“It was heavier than me—a good deal heavier. I was climbing as fast as I could and it was right behind me and gaining when I heard branches start to crack, then break. I kept going until branches started breaking under my own weight. I stopped—I had no choice. I looked down.”
“What did it look like?” Weezy repeated.
He shook his head again. “Couldn‟t tell you. The sky was overcast—no moon, no stars. The only thing I could see was this dark blob maybe ten feet below me, screeching and clawing at the bark. Then it stopped clawing and started shaking the tree. I tell you, I had to hold on for dear life.”
“How‟d you get away?”
“I didn‟t. I mean, I‟m here now, but not because of anything else I did. The thing howled and shook the tree for what seemed like forever. Then it finally quieted and climbed down. I prayed it would move on but it didn‟t. It dug up some sort of stone and started slamming it against the tree trunk again and again. I realized it was trying to cut it down.”
“Oh my god, you must have been scared out of your mind.”
“Scared? I damn near shit” He cut off as he glanced at Weezy. “I was the most scared I‟ve ever been in my whole life.”
Jack relaxed his grip on the chain. Maybe this guy was all right.
“So I just hung on all night, rain and all. As the sky began to lighten, the banging stopped. The thing gave the tree one last shake, let loose with one more scream, and disappeared into the trees.
But I wasn‟t going to be fooled. I stayed where I was until it was full light. I wished I could have seen the sun itself, but the dawn gave me an idea where east was, so I climbed down and started walking. I knew if I kept walking east I‟d eventually hit the Parkway.”
“But you were heading west when we saw you.”
He stopped and shook his head. “I guess I was.”
Jack pointed up at the thick low clouds. “That‟s what a vanilla sky will do to you.”
“Vanilla sky?”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. Overcast and all one color. And since the Barrens are mostly flat with no landmarks, people get lost all the time.”
“Vanilla sky …” He looked up. “That‟s why I haven‟t been able to find my way out of here.
Damn clouds. If you don‟t know where the sun is, you can‟t tell your directions.”
“That‟s why they make compasses,” Jack said.
The guy didn‟t appreciate the remark. He gave Jack a look. “I know that, kid.”
“There‟s always moss,” Weezy said.
He frowned. “Moss?”
“Sure. Check tree trunks for moss. It‟s always thickest on the north face.”
“Oh, hell!” He slapped a palm against his forehead. “I know that! Or at least I did once. How could I have forgotten? Not that it matters, because I am never, ever going in there again.”
“Did it stink?” Weezy said. “The thing, I mean?”
The man stared at her. “To high heavens. How did you know?”
Weezy glanced at Jack. “We saw something like that last month.”
“Did it come with floating lights?”
Weezy stiffened. “You saw lights?”
“Yeah. When I was parked in that tree. Two glowing blobs, like maybe the size of softballs.
They floated along the tree-tops and circled near me while that thing was bashing the trunk.”
“Pine lights,” Jack said.
“They‟re also called lumens,” Weezy added.
Jack frowned. “Where‟s it say that?”
She raised her eyebrows. “I have my sources.”
He didn‟t doubt it. Weezy read stuff hardly anyone else had even heard of.
“They‟re a kind of ball lightning,” he told the man.
He shook his head. “I can‟t buy that. These things didn‟t act like any kind of electricity I‟ve ever seen.” His expression was unsettled as he looked at Jack and Weezy. “They floated off as the rain began, but as they were hovering there, over me and the beast, I almost got the feeling they were … watching.”
7
“Oh, thank God!” the man cried as they broke from the trees and the Old Town section of Johnson came into view. “Civilization!”
“Such as it is,” Weezy muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
The man dropped to his knees and sobbed.
Jack looked away, embarrassed for him. He‟d hoped to find Gus Sooy still here so he could give the man a ride down to the highway where they could call the sheriff‟s department. But no sign of his battered old pickup. Must have sold off his applejack and gone back to his home in the Pines.
“Only a little farther,” Weezy said.
“I can‟t. I‟m all in. Go call for help. I‟ll wait here. As long as I‟m out of those damn woods and can see houses, I‟ll be okay.”
So Jack and Weezy left their bikes and started going door to door, but no one seemed to be home, including Mrs. Clevenger. They didn‟t try the Klenke house, of course.
“Where is everybody?” he asked Weezy.
She shrugged. “It‟s a nice day for a change. Maybe they‟re out catching some rays.” She got a funny look in her eyes as she stared over his shoulder. “Let‟s try … there.”
He turned and followed her gaze to the boxy, two-story white building that sat on a rise overlooking Quaker Lake—the lake it owned.
“The Lodge?”