Stranger in the Woods

by Geof Johnson

  Chapter 44

  Liz was more excited about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday than any she could remember. She and Tina had a long phone conversation about it, and they decided their families would celebrate together, and they would have it at Liz’s house because she had more room.

  Liz made the turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and rolls, and Tina brought the side dishes — green bean casserole, sweet potato soufflé, and field peas. She also brought three pies that she got from the grocery store where she worked. “Employee discount,” she explained.

  Liz’s father brought vanilla ice cream for the pies and two bottles of wine, and the kids brought their appetites.

  When the food was finally ready, everyone filed into the formal dining room and stood around the table. “This is the nicest dinner setting my family has ever seen,” Tina said before they took their seats. She looked at her kids. “Don’t you think so?”

  Shelby brushed the fingertips of one hand over the lace table cloth and then snatched her hand back as if she’d burned it. “I’m afraid to touch anything. It’s all so nice. The forks and everything look like real silverware and the plates and stuff look like china.”

  “They are,” Liz said. “They were all wedding gifts. We hardly ever use them.”

  Justin elbowed Jason in the ribs. “So don’t break anything, doofus.”

  Jason scowled and gave him a light shove on the shoulder. “You’re the clumsy one, pea brain.”

  Tina gave them both a harsh glance and their skirmish ended.

  “We never eat in here,” Zach said. “We always eat in the kitchen.”

  “I’ve never eaten in here, either,” Liz’s father said. “Uncle Nicholas wasn’t much for entertaining, and Winnie never cooked for us. But I have to admit, it looks nice, Liz.”

  The walls were now painted powder blue, and the chair railing and other trim were white. The crystal chandelier overhead was sparkling clean, its twelve small bulbs shining like stars. The musty old carpet was gone, and Liz had buffed the wooden floor until it gleamed. All of the furniture was walnut, glossy with polish. In addition to the table, which was laden with food, there was a china cabinet on one wall and a buffet on the other, where they’d set the pies and rolls and iced tea pitcher.

  Liz gestured and said, “Everybody have a seat.” She took one end of the table and her father took the other, while Jason, Justin, and Shelby sat together on one side. Zach and Tina settled across from them, with Tina beside Liz.

  They spread their cloth napkins in their laps, and then Jason immediately reached for the turkey platter. Tina frowned at him. “Where are your manners? We haven’t said grace or anything, yet.” He pulled his arm back to his side and lowered his eyes.

  “We’re not that formal,” Liz said, “but before we serve ourselves, I’d like to do something that we used to do with my family when I was growing up.” She looked across the table at her father. “Do you remember what Mom used to always have us do on Thanksgiving before we could eat?”

  He smiled softly, lopsided, with his lips together. “We’d go around the table and everybody had to say what they were thankful for.”

  “That sounds good,” Tina said. “But I want to go last.” She turned to Zach, who was sitting beside her. “You want to start?”

  “Uh….” His mind went blank and all he could manage was, “I…I’m thankful for all my friends and my family.” He shrugged to show that he was finished.

  Tina turned to her kids. “Jason, how about you? What are you thankful for?”

  He muttered something about friends and family, too, and so did his brother when it was his turn. Shelby was more elaborate. “I’m thankful for friends and family, but not just any friends. My new friends. The best ones I could ever hope to have.” She cast a quick smile at Liz and her father, and then an especially sweet one at Zach. Her face brightened. His darkened.

  “I’ll go next,” Liz said. “I’m also thankful for friends and family, and I’d like to add how happy I am that it’s your family that we made friends with.” She looked at Tina tenderly, and then her kids. “I was apprehensive about moving back here, but meeting you and having you become part of our lives has made me certain that I made the right choice to leave Raleigh for Whitmer. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “That was a nice thing to say.” Liz’s father nodded. “I guess it’s my turn.” He cleared his throat before saying, “I’d like to echo what Liz just said, and add my own little twist to it. I’m glad I got to know you Ross kids, ’cause you keep me going. You make me feel younger, I guess. I’m glad your family has become part of our lives, too, and I’m glad that my daughter and grandson have come back into mine. You’ve really made a difference.” He chuckled. “My house is almost clean, now.”

  Laughter rippled around the table, and Tina said, “It’s my turn, and I have a lot to be thankful for, more so than I ever expected just a few months ago.” She looked at Liz warmly. “I’m especially glad that we’ve become friends because, honestly, I don’t know how my family would’ve made it without you. The last couple of years have been really hard on us, with Kenny gone, but you’ve helped us more than I can say, and now I feel like we’re goin’ to be all right.”

  Tina briefly put the fingertips of one hand to her mouth. “But what I’m also thankful for is,” —she glanced at her kids— “and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you yet, but I wanted it to be a surprise.” She nodded once and continued, “I got the promotion. I’m goin’ to be the office manager.”

  “Mama!” Shelby squealed. She sprang from her chair, ran to her mother’s side, and threw her arms around her. Her boys looked like they wanted to join her, but were too self-conscious.

  “Congratulations!” Liz said. “When did you find out?”

  “Monday. It seems that the guy who got the job before me was foolin’ around with the owner’s seventeen-year-old daughter and got her pregnant. Can you believe that?”

  “Isn’t he married?”

  “He was. I don’t know how that’s going to work out. Anyway, the owner found out about it and fired him right off, and then gave the job to me.”

  “Does that mean you can quit your other job at the grocery store?”

  “Not just yet.”

  “Aw, no!” Jason said.

  “Relax, sweetheart, it’ll just be half days on Saturday. I was goin’ to quit all together, but the store manager asked me to stay on, and I said I would for a while. I like getting the employee discount, and I think I’ll use the extra income to hire a new lawyer for Kenny. Several people have told me lately that he never should’ve gotten such a long sentence, and if we’d had a decent lawyer in the first place, he wouldn’t have. But we didn’t know.”

  “Do you have a lawyer in mind?” Liz’s father said.

  “Not yet, but I know what to look for now, and with the raise I’m getting’ at the office and the extra money from working Saturday’s at the grocery store, I’ll be able to afford it.” She turned to her kids and said, “And I can finally get you some decent clothes. No more second-hand stuff for you.”

  “What time will you be getting home during the week, now?” Liz said.

  “I get off at five. I’ll be home to cook dinner at a normal hour from now on.”

  “Good.” Justin rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “I hated waiting ’till eight o’clock to eat.”

  She gave her boys a stern look. “And I’ll be around to keep you out of trouble.”

  “We don’t get in trouble no more,” Jason said.

  “Anymore,” she said. “And I’ll also be around to correct your grammar so you don’t grow up talkin’ like white trash.”

  “This is very good news,” Liz’s father said and raised his wine glass. “This calls for a toast. To Tina and her job promotion.”

  “And to family and friends,” she added and lifted her glass, while everyone else did, too.

  Chapter 45

  Zach flipped the page on the c
alendar on the kitchen wall and stared at the new one with dismay.

  December.

  It used to be one of the best months. Two weeks off from school. Lots of candy and other sweets. Lights and decorations. His favorite holiday songs — Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman. Christmas presents.

  Now it seemed like the Month of Doom. Soon everything would go down for Bo. He would either make it back to his world and his people, or be forever stranded on Earth.

  The weather turned cloudy and colder over the next few days, the sky grim and overcast like a gray shroud. Zach couldn’t seem to keep his eyes from it, glancing up repeatedly, half-expecting to see snowflakes drifting down, and dreading that he would.

  Saturday, Zach and his friends went to visit the white giant, and no one spoke as he led them through the woods to his cabin. Zach watched as Bo palmed the door to unlock it, and wondered if it would be the last time he’d witness that.

  I hope so.

  That would mean that the machine in the lab had worked and Bo had gone home where he belonged. The thought made Zach sad, though. I’ll miss him. A small part of Zach hoped that Bo would be around forever, even though that meant the worst for Bo. No, that’s selfish. He forced the thought from his mind and followed the others inside.

  They settled in their usual places, Bo in his huge chair, Zach and his friends on the long bench. No one seemed to want to talk at first. Bo appeared to be tired and cheerless, without the familiar brightness in his wide eyes or the positive lift to his chin.

  He dropped his gaze to his chest and placed his hand there, flat, with his fingers spread. “It has begun.”

  Shelby’s brow fell and her lips parted. “The…the feelings, the sadness and emptiness?”

  He nodded and took a moment to speak. “I first noticed it two days ago. Slight, but undeniable.”

  Zach swallowed hard. “What’s it like, exactly?”

  Bo turned his head and stared out the window. “It is hard to put into words. It is like a dull ache and a deep hollowness together.”

  “You sure that’s it?” Jason said. “It’s not like you’re getting sick or something?”

  “I am certain. The timing of it coincides with this.” He lifted his forearm and touched the dark circle that was imprinted there. “This is nearly filled in. There is not much white left. I can barely detect it, even with my keen vision.”

  “Oh, Bo,” Shelby said, her voice cracking. “Is there anything we can do to make you feel better? I mean, besides sending you back to your world?”

  He shook his head, and his gaze fell again. The room got quiet and Zach drummed the fingers of one hand against his thigh while he tried to think of what to say. “Did…um… are you ready to go when the time comes, if we get the machine working?”

  “I will wait until I sense you in the woods.” Bo gestured toward the back wall, where his canvas bag hung from a peg near his bow and quiver. “The things that I wish to take with me are in that, including the picture you gave me.”

  “That’s not much stuff,” Justin said.

  “It is enough.”

  Zach leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees. “Grandpa said to keep a positive attitude. The tubes could come any day now, and he’ll stick them in the machine and send you home.”

  “I do not know how many days I have left.”

  Days. It’s just days. Not weeks anymore. “Don’t give up.”

  “Yeah, don’t.” Justin bobbed his head at Bo. “You be ready for us. Zach’s Grandpa said he’ll drive us to come fetch you, but we might have to come to the woods on short notice, so don’t go runnin’ off on one of you trading trips or anything.”

  “I will do as you said. If I sense that you have entered the forest and remain in one place, I will get my bag and my bow and come to you.”

  “How quick can you get to us?” Jason said. “We’d probably stop at the edge of the woods instead of hiking all the way to the bridge.”

  “I will run to you faster than I ever have. I can run very fast in the forest.”

  “We’re counting on it.”

  * * *

  Snow flurries began to swirl on Monday and Tuesday, and the temperature dropped so far that Zach had to wear his heavy winter coat.

  On the way to school on Wednesday his mother said, “They may send us home early today. It depends on what the cold front does. There’s an ice storm heading this way, but it may pass just north of us.”

  “Why don’t they just go ahead and cancel school?” Zach said, looking out of the passenger window at the dark, roiling sky.

  “They don’t want to do that unless they absolutely have to. We only have a few days built into the schedule to allow for weather closings, and they don’t want to use them up too soon or we’ll have to extend the school year in May to make up the time.”

  “What about Jason and them? What will they do if school closes?”

  “They’ll ride home with us. I talked to Tina about it earlier this morning. I’ll drop all of you off at our house and then I’ll have to go to the grocery store real quick before it runs out of everything. I need to pick up bread and milk and stuff in case we get stranded.”

  “Stranded?”

  “If the storm is as bad as the forecasters say it might be, the roads could be closed, and we could be without power for a while. Dad said that happened last year, and it was almost two weeks before the electricity came back on. Be prepared to be chilly because the temperature’s not supposed to get above single digits for the next several days.”

  Zach wrapped his arms around his chest and shivered at the thought. “That’s cold.”

  School closed at noon. It had already begun to sleet as Jason, Justin, Shelby, and Zach crowded into his mother’s Honda and rode back to his house while the frozen precipitation peppered the roof and windshield at an alarming rate.

  She dropped them off in the driveway and left for the store, promising she’d hurry.

  As soon as they entered the kitchen, Zach heard Grandpa call him from the basement. Zach and his friends went to see what he wanted, and they found him kneeling beside the control station, which had its front panel removed, and he had one hand deep inside it. He looked up at them and withdrew his arm. “I’m glad you’re here. The tubes came in first thing this morning, and I just finished installing the last one. Let’s power it up and test it, and if it works, we should go get Bo.”

  Zach’s pulse quickened. “You mean today? Right now?”

  “As soon as possible. What’s the weather doing? Are the roads clear enough?”

  “They’re okay,” Jason said, “but not for long. The sleet is supposed to change over to snow and ice pretty soon.”

  “That means the power might go out.” Grandpa grunted and shook his head. “We’d better hurry, then. If we don’t do this now, it might never happen.”

  “So…um….” Zach fluttered one hand and glanced about the room. “What do we do?”

  Grandpa set the front panel back on the control station and put in the screws to hold it in place. He stood and pressed the main switch and the meters on top swerved to the right and the machine began to hum.

  Each of the cylinders filled with the shimmering fields, and Zach stared at one of them with his fists clenched, fingernails digging into his palms, afraid that the device would shut down at any second. After a couple of minutes, the machine still worked, and Grandpa turned it off. “That’s enough testing. I don’t want to push our luck. I put a regulator and a breaker in the control station, but I’m still worried about it burning out. I don’t know long we can keep it running.”

  “Do we go get Bo, now?” Shelby said.

  Grandpa turned to Zach. “Is your mom here?”

  “She went to the store.”

  “Maybe we can fetch him and send him home before she gets back, but we’ll have to hurry. We’ll take my truck. Can you show me where to go?”

  “Same place we went last time, but we c
an’t all go because we can’t fit inside the cab, and it’s sleeting pretty hard now. Too hard to ride in the back.”

  “I don’t mind,” Jason said.

  “No,” Grandpa said firmly. “That’s not a good idea. Just Zach and I will go, and we might be able to squeeze Bo in with us. The rest of you wait here. If Zach’s mom gets back before we do, tell her that Zach’s with me, helping me with something. If she asks you what, play dumb and tell her you don’t know.”

  “Jason and Justin are good at playing dumb,” Shelby said, “only they’re not playing.”

  Zach waited for an angry retort from one of her brothers, but none came. They seemed too nervous to say anything. I’m nervous, too, Zach realized as he followed his grandfather out of the lab.

  Grandpa’s truck fishtailed on the slippery road when he turned out of his driveway, and Zach gripped the armrest fiercely. “Are we going to make it, Grandpa?”

  “Relax.” He turned the wipers on and they swept the freezing slush from the windshield, but more immediately spattered onto the glass. “I’ve been living here all my life. I know how to drive in this.”

  The sleet was coming down harder since Zach had last been outside, and much of it had accumulated on the hood and in the bed of the truck. More fell away from the bumpers as they slowly accelerated up the road. Grandpa glanced at Zach and said, “Make sure you’re buckled up.”

  “Don’t worry. I am.” He tugged on the seatbelt anyway, just to be sure.

  They were the only vehicle on the road, though there were tracks from where some had recently passed. The twin dark streaks were rapidly filling in with tiny white crystals, and Zach knew they would soon be covered completely.

  Zach guided Grandpa to the dead end street where he and his friends always entered the woods, and Grandpa backed his truck next to the long barricade and turned off the motor. “It’ll be easier to get out this way, if the road gets slicker while we’re gone.”

  He reached behind the seats and produced a black umbrella. “Do you think Bo has one?”

  “I doubt it. He’s tough, though.” They zipped up their coats and climbed out, and Zach hurried to his grandfather’s side and the protection of the umbrella, which Grandpa had already opened.