Gossamer Falls

by European P. Douglas

  “Well, it’s about time,” he said, smiling. Gough scowled at him and then looked to Allgood for his reaction.

  “I just wonder how they found out about it?” the mayor said conversationally. Anderson could feel the accusation in it.

  “There’s a lot of scared people around town,” Anderson said, “and a lot of them have phones.”

  Allgood took another glance at the cloud and nodded, toeing the earth with one shoe.

  “Well, these men should be able to calm everything down,” he said.

  “That can only be a good thing,” Anderson answered. Allgood looked nervous at the prospect of these men coming to Gossamer Falls, and Anderson wasn’t above taking some small pleasure in that.

  “Assuming they don’t shut down the town and financially ruin all of us,” Allgood replied wistfully before turning back to the car. Anderson let him go without saying anything more. Gough looked through a furrowed brow at Anderson as he walked back around to the driver's seat and got in. Anderson couldn’t help but smile at this and shook his head.

  “Can you help me spread the word about something, Joe?” Anderson said.

  “Sure.”

  “This stuff flowing around inside the cloud could be the same substance that made it so dangerous in the first place. If any of it managed to leak out, God only knows what it could do.” Joe was nodding in agreement as Anderson spoke.

  “We can let anyone we meet know those things are as dangerous as ever,” Joe said, “Despite those dogs being fine.” Anderson thought word had spread very fast, but he didn’t need to get into that right now.

  “I’m going to go down to the radio station too and get them to put out the word.”

  Anderson started spreading the word right away by telling the people who’d come to watch the hosing of his fears of the clouds. He spent the rest of the morning going around telling people and having his deputies do the same.

  These State Government Officials couldn’t get here fast enough, as far as Anderson was concerned. He was glad it would end the use of civilians in the investigation. That was the most important thing of all.

  Chapter 17

  Harry Sanders saw the kids’ bikes laying in an alley ready for a getaway. He pulled over and got out of the car. As far as he could recall, this was not one of the streets affected by the clouds, so he didn’t think the kids would be fooling around with one of those. They were up to something, though, and Harry was in the mood to make them pay for it.

  Nine times out of ten, he wouldn’t bother his ass with the kids. He would have just cruised on by listening to the radio and whiling away his quiet workday. Today, however, he was still on edge from the horrors of the cloud night and pissed off that he was on constant warning and babysitting duties since then. Anderson had them working round the clock and it was taking its toll. Had he been sheriff, Sanders thought, he would have simply placed a curfew on the town until they could dynamite or shovel off all those clouds into the lake, and that would have been an end to it.

  The squeal of childish laughter and the pounding of feet erupted as the kids came tearing out of the delivery yard of the local butcher’s shop.

  “Get out of here you kids!” the shouting voice of Alvin Barber shouted after them. Harry smiled. Barber the butcher was a fat man and he’d give up the chase after only a few steps. The kids would know that, but it wouldn’t spoil their fun too much.

  “What are you doing you little shits!” Harry snapped as them came to an abrupt halt on seeing him standing there with a foot on the wheel of one of the bikes.

  “We’re not doing anything,” Terry Hargreaves answered.

  “Nothing, huh?” Sanders said, “Then why are you running, and why is the fat man shouting after you!” All of the kids laughed at this, but Ed Tipping found it hilarious and couldn't conceal it. Sander’s eyes narrowed on him.

  “You think this is funny?” the Deputy snapped. Ed stopped laughing at once and stood there staring at the ground.

  “No, Sir,” he said, frightened. The others stood still, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Sanders kept a long eye on Tipping before casting over the group again. Barber arrived at his back gate, wheezing, and they all looked at him.

  ‘Jesus’ Sanders thought, ‘These kids would have been home and all in the time it had taken Barber to move those twenty feet from the back of the building to the gate.’

  “They,” Barber started as he pointed at the kids, “They...” he gasped for air, leaning against the wall.

  “Why don’t you kids tell me what you are doing yourselves?” Sanders said, looking back to them.

  “We were only fooling around,” Hargreaves said.

  “They were messing with the fat off cuts,” Barber managed to say, “Making a state of my yard!” His face was purple from effort and his skin shone with sweat. Sanders was nauseated by the sight and thought the next meat he bought would be at the store.

  “You can go back to work now, Mr. Barber,” Sanders said, “I’ll deal with these boys.”

  “Who’s going to clean up my yard?” Barber protested.

  “These boys will clean it up,” Sanders answered curtly. Barber looked startled and then uncertain before glaring at the boys once more and slinking back inside the gate.

  “Now, you little assholes,” Sanders said, jutting a finger towards each of the boys in turn, “You’re gonna...”

  “You can’t call us names like that,” Hargreaves said. Sanders was stunned.

  Hargreaves stood there looking at him with some defiance, but the slight wobble in his legs betrayed his fear.

  “What did you say?” Sanders stepped up to him.

  “You can’t call us names like that,” Hargreaves replied, his voice choking off a little. Sanders’ lips thinned over his teeth, and he shot out a hand and grabbed a handful of the boy’s shirt.

  “I can do whatever the hell I please when it comes to delinquents like you!” he snarled. Hargreaves’ head shrunk into his shoulders and the other boys shifted uneasily - too scared to run away.

  A car honked, and they all looked across the street. Sanders saw the car and let go of Hargreaves fast and stood up straight.

  “Hey, kids,” Mayor Allgood waved from the back-seat window, “You mind if I talk with Deputy Sanders a minute?” The unflappable smile, perfect for gullible children. They nodded, and Sanders couldn't believe they actually thought Allgood was asking their permission.

  “Get going, kids, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for you now,” Sanders said and then meeting eyes with Hargreaves he added, “Especially you.” None of the kids said a word; each of them took up his bike and took off in terrified relief.

  Sanders put on a smile of his own and walked over to the mayor's car.

  “What can I do for you, Mr. Mayor?” he asked, taking off his hat.

  “Why don’t you jump in the car a minute, Harry,” Allgood said, nodding for him to come around. Sanders was surprised but did his best to hide it. He had no idea why Allgood would want to talk to him but didn’t get the sense it was for anything bad.

  “Alright,” he said and went around the car and got in.

  As he got in, Derek Gough got out of the driver’s seat and leaned against the front of the car with his back to them. This was odd.

  “How are things with you, Harry? How’s the family?” Allgood asked. What are you after? Sanders wondered; Allgood had never shown this much interest in him in the past.

  “Everything’s fine, thank you,” he answered warily.

  “That’s good,” Allgood nodded agreeably like this was good news for him. “I bet a few dollars more in your pay check wouldn’t be unwelcome, though?”

  “Are you offering me a raise?” This didn’t seem like the place to do that, but there was some kind of payoff coming. Sanders was astute enough to know that. But for what?

  “I’m offering you a job,” Allgood answered, looking eager at him.

  “What kind of job?”

&
nbsp; “A promotion for you.” There was only one job Sanders could be promoted to, and the last he heard Anderson Schall wasn’t going anywhere. He looked inquisitively at Allgood but made no reply. Waiting.

  “I’ll get straight to the point, Harry,” Allgood said, shifting in his seat to face the Deputy. “I have a job for you, and if you do it right, I’ll make sure you’re this town’s new Sheriff in a matter of weeks.”

  “What’s the job?” Harry had thought about asking what was going to happen to Anderson first, but this question pushed its way to the front of the queue. Allgood smiled,

  “I need you to get a few guys together, only three or four, and hike up to Mercy and see where the hell this cloud stuff is coming from.”

  “Aren’t you going to wait for the state guys to look at the clouds here in town first?”

  “We don’t have time for that. Tourist season will be on us before they tell us anything, but in the meantime, we need to know that it's not going to happen again. I need you to go up there and destroy whatever they came out of.” Allgood wrung his hands and looked outside the car a few times as he spoke.

  “Why aren’t you asking Anderson to do this?”

  “He’s too stubborn,” Allgood sighed, “He doesn’t seem to mind the idea of the town running out of money and everyone going broke.”

  “What makes you think I want Anderson’s job?” Harry asked, relishing the idea behind his eyes.

  “I saw you with those kids,” Allgood said with a grin playing over his lips, “You want the power, and to be honest with you, I want a man like that running the policing of my town. Anderson is too lenient, if you ask me.” Harry found himself nodding before he could control it.

  “Go up there, destroy the source of the clouds, and then come back down a hero,” Allgood went on, “Anderson will be out of favour, we give it a few weeks, and then I make you the new sheriff.”

  “Easy as that?” Harry said, smiling.

  “Easy as that,” Allgood agreed.

  Chapter 18

  Lawrence was on his way back from the Gossamer Springs plant. He’d been called that morning to make sure everything was running smoothly despite the fact no one was in work after the weekend. His employers said they were waiting on the Sheriff's go ahead to reopen and hoped it would be only another day or two.

  He wasn’t far from home when he noticed Deputy Sanders waving him down from the side of the road. Lawrence pulled over, hoping he hadn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t think so but couldn’t be sure. His mind was so preoccupied at the moment it was possible he’d been going too fast.

  “Hi, Officer Sanders,” Lawrence said, having rolled down his window. “Was I doing something wrong?”

  “Hey, Lawrence,” Sanders said, shaking his head and smiling, “No, no nothing like that. I was hoping I might enlist you for the new search party.”

  “You’re going up there again?” Lawrence was surprised by this.

  “Well, we still don’t know the source of the clouds, and we need to hike up and find out.”

  “Hike?”

  “From the end of the old Mercy road is all.”

  “I thought there were State men coming in to look into everything?” Lawrence had heard this earlier today, but then not from anyone in an official capacity. Sanders looked around and sighed like this was disappointing news.

  “Listen, Lawrence, I’m going to level with you. Those State scientist guys will probably spend the next six months looking at the specimens in town before they venture up to have a look at what’s causing it. This town can't survive without a good tourist season, so we need to find the source and make sure it doesn't happen again.”

  This wasn’t the first Lawrence had heard about the town being on the financial brink, but each time he heard it, it scared him a little more.

  “When are you going up there?” he asked, already knowing that despite not wanting to, he was going to say yes. The town was depending on people like him saying yes.

  “In a couple of hours. We’re meeting out by the split road. It will only be five or six of us,” Sanders said. Lawrence nodded and thought a moment before answering.

  “Alright, I’m going to go home and get something to eat and then I’ll meet you up there.” He looked at his watch to make a note of the meeting time.

  “Good man,” Sanders said, gripping Lawrence’s upper arm and giving it a squeeze. It felt weird and Lawrence gave a feigned smile. “Just one thing though,” Sanders said in a confidential tone.

  “Yeah?”

  “We don’t want the State men to get wind of this, so I’d appreciate it if you didn't mention what you're doing to anyone until we get back. Is that okay?”

  “I guess so,” Lawrence replied, shrugging. He supposed it made sense, that State men would kick up a fuss if they knew what was going on.

  Having already made plans to see Tammy that evening, Lawrence drove to her house first to tell her he wasn’t going to be around. He pulled up outside her house and thought about what he was going to say to her. He didn’t want to get their relationship off to a bad start by lying, but neither did he want to betray the deputy. As he was thinking about this, movement out of the corner of his eye made him turn, and he saw Tammy was out on her porch smiling his way. Lawrence smiled back and got out of the truck.

  “What has you here so early?” Tammy asked, offering her cheek for a kiss as Lawrence came up the steps. One touch of her skin on his was enough to convince him of the right path.

  “I’ve got to bail on you tonight,” he said taking her hand, “Sorry.” Tammy looked at him in surprise.

  “Oh? How come?” Lawrence was hoping the kiss and the fact he was holding her hand wouldn’t allow her to think he was brushing her off,

  “Can we talk inside a minute?” he said.

  “Is everything alright?” Tammy asked, a look of worry darkening her face.

  “Yes, I’m really sorry to miss seeing you later, but I want to tell you why and I don't want anyone else to overhear it.”

  “Does it have anything to do with the clouds?”

  “Yes.” That was enough for her to lead him inside.

  Lawrence looked around the hallway as Tammy closed the door. He’d never been here before but had thought about it often. He was fascinated and wanted to see everything at once, but he wasn’t the only one who was eager.

  “Tell me?” Tammy said, tugging at the front of his shirt, “What’s happening?”

  “Alright, but listen, you can’t tell anyone what I’m going to tell you,” he said, holding up a warning finger. She nodded, her face more excited than ever. Lawrence’s heart melted at the sight, how beautiful it made her. “You’ve heard about scientists coming down from the State Capital?”

  “Yes. That’s no secret today,” Tammy answered, a glimmer of hope in her eyes that this wasn’t what he was going to tell her.

  “Well, the Sheriff’s office think they will take months just looking at the clouds here in town before they go looking for the source. So they’ve asked four or five of us to hike up to Mercy to see if we can find it and put a stop to it happening again.” As he explained it her, the idea seemed to lose some of its urgency. Tammy looked down thoughtfully and bit her lower lip,

  “That sounds risky,” she said. “Why do they think the scientists will take so long to go up there?”

  “For their own safety, I guess,” Lawrence said, “But the point is, they don’t have any stake in the town. It’s down to us locals to make sure there isn’t another cloud float during the tourist season.”

  “I don’t know,” Tammy said. She let go of his shirt and walked to the window, absently looking up at the far mountains.

  “We’re going to be careful,” Lawrence said, “If we can’t handle it, we won't even try.” Tammy was shaking her head before she answered,

  “No, I don’t like it at all. You saw yourself there are still lots of tiny clouds floating around up there.” Their eyes met as she spoke, and La
wrence felt warm inside at her obvious concern for him. It was almost enough for him to change his mind. Almost.

  “I’m sorry, Tammy,” he said, “I gave my word and I have to go, but I don’t want you to worry. I have the best reason in the world to make sure I come back down here in one piece,” he stepped over and took hold of her in both arms. Tammy couldn’t help but smile at this.

  “Let me fix you something to eat before you go at least?” she asked.

  “That would be great,” he replied.

  Not long after, they sat at the round wooden table in Tammy’s kitchen. She’d made up some salad and sandwiches with cold chicken leftovers from the fridge. They were talking around the subject of his going, but Lawrence could tell it was never off her mind. Right now, she was looking at him intently but not saying anything.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “You really care about this town, don’t you?” she asked.

  “I do,” he said unashamedly, “I’d hate to think of leaving here if I didn’t have to.”

  “You think it could come to that?” Tammy asked, brushing some crumbs from the table and dropping them onto her plate.

  “I am worried that might be the case,” Lawrence said, copying her motions. “In the last two years, both Mercy and Centrepoint have disappeared. The only town nearby now is Emerson, and that used to be the farthest away of the three.”

  “Mercy burned down in a fire, and there were fires in Centrepoint at the same time,” Tammy said. “They were so far from one another.”

  “I know, but don’t you think it strange that Centrepoint is a ghost town now?”

  “I’ve never been to Centrepoint,” Tammy said, “But I went through Mercy a few times on the way to Emerson and it’s certainly strange that it’s gone.” Tammy’s face showed some strain for the first time.

  “I just worry that this could be the start of Gossamer Falls disappearing as well,” Lawrence said, glancing out the window. “If there’s a chance of stopping that happening, I have to give it a try.” Tammy smiled at this, and he thought he could see pride in her eyes. She leaned over and took hold of his forearm, shaking it slightly,