The Woods: Part One

by Milo Abrams

strange curiosity that simultaneously pulled him toward what his fear was pushing him away from.

  Is there something there staring back at me? Is there something there waiting for me?

  Nolan reached into the dark mouth of the open barn and fumbled around for the light switch. James watched nervously, imagining the monster in the dark barn getting ready to reach out and snatch his father. Eventually, Nolan found the switch and flipped it on but only the back light came on.

  "Damn it," he said, "blown light bulb." The light from the rear of the barn was enough to allow them to see Nolan's large tool chest still lying face down on the floor with wrenches and screws scattered around it.

  "See?" James said pointing at the floor. "The monster was in here going through your tool box. I must have spooked it or something when I moved up there."

  Nolan looked over the tool box with a skeptical eye. "What a mess. James, monsters aren't real, but this does look like an animal was in here." He pointed out how the tool box had fallen face down and hadn't been thrown or really moved. "Probably raccoon or groundhog or something looking for food. You're right," he put his arm around James, “you probably spooked it and that's what caused it to knock the tool box over. It's too late to be cleaning this up now. I'll get it in the morning."

  He flipped the light off and they walked back to the house. James eyed the backyard as they walked.

  Inside, Nolan noticed the bag of feed missing. "You fill up the feeder today?"

  "Yeah, "James said as he sat at the table, "I went out there and it was completely empty, but I didn't see a single deer all day."

  "No worries. They're probably feeding at night. We can always get more."

  James was torn between his curiosity to see the monster in the woods and avoiding it at all costs. His fear told him to tear down the deer feeder and not try to lure anything around. Let it be, his dad's old records said. Maybe if he would just let it be then it would go away and not come back. On the other hand, his dad didn't believe him and he couldn't deny what he had seen. His curiosity ate at him and he not only wanted to see it better, he wanted to prove it was real. Otherwise, he thought he just might go crazy.

  He just shrugged at his father's comment about the deer feed, but Nolan wouldn't give up that quickly on the one country-type thing his son had ever taken interest in. "All right, well how about this, tomorrow we'll head into the city and pick up one of those game cameras?"

  James looked at his father with a raised eyebrow.

  "You know what I'm talking about?" Nolan asked. 

  James thought for a moment, "I don't think so?"

  "It's great," Nolan said excitedly, "you strap the thing to a tree and it has a sensor on the front and anything that walks within so many feet in front of it will set off the motion sensor and it snaps a picture. Doesn't matter if it's night or day because at night it'll take it with infrared night-vision. You know, when it's all green?"

  Of course James knew about night vision and IR cameras, it was a popular feature in the computer games he played. "That would be awesome! But, aren't those expensive?" He felt bad about all the money his dad was spending on his little project. When the family was together, they lived well and never went without. With Nolan being a successful cardiologist they made plenty of money but he never made extravagant purchases or bought more than they needed.

  "Don't worry about it," Nolan said, "we'll get one. It'll be great, you'll see."

  It would be, James thought. He finally had a way to spy on the woods without having to stakeout from the barn all day, and he would finally be able to see the monster in a way he never could have before. At night.

  Day Five

  12

  James hardly slept, but it wasn't because of nightmares. They seemed to vanish as quickly as they had appeared. He woke up the next morning bubbling over with excitement over the game camera. Crawling out of bed, he made his way to the kitchen to get an early start to the day, but of course his dad was already awake. It seemed he never slept.

  "Morning," he said setting the newspaper down. "How're you feeling? You look like you didn't sleep well."

  Surprisingly, James didn't feel tired at all. "I feel pretty good.”

  Nolan didn't believe that James's sudden onset of fear and paranoia had disappeared so quickly. He also didn't know the sense of security that the game camera brought to his son. For him, it was like having eyes in the back of his head—eyes with night vision.

  "You sure?" his father asked, "you were pretty shaken up last night.”

  "Dad, I'm fine. Really." James wasn't a morning person and his dad's insistence that something was wrong was wearing on him. He decided to change the subject. "Do they deliver papers this far out?"

  Nolan laughed, "No, this is yesterday's paper. I'm always about a day behind. I picked it up last night on the way home."

  James laughed and went to the cupboard to grab some cereal.

  "Don't bother. I was thinking we should start early and get breakfast. We could get some more feed, then head into the city to get the game camera. You know, get lunch, and make a day of it."

  James smiled, “Sure!” It sounded like a fun idea. He loved spending time with his dad, at least when they were doing things that weren't "dad things" or work related.

  "Well let's get going. I'm on call again tonight."

  James's head sunk. "I hardly see you out here, either."

  Nolan got up from the table and messed up his son's hair. "I know. But I'm taking some time off. This is the last day. Plus, I have a big surprise planned for this weekend.”

  As much as James could remember, it was very uncharacteristic for his dad to plan surprises. He thought that this new change in his dad might be good after all. "What is it?" he asked.

  "I'm not going to ruin the surprise yet!" Nolan slyly smiled. He started to walk back to his bedroom and stopped. "Hey, could you do your old man a favor?"

  "Sure," James said, "what is it?"

  He put his hand on the small of his back and mimicked an old man with a cane. "Would you mind grabbing the phone out of the barn? You know, in case anyone decides to call."

  "Oh yeah," James smacked his forehead. "Forgot about that. Yeah, I'll grab it."

  "Okay, hurry so we can get going. Oh, and could you throw that red gas can in the back of the truck? Running low and not sure if we'll make it to the gas station without a little boost."

  James nodded then ran out the door and down the porch. The barn looked a lot less menacing in the daytime. He looked out into the field toward the woods and everything looked like an oil painting of the countryside. It was so easy for him to forget his troubles out there. Things seemed light and airy, unable to bury him beneath the weight of worry. It amazed him how all the space gave him more room to breathe. That extra breath gave him the stability to walk into the barn and jump over the fallen tool chest without hesitation or fear. Swiftly, he scaled the ladder and pushed himself up into an ocean of warm air. It was hot and soon the whole countryside would be sweltering in the same heat.

  As mercury was filling thermometers, James’s mind was filling to the brim with thoughts of the game camera. He could spy with the binoculars from the comfort of the air-conditioned kitchen window instead of sweating to death in the hayloft. And the greatest benefit of all: he could watch out for the monster while he slept.

  Sweat dripped down the sides of his face as he did nothing but stand there. He wouldn’t find himself hanging out up there that day. He swam through the thick air to the hay door then grabbed his binoculars, the phone, and the cooler. "Crap, I completely forgot about this,” he said as he opened the cooler lid. Inside, a few bottles of water sat warmer than bath water.

  He dragged everything to the ladder and slowly made his way down. Once he got to the barn door he saw his dad sitting in the truck.

  "C'mon James! I'm hungry!" He playfully beeped the horn.

  James threw up his index finger as he ran inside and dumped the phone and binoculars
on the table. His stomach growled as the cooler hit the floor. He was hungry too. The smile plastered across his face triggered a bigger smile from his dad as he jumped into the truck. A nervous excitement rose within him. He couldn't wait to finally see what was staring back at him from the woods. His dad had no idea.

  The rusty Red Rocket blasted through the countryside leaving the creepy woods and any monsters deep inside it behind. Nolan was back to mouthing along to classic rock songs while James stared out the window, watching the world fly by. There wasn't a soul on the road but them, and they resisted the wind like lords of the asphalt. Their first stop would be Cray's Hardware to pick up another bag of feed. Nolan was efficient and planned everything out ahead of time.

  After a couple miles, though, the Red Rocket began to sputter and slowly coasted to a stop. Nolan put both of his hands-on top of the steering wheel and turned his head sideways toward James. "I knew that would happen." He chuckled a bit then said, "Well, I better go get that gas can and fill her up a little." He exited the truck, playfully running his hand against the burning black snap-on cover that enclosed the bed.

  James’s heart dropped and his mouth went dry. In his wandering ways in the hayloft, he had completely forgotten to grab the gas can and put it in the back of the truck. "Shit," he whispered, "what am I going to do?" He sat there looking at the floor completely still for a minute until he heard his dad open the tailgate.

  "Uh, James? Did you forget