The Woods: The Complete Novel (The Woods Series)

by Milo Abrams

  After a minute, James called out to him. "Dad?"

  "Come on up, just be careful on the ladder.”

  James stepped onto the aluminum ladder without the bravery from his last climbing attempt. His legs and hands trembled more with each advancing step. Upon reaching the top, the first thing he noticed was the huge temperature change which instantly sent his sweat glands into motion. The hayloft of the barn was actually more like a second floor with a solid wood floor built into the rafters that extended the entire length of the barn. At the front, there was a large rectangular opening, that at one time, had huge shutter-like doors. Nolan stood by the opening and stared outside.

  "Incredible, huh?" he asked as the wind blew the dust from his hair. "Hot up here but the increased elevation brings a nice breeze with this opening."

  James looked to the back of the hayloft and saw there was another opening just like the one at the front, but it still had its doors and was shut. Nolan noticed this and began walking toward the other side.

  "Let's see if we can get this open.” A couple good grunts and the rust from the latch broke free, allowing the huge shutter doors to swing open and bring in a wave of fresh air. "That's better! Gets some air flowing up here!"

  James walked to the front opening and looked outside. He was amazed to see the backyard stretched out before him in a beautiful view. "Wow," he uttered.

  "See?" Nolan said, patting him on the back, "you never know what you're going to find out here."

  James didn't say anything as his father retreated back down the ladder to work on the car. At first, he was afraid to get too close to the giant window for fear of falling to his death, but after a few minutes of inching around he took a deep breath and scooted his butt near the edge, letting his feet dangle over. He felt free. His mother would've killed him if she saw what he was doing but he didn't care. The breeze blew through his hair and he soaked up the view as it saturated his vision. Looking out to the back, he could see the treetops of the woods and a brand-new view of the deer feeder. That's when he had the idea that the hayloft would be a much better place to try and see the creature from. He carefully backed up, and then hurried down to get his binoculars.

  As he reached the bottom, his dad slid out from under the car. "Done up there, already?”

  "Actually, I'm just going to grab my binoculars."

  "Great idea! Hey, would you mind grabbing us a couple root beers while you're in there?”

  "Sure," James said, then he was off. He pushed the door open and was punched with a full-body blast of cold air as he stepped back into civilization. The sweat from his face and forearms sent a cool-burst sensation through his nervous system causing him to involuntarily shiver. He grabbed the binoculars, two root beers in icy brown glass bottles, then stepped back out into the heat. As he reached the bottom step, a shrill whistle in the distance made him stop. He looked around for its source but couldn't find it. Back in the barn his dad was out from under the car, and smiled between greasy cheeks as he took the root beer.

  "Ah, thanks," Nolan said after a couple heavy slugs.

  "Dad, you said there could be hunters back in the woods?"

  "Sure."

  "Do hunters ever whistle?"

  It was an interesting question that made Nolan think for a minute. "I guess. I remember when I was a kid, my Uncle Grizzely was an avid hunter, and I remember he used to use a whistle to train and direct his hunting dogs."

  "Oh, okay," James said taking a swig of root beer. That must've been it. The whistling must have been the hunters blowing their whistles for their hunting dogs. James wasn't sure he fully believed it but it was the best idea he had. He decided to leave the barn and check on the deer feeder.

  He knew something was visiting the yard and watching him—or at least it seemed to be. He hadn’t seen any gray hunting clothes in any of his dad’s deer magazines, and it was way too hot to be wearing too much.

  Why would hunters sit at the edge of the woods? To rest? It's not like the yard was overflowing with deer for them to watch or hunt. There were so many unanswered questions and not enough evidence. But soon that would all change.

  8

  When James finally got out to the deer feeder he was disappointed to find that it was still full. "Oh, c'mon," he said kicking the side. That's when he noticed a half-eaten apple on the ground. He walked over and crouched down to examine the bite marks as if he were a trained woodsman, but he didn't have a clue what he was looking at. Something was happening in the yard, he thought. Maybe he was right and the creature from the woods was going after the deer that were lured by the feeder. His investigative thoughts were rudely interrupted as the car in the barn roared to life, revving several times and echoing like multiple sonic booms across the countryside. The resulting noise lured James back to the barn.

  Inside, Nolan revved the car like a madman. James nervously looked around, expecting someone to call the police, but then he realized they weren't in the city. Things were different out there.

  "Ha! Check that out, huh?" Nolan was beaming.

  "Good job."

  Nolan walked over and wrapped a sweaty arm around his son, the heat of which made James uncomfortable. "You see that there? A little work and you can accomplish anything. You know that car was what I took your mother out in for our first date?" Not noticing the impact of his words, Nolan pumped his fists in the air and yelled in celebration. "I'm going to grab a shower," he said heading for the house.

  James was stunned. His dad just wouldn't let up with rubbing his new life into his face. Didn't he realize that the separation did hurt James after all? Up until he came to his dad's new house, James hadn't even realized it himself.

  "Hey, James," Nolan called from the door, "your mom's on the phone!"

  Once in the house, James picked up the phone. "Hello?" he answered with zero enthusiasm.

  "Hey, sweetie," his mother spoke, "how's it going there?"

  James couldn't bear to tell his mom what he was thinking or feeling. He didn't want to embarrass himself or hurt her feelings, but he wasn't much in the mood for talking. "Things are going good," he managed to mutter out.

  "So, your dad tells me you built a deer feeder, huh?"

  Jesus, he thought, my dad's playing both sides of the field! This made him mad but he wasn't about to show his feelings. He was a growing boy, becoming a man, and that's just something he thought men didn't do. "Yeah," he said, "it was no big deal."

  "No big deal?" she laughed, "I've never seen you build anything here!" He had so many thoughts running through his mind between a deer hunting monster in the woods and his dad's selfish behavior that he wasn't paying much attention to the unintended nuance in his mom's words. "So anyway, the reason I called is because Owen and Jack are here.”

  James had nearly forgotten about his two best friends back home in the city. They were a regular set of musketeers. He had grown up together with Jack living right next door and Owen just a few blocks away.

  Jack was the timid intellectual, with dark hair and dark eyes. He found joy in calculating the success rate of their adventures while Owen, the youngest of the trio, was the bravest. He often told people he was raised by wolves and was stocky, loud, and always the first to rush into things.

  "What do they want?" James asked.

  "Just to see what you were up to, they forgot you were spending the summer at your father's house. Typical preteens. Anyway, the other reason I called was I thought it might be fun for you to have them out there for a night or so. I already checked with your father—he has no problem with it."

  James was surprised at the amount of behind-the-back communication there was between his parents. He felt betrayed in a way, like he wasn't in the loop about what was going on. Despite this, he did miss his friends and thought it would be nice to have someone around to relate to about the whole creature in the woods business. "That sounds great," his tone changed, "when can they come out?"

  "Well," she said, "I haven't actually
asked them.”

  “Ugh," James sighed.

  "I just wanted to make sure you wanted to have them over first."

  "Of course, Mom! Ask them, please?"

  "Okay. They're still here, hang on." She disappeared for a minute then Owen answered the phone.

  "Yo," he said.

  "Hey," James replied, "you guys coming out or what?"

  "We could, Jack just got a sweet new MMO you have to see," Owen said.

  "Oh, well there's no internet out here," he lied. His dad didn't have Wi-Fi and James knew that he would never let them spend their time inside playing games.

  "What? Oh, man."

  "Yeah, no cell service either," James said.

  Owen paused for a second. "Dead zone, bro."

  "Yeah, but there's something I have to show you guys," James said as his dad walked in, "it's uh, the deer feeder I made." The words stumbled out of James's mouth and his dad looked back at him and smiled, proud that his son had a little country in him after all.

  James feared that if his dad found out that he was interested, not so much in seeing deer but in seeing a monster, then he would shut down every plan he had to see it. The worst-case scenario, of course, was being sent back home to the city before he figured out what it was. What started as a mild curiosity and bad dream was now an itch that James had to scratch. Owen immediately seemed to lose interest—the lack of Internet and cellular network was a blow that his city-boy brain couldn't quite handle.

  "Have to pass, man," he said. Owen was always sure of himself, even for a twelve-year-old. When he made up his mind he was hard to convince otherwise, which made him both a pain to parents and a great friend.

  Disappointed, James hung up the phone and slumped into the chair at the kitchen table.

  "Friends on their way out?" Nolan asked.

  "No," he said as he spun the cordless phone on its back across the table like a top. "You know Jack and Owen, they're straight city kids. Once they found out there was no cell signal out here they bailed."

  Nolan was sad for his son but proud at the fact that he had separated himself enough from his city life to call his friends straight city kids instead of identifying with them. "That's okay." He didn't know what else to say.

  James wandered back to the barn and up into the hayloft where he left the binoculars. He looked around and thought how it would make a really cool place to hang out with his friends. He imagined setting up desks with computers and a big TV on the wall. They could get a couch and make it like a secret club. He sighed, realizing it was a stupid idea and that his friends had no interest in him so long as he was stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Carelessness set in, bringing with it a dullness to his fear of heights which allowed him to sit at the edge of the hay door. Maybe my friends didn't even like me at all, he thought, maybe they only liked me when I had games and stuff around.

  His sudden introspection made him all at once sad and mature feeling. He looked at the cascade of clouds scattering across the sky and tried to remember their names. Up there, everything looked more beautiful, and he felt like he could almost touch them as they rolled down from the heavens. Slowly, his eyes dropped to the deer feeder where they picked up new information. He fumbled his arm behind him as he reached for the binoculars. Something was behind the deer feeder and he didn't want to miss it. He turned around and grabbed the binoculars and put them to his face. Neck-deep into the feeder was a small deer. He exhaled in defeat, thinking maybe it had just been deer all along. Then without warning the deer ran off across the yard, parallel with the woods and disappeared out of James's sight. Looking back at the woods he saw something gray sitting at the tree line. Quickly flipping the binoculars toward the woods, what he saw nearly made him fall from the hay door. The distance was too far for the focus of the binoculars to allow any detail, but crouching by the trees was a slender looking gray figure.

  James quickly jumped up, “Dad!” he called out to the house. Doing a double-take, he put the binoculars back up to his eyes and watched as it stood up—like a human.

  "DAD!" James yelled as he ran for the ladder and nearly fell as he scurried down it. He ran through the crunchy gravel driveway and tripped with a loud thud as he tried skipping up the steps. Nolan opened the door and helped him up.

  "Are you all right? What're you running for?"

  "Dad," James said out of breath, "there's something in the woods.”

  Nolan looked at him strangely. "Okay? What do you mean?"

  "I saw a deer," James huffed, "at the deer feeder and then something at the edge of the yard scared it off. Dad, there's a monster in the woods.”

  9

  Nolan put his arm around his son and smiled. "Probably just a hunter. There's some pretty creepy camo outfits that could make them look strange," he said. "There are no monsters in the woods or anywhere else."

  It was no use. Nolan's logical brain would never be persuaded of a strange creature lurking in the woods behind his house—not even by his son. James realized his dad wouldn't believe him and gave up the fight immediately. "Right," he said, following him back into the house.

  It bothered James for the rest of the evening. He didn't talk much and then spent the rest of the day in his room, which was smaller compared to the openness of the rest of the house. With only one single window, James felt a sense of security in there. He took one of his blankets and hung it over the curtain rod to block the light, then emptied the dresser of all its drawers and clothes before pushing it in front of the window. Flipping the mattress off the bed, he dragged the frame as far from the window as possible to the opposite wall. Nolan walked in to see his son working.

  "Hey, what’re you up to?” He looked at the blanket that darkened the room. “What's with the window?"

  "Just doing a little rearranging. Uh, it’s really bright in the morning and so I figured moving the bed and the blanket would help it from blinding me," he lied while forcing a smile.

  Nolan fell for it. He had no reason to suspect anything weird from his son. His mind was too busy with the thoughts of his upcoming date and work to piece together his son’s strange behavior earlier that day. It wasn't until he turned to leave that some insight flashed across his mind.

  If James honestly believed there was a monster in the woods, he might just be afraid. He tried to not be too tough or too soft with his son because all he wanted was to mold him into a dependable and independent human being. "Hey, if you need anything tonight you can come get me, you know."

  James wasn't sure what he meant by that. His mind was also busily racing with his own thoughts. "Thanks, Dad," he said, and went back to setting his bed and rearranging his room. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about all the fantastic things he had heard, mostly through the Internet, about creepy things that lurked in the dark or went bump in the night. He remembered his Uncle Fred telling him about his supposed encounter with the elusive Bigfoot. This intrigued him enough to leave his room and ask his dad about it. In his own room, his dad was sitting on his bed and working on his laptop.

  "Hey, Dad," he said knocking on the door.

  "What's up, bud?" Nolan wasn't surprised his son had come to see him.

  "You remember that story that Uncle Fred told us once? About the Bigfoot? Do you remember what happened?"

  Nolan took off his glasses and chuckled. He enjoyed being right, which made his success as a doctor quite the ego booster. He knew that he should soothe his son's fears. Smiling, he said, "Oh yeah, I remember that one. Supposedly, when he was a young lad he went on a camping trip with his troop as a Boy Scout. They went to some reservation so they could experience the culture and outdoors of the Native Americans. Honestly, I think it was just an excuse to learn woodsy stuff. But anyway, he said that they camped deep in the forest on the reservation and one of the guides would tell the boys stories about Mountain Devils that would come down into the forests and kill game with hypnosis. They said what the white people were calling Bigfoot was actually an ancient tr
ibe of giant Native Americans called the Seeahtik."

  James sat completely absorbed in his dad's words. He didn't remember ever being told this by his uncle. Nolan was getting enthusiastic in his recalling of the details because as fantastic as it was, it was interesting to him. So much so, that he forgot he was supposed to be easing James's fears instead of painting the picture of a terrifying creature in the woods.

  “As I said,” Nolan continued, "the Seeahtik would kill game with hypnosis. The guides told the boys that there was even some who could imitate any bird call and whistle. Anyways, Fred said that night they bundled down in their tents to sleep and he woke up because he had to pee. He went to get up when something whistled real loud and started banging on the tent. He jumped out of the tent screaming when one of the chaperones saw him running and stopped him. He told them it was a Bigfoot but no one else heard or saw a thing."

  Nolan could see his son didn't feel any better about monsters in the woods and interpreted the look on his face as the wheels turning in his little brain. "But listen," he said, "there are no mountains and those things are all just stories. Make believe. Nothing to worry about. Monsters, Bigfeet and giant super natural Native Americans are all fake, okay?"

  Nolan was right about one thing, the wheels in James's head were turning, but he didn't believe that his uncle was scared by a Bigfoot. "Okay, Dad," he said. He was young but he wasn't stupid. He knew kids went out of their way to scare their friends all the time. "Anyways, thanks. I couldn't remember his story."

  "Hey, James."

  "Yeah?"

  "You okay?"

  James smiled, "Yes sir." Then he went back to his room to ponder over the new information he had just gathered.