by Milo Abrams
to train and direct his hunting dogs."
"Oh, okay," James said taking a swig of root beer. That must've been it. The whistling must have been the hunters blowing their whistles for their hunting dogs. James wasn't sure he fully believed it but it was the best idea he had. He decided to leave the barn and check on the deer feeder.
He knew something was visiting the yard and watching him—or at least it seemed to be. He hadn’t seen any gray hunting clothes in any of his dad’s deer magazines, and it was way too hot to be wearing too much.
Why would hunters sit at the edge of the woods? To rest? It's not like the yard was overflowing with deer for them to watch or hunt. There were so many unanswered questions and not enough evidence. But soon that would all change.
8
When James finally got out to the deer feeder he was disappointed to find that it was still full. "Oh, c'mon," he said kicking the side. That's when he noticed a half-eaten apple on the ground. He walked over and crouched down to examine the bite marks as if he were a trained woodsman, but he didn't have a clue what he was looking at. Something was happening in the yard, he thought. Maybe he was right and the creature from the woods was going after the deer that were lured by the feeder. His investigative thoughts were rudely interrupted as the car in the barn roared to life, revving several times and echoing like multiple sonic booms across the countryside. The resulting noise lured James back to the barn.
Inside, Nolan revved the car like a madman. James nervously looked around, expecting someone to call the police, but then he realized they weren't in the city. Things were different out there.
"Ha! Check that out, huh?" Nolan was beaming.
"Good job."
Nolan walked over and wrapped a sweaty arm around his son, the heat of which made James uncomfortable. "You see that there? A little work and you can accomplish anything. You know that car was what I took your mother out in for our first date?" Not noticing the impact of his words, Nolan pumped his fists in the air and yelled in celebration. "I'm going to grab a shower," he said heading for the house.
James was stunned. His dad just wouldn't let up with rubbing his new life into his face. Didn't he realize that the separation did hurt James after all? Up until he came to his dad's new house, James hadn't even realized it himself.
"Hey, James," Nolan called from the door, "your mom's on the phone!"
Once in the house, James picked up the phone. "Hello?" he answered with zero enthusiasm.
"Hey, sweetie," his mother spoke, "how's it going there?"
James couldn't bear to tell his mom what he was thinking or feeling. He didn't want to embarrass himself or hurt her feelings, but he wasn't much in the mood for talking. "Things are going good," he managed to mutter out.
"So, your dad tells me you built a deer feeder, huh?"
Jesus, he thought, my dad's playing both sides of the field! This made him mad but he wasn't about to show his feelings. He was a growing boy, becoming a man, and that's just something he thought men didn't do. "Yeah," he said, "it was no big deal."
"No big deal?" she laughed, "I've never seen you build anything here!" He had so many thoughts running through his mind between a deer hunting monster in the woods and his dad's selfish behavior that he wasn't paying much attention to the unintended nuance in his mom's words. "So anyway, the reason I called is because Owen and Jack are here.”
James had nearly forgotten about his two best friends back home in the city. They were a regular set of musketeers. He had grown up together with Jack living right next door and Owen just a few blocks away.
Jack was the timid intellectual, with dark hair and dark eyes. He found joy in calculating the success rate of their adventures while Owen, the youngest of the trio, was the bravest. He often told people he was raised by wolves and was stocky, loud, and always the first to rush into things.
"What do they want?" James asked.
"Just to see what you were up to, they forgot you were spending the summer at your father's house. Typical preteens. Anyway, the other reason I called was I thought it might be fun for you to have them out there for a night or so. I already checked with your father—he has no problem with it."
James was surprised at the amount of behind-the-back communication there was between his parents. He felt betrayed in a way, like he wasn't in the loop about what was going on. Despite this, he did miss his friends and thought it would be nice to have someone around to relate to about the whole creature in the woods business. "That sounds great," his tone changed, "when can they come out?"
"Well," she said, "I haven't actually asked them.”
“Ugh," James sighed.
"I just wanted to make sure you wanted to have them over first."
"Of course, Mom! Ask them, please?"
"Okay. They're still here, hang on." She disappeared for a minute then Owen answered the phone.
"Yo," he said.
"Hey," James replied, "you guys coming out or what?"
"We could, Jack just got a sweet new MMO you have to see," Owen said.
"Oh, well there's no internet out here," he lied. His dad didn't have Wi-Fi and James knew that he would never let them spend their time inside playing games.
"What? Oh, man."
"Yeah, no cell service either," James said.
Owen paused for a second. "Dead zone, bro."
"Yeah, but there's something I have to show you guys," James said as his dad walked in, "it's uh, the deer feeder I made." The words stumbled out of James's mouth and his dad looked back at him and smiled, proud that his son had a little country in him after all.
James feared that if his dad found out that he was interested, not so much in seeing deer but in seeing a monster, then he would shut down every plan he had to see it. The worst-case scenario, of course, was being sent back home to the city before he figured out what it was. What started as a mild curiosity and bad dream was now an itch that James had to scratch. Owen immediately seemed to lose interest—the lack of Internet and cellular network was a blow that his city-boy brain couldn't quite handle.
"Have to pass, man," he said. Owen was always sure of himself, even for a twelve-year-old. When he made up his mind he was hard to convince otherwise, which made him both a pain to parents and a great friend.
Disappointed, James hung up the phone and slumped into the chair at the kitchen table.
"Friends on their way out?" Nolan asked.
"No," he said as he spun the cordless phone on its back across the table like a top. "You know Jack and Owen, they're straight city kids. Once they found out there was no cell signal out here they bailed."
Nolan was sad for his son but proud at the fact that he had separated himself enough from his city life to call his friends straight city kids instead of identifying with them. "That's okay." He didn't know what else to say.
James wandered back to the barn and up into the hayloft where he left the binoculars. He looked around and thought how it would make a really cool place to hang out with his friends. He imagined setting up desks with computers and a big TV on the wall. They could get a couch and make it like a secret club. He sighed, realizing it was a stupid idea and that his friends had no interest in him so long as he was stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Carelessness set in, bringing with it a dullness to his fear of heights which allowed him to sit at the edge of the hay door. Maybe my friends didn't even like me at all, he thought, maybe they only liked me when I had games and stuff around.
His sudden introspection made him all at once sad and mature feeling. He looked at the cascade of clouds scattering across the sky and tried to remember their names. Up there, everything looked more beautiful, and he felt like he could almost touch them as they rolled down from the heavens. Slowly, his eyes dropped to the deer feeder where they picked up new information. He fumbled his arm behind him as he reached for the binoculars. Something was behind the deer feeder and he didn't want to miss it. He turned around and grabbed the binoculars and put them to his face. Neck-
deep into the feeder was a small deer. He exhaled in defeat, thinking maybe it had just been deer all along. Then without warning the deer ran off across the yard, parallel with the woods and disappeared out of James's sight. Looking back at the woods he saw something gray sitting at the tree line. Quickly flipping the binoculars toward the woods, what he saw nearly made him fall from the hay door. The distance was too far for the focus of the binoculars to allow any detail, but crouching by the trees was a slender looking gray figure.
James quickly jumped up, “Dad!” he called out to the house. Doing a double-take, he put the binoculars back up to his eyes and watched as it stood up—like a human.
"DAD!" James yelled as he ran for the ladder and nearly fell as he scurried down it. He ran through the crunchy gravel driveway and tripped with a loud thud as he tried skipping up the steps. Nolan opened the door and helped him up.
"Are you all right? What're you running for?"
"Dad," James said out of breath, "there's something in the woods.”
Nolan looked at him strangely. "Okay? What do you mean?"
"I saw a deer," James huffed, "at the deer feeder and then something at the edge of the yard scared it off. Dad, there's a monster in the woods.”
9
Nolan put his arm around his son and smiled. "Probably just a hunter. There's some pretty creepy camo outfits that could make them look strange," he said. "There are no monsters in the woods or anywhere else."
It was no use. Nolan's