The Shadow's Touch

by Scott VanKirk

  “Finn, we’re here.”

  I snapped awake. We had parked next to the field closest to our encounter two nights ago. I wiped a bit of drool that had dribbled down my chin and got out of the car.”So, did you get anything?” asked Victoria.

  I searched her face, and I didn’t see any evidence that she was yanking my chain for falling asleep. I shook my head and followed her and David back to the spot in the woods near the two blackened trees.

  When we got there, I asked Dave, “Do you think that Jen did this?”

  “What, the damage to the trees?”

  “Yeah, there were two lightning bolts that hit here when Erik attacked Jen.”

  “Crap, if she can throw lightning bolts around, we need her here, not you.”

  I nodded my head. “You could be right. I doubt we could get past her dad though.”

  Dave smirked at me. “I told you, you shouldn’t be going after the young ones like that.”

  “You did not. I mean I do not. I mean ...fuck you, Dave!”

  Dave laughed, and we joined Vicky scanning the ground. It was hard to pinpoint locations now that it was sunny, but I thought this might have been where Gregg died. The thought made me reflexively check on Gregg’s cocoon. It still seemed the same.

  When Dave started taking off his clothes, that brought me back to reality quickly.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m not going to lose another outfit turning into a bear, Finn.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t really need to see Dave naked again so I quickly found some fascinating things to look at on the ground. When I heard the whistle play the familiar tune, I looked back in time to see Dave’s white body stretching and growing into a large black bear. This time, Dave seemed far less disoriented and upset. He just put his nose to the ground and started sniffing away.

  I saw the open eyed astonishment on Vicky’s face. I walked up next to her and we watched Dave sniffing around the site. “It’s a bit different actually seeing it than just hearing about it, isn’t it?”

  Vicky’s dark brown eyes were still big when she nodded mutely.

  Dave suddenly gave a Wookiee cry and bounded off along the trail. Victoria broke into a run, and I followed close behind.

  It wasn’t long before the peanut gallery chimed in. I’m telling you Finn, that looks like prime baby-making booty to me.

  I nearly tripped and fell. It’s not that I hadn’t noticed the nicely rounded package oscillating down the trail in front of me, it’s just that I had been admiring it from more of a… er… a, uh, less practical perspective.

  We ran for what seemed like miles, and though I was hot and sweaty, I didn’t feel as if I would puke my guts out and die. That, I’m sad to say, was a novelty for me. In fact I felt amazingly good. The visual delight bouncing in front of me definitely helped my mood, but it became less important as I pushed myself harder. Somehow my body had become the little engine that could. My heart chugged and my lungs puffed and my feet pounded out a hypnotic beat. The woods around me became less important than the strength flowing like fire through my body.

  I was so enthralled with the run, I almost ran over Vicky when she slowed to a stop in front of me. Dave the bear, oblivious, kept running.

  Her breath was coming in ragged gasps as she bent over to put her hands on her knees. I was hot, and my breathing was deep and fast, but I wasn’t exhausted, just exhilarated.

  Vicky scowled at me. She used one hand to wave me on without her. I was ready to start running again when I thought about what we were chasing.

  I waved my hand in negation. “No, I need a break too.”

  I waited for Vicky to catch her breath. This was a very strange feeling for me. I was never the one waiting. I was always the one people waited for. The fact that I could outrun the sleek and muscled Victoria was almost spooky. While I was pacing back and forth, my stomach let forth a deep, long growl.

  “Getting a little hungry, are we?”

  I felt my face starting to flush and smiled apologetically. “Yeah I only had a couple bowls of cereal for breakfast.”

  “Just a couple, huh? No wonder you’re hungry.”

  She gave me a good once over with her eyes and said, “You run pretty well for a chubby white guy.”

  I really flushed hard then. Fortunately, I noticed how wide her smile had gotten before I took offense at the comment. Instead I said, “Yep, better than a skinny Indian chick.” I took off.

  She yelled “Hey!” from behind me and I heard her fleet footsteps closing in. We ran an all out race through the woods, following the trail of Dave the Bear. He was big and not in any way concerned with delicacy so his trail was easy to follow.

  We ran for just a few minutes before Spring came out. Time to slow down, monkey boy. Can’t keep this up all day without a whole lot more calories.

  But, I feel great!

  Yeah, let me show you how you’re really feeling.

  Suddenly my lungs were burning, my pulse was trying to pop my eyeballs right out of my head, and a wave of nausea hit me. I stumbled and fell headlong into the underbrush.

  An instant later Vicky was sailing over me in a leap a gazelle would envy. Unfortunately, her landing was more appropriate to Comedy Central than the Nature Channel. Her trailing shoe caught on my rising head and she went tumbling through the brush.

  My nausea and fatigue vanished again and I scrambled over to her. “Vicky! Vicky! Are you all right?”

  She moaned and pulled in her splayed limbs, turned herself over and flopped back onto the ground. I knelt next to her and said in panic, “Don’t move, you might have a back or neck injury!”

  She opened her eyes and suddenly I found myself locking gaze with her from less than two feet away. She had beautiful, deep brown eyes, but her face was framing those eyes with a scowl.

  She shoved me away with both hands and struggled to sit up as I fell over. “I don’t have a neck injury, you goofball.”

  I sat up next to her and came face to face with her scowl again. “What are you trying to do, kill me?”

  We were still face to face, and whatever she saw in mine, it turned her scowl into open laughter.

  I sat up straighter. “What?”

  She looked at me and laughed again.

  Now I was starting to feel a bit self conscious. I ran my hands over my face. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

  She just kept laughing.

  She’s laughing because she likes the way you make her feel.

  Spring, don’t be silly.

  I put my hand on her shoulder. “Earth to Vicky. Is anybody in there?”

  Vicky made a visible effort to compose herself but as soon as she looked at me, she started laughing again.

  She’s not pulling away, dumb-kopf.

  That did seem to be the case, but none of my well-rehearsed fantasy daydreams with a beautiful woman in the forest covered something like this. They were more about romantically working up to a first kiss than getting laughed at.

  Despite Spring's assessment, the whole situation had me bewildered. I leaned forward, put my hands on the sides of her face, and pleaded with her. “What did I do that’s so funny?”

  Her laughter finally died out, and she leaned her face towards mine. I couldn’t believe it, this beautiful woman wanted to kiss me! I leaned toward her…

  “I hate to break up this little love fest, but I’m getting cold.”

  I jerked back, and Vicky sprang away from me like someone had hit her in the bum with a hot poker.

  Dave’s pale face was poking over some bushes, and it was sporting a huge leering grin.

  “Dave!” I pushed myself to my feet. “What happened? Did you find him?”

  Dave scowled and said, “No, the bastard turned back human, then walked a ways down the road and took off in a car.”

  Vicky spoke for us all. “Shit.”

  On our return hike and drive, Vicky kept a big distance between us and every time I tried to catch her
eye, she looked somewhere else.

  During the ride back my hunger turned into a monster that would not be denied. I finally convinced Victoria to stop so I could get some food. At the twenty-four hour Quickie Mart, I bought a couple of Dr. Peppers, a bag of Doritos and a hotdog. I could barely stuff it all in my mouth fast enough. It was a bit embarrassing when I caught Vicky giving me a raised eyebrow through the rear view mirror.

  She dropped us off in town at Frankies with mutual promises to contact each other if we encountered Erik in any form.

  As soon as I closed the door, she was out of there.

  I watched her car for a moment and heaved a great sigh.

  “So what did I interrupt back there, Finn? Getting lucky with our lovely detective?”

  I took in Dave’s shit eating grin. “Fuck you, Dave.”

  I stalked into Frankies with Dave laughing behind me.

  Spring tried to sound confident as she consoled me. Don’t worry Finn, she will be back when she realizes just what she missed out on.

  I had to laugh at that one.

  Death and Yearning at Frankies

  At Frankies, we helped Franky set up for the wake. Instead of a body, we had a picture of Gregg sitting on one of the tables. Dave had brought a full tux that he planned to lay out underneath the picture to sit in for the body. I quickly disabused him of that notion. That was crass, even by Dave’s standards. Our setup mostly consisted of moving some tables out of the center of the dining area to give us all a place to stand and toast Gregg’s memory.

  People started trickling in a little after four. I had more than the usual pre-party anxiety. Gregg was gone, but I could feel him within me. There was no doubt in my mind that it was Gregg in that cocoon. Somehow, this small piece of him embodied Greggness. I wanted to mourn his loss, but that would feel like I was giving up on him. It would be as if I were admitting that the small piece of Gregg I had saved had no chance of becoming my best friend again. I couldn’t do that, but I felt that if I really believed he would recover, I’d be telling everyone who came to the wake. Instead, I stayed silent. There were soon fifteen people there, all kids our age. They were mingling, eating pizza, drinking soda, and talking about Gregg, or school, or the snake that had supposedly killed Gregg. When asked to corroborate, I stuck with Victoria’s story.

  At one point in the early evening, Franky came up to me and motioned for me to follow him. We went down the back hall, which led to the kitchen and the bathrooms. He stopped and pointed to a keg that was sitting there.

  “Now, Finn, you know that you guys are too young to drink, right?”

  I nodded.

  He said, “Well, this tapped keg here is full of Fat Tire Ale. I just wanted you to know that you shouldn’t drink it—using those red cups there. Definitely, do not take one of these cups, angle it like this, or gently press this lever, or fill it about half full, letting the foam subside a bit before filling it the rest of the way.”

  “Okay, Franky, I understand. We won’t do that.”

  “And, don’t you dare let anyone walk out of here drunk or have more than a cup or two. If you do, I’ll kick your ass so hard you’ll be crapping out your nose. Got it?”

  Wow, that was way better than my threat to Dave about the hand stand. I noted it for future use and said, “Got it.” I shook his hand. It dwarfed mine, but his shake was very gentle. “Thanks, Franky.”

  “You bet, Finn. Gregg was a good kid, and he died a hero. That deserves more than soda. Hell, it deserves more than beer, but no way am I going to leave a bottle of vodka out here for you kids not to drink.”

  I watched him leave and mulled over his gift. This made two adults feeding me beer now. I wondered if the universe was trying to tell me something.

  I asked Jim to be the beer meister. He was the most levelheaded guy I knew; he would do a good job of keeping things in check. It’s not as if we hadn’t had parties with beer before—we were sophisticated teenagers after all (heh)—but we owed it to Franky to keep things cool.

  Later, I found myself back by the keg, drinking a beer and talking to Dave and Jim. We were telling Jim the whole story, freaky stuff and all. All the while, he had this bemused expression on his face. We all laughed when I described Dave standing up naked and telling all the other cops that Detective Hunter had stripped him at gunpoint. I was telling him what Detective Victoria Hunter said when it occurred to me, I didn’t know the complete story, so I asked Dave.

  “Dave, just what did you tell the detective about being naked? What is the official story?”

  Dave gave me his wise-ass grin of glee. “I told her that Erik Parmely had run into me at gunpoint and made me strip. Then, he told me to tell Finn that he was coming to get him and his little black girlfriend.”

  I’m sure my face conveyed my disbelief adequately. “God, you are such a pig… they actually bought it?”

  He laughed again. “Sure, everyone knows that Parmely is a few scoops short of a crazy sundae.” He became serious then and said, “I wish to god that stupid bimbo hadn’t shot me. I’d have killed the bastard. I know it. His fangs could barely get through my bear hide—more of a nuisance than anything.”

  In a rare moment of candor and a typical moment of rambling, Dave’s eyes teared up, and he said, “I’m really going to miss Gregg and his lame-ass ghetto-speak. I’m going to kill that asshole so dead he’ll think he’s been reborn… I can’t believe he’s gone.”

  I knew which asshole Dave was referring to. I felt the same way. I said something I had decided to keep to myself. “Well, Gregg isn’t exactly completely gone.”

  Dave and Jim eyed me, wondering if I had gone all fundamental on them. Dave said, “Finn, hanging out with his ashes or sprinkling them on your Cheerios just doesn’t have quite the same appeal.”

  “You are so gross! I mean that I was able to save some of his soul, his life essence, with Jen’s help.”

  “Huh?”

  I told him what I had done.

  There was silence from both of them. After a second, Dave said, “Finn, you’re a freak!”

  I turned red. “Gee, thanks, Dave, that makes me feel so good.”

  “I mean it, Finn. I’ve said this before, but I’m so fricking glad I know you. I get sweats sometime thinking what I’d be missing if I didn’t get to hang around with you.”

  It was an odd compliment, but it still made me feel good. I laughed ruefully. “I wish I’d missed some of it.”

  Jim added, “He’s right, Finn, you’re just a walking ‘interesting times.’”

  Sometimes that old faux Chinese curse (“May you live in interesting times”) made more sense than other times. Right then, I wanted to find out who’d cursed me with it and smack him around the playground for a bit.

  Jim hadn’t finished. “Now, thanks to you, I have no idea what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”

  Dave said it first. “You’re going to be a physicist and make love to charming quarks and things. It’s built into that nerd-box you call your head.”

  Jim looked sour. “When you two have just single handedly destroyed everything I knew about physics?”

  Dave laughed. “Sorry dude! Aren’t you glad we didn’t wait till you already had your PhD and you’d wasted another twelve years of your life?”

  “Yeah, thanks guys.”

  Jeff called down the hall to us, “Hey guys, get out here and mingle. Everyone is asking me stuff I don’t know.”

  I entertained the idea of telling everyone the truth but discarded it. I didn’t need the grief. People already thought I was a freak. Amazingly, even Dave stuck to the official story as delivered to us by Detective Hunter.

  We had about fifteen people show up initially, and then a handful more when they got a text about the beer. Gregg had been more of a cross-pollinator than me. He had been in the war gamer’s club and the tennis club. That meant we got a lot of people I either didn’t know or didn’t know very well. The beer really helped. It put everyone at ease
and greased the social wheels.

  I had been building up my courage to give Gregg’s eulogy, one that I had been working on mentally when, to my amazement, Jen walked into the restaurant. Unlike last time I saw her, she was clean, and her hair was beautifully done up in an intricate braidy thing. Her easy poise and grace was in no way reminiscent of a seventeen-year-old girl. I called to her and pushed my way to her side.

  “Hey, Jen. After your dad’s reaction to me, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  Il Saia didn’t comment on my identity confusion. She merely said, “I convinced Mr. and Mrs. Washington to go to bed early. I hope you do not mind. I know I do not really have any right to be here with you and all of Gregg’s friends, but he did die fighting for me, or his sister anyway.”

  “No! Not at all. I mean, yes, you have every right to be here. Thank you for coming.”

  Maturity looked good on her. She was beautiful. I had to keep reminding myself that she was currently Il Saia, the war leader of her nation.

  “I was also hoping to talk to you about that,” she said.

  “About what?”

  “About me and what needs to be done to save your friend Jennifer.”

  My heart jumped at the thought of saving Jen. I’d begun to feel that she was as lost to me as Gregg. I dragged her back to the kitchen and said, “Okay, tell me what we need to do.”

  “As you know, my personality and my memory have been written on top of Jen’s mind. I can access some of her memories, but most only dimly, like something long forgotten. That’s why it’s been hard to learn your language. However, I have seen enough of your truly stunning world to know that I am not yet needed. It is time for me to go.”

  “I don’t understand. What’s your purpose and why is it time to go?”

  “Finn, I stored my mind in that crystal as a fail-safe only. Twelve of us did, though there may have been more. The crystal was only meant to be activated if the shield fell and the future of our world was at stake. It was just an accident of life that you were able to activate the crystal with your shard of the tree of life.”