Canis Major
Page 85
* * *
What do you want from me?
The Jeep cut through the tall summer grass, beating a path to the highway at a speed that made Hector tense in the shoulders and dizzy in the head. It was a blind run through a dark, flaxen field, and had anyone else been at the helm, it would have been suicide. But Hector knew that he wouldn’t be getting off that easy.
What did I ever do to you?
To that, and to all of the other questions he had been asking in his head (no, to his head), there was no reply.
The hood of the Wrangler made a perfect thresher, shooting plumes of grain high into the air. Of course, the seeds only fell back down onto the windshield, making the blind run even blinder—a scenario Hector would have thought impossible when he first began the mad dash. When he tried the wipers, he only fleetingly refreshed his view of the swishing wheat and salt-specked sky.
You told me something before, but I forgot. Tell me again. I’ll remember this time.
The squeak of wiper blades against a dry windshield and the soft whack-whack-whack of lithe, fibrous stalks hitting the front and sides of the vehicle were the only sounds the universe offered in response. He wished the thing in his head would talk. Before, he had prayed for it to shut up. But now that it was gone, he wanted it back.
No I don’t. I hope I never hear that voice ever again. It hurt me—it tortured me—in a way that I’ve never been hurt before. I don’t need it telling me what to do with my life. It was only trying to trick me when it whispered in my ear, telling me things—secrets—I didn’t want to know.
Sensing the rapid approach of the road, Hector toed the brake. The last thing he wanted to do was enter the clearing at fifty miles an hour, skim over the road, and ram into the trunk of a humongous pine on the other side. At the same time, though, the quicker he got out of that infernal pasture, the quicker he’d be able to shake the vague memories of what occurred there.
Because something bad had happened in that field—something very bad. He was told something he hadn’t wanted to know about himself yet had suspected all along. He just wished he could remember what it was.