A deep sputtering rumble caught his attention and he looked back to see an old Ford pickup with blue, faded paint pull into the lot. The old man that got out and walked stiffly toward him gave him a lazy sort of wave. James wore a flannel shirt with an old yellow Carhartt coat buttoned up to his neck. On his head was knitted grey beanie cap with a black pom-pom bouncing around on the top. Further proof that the cold seemed to strike harder at the those who dared to survive it year after year.
“Thanks for meeting me here, Thomas.” His breath came out in quick puffs with the effort of the short walk.
“No problem, James. I was just glad to hear back from you. You sure you’re up for a walk?” He watched the man’s labored breathing and pictured having to pump on his chest and blow air through his old, cracked lips. “I’m happy to sit in the truck and take it easy.”
“No, no, I think I can manage. I’m tougher than I look. Let’s roll.”
As they worked their way along the sidewalk that bordered the outer edge of the park, Thomas noted that James’s idea of rolling was a slow, steady amble. He was confident that the cigarette hanging from the old-timer’s mouth wasn’t helping the situation.
“I wanted to meet you out where nobody could overhear us. Hope you don’t mind.”
“If you don’t, I don’t. You were trying to avoid having guests again?”
James look sideways at him and shrugged. “I don’t mind your company at my place, but some conversations are better shared under the blue sky and the warm sun. Or warm looking sun, as it were. Either way.”
They walked on in silence for a minute, James pulling absently at his smoke and Thomas burying his hands deep in his pockets, respecting the older man’s process. Eventually he became impatient.
“So, you wanted to talk, I assume. About my nephew. At dinner you said you were going to push him, see how he responded. We all saw how he responded. Now I’d like to know what you make of it.” James looked over at him again and Thomas thought that his eyes looked distant and sad, which was an unsettling departure from his normally gruff exterior.
“I’ve seen a lot of things in my life, Thomas. Threw myself into the paranormal and the other oddities of the world for a lengthy spell. Seen people floating above their beds, speaking in other voices and languages. Once even interviewed a woman who claimed to have a talking cat, and you know what? It only seemed to make one sound, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a boo, and directed squarely toward me. Every single time. Never once booed the woman. Damn cat. Anyway, I guess where I’m going here is, I’ve seen a lot, and mostly I think what I seen was bogus. Or at least unconvincing. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it’s either crazy folk, or greedy lying folk. But every once in a while, you get something a little different. Something that makes your sleep at night come only when the blankets are covering your eyes.”
Thomas nodded. He had a few of those nights after coming back from the island, though he wasn’t about to admit it. “And what do you think of this particular case?”
“Last night I just feel asleep in front of the television, but if I’d made it to bed? Well, it was chilly. There’s definitely something strange about your nephew, Thomas. I could feel it as soon as he came in the room. Once I started to wind him up, that kinda sealed the deal for me.”
“It was the eyes?”
“Hell, it was the eyes, the nose, the chin. I mean, what I’m saying is that everything about him told me something wasn’t right. Maybe it was just me, but I felt like the temperature went up in the room by ten degrees once his anger was on him. But the eyes? Yeah that about did it. When he bent over toward me and fixed those black eyes on me . . . don’t know how I’d describe it Thomas, but maybe I don’t need to.”
“They pulled you in. They looked like whirlpools, water being sucked down a drain. For a moment, you stared hard, trying to see if you were really seeing what you were seeing. Then, while you were fixated you suddenly felt yourself slipping. Like you were losing yourself down the spinning rabbit hole. Something like that?”
James looked at him and gave an appreciative nod. “Yup, that about sums it up. I wasn’t sure if I was really seeing it, but I know how I felt, and that was it to a T.”
They finished their first lap of the park while James finished his third cigarette and began work on a fourth. Dead brown pine needles crunched under their feet as they walked on in silence. The shrill scream of one of the teenager girls pealed out and Thomas’s heart jumped. He looked over to see what he assumed was her boyfriend chasing her around with something too small for him to see. Don’t these kids have school?
“So, what now?”
James only shook his head and stared at his feet. “This is where I say that the good news is, I believe you.”
“The bad news?” Thomas braced himself.
“The bad news is I don’t have much of an idea how to help you. I know that’s disappointing to hear, but there just isn’t much to go on here, Thomas. There’s plenty of stories of possession, but I don’t know if I’d think of this the same way. We could put together some documentation and try to appeal to the local Catholic Diocese, but getting an exorcism, these days, is near impossible, and I doubt you’d be able to show much of anything to convince them. There’s other people that claim to exorcise ghosts and spirits, but I don’t know if there’s anybody left these days I would trust.”
“Isn’t that what you used to do? I kind of hoped you’d be able to accomplish that.”
“No, Thomas. I was never much of a one for religion. Saw some things that made me think twice on that, but then again, saw plenty more that didn’t. What I did was investigating. If I came to a hard conclusion, I’d use what I had to get people help. Either documentation for the church, or for those other types, but I don’t know any of those people anymore, Thomas, and I don’t honestly think they could help you if they wanted to. Like I said, this is something different. What I was kinda thinking . . .”
“Go on.”
“You said there was an old woman who seemed to know how to get rid of this Daucina. Back on Fiji. Maybe you’d be best off returning, finding another old witch woman.”
“Not gonna happen, James. Even if I wanted to put myself through that again, Sophie wouldn’t. She sure wouldn’t approve of sending Kai back. They tried to destroy him, for fuck sake.”
“It may be a hard truth to confront, but after what I saw . . .”
“Don’t even go there, James. I’m a long way from considering anything like that. He’s a good kid, overall. It’s not his fault if some monster attached himself to him. Let’s focus on cleansing him, whatever you call it, OK?”
The tone of the conversation brought a chill that only served to deepen the already creeping cold of the morning. The two men walked on in an uncomfortable silence. James flicked a glowing cigarette butt out in front of him. Thomas stooped to pick up a discarded beer can. Though they seemed momentarily at odds, the conversation soon rounded back around in a more productive direction.
“Exorcism is out. Help from the tribe is out. I feel like I should be more help, Thomas. There was a time when I used to thrive on this stuff, but I’m afraid now I’m just old and worn. You’re stuck with a shell. I shouldn’t have suggested doing anything drastic.”
Thomas took that for an apology, gave him a stiff nod, and waved off the words. Truth was, he’d already considered the idea. All the nights lying in bed, wondering what his nephew might be. What he might become. Of course, he had thought about it. He and Sophie were lucky to have survived the encounter with Daucina. He had no intention of going into a second round in that fight.
“Thomas, it is possible that what he is now is all he ever will be. Maybe some fragment of this Daucina’s essence attached to the kid like a STD and he’ll just go on, tainted, but otherwise his normal self.
“You’re a real charmer, James. I suppose we could hope for that.”
“But you don’t buy it. Jesus, son, slow down a bit, will ya? My l
egs are half as long and twice as old.”
Thomas eased up off the gas and tried to spare some of his brainpower on matching the pace of the older man. They were currently on their third lap around the park. Only one of the picnic tables was still occupied as the other teenager had all wandered off to search for some different, but equally unproductive, to accomplish. Thomas steered them to the table furthest from the other couple and James sat with a huff and a grudgingly thankful look. Then he lit of a cigarette took a few seconds recovering.
“Thomas.”
It was said as a statement to get his attention. He realized he’d been staring up at the sky, losing himself in the clouds. They looked like the product of a narrow painter’s brush being dragged across the blue expanse, only the paint was running dry and the clouds were thin and stretched. Just then he felt a kinship with those clouds and he wished he could give the painter a stiff jab.
“Yes, James.”
“Do you think he knows? The kid, do you think he knows that something’s different with him?”
Thomas sighed and ran a hand across his face, as if to wipe the slate clean, and turned his attention down to the rough wooden table. It was carved full of teenage crushes and male genitalia, which didn’t serve to improve his mood. “Hard to say. He’s always acted like he knew he was special somehow. As far as I know, it doesn’t come to any more than that. Hopefully it never does.”
James gave a deep-throated, smoky growl that Thomas took for agreement.
“And what about that old lantern. You said your sister never let it go. Does she still have it?”
“You know, I hadn’t given that thing much thought until we started talking. Thinking back, I should have tossed it overboard. Just to be safe. To answer your question, I have no idea. She’s never brought it up. I think, as far as Sophie is concerned, that lamp was a trophy, in a way. A souvenir of what she went through. I don’t know that it ever crossed her mind that it could be a potential beginning to another, whole new mess.”
James nodded, his cigarette planted between his dry, chapped lips. “It could also be an end. Maybe it’s as simple as that. Get the lantern, smash it to bits, bury it in the woods far from civilization.”
“I think it might just be worth a try. What can it hurt? I’ll bring it up with Sophie. Let’s hope if there’s anything left in that old lamp, it’s sleeping.”
25
As Kai moved through the chilly fall morning in nothing but a short-sleeved T-shirt, he could hear the rumble of a slightly misfiring engine cutting through the quiet. Almost as if by some unintended magical summoning, a dark red Dodge pickup came rumbling down the road and whipped into the end of his driveway, just far enough to get the bed of the truck off the road. As the truck skidded to a halt it kicked up a cloud of dust and sent loose gravel skittering off in every direction.
Off to his right, a squirrel posed on top of a long pine branch that nearly reached the driveway and chittered away in what could only be perceived as indignation. Its bushy tail flicked side to side in agitation and hurled its chastisements down over Lee’s truck and it postured as if it were preparing to fling itself down on the old metal beast.
“Quiet now! Keep that up and you’ll find yourself going up in smoke.”
The squirrel stopped its noise making and gave him a quick sideways look before scrambling down the branch and around the backside of the tree where Kai couldn’t see him. Then its ratty brown head peeked out the other side for a moment, where it gave one last squeak of protest, and it disappeared to the opposite side again. Kai could hear its little claws scrambling up to more peaceful heights.
As he neared the pickup he saw that across the road another Dodge pickup was parked in front of Ms. Garret’s place. This one also red but much newer and much shinier than Lee’s truck. At that moment, the door of the truck opened and a stout man with a short brown beard hopped out. When he turned toward Kai, he looked vaguely familiar. Then, when he walked around the truck and waved Kai over, Kai realized who it was. He held up a finger to Lee and trotted past the truck and across the road.
“Good morning, Officer Garret.” Kai made a motion with his hand as if to rub at his own invisible facial hair. “That’s a different look. You going deep undercover or something?”
“Mr. Garret will do. Or just sir. I’m retired.” Neither his mouth nor his eyes gave any indication that he found humor in Kai’s joke. “I was hoping to catch you on your way to school. Wanted to have a quick chat.”
“Oh, sure. About Ralphie? Did you find the little guy?”
Mr. Garret stared back at him, the color of his eyes matching his stony expression. “That’s what I wanted to speak with you about, Kai. I think I mentioned last time we spoke that I would be coming by to do some yard work. You might remember that conversation?”
“I do.” Kai spoke the words in a half-formed question, wondering where this was going, but sure it was going nowhere good but somewhere interesting.
“This time of year, there’s no shortage of dead leaves and pine needles and I had a pretty good pile raked up. When I went to gather up a load to take to the burn barrel, do you know what I found?”
Kai honestly wasn’t sure what the man might have found. He couldn’t recall seeing clues of the dog left behind on the lawn. Was the ex-cop trying to entrap him? Get him to admit to doing something to the yapping little rat?
“No,” he said. “Are you going to tell me that you found something of little Ralphie in your pile of yard debris?”
“Yo Kai!” Lee’s voice rang out from behind him. Kai reached back one hand with a finger sticking up.
Mr. Garret brought a clenched fist up to waist level, then opened the fist to reveal little Ralphie’s blue and bejewelled collar. “I keep thinking back to what you said the other day. How it was like Ralphie went up in a puff of smoke. Interesting choice of words. I personally don’t see how the little guy slipped his collar by himself. You got any ideas?”
His expression said that he had some ideas. Or one big idea.
“Are you suggesting, sir, that somebody snatched Ralphie and wouldn’t want to keep that handsome collar? I can’t imagine somebody doing such a thing.”
Mr. Garret lowered the hand holding Ralphie’s collar and took a step closer to Kai, seemingly unintimidated by the boy’s massive physique. Kai thought for a moment that if the man were still sporting a service gun on his hip that his hand would be hovering over it right about now. He had a brief temptation to match the man’s movement and take a step forward as well, which would have brought them nose to chest, but refrained.
“You’re pretty charming, aren’t you? A good actor. I’ve seen a lot of people who thought they were good actors, Kai. More than you can imagine. No, I’m not suggesting that somebody took Ralphie and left his collar behind. I’m saying that you did something to him and left some evidence behind. If I didn’t have such a healthy respect for the law, I’d knock you on your ass right now. That’s what I’m really saying.”
Kai stared at the man, heat boiling up inside and coming off him in waves. First King James, now this man. He was tired of restraint. He wanted to put somebody in their place.
“Yo, Kai! Man, we gotta get moving, you know? Gonna miss first bell.”
Kai ignored Lee this time, for the moment. He was busy picturing his fist ramming down through this man’s throat, deep enough that he could grab a hold of something hot and wet and solid, before yanking. Instead, he smiled.
“Not much for evidence, in my opinion. It’s been nice chatting with you, pal. Hope you find the dog. If not, get the old woman a bird. A parrot maybe, I kinda like parrots. They make me think of the tropics.”
Then he turned and jogged back across the road to hop into the truck, leaving Robert Garret standing in a silent rage on the side of the road. As he climbed in the truck, the ex-cop’s voice boomed out after him.
“I’m retired now, and I don’t have much else to do at the moment but focus on you. I’ll b
e seeing you around Kai!”
The truck pulled out and in the back window a one-fingered salute waved back and forth in response.
Lee gave him a curious look. “What was that all about?”
“It was nothing. It won’t be a problem.”
Lee nodded and reached down to flick the old truck’s heating lever up and down rapidly. Then he hovered a hand over the vent next to his steering wheel, frowning. “Old girl is running hot I guess.” He rolled his window down halfway, letting in a rush of frigid air. Then he pulled a can of chewing tobacco out of his front breast pocket and pinched a wad of the stuff out and tucked it deftly in his bottom lip.
Kai only stewed in silence for the moment, eyes fixated on some unseen object in the distance.
“Got some boys lined up for your project,” said Lee after a few minutes.
Kai perked up. “Yeah? How many?”
“As many as I want.” He smiled over at Kai and shook his head. “Truth is, once I put the word out, I had more volunteers than I could use. Seemed like half the guys in class wanted to be involved before they even knew just what they were going to be doing. A few girls, even. You gotta lotta fans. Realistically, I only use a handful or people would just be getting in the way and I wouldn’t be able to look over them all, but I took the best six fellas. Between me and them, we could probably have that thing of yours up in less than two weeks.”
Kai let out a long, satisfied sigh. He felt the anger breaking up and drifting out into the ether. “That’s real good to hear, Lee. Thank you. I got funds lined up. After school we can stop at the bank.”
He grabbed an old soda can from between his legs and spit into it. “How much do we have to work with?”
“Five thousand. I figured that would be enough.”
Lee nodded. “Yeah, reckon that should do it. My dad is a hard-ass, but he ain’t a scrooge. I’ll get a pretty solid discount on materials. Should leave enough to keep the labor happy, although I almost feel like they’d do it for free.”
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