“Well, I’m not gonna do it. I’ll search all night if I have to.”
“Great. All right. I’ll call him.”
The two figures paused. I heard the squawk of a radio.
“Bravo-90.”
As he talked into his radio, the dark continued to gather. I thought if I sat where I was, very still, not moving at all, they might not see me, even though they were so close.
The answer came back over the radio: “This is Rose.”
I shivered. My body temperature had dropped while I’d been unconscious. The cold had gathered with the dark. The damp of the ground had seeped into my clothes. I was chilled all through.
“Look,” the trooper was saying, “unless we get some dogs and trackers out here, we’re never going to find him in the dark.”
Another shiver went through me-I realized I was feeling muddy-headed, maybe even feverish. I was getting sick.
And suddenly I realized something else: I was going to sneeze!
I clapped my hand over my mouth. I pressed my finger up hard under my nose. If I let out a loud sneeze now, the police would be sure to hear me, sure to find me.
“He could get miles away overnight,” I heard Rose say angrily.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Detective. We’ve got the roads covered and we’ve been calling for backup for over an hour. We’re way off the beaten path out here. It’s tough to reach.”
“I know, I know.” Rose’s weary sigh came over the radio clearly. “All right. Pack it in. We’ll get some dogs out there in the morning.”
The sneeze continued to build in me. I pressed my lips together.
“Well, that’s done,” said one trooper.
“Yeah, no thanks to you,” said the other. “Our man Rose was not a happy camper. Next time, you call him.”
“You’re a hero to your people.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Their voices were getting softer. They were moving away. I could see their shadowy shapes fading into the night.
Then I sneezed.
It burst out of me. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I forced the noise down as low as I could. The sound of it came out weird and muffled.
The two policemen went silent. Had they paused? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t see them anymore in the night.
“Did you hear something?” one of them said. He was farther away now, well along the road.
“I don’t know,” the other trooper answered in a tired voice.
“I heard a noise.”
“It’s the forest. You know? There’s all kinds of noises.
Crickets, frogs, werewolves. It’s a busy place.”
“Werewolves?”
“Whatever. I’m a city boy.”
There was another silence. I sensed them listening to the night, listening for another noise.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” one of them said finally. “It is noisy, now you mention it. We can’t just wander around here all night following every sound we hear.”
They were moving away again. Their voices grew softer and softer. Soon, I couldn’t hear them at all.
I let out a huge sigh of relief. Then I shivered again. I really wasn’t feeling very well at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The House I walked along the night road. My steps were slow and shuffling. My shoulders were slumped. I was feeling worse and worse with every minute. Dizzy with fever, weak with hunger. Bruised and sore and cold and stiff and tired all over. Sometimes I thought I would actually fall asleep while I was walking. Only now and then, when a car came by, did I really come alert and scramble into the surrounding trees, hiding there until the headlights passed and the taillights disappeared around a bend in the winding road.
I don’t know how long I went on like that. An hour maybe, maybe even two. I kept thinking I would have to stop, that I was too tired, that I couldn’t go on anymore. But I kept going on. I kept thinking about the long night alone in the forest, the police coming back for me in the morning with dogs and trackers. I kept shuffling forward, thinking, There’s got to be something ahead; there’s got to be something somewhere.
And there was.
After a long, long time, I looked up and saw a yellow light through the trees. I stopped in the road and stood there, swaying weakly, gazing at it. Was it a car? No, it wasn’t moving. I went on, stumbling and unsteady. There was another bend in the road up ahead. As I came around it, I saw the woods come to an end. I saw fields stretching out on either side of the road, dimly visible under the newly risen moon. The road fell off in a hill here, going down and out of sight. And just at the brink of the hill, off to one side, there was a house.
It was a small house, standing alone off the road at the end of a dirt drive. The house itself was dark, but there was a small lamppost at the start of the driveway, and another light, a porch light, above the front door.
I shuffled toward the drive. I was limping a little now too, my feet sore from the long walk. At this point, everything was sore from everything.
I reached the drive and started hobbling down it toward the house.
As I got closer, I saw there were two buildings. There was the little house on the edge of the field, and there was a small barn or shed off to the right of it. I headed for the light, for the house. Whatever happened, I had to get some food.
It was just an old farmhouse, two stories and an attic, with a porch out front. It had white aluminum siding and green window shutters and a sloped roof. I had to grab hold of a post to steady myself as I climbed the three steps to the porch. There was a large window here to the right of the front door. I went to it, pressed my face to the pane. The cool of the glass felt good against my fevered forehead. I peered through into the darkness.
The house was very still inside. I was pretty sure it was empty.
I limped to the door. I tried the knob. It was unlocked and turned easily. Well, sure, why wouldn’t it be unlocked? It was out here in the middle of nowhere. Who was going to break in?
I pushed the door open and stepped into the darkness.
Without warning, a snarling, roaring dog leapt at me, its teeth bared.
Terrified, I cried out and staggered backward. But the thing was already on me, its paws against my chest. It barked once more, its hot breath on my face. Then it stopped barking. It sniffed me. It stood there with its front paws on me, panting and wagging its tail.
In the glow coming through the doorway from the porch light, I saw the dog was a golden retriever, one of the friendliest breeds of dog on earth. Also one of the worst watchdogs.
I patted him on the head. “Good dog,” I said. And I gently lowered him to the floor.
I found the light switch. I flipped it and a ceiling light came on.
I was standing on the edge of a small living room. There was a couch and an armchair turned toward a TV. There was a wooden cross on the wall and a painting of Jesus holding a lantern to light the night. There were a couple of end tables cluttered with framed photographs featuring a man in a Marine uniform, a woman, and a little boy. All the furniture looked worn and threadbare. The braided rug looked worn and pale. There was a little work nook in one wall. There was a wooden table there with a laptop standing open on it.
The dog kept sniffing my legs, wagging his tail. I checked his collar. His name was Sport. I ruffled his neck fur.
“Hey, Sport,” I said as he nuzzled me. “Show me the way to the food.”
Sport knew that word, all right. He immediately did as I asked, trotting happily across the room to a doorway on the other side. I went after him, bracing myself on the furniture as I passed to keep myself upright. When I got to the door, I flicked another light switch and saw the kitchen. It was a wonderful sight.
Sport and I had ourselves a fine old meal. Milk and bread and cheese and those turkey slices that come in plastic containers. I ate ravenously-giving occasional scraps to my furry friend, who also ate ravenously, being a dog. I was glad to be sitt
ing down, glad to be eating. I felt stronger every minute. But my head didn’t clear any.
In fact, it felt as if my fever was getting worse and worse.
As I ate, I looked around the kitchen. It was modest and small like the rest of the house. There were chips in the light blue paint on the wall. The linoleum on the floor looked old and faded. The refrigerator looked old too.
I saw a bulletin board by the phone against one wall. There was another cross pinned up there and some more photographs tacked up around it. A woman and a boy: the same ones who were in the pictures in the living room. A mother and a son, it looked like. The mother was pretty but tired and faded-looking, with deep lines in her face and white-blond hair that had a lot of strands of gray in it. The son was small and sad-eyed and looked worried, even when he smiled. There were no pictures here of the man, the Marine.
I wondered where this family was now. I wondered if they’d be coming home soon.
Probably, I thought. Anyway, I couldn’t take the chance. I couldn’t just stay here and wait for them to find me. The police would be spreading the word that I was on the loose. Anyone could recognize me. Anyone could turn me in. Somehow, I had to find the strength to keep moving.
I stood up. For a second I had to steady myself, holding on to the back of the small kitchen chair. The food had made me feel stronger, but I was dizzy; my head felt thick. I shivered and shivered again. Even inside, I felt cold-I felt as if the cold from the forest had eaten deep into my bones. I couldn’t seem to shake it off.
I forced myself to let go of the chair. I moved around the room unsteadily, shuffling from place to place. Moving in that way, I cleaned up the kitchen. Wiped up the crumbs. Put the milk carton back in the refrigerator. Before I closed up the plastic package of meat, I took some money out of my pocket and put it inside. It probably wasn’t a very smart thing to do. It meant they were sure to notice someone had been here, and they might even guess it was me and call the police. But I could see from the way the house looked that the people who lived here didn’t have much money. Even if they did, I didn’t want to steal from them and leave nothing in return. I put the cash in with the meat and hoped they just wouldn’t think about it too much.
Anyway, I hoped by the time the woman and her son came home, I would be long gone.
“Well, Sport,” I said to the dog, “it’s been great knowing you.”
I patted him on the head. He wagged his tail, looking up at me lovingly. I was sorry to leave him. So many people were hunting me, trying to kill or capture me, it had been good to have some friendly company for a while.
I turned off the light in the kitchen as I stepped into the living room. I hobbled to the door. When I got there, I had to lean against the wall for a minute. I was so weak, so tired, so dizzy I didn’t know how I was going to keep going. But I had to. I had to.
Maybe some aspirin, I thought. Maybe I could find some aspirin in the bathroom, something to cut through this fever.
I managed to straighten up. I turned back into the house, thinking to find the bathroom. But instead, my eyes lit on the little work nook in the corner. The desk. The laptop. I forgot about the aspirin. I thought: Beth.
My friend Josh had set up phone accounts for us-for me and Beth and our friends-so we could call one another on our computers. We could even see each other if there was a webcam available. It was very helpful when the loneliness got really bad.
I was standing there, thinking about my last memory attack, thinking about how Beth had been able to see right into my mind, read my thoughts. How she’d looked up at me with all that trust in her eyes, believing in me even when I told her I was going to be arrested and charged with murder.
Maybe I could tell her the truth now. What difference did it make? Waterman was dead. My cover was blown. There was nothing to lie about anymore, nothing to protect. I could tell Beth the truth and she could reach my mom and dad and tell them about it too. I remembered my mom crying as the police came to take me away. It made me feel like someone had taken my heart in his fist and squeezed it. It would be nice if she knew the truth about me for sure.
I glanced out the window. There was no sign of anyone, no sign of lights on the driveway or even out on the road. Maybe I had time…
I went to the computer and turned it on. I had to sit down on the desk chair as I waited for it to boot up. I could barely keep on my feet now. My head felt like it was burning up with fever. I stared at the laptop, blinking heavily, my mouth hanging open stupidly. Sport sniffed at my leg and panted, looking worried.
After a second or two it occurred to me I better take a look outside again, make sure no one was coming. I didn’t want to do it. It seemed like a long way back to the door. Still, I thought it was the smartest thing to do.
I groaned as I forced myself to stand up. I made my way back to the door slowly. While I was there, I turned off the living room light again. I looked out the window while the computer continued booting behind me. There were still no lights outside, no cars coming.
Soon the laptop was fully working, its screen bright in the dark room. I moved back to the desk by its light, gripping the furniture for support while I went. Sport followed along beside me. I plunked down into the desk chair again. Sport sat down next to me and watched.
I brought up the browser and used it to find the phone program. There was no camera in the laptop so Beth wouldn’t be able to see me, but I’d still be able to see her. I brought up Beth’s number and called it. I sent up a little prayer that she’d be home.
The ring tone sounded so loudly in the quiet house, I looked over my shoulder at the window to make sure there was still no one coming. The tone sounded again.
Then it stopped. I heard Beth’s voice, charged, excited.
“Charlie?”
A swirling image appeared on the laptop. A caption said, “Video starting.”
“Beth, it’s me.”
“I can’t see you.”
“There’s no camera in my computer. Is your camera on?”
“Yes, you should see me in a minute. Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. How about you?”
“I’m fine. I’ve been so worried about you. Did you find the man you were looking for?”
“I found him, Beth but…”
I was about to tell her what happened when the video came on. There she was, her living image on the screen right in front of me. Seeing her again… it’s hard to describe what it was like. Even feeling as bad as I did, the sight of her was like a sort of flash of light going off inside me. I reached out for the screen and touched the image, feeling only the monitor’s cool, featureless surface against my fingertips.
“Beth,” I said softly.
She smiled. I moved my fingers down over the side of her face, trying to imagine I was really touching her.
“Beth,” I said. I could barely get the words out. “Beth, I remember.”
Her lips parted in surprise. “What…?”
“I remember. I remember everything. I remember us.”
“Oh, Charlie,” she said, her voice breaking.
“I remember all about us, all of it.”
Beth covered her mouth with both her hands. I heard her sob and say: “Thank God, thank God.”
“Everything’s starting to come back to me now, soon I’ll have the whole story but…”
Just then, Sport let out a bark. I turned and saw headlights flash on the front windows.
“Charlie?” said Beth. “What was that noise?”
The headlights outside grew brighter. A car was approaching up the dirt drive.
Beth said, “Is something wrong?”
I turned back to look at her. I would’ve given anything not to have to say good-bye, but I had no choice.
“I have to go,” I told her.
“Go,” she answered at once. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here. Just go. Stay safe.”
Quickly, I turned off the computer. I had to close the lid to shut out
its light. That wasn’t the way it was when I found it, but I hoped I’d be gone before anyone noticed the difference.
I stood up-and the minute I did, I knew I was in trouble.
My head swam. My legs felt as if they were made of rubber. I looked back at the window. The headlights glared in at me as the car grew near. I stood there unsteadily, staring at the lights and, as I did, they grew huge and out of focus and then dwindled to a small point in the darkness so that I thought I was going to faint.
It was the fever. It was getting worse, much worse. I wasn’t sure I could even walk-but I had to try. I had to get out of here.
There was no chance of running away. I just didn’t have the strength. But I thought if I could get out of the house, maybe I could make it to that shed next door. I could hide out in there until I felt better.
The headlights were right outside now, right in front of the porch. No way to escape through the front door. I had to find another exit.
As the car came to a stop outside the house, the headlights shone in on me through the front window. I could make out the room in the glow. I threaded my way between the chairs and end tables and moved toward an archway on the back wall. I passed through it into another room. It was darker in here, but I could just make out a dining table, some chairs, a sideboard. Another door on the far wall. I took a step toward it…
Then the room tilted sickeningly. It felt as if it were going to turn completely upside down and dump me off the floor onto the ceiling. My stomach pitched. I grabbed hold of… something, I don’t know what. The back of a chair, I guess. My feet felt as if they were anvils. I couldn’t lift them. I couldn’t move…
Now I heard the front door opening. Sport was barking happily to welcome his people home. The light in the living room went on.
I heard a little boy’s high, piping voice: “And then Dan said they’d let me play tomorrow, only they couldn’t today because the game was too important…”
A woman’s lower, quieter voice answered wearily, “Well, that’s good. Quiet, Sport.”
“Hi, Sport!” said the boy.
The dog’s barking stopped and was replaced by happy panting.
The truth of the matter h-3 Page 15