Mumma's House

by Ike Hamill

  “Is that your plane, Sam?” Millie asked.

  “Where? Hey, yes! I see it,” Sam yelled.

  Gus shivered and zipped up his jacket. He was still staring up at the trusses overhead. He knew which way they ran, and their orientation definitely could not be rectified with how they had come into the barn. It was no use trying to resolve the conflict. He would simply have to accept the world that was around him. Even as he gave up, his brain supplied a new idea—maybe there was an enclosed hallway in the barn that looked like it was part of the shed. If he could go outside and count windows, he might be able to prove the idea.

  “Hey!” Sam shouted.

  It took a moment for Gus to realize that he was being beckoned.

  “Yeah?”

  “How do we get over this?” Sam asked.

  His cousins were standing at the edge of a gap in the floor. It was only about five or six feet across.

  “I bet there were stairs here,” Millie said.

  It did almost look like there should be stairs rising up through the gap, but Gus had another idea. Peering up into the shadows above, he saw that he was right.

  “Chain fall,” he said.

  “What’s a chain fall?” Millie asked.

  Gus pointed up. “It’s a hoist. It’s how they got really heavy things up here from below.”

  Sam was already running to the wall and reaching out to grab one of the thick chains. When he pulled it, the whole mechanism slid on a track and the chains rattled their low music as they came.

  “Will it hold me?” Sam asked, pulling on the chain.

  Gus couldn’t answer before Sam had already gripped the chain tight and lifted his feet off the floor. Only by dumb luck, Sam had grabbed the chain that moved the slowest. Gus had read about the mechanism—he knew how it was supposed to work.

  “No!” Gus shouted.

  Sam’s feet found the floorboards of the loft before he swung out over the void. The links of the chain rattled around the cog above as it gained momentum from Sam’s weight.

  “That’s not how it works,” Gus said. He rushed to the thin chain. That was the one that both controlled the mechanism and made it raise or lower. “This one. You use this chain to lock it or move it up and down. Otherwise, that chain will go down.”

  “Huh?” Sam asked. He squinted up. It was impossible to tell how the thing worked in the dim light. Sam screwed his face into a skeptical scowl and looked at Gus.

  “What is that?” Millie asked.

  “A chain fall,” Gus repeated. When he looked at her, he realized that she wasn’t asking about the chains at all. She was pointing back in the direction they had come from.

  “I mean, who is that?” she asked. She took a step backwards from what she was pointing at. Her foot was way too close to the edge of the boards.

  # # # #

  “It’s just a shadow, right?” Gus asked Sam.

  Being the oldest, it was Sam’s job to dispel their fears. It was his responsibility to laugh off their concerns and even make fun of them.

  Gus felt the barn’s cold creep into him when Sam whispered, “We have to get out of here.”

  The sound of Sam’s fear brought shape to the shadow. It was a person—a really tall person—who was coming from the dark corner of the loft. The shadow was already closer to the door than they were. With a few more steps, it would cross into the light and they would have to look at its face. Gus didn’t even want to guess at what face the shape might have.

  One time, at school, one of his friends had brought in a book about caves. The kids flipped through stunning pictures of translucent insects and crustaceans that lived in the permanently dark ecosystem. Jack had swatted their hands every time they reached out with greasy fingers to touch the photos. Gus had never tried to put his finger on them. Being able to see through the skin of a horrible spider, or into the pumping circulatory system of a white crayfish was a horrible curse. Everyone else was crowded around in fascination. Gus looked with nothing but terrified disgust.

  This creature in the shadows of the barn might have the same lack of pigmentation. It might live up here in a place completely devoid of sunlight. Over time, the face would have lost all its color. If it came into the light from the bulbs below, Gus might be able to see through its skin to the muscle underneath. He would be able to see through its translucent cheeks into the thing’s hungry mouth.

  Gus heard footsteps next to him and then Sam’s grunt. A moment later, he heard the slapping footfalls as Sam landed.

  “Come on! Jump!” Sam said.

  Gus shot a glance over his shoulder and saw that his cousin had already jumped the gap to safety.

  “I can’t,” Millie said.

  “You have to,” Sam said. “You can make it.”

  “No, I can’t,” Millie said. She was examining the gap.

  Gus split his attention between the shadow and his cousin.

  “We do the long jump at school. I can’t jump that far.”

  “Then swing on the chain, like it was a vine,” Sam called.

  Millie reached for it.

  “No,” Gus said. “Wait.”

  He tore his eyes from the shadow and found the thin chain—the one that controlled the movement of the chain fall. He tried one end and then the other, until he heard it click. When he tugged on the thick chain, it didn’t move. His divided attention brought a consequence. Looking back at the shadow, the shape had moved forward. If Millie didn’t go soon, she wouldn’t get the chance.

  Fortunately, either from fear or the desire to prove herself, Millie didn’t hesitate. She gripped the chain and swung.

  She didn’t make it far.

  Below, the weight of the chain sapped her momentum. Her speed decreased instantly and she slowed to a stop about halfway across the gap. Sam leaned over and tried to grab her just as she swung back towards Gus.

  It only took an instant for Gus to realize that he would only get one chance. Her speed was being dampened so fast that she would come to a stop before she reversed direction again. He reached out, hoping to make contact, and shoved as soon as his fingers met her shoulders. Millie yelped. Gus teetered on the edge of the gap, wheeling his arms as he tried to get his balance again.

  He imagined what he must look like from Sam’s perspective. He imagined that the shadow man was almost upon him as his arms spun in big circles.

  But Sam wasn’t looking at him. Sam was grasping for Millie. She threw out a hand at the last second, catching Sam’s arm and risking her own grip on the chain. When she let go, he fell backwards, dragging her safely to the far side.

  His cousins were safe.

  Gus glanced back over his shoulder—he was not safe at all. The translucent hair of the translucent man was just starting to move into the light coming up from below. The wisps practically shimmered. Gus turned away quickly, not wanting to see anything more. There was no space to back up a few steps and make a running leap. Gus swung his arms, crouched, and then launched himself.

  Sam yelled and rolled out of the way.

  As his feet left the boards, Gus felt something brush at his back. It was likely translucent fingers, ready to pull him backwards into the shadows. The man wanted company back there. He wanted to teach Gus how to live without light.

  In any other circumstance, Gus knew that he would have fallen short. Whenever he tried to envision success and then execute, like the gym teacher always told him to do when they were playing basketball, Gus always envisioned failure and then made it come true. He would imagine the basketball clanging off the rim and it sounded just like he thought it would. This time, he had no time to picture his own failure, and his muscles had extra fuel from the fear coursing through them.

  He touched down on the far side in a spot recently vacated by Sam and Millie. His attempt to stay upright lasted exactly one stride. Gus realized that the shadows on the far side were hiding a beam that his face was on a collision course with. When his arms went up, Gus’s knees buckled and
he fell to the deck of the loft. Sam and Millie were over to him in an instant, helping him back to his feet.

  Gus ducked away from their help. He needed to spin and look back. He needed to see if the translucent thing was going to follow them across the gap.

  “Where is the translucent guy?” Gus asked.

  “He’s hiding back near the door,” Millie said.

  “Why did you call him that? He’s not translucent,” Sam said.

  Gus didn’t know how to answer. The idea had occurred to Gus and then become fact in the matter of seconds. He would have sworn to it on a stack of Bibles—the man was translucent and he wanted to pull the color from all of them.

  Sam whispered the next part—this was a deep secret he was sharing. “That was Earl. He followed me here.”

  Millie shook her head and closed her eyes. Sam put a hand on her shoulder.

  “It’s okay,” Sam said. “He won’t get us. Let’s get down from here and go back in the house the other way.”

  They all nodded at that idea.

  Chapter 10 : Henry

  “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?” Deidra asked. Her voice sounded like she was trying to imitate a frog. Her chin was tucked against her chest, holding the top of a tablecloth so she could align the corners and make a precise fold.

  Henry didn’t answer. He pressed back against the wall and sank into a chair. Compared to the rest of the house, the air in the kitchen gathered around him like a warm blanket. With the smell of baking bread and the heavy, thick air, it was almost cozy. The color started to return to his cheeks pretty quickly.

  Still, Deidra had to ask him a second time before he could answer.

  “You always talk about your Uncle Tommy, but I kinda thought maybe you were making him up. I believe I just saw him.” His voice broke a little.

  “Oh yeah? Uncle Tommy is walking around? That’s unusual. Normally, we don’t even catch a glimpse of him until the whole thing starts, you know. Then, right after, he evaporates once more.”

  “Super old guy with really deep wrinkles and fine but inexplicably dark hair?” Henry asked.

  “No! That’s not Tommy!” Deidra said, surprised by the description.

  Over at the sink, Jules made no secret of his eavesdropping.

  “That must have been Great Uncle Travis,” Jules said.

  “Travis is here?” Deidra asked. The tablecloth pulled free from under her chin and she swept it into a fold over her arm.

  “Yup,” Jules said. “June heard him and I found a cigar.”

  “Is that who you saw?” Deidra asked Henry. “Where was he?”

  “In our room,” Henry said. “I went up to look for that book and the door was closed. I figured that maybe you were in there, so I just let myself in. At first I thought… I don’t know what I thought… My brain just shut down. I felt like one of those robots in a sci-fi novel that gets shut down because it’s presented with something so illogical that it can’t be processed, you know?”

  Deidra shook her head. She put the folded tablecloth over the back of a chair and sat down, leaned close to her husband. “You’re not making any sense. Tell me what happened.”

  Henry put a hand over his eyes and hunched over as he let the memory fully back into his head. When he finally straightened and reached out to take Deidra’s hand, she looked like she wanted to pull away. Whatever she saw in Henry’s eyes, it seemed to make her question the vows that she had made when she had married him.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “He was naked,” Henry said.

  # # # #

  Before she could laugh or pull away, Henry continued.

  “He was so small, before I really turned to look at him, I assumed it was Sam. I was about to tell him to put some clothes on and then I literally had to rub my eyes and look again, like a damn cartoon or something, you know?”

  Deidra put a hand over her mouth.

  Jules shut off the water and walked towards them, wiping his hands on a towel.

  “He was all hunched over and the skin on his face was so wrinkled. It hung down from these deep, deep creases. Then, I figured that I was wrong! He wasn’t naked, he was just wrapped in a skin-colored cloak or something. It was hanging over his boney shoulders and drooping down between his knees.”

  Henry’s eyes were wild now. He was lost in his story and didn’t notice when Deidra snorted under her hand.

  “Then, the worst thing happened. He turned and the cloak swung with him. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t a cloak at all. He was naked. What I thought was a cloak was actually his real skin. It was just dangling so loosely that I thought it was fabric.”

  Henry swallowed.

  “Yeah,” Jules said. “GUT used to be really fat. He lost a ton of weight when he had one of his diseases, but the skin never went away. He always says we should save it and make an umbrella out of him when he passes.”

  Henry didn’t seem to hear the comment.

  “From the neck down, he was like one of those absurd dogs that has all the extra skin.”

  Henry squeezed Deidra’s hand to make his point.

  “You know that dog that the Pattersons had? With all those folds?”

  She nodded.

  “Then, I looked down. Why did I do it? It will haunt me to the grave. I suppose it’s because I couldn’t bear to look at his smile anymore. His yellow teeth were all fighting each other to get to the front of his smile and I couldn’t stand to look at them anymore. What was down below was so much worse. How could his balls dangle that low?”

  “Henry!” Deidra said. She choked back a laugh. “Please.”

  “No!” Henry whispered. “I have to get this out. It’s like a venom in my blood. If I don’t tell you, I’ll go crazy.”

  Jules folded his arms and cupped his chin with one hand while he listened.

  Deidra averted her eyes.

  “His penis was like a little button and his balls swung so low. They were like two golfballs hanging in a stocking, bouncing back and forth between his knees. He giggled and it sounded like he had the hiccups. When I looked back up to his face, I saw nothing but joy there. He loved that I had come in. It was like he was just waiting in there to flash someone. What if it had been one of the kids?”

  “I’m sure he wasn’t enjoying it. He always looks like that,” Deidra said. “That lopsided grin has been stuck on his face since his last stroke.”

  “Oh, no,” Henry said, shaking his head. “I know he was enjoying it. Before I could get out of there, he started to get hard. It was like watching a slow-motion waterfall of wrinkled flesh. Inches and inches just spilled down from that button. I could have timed his heartbeat in the hydraulic inflation of his dick. But his erection was straight down.”

  Jules coughed and then doubled over. As he straightened up, his cough turned into a laugh.

  Kate came through the door from the hall. Her hands were full of glasses as she headed towards the dining room. She paused and then approached the scene. Henry was hunched and clutching Deidra’s hand. Jules was stifling another laugh and Deidra had her lips folded between her teeth as she blinked back tears.

  “What did I miss?” Kate asked.

  Auggie came through the door and joined the group.

  Deidra turned up to Kate and Auggie.

  “Great Uncle Travis flashed Henry. He’s traumatized.”

  Auggie nodded as he made a clicking sound with his tongue. “They always do that. Old men at my gym are constantly trying to flash everyone. You get to a certain age and it’s like you have to show it all off to anyone who will look.”

  “It was so horrible,” Henry said. His voice cracked as he stretched out the word.

  Jules broke into fresh laughter.

  “You’ll be okay,” Auggie said. “Think of it like another initiation into the family. We have a million of them.”

  “Think of the kids,” Henry said, his eyes beseeching Auggie. “What if one of your daughters walks in on that?”


  Auggie looked to Kate. “We should warn them. He has a point.”

  “Speaking of which,” Kate said. “Your sister wants you to go hunt down Gus. She needs to talk to him. While you’re at it, get the rest of the kids together. I want to measure them against the doorjamb before Gus gets called into the black magic ceremony again.”

  Auggie nodded. “Any idea which way they went?”

  “Chain fall out in the barn,” Jules said, pointing at Auggie. “Gus was asking about it before. He wanted someone to show him how to use it.”

  Auggie nodded and then gave them all a quick wave before he turned.

  “Wait!” Henry said. “I’ll come too. I need some air.”

  Deidra patted his hand as he stood up.

  # # # #

  “Is this necessary?” Henry asked. Auggie held out a coat and Henry took it reluctantly.

  “It’s a big barn,” Auggie said.

  Once they were zipped up, his brother-in-law set off at a fast pace. Henry regretted the coat immediately. He was nearly sweating by the time they came into the long room with the concrete floor.

  Auggie put out a finger and started counting the doors. When he got to the end, his finger returned to the first door and he cycled through again. His lips were moving as he counted, silently talking his way through a song or a rhyme.

  “What are you doing?” Henry asked.

  “Shhh!” Auggie said. He threw up his hands in frustration. “Now I have to start again.”

  Henry bit his lips and watched the whole process again. When Auggie finished, he straightened his arm towards one of the doors and followed it carefully, like the only thing holding the door in place was his pointing finger.