by Sable Hunter
“Right.” He’d never told any of his brothers the full ramifications of his experience. Only Cady knew how his dying for those few minutes truly affected him. How he’d been changed forever. He could still recall the day when Cady arrived to care for his brother, Joseph, who’d been paralyzed in a dirt bike accident. The moment she’d stepped from the car Nathan knew she was different. He’d seen her aura, the golden wings of her true nature rising high above her head. She’d also recognized what made him special. Like her, Nathan just knew things. He could see glimpses of the future and the past. As Cady taught him, this knowing could be a burden as well as a blessing.
“Jessie, along with Libby, helped me learn to live with my dyslexia.”
Jacob nodded. “She could relate. Working with you helped her cope with her own form of dyslexia as well.”
“Yea, I’m sure.” They grew quiet as the path they traveled broke into a clearing. “There it is. The old structure looks to be intact.”
“Yea, it does.” Jacob rode closer, his curiosity aroused. “You’re too young to remember, but there was some pretty creepy stuff went on in this old place.”
“Really? Like what.” He spotted the persimmon tree. “Look, it’s full of fruit.”
“Yea, and there’s plenty on the ground. You’ll fill up your sacks in no time.” Jacob stopped his horse near the tree, dropping the reins to ground tie the obedient animal. “As far as the stories go, somebody or something killed the old couple. A neighbor found them deceased in their bed with no visible sign of trauma. Just a look of stark raving terror on their cold, dead faces.”
“Oh, Jacob. Stop it.” Nathan jumped from his horse and picked up two persimmons to pop in his mouth.
“No, I’m serious as I can be.” Jacob knelt to gather handfuls of the wrinkled orange fruit from the ground and put it in the sack. “The family who lived here before we bought the place said the old house was haunted.”
“Oh, really.” Nathan didn’t argue the point, he’d run into a few specters himself – including his imaginary friend. This was just another facet of his so-called gift.
“Well…” Jacob was really getting into the spirit of things. “Supposedly, Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead haven’t moved on. The occupants reported disembodied voices, furniture moving, and even a full-body apparition or two.”
“Wow.” Nathan looked over at the place. “Maybe we ought to go in and look around.”
“Oh, well.” Jacob changed his tune. “I’m not saying we should do that – but it’s interesting. Anyway, the mystery was never solved. The coroner said Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead died of fright.”
“That’s not a cause of death. Probably was a heart attack.”
“Yea…but why?”
“Maybe a snake got in their bed, which would kill Aron deader than a doornail.” Nathan laughed. “Do you remember the time I put that rubber snake in his lunch sack?”
“I do. We were working on the old windmill at the time.”
“Yea.” Nathan shook a branch of the persimmon tree to make more of the fragrant fruit fall. “Once he got over the shock of finding it, he took a shovel from the truck and proceeded to cut my rubber snake in half.”
“Killed that sucker, for sure.” Jacob joined in the laughter. “While you finish up here, I’m going to walk around the side of the house and see about the pomegranate and pear trees.”
“All right.” Nathan continued on with his task.
…Meanwhile, Isaac and Aron sat on their mounts in a copse of trees near the Whitehead homestead.
“I’m not sure this idea is any better than your real estate deal, Badass.”
“Oh, they’re perfect ideas, I tell you. We need to buy up that property along the river before it’s developed.” Isaac slid off his horse. “And concerning this little matter – just wait right here. I won’t be gone long.”
Aron shook his head as his brother took off to make mischief.
…As Jacob rounded the corner of the ramshackle house, he smiled when he spotted a pomegranate tree laden with fruit, the spotted globes cracked open to reveal the ruby red seeds. “Jackpot.”
When he approached the tree, Jacob broke off a pomegranate and began to chow down on the succulent seeds. He was fully occupied with his treat when a noise behind him drew his attention. He paused midchew and lifted his head, trying to figure out what he’d heard.
Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap.
He wheeled around, convinced there was a woodpecker on the eaves of the house. When he didn’t see a bird he glanced around, jumping a bit when something caught his eye in one of the windows. “What in the world?” Edging nearer to the glass, Jacob peered into what used to be a bedroom. As he stared, he heard another noise coming from within the old Whitehead place. Leaving his pomegranate sack, he hurried around to find Nathan.
“Hey, there’s someone in the house.”
Nathan picked up his persimmon haul. “A squatter?”
“I don’t know. Come on.”
Together, the two men made their way to the front door.
“Is it open?” Nathan asked, stepping lightly over the holes in the porch floor.
“I’m sure we can get in,” Jacob whispered as he clutched the rusted knob.
When the door opened, they walked slowly inside. The interior of the home was in tatters – wallpaper hanging in strips on the wall and cracked linoleum on the floors. With a finger held to his lips, Jacob indicated for them to be extra quiet. Taking slow steps, the pair ventured further into the house, fully expecting to come upon a trespasser. The deeper they went into the interior, the more confused they became. There was no furniture and no debris to be seen.
“I don’t see any evidence of anybody staying here.”
“No,” Jacob agreed. About that time a thud from upstairs drew their attention.
Nathan pointed a finger into the air, indicating the noise over their head. “Come on.”
Walking stealthily, the brothers eased up the stairs, taking care to watch for weak places in the steps. When they reached the second floor, Jacob led the way, turning his head to mouth a warning to his brother. “Be careful. We don’t know what we’re going to find.”
Nathan nodded, his heart beating a bit faster in the excitement of the moment. When they came to the top of the landing, they glanced down the hall to see all the bedroom doors standing wide open. From the last room on the right, another thud sounded and to their surprise, a moaning sound was heard.
“What the fuck?” Jacob looked around, his eyes wide as saucers.
Nathan shrugged, but he kept going. Side by side, they crept nearer to whatever awaited them. The farther they went, the louder the spooky noise grew. By this time, however, Nathan was becoming a bit suspicious. If he wasn’t mistaken – he recognized that voice doing the moaning.
Just before they reached their destination, a black form jumped out of the room and right into their path.
For a millisecond, Jacob froze with his hands in the air. In the next breath, it hit him that the dark being was his leather-clad biker brother. “Isaac! Hell!” Turning on his heels, he stomped away – down the hall, down the stairs, and out of the house.
Following close behind, Nathan shook his head at his older brother’s joke. He didn’t begrudge Isaac the fun, Nathan loved to play pranks on his family. In fact, he had a few of his own up his sleeve for this trip.
…Isaac held his stomach, doubled over with laughter. “Oh, that was good. So good.” As he leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath, he grinned. Isaac loved it when a plan came together. “Oh, yea. That was epic.”
Stepping away, he’d only gone a couple of steps when he felt a hand on his shoulder. An icy hand. “Oh, good one, Aron. How did you get up here?” Wheeling around, he was shocked to find no one there. A quick glance in the room he’d vacated proved that space to be vacant also. “Are you hiding up here?” he chuckled as he walked over to the closet and opened the door – finding it to be empty al
so. Isaac couldn’t help but feel a little funny as he realized he was truly alone. “Huh.” He was just about to blame his vivid imagination when a low moaning noise very similar to the one he’d made – seemed to rise all around him.
“Fuck me,” he muttered, deciding it was high time to vacate the premises. “Hey, guys?” he called as he hurried down the staircase. “Wait up!”
…Outside, Jacob and Nathan stood with Aron as Isaac came hurrying out the door so fast, it slammed behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Aron asked with a smirk. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Isaac slowed his walk, composing himself. “Nah, I’m fine.”
“What? Did you see something?” Like a lion, Aron could sense fear – and he relished the smell. “You did, didn’t you?” When Isaac didn’t readily deny it, he laughed aloud. “What happened?”
“Uh, nothing.” He gathered up Nathan’s persimmon sack. “Jacob do you need help with anything?”
“Yea, I was about to get some pomegranates when you started messing with me.”
“All right, let’s go.” Isaac led the way around the house with Jacob bringing up the rear.
As soon as they were gone, Aron turned to Nathan. “Is Old Spot still the bell steer in these parts?”
“Yea, we won’t have any problem rounding them up with her help.”
“True. Especially if you offer him a nugget or two.” Aron nodded. “Are all the winter pastures ready?”
“They are, yes.”
“Have you checked out all the fencing?”
Nathan didn’t mind the questions. He’d much rather his brothers be interested in what was going on than not. “Yea. My only concern is the fence line on Highway 16. I talked to Denver about reinforcing a couple of places where kids are always climbing through to get to a prime swimming spot on the river.”
“Good call.”
When they heard Jacob and Isaac returning, they began to move to where the horses were staked. “My next project is fertilizing the hay meadows,” Nathan continued to confide in Aron.
Coming to his horse, the eldest brother pulled himself up in the saddle. “Well, hold off on making any firm plans. You never know what else might come up.”
Nathan thought Aron’s comment was a little odd, but Isaac and Jacob joining them prevented him from questioning what he meant.
Once they were all mounted, Jacob pointed eastward. “Let’s ride by the trout stream and see if the guys had any luck.”
“If they’re still there.” Isaac made a point of glancing around.
“What?” Aron asked. “You think they came over this way?”
“Well, there was someone in that house besides us.”
Hearing this, Nathan turned around in the saddle and looked over his shoulder toward the old Whitehead place. Sure enough, standing in one of the upstairs bedrooms, Nathan could clearly see an old man looking out of the window toward them. An old man who was clearly not of this world.
He chose not to say a word.
Isaac’s declaration made Aron snicker. “Something get after you, bud?”
“Oh, I don’t know what it was. Nothing, most likely.” The biker shivered at the memory. “It’s getting colder, isn’t it?”
“I’m a little warm myself,” Aron noted, unbuttoning his fleece lined jacket.
“All that extra padding keeps you warmer than the rest of us,” Isaac quipped as he frowned at what he’d just experienced. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure what happened back there. I could swear someone touched my shoulder, then I heard an awful racket.”
“What kind of racket?” Nathan asked with true curiosity.
“Oh, an odd…moaning sound.”
“Did you wet your pants?” Aron let out a laugh. “Need a dip in the creek to clean up?”
“Hell, no,” Isaac barked his answer.
Jacob decided to steer the conversation in a new direction. “I hope the boys caught us a good mess of trout. If not, we’ll have to opt for a bowl of chili from the pantry.”
“We’ll see, I guess,” Aron muttered as he held up a hand. “Listen…”
The quartet pulled their horses to a stop and lent an ear. In a few moments, they heard the unmistakable sound of howling.
“The coywolves,” Jacob muttered.
“We haven’t lost any calves, have we?” Nathan asked, uncomfortable with the thought. Yet, equally uncomfortable with the idea of harming any animal.
“Nope.” Aron nudged his horse forward and the others followed suit. “Not yet, but I don’t think they were here in the spring. There’s always been a few coyotes, but this hybrid pack of coywolves is new.”
Nathan glanced at Aron and Jacob. “Before we take any action, give me time to scout out their position and their numbers. Let me observe them for a while.”
“I can’t see where you’ll have time for something like that,” Aron spoke up as he pushed a low-hanging limb out of his path.
“What do you mean?” Nathan asked. “I have all the time in the world. I go out on the range most every day. This is something I can do afterhours if you’re worried I’m not carrying my weight around here.”
“No one meant to infer any such thing, Nathan,” Jacob stated.
Nathan could tell something was up, he could feel it jumping between them like a live wire. Shaking his head, he decided he didn’t want to know. “Well, whatever.”
They made small talk for the rest of the ride, mostly about the weather or whatever antics the children were up to. Nathan let the others do most of the talking, his thoughts were occupied with his own plans for the evening.
…At the trout stream, Joseph and Noah were having quite a bit of luck.
“You know, this basic worm and marshmallow technique I learned in Colorado really does the trick,” Joseph observed as he cast his line about twenty yards downstream. “I bet that nice brown trout weighed five pounds.”
“Yea, and my rainbow was fourteen inches, at least.” Noah blew out a puff of air to see it condense into a small white cloud. “The weather may be cold, but the fishing is definitely hot.”
“You can say that again,” Joseph agreed with a grin as he pulled in another decent size rainbow.
By the time he affixed his catch to the nylon stringer cord tied to the small dock, Noah had hooked one of equal size or larger. “Hot damn, we’re on a roll.”
Unfortunately, he spoke too soon – for as quick as their luck appeared, it disappeared even quicker. After fifteen minutes without a nibble, Joseph let out a sigh. “Well, that was fun while it lasted.”
“I’m not giving up.” Noah cast again. “We have another hour of daylight.”
“This is one pretty spot. Just look at the color of those leaves.” Joseph took a moment to appreciate his surroundings. “I don’t know why we don’t come more often.”
“Just busy, I guess,” Noah muttered as he squinted to see something in the water a few yards away. “Look!” He pointed. “There’s a river otter with a trout in his mouth.”
“Cool.” Joseph laughed. “I’ve never seen one do that. Apparently, his luck’s still holding.”
A few minutes later, they saw the otter with another fish. “There he goes again,” Noah noted.
“Huh.” Joseph followed the creature with his eyes. “He’s gonna eat well tonight.”
About that time, the sound of hoofbeats could be heard. “I think we’ve got company.” Noah pulled his line from the water as Aron and the others rode up.
“How many did you catch?” Jacob asked as he jumped to the ground.
“Four big ones. Enough for supper and then some,” Joseph muttered as he gestured for them to look downstream. “We’ve got a fishing partner. That little otter has swam by twice with a fish in his mouth and there he goes again. If we could find his secret spot, we’d have it made.”
Frowning, Aron climbed down from his horse and walked to the dock. Kneeling, he pulled up the nylon stringer to find only one fish sti
ll attached. He threw back his head and laughed. “Doofus. Little bastard’s smarter than the two of you put together. That little thief is letting you do all the work.”
“Well, hell.” Joseph waded from the stream. “I’ll help you with the chili, Jacob.”
“Oh, it’ll be good.”
Noah noticed the bag of persimmons. “Are they ripe?”
“Yea. Want one?” Nathan fished a couple out for his brother.
“You’d best be careful,” Isaac noted. “If they’re green, they’ll pucker your mouth tighter than a first kiss.”
“Nah, they’re soft.” Noah popped one in his mouth and groaned in appreciation.
Hearing the familiar noise, Isaac snapped his fingers. “Have you two been here the whole time?” He narrowed his gaze. “You didn’t pay a visit to the Whitehead place did you?”
Joseph looked at his brother in confusion. “No, we’ve been right here. Why do you ask?”
Aron laughed again. “A booger got after Isaac in that old house.”
Noah chuckled. “Seriously? What happened?”
“Just desserts.” Jacob cut the remaining fish loose to swim away. “He came there to scare us and got spooked himself.”
“Do tell.” Joseph grinned, coming alongside Isaac, and placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Ah ha!” Isaac wheeled to face his brother. “Just like that. I got touched by a hand on my shoulder from someone standing behind me.”
“You’ve always been touched. In the head,” Noah drawled.
“No, I felt it – and I heard a moaning sound like the one you just made.”
“We’re all fine and that’s all that matters.” Jacob ended the discussion. “We’d better head back, it’s going to be dark soon.”
“Yea, and I’m hungry.” Aron helped the two fisherman gather up their equipment. “I had my mouth all set for fish and now I’m gonna have to settle for canned chili and beans.”
“Oh, we’ll have a feast by the time I get through putting something together,” Jacob assured him as they saddled up to hit the trail. “The pantry’s full of all kinds of goodies.”
Nathan just shook his head as he urged his mount to fall in line with the others. He might be the youngest of the clan, but sometimes he felt light years older.