The Ghost in the Machine

by Mary Woodbury

  As they rounded the last curve, Princess stalled. She stopped.

  Ty hit his forehead with his hand. “You didn’t think to buy any gas did you?”

  Grace Graham shook her head. “I wondered what the R on the instrument panel meant.”

  “R is for Reserve. It’s at the bottom of the R, Mom. We’re really out of gas.”

  “I’m sorry.” Mom chewed her lip.

  “Ma, we’ll have to push.”

  Ahead of them a slight rise and then the straight run down to the “T” junction with the highway. Ty could see the tree his Uncle Scott had hit, could see the faint scar that Princess had left four years earlier. A shiver ran down his spine.

  Behind them the smoke billowed. Small flames licked up pine needles and scampered down the north side of the road, the side where Princess sat.

  They pushed but couldn’t get the car any further. Ty steered Princess right off the road.

  A truck filled with firefighters stopped at the junction. “Get your blinking bodies out of here!” someone yelled. “You’ll get killed.”

  Ty and his mother stood by the car. Grace Graham coughed and shook. Ty climbed in the car and tried the motor one more time. Nothing happened.

  He grabbed his driving gloves, tools, and the bag with the manuals in it. The he rolled up the windows, leaving them cracked an inch or so, took the keys out of the ignition, and put them in his pocket. Last he grabbed the photo. He ran his hand along Princess’s newly painted roof, wiping off the dust and soot. He leaned his head against a spot above the driver’s door for a few moments. Slowly he wiped the dust from his fingers onto his jean pant leg.

  “We’ll leave it, Ma," he said with an air of finality. “She’s not going any further.”

  “Can’t we push her?”

  “We can’t risk her running out on the highway. I’ll turn the wheels to the right a little so they head into the ditch.”

  His mother took the bag with the manuals from him and walked down the road to the highway junction.

  Ty followed her. His feet felt like he had lead boots on. His ears were hot. He could hear the fire up the mountain. He tried to take a deep breath but the air was filled with smoke. He coughed.

  When the two of them reached the trees on the far side of the highway, they stopped and turned.

  The firefighters were up there, their loud voices echoing, the motors on the water trucks roaring, the giant hoses pumping.

  Ty kept glancing back. Princess sat on the grassy verge of the Forest Road. She looked pretty perky but the fire was getting closer. The oranges, yellows, and reds of the smoke-filled air behind the car outlined her shadow in a permanent haze, creating a halo of light.

  As Ty watched the flames moving down the mountain towards the car he sighed. Tears threatened to fall. No one was there to disapprove of him. He sobbed. It wasn’t fair. All that work and now the car was doomed, and he couldn’t help any more.

  “We should try to hitch a ride,” his mom spoke gently. “Some things you can’t fix, Ty!”

  She stuck her thumb out and turned to watch for a passing vehicle.

  A shudder ran over him from his head to his toes. He raised his head for one last look at Princess.

  He blinked and leaned forward. Someone was sitting in the car. Some pale, kid, a little older than he, sat behind the wheel. Ty couldn’t tell for sure how the ghost was doing. But the stupid guy was grinning. He didn’t seem to be worried about burning. Uncle Scott was back in the car.

  “Goodbye, Princess,” Ty whispered. “Goodbye, Ghost.”

  Just then Robin’s van came up the highway from the direction of Benton.

  “Will you two get in the van!” shouted Ben. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  Haley shook her head in exasperation. “We kept looking out the back window for you. When you never showed up we had to turn around. Where’s Princess?”

  Ty shrugged and pointed back towards the Forest Road.

  “I forgot to check the gas,” sighed Grace. “I’m sorry, Ty.”

  Ty gritted his teeth. Better a healthy mother than a reconstructed VW. “Mom, it’s only a car. We’ll get another.” He sounded braver than he felt.

  Herman opened the back door and Ty and Grace climbed in, sliding past Herman and Ben. They buckled themselves into their seats as Haley did a u-turn and headed down the highway to Benton and safety.

  “Game over,” mumbled Ty and turned to stare out the back window, back towards his car. Princess would be nothing but a burned-out hulk by tomorrow.

  Chapter 24

  Two RCMP cruisers were parked in the school parking lot when they arrived at the school. An officer was talking to the valley people who had gathered. Ty spotted his grandparents with Veronica. She was clutching a stuffed Mickey Mouse. Other kids stood with their parents, clutching teddies and dolls. One boy had a Tonka fire truck under his arm.

  “Keep calm, folks. Let the firefighters do their jobs,” the police officer bellowed into the mike as if it wasn’t turned on. The speaker squawked. “Currently the only worrisome area is the Cranbrook Forest Road. The fire is contained for now. But travel into the area is not advised.”

  “What about our animals?” a farmer shouted.

  “What about our houses?” A large woman Ty didn’t recognize moved right up to the front of the crowd and yelled. “What if we lose everything?”

  “Is the town safe?” a voice from the back called.

  “Will the wind shift? Maybe we should leave the valley all together.” The old woman who said this was crying. A younger version, probably her daughter, had her arm wrapped around her. “Everything I own is down the road in my house.” The younger woman led her away to a bench to sit down.

  Vancouver television media and cameramen surrounded the scene. Slick and polished commentators talked into microphones and interviewed men and women from the valley.

  Haley parked the van. Everyone climbed out. Ty’s dad broke away from the crowd and ran over. “Lynette said you had gone to rescue Robin’s stuff. I was worried.”

  He took Grace in his arms. “Are you all right, honey?”

  “I brought Scott’s things from the trailer.” She clung to him. “They’re in the back of Robin’s van.”

  “Where’s your car, Ty?” Ty told his dad what had happened.

  “Maybe it will be all right. We can pray for that.” His dad put a hand on Ty’s shoulder. “Ralph may have another one you can fix up. I could help you this time.”

  Ty nodded. “I don’t want another car,” he whispered. Here he was in the Benton High School parking lot. Instead of feeling totally rotten he was feeling pretty good. Something about his mom and dad had changed. Something really important was happening to his family.

  Lynette came out the door of the gym, spotted the van and came over. “I’m afraid my father, Desmond, Marvin and Dougie are going to make a run up the mountain on the Cedar Trail. They want Ben to go with them. I don’t want him to. It’s too dangerous. They’ve got their 4 by 4 trucks packed with water tanks and ramps so they can rescue some of the equipment from the ‘farm,’ if you know what I mean.” She came over to Grace and the two women hugged.

  “Lyle!” Grace said. “Lynette and Ben need us.”

  “I don’t want to go with them,” pleaded Ben. “It’s not safe. It’s not smart.”

  “We’ll see you don’t!” Lyle and Robin Nixon spoke at the same time.

  Meanwhile the crowd had dispersed grumbling and chatting. The police cars took off down the road in the direction of the fire. The media trucks moved to the periphery or drove after the police cruisers. The whole centre section where the impromptu meeting had been held, stood empty.

  Grandpa and Grandma Graham joined the young people. “What a disorganized bunch of yahoos!” Grandpa hitched his trousers up and leaned on the side mirror of Robin’s van. His shoulders slumped and his face was grey. “I tried out my bed. Couldn’t nap because of the noise. Those cots will be murderous on
my back. I’m not a visiting Boy Scout, for cryin’ out loud.”

  “Dad, can it!” said Lyle. “We’ve got a situation brewing here. Lynette has come to us for help. The Beatons are heading up to the ‘farm’ to rescue the crop and their equipment. They want to take Ben with them. Lynette doesn’t want him to go.”

  Ty watched as his Grandpa dealt with the news. A look of pain had crossed his face as he straightened up and turned to glare at his son. His brow furrowed. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times.

  “It’s dangerous up there, Rod,” said Grandma in a timid voice. “Look what happened to Scott.”

  “If they take the old logging road out of town and hook up with the Cedar Trail they can get back up the mountain where they hide all their stuff,” Lyle said. “I sure wouldn’t want any kid of mine going there.”

  “I don’t want my nephew going,” said Grace.

  “Ben mustn’t go,” said Lynette, putting an arm around her son’s shoulder.

  Ty stared at his mom and dad. He couldn’t believe his eyes or ears. His dad had spoken up. He’d just come back from fighting a fire. He’d seen first hand what fire could do. His parents were glued together, arms entwined. Lynette, Ben, Haley, and Robin stood with them. They were all looking at Grandpa Graham.

  On the other side of the parking lot the Beatons had nearly finished packing up. Marvin and Desmond were lashing down an ATV on the box of a high-powered extended cab pickup. Old man Beaton was leaning on the chain-link fence watching them and smoking a cigarette. The stereo in the pickup was playing Country and Western music loud.

  Ty’s Grandpa stiffened and turned to face old man Beaton. He scraped mud off his work boot like he was digging his foot into the ground. Grandpa Graham glanced behind him at his family and their friends and turned to old Beaton. He was a bent and hurting old man but he walked across the parking lot as if he owned it and the whole valley.

  Ty and Lyle left the group and followed Grandpa. The three generations of Graham men stood in the parking lot, Grandpa, the smallest and fiercest, backed up by his son Lyle, still in his firefighting clothes, and his grandson Ty, wearing baggy jean cut-offs and a black T-shirt.

  “Turn that goldurned racket off, Marvin,” Grandpa said. “I want to talk to your pa.” Marvin reached in and turned off the radio.

  “I sure as chicken droppings don’t want to talk to you, you old coot,” said old man Beaton. “Mind your own business.”

  “This here’s my business.” Grandpa Graham looked over his shoulder at Lyle and Ty, then back at Beaton. “It’s time you took responsibility for some of the lives you’ve ruined. Time you thought of someone else’s life as important as your own, you smug horses rear end.”

  Ty stood beside his dad in the centre of this drama. Every muscle in his body tightened. Even his jaw was clenched.

  “Amen to that!” Herman stepped out from behind one of the Beaton pickups. He marched across the parking lot and stood with the Grahams and their friends.

  “Traitor. Crazy man. Just because you didn’t like the family business,” Beaton hollered. “Just because you couldn’t take care of your own family.” Old Beaton banged his fist on the chain-link fence. It jangled. Ty felt the shock of the jangling metal all the way to his sneakered feet.

  “I never did see eye to eye with my brother,” Herman said. Then he pivoted on his heel, marched over to the baseball field, and sat down.

  The two old guys were closer to each other now. Both of them struggled to carry their bodies straight and strong. “I could take you, Rod Graham.”

  “Like Holy Hell you could, Buster,” said Grandpa. “I beat you once, I can beat you again.”

  “Lynette, bring that kid over here. We’re going up the mountain,” old man Beaton shouted.

  “No, Pa. He’s not comin’.” Lynette walked forward a few steps, up to where Lyle and Ty were standing. Veronica had one hand in Haley Nixon’s and the other in her mom’s hand. She was jumping up and down.

  “You’ve hurt enough people, Buster.” Grandpa shook his fist. He was only ten paces away from Buster Beaton. “Why would Ben want to go with you? You shot at his daddy’s car. I figure that caused the crash that killed him. What do you figure?”

  “It was an accident, pure and simple.” Old man Beaton shook his fist at Grandpa. “I’m not staying to listen to this.”

  “You’re a tyrant. You beat women, you hit kids.” Grandpa Graham was on a roll. “I may be a big mouth but I’ve never hurt anyone. I’m sure glad my Ida didn’t choose you. She would have had a life of misery. I’m not easy but I’m a heck of a lot easier to live with than you, you son of a beekeeper. Ben’s not going anywhere with you, any more. Right, Lynette.” He checked behind him and saw her standing with Lyle and Ty.

  Grandpa took another step towards Buster.

  Marvin shouted from the pickup. “Leave it, Dad. Let’s get out of here before the police come back and check on us. Leave Ben be. He’s with his ma.”

  A police car, its siren sounding, sped down the highway toward the school. The RCMP were coming back. Old man Beaton walked away from Grandpa Graham and climbed into the white 4 by 4 with the water tank in the box. He rolled down the window. “Your slate’s not much cleaner than mine, Rod.”

  The Beatons roared out of the parking lot heading towards the logging road that led to the Cedar Trail. It travelled along the mountain in a narrow zigzag, clinging to the steep mid-section of the forested hillside. They disappeared.

  The police cruiser skidded to a stop in the parking lot. Two bikers who had been sitting on their motorcycles, watching the proceedings, took one look at the police officers climbing out of their car and took off, in the same direction as the Beatons.

  “They must be ‘clients’ or pushers. What do you think?” asked Haley.

  “That or undercover cops,” said Ty. He hoped it was cops. He’d had enough of secrets and sadness locked inside this valley.

  The crowd that had gathered to watch and listen to the two old families argue, dispersed. Ben, Haley, and Ty decided to walk over to the Burger Barn. Lynette, Grace, Grandma and Robin headed to the Tea Shoppe on Main Street with Veronica swinging arms with Haley and her mother. Grandpa and Lyle took off for the bar. Ty figured everyone needed a chance to wind down.

  “I haven’t been that tough on you, have I?” Grandpa asked as the two men passed the sauntering teenagers.

  “Well, Dad…” Ty’s dad said. “Harsh words hurt.”

  “I don’t mean the half of it, Lyle.” The old man scuffed the gravel on the asphalt walk. Ty watched the two of them walk away, the one bent and slow, the other with his head held high and his arms swinging. “I thought you knew that!”

  He pulled his attention back to Haley and Ben. They were discussing the merits of Calgary schools over Benton High.

  Chapter 25

  It was the middle of the night. Ty lay on his bunk with his hands folded behind his head. He could hear the sighing and snoring of people sleeping around him. His little sister breathed evenly in the cot beside his. He could not sleep. He kept thinking about how crowded life had been the last few days, whether the fire would eat his house while he slept, and Princess stuck on the Forest Road.

  Haley and Ben had taken him to the Burger Barn after the two Grandpas had squared off. They’d discussed the whole situation and how Lynette was going to breakfast with Haley’s folks to work out how they could help her and Ben move to Calgary, away from old man Beaton. Then Haley and Ben had tried to cheer Ty up about poor Princess.

  “Maybe the fire will miss her,” said Haley.

  “Maybe it will rain,” Ben offered.

  Ty had dragged each French fry through the puddle of ketchup on his plate. He hadn’t eaten half of them. His insides felt like they’d been walloped harder than Doug Beaton’s punch. Between the confrontation in the parking lot and having to leave Princess, Ty’s body had taken an emotional pounding. He hadn’t realized how attached he’d been to that vehicle. It was
just a car, for Pete’s sake.

  He’d finally excused himself and gone to bed in the gym. He’d dozed but wakened with a start when someone let the gym doors bang.

  Haley had gone to the hotel with her parents. Robin Nixon had given her bed to someone else and joined her family at the hotel. Ben was on the other side of the gym. A lot of the Beaton family beds were empty. Ty felt completely alone. He stretched out on the lumpy cot and counted sheep. It didn’t work. He wondered what he was going to do without a car. School was starting in a couple of weeks. He stared at all his dreams of driving to school and scrubbed the visions from his mind. It was depressing.

  This must be a pale shadow of the grief his mother must have felt when she lost her brother, when she lost her baby. No wonder she had had such a tough time. How do you get over loss? Ty curled on his side and pulled the cover over his head to shut out the red light from the “Exit” sign over the gym door. He fell asleep.

  In his dream he was standing by the side of the Kootenay highway between Benton and their place. He had his thumb out and was trying to hitch a ride. Several pickups passed him. Haley sped by in her parents’ fancy Jaguar. Ben drove by in his Uncle Marvin’s boat, but that was impossible, he told his dream self. Then Princess came putt-putting by with the ghost driving. The pale boy waved as he drove past Ty and disappeared around a bend.

  “Not so fast, Uncle Scott,” said Ty. “I’ve got to work this through. I need to talk about Princess.” The screen in his head went blank.

  “Ty’s talking in his sleep. Mummy.” His little sister was sitting on the side of his bunk pushing Mickey Mouse into his chest. “Can we go for breakfast now, can we?”

  After muffins and milk, Ty walked down the road to Ralph’s garage. The sky was cloudy. The air smelt of smoke and pine needles. Everyone was praying for rain. But Ty didn’t think God worked that way. Still, if rain came it would help.