When the air swirled bitter and black, an inexplicable hollowness attached itself to the middle days of December. Although a penchant for motley-colored bulbs and tinsel existed for those inclined to recognize seasonal celebrations, darkness dangled like an iron weight in the lower atmosphere, while daylight grew shorter more rapidly than it did in any other month. A presence of the new Moon did nothing to rejuvenate those who felt victimized by the lingering shadows of winter. Those most at risk for encountering some degree of despair usually resided alone, doomed to lament the agonies of their isolation amid a deprivation of sunlight.
In Belle Falls, the holiday hubbub became a mixed blessing for its cheery and weary inhabitants. For those families who embraced the gaudily lit spruces adorning Main Street, all seemed as joyous as they conjured in their dreams. Many residents welcomed the sight of children frolicking atop snowy embankments; they also hummed along with synchronized melodies echoing from a nearby church steeple. For these folks, food and mirth commingled like old friends along the bedecked byways and boulevards. The festivities amounted to an infectious splendor that dissolved like candy in its supporters’ bloodstreams.
Others coincided with such merriment while suspended in a brooding silence, resenting the tedium of their lives, but at the same time refusing to partake in the masquerade at large. They scoffed at the notion of robotically lurching along twinkling avenues in search of gadgets and gewgaws, while excessively purchasing to the merchants’ delight in order to symbolize a sentiment that had long-since lost its original intent.
Whether they loved or loathed the jingle and jangle of the calendar’s most heralded season, there was something and nothing for everyone who lived within its range. The transformation of both heart and home may have been as artificial as a star glimmering atop an evergreen, but no one denied its affect among those who assembled beneath its glow.
Ryan’s recollections of Christmas faded from his consciousness like a dying comet. In truth, most of the childhood luxuries that so many took for granted were filched from him at an early age. Other memories had simply been sullied to a degree where he no longer wanted to be reminded of happier occasions. Shortly after his grandmother’s death, Ryan was assigned the chore of removing or dismantling all items within his home related to the holidays. Frank’s detestation toward anything remotely connected to artificial bliss became increasingly evident. At about that same time, Ryan surrendered his own desire to indulge in any sort of jollity. If maintaining harmony within his home entailed a rejection of materialism and indulgent decorations, then Ryan was prepared to exist in the stark surroundings ordered by his grandfather.
The only custom Frank Banner still found acceptable during the festive season was the excessive drinking that seemed almost socially preferable. On this evening, as Frank consumed his liquor in the privacy of his living room, Ryan readied himself for a night exploring a vast canvass of stars. He presumed to be joining Victor for this outing, but his friend neglected to inform Ryan that he had arranged for another guest to stand in his place.
Hailey Gardner rarely made an effort to be on time for anything, and this was particularly accurate when meeting a boy for a date. Somewhere in her upbringing, she was tutored with an antiquated custom that deemed it permissible for a girl to be tardy for personal appointments. This concession usually translated into fifteen or twenty minutes on a boy’s clock. Hailey had undeniably abused this privilege in the past, but she elected to be punctual on this one occasion.
At precisely seven in the evening, Hailey pulled her 1974 ruby-colored Mustang up in front of the only gray bi-level situated on Pine Drive. Her chrome-trimmed vehicle, which generated the snooping neighbors’ admiration, was in itself a statement contrary to her prissy image. No one expected a svelte-bodied 18-year-old girl to emerge from the car’s ebony-leather interior, but this juxtaposition served her well. In true form, Hailey behaved in ways defying the cliques to which she was so often associated. Arriving to pick up Ryan for a date in a bon fide muscle car showcased yet another extension of her unpredictable nature.
This evening’s air blew cold and crisp, but those intrepid enough to venture outside served witness to a cloudless sky threaded with flecks of white fire. Had it not been for a surplus of artificial light washing the natural habitat into near obscurity, one could have camped beneath this grand grove of stars and connected the constellations with imaginary lines.
Hailey approached the front porch of Ryan’s house with no such expectations. In reality, she questioned the ramifications of her judgment for the entire drive over, and almost reversed her car at one point along Main Street. But whatever energy compelled her to steer the vehicle toward his home proved to be overpowering. No matter how she tried to find fault with her motivations, it seemed fated that she arrived on Ryan’s doorstep in order to discover more about a boy who everyone expected her to shun.
While Hailey waited for the front door to open, she noticed how undecorated Ryan’s house was in comparison to the others on the street. Not even a single strand of Christmas lights or an ornamentation of any variety made its way to the home’s exterior. In fact, the simple courtesy of a dull porch light’s glow had not been provided for her arrival either. She stood in the blackness of his doorway for several seconds, just long enough to detect the chipped red paint on the door’s surface. The door then opened on a hinge that had not been oiled since Margaret Banner died.
Ryan appeared in the door’s threshold and became essentially speechless as his eyes collided with Hailey’s uneasy smile. After a moment of contemplation, he realized that Victor had cleverly arranged this encounter. If Ryan was displeased by her presence, he did not reveal such an expression now. Instead, he forwarded a bland grin and attempted not to appear too startled. Hailey studied the boy’s shifting eyes with prudence and probably suspected that he had no clue about her plans to visit him tonight. But at this juncture the details of how they ended up together did not really matter. Hailey had Ryan in a position where he could not have turned her away without permanently severing all communication between them.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Hailey teased. “It’s kind of cold out here.”
Ryan peered tentatively over his shoulder, motioning to check if the doorbell had disturbed his grandfather’s drinking. Fortunately, nothing of consequence stirred inside his home, which indicated that Frank had mercifully drank himself into yet another state of unconsciousness.
Hailey then noticed that Ryan had already donned his leather jacket and looped a pair of binoculars around his neck. “How’s your grandpa doing?” she asked in a suddenly docile tone. “I heard he’s very sick.”
“Yes—very,” answered Ryan, stepping gingerly onto the porch beside Hailey. He closed the door partially so that neither of their voices carried into the house’s foyer. “He’s not doing so well tonight,” he added. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go inside.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Hailey seemed partially perplexed by Ryan’s furtiveness. “I mean—can you leave him alone?”
“He’s not going to get any worse at this point,” Ryan declared, not realizing Hailey’s ignorance to the true cause of Frank’s sickness. She continued to watch Ryan as he paced over to the porch’s railing and looked across the front yard at her Mustang parked alongside the curb.
Ryan never pretended to be a connoisseur of cars, but he even recognized the simplistic beauty of her vehicle. “Nice car,” he remarked, but not with the awe-inspired enthusiasm that most of Hailey’s male friends expressed.
“Thanks,” she said dismissively. “My dad really likes vintage cars. I just wanted something fast.”
Ryan pivoted toward Hailey again, but he stared over her shoulder through the opening into his house. This time Hailey aimed her eyes in the same direction. She sensed a tinge of timidity in his actions that became quite contagious.
“Hey,” she said, “did I come at a bad time? Victor told me you wanted me to pick you up at s
even.” Hailey checked her silver wristwatch to confirm her promptness.
“Oh—yes,” said Ryan, playing the game as well as was able. “That’s right—I did say seven on the nose.”
“So what did you have in mind?” Hailey relaxed a bit after she sensed Ryan was more nervous than she appeared to be. She casually shuffled closer to him and pointed to the binoculars with a lighthearted smile. “What are they for? Are you a peeping tom or something?”
Hailey giggled at her silliness, which she secretly hoped was indeed a joke. In his clumsiness, Ryan had almost forgotten about the eye gear he wore so conspicuously. He took the binoculars in his hands and forced a chuckle at Hailey’s sense of humor.
“The only things I peep at are the stars in the sky,” Ryan assured her.
“What a shame,” responded Hailey coyly as she edged closer to the boy. She then used her sexiest voice to utter, “Isn’t there anything else you’d rather get a better look at?”
If Hailey attempted to initialize the art of flirtation in her mannerisms, then Ryan appreciated the way in which she dabbled in it. Surprisingly, he felt soothed by her presence tonight and thus far did not experience difficulty forming the proper words to engage in conversation with her.
“Do you like to look at constellations?” he asked her. Hailey had not truly given much consideration to the hobby in the past, but she realized that such a response would have alienated her from Ryan’s pastime.
“I guess I always wanted to learn a little about astronomy,” she answered, while tilting her head toward the sky. Directly overhead, just in her line of sight, something gleamed like a white diamond in the early evening darkness. Its resplendency outshone every other object in the sky, save for the Moon. Hailey pointed it out with a childish fascination that Ryan found exhilarating.
“What’s that star called—the one up there?” she asked, wagging her finger in the general vicinity of its presence. The town’s light pollution made it impossible to see all of the stellar world’s offerings, but Ryan recognized this one with a single glance.
“Actually, that’s not a star, Hailey,” Ryan explained. “It’s the planet Venus. From our view here on Earth, it’s brighter than any star.”
Hailey seemed humbled at this bit of information, but the moment reminded her why she was so attracted to Ryan. “That’s really cool,” she thought aloud. “I never thought you could see Venus without a telescope. How can you tell the difference of it from a star?”
Ryan did not wish to transform their initial date into a lecture on interplanetary characteristics, but Hailey’s alacrity on the subject inspired him to be accommodating.
Before the notion fled from his mind, Ryan removed his binoculars from around his neck and held them next to Hailey’s face.
“Look through these,” he advised her, while guiding the lenses at an angle toward the sky where she fixated her gaze. After she pressed her brow against the eyepieces, Ryan continued with his explanation. “You see the vapors of Venus’s atmosphere—its white clouds reflect 72 percent of sunlight.”
“Do you think there could be life on Venus?”
Ryan shook his head, sternly rejecting the prospect. “With an atmosphere primarily consisting of carbon dioxide and a constant rain laced with sulfuric acid, it’s highly unlikely that any life form could exist in such an environment.”
“I’m impressed,” said Hailey, snuggling closer to Ryan in an effort to generate body heat. “I bet you’ve spent a lot of time looking at the stars and planets.”
“Practically my entire life,” Ryan sighed. He paused briefly to deliberate the oddity of his own obsession. His eyes then methodically swayed to the pale Moon as he spoke. “I wasn’t always this way,” he announced. “Believe it or not, Hailey, there was a time when I was even afraid of the Moon.”
Hailey assumed Ryan was kidding her. She laughed but received no similar reaction. “Come on, Ryan, you’re fooling with me—right? I mean, the Moon can’t hurt anything,” she said declaratively.
“When you’re seven-years-old anything you don’t fully understand can frighten you.” Ryan hastily lightened his moody statement by casting a grin that made him feel increasingly awkward. “I used to think the Moon was following me,” he admitted.
“We all think that—and it’s made of cheese too,” Hailey simpered.
“I suppose it’s pretty silly in retrospect,” Ryan chortled. “But I think I wanted to educate myself about the universe so that I would never be afraid of anything in the heavens again.”
“Has it helped?” asked Hailey giddily.
Ryan hesitated momentarily and peered deeper into the sky. All seemed peaceful within the provinces of space and his mind. “Let’s just say I see things much more clearly than I once did.”
“I’d like to learn more,” Hailey whispered, and in such a manner that Ryan was not entirely certain if she was referring to the stars any longer.
The comfort between this unlikely pair took shape quite unexpectedly. Neither Ryan nor Hailey anticipated an unmistakable chemistry intertwining their thoughts. Hailey acted genuinely intrigued by Ryan’s scope of knowledge, and each second spent in his company reaffirmed her desire to explore his intellect as meticulously as he perused the evening sky.
“Can you show me some more stars?” Hailey asked imploringly, while staring through the binoculars. “I want to know what you do about them all.”
“Well, we can’t really see too many constellations here tonight without a telescope. There’s too much light in the sky.” Ryan considered retrieving his Newtonian Reflector from his room, but such an action might have riled his grandfather.
“Let’s go somewhere else,” Hailey suggested, now sounded a bit courageous. “We can go somewhere darker—more private.”
“Where do you have in mind?”
“There’s a place I know just outside of town that some of my friends and I used to go to hang out. It’s on top of a grassy hill—there’s an old stone tower up there.”
Ryan knew precisely where Hailey meant, but he had never ventured there himself. “You’re talking about the old Indian Tower,” he said. “I think there’s a tiny cemetery up there, too.”
“Yeah,” Hailey remembered excitedly. “An Indian burial ground, I think.”
“So you hang out there?”
“I don’t,” insisted Hailey. “I haven’t been there since last summer, but I know it’s a lot darker than here.”
“And colder,” Ryan remarked, but he did not seem particularly bothered by the frigid air. Contrarily, Hailey already appeared to be shivering when he asked her, “Are you sure you can handle it?”
“You or the cold?” Hailey smirked mischievously. While Ryan blushed, Hailey clarified herself. “Don’t worry—if it gets too chilly, we can sit in my car. I have a sunroof—so we can look at the stars without even getting outside.”
Ryan was not sure if they were truly planning to embark on any stargazing mission, but her offer seemed too enticing to turn down. “It sounds like a good idea,” he said. His eyes then connected more ardently with the girl who stood within an arm’s length from him. He then repeated in a murmur, “A very good idea.”
Of course every good idea was usually counterbalanced by an unforeseen consequence. In this case, getting into a vehicle with Hailey behind the wheel registered as a lapse in judgment in Ryan’s mind. She often mentioned her love for fast cars, but she failed to inform her passengers that controlling the vehicle safely was not high on her list of priorities. After experiencing the erratic style in which she negotiated traffic, Ryan wished he had taken the bus.
Hailey obviously lacked discipline, and this became swiftly apparent while she navigated the curving roadway leading out of Belle Falls. Her Mustang was designed for speed, but accelerating around narrow corners of icy asphalt left the car’s wheels spinning and its engine sputtering uncontrollably. Despite a lack of experience that would have surely sent a less fortunate soul to an early grave, H
ailey managed to escape any serious mishaps on the way to their destination. During the fifteen-minute ride, Ryan occupied his thoughts by surveying the landscape. Just beyond a wedge of trees lining the road, he detected the Moon hovering between distant hills. If he did not know any better, Ryan would have sworn to the fact that a pale gray eye watched over them like a harbinger in the heavens.
Phantoms of the Moon Page 26