the mounting forecasting methods, human judgment is still indispensable in forecasting demand. Schwartz and Cohen (2004) make a study on 57 experienced revenue managers to evaluate the bias of this kind of subjective judgment. They find that the nature of the user interface can influence the way the revenue managers adjust the computers forecasts, although the managers are given the same predictions. The managers with a deliberate computer and no chart made the smallest volume of adjustments to the computers forecast, while the managers with a slow computer and an interactive chart made the highest volume of adjustments. How to develop revenue management How to develop and implement revenue management systems is another key issue. Kimes (1999) and Kimes et al. (1999) present a 5-step approach for implementing restaurant revenue management and provide insights from the implementation. Secomandi et al. (2002) present a case of how PROS Revenue Management Inc. worked with three non-airline companies to determine the applicability of revenue management, and to design, develop, and implement Revenue Management systems. Skugge (2002) discusses issues that need to be considered when implementing a revenue management system. He presents risks associated with development and implementation and ways to reduce these risks, and then proposes a two-step process to maximise the likelihood of a successful project completed on time and within budget. Okumuss (2004) research reveals the complexity and difficulty of developing and implementing a centralised revenue management project. He argues that this is because revenue management implementation is often viewed as a tactical activity, but this is not correct. He suggests that researchers and practitioners should view the implementation from the perspectives of strategic management, and they should change management fields. Revenue managers play a crucial role in implementing revenue management. Skugge (2004) finds that one of the reasons why some companies enjoy much greater success with revenue management is they have more effective revenue managers and suggests several methods to improve revenue management education and training programs. Zeni (2003) presents a study performed at US Airways to measure the value of revenue managers contributions to a revenue management system and concludes that analysts can add up to 3 percent in incremental revenue. Parker (2003) presents that airlines need to establish and provide support for a community of practice, which is a group of revenue management related people who interact on an ongoing basis. This group takes responsibilities of establishing protocols and standard procedures with respect to revenue management. The implementation of revenue management requires management to make a series of business decisions. Yeoman and Ingold (2000) discuss the decision-making processes using examples from airlines and hotels. All business decisions have risks, as do revenue management decisions. Therefore, every company must evaluate the potential risks of revenue management. Lancaster (2003) focuses on the risk incurred in the revenue management policies and analyses how risk management measurements and methods can be applied to the revenue management practices. In addition, companies want to make sure that their investment on revenue management can achieve the expected return. Delain and OMeara (2004) illustrate how a company can build a business case to estimate the incremental revenues and costs associated with developing or enhancing a revenue management programme IT service and internet service Revenue management also has application opportunities in subscription services, such as on-demand information technology service and Internet service. Internet service is, in fact, a special case of on-demand information technology service. Nair and Bapna (2001) find that Internet Service Providers (ISP) have perishable capacity for users to log on, a fixed number of units, and the possibility of segmenting price-sensitive customers. These three characteristics are common with industries where revenue management is traditionally applied. They also identify that revenue management in Internet service is different than traditional applications. The Internet service is continuous in state and time, the request and the service happen simultaneously, and overbooking is impossible for ISP. Furthermore, they formulate the revenue management problem for ISP as a continuous time Markov Decision Process to maximize the discounted value while improving service levels for higher class customers. Wynter et al. (2004) introduce a revenue management model for a specific information technology service on-demand computing service. Dube et al. (2005) make a further analysis on the model of Wynter et al. (2004) both analytically and numerically, and conclude that the application of revenue management can significantly increase revenue of on-demand computing service providers Economic concerns To better apply revenue management in the industry, practitioners must have a thorough understanding of underlying economic theory, such as supply and demand, opportunity cost, competition, consolidation, etc. Dana (1999) presents how revenue management techniques, such as price dispersion, can shift demand even when the peak time is unknown. Firms must compete with each other to get customers, so revenue management decisions of one firm unavoidably affect the demand for other firms in the same industry. The sudden reversal in the lodging industrys fortunes from 2008 to 2009 made the focus on customer rate resistance, contract renegotiations, competition, and price wars as top priorities for revenue managers. This contrasts with a 2008 study by Cornell university , where human resources and technology issues were ahead of economic concerns. The recent bad economic situation made it for revenue managers to maintain price positioning, because the drop in demand has shifted considerable pricing power to the customer. Although many hotels can compete effectively on price (and others may have little choice), revenue managers may also draw on numerous non-price competitive techniques, including adding value. One pricing approach might be to create a set of targeted rate promotions that are protected by rate fences and designed to attract price-conscious guests. Another technique is to bundle services into packages that disguise room rates. Non-price techniques include competing on the basi s of quality, creating strategic partnerships, taking advantage of your loyalty program, developing additional revenue sources, and developing additional market segments Even as they agreed that customers have gained considerable negotiating power, a research by Cornell university see a larger role for RM as the economy recovers. In the meantime, revenue managers have a key responsibility to determine ways to offset the loss of business by creating special rates that are protected by rate fences to attract different market segments or to augment existing packages to retain current business Looking ahead, revenue managers should be aware that customers will be strongly focused on price and less so on brand loyalty. The common thread in this view of hotels future is that RM is a valuable tool for hotel marketers and managers as they consider tactical price setting and strategic price positioning. The managers are well aware that revenue management cannot help in all cases. Also revenue managers should broaden the perspective on revenue management to include as many customer touch points as is appropriate. In a sense, this represents a combination of marketing principles with revenue management tactics. As demand returns, application of RM approaches will be able to help hotels find the way back to rate integrity. Based on that idea, now is the time to set price strategies and be ready with revenue management tactics when the recovery comes. Customer perception According to Cornell University research many managers have been reluctant to adopt revenue management practices because of possible customer dissatisfaction. They may well find support for their fears in the fairness literature, which has shown that customers will refuse to patronize companies perceived as unfair. Customers from different cultures and nationalities often have different service expectations (Donthu and Yoo 1998). For example, Lee and Ulgado (1997) found that American fast-food customers considered low prices to be of paramount importance when evaluating satisfaction, whereas Korean consumers were more concerned about service dimensions such as reliability and empathy. Also, Asians often see eating out as more of a social or family activity than do Americans or Europeans (Hall 1966)

Admission-Application essay

I often believe that women are the catalyst for nations’ development given equal rights to education, justice, occupation, suffrage and other services.   The silence and the vulnerability of women and children in developing countries like Zaire have awakened my drive to fight for the rights of the unheard and the helpless.Since childhood, I have always pictured a world where people are equal in rights and nobody is above the rest in terms of allocation of basic services, education, laws and job opportunities.   I have closely witnessed the unfair treatment to women and children who are often victims of human rights violation.   I have often wondered why there are more men in politics, schools and in the workplace.Silently, I have also questioned why society has embraced a system where women should remain at home and are not treated as important members of the society.   At a young age, I could not accept the discrimination in my country.   I understand that it is imp ossible for me to solve all the problems facing women and children but I know that something must be done.I have carefully studied my options in finding ways to be the voice that will awaken women in their important roles in the family, community and country.   One of the avenues that I have chosen was to work as a social worker.   To date, I am fulfilled in the profession that I have pursued.   Nothing is more rewarding than to see the helpless rise from poverty, oppression and discrimination.In my years of service, I have worked in a variety of settings within a framework of relevant legislation and procedures to support individuals, families and groups within the community.   These settings include schools, hospitals, public sectors and organizations.I have also worked closely with the health and social care staff.   When I was involved with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), I have pushed for the integration of health and social work services for women and children in my country.   Together with a multidisciplinary team, I have worked on the family code of Zaire to give equal parental rights to both spouses.This has replaced the previous concept of paternal authority.   Both parents have the same duties to care for their children.   Women are given the right to marriage and choice of spouses.   They are also given the right to inherit.   Both women and men acquired legal capacity at the age of 18.   They are both equally free to enter into marriage with the consent of both future spouses.   Women and children are not required to perform forced or compulsory labor, except as provided for by law.Although there are still so much that remain to be done to give wives equal rights similar to their husbands, the family code is a step forward for Zairian women.   As a social worker, I have also worked to ameliorate the living conditions of women by making them self sufficient.Through livelihood training and seminars, wome n can now engage in a small business to alleviate them from poverty.   I have also supervised 300 people and became the agriculture and rural development counselor of the governor of Zaire.Other than having an undergraduate degree and license in Social Work, I have also earned a post Graduate degree in Nutrition in Belgium.Being of service to women and children in terms of poverty alleviation, educational provision and allocation of medical and health care services has always been my passion.   Now that I am already a US citizen, I would like to move to the Department of Social Work so I can continue my work as a social worker in a larger scale.After witnessing domestic violence, child abuse, neglect, delinquency and other social problems in the community, I felt that something should be done.   This has motivated me to become a social worker in the local and international community.I would like to advocate for social justice and be the voice for those who are deprived of thei r basic human rights.   With my utmost dedication and perseverance, I would like to see more women and children around the world living in contented and productive lives that are free of abuse and discrimination.

Black House Chapter Twenty-six

26 WE HAVE HAD our little conversation about slippage, and it's too late in the game to belabor the point more than a little, but wouldn't you say that most houses are an attempt to hold slippage back? To impose at least the illusion of normality and sanity on the world? Think of Libertyville, with its corny but endearing street names Camelot and Avalon and Maid Marian Way. And think of that sweet little honey of a home in Libertyville where Fred, Judy, and Tyler Marshall once lived together. What else would you call 16 Robin Hood Lane but an ode to the everyday, a paean to the prosaic? We could say the same thing about Dale Gilbertson's home, or Jack's, or Henry's, couldn't we? Most of the homes in the vicinity of French Landing, really. The destructive hurricane that has blown through the town doesn't change the fact that the homes stand as brave bulwarks against slippage, as noble as they are humble. They are places of sanity. Black House like Shirley Jackson's Hill House, like the turn-of-the-century monstrosity in Seattle known as Rose Red is not sane. It is not entirely of this world. It's hard to look at from the outside the eyes play continual tricks but if one can hold it steady for a few seconds, one sees a three-story dwelling of perfectly ordinary size. The color is unusual, yes that dead black exterior, even the windows swabbed black and it has a crouching, leaning aspect that would raise uneasy thoughts about its structural integrity, but if one could appraise it with the glammer of those other worlds stripped away, it would look almost as ordinary as Fred and Judy's place . . . if not so well maintained. Inside, however, it is different. Inside, Black House is large. Black House is, in fact, almost infinite. Certainly it is no place to get lost, although from time to time people have hoboes and the occasional unfortunate runaway child, as well as Charles Burnside/Carl Bierstone's victims and relics here and there mark their passing: bits of clothing, pitiful scratchings on the walls of gigantic rooms with strange dimensions, the occasional heap of bones. Here and there the visitor may see a skull, such as the ones that washed up on the banks of the Hanover River during Fritz Haarman's reign of terror in the early 1920s. This is not a place where you want to get lost. Let us pass through rooms and nooks and corridors and crannies, safe in the knowledge that we can return to the outside world, the sane anti-slippage world, anytime we want (and yet we are still uneasy as we pass down flights of stairs that seem all but endless and along corridors that dwindle to a point in the distance). We hear an eternal low humming and the faint clash of weird machinery. We hear the idiot whistle of a constant wind either outside or on the floors above and below us. Sometimes we hear a faint, houndly barking that is undoubtedly the abbalah's devil dog, the one that did for poor old Mouse. Sometimes we hear the sardonic caw of a crow and understand that Gorg is here, too somewhere. We pass through rooms of ruin and rooms that are still furnished with a pale and rotten grandeur. Many of these are surely bigger than the whole house in which they hide. And eventually we come to a humble sitting room furnished with an elderly horsehair sofa and chairs of fading red velvet. There is a smell of noisome cooking in the air. (Somewhere close by is a kitchen we must never visit . . . not, that is, if we ever wish to sleep without nightmares again.) The electrical fixtures in here are at least seventy years old. How can that be, we ask, if Black House was built in the 1970s? The answer is simple: much of Black House most of Black House has been here much longer. The draperies in this room are heavy and faded. Except for the yellowed news clippings that have been taped to the ugly green wallpaper, it is a room that would not be out of place on the ground floor of the Nelson Hotel. It's a place that is simultaneously sinister and oddly banal, a fitting mirror for the imag ination of the old monster who has gone to earth here, who lies sleeping on the horsehair sofa with the front of his shirt turning a sinister red. Black House is not his, although in his pathological grandiosity he believes differently (and Mr. Munshun has not disabused him of this belief ). This one room, however, is. The clippings around him tell us all we need to know of Charles â€Å"Chummy† Burnside's lethal fascinations. YES, I ATE HER, FISH DECLARES: New York Herald Tribune BILLY GAFFNEY PLAYMATE AVERS â€Å"IT WAS THE GRAY MAN TOOK BILLY, IT WAS THE BOGEYMAN†: New York World Telegram GRACE BUDD HORROR CONTINUES: FISH CONFESSES!: Long Island Star FISH ADMITS â€Å"ROASTING, EATING† WM GAFFNEY: New York American FRITZ HAARMAN, SO-CALLED â€Å"BUTCHER OF HANOVER,† EXECUTED FOR MURDER OF 24: New York World WEREWOLF DECLARES: â€Å"I WAS DRIVEN BY LOVE, NOT LUST.† HAARMAN DIES UNREPENTANT: The Guardian CANNIBAL OF HANOVER'S LAST LETTER: â€Å"YOU CANNOT KILL ME, I SHALL BE AMONG YOU FOR ETERNITY†: New York World Wendell Green would love this stuff, would he not? And there are more. God help us, there are so many more. Even Jeffrey Dahmer is here, declaring I WANTED ZOMBIES. The figure on the couch begins to groan and stir. â€Å"Way-gup, Burny!† This seems to come from thin air, not his mouth . . . although his lips move, like those of a second-rate ventriloquist. Burny groans. His head turns to the left. â€Å"No . . . need to sleep. Everything . . . hurts.† The head turns to the right in a gesture of negation and Mr. Munshun speaks again. â€Å"Way-gup, dey vill be gummink. You must move der buu-uoy.† The head switches back the other way. Sleeping, Burny thinks Mr. Munshun is still safe inside his head. He has forgotten things are different here in Black House. Foolish Burny, now nearing the end of his usefulness! But not quite there yet. â€Å"Can't . . . lea' me ‘lone . . . stomach hurts . . . the blind man . . . fucking blind man hurt my stomach . . .† But the head turns back the other way and the voice speaks again from the air beside Burny's right ear. Burny fights it, not wanting to wake and face the full ferocious impact of the pain. The blind man has hurt him much worse than he thought at the time, in the heat of the moment. Burny insists to the nagging voice that the boy is safe where he is, that they'll never find him even if they can gain access to Black House, that they will become lost in its unknown depth of rooms and hallways and wander until they first go mad and then die. Mr. Munshun, however, knows that one of them is different from any of the others who have happened on this place. Jack Sawyer is acquainted with the infinite, and that makes him a problem. The boy must be taken out the back way and into End-World, into the very shadow of Din-tah, the great furnace. Mr. Munshun tells Burny that he may still be able to have some of the boy before turning him over to the abbalah, but not here. Too dangerous. Sorry. Burny continues to protest, but this is a battle he will not win, and we know it. Already the stale, cooked-meat air of the room has begun to shift and swirl as the owner of the voice arrives. We see first a whirlpool of black, then a splotch of red an ascot and then the beginnings of an impossibly long white face, which is dominated by a single black shark's eye. This is the real Mr. Munshun, the creature who can only live in Burny's head outside of Black House and its enchanted environs. Soon he will be entirely here, he will pull Burny into wakefulness (torture him into wakefulness, if necessary), and he will put Burny to use while there is still use to be gotten from him. For Mr. Munshun cannot move Ty from his cell in the Black House. Once he is in End-World Burny's Sheol things will be different. At last Burny's eyes open. His gnarled hands, which have spilled so much blood, now reach down to feel the dampness of his own blood seeping through his shirt. He looks, sees what has bloomed there, and lets out a scream of horror and cowardice. It does not strike him as just that, after murdering so many children, he should have been mortally wounded by a blind man; it strikes him as hideous, unfair. For the first time he is visited by an extremely unpleasant idea: What if there's more to pay for the things he has done over the course of his long career? He has seen End-World; he has seen Conger Road, which winds through it to Din-tah. The blasted, burning landscape surrounding Conger Road is like hell, and surely An-tak, the Big Combination, is hell itself. What if such a place waits for him? What if There's a horrible, paralyzing pain in his guts. Mr. Munshun, now almost fully materialized, has reached out and twisted one smoky, not-quite-transparent hand in the wound Henry inflicted with his switchblade knife. Burny squeals. Tears run down the old child-murderer's cheeks. â€Å"Don't hurt me!† â€Å"Zen do ass I zay.† â€Å"I can't,† Burny snivels. â€Å"I'm dying. Look at all the blood! Do you think I can get past something like this? I'm eighty-five fucking years old!† â€Å"Duff brayyg, Burn-Burn . . . but dere are zose on z'osser zide who could hill you off your wunds.† Mr. Munshun, like Black House itself, is hard to look at. He shivers in and out of focus. Sometimes that hideously long face (it obscures most of his body, like the bloated head of a caricature on some newspaper's op-ed page) has two eyes, sometimes just one. Sometimes there seem to be tufted snarls of orange hair leaping up from his distended skull, and sometimes Mr. Munshun appears to be as bald as Yul Brynner. Only the red lips and the fangy pointed teeth that lurk inside them remain fairly constant. Burny eyes his accomplice with a degree of hope. His hands, meanwhile, continue to explore his stomach, which is now hard and bloated with lumps. He suspects the lumps are clots. Oh, that someone should have hurt him so badly! That wasn't supposed to happen! That was never supposed to happen! He was supposed to be protected! He was supposed to â€Å"It iss not even peeyond ze realm of bossibility,† Mr. Munshun says, â€Å"zat ze yearz could be rawled avey vrum you jusst as ze stunn vas rawled avey from ze mouse of Cheezus Chrizze's doom.† â€Å"To be young again,† Burny says, and exhales a low, harsh sigh. His breath stinks of blood and spoilage. â€Å"Yes, I'd like that.† â€Å"Of gorse! And soch zings are bossible,† Mr. Munshun says, nodding his grotesquely unstable face. â€Å"Soch gifts are ze abbalah's to giff. But zey are not bromised, Charles, my liddle munching munchkin. But I can make you one bromise.† The creature in the black evening suit and red ascot leaps forward with dreadful agility. His long-fingered hand darts again into Chummy Burnside's shirt, this time clenches into a fist, and produces a pain beyond any the old monster has ever dreamed of in his own life . . . although he has inflicted this and more on the innocent. Mr. Munshun's reeking countenance pushes up to Burny's. The single eye glares. â€Å"Do you feel dat, Burny? Do you, you mizz-er-a-ble old bag of dirt and zorrow? Ho-ho, ha-ha, of gorse you do! It iss your in-destines I haff in my hand! Und if you do not mooff now, schweinhund, I vill rip dem from your bledding body, ho-ho, ha-ha, und vrap dem arund your neg! You vill die knowing you are choking on your own gudz! A trick I learned from Fritz himzelf, Fritz Haarman, who vas so yunk und loff-ly! Now! Vat do you say? Vill you brink him, or vill you choke?† â€Å"I'll bring him!† Burny screams. â€Å"I'll bring him, only stop, stop, you're tearing me apart!† â€Å"Brink him to ze station. Ze station, Burn-Burn. Dis one iz nodd for ze radhulls, de fogzhulls not for ze Com-bin-ay-shun. No bledding foodzies for Dyler; he works for his abbalah vid dis.† A long finger tipped with a brutal black nail goes to the huge forehead and taps it above the eyes (for the moment Burny sees two of them, and then the second is once more gone). â€Å"Understand?† â€Å"Yes! Yes!† His guts are on fire. And still the hand in his shirt twists and twists. The terrible highway of Mr. Munshun's face hangs before him. â€Å"Ze station where you brought the other sbecial ones.† â€Å"YES!† Mr. Munshun lets go. He steps back. Mercifully for Burny, he is beginning to grow insubstantial again, to discorporate. Yellowed clippings swim into view not behind him but through him. Yet the single eye hangs in the air above the paling blotch of the ascot. â€Å"Mayg zure he vears za cab. Ziss one ezbeshully must wear za cab.† Burnside nods eagerly. He still smells faintly of My Sin perfume. â€Å"The cap, yes, I have the cap.† â€Å"Be gare-ful, Burny. You are old und hurt. Ze bouy is young und desberate. Flitt of foot. If you let him get avey â€Å" In spite of the pain, Burny smiles. One of the children getting away from him! Even one of the special ones! What an idea! â€Å"Don't worry,† he says. â€Å"Just . . . if you speak to him . . . to Abbalah-doon . . . tell him I'm not past it yet. If he makes me better, he won't regret it. And if he makes me young again, I'll bring him a thousand young. A thousand Breakers.† Fading and fading. Now Mr. Munshun is again just a glow, a milky disturbance on the air of Burny's sitting room deep in the house he abandoned only when he realized he really did need someone to take care of him in his sunset years. â€Å"Bring him just dis vun, Burn-Burn. Bring him just dis vun, und you vill be revarded.† Mr. Munshun is gone. Burny stands and bends over the horsehair sofa. Doing it squeezes his belly, and the resulting pain makes him scream, but he doesn't stop. He reaches into the darkness and pulls out a battered black leather sack. He grasps its top and leaves the room, limping and clutching at his bleeding, distended belly. And what of Tyler Marshall, who has existed through most of these many pages as little more than a rumor? How badly has he been hurt? How frightened is he? Has he managed to retain his sanity? As to his physical condition, he's got a concussion, but that's already healing. The Fisherman has otherwise done no more than stroke his arm and his buttocks (a creepy touch that made Tyler think of the witch in â€Å"Hansel and Gretel†). Mentally . . . would you be shocked to hear that, while Mr. Munshun is goading Burny onward, Fred and Judy's boy is happy? He is. He is happy. And why not? He's at Miller Park. The Milwaukee Brewers have confounded all the pundits this year, all the doomsayers who proclaimed they'd be in the cellar by July Fourth. Well, it's still relatively early, but the Fourth has come and gone and the Brew Crew has returned to Miller tied for first place with Cincinnati. They are in the hunt, in large part due to the bat of Richie Sexson, who came over to Milwaukee from the Cleveland Indians and who has been â€Å"really pickin' taters,† in the pungent terminology of George Rathbun. They are in the hunt, and Ty is at the game! EXCELLENT! Not only is he there, he's got a front-row seat. Next to him big, sweating, red-faced, a Kingsland beer in one hand and another tucked away beneath his seat for emergencies is the Gorgeous George himself, bellowing at the top of his leather lungs. Jeromy Burnitz of the Crew has just been called out at first on a bang-bang play, and while there can be no doubt that the Cincinnati shortstop handled the ball well and got rid of it fast, there can also be no doubt (at least not in George Rathbun's mind) that Burnitz was safe! He rises in the twilight, his sweaty bald pate glowing beneath a sweetly lavender sky, a foamy rill of beer rolling up one cocked forearm, his blue eyes twinkling (you can tell he sees a lot with those eyes, just about everything), and Ty waits for it, they all wait for it, and here it is, that avatar of summer in the Coulee Country, that wonderful bray that means everything is okay, terror has been denied, a nd slippage has been canceled. â€Å"COME ON, UMP, GIVE US A BREAK! GIVE US A FREEEEAKIN' BRAYYYYK! EVEN A BLIND MAN COULD SEE HE WAS SAFE!† The crowd on the first-base side goes wild at the sound of that cry, none wilder than the fourteen or so people sitting behind the banner reading MILLER PARK WELCOMES GEORGE RATHBUN AND THE WINNERS OF THIS YEAR'S KDCU BREWER BASH. Ty is jumping up and down, laughing, waving his Brew Crew hat. What makes this doubly boss is that he thought he forgot to enter the contest this year. He guesses his father (or perhaps his mother) entered it for him . . . and he won! Not the grand prize, which was getting to be the Brew Crew's batboy for the entire Cincinnati series, but what he got (besides this excellent seat with the other winners, that is) is, in his opinion, even better. Of course Richie Sexson isn't Mark McGwire nobody can hit the tar out of the ball like Big Mac but Sexson has been awesome for the Brewers this year, just awesome, and Tyler Marshall has won Someone is shaking his foot. Ty attempts to pull away, not wanting to lose this dream (this most excellent refuge from the horror that has befallen him), but the hand is relentless. It shakes. It shakes and shakes. â€Å"Way-gup,† a voice snarls, and the dream begins to darken. George Rathbun turns to Ty, and the boy sees an amazing thing: the eyes that were such a shrewd, sharp blue only a few seconds ago have gone dull and milky. Cripe, he's blind, Ty thinks. George Rathbun really is a â€Å"Way-gup,† the growling voice says. It's closer now. In a moment the dream will wink out entirely. Before it does, George speaks to him. The voice is quiet, totally unlike the sportscaster's usual brash bellow. â€Å"Help's on the way,† he says. â€Å"So be cool, you little cat. Be â€Å" â€Å"Way-GUP, you shit!† The grip on his ankle is crushing, paralyzing. With a cry of protest, Ty opens his eyes. This is how he rejoins the world, and our tale. He remembers where he is immediately. It's a cell with reddish-gray iron bars halfway along a stone corridor lit with cobwebby electric bulbs. There's a dish of some sort of stew in one corner. In the other is a bucket in which he is supposed to pee (or take a dump if he has to so far he hasn't, thank goodness). The only other thing in the room is a raggedy old futon from which Burny has just dragged him. â€Å"All right,† Burny says. â€Å"Awake at last. That's good. Now get up. On your feet, asswipe. I don't have time to fuck with you.† Tyler gets up. A wave of dizziness rolls through him and he puts his hand to the top of his head. There is a spongy, crusted place there. Touching it sends a bolt of pain all the way down to his jaws, which clench. But it also drives the dizziness away. He looks at his hand. There are flakes of scab and dried blood on his palm. That's where he hit me with his damned rock. Any harder, and I would have been playing a harp. But the old man has been hurt somehow, too. His shirt is covered with blood; his wrinkled ogre's face is waxy and pallid. Behind him, the cell door is open. Ty measures the distance to the hallway, hoping he's not being too obvious about it. But Burny has been in this game a long time. He has had more than one liddle one dry to esscabe on hiz bledding foodzies, oh ho. He reaches into his bag and brings out a black gadget with a pistol grip and a stainless steel nozzle at the tip. â€Å"Know what this is, Tyler?† Burny asks. â€Å"Taser,† Ty says. â€Å"Isn't it?† Burny grins, revealing the stumps of his teeth. â€Å"Smart boy! A TV-watching boy, I'll be bound. It's a Taser, yes. But a special type it'll drop a cow at thirty yards. Understand? You try to run, boy, I'll bring you down like a ton of bricks. Come out here.† Ty steps out of the cell. He has no idea where this horrible old man means to take him, but there's a certain relief just in being free of the cell. The futon was the worst. He knows, somehow, that he hasn't been the only kid to cry himself to sleep on it with an aching heart and an aching, lumpy head, nor the tenth. Nor, probably, the fiftieth. â€Å"Turn to your left.† Ty does. Now the old man is behind him. A moment later, he feels the bony fingers grip the right cheek of his bottom. It's not the first time the old man has done this (each time it happens he's reminded again of the witch in â€Å"Hansel and Gretel,† asking the lost children to stick their arms out of their cage), but this time his touch is different. Weaker. Die soon, Ty thinks, and the thought its cold collectedness is very, very Judy. Die soon, old man, so I don't have to. â€Å"This one is mine,† the old man says . . . but he sounds out of breath, no longer quite sure of himself. â€Å"I'll bake half, fry the rest. With bacon.† â€Å"I don't think you'll be able to eat much,† Ty says, surprised at the calmness of his own voice. â€Å"Looks like somebody ventilated your stomach pretty g â€Å" There is a crackling, accompanied by a hideous, jittery burning sensation in his left shoulder. Ty screams and staggers against the wall across the corridor from his cell, trying to clutch the wounded place, trying not to cry, trying to hold on to just a little of his beautiful dream about being at the game with George Rathbun and the other KDCU Brewer Bash winners. He knows he actually did forget to enter this year, but in dreams such things don't matter. That's what's so beautiful about them. Oh, but it hurts so bad. And despite all his efforts all the Judy Marshall in him the tears begin to flow. â€Å"You want another un?† the old man gasps. He sounds both sick and hysterical, and even a kid Ty's age knows that's a dangerous combination. â€Å"You want another un, just for good luck?† â€Å"No,† Ty gasps. â€Å"Don't zap me again, please don't.† â€Å"Then start walkin'! And no more smart goddamn remarks!† Ty starts to walk. Somewhere he can hear water dripping. Somewhere, very faint, he can hear the laughing caw of a crow probably the same one that tricked him, and how he'd like to have Ebbie's .22 and blow its evil shiny black feathers off. The outside world seems light-years away. But George Rathbun told him help was on the way, and sometimes the things you heard in dreams came true. His very own mother told him that once, and long before she started to go all wonky in the head, too. They come to a stairway that seems to circle down forever. Up from the depths comes a smell of sulfur and a roast of heat. Faintly he can hear what might be screams and moans. The clank of machinery is louder. There are ominous creaking sounds that might be belts and chains. Ty pauses, thinking the old guy won't zap him again unless he absolutely has to. Because Ty might fall down this long circular staircase. Might hit the place on his head the old guy already clipped with the rock, or break his neck, or tumble right off the side. And the old guy wants him alive, at least for now. Ty doesn't know why, but he knows this intuition is true. â€Å"Where are we going, mister?† â€Å"You'll find out,† Burny says in his tight, out-of-breath voice. â€Å"And if you think I don't dare zap you while we're on the stairs, my little friend, you're very mistaken. Now get walking.† Tyler Marshall starts down the stairs, descending past vast galleries and balconies, around and down, around and down. Sometimes the air smells of putrid cabbage. Sometimes it smells of burned candles. Sometimes of wet rot. He counts a hundred and fifty steps, then stops counting. His thighs are burning. Behind him, the old man is gasping, and twice he stumbles, cursing and holding the ancient banister. Fall, old man, Ty chants inside his head. Fall and die, fall and die. But at last they are at the bottom. They arrive in a circular room with a dirty glass ceiling. Above them, gray sky hangs down like a filthy bag. There are plants oozing out of broken pots, sending greedy feelers across a floor of broken orange bricks. Ahead of them, two doors French doors, Ty thinks they are called stand open. Beyond them is a crumbling patio surrounded by ancient trees. Some are palms. Some the ones with the hanging, ropy vines might be banyans. Others he doesn't know. One thing he's sure of: they are no longer in Wisconsin. Standing on the patio is an object he knows very well. Something from his own world. Tyler Marshall's eyes well up again at the sight of it, which is almost like the sight of a face from home in a hopelessly foreign place. â€Å"Stop, monkey-boy.† The old man sounds out of breath. â€Å"Turn around.† When Tyler does, he's pleased to see that the blotch on the old man's shirt has spread even farther. Fingers of blood now stretch all the way to his shoulders, and the waistband of his baggy old blue jeans has gone a muddy black. But the hand holding the Taser is rock-steady. God damn you, Tyler thinks. God damn you to hell. The old man has put his bag on a little table. He simply stands where he is for a moment, getting his breath. Then he rummages in the bag (something in there utters a faint metallic clink) and brings out a soft brown cap. It's the kind guys like Sean Connery sometimes wear in the movies. The old man holds it out. â€Å"Put it on. And if you try to grab my hand, I'll zap you.† Tyler takes the cap. His fingers, expecting the texture of suede, are surprised by something metallic, almost like tinfoil. He feels an unpleasant buzzing in his hand, like a mild version of the Taser's jolt. He looks at the old man pleadingly. â€Å"Do I have to?† Burny raises the Taser and bares his teeth in a silent grin. Reluctantly, Ty puts the cap on. This time the buzzing fills his head. For a moment he can't think . . . and then the feeling passes, leaving him with an odd sense of weakness in his muscles and a throbbing at his temples. â€Å"Special boys need special toys,† Burny says, and it comes out sbecial boyz, sbecial toyz. As always, Mr. Munshun's ridiculous accent has rubbed off a little, thickening that touch of South Chicago Henry detected on the 911 tape. â€Å"Now we can go out.† Because with the cap on, I'm safe, Ty thinks, but the idea breaks up and drifts away almost as soon as it comes. He tries to think of his middle name and realizes he can't. He tries to think of the bad crow's name and can't get that, either was it something like Corgi? No, that's a kind of dog. The cap is messing him up, he realizes, and that's what it's supposed to do. Now they pass through the open doors and onto the patio. The air is redolent with the smell of the trees and bushes that surround the back side of Black House, a smell that is heavy and cloying. Fleshy, somehow. The gray sky seems almost low enough to touch. Ty can smell sulfur and something bitter and electric and juicy. The sound of machinery is much louder out here. The thing Ty recognized sitting on the broken bricks is an E-Z-Go golf cart. The Tiger Woods model. â€Å"My dad sells these,† Ty says. â€Å"At Goltz's, where he works.† â€Å"Where do you think it came from, asswipe? Get in. Behind the wheel.† Ty looks at him, amazed. His blue eyes, perhaps thanks to the effects of the cap, have grown bloodshot and rather confused. â€Å"I'm not old enough to drive.† â€Å"Oh, you'll be fine. A baby could drive this baby. Behind the wheel.† Ty does as he is told. In truth, he has driven one of these in the lot at Goltz's, with his father sitting watchfully beside him in the passenger seat. Now the hideous old man is easing himself into that same place, groaning and holding his perforated midsection. The Taser is in the other hand, however, and the steel tip remains pointed at Ty. The key is in the ignition. Ty turns it. There's a click from the battery beneath them. The dashboard light reading CHARGE glows bright green. Now all he has to do is push the accelerator pedal. And steer, of course. â€Å"Good so far,† the old man says. He takes his right hand off his middle and points with a bloodstained finger. Ty sees a path of discolored gravel once, before the trees and underbrush encroached, it was probably a driveway leading away from the house. â€Å"Now go. And go slow. Speed and I'll zap you. Try to crash us and I'll break your wrist for you. Then you can drive one-handed.† Ty pushes down on the accelerator. The golf cart jerks forward. The old man lurches, curses, and waves the Taser threateningly. â€Å"It would be easier if I could take off the cap,† Ty says. â€Å"Please, I'm pretty sure that if you'd just let me â€Å" â€Å"No! Cap stays! Drive!† Ty pushes down gently on the accelerator. The E-Z-Go rolls across the patio, its brand-new rubber tires crunching on broken shards of brick. There's a bump as they leave the pavement and go rolling up the driveway. Heavy fronds they feel damp, sweaty brush Tyler's arms. He cringes. The golf cart swerves. Burny jabs the Taser at the boy, snarling. â€Å"Next time you get the juice! It's a promise!† A snake goes writhing across the overgrown gravel up ahead, and Ty utters a little scream through his clenched teeth. He doesn't like snakes, didn't even want to touch the harmless little corn snake Mrs. Locher brought to school, and this thing is the size of a python, with ruby eyes and fangs that prop its mouth open in a perpetual snarl. â€Å"Go! Drive!† The Taser, waving in his face. The cap, buzzing faintly in his ears. Behind his ears. The drive curves to the left. Some sort of tree burdened with what look like tentacles leans over them. The tips of the tentacles tickle across Ty's shoulders and the goose-prickled, hair-on-end nape of his neck. Ourr boyy . . . He hears this in his head in spite of the cap. It's faint, it's distant, but it's there. Ourrrrr boyyyyy . . . yesssss . . . ourrrrs . . . Burny is grinning. â€Å"Hear 'em, don'tcha? They like you. So do I. We're all friends here, don't you see?† The grin becomes a grimace. He clutches his bloody middle again. â€Å"Goddamned blind old fool!† he gasps. Then, suddenly, the trees are gone. The golf cart rolls out onto a sullen, crumbling plain. The bushes dwindle and Ty sees that farther along they give way entirely to a crumbled, rocky scree: hills rise and fall beneath that sullen gray sky. A few birds of enormous size wheel lazily. A shaggy, slump-shouldered creature staggers down a narrow defile and is gone from sight before Ty can see exactly what it is . . . not that he wanted to. The thud and pound of machinery is stronger, shaking the earth. The crump of pile drivers; the clash of ancient gears; the squall of cogs. Tyler can feel the golf cart's steering wheel thrumming in his hands. Ahead of them the driveway ends in a wide road of beaten earth. Along the far side of it is a wall of round white stones. â€Å"That thing you hear, that's the Crimson King's power plant,† Burny says. He speaks with pride, but there is more than a tinge of fear beneath it. â€Å"The Big Combination. A million children have died on its belts, and a zillion more to come, for all I know. But that's not for you, Tyler. You might have a future after all. First, though, I'll have my piece of you. Yes indeed.† His blood-streaked hand reaches out and caresses the top of Ty's buttock. â€Å"A good agent's entitled to ten percent. Even an old buzzard like me knows that.† The hand draws back. Good thing. Ty has been on the verge of screaming, holding the sound back only by thinking of sitting at Miller Park with good old George Rathbun. If I'd really entered the Brewer Bash, he thinks, none of this would have happened. But he thinks that may not actually be true. Some things are meant to be, that's all. Meant. He just hopes that what this horrible old creature wants is not one of them. â€Å"Turn left,† Burny grunts, settling back. â€Å"Three miles. Give or take.† And, as Tyler makes the turn, he realizes the ribbons of mist rising from the ground aren't mist at all. They're ribbons of smoke. â€Å"Sheol,† Burny says, as if reading his mind. â€Å"And this is the only way through it Conger Road. Get off it and there are things out there that'd pull you to pieces just to hear you scream. My friend told me where to take you, but there might be just a leedle change of plan.† His pain-wracked face takes on a sulky cast. Ty thinks it makes him look extraordinarily stupid. â€Å"He hurt me. Pulled my guts. I don't trust him.† And, in a horrible child's singsong: â€Å"Carl Bierstone don't trust Mr. Munshun! Not no more! Not no more!† Ty says nothing. He concentrates on keeping the golf cart in the middle of Conger Road. He risks one look back, but the house, in its ephemeral wallow of tropical greenery, is gone, blocked from view by the first of the eroded hills. â€Å"He'll have what's his, but I'll have what's mine. Do you hear me, boy?† When Ty says nothing, Burny brandishes the Taser. â€Å"Do you hear me, you asswipe monkey?† â€Å"Yeah,† Ty says. â€Å"Yeah, sure.† Why don't you die? God, if You're there, why don't You just reach down and put Your finger on his rotten heart and stop it from beating? When Burny speaks again, his voice is sly. â€Å"You looked at the wall on t'other side, but I don't think you looked close enough. Better take another gander.† Tyler looks past the slumped old man. For a moment he doesn't understand . . . and then he does. The big white stones stretching endlessly away along the far side of Conger Road aren't stones at all. They're skulls. What is this place? Oh God, how he wants his mother! How he wants to go home! Beginning to cry again, his brain numbed and buzzing beneath the cap that looks like cloth but isn't, Ty pilots the golf cart deeper and deeper into the furnace-lands. Into Sheol. Rescue help of any kind has never seemed so far away.

Regents Of The University Of California V. Bakke - 980 Words

S.C.O.T.U.S. Legal Brief Justin Kaye Period 2 May 2015 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1976) Facts of the case: In the early 1970’s UC Davis decided to have a dual admissions program for their medical school. The purpose of having two admissions programs in one would be for regular students and the other one would be for â€Å"disadvantaged† students. Minority applicants could now say they were â€Å"disadvantaged† so they were put in the special pool which would make it easy for them to get into the medical program. One major differences between both programs is that through the â€Å"disadvantaged† program you could have lower than a 2.5 and still be eligible to get into the school. The controversy began when Allan Bakke applied to†¦show more content†¦However, the Superior Court of Yolo County stated that Bakke should not be admitted into the medical school because he failed to show that he would actually be admitted if there was no special admissions program. Both sides appealed because Regents of the University of California didn t believe it was unconstitutional and Bakke wanted to be admitted into the medical program. The next step was onto The Supreme Court of California. They said the same exact thing that the Superior Court of Yolo County said, however they said that Bakke should be admitted into the medical program because the University, not Bakke, failed to show that he would not be admitted without the specialty program. Regents of the University of California appealed this because both courts did not agree with the points that they made. Petition before the Supreme Court: Both sides had major arguments and reasons why they thought their side was right. Regents of the University of California said that their special admissions program helped limit discrimination in our society. Medical schools normally were discriminatory towards minors (by the admission process based of credentials) so this program helped ease that problem. The Regents of the University of California also stated that the program will help poor communities by giving them physicians that will want to go and help out the cause of where they grew up. Regents of the