by Ray Garton
“Wuh-wasted stop, huh?” Flash cackled, looking at the spot on Marvin’s pants.
Marvin got in, reached for the flask on the floorboard, and—
—it was gone.
Flash’s laughter exploded. His face was bright red, his eyes glistening with tears.
He held the flask in his hand.
“Damn you!” Marvin shouted, snatching the flask away. It was empty.
“Well,” Flash said between laughing fits, “you didn’t seem to want any.”
Marvin slammed the door and buckled up. They got off the ground, then went back down as Flash continued to convulse with laughter. He tried again, and again he failed. After giving his laughter a little time to die down, Flash tried again.
As they left the ground, Marvin whispered, “Please, god … please give me a hand with this.”
16.
A few minutes after stepping out of the alcove to speak with Luis Jimenez, Hester returned and said to the guards, “I’m going to need both of you.” Then, to Benjamin: “Do not let them move.” She turned to her guests and smiled. “You just make yourselves comfortable. There’s nothing at all for you to worry about. All you have to do is wait.” To Jordan: “I’ve taken care of everything.” She left, flanked by the two men in black.
No one said anything for a while. They were all afraid of Benjamin. All but Lizzie.
He sat on his rock, watching them, his fingers fidgeting with one another between his knees.
“Benjamin,” Lizzie said cautiously, “do you mind if I speak?”
He growled, but nothing more.
“I’d like you to meet all of my friends,” she went on, smiling now. “Would you like that?”
He scratched his head vigorously, still a bit rattled by his exposure to the blue light.
Lizzie put a hand on Lauren’s shoulder. “Benjamin, this is my friend Lauren. Say hello to Benjamin, Lauren.”
Lauren stared at Lizzie with teary-eyed disbelief.
“Go ahead,” Lizzie whispered in her ear. “He’s just a child. A big, frightened child who does what he’s told. We need him to like us.”
Lauren turned to Benjamin slowly, almost unwillingly, looking as if she thought she were about to be slapped, and murmured, “Huh-hello, Ben-Benjamin.”
“Do you know why Lauren is here?” Lizzie asked. “Because her son is here. She came to find him. But your mommy doesn’t want—”
Benjamin made a sound that was unintelligible to the others, but Lizzie recognized it as “No.”
“It’s all right, Benjamin. She’s not here, she can’t hear us. And we’ll talk quietly, okay? See, my friend Lauren came to find her son and take him home because she wants her son to have a good, happy life, just like your daddy wanted you to be happy. But your mommy won’t let her take him. Lauren isn’t even allowed to see him. He’s being forced to stay here, away from his mommy, who loves him. Just like you have to stay here in this cave, with no one to love you, just a little ways from that bad, ugly light. And tonight, Lauren’s son—his name is Nathan—is going to be killed in that light. That’s not very good, is it, Benjamin?”
He scratched his head again, stroked his cheek and muttered to himself.
“And this is Joan. Say hello, Joan.”
Joan managed a smile. “Hello, Benjamin.”
“Joan used to have a daughter, but she had to leave her daughter here, Benjamin. It wasn’t safe for Joan to stay here, so she left and got help to come back and get her daughter. But her daughter was gone. Your mommy lied and said Joan had left with her daughter. But Joan has never seen her little girl again.
Don’t you think that’s sad, Benjamin? Wouldn’t you have felt bad if, when you were a little boy, someone had come along who wouldn’t let you play catch with your daddy? If someone had come along and taken the Nerf ball away … and then taken you away from your daddy?”
“Nuuhh-Nerf baawwwl,” Benjamin growled as he slapped his palms on his thighs again and again and rocked back and forth. He was getting agitated; he was frowning and the cords of muscle in his neck stood out tautly beneath his knotty skin.
“And these two men are Jordan and Coogan. They’ve come to help Lauren find her little boy. Say hello to Benjamin.”
“Hi, Benjamin,” Coogan said with more warmth than discomfort. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Jordan stared at the hulking figure rocking and fidgeting just a few feet away, then glanced at Lizzie. “Uh … hel-hello, Benjamin.” He looked at Lizzie again, amazed, and whispered, “That’s incredible, Lizzie, absolutely incredible.”
“There’s nothing incredible about it,” she said happily, smiling at Benjamin. “He’s my friend, aren’t you Benjamin?”
He stood and began circling the lantern, massaging the back of his neck with one hand and scratching his chest with the other. He looked angry and confused and hurt at once.
Lizzie said, “He’s a very nice young man who likes beautiful things and misses his daddy.”
Benjamin exploded. He roared and kicked the rest of the cans over in a clatter of tin, then continued to kick at the stone wall behind them once they were scattered around him.
Lizzie whispered nervously, “He’s just … a little temperamental.”
He turned and swung his fists again and again, roaring. Lauren screamed and they all ducked out of the way.
Then, after Benjamin had stopped and sat with his back to them and his head in his hands, they were quiet.
17.
Insects chittered and crawled inside Benjamin’s skull.
Part of the cause was the residual effects of the blue light, but there was something else at work as well, something so foreign to Benjamin that he didn’t know how to handle it.
Lizzie had been just another liar when she was first brought into the cave. His mother frequently brought people in for him to watch over for a while, or sent him out to get them, if not hurt them. She always introduced them to him as liars, as enemies of the truth and of Orrin, and they always huddled against the wall, paralyzed with fear. They never moved from their place and they never ever spoke to him. Most of all, no one knew his name; even his mother didn’t use it anymore.
But Lizzie had been different. She’d spoken to him, called him by name, and she’d even been nice to him. No one was ever nice to Benjamin, not even his mother. Of course, he saw very few people besides his mother, but he had a feeling that, were he to meet more, their reactions and behavior would be no different.
But Lizzie’s behavior was very different.
Benjamin feared his mother. Sometimes when he slept, he had nightmares in which he relived the times his mother had become angry at him, screamed at him and made him kneel in front of the crevice and bathe in that awful blue light for hours at a time. When he was awake, he lived in fear of it happening again. But in spite of that, he couldn’t help wondering if perhaps she’d been wrong about Lizzie.
And if she’d been wrong about Lizzie, how many other people had she been wrong about?
How many lies had she told him?
How many times had she told him to do things that she said were good, when perhaps they had actually been bad?
These thoughts swirled all around him, allowing him to catch an occasional glimpse of them, but remaining just out of reach. His muddled thought processes frustrated him, made him angry, and that was why he burst into tantrums of shouting and hitting. Lizzie’s friends seemed nice, just like her. They all spoke to him, said hello. He liked that. It was so nice for a change, to hear other people speaking his name and actually being polite. But they stirred confusion in him, made him think about things he’d never thought about before and he didn’t know what to do, how to react or what to believe or not believe. That confusion infuriated him and made him scream at them, made him want to hit them, pick them up and throw them. He tried hard to con
trol himself, but he felt that control slipping. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, about Lizzie or her friends or any of the things they put into his head.
So he sat with his back to them, closed himself off from everything, and just tried to rest.
18.
“Hello, Nathan.”
“Hi, Ms. Thorne.”
“How are you?”
“Fine.”
“Everything is all right? You’re ready for tonight’s ceremony?”
He nodded, but he was confused. Yes, he was indeed ready for the ceremony. But why had he been separated from the other children? Why had he been taken into the woods? And why was he here now before anyone else?
He asked Hester none of the questions.
“You’re probably wondering why you’re here now,” Hester said, putting a hand on the back of his head and walking slowly toward the cave. In her other hand she held a penlight that sent a needle-thin beam into the darkness.
Nathan looked around them. The man who had brought him here was gone. The others would be gathering soon for the ceremony, but they were alone now.
“I know you’ve only been here a little while, Nathan, but you’ve learned so quickly. It takes most children twice as long to pick up the things you’ve learned. You’re a very bright young man. That’s why I’m sure you’ll have no problem dealing with what I’m about to tell you.”
Nathan looked up at her then, not sure whether he liked the sound of that or not.
“Tonight’s ceremony is going to be different. We won’t be going through the usual procedure to find the Chosen One.”
“How come?”
She hunkered down in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders. “Orrin spoke to me earlier tonight, Nathan. He told me that you are the Chosen One.”
A wave of numbness passed through him at first, then an almost uncontainable rush of excitement.
“Me?” he breathed.
She grinned. “Yes, yes. Isn’t that wonderful!”
“B-but … how come? Why me?”
“Because Orrin himself has chosen you, Nathan. You’re a very special boy. Orrin has seen something in you that he’s seen in none of the others. He’s seen in you an energy the others don’t have. And tonight, when that crystal enters you and releases that energy, it’s going to help Orrin enter this plane. You, Nathan … you are going to bring Orrin to us, then re-embody into the New Age of Enlightenment.”
Just a moment ago, he’d felt a gnawing hunger—the servings at each meal were small and there was never anything he really wanted—and he’d been exhausted—it had been so long since he slept, and he was only allowed to sleep a little bit at a time—and achy—he’d worked hard every day since he’d gotten there—but now he felt ecstatic, full of electricity. He was the Chosen One.
He wondered what his mother would think. She came to mind very seldom, and then only in a vague detached way. He was sure Mom wouldn’t understand. Hester was always telling him how ignorant his mother was, how she was swimming in the lies of the unenlightened and willfully closing her mind to the truth. Hester said his mother would do nothing but hold him back and keep him from learning, from becoming enlightened, and therefore it was necessary for him to put her behind him, make her a part of his past and move on.
He decided to say nothing about his mother and even found it easy to put her out of his mind and give in to his excitement. Normally he would have been much more animated—perhaps jumping up and down, clapping his hands and laughing—but he was just too tired.
“You understand completely what is required of you as the Chosen One, don’t you, Nathan?”
He nodded, smiling.
“Good. Now.” She stood, took his hand and said, “I want you to come into the cave with me before the others arrive. There’s someone I want you to see.”
19.
Lauren felt herself shrinking away. Everything around seemed to grow gradually larger as she grew smaller. She sat beside Joan, head in hands, as Joan rubbed her back comfortingly, although she didn’t feel it.
It was obvious that they had failed. They hadn’t come close to getting Nathan, hadn’t even seen him; for all she knew, he was already dead. If so, they would be joining him soon. She tried to feel bad for the others if not for herself, but she couldn’t feel anything. As for herself … she was glad it would be over soon. With Nathan gone, death was far more appealing than going on with her life.
Lauren heard Jordan and Lizzie whispering to one another and she tried to focus her mind on them, hoping it would eclipse her dark and weighty thoughts.
“We had a talk before you came,” Lizzie whispered.
“A talk?”
“Yes, a talk. He can speak. We talked about Mike Lumley and why he did … what he did. I think it got to him.”
Lauren realized they were talking about that creature sitting in the corner with its back to them. She lifted her head and glanced at Benjamin. He was paying no attention to the whispering, just rocking back and forth and grumbling.
“How much did he already know?” Jordan asked.
“Almost nothing. I got the impression our talk started him thinking, maybe asking himself some questions he’d never asked before. I think he might be—”
Benjamin suddenly stood, spun around, rushed to Lizzie, grabbed a handful of her hair and leaned forward to bellow an incoherent threat into her face. Then he returned to his rock, facing them this time and watching very carefully.
“You were saying, Lizzie?” Jordan muttered.
Footsteps sounded outside the alcove and every head turned to the archway.
Hester appeared and smiled at them. “There’s someone here I’d like you to see before the ceremony, Mrs. Schroeder. I think it will help you … help all of you … to see just how wrong you’ve been.” Pointing to Lauren, she said to Benjamin quietly,
“Make sure she doesn’t move from that spot.” Then she stepped out of the alcove.
Benjamin stood and his footsteps crunched heavily over the ground, stopping behind Lauren, who was suddenly tense, staring at the archway, wondering if maybe … if it were possible …
“Come with me, Nathan,” Hester said just beyond the archway.
Lauren’s gasp sounded almost like a scream. She was off the rock and diving toward the archway, crying, “Oh my god Nathan honey where are you please come to me Natha—” but—
—Benjamin’s hands fell on her shoulders, pulled her back and pressed her body down hard onto the rock, and—
—Lauren fought, giving no thought at all to Benjamin’s size and strength, just swinging her fists back over her shoulders, slamming her head and elbows back into his abdomen and trying to pull away from him at the same time, then—
—Nathan appeared in the archway, standing in front of Hester, and—
—Lauren froze, paralyzed by the sight of her son. He looked like a different boy altogether. He was so thin and pale with hollow cheeks and cavernous eyes. Even his hair looked thinner and lay flat against his head as if it were wet.
“Nathan,” she said, but her voice was weak now, so weak that she said nothing more for a while, just looked at him, drank in the sight of him.
“Mom?” Nathan said. “Zat you?”
“Yes, honey, yes it’s me.”
“And these,” Hester said, waving toward the others, “are some friends of your mother’s. They’ve all come, Nathan, to take you away from here. From me. They think you’re being held here against your will, that you’re being harmed somehow.”
“Really? How come, Mom?”
Lauren didn’t respond; she was in too much pain to speak. Nathan didn’t seem happy to see her at all; he didn’t come to her or sound excited or even smile, just stared at her with those flat eyes and spoke to her in that flat voice. She couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to be
lieve it.
“Nathan,” she whispered, “are you all right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You’re sure? You don’t … look well, honey.” Tears came and she didn’t try to stop them. “You look tired and … and thin.”
“I’m fine.” He smiled for the first time—although it wasn’t his usual smile—and finally showed a hint of life in his eyes and excitement in his voice as he said, “I’m the Chosen One, Mom! Did Ms. Thorne tell you? I’m the Chosen One and my energy’s gonna bring Orrin here! Tonight!”
“Oh, Nathan,” Lauren sobbed. Hot blades sliced through her insides and she was blinded by her tears. “Nathan, what has she done to you?”
He looked disappointed, even hurt. “Nothing, Mom. Ms. Thorne’s just been teaching me. The truth.”
“My god, Nathan, don’t you know that she’s going to kill you tonight? That’s why we’re here! To keep her from killing you like she’s killed so many others! You’re going to die, Nathan, please don’t let her do this to you!”
Nathan stared at her for a long time, his expression of disappointment growing even worse, until he finally looked up at Hester.
“See?” Hester said, getting down beside him. “It means nothing to her or to any of them because they have closed themselves off from the truth, just like I told you. They’re not like you, and you can no longer consider yourself one of them. Because you have important things to do. You have a purpose.”
Nathan looked at his mother, who was sobbing uncontrollably.
“Who is she, Nathan?” Hester asked.
He thought about it a while, then shook his head sadly. “Just some lady named Mrs. Schroeder.”
“That’s right.” Hester stood, flashing a bright smile at Lauren, at all of them.
“You fucking bitch!” Lauren screamed, throwing herself at Hester. Benjamin held her back effortlessly, but that didn’t stop her from kicking and hitting at the air, jerking convulsively in Benjamin’s hold as if she were having a seizure.
Hester’s smile did not even waver. She patted Nathan’s back. “Let’s go, Nathan. I think you’ve seen enough.”