by J.T. Stoll
Pieter held open the door, and Vero and the others walked out. Two smiling Thai men waved to them amid the aromas of curry and garlic.
A cold breeze slapped Vero’s bare legs. Behind her, Neil laughed. He seemed to think the night had gone well. Vero eyed Pieter’s car like a bank robber eyes a getaway ride.
“All right, where to?” Pieter asked. “Night’s still young.”
Vero locked on his eyes and begged through her gaze for him to put this thing out of its misery. He blinked and turned away.
“No preference,” Neil said.
“How about you, Gloria?” Pieter asked. “Anywhere you want to go?”
“Oh, anywhere, I guess,” she said. Four words, about as many as she spoke during the entire dinner.
“No, come on,” he said. “You have any favorite spots?”
Gloria paused and looked at each of them in turn. “Well, there’s the bike path near here.”
“Bike path?” Pieter asked.
“The one by the railroad tracks. It’s quiet. I like walking it sometimes.”
“Sounds good,” Pieter said. “Vero?”
No, they needed to part ways, right now. Besides, what kind of hangout was a bike path? It was probably a good place to get mugged. Though that was her upbringing in the Central Valley. Even the sketchy parts of SLO were safe, compared to where she used to live. It was the company she wanted to part ways with.
“Sure,” she said, a little too cheery. “Sounds great!”
They walked out of the shopping center and around the corner. Some condos rose in the distance. Unlike most of the housing in SLO—single story and dating back at least half a century—these were modern, skinny, and tall. SLO, far as Vero could tell, had some kind of development war between grandmas wanting to keep it a small town and Cal Poly graduates wanting to start businesses and live in new homes like those.
On the right, they passed an empty lot with a large For Sale sign. Trees surrounded the lot on three sides, and a creek bed ran between it and the shopping center. The creek was silent after the long, rainless summer.
“You see that?” Gloria asked.
Vero glanced over and noticed some flickering light toward the back of the lot. A group of trees hid the source.
“Probably some homeless,” Neil said.
“No, they wouldn’t light a fire where people would notice.” Pieter pointed to the condos.
The light vanished.
“And a fire wouldn’t just vanish like that,” Pieter said. “You guys want to check it out?”
“Sure,” Neil said.
“Go check out a homeless camp? No,” Vero said.
“Oh, come on,” Pieter said. “This is SLO. The homeless population is actually pretty friendly, though grungy.”
“I’d rather not,” Gloria said.
Pieter stepped in front of her. “Come on. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“Worst? Probably kidnapping,” Neil replied.
“Pieter, I am not going in that field,” Vero said.
“Come on,” Pieter said. “I’ll keep you safe. And Neil’s secretly a ninja, you know.”
Neil rolled his eyes. “Sure, just because I’m Japanese, that means I emerge from the womb with a katana. Pieter, that joke got old in middle school.”
Pieter grabbed Vero’s hand and began to walk into the field. She planted her feet in the ground.
“Pieter…”
He kept walking until her arm pulled taut. From the time he had first asked her out, Vero knew that with Pieter, she’d wind up in some impulsive, bizarre situations. That field didn’t seem appealing, but he sure did. Pieter turned and gave a friendly grin; his light tug dragged her forward. Neil followed; Gloria trailed farthest behind.
The hard, dry dirt crunched beneath Vero’s step. Short, prickly grass tickled the tops of her feet. The moon and some lights across the street illuminated enough to show forms and shapes. They rounded a cluster of trees and walked toward where the light had vanished. The plants concealed the street.
“Why are we doing this, again?” Vero asked.
“Come on, you really want to end up walking down a bike path?” Pieter replied.
In other words, a last-ditch effort to salvage the date.
“Does Pieter really need a reason for the things he does?” Neil asked.
“Resisting boredom, usually,” Pieter said.
Neil opened his mouth as though about to say something. Instead, he fell backward with an “Ack!”
“You all right there?” Pieter asked.
“I ran into something,” Neil said.
Despite the darkness, Vero could see that there was nothing for Neil to run into.
“Watch out for those air molecules,” Pieter said. “They can be mean in a gang.”
Something floating in the air caught Vero’s attention. She moved toward it, and it became a… a tunnel. The inside looked like rock, but it cut straight into the air. She moved her head around to the back, and the tunnel vanished.
“Come around this side,” she said.
Neil came around. “What in the world? How is this…” He reached forward and touched the inner edge. “It’s some kind of optical illusion. It’s… invisible from the back. The back—that’s what I ran into.”
Vero stared straight into the tunnel. It was a bit taller than her and extended about a hundred feet. At least, it looked like it extended about a hundred feet, but that was impossible; they’d have seen it earlier. Something lurched through it. On the far side, a fire burned.
She pointed down the… the whatever it was. “Someone’s coming.”
2. The Field
