by Gwenda Bond
“As long as it doesn’t scare Terry,” Alice said. “And it’s not a car engine.” A burble of laughter slipped out of Alice. “Can you imagine how big that would be? I did use a car battery, but I built the machine from—”
“Story time,” Ken said and lightly clapped his hands together.
Terry snuggled deeper into the blanket around her and Alice. If she forgot what they were doing and why they were here, she could almost imagine this as a campout. Instead of a campfire, they gathered around a homemade electroshock machine.
“My aunt and uncle’s house was haunted,” he said.
“This better not be scary,” Terry warned, coziness evaporating.
“You’re not moving in there. It won’t be.” Ken came forward a little, the flashlight glow on his face.
“I’m scared.” But Terry couldn’t keep a straight face as she said it.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Gloria put in.
“I do.” Alice.
“My aunt and uncle did,” Ken said, “because they lived with one for fifty years. Uncle Bill and Aunt Ama moved into the first house they owned in the thirties, and their ghost made himself known right off. He liked to move Ama’s shoes around, downstairs to upstairs, upstairs to down. He’d hide my uncle’s belts. They’d go to sleep and he’d tap tap tap on the walls until Ama told him to ‘knock it off.’ ”
“How’d they know it was a he?” Terry asked.
“I don’t know.” A shrug in Ken’s voice. “They asked around the neighborhood, looked up previous owners, and couldn’t figure out who it was. He was mostly a nuisance. But then Uncle Bill joined the Marines and he ended up in Korea. Ama claims it was a comfort to have someone around the house with her while he was gone.”
“Aw, that’s cute,” Alice said.
“He came back, right?” Terry tried not to watch the shadows around them. It felt like there were more of them all the time.
“He did.”
“See, this is a good story.” Alice dropped her side of the blanket, then picked it back up.
“I’m not done yet. So while my uncle was in Korea, his unit was in this giant battle for the Chosin Reservoir. Back then they used ‘Tootsie Roll’ as code for mortar rounds. So they’re calling for more Tootsie Rolls, not knowing if they’ll get what they need to survive. Two days later, the next parachute drop of supplies shows up and they rush to open it up and find…”
“Tootsie Rolls?” Gloria scoffed. “You’re kidding!”
“I am not,” Ken said. “Some radio operator or pilot didn’t know the slang and thought they wanted candy.”
Alice opened her mouth, and Ken rushed on. “So when my uncle comes home, Tootsie Rolls become his lucky charm. He lived on the things for a week. He always has one in his pocket. Ama suggests giving one to the ghost, and so he leaves it out on the night table. No tapping that night. And in the morning the Tootsie Roll was gone. They left out one for him every night after that and he became their helpful house ghost. Instead of hiding their shoes and belts, sometimes they’d ask him to find them and they’d poof, show up.”
“A Tootsie Roll–loving ghost,” Terry said in wonder. “I don’t guess you brought any with you? Tootsie Rolls, not ghosts.”
“I guess even my psychic powers can’t predict Alice’s whims. I didn’t.”
They were quiet for a moment and Terry thought maybe someone would ask for another story. Maybe they’d keep putting this off.
But it was why they were here.
“Time to zap me.” Alice let go of the blanket again, this time shifting so she and Terry could clasp hands. “You know what to do,” Alice said to Gloria.
“I hope this works.” Gloria took a lever on the machine and pulled it back. “Ready?”
Terry looked to Alice in the dark and saw the girl nod. “Ready,” Terry answered for her, squeezing Alice’s hands tight.
Gloria hesitated, then was in motion. Terry closed her eyes, and then felt Alice tense up. She made a noise and her teeth clacked together.
“Again,” Alice said, her hands shaking.
“No,” Terry said.
“One more,” Gloria said. “I’m sorry.”
Alice jerked and Terry whimpered.
“First the fire, then the splendor,” Alice said with a slight rattle. “Here we go.”
Gloria turned off the motor, removed the electrodes, and took up her post by a flashlight with her pencil and notebook. “I’m ready,” she said.
Alice’s eyes drifted closed. “Oh,” she said, “it’s like it’s all around me.”
“What is?” Terry asked softly.
“The Beneath.” Alice released Terry’s hands and gestured at the dark forest. “The trees are broken, and there are webs and some kind of gummy substance growing all over them. Little spores flying through the air. A dream that’s not all bad yet.”
A shiver passed through Terry.
“Can you go toward the lab?” Gloria asked, and Terry could tell the reality of this was sinking in for her, too. There was an undercurrent of fear in the question.
“I…I don’t know. I’m trying. This is the clearest I’ve ever seen.” Alice snorted a laugh, seemingly untroubled—but then this was more normal for her. “I’m flying. I went right over the broken-down fence. So much for their security.”
Ken and Terry smiled at each other, shaking their heads.
“Keep going,” Gloria said.
The winter woods held few noises, except the creak of the wind through bare branches. “I’m still flying,” Alice said after a minute. “No monsters. There are some unusual cars in the parking lot.”
“Unusual how?”
Alice didn’t respond right away. “I don’t recognize the makes.”
“Okay, keep going,” Terry said.
They waited, and finally Alice said, “I see the lab. It’s like a ghost lab, filmy but there. I’m at a door to the lower level. A man in a security uniform went through.”
“Good,” Gloria said.
“So that’d be the north side,” Ken said, and she scribbled a note.
“It has keypad access from the outside. Doesn’t look like many people use it,” Alice said, voice dreamy. “Okay, I’m inside now. Long hallway, the same tile as ours. I feel like everything is fading. I don’t know how long I have.”
“Look in the rooms,” Terry said. “Try to find the children.”
Alice nodded, eyes still closed. “There are men in this room—it’s a big office suite. They’re working at…some kind of strange machine I’ve never seen before—like a typewriter with a big screen attached. Lit up, a display with…words.” She paused. “There’re these little yellow pieces of paper stuck on everything…The man just put a black plastic square into the machine.”
Gloria scribbled. “Can you read the screen?”
“No,” Alice said, “it’s too faint. I’m starting to lose it…”
“Keep going,” Terry said.
Alice gasped.
“What is it?” Terry asked.
“The girl,” Alice said, upset. “She’s…in some kind of machine. Brenner’s running it.”
“What kind of machine? Which girl?” Gloria looked up from her note-taking.
“It’s bigger than anything I’ve seen.” Alice scrunched her face in concentration. “It’s like a round tube and she’s on a flat surface in the middle. Lights are going around her. Brenner just told her to hold very still. She’s obviously scared.”
“Is it Eight or Eleven?” Gloria asked.
Funny, Terry had never thought of Kali or the mystery girl that way.
“Eleven,” Alice said. “She moved and Brenner got mad. He’s sending her away.”
“Follow her,” Terry sai
d, and Gloria gave her a nod.
Alice went quiet. “I can’t. I’m losing it. They’re gone.”
“Where is she going?” Terry asked. “Do you see any other children?”
“I can’t see anymore. I don’t know. I’m sorry.” Alice rocked back and forth, distraught.
Terry moved to comfort her only to be interrupted by a sweep of lights from the direction of the lab. The sound of a man calling to another: “Is this the right sector?”
“That’s where the light was supposedly sighted,” said another.
“Probably just some damn kids getting high.”
“We’ll scare them straight.”
A glow approached through the trees.
“We have to go. Kill the light,” Terry said, low.
But Gloria already had. Terry pulled Alice onto her feet. “Do we take the machine?” Terry asked.
“I can’t carry it,” Alice said. “What’s happening?”
“Someone’s coming out here,” Terry said.
“Leave it,” Alice said. “If you touch the wrong place, it might still be hot enough to burn you.”
“It won’t.” Ken grabbed the blanket and draped it over the machine, then picked it up with a grunt.
“Gloria, lead the way,” he said.
The voices and lights were getting louder. Terry waited for an alarm to follow, but none did.
Terry held on to Alice’s hand and dragged them both as carefully as she could through the trees in the darkness. Ken’s steps were heavier behind them.
“Wait,” he said, low. And they paused.
“I thought I heard something,” one of the men’s voices, closer behind them, said.
Terry could barely breathe. What would happen if they got caught out here?
Alice bent and Terry saw her close her hand over a rock. She threw it hard to the left through the trees. It connected against something with a loud thump.
The sounds of the men went that way.
Gloria turned and put her free hand to her lips telling everyone to stay quiet, and they walked out to Terry’s car as quickly as possible. She managed to fit the key in the lock of the trunk for Ken, and was grateful she’d left her door open. They got the machine and themselves inside, and Terry pulled onto the road just as headlights emerged from the lab’s driveway.
None of them spoke until it was clear they weren’t being followed.
“We made it,” Terry said, breathing hard.
“Barely,” Gloria put in from the seat behind her.
“You did great, Alice.” Ken, beside Gloria.
Alice sighed in the passenger seat. “I didn’t see enough. Not nearly enough.”
The last thing Terry wanted to do was agree. And so she said, “We made it. That’s what matters.”
She hoped it was the truth.
But they were all quiet, and Terry assumed it was because they were as deflated by what felt like a defeat as she was. What had they learned that was new?
It seemed like nothing.
1.
Terry missed having the relative privacy of Andrew’s place to retreat to. Especially times like now, when she stood in the busy dorm lobby at the wall phone—where she could have ten minutes max before someone else who needed to use it gave her the stink-eye.
“Hello,” a woman said.
“Hi, Mrs. Rich…” Terry shifted from foot to foot. Stress eating was making her pants too tight, so she’d worn a skirt today. The ridiculously named nylon Panti-Legs beneath were a million times better than the girdles and garters she grew up with, but her prized pair was currently digging into her waist. That’s how the patriarchy keeps women down, she thought. Uncomfortable undergarments. “Is Andrew around?”
“I’ll get him for you.” Andrew’s mom sniffled like she had a cold, but before Terry could ask about her health the loud drop of the receiver on the table rattled in her ear. She held the phone away for a second, then gripped it tighter, waiting.
“Babe,” Andrew said, moments later, his voice a low rumble. “Say something, I need to hear that voice of yours.”
“Something.”
His familiar husky laugh in her ear now, and it was the best sound she’d ever heard.
Terry wished they could be alone so she could tell him about the Fellowship’s all-for-nothing field trip. Mostly, though, she just missed him.
“Your classes start today?” he asked.
“Yesterday.”
“And you have the lab tomorrow still?”
“Still.” She hesitated, leaning her forehead against the wall. “We probably shouldn’t discuss that over the phone.”
“Okay, paranoid…” His voice changed, a serious note entering it even though his words were teasing. So she was almost prepared for him to say: “I have something to tell you.”
Terry wanted to chase the sudden solemnness away. “Let me guess…You were born on September fourteenth, which just happens to be the first pick of the draft lottery. Protesting the war ended up with you in the war.”
“Funny girl,” he said. “It’s about that. I got the notice to report for my physical examination.”
That’d be it then. No one was healthier than Andrew. Zero hope for some dismissal for a medical infirmity, especially because he wasn’t going to fake one like the rich, privileged kids unwilling to serve their country would. Even if his country was sending him on a futile mission no one should’ve signed up for.
“How soon?”
“Next week. I wouldn’t deploy immediately but…”
“Soon.” Terry sighed a breath into the phone. “You remember what you promised me?”
“Don’t worry. It’s been hard enough going a few weeks without seeing you.”
“Okay then.” Terry was afraid she’d cry if she stayed on the line. Andrew didn’t need that. “I better go—I’ve got class in fifteen minutes and I see Claire White coming this way with murder eyes.” Claire was always yelling into the phone at her boyfriend back home.
“Love you, babe.”
“Love you, too.”
Click. He hung up.
She’d never felt so far from someone she wanted to be right next to her. She hung the receiver in the cradle slowly, imagining the echoing goodbye sound.
Click.
Being an adult about things was a total bummer.
2.
Terry drove solo to the garage that night. She’d wanted to think, and driving helped with that sometimes. She left an hour early to detour on a lonely highway that was all straight lines with occasional curves, and she’d cranked up the radio loud and alternately sung and cried along to the music. An Elvis hit came on, “Suspicious Minds,” and though Elvis wasn’t her usual favorite, she cried harder and smiled through the tears, thinking of how her mom and dad loved his music.
They’d always dreamed of going to Vegas, and if they were still here they could have seen him while they were there. Who knew he’d end up there? So she belted out the lyrics about being in a trap and not being able to leave.
Cathartic.
She hoped she’d gotten the worst of her funk out of her system. But when she walked in to discover Ken, Gloria, and Alice already assembled, sitting in the usual floor spot, she realized the singing hadn’t been cathartic enough for that. Emotions roiled through her, and a stray tear rolled down her cheek.
Gloria noticed her first and got up to meet her. “What is it? Are you okay?”
She held out her arms and Terry stepped into them and then her tears became sobs. “I’m sorry,” Terry said. “I don’t…”
Alice and Ken appeared over Gloria’s shoulder. “Terry?” Alice asked.
Terry shook her head at her own ridiculousness. “Sorry. I tried to get
it all out before I got here but…Andrew got called to report. Physical.”
“I’m getting you some water,” Alice declared. “That’s what my mom does when anyone cries.”
“Sounds good.” Terry nodded and Gloria released her.
Alice rushed off and disappeared into a corner office area. She returned with a paper cup filled to the brim. The contents sloshed over the sides, but Terry grasped for it. The first sip calmed her. She swallowed, and again.
“Better,” she said.
“Moms know as much as science,” Gloria said.
Alice watched Terry and added her take. “Science has yet to discover as much of heaven and earth as moms.”
“I come back and Alice is quoting Shakespeare.” Ken had gone into the same corner as Alice and emerged carrying a chair. “You sit here,” he said, and Terry didn’t protest.
Foolish, fragile people who had breakdowns on their friends got chairs. That was a rule.
“We’re sorry about Andrew,” Alice said, sweeping her eyes around as Ken and Gloria looked at Terry with sympathy. “It doesn’t matter that you knew. It’s real now.”
Terry dipped her chin.
“Canada’s still an option.” Alice’s voice was soft.
“No, it’s not. He won’t do it.” Terry searched inside herself and grabbed on to the tiny bit of calm. “I’m sorry I derailed the Fellowship. Let’s get to it. Anyone come up with anything?”
They’d agreed to think over the details Alice had provided before they’d been interrupted in the woods.
After a long moment in which it looked like the answer would be no, Gloria lifted her hand. “I think maybe we hit the jackpot the other night.” She paused. “Or I’ve lost all touch with reality.”
Alice perked up. “What do you mean?”
“Well.” Gloria reached to her side and raised the notebook where she’d been taking notes. “This is at least as scientific as anything the lab is doing, so hear me out.”
“We’re dying to, guys, aren’t we?” Alice asked.
“Yes.” Terry didn’t want to get her hopes up, but she found they had a will of their own.
