“I’m not ready to do that yet. Will you lay down with me?”
“If that’s what you want.” She lies next to Marshall on the bed, he looks up at the ceiling and he sees her doing the same.
“Do you think we’ll ever see each other again? Not like this but somewhere else, beyond this life.”
“I don’t know, do you think we will?”
“No, I don’t believe in an afterlife. That’s why I don’t want times like this to end.”
“I’ll keep coming back until you’re ready for me to go away.”
“I might not ever be ready for that though.”
“One day you will be.”
“I can’t think of a reason why.”
“Acceptance.”
“Once I’ve accepted that you’re gone, then you won’t come back?”
“I think that’s how it works.”
“Does this mean that I’m crazy?”
“The mind does strange things to deal with traumatic events. I don’t have the answers though. I don’t know why I’m here, I don’t know how, I don’t know where I go when this stops. I just know that once you’ve accepted the truth, I’ll quit coming around.”
“I’m not ready for that yet, provided that’s all right with you.”
“I don’t know anywhere else I’d rather be.”
“I can’t think of a better place either,” Marshall says, he lays there beside her looking up at the ceiling until he falls asleep, when he wakes up in the morning, she is gone. He takes a shower and brushes his teeth, he gets dressed and grabs his notepad and his recorder, he places his hat on and his coat and locks up the room before he heads to the car.
Marshall stops by for a cup of coffee on his way to the treatment facility, he signs in at the desk, he is taken to a visiting room, Marshall sets his video recorder on the table, he takes out his notepad, the boy is brought into the room by two men wearing white, Marshall sees the glass and knows it’s two-way. “I’m Detective Tumbler,” Marshall begins.
“You’ve got to get me out of this place,” the boy says.
“I may be able to help you with that. I’m recording our conversation. I just need for you to tell me the truth.”
“I can tell what I remember.”
“Just do the best you can. I’m looking for a man, a carpenter who dresses in brown, green, or a combination of the two, very intelligent, amasses large groups of people, always lives in cabins. Do you know this man?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Did he ever tell you his name?”
“No, he said names were not important. We called him the brown man but other people called him the man in brown.”
“How long did you know him?”
“Two years, I think.”
“What were the years?”
“2007-2009.”
“How did you meet him?”
“I met him in the woods.”
“Do you remember the name of the woods?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Do you think you could point it out on a map?” Marshall asks.
“Yes,” the boy says, Marshall holds out a map of Kirksville and the surrounding area, the boy points to the southeast edge of the map, the same place where the cabin was.
“Who were you with when you met him?”
“I can’t remember.”
“But you weren’t alone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me everything you know about him.”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Just tell me the truth. I don’t think you’re crazy.”
“He lived in a cabin, the rest of us lived in tents, there was one family that lived in a cave. He said we were a community, he said society was doomed; he said it would destroy itself but if we stuck together, we’d be the survivors. He said it’s in our nature to destroy ourselves, he said we’re good at it, we destroy everything. But out in the woods, he could protect us, I had seen him casting spells, I had seen him tell people their future, we would all meditate together. He had a group of the fittest adult members, they were called the forbearers. They would go out hunting and bring food back, none of us had electricity, the brown man said we didn’t need it.”
“Can you describe what he looks like?”
“He has a dark complexion but he’s not black, older white man but dark from the sun. His hair was graying but it was mostly a light brown, he had dark eyes, his hands were rough like granite or sandpaper. He wore a brown hat; it looked like yours except for the color. He always had Clara with him, I think she was an orphan too, that or she was his daughter.”
“Can you describe Clara for me?”
“She was blonde, she had green eyes, her skin was darker too, her hair was always kept short, she would wear dresses but most of the time she wore jeans and t-shirts, she went barefoot most of the time, other times she would wear sandals.”
“Did she ever give you her last name?”
“No, she didn’t, she was just Clara.”
“How old was she?”
“I think she said she was fourteen, almost fifteen.”
“Did she say how long she had been with him?”
“No, I have no idea. She could have been his daughter but I thought she was an orphan.”
“What made you think she was an orphan?”
“Because that’s what I am. Once you’re an orphan, you can recognize it in others. I can’t really explain it.”
“Who were your parents?”
“I can’t remember.”
“If I gave you names, would that help?”
“I don’t know.”
“Brandon and Maggie O’Sullivan, Brenda Cartwright, out of those three do any of them sound familiar?”
“Maggie O’Sullivan sounds familiar.”
“Any details you can give me would help.”
“Part of my memory is blank for a reason. Most of my childhood is blank. I really don’t know what happened.”
“We can focus on what you do know. Tell me about Clara.”
“We watched the stars together, we watched the big bear and the little bear; I didn’t see her every day. She said the man in brown was educating her; she always called him her father. I had gone hunting with her before.”
“Were you two given guns?”
“No, we each used a bow and arrow.”
“Who taught you how to hunt?”
“I was taught by the others, she never told me who taught her.”
“By the others, you mean his followers?”
“Yes, the followers.”
“What can you tell me about them?”
“They became family, some had followed him before, others had found their way to him in Kirksville.”
“Could you give me some of their names?”
“Just the ones I can remember. Can I write them down?”
“Sure,” Marshall says as he hands him a sheet of paper from his notebook, the boys begins writing names down.
“Some of the last names, I’m not sure about the spelling, but this is everyone. I remember, some of them used nicknames,” the boy says as he slides the list over to Marshall, Marshall puts it in his notepad.
“Thank you. Now this education that Clara received, do you know what it involved?”
“The strange thing is she said she had a lot of responsibility but the man in brown was the one doing all the talking. I mean she participated in the ceremonies and she meditated with all of us, but the man in brown would speak to us.”
“What would he say?”
“He talked a lot about worshipping ourselves. He said our impulses and instincts were natural and needed to be acted upon. He said there was no man in the sky; self-improvement was the most important thing. Whatever pleasured us, we should pursue it.”
“Is that why you fell in love with Clara?”
“How’d you know that?”
“You never said it but you still told me. Any other deta
ils you remember about her?”
“She bathed every day, which with that group, was something, she smelled like flowers. One day I told her that we should run away together, when we were a little older.”
“What was her response?”
“She told me that maybe one day we could but she said I would have to follow her and the others would come too. I told her I meant just the two of us, she said it might be possible someday but she had to take care of the people.”
“He was grooming her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did the man in brown ever express any concern about dying or about getting caught?”
“He said a man should face death as an adversary. He said a wise man fears death because life brings so much pleasure. Death is what a survivor fights against, you never go willingly. He said every man who was true to himself was an outlaw; he said the only people that could be trusted were exiles and outcasts. He said that a man who felt like he belonged in normal society was a man beyond help.”
“Do you believe in all these things?”
“I do, I’m an outcast and I fear death.”
“Anything else you want to tell me?”
“You won’t believe me, I told them about it and they thought I was crazy. They didn’t call me crazy but I could tell they thought I was.”
“Just tell me what you told them, I won’t judge you.”
“The family that protected the cave, they had been with the man in brown for a long time; it was just a mother, a father, and a son. There were the McClonkins, they kept to themselves. They had to guard the cave because the leviathan was in there. The man in brown said if you had to worship something outside yourself, you should worship the leviathan.”
“So what was that all about?”
“No one actually saw it in the cave, some of the little ones said they did but you know how kids get. People started to put together that what the forbearers were doing was part of a sacrifice to keep the leviathan satiated.”
“What were the forbearers doing?” Marshall asks though he knows the answer. The boy looks around though no one else is in the room.
“I don’t think I should say.”
“I need to know what they did.”
‘They killed people.”
“Did you actually witness them killing anyone?”
“I didn’t see them in the act but we all knew, I saw a body one time.”
“Was it a male or female?”
“Female.”
“What happened to the body?”
“They carried it to the cave; they gave it to the McClonkins.”
“Then what happened?”
“We never saw the body again. There was another thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The body of that woman didn’t have a head.”
“The head was gone when they brought it back?”
“Yes, it was gone.”
“Did you have any idea who the woman was?”
“No, the man in brown always said that murder should only be for enemies.”
“Did he define who those enemies were?”
“He said if anyone cast a curse on us, that person should be killed. Then trespassers, if they came asking questions, then we had the right to kill them.”
“But the people that were killed weren’t just trespassers or people who cast curses were they?”
“I don’t think so, I think the forbearers kept killing, I think they thought that’s what the leviathan wanted.”
“Yet no one saw the leviathan?”
“Well, the man in brown talked about it, the McClonkins saw it, and a few of the kids, but none of us believed the kids.”
“So the man in brown wanted the forbearers to kill?”
“Yes, but not the way they did it, he lost control of them or they stopped listening. Maybe the rules were different for them.”
“How so?”
“If anyone else didn’t follow the way, they were exiled.”
“So it was obedience or exile?”
“Not exactly, the man in brown never asked for obedience, there weren’t any rules, just suggestions. He cared about us, he always had followers.”
“Then who did he exile?”
“People that could threaten the community, people he didn’t trust.”
“Would you describe him as a paranoid person?”
“I don’t know, he seemed concerned about outsiders but I don’t know if he was paranoid.”
“So why were you exiled?”
“I think he viewed me as a threat.”
“To him?”
“No, because of Clara. She had feelings for me; I felt the same way about her. One night she told me they were leaving but she didn’t know where they were going, I asked her to come with me, she said that she couldn’t. We sat in a big old tree, I kissed her. I assumed I would be going with them, wherever they were heading but I went out hunting in the woods one day, I went further out because I was by myself, when I came back they were all gone.”
“How long were you away hunting?”
“I was out there three hours.”
“And in three hours, they packed up their tents, abandoned the cabin, and they left?”
“It may have been four hours.”
“I’m having a problem understanding how that happened so quickly. I’ve been out to those woods, they didn’t leave anything behind.”
“None of us had many possessions, it surprised me too.”
“So instead of casting you out, they abandoned you?”
“They didn’t want me to be a part of the community anymore.”
“What did you do when they abandoned you?”
“I hunted in the woods; the cabin was abandoned so I would sleep there. It was all right for the first few months, then I had a nightmare.”
“What was the nightmare about?”
“I became an old man, I was living out there alone, I would sit in that same tree that Clara and I sat in, I would watch the stars and the moon, my vision wasn’t so good in the dream, I couldn’t hunt as well, I was waiting for something to come and finish me off, I went to the cave and I saw the fiery eyes down there, it was hungry, that’s how I went out, I let the leviathan finish me off.”
“Is that nightmare what made you come back into town?”
“Partly, winter was coming too; I thought my chances were better if I came back in.”
“Have you told them this whole story?” Marshall asks as he nods towards the door.
“No, not all of it, I told them the parts that didn’t make me look crazy.”
“And they still think you’re crazy anyway.”
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
“No, I don’t. You’re suffering from amnesia, more than likely due to tragic events; it’s your brain’s way of coping with what happened. I haven’t ruled out that part of it may be drug-induced though it’s unlikely. Those periods you can’t remember are hidden for a reason. I can say I’ve never met anyone that wasn’t drugged, that couldn’t remember their own name.”
“I gave them the name I remembered.”
“But there is no Brian Camston.”
“I don’t understand what happened then. I lost who I was along the way.”
“But you know that you came from Kirksville?”
“Yes, born and raised.”
“And you have no recollection of your parents?”
“No, there’s nothing there.”
“You told the police that they were dead.”
“I thought it was easier that way.”
“If you think of anything else, here’s my card.”
“Are you going to get me out of here?”
“I’ll do what I can, I’ll find answers for you, they might not be answers that you want.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ll talk again. Once I know more, I can explain,” Marshall says, he turns his camera off, he tucks his notepad un
der his arm, he shakes the boy’s hand before he goes to the door and knocks. “You’re going to be all right, kid,” he tells the boy though he doesn’t know if that’s true, an orderly opens the door, Marshall asks if he can speak to the psychiatrist in charge of evaluating the boy.
“That’s Doctor Charras,” the orderly replies.
“I need to talk to the doctor about the boy before I leave.” Marshall is led down a hallway, through two doors, and down another white hallway, the orderly tells him to have a seat outside of the doctor’s office, Marshall sits down and removes his hat, he looks at it and turns it over in his hands, he waits until the doctor opens the door. “Doctor Charras, I’m Detective Tumbler.”
“Sir, I am very busy,” the doctor replies.
“I need to talk to you about the boy they found in the woods. He seems to be suffering from some form of dissociative amnesia. I also think he may be suffering from drug-induced amnesia as well.”
“Forgive me detective, but I make the diagnoses around here.”
“The boy isn’t crazy and I think I can figure out who he is.”
“The former is for me to determine, the latter would be of interest to both me and the police.”
“I’m assuming there were no drugs in his system when he was brought in?”
“No, there were not.”
“When will he be released?”
“Seeing how the boy has no insurance, once my evaluation is complete, he’ll be handed over to the state, placed in a foster home provided he gets his temper under control.”
“Temper?”
“Yes, he attacked three of our orderlies. See you may talk to the child and feel pity for him but children, in this case a teenager, they’re much like us. He tells you what you want to hear, he portrays himself as a vagabond, but there are dark impulses in that boy.”
“Did he tell you those stories about the people in the woods?”
“Oh yes, the serpent in the cave, the headless body, the boy suffers from hallucinations.”
“There were three murders in Kirksville and all that was found were their heads.”
“Yes and everyone in town knew about it. The boy is desperate for attention. I’ve seen it countless times before, they make up these stories and then they tell them so many times they begin to convince themselves they are real.”
“What advice do you give someone suffering from hallucinations?”
Detective Tumbler and the Man in Brown (Detective Tumbler Trilogy Book 2) Page 4