Raven Stole the Moon

by Garth Stein

  At around eleven, the phone rang. Both Robert and Eddie stood up, hoping it was Jenna. Eddie lifted the receiver, but it wasn’t her. It was a man’s voice that sounded familiar, but Eddie couldn’t put his finger on it.

  “Is Jenna there?”

  “Um, no, not right now. Who’s this?”

  “David Livingstone. Is this Eddie?”

  “Yeah,” Eddie said, relieved. Now he recognized the voice. “Is she on her way back? How did it go last night?”

  There was a pause on David’s end of the line.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Is she on her way back?”

  “From where?”

  “Wait a second,” Eddie said, trying to get hold of the situation. “Did you leave her last night?”

  “I’m sorry, Eddie, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Okay, go back. You came here last night and took Jenna, right?”

  “No.”

  Eddie groaned and shook his head. He had been tired last night, he knew, but still. Robert moved closer to Eddie, wanting to know what was going on. Trying to hear the conversation on the other end.

  “All right, so you didn’t come here last night?”

  “No, I was here.”

  “Then who did Jenna go off with who looked like you?”

  As soon as Eddie asked the question, he knew the answer and he became frightened. He had let Jenna go off with someone in disguise. Someone who looked and sounded exactly like a friend.

  “Eddie, where is Jenna now?” David’s voice sounded tight and sharp.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You haven’t heard from her?”

  “Not since last night.”

  “Did she take Oscar with her when she went?”

  “No. Oscar’s dead.”

  There was a long silence between them. Eddie felt a knot in the pit of his stomach, and he was very afraid something terrible had happened. Robert was beside himself, pacing in the background.

  “What’s going on?” Robert asked, impatiently. Eddie waved him off.

  “I called to say I thought I could help her,” David said into Eddie’s ear.

  “That’s what you said last night.”

  “That wasn’t me, Eddie.”

  Eddie sighed loudly, trying to break some of the nervous tension that was mounting in his chest.

  “What? What!” Robert demanded.

  “Look, Eddie, you have to come here right away. Will that be a problem?”

  “No, no problem.”

  “When you get to town, go to Tom at the store and he’ll drive you out. I’m going to need your help.”

  “Right. What about her husband?”

  “Whose husband?”

  “Jenna’s.”

  “He’s there?”

  “Right here.”

  “Bring him.”

  Eddie hung up the phone and Robert threw up his hands.

  “What the hell was that all about?”

  “I’ll tell you in a second,” Eddie said, picking up the phone and dialing, his hands shaking. He couldn’t believe it. It was actually happening. If he had believed what David and Jenna were saying, he would have seen it sooner. The guy last night wouldn’t come in the house and always kept looking out to the water, probably to hide his face so they couldn’t see his eyes. As soon as Oscar died, it arrived. Jenna had to go alone: she had to be isolated from everyone. That meant it was all true. They really did exist. They really did exist and now they had Jenna.

  Field answered the phone with a slurred hello. He had discovered the miracle of painkillers and, with a thick tongue, told Eddie how much he appreciated his friendship.

  “Field, splash some water on your face, drink a cup of coffee, and meet us down by your plane.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Field said with a giggle.

  Great, Eddie thought, hanging up. They were going to fly with a drugged pilot.

  “Let’s go,” he said to Robert.

  “Hold on. What the hell is going on here?”

  “It’s too complicated,” Eddie said, grabbing his jacket off the kitchen chair. “I’ll explain it to you in the plane.”

  “The plane?”

  “We’re going to Klawock.”

  “What the hell is Klawock?”

  Eddie opened the front door.

  “If you want to find Jenna, you’d better come with me. If you want it all to make sense, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong place.”

  Robert shrugged, put on his jacket, and followed Eddie outside. Eddie laughed to himself as they climbed into his truck. Nothing’s easy when Jenna’s involved, that’s for sure, he was learning quickly. Never a dull moment.

  JENNA’S HEART RACED with anticipation as she waited for something to happen. The water was flat and like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding green hills; she looked around and breathed softly so as not to break the silence.

  Finally, after several minutes of floating aimlessly, Jenna decided to make her way to shore. She moved forward in the canoe and took up the paddle. But before she could begin stroking, she heard two bumps from the bottom of the canoe and it began to move. She looked over the side but couldn’t make out anything under the surface of the water. The canoe, however, was being guided by someone or something, ushered through the dark water without any help from Jenna.

  Jenna was excited, not afraid. She had no idea where they were or if they were even in this world. She imagined the night’s journey might have taken her into another dimension. But still, she hoped that she would find the Promised Land. The home of Bobby.

  The bay turned a corner in a kind of dogleg and finally narrowed to a point with a small beach. As the water got shallower, it became more transparent, and now, leaning over the side, Jenna could make out some small creatures under the canoe swimming along with her. The canoe seemed to pick up speed as it approached the beach, finally hitting ground, the nose digging into the sand.

  Still, there was nothing. The creatures she thought she saw pushing the canoe were no longer there. The woods were quiet. Jenna got out of the canoe and stood for a moment, calf-deep in water, letting the blood flow back into her legs. She was hungry and her butt hurt, and for the first time since sometime yesterday she actually felt like a human being.

  She stretched and walked onto the beach, scanning the area for life.

  “Hello?” she called into the woods, but there was no response.

  She walked to the edge of the trees, a thick tangle of underbrush and heavy tree trunks obscured by low-hanging branches, and tried to peer inside. There was something in there. Not a person or a creature but life. A world of its own. The woods were a different world, a universe unto itself, full of mystery and deceit, and yet open for those who dared to venture inside.

  But Jenna didn’t want to go in. She was afraid of what might happen in there. Too many things to hide behind or above or in. Too much unknown. She was in foreign territory as it was and didn’t want to expose herself any further. She went back down to the water’s edge and sat near the canoe. She would wait it out. If they wanted to come, they would come. She would be here for them.

  The first rustle raised the hair on the back of her neck. Like the footsteps she heard on Mount Dewey, there was something measured and controlled about it. As if it were deliberately made audible for her benefit. She turned quickly toward the sound and saw the branches move softly, filling in a hole that had been made by someone or something.

  Then there were more. They seemed to come from all around her. She turned toward each one, always hoping to catch a glimpse of her observers, but she was never quick enough.

  “Hello?” she called out again, but they didn’t care. They were watching and were not going to respond before they were ready.

  The woods seemed alive with movement. Branches all around her swayed from the touch of those inside, and Jenna was starting to regret her position. She was afraid now that these were not the friendlies she had hope
d for. If they were, why wouldn’t they come out and show themselves?

  Finally, she could take it no more. The stalking was getting to her, and as much as she wanted to wait it out and find out what was there, the tension was too much. Her fear got the best of her and she ran to the canoe. She had to escape. As she pushed the canoe into the water, she looked back to the woods and saw him. A young boy. The same boy she had seen in front of Eddie’s house. Thick, curly hair. Big eyes. Standing there, watching her.

  “Bobby?” she called, but he didn’t respond.

  She let go of the canoe and moved closer. The movement in the woods had stopped, or maybe Jenna blocked it out. To her, there were only the two of them. When she was within arm’s length of the boy, she knelt down and looked closely at him. His eyes were black like shiny stones, which, she thought, only made his face more beautiful. Round features and darkly tanned skin, Jenna’s heart leapt out to him. It was the first time she had seen him since the day they took him away, and she could not believe it.

  “Bobby?” she asked, once again.

  The little boy nodded.

  “Hi, Mommy,” he said.

  Jenna’s reaction was different than she expected. She didn’t cry, she laughed. She laughed and laughed and reached out for him, taking him into her arms and holding him. He was real. A boy. Breathing and moving and talking, and she held on to him. Held him tight so he wouldn’t get away.

  “You came for me,” Bobby said.

  “Yes, baby, I came for you. I came for you.”

  She pulled away from him to get a look. She couldn’t believe her eyes. How good he looked, how good he felt. He was hers again. After all this time. She was with her son.

  He took her hand and led her toward the woods.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Home,” he said, parting the branches and stepping into the world of the forest. And Jenna, vowing never to let go of his hand again, followed him inside.

  Chapter 36

  THE AIRPLANE WAS TOO LOUD FOR ROBERT TO HEAR EDDIE. ON the drive out to Livingstone’s house, Eddie was once again relegated to the back of Tom’s pickup while Robert rode in the cab. So when they got to David’s house, Robert knew little more than when they had left Wrangell. And he was really mad.

  David greeted them at the door. He was dressed in jeans and a denim shirt decorated with beaded fringes, and he had a bright red blanket wrapped over his shoulders. In the living room, a fire raged in the fireplace. Outside, the leaves sparkled in the wind.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t stop it,” Eddie said to David. ”I saw the whole thing. It makes so much sense now. He wouldn’t let me see his eyes.”

  “They can be very persuasive. They can fog your mind.”

  “I should have stopped it.”

  “Where’s my wife, please?” Robert broke in, exasperated. He was tired of asking the same question over and over again.

  “He doesn’t know?” David asked Eddie.

  “First of all, I’m standing right here, so you can talk directly to me,” Robert broke in. “B, I don’t know shit. And, three, who the hell are you and what did you do with my wife?”

  “I didn’t do anything with your wife, Mr. Rosen. Your wife was taken by the kushtaka.”

  “And who are the kushtaka?”

  “They’re Indian spirits. They took your son two years ago.”

  Robert threw up his hands.

  “Un-fucking-believable! In this day and age! You know, if this were Borneo or something I could imagine a shaman telling me this. But this is America! We have a public education system that’s second to none! I can’t believe this crap.”

  “Robert,” Eddie interrupted, trying to calm him down, “I saw it with my own eyes. Someone who looked like David came to the house last night and took Jenna.”

  “Hey, Einstein, did you ever think maybe it was David and this is all a big sham?”

  “It wasn’t me, Robert, I was right here. The kushtaka are shape-shifters. They read your thoughts and appear to you as someone you trust. Usually it’s a relative; sometimes it’s a friend. If you don’t trust anyone, they’ll appear as a stranger.”

  “Two words,” Robert said, holding up two fingers. “Bull and shit.”

  David took the blanket from his shoulders and put it in his backpack, which was already heavy with supplies.

  “I’m not asking you to believe anything, Mr. Rosen,” David said, moving to the door. “Your wife and son are with the kushtaka. You can choose to believe it or not; it doesn’t change the truth. I’m going to get them. If I’m lucky, I’ll come back. If I’m very lucky, I’ll bring Jenna with me.”

  He opened the glass door and turned to Eddie.

  “I need you to keep that fire going no matter what. That fire is my beacon. Without it, I may not find my way back.”

  Eddie nodded.

  “You two will be safe in here. You should stay inside until I get back. If I’m not back in eight days, I left the number for my wife in Vancouver. Call her. She’ll know what to do.”

  David stepped outside and headed across the clearing toward the trees in the distance.

  EIGHT DAYS? IT resonated in Robert’s head. For some reason he was having a hard time digesting the concept. Eight days. That’s one day more than a week. A hundred and sixty hours plus thirty-two hours is a hundred and ninety-two. How could Livingstone be gone that long? How could he expect Robert to be in the same room with Eddie for that long?

  Robert and Eddie sat in silence for the better part of an hour. That left a hundred and ninety-one to go. And for that one hour they were together, everything that Eddie did drove Robert up the wall. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. Eddie, standing before the fire, poking it methodically with the poker, pushing at the logs to let the flames eat up the wood. Leaning down and blowing on the embers to make them glow. Delicately positioning a new log on top of the others. How annoying can it get?

  He wondered what, exactly, it was about Eddie that Jenna liked. His brutality, probably. His mountain man mentality. How about the fact that he made fires. Robert hadn’t built a fire in their house for years. It smelled the place up and got the floor dirty. Maybe it came down to building fires. Robert had suggested replacing their fireplace with a gas unit a while ago and Jenna rejected it outright. Robert should have seen the signs.

  If there was something to distract him. A TV so he could watch the weather channel or something. Anything. An old videotape of Blade Runner that he could watch over and over again. If he had to sit in the living room with Crocodile Dundee over here for another hundred and ninety hours he thought he would go insane.

  “Don’t they have a TV here?” Robert finally asked.

  “I doubt it,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “We’re pretty far away from anything.”

  “They could get one of those new personal antenna deals. You know, the ones that get nine hundred channels.”

  Eddie nodded silently, looking into the fire. Robert wondered if he watched any sports. They must have football in Alaska. Or basketball. Didn’t he see an article once about basketball being a cult thing in Alaska? High school teams traveling all over the state for tournaments.

  “What happened to your arm?” Robert asked.

  “Fishing accident.”

  Robert nodded.

  “You’re a fisherman?”

  “Yep.”

  “Is it true all fishermen are alcoholics?”

  Eddie looked up at Robert, who was sitting at the dining table on the other side of the room. He couldn’t tell if Robert was being nasty or just had a grim sense of humor.

  “No,” Eddie said, turning back to the fire.

  Robert stood up and moved toward Eddie, taking a seat on the sofa across from the fireplace.

  “I’m sorry, did I offend you? I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “You didn’t offend me,” Eddie said.

  Robert watched Eddie poke at the logs and was struck by the idea that this guy may have
been poking Jenna, too. He denied it, true, but still, Robert didn’t believe him. Robert suspected that Jenna and Eddie were conspiring against him. Maybe this was all a big hoax to lure Robert out into the remote wilderness and kill him. Maybe Eddie was just warming up the poker until it was white hot, and then he would run Robert through with it.

  Robert suddenly felt repulsed by Eddie, and he decided he wanted a straight answer so everybody could see everyone else’s cards. It’s not fair to hide things if you’re about to spend eight days with someone. Let’s lay it all out. Let the chips fall where they may.

  “Tell me, Eddie, did you fuck my wife?”

  Eddie turned and raised his eyebrows, surprised.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Did you fuck my wife?”

  Eddie stood up and brushed off his jeans.

  “I don’t think that’s the issue here,” Eddie said, unsure of how he should respond.

  “Oh, that’s the issue, all right. You know, you were very good back in the house last night, denying the whole thing. I believed it for a while. You know, that Jenna had come up here to get away for a while and get her head straight—”

  “That is why she came up here.”

  “I believe that. I believe that. But then when you put the dog in the truck and drove away, I saw the way she was sitting in the truck. She was too close, you know? She was right on top of you, and that’s when I realized you were lying.”

  Robert fiddled with the zipper on his jacket, trying to act nonchalant, trying to calm himself in the face of his anger.

  “So, I want to know, straightforward, you know? Man to man. Did you fuck my wife?”

  Eddie didn’t want to answer that question. It wasn’t that he cared if Robert knew; he just didn’t like the phrasing. Fuck. He didn’t fuck Jenna; that’s not how it happened.

  “I don’t understand,” Robert said, forcing a laugh. “Why can’t you answer me?”

  Eddie looked at Robert and saw the anger and confusion in his eyes, and, man to man, he wanted to tell him.