Jack: Secret Circles

by F. Paul Wilson

  “And what?”

  She looked at him with a lost expression. “I don’t know. But I’ve got to know. And I will know.”

  But Jack was thinking about something else. He did a slow turn, taking in the placement of the megaliths, the spaces between, the way they were tilted inward, making them virtually impossible to climb …

  He felt a little squeeze in his chest as it all came together.

  “I don’t know about sunbeams and that sort of stuff, but look around. Imagine you’re a tiger or a lion … those openings are wide enough to toss food inside but too narrow for something big to squeeze through. I think this is some sort of cage.”

  4

  After a moment of stunned silence, Weezy said, “You could be right, but … but we’re talking a major, major project. Chiseling these huge stones somewhere and dragging them here, then somehow setting them upright with exactly the right spacing between them, all to cage a lion?”

  Eddie’s voice was hushed. “Who says it was a lion. Maybe it was the Jersey Dev il.”

  A glance told Jack that Eddie wasn’t kidding. He liked to bring up the Jersey Dev il as the cause of what ever couldn’t be explained in the Pines—and there was no shortage of the unexplained here—but usually he was at least half kidding. This time, however …

  Supposedly, back in the 1700s, a certain Mrs. Leeds, on learning she was pregnant for the thirteenth time, cursed the baby, saying she’d rather bear the dev il’s child than another for her husband. Well, that child was born with the head of a horse, bat wings, cloven hooves, and a spiked tail.

  At least that was one version. Jack didn’t buy into the JD. Neither, of all people, did Weezy, who bought into just about everything else.

  Weezy did believe that something strange lurked in the Barrens, and Jack couldn’t disagree.

  “Eddie,” Weezy said in her must-I-explain? voice, “this was built way before the first Jersey Dev il story. It’s got to be thousands of years old.”

  “No way!”

  “Why not? Stonehenge was started in something like three thousand B.C.”

  Eddie shook his head. “Nuh-uh. The only people around here back then were the Lenape Indians, and they didn’t build this.”

  Jack smiled up at him. “Well, you did say it looks like a teepee.”

  Eddie drew an invisible “1” in the air. “Got me.”

  “Other people were here besides the Lenape,” Weezy said.

  Eddie frowned. “Like who?”

  “The Ancient Septimus Fraternal Order.”

  “The Lodge? No way!”

  “Why not? The first word in their name is ‘Ancient.’”

  “This is your Secret History of the World stuff that nobody believes in but you.” Eddie waved his hands. “But I don’t want to get into that. What I want to know is, if this was a cage, what was in it? And where are its bones?”

  Weezy dug the toe of her sneaker into the sand under the water, kicking up milky clouds.

  “Probably under here. Who knows how much sand and dirt have blown in through the centuries? That wall out there probably kept out a lot of it, but I bet this is a couple of feet deep. And I also bet somewhere below is a big hexagon of granite that served as the original floor.”

  As Jack watched the churned-up water, he noticed the reflection of a blotch of light. He glanced up at the opening atop the damaged megalith. He dropped his gaze to the cracked-off chunk of granite leaning against its base. He imagined an animal—a bear, a lion, or whatever—climbing upon the fallen piece and then leaping, scrabbling, clawing its way to the flat, broken surface atop the megalith. From there all it had to do was slide down the outer surface and run free.

  “It escaped.”

  Eddie and Weezy stared at him.

  “How do you know?” she said.

  Jack pointed to the opening. “Through there.”

  Weezy looked up, then down at the fallen piece, then nodded. “I think you could be right.”

  “That still doesn’t answer the big question: Who would go to all the trouble to cart these stones here and set them up to cage an animal?”

  Jack could not resist. “What if it wasn’t just any animal. What if it was …” He paused, then screamed the last words. “The Jersey Dev il!”

  Eddie and Weezy both jumped, then Weezy laughed. “You’ve been hanging around him too long. Weren’t you listening? It can’t …” But her smile faded as she said, “On the other hand …”

  Eddie grinned. “Hah! Told you it was the JD.”

  “No, it wasn’t. But maybe it became the Jersey Dev il.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you ever hear of cryptozoology?” She quickly waved a hand at Eddie. “Never mind. Look who I’m asking. It’s the study of strange creatures that may or may not exist.”

  Jack had never heard of it, but had an idea what it was about.

  “You mean like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness monster?”

  She smiled and nodded. “And yeti and the kraken and a bunch of others. So, what if ancient folks—maybe early, early members of the Lodge—built this to house some weird creature? Or maybe two of them—male and female. Maybe they were sacred to them, and maybe the little pyramid sitting in the center here had some significance or some function.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know—yet. But what if they escaped into the wild? And what if they had offspring and their offspring had offspring? Eventually the Pilgrims came and the colonies started, and one day someone sees one of these things. And then somebody else sees it. Pretty soon someone makes up the Jersey Dev il story to explain it. The story starts circulating and eventually we have a Pinelands legend.”

  “But what … ?” Eddie paused and Jack saw him swallow. “What if one of those things is still around?”

  Weezy grinned. “Wouldn’t that be cool?”

  “Hey, guys,” Eddie said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “What for?” Jack said. “We just got here.”

  “Because I see footprints up here. Big ones.”

  5

  Jack froze. He glanced at Weezy and saw her standing statue-still as well.

  “Where?” he said. “You mean here? Nearby?”

  Eddie looked around. “Right behind me. Didn’t notice them before—I mean, who would with this thing sitting in front of you—but they’re here.” He dropped to one knee and thrust his arm through the gap. “Here, Weezy. I’ll help you up. See for yourself.”

  Jack blinked. Eddie offering to give his sister a hand … he must really want out of here.

  Weezy looked a little surprised too, but took his hand. Her foot slipped as she tried to climb up. Jack instinctively raised a hand to give her butt a boost and instantly thought better of it. Not a good idea. Instead he wove his fingers and held out his interlocked hands for her to step in.

  “Here.”

  The sole of her wet sneaker landed on his palms and he boosted her up. Once she was out he made a point of hoisting himself up and through the gap without help.

  His feet squished in his sneakers as he checked out the sandy soil. He saw their own footprints, clean and crisp in the damp sand, but where—?

  And then he spotted them—a line of indistinct, oblong depressions trailing along the perimeter of the pyramid.

  “I thought you meant fresh tracks,” he said. “These are old.”

  “Not that old. With all the rain we’ve been having, they wouldn’t be there at all if they were old.”

  Jack had to admit he had a point.

  “They’re kind of big,” Weezy said in a small voice.

  Eddie pointed at the nearest. “’Kind of’? That’s a foot long if it’s an inch. Maybe longer. It could have been made before the last rain.” He looked around. “Let’s not kid ourselves, okay? There’s something out here in the Barrens. We saw it that night when the government guys were digging up the mound.”

  Jack remembered the hulking shape silhouetted
through the trees. Whoever it was had made Pepe le Pew smell like a rose.

  “Oh, that. Probably just some big piney who hadn’t had a bath since Christmas. All we saw was a shadow.”

  “A big shadow. I don’t want it showing up here.”

  “It won’t,” he told him.

  Eddie looked around again. “Yeah? People go missing in here every year. We all say they got lost and starved to death—”

  Jack smiled. “You always say the Jersey Dev il got them.”

  “I’m not kidding, Jack. What if they don’t starve? What if something gets them and that’s why they never make it back?”

  Weezy looked at Jack. “Maybe we should go.”

  “Hey, wait. The Pinelands cover a million acres. Even if there is something out there, the chances of it crossing paths with us are pretty slim.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Eddie said. “This cage or what ever may be special to it. Maybe it comes back here, like, regularly.”

  Jack had to admit they were getting to him. He looked around and sniffed the air. Saw nothing, smelled nothing. Still …

  “All right, all right. We’ll head back.”

  They retreated through the burned-out area to their bikes, with Eddie, of all people, leading the way.

  “Y’think we’re the only ones who know about that pyramid thing?” he said once they were on their way back toward town.

  Jack noticed he’d relaxed since putting some distance between himself and the pyramid.

  Weezy nodded from the lead spot. “Good chance. Otherwise people would be yakking about it all over.”

  “Hard to believe no one’s ever found it before us,” Jack said.

  Weezy slowed and let his bike pull even with hers.

  “Maybe the Indians knew about it. And maybe some pineys do, but they keep to themselves. It’s not like people are looking for it. And like you said: a million acres of woods. There are places in here no human has ever laid eyes on. Don’t forget, that’s on Old Man Foster’s land. It’s even less likely for hikers or campers to be wandering around posted property.”

  “Think Mister Foster knows about it?”

  “I’d bet not. He doesn’t seem to take much interest in his land. No one’s ever seen him. For all we know, he’s dead.”

  “Then who’s posting all these no-trespassing signs?” Eddie said.

  Jack and Weezy answered in unison. “The Jersey Dev il!”

  “Fine,” Eddie grumbled. “Be like that.”

  Weezy said, “No big deal to hire someone to post signs.”

  Eddie looked at her. “Y’think we should tell anyone what we found?”

  “Don’t even think about it!” Weezy cried.

  “Why not? Maybe some experts can come down and figure out what it really is.”

  “I’ll tell you what they’ll come down and do.” She was talking through her teeth and Jack could sense the fury building in her. “They’ll dismantle it and ship it off to the Smithsonian or something. You saw what they did to our mound. What makes you think they’ll have any more respect for that pyramid?”

  “’Our’ mound?” Jack said with a smile, trying to cool her down. “When did it become ours?”

  She gave him an annoyed look. “I know it’s on Old Man Foster’s land, and you know what I mean.”

  That triggered a thought. “Foster … they’ll have to get his permission first.”

  Her voice rose. “Those guys who dug up our mound didn’t have his permission! They just came in the middle of the night and did what ever they wanted to do, then left. They’ll do the same with the pyramid!”

  “Easy, Weezy.” He seemed to be saying that a lot lately. “We’ll keep our lips zipped.”

  She gave him a pointed look. “That means we don’t tell anyone. Not even Mister Rosen, and especially not Professor Nakamura.”

  Jack figured Mr. Rosen could be trusted, but agreed about the professor. They’d lost the baby pyramid because of him.

  “Mum’s the word.”

  “Good.” She looked at Eddie. “You with us, dear brother?”

  Jack tried telepathy: Agree with her. Maybe it got through, or maybe Eddie knew better from experience.

  “All the way, dear sister.” He shrugged. “Besides, who’m I gonna tell anyway?”

  “It’s like a duty,” she said. “The Barrens are special. They’ve kept secrets for ages. We can’t go messing things up just because we got lucky. We—”

  “Goddamn you little bastids!”

  The shout came from off to their left and Jack was surprised to see they’d reached the spong already. The source of the cursing was a skinny man wearing an Agway gimme cap and bib-front overalls. He was hurrying their way, weaving among the traps Mrs. Clevenger had sprung. He snatched an upright stick from one of the traps and began waving it in the air.

  He looked furious as he shouted, “I warned you ‘bout messin’ with my traps!”

  They’d run into this piney before. He claimed he was Mr. Foster’s son but Jack had a feeling Old Man Foster wasn’t a piney.

  “We didn’t touch them!” Eddie called back, then spoke under his breath. “Least not this time.”

  “Hell you didn’t! This is the second time now I find you here with all my traps sprung! I’m gonna teach you bastids a lesson you’ll never forget!”

  He broke into a run, whipping the stick back and forth ahead of him.

  Eddie let out a wail and hit his pedals. His rear tire fish-tailed and kicked up sand as he accelerated. Jack and Weezy were close behind. As they raced away, a fist-size rock sailed through the air, narrowly missing Weezy’s head.

  A blast of rage blazed through Jack. He felt his lips pulling back from his teeth in a snarl as he looked back at the piney. The skinny man had stopped running and was screaming something incoherent as he waved the stick.

  What if that rock had hit Weezy? What would he have done?

  “Jack?”

  Weezy’s voice.

  He looked and found her staring at him with a worried look.

  “What?”

  “You … you looked kind of scary just now.”

  “Didn’t you see that rock? It just missed you.”

  “I know. But the important word is ‘missed.’ You looked like you wanted to kill him.”

  For a second there, Jack realized, that was exactly what he had wanted to do.

  “Just don’t like people throwing rocks at my friends.”

  She kept looking at him. “We are friends, aren’t we.”

  “We are. Old friends.”

  “I like that.”

  The fading rage was replaced by a warm glow that hung on until they found the lost man.

  6

  Eddie had sped on ahead, racing back to town while Jack and Weezy took their time, talking. Or rather, Jack listening to her rattle on about the two pyramids and wonder how they fit into the Secret History. She glowed with excitement and vindication. She started talking about finding a way into the Lodge to retrieve their little pyramid. He might have said that they didn’t even know if it was in there, but didn’t want to interrupt her flow. She seemed happy just fantasizing about it.

  Something else stopped her—a voice shouting from a distance.

  “Help! Help! Don’t leave! Please don’t leave!”

  They stopped their bikes and saw a disheveled man stumbling their way out of the trees, waving his arms.

  “Please!” he cried in a dry, cracked voice. “I’m lost! I’ve been wandering around in circles for three days.”

  Jack looked at Weezy. “What do we do?”

  “Do? We help him back to town. What else?”

  Good question. That pyramid and the tracks, plus the piney, had left him jumpy. Now this stranger wandering out of nowhere. He didn’t like it.

  And the guy was getting closer.

  “What happened, mister?” he called.

  “Lost. I’ve got a Land Rover somewhere. Came out to do some bird-watching and
got turned around and couldn’t find my car.”

  Bird-watcher? Yeah, a lot of bird-watchers in the Pines, but usually in groups. No binoculars around his neck. He could have lost them, but …

  Jack was liking this less and less. He studied the man, closer now, and could see he looked maybe forty, fifty tops. He needed a shave, his shirt was torn, and his pants were filthy. His longish brown hair was all tangled.

  Jack looked at Weezy. “Be ready to ride.”

  “What’s the matter, Jack? You’re acting all strange.”

  “Just being careful is all.”

  Her expression turned concerned as he unlocked his bike chain and unwound it from the seat pole.

  “He’s in trouble, Jack. We’ve got to help him.”

  “We will. But of all people, you, the Queen of Conspiracies, should know things aren’t always what they seem.”

  The man stumbled onto the firebreak trail. He had a wild look in his blue eyes.

  “Thank God! You don’t know what I’ve been through!”

  Keeping a tight grip on the chain, Jack said, “You must be thirsty.”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe. Found a pond of cedar water yesterday but nothing since. You kids got anything—a soda, maybe? Anything?”

  “Sorry. Come on. We’ll lead you back.”

  “Where?”

  “Johnson.”

  “Never heard of it. Far?”

  “Couple of miles that way,” Weezy said, pointing west.

  He looked at her. “I don’t know if I can make it. Think one of you could ride into town and send a cop or an ambulance back?”

  Dream on, Jack thought.

  “We’ll both go. You just wait here and—”

  He waved his hands and began walking. “No-no. I don’t want to even think about being left alone again. I’ll make it. Besides …” He looked around. “I don’t want to run into that thing again. Ever.”

  “What thing?” Weezy said as they began to push their bikes, pacing him.

  Jack positioned himself between the guy and Weezy. If he went for her, he’d have to go through Jack. And Jack had his chain.