“No way--”
Cole cut her off. “We got a late start, and then spent most of the afternoon looking for cars that still had gas in their tanks. I don’t want to be out here in the dark with no place to sleep.”
“We still have plenty of daylight to find somewhere to stay tonight. Besides, it’s not that far once we get the car running.”
“I disagree. Plus… they think that you are some kind of prophet. That’s got to have some type of benefit, dontcha think?”
“Yeah, like they want to wear my skin as their skin,” she said between clenched teeth. “These people are real wack-a-dos. Plus, Darth Vader is the villain of the movie and they worship him.”
“Let’s just stay one night.”
“No way, these people---”
“We have wine!” Richard Nixon yelled over to them.
“One night, and that’s it,” Anna said.
Anna and Cole followed the masked group down a long and narrow path into the woods. At the end of the narrow pathway was the camp. The Trooper’s site was beautiful. It was situated against the shallow banks of a still lake with scattered and boxy buildings that looked to be old fishing shacks.
“We must stop here,” Richard Nixon said before they entered the clearing of the camp. “You must come to an understanding before you step foot on the grounds that we have made our sacred home. You must understand the evils of the light.” Richard Nixon turned to the rest and nodded. In unison, the Troopers removed their masked to unveil their horribly burned and scarred skin and patchy clumps of hair. “You see, this is what the great light is capable of. This is why we live to defeat it and worship the darkness of Lord Vader.”
Anna tried to mask her disgust of their melted faces.
“Now that you have seen our faces, will you stay with us this evening? Will you tell us the tale of the lost word--- oh my… I don’t even know your names.”
“I’m Anna.” Her voice cracked. “And this is Cole.”
“Splendid!” Trooper Grace’s skin look as if it were to split apart as she smiled to show her few remaining teeth.
As the sun set over the glassy lake, the Troopers of Vader sat on the lawn as Anna did her best to recount the fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes of Star Wars. The Troopers would gasp in excitement when she would recount Darth Vader, and boo when she would mention Luke Skywalker. It made her sad to see grown adults with horribly scarred faces and wearing black capes emitting such excitement when she would talk about Darth Vader that she began to make up things that made Vader seem like the hero of the story. She mentioned how Luke Skywalker kicked a dog and told the tale of how the Stormtroopers were all Vader’s adopted kids.
The Troopers showed her gratitude for her recounting of the story by filling her dusty mason jar with red wine and showering her with packaged coffee cakes. The wine tasted of vinegar and the coffee cakes were stale, but she ate them anyway.
“We want you to witness our nightly ceremony as the world becomes filled, once again, with magnificent darkness.” Trooper Grace took Anna by the hand. “Hopefully it will inspire you to stay and join us!”
Trooper Grace’s hand felt cold and dry against her hand despite the night being warm and humid. She led Anna to the side of the lake and told her to wait as they prepared the ceremony.
“I think you might have been right about not staying here for tonight,” Cole whispered to Anna as they watched the Troopers gather chairs and organized into formation.
“You’re not enjoying the wine and coffee cake?” She turned and smiled.
“I think that you should tell them that it’s just a movie. That it’s not real.”
Before Anna could answer, the two lines of Troopers began to hum in unison as Trooper Grace rolled out a body on an office chair. The body was duct taped along its torso to the chair and along the top of its thighs. It was wearing all black and a Darth Vader mask bounced upon a limp neck.
“Lord Vader… we thank you for the darkness. The darkness that soothes the burning of the light.” Trooper Grace snapped her fingers and the formation of Troopers dropped to their knees and lowered their heads. Trooper Grace pushed the body through the formation and down to the shore of the lake. “We welcome Trooper Kevin into your dark embrace.”
“Embrace the darkness,” the Troopers said in unison behind her.
She removed the mask, cut the tape from the office chair and dumped Kevin’s body into the lake. His body made a gentle splash and the Troopers began to cheer.
“Did they kill that guy?” Cold whispered to Anna.
“No, I think these people are just very ill. I think he died and this is how they bury their dead.”
“You need to tell them that it’s just a stupid movie,” he urged.
The Troopers broke their formation and ran to the back of the fishing shacks. They excitedly ran down to the shore of the lake carrying something in their hands.
“Let the star war begin!!” Trooper Grace yelled.
The Troopers looked up and began to use the assault rifles in their hands to shoot up into the sky at the stars. The bright light of the rapid gunfire lit up the entire sky. Anna and Cole ran and took cover behind one of the fishing shacks.
“Do you still want me to tell them that their god is a lie?” Anna yelled over the gunfire.
After the gunfire subsided the Troopers lowered their assault rifles and hugged one another in the moonlight.
“We didn’t mean to frighten you,” Trooper Grace said catching her breath. “I realize now that to someone unfamiliar with our rituals it might bring you discomfort. Many apologies.” She set the gun down on a bench and rubbed her hands together. “I have more I would like to discuss with you both, but we must reserve the precious darkness for meditation. Come, I will lead you to your quarters that I have prepared for you tonight.”
Trooper Grace led them back down to the lake to a shack that sat right along the shoreline. There were three walls of faded, warped, and moldy wood planks held together with rusty nails and an opening that provided a view of the lake, as well as a long dock stretching out into the water. Inside were two mattresses hoisted up by basic wooden bedframes. Between the two beds was an end stand that held a mason jar filled with water, a few more packages of the stale coffee cakes she had feasted on earlier, and the Blu-ray box set edition of Star Wars Episode IV, V, and VI.
Anna and Cole thanked Trooper Grace and watched as she walked to her own shack and closed the door behind her. Anna slipped her shoes off, walked to the end of the dock, sat down and slipped her feet in. The water was warm and felt soothing against her feet that had spent most of the day walking on hot asphalt. Soon after, Cole followed her and sat down next to her and began to take off his shoes.
“Is the water warm?” he asked.
Anna nodded. “It feels nice.”
After he had finished taking off his shoes and socks he slipped his feet in slowly. “You’re right. It does feel nice.”
They both sat in silence, swirling their feet back and forth and in circles. They admired the moon as it reflected off the water and painted the world in shades of blue.
“So.” Cole let out a long sigh. “These people are out of their minds, right?”
Anna nodded in unflinching agreement. “Yup.”
“You think they’re going to sneak into our shack and murder us while we sleep?”
“Nah. I think that if they were going to kill us they would have done it when they were all armed with assault rifles.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
They once again peered out over the water in silence.
“So, you’ve seen Star Wars?” he asked.
Anna smiled. “Almost every Christmas Eve morning for as long as I can remember, my grandpa and I would marathon all three. You never got a chance to see them?”
“It was one of those things that my dad would talk about doing. He said he was waiting for the right moment… he said he wanted to make sure I was old enough
to understand it.”
“That makes sense.”
“Did you like it?”
“Oh yeah… it’s a great trilogy. After my grandpa was gone, I tried to get my mom to watch it with me on Christmas Eve… but she was never a real big fan of ‘The Star War’... as she called it. She didn’t really like science fiction… she was more into stuff like The Bridges of Madison County.”
Cole inhaled sharply. “I love that book. Have you read it? It’s so great.”
Anna laughed. “No, I haven’t read it.”
“Why not? If it was your mother’s favorite book… weren’t you just a little curious?”
“You are not the first one to call me out on not reading it. And I know that they say you should never judge a book by its cover… but it’s a book about taking pictures of bridges. There is literally nothing else on the planet that I care less about.”
“But it’s not just about bridges---”
Anna held up a hand. “I know, I know… It’s about the relationship of the dude taking the pictures and that other chick.”
“I take it that you are not a fan of the romance genre.”
His disappointing tone bothered her. “It’s not that… It’s just not realistic. Rick and I met on the internet. We went on enough dates until we got to know each other enough to get married. No one is writing books about us.”
“Oh.”
Realizing Anna might be dismantling an entire world that Cole had imagined actually existed because he had never interacted with a women post-puberty, she backpedaled. “But that’s just me. And I’m pretty lame and boring… who am I to say if something is realistic or not? What do I know?”
“Yeah.” He continued to stare down at his feet.
“Heck, if I wasn’t married... this right now would be considered romantic. The moonlight bouncing off of the lake… the warm and muggy air… the meditating Star Wars cult scattered along the shore… aww and look---” Anna reached into the water and clasped her hand around something small. She held her hand in front of Cole’s face and told him to open her hand.
As he pried open her fingers, he revealed a shell casing and blurted out a laugh.
The sun rose over the lake the following morning, filling the small shack with amber light. Everything looked different in the gentle light of the new day. The mason jar that had looked as if it was filled with clean water now appeared to be filled with murky brown water. The bedclothes were heavily stained and explained the coppery scent she had smelled when she initially lied down to sleep. The interior of the walls were covered in names and dates that were carved into the wood.
“Cole,” Anna pressed gently on his shoulder that was turned towards the wall.
He rolled over on his back and adjusted his hat.
“You always sleep in a baseball cap?” she joked.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Looks like we weren’t murdered in our sleep after all.”
“I told you.” She smiled. “I was thinking that maybe we should just sneak out. I don’t think I have the energy for Trooper Grace today.”
Before Cole had the chance to answer, Trooper Grace appeared in the entrance way. “I trust you both slept well?”
“Yeah, we slept pretty good I guess. The view of the lake is amazing.” Anna replied.
“Excellent.” Trooper Grace sucked in a long breath and held it for a moment before slowly releasing. “Is there any way we convinced you to join our tribe? If you join us, you could wake up to this view every morning. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Anna struggled to find words that were gentle. “I’m sorry, but we are going to have to pass. When you found us, we were actually on our way to West Akron looking for a place called A-IX.”
“A-IX? Oh, good heavens, you mustn’t go there.” She began to shake her head nervously. “No, no you mustn’t.”
“Why not?” Cole asked still sitting on the bed.
“There are demons. Horrible, horrible demons that will eat you alive.”
Anna and Cole exchanged uneasy, but skeptical glances. “We have to go there. I have to go there. I’m looking for answers.”
“But we have all of the answers you need right here.”
Anna shook her head gently. “You don’t have the answers that I need.”
“I knew you weren’t going to stay… and I was prepared for that. But I have a request of you… and I will offer you just compensation.”
“What is it that you need?” Cole asked.
Trooper Grace cleared her throat. “Hair.”
“Hair?” Anna repeated.
“I know, it sounds absurd.” She leaned against the doorframe. “We have unlimited access to most anything we want. Most stores still have goods inside of them. We have access to bed linens, clothes, shoes, food- albeit old food- and water. We are tired of scaring potential tribe members away due to our…. Appearance.” Her voice dropped low. “We have tried a number of salves and ointments for our damaged flesh… but nothing can grow hair.”
“I see.” Anna pulled thoughtfully at her ponytail. “You have been very kind to us… I guess I don’t really have much use for this hair anymore.”
“Is that a yes?” Trooper Grace’s eyes lit up.
“Why not?” She clapped her hands together.
Trooper Grace pulled out a pair of scissors from her pants pocket. Anna turned and tilted her head back as Trooper Grace cut through the top of the ponytail. Instantly, her head felt lighter. She ran her fingers through her freshly chopped hairstyle and shook her head from side to side.
“This feels kind of nice. It’s a nice change.” She said, and turned her attention to Cole. “You’re up next, let’s see what magnificent locks you’ve been hiding under that hat!” She reached out to pluck his baseball cap off of his head but he jerked away.
“I don’t have any.”
“Yeah right… you’re too young to be bald and I highly doubt that you cut your own hair.” She paused and then reached over and pulled his hat off of his head. She dropped it on the ground when she discovered what was underneath. “I… I…”
Cole scrambled off of the bed and scooped his hat off of the dusty shack floor and placed it back on his head.
He was mostly bald with random clumps of hair still growing in various places. There was also a bright pink and jagged scar spanning from his left ear, up and over the top of his head and landed ended at his other ear.
“Dear child…” Trooper Grace’s voice was soft. “We have salves for that scar.”
Cole drew his knees to his chest and pulled the brim of his hat over his eyes.
“Are you… are you sick?” Anna asked.
Again, Cole didn’t respond.
Trooper Grace bowed her head as she silently backed out of the shack. Once she was gone, Anna sat on the bed next to Cole.
“I’m really sorry.” Anna placed a hand on his knee. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
He didn’t so much as look at her.
“Hey… don’t be like that…” She tried to meet his gaze under the brim of his hat. “Look. I don’t know if you know this about me but I’m incredibly stubborn and self-centered. You give me five minutes, and I’ll be back to thinking about how great I am and forget all about what just happened. I swear. It’ll probably be completely… out… of…” She sat upright. “What were we talking about? We were talking about how great I’m dressed?”
She heard a snort from under his hat and she smiled.
“It was about how great I’m dressed. I knew it.”
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