Chapter 3: Something is Happening Here
Lex must have heard his mom’s car door slam because the game was off and he was watching TV when she entered the living room.
“Where’s Ricky?” she asked.
Lex leaned forward and pointed out the sliding glass doors where Ricky stood by the doghouse, “Right there,” and slouched back drawing his legs up to his chest.
“Oh good,” now that she was no longer concerned about the Ricky’s whereabouts, Karen registered the resentment in her oldest son’s body language and thought she had better take some time to smooth things over.
“You know, I depend on you a lot since we have moved here.” Karen sat down beside Lex and put her arm around him pulling his head to her chest. “I know it’s not fair to ask you to look after your little brother all of the time, but you’re all I’ve got Lex. I promise it will get easier,” Karen kissed him on the head and slapped him on the knee. “C’mon, if you peel the potatoes, I’ll wash the dishes and you can go back to playing your game after supper.”
“What game?” Lex feigned innocence as he looked innocently at his mom.
“This game,” Karen laughed as she took the remote and pushed the button to convert from TV to game mode.
“Oh that game,” Lex looked embarrassed for lying, “I didn’t know you knew how to do that.
“I didn’t know you knew how to do that,” Karen mocked him and put him in a headlock and rubbed her knuckles hard against his scalp, the proverbial noogie.
Ricky came upon this mother and son melee and decided to join in on Mom’s side by jumping on Lex like he used to do. Lex realized Ricky was on his back and threw him to the floor, narrowly missing the coffee table.
“You always ruin everything!” screamed Lex with his face all red and tears streaming down his face.
“Alexander! What has come over you?” Karen was shocked and realized Lex was more resentful than she feared. “You never treat your brother that way again. Do you hear me?” She was trying to keep herself under control as she helped Ricky up off the floor.
Ricky wasn’t hurt, not physically anyway. He had been dealing with Lex’s frustrations for a while now, since before their parent’s break up. He shot Lex a grimace and bounded upstairs to his room.
Karen let her anger get the better of her and walked over and turned off the game.
“Awww…I had a high score on the game. See? He ruins everything!” yelled Lex.
“I simply don’t know who you are anymore,” Karen chided Lex wondering if it was a good idea to keep the boys together instead of leaving one with their father. She was determined to let things settle down before she gave this any more thought, “Come out and peel the potatoes for me,” she calmly asked Lex who was sitting with his head in his hands crying and obviously frustrated with all of the changes in his life. “C’mon Lexy. Come help me with supper,” beseeched Karen as she tugged him gently by the arm.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Lex said wiping his face dry with his sleeves as he followed her into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry too, Lex. I didn’t know that you were having such a hard time with everything. But you have to promise me not to take it out on your brother,” Karen commanded as she turned and took his big head between her hands and stared up into his face. “He loves you and looks up to you. You are so much bigger than him, like your uncle, and Ricky is almost three years younger and smaller like your father. You could really hurt him and that I will not have. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mom,” Lex would say anything to please his mom.
“Promise me,” she ordered Lex.
“I promise, Mom,” Lex responded as he really had no wish to hurt his brother, he just sometimes wished he would go away.
“Do you know how much I love you,” Karen offered as she smoothed back his thick black hair and gave him a big hug.
“Yeah, I know Mom,” Lex became the quintessential embarrassed teenager recoiling from his mother’s affection and prepared to peel the potatoes.
Karen, feeling somewhat relieved decided to check on her other son. As she headed toward the kitchen door to head up the stairway to the bedrooms she ran into Ricky sitting half way up rubbing a red stone in his hands again. “Hey, are you coming down to help with supper?”
“Sure,” Ricky said bouncing up and running down into the kitchen. Up to now things seemed roll off Ricky like water off of a duck’s back. He was quick to forgive and move on. “What can I do?”
“Well, you can set the table. Make sure we have butter, salt and pepper, and such,” Karen tried to make Ricky feel useful.
As Ricky set to his task, Karen noticed Lex shaking his head in disapproval and was beginning to understand the depth of the jealousy he felt toward his little brother. She knew that she was going to have to find a way to separate the two of them more and give Lex some space. Hopefully, going to different schools and having different friends would alleviate some of the tension between them.
As they were finishing up a rather strained and quiet supper Karen wanted to lighten the mood by moving the conversation in another direction. She commented on Ricky’s stone as she noticed he had been rubbing it all through the meal, just as he had done at supper last night. “Is that your new lucky stone or something, Ricky?”
“Yeah, something like that. Uncle Jeff says it is a piece of polished lava from the river bank,” Ricky seemed eager to share this knowledge.
“You’re not going close to the river, I hope” Karen expressed concern.
“Oh no I found it in the bush, remember?” Ricky had told her about going off the trail last night.
“Oh yeah, right. And you told me you boys were going to stay out of the bush. Remember?” Karen reminded the boys.
“Unless we go with Uncle Jeff,” chimed in Lex.
“Yes Uncle Jeff knows the forest and all of its dangers,” conceded Karen.
“That’s why we took Uncle Jeff to show him the pile of stones this morning,” Lex smiled looking right at Ricky.
“This morning? Why would Jeff be interested in some stones in the bush?” Karen asked knitting her brow, perplexed.
“Uncle Jeff got all upset at hearing Ricky’s story of finding the stones and wanted to see exactly where they were,” Lex spilled the beans.
“That was supposed to be our secret,” Ricky was wounded by his brother’s betrayal.
“Secret what secret? We have no secrets in this family. Spill it, little man,” commanded Karen.
Ricky told the whole story of finding the pile of stones in the forest and Uncle Jeff taking them to find the same spot this morning before they left for the Tseax Cone.
“Uncle Jeff says it is one of the Old One’s,” blurted out Lex.
Karen was upset with several aspects of this story, not the least of which the fact of Ricky discovering a pile of stones in the bush, by himself. “He does, does he? And does he know where you were when your brother was off finding a pile of stones placed in the bush by Bigfoot?” Karen leered at Lex, trying figure out if she was angrier with him for leaving his brother on his own or at her own brother for telling the boys silly local legends.
“Oh, he was off shooting with this Tommy kid we met in the woods. Bigfoot? Really?” Ricky blurted out before he could decide what was more overwhelming, the opportunity to get a jab back at Lex or the fact that he might have gotten a glimpse of Bigfoot.
“You’re dead!” shouted Lex.
“No! You’re dead! If I ever hear that you left your brother in the bush by himself again!” screamed Karen before she could bring herself under control. “What were you shooting? A pellet gun? A paint ball gun? A bow and arrows? What?” Karen wanted to know.
“A .22 caliber rifle,” Lex confessed.
Slam! Karen’s hand slapped the table so hard tears came to her eyes. Neither of them could remember their mother being so angry.
“That does it. I can’t trust you two on your own. Until I can find someone to watch you both, neither one is
allowed to leave the house. Grounded! Do I make myself perfectly clear” Karen leered at both of them in turn until they capitulated.
“Yes, ma’am” said Lex.
“Yes, ma’am” said Ricky.
“You two miscreants stay here and do the dishes. Lex, you wash and sweep up. Ricky you dry and clear the table,” Karen ordered while she was putting on her boots and jacket.
“But, I thought…” Lex started to complain but his mother shot him a look that made him think better of it.
“I am going over to see your Uncle Jeff, I won’t be long. And if there is any fighting I will send you both packing to live with your dad and his girlfriend!” she almost immediately regretted saying that as she left the house slamming the kitchen door behind her.
Jeff lived some 500 meters toward Old Lakelse Lake Drive, on the same side of the street. He told her that he was able to buy the old Dickson property for a song since it was sitting empty for so long. He tore the old place down and put in a doublewide house trailer. Her old home town of Terrace had seen better economic times and she knew she was fortunate her brother held some sway with the council or she would never have gotten a teaching job at the school. Karen had walked this road many times as a child and it didn’t seem any shorter now. Crystal Road had few houses; she had one neighbor directly across the road that she had yet to meet. Other than that there was only one other home about halfway through the 400 meters of forested road between her and her brother. It took Karen maybe ten minutes to reach Jeff’s place and if she hadn’t of been so angry she would have paid closer attention to the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.
Karen was glad to see her brother’s truck was in the driveway. She needed to blow off some steam.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Jeff heard the knuckles on the door, “Thanks for the heads up. I owe you one, little brother,” Jeff said as he replaced the receiver of the phone back onto the cradle just as Karen walked in.
“C’mon in why don’t ya, “ Jeff stepped back a couple of paces as Karen came to with striking range of him.
“Well, what a kwinky dink, you just getting off of the phone as I come through the door,” said Karen, all of maybe five foot six standing there looking up at her brother with her fists on her hips, marveling the coincidence.
“Kwinky dink. Kwinky dink?” Jeff repeated, “Is that a new English word Teach? Because it sounds more native to me,” Jeff foolishly started to laugh believing he could toy his way out of this situation.
“The Old One’s!” Karen stepped closer and grabbed him by the scruff of his plaid red and white, lumber jack shirt pulling him down to her level. “The Old One’s? How do you ever expect me to keep those boys out of the bush now, Kemo Sabe!”
“Hey, I see no reason to insult me Sis, I was just trying to…” Jeff gave up as he felt his shirt collar tighten in the little woman’s grasp.
“I need someone to keep a close eye on them now that they will be looking for Bigfoot! What is wrong with you? There is no better way to get them interested in the forest than telling them those old fairy tales!”
“But I just thought…” Jeff tried again.
Karen was on a roll, “Since you are so tight with your little nephews, you get the job of keeping an eye on them until I get them settled into school and find someone who is more mature. Understand?” she turned on her heels and headed for the door.
“Uh, OK, but I have to be on the road by 7:00 in the morning, so I’ll see you at 06:30 for breakfast? French toast, maybe?” Jeff pleaded as Karen headed out the door without acknowledging him.
Karen walked for a couple of minutes from Jeff’s trailer to the gravel of Crystal Drive and stopped now feeling those hairs on the back of her neck as they bristled anew. She had forgotten how dark it could get outside of the city as she slowly looked around. Looking back at Jeff’s trailer she caught a peripheral glimpse of a big dark shape cross the road quickly, back along the way to her place. Instinctively she began to move toward big brother keeping her eyes on that spot down the road until the forest obscured it and then she bolted for the trailer. As she did she heard several cracks in the bush of something big moving parallel to her and closing the gap incredibly fast, until she crashed through Jeff’s door, again.
Jeff was standing in the middle of the room in only his boxers, “Damn, Karen you should knock you know!”
“There’s something big out there!” she declared, “It was running through the bush at me. Grizzly, I think!” Karen had her back against the door heaving for breath.
“They don’t usually come this close unless they are old or sick,” said Jeff as he grabbed his old Belgian made .762 caliber rifle and slipped a magazine in the breach.” He quickly slid into his pants, shirt and boots and turned on the floodlights twenty feet up on a pole in the front yard. Jeff went outside and jumped onto the flat bed of an old Ford he used for general mucking about. He surveyed the bush for a few minutes with a flashlight on the rifle barrel, the safety off and his finger on the trigger guard; ever on the ready for a maniacal bear attack, but nothing happened.
“C’mon, I’ll drive you home. Whatever it was it’s gone now. In the morning, I’ll see if I can find any tracks.”
Chapter 4: Relatively Midden
A Guest for Halloween: A Lex & Ricky Mystery Page 5
