When we drew near the horse and car, I glanced back to see Rina and her brother approaching. Troy was tall and ambled awkwardly. A gun was slung from his shoulder on a strap. He had a funny face but I was too far away to make out the detail. When he saw me looking at him, he stopped and hurriedly retrieved a pair of sunglasses from a back pocket and put them on askew.
The horse was just as we left it. ‘Pa’ spat and cursed. ‘Frederick,’ he said. He called back, ‘Rina! You stay put!’—which naturally had the opposite effect. Rina dashed over and would have thrown herself onto the felled horse if her father hadn’t caught her. ‘Rina, it’s no good! Freddie’s hurt too bad.’
She wailed and protested. Meanwhile, Troy drew near. I saw that he was more than simply ungainly, he appeared deformed in some way; one leg seemed turned improperly and dragged as though partially lame; tall as he was, he hunched over, and his face was slack as his spine, though he turned his head from side to side quickly, as though his eyes were fixed in their sockets and he was merely performing those small shifts of focus that anyone else would leave unnoticeable. He saw the horse and moaned, and then looked at his father, who nodded solemnly.
‘Well then,’ Pa said, ‘Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I suppose you’ll be running along now.’
Nothing would have pleased me more, so my morbid curiosity must have been in overdrive for me to ask, ‘What do you think did this?’
Pa hugged Rina tighter.
Geri grabbed my sleeve. ‘We’re so sorry for your loss,’ she said as she pulled me towards the car.
Pa grunted.
‘Tanoroar,’ Rina said.
‘What?’
‘Leonard.’
‘Yes—uh, please excuse us.’
When Geri banged her door I jumped at the sound, thinking of the gunshot soon to come. When the shot came immediately after I nearly jumped out of my skin.
‘Jesus! Give a guy a chance to drive away!’
‘Let’s just get out of here.’
‘Hell, yes, pretty lady.’
But of course the car wouldn’t start. I didn’t even hear the click of the starter, much less the rev of current from the battery or the pistons sputtering. Nothing.
‘What’s the matter?’ Geri asked.
I’m sure my expression communicated my appraisal of the situation. ‘This is wrong. This is very wrong. The car was fine just ten minutes ago.’
‘It could be anything. Vapour lock.’
‘It could be anything, but I wouldn’t bet on it. And I still think vapour lock is a myth.’
I tried the car again. Then I checked my phone. ‘Are you getting any signal?’
She checked. ‘One bar, on and off. Not enough for a long call.’
I looked in the rearview mirror. ‘They’re just watching us.’
‘Of course,’ Geri said calmly, ‘They’re wondering why we don’t drive away.’
‘I think they know why we don’t just drive away.’
‘You’re being paranoid. Let’s ask to use their phone.’
‘Where was Troy before we came out here?’
She laughed. ‘Troy?’
‘We should not get back out of this car.’
‘It could be a long wait for a miracle. And what else could we do? Hitch?’
We hadn’t seen a car since we turned off the interstate. I swallowed and rubbed my temple.
‘Look: it’s morning,’ Geri said. ‘It’s daylight. Come hell or high water, I promise you we won’t be here when the sun goes down. We’ll walk if we have to, okay?’
‘Jesus!’ I shouted again as Pa knocked on the window.
‘You got trouble?’ he asked.
There was nothing to do but get out of the car. I even went through the charade of popping the hood and ducking under as though I understood the first thing about automobile engine repair. Perhaps I was hoping something would be clearly amiss—a freshly-cut cable or tube—though I don’t know how that might have comforted me.
‘Yeah, it looks like we’re stuck,’ I conceded. ‘Can we use your phone to call for help?’
Pa winced and nodded. ‘Yeah, I guess you oughtta, though you might have to wait a spell for the truck to get here, seeing as we’re a bit remote.’
I bit my tongue to keep from saying, ‘Yeah, I kind of noticed.’
‘If you like, Troy can take a look at her while you’re waitin’. Might be faster. He’s pretty good with cars.’
I cast Geri a knowing look. I sighed miserably, ‘Sure, what harm could it do?’ Looking at Troy, I didn’t want to guess the answer. I looked at his feet and saw blood on the sole of one worn tennis shoe. Of course, I hadn’t noticed before, so I couldn’t know when it got there. I looked at the horse again. He was dead, just dead; his stare held no warning; free from suffering, he had passed beyond his own concerns and reserved none for us.
As we walked towards the house Geri leaned towards me and teased me, ‘Look at it this way: if Troy has the know-how to disable the car, then he has the know-how to fix it, too, right?’
I said, ‘That is the absolute worst logic anyone in a horror movie has ever used.’
Geri thought my humour indicated I was beginning to relax. I was not.
I was pleasantly surprised that the call went through without any difficulty. I was unpleasantly unsurprised at the result.
‘I’m afraid it will be two to three hours before we can get a technician to you,’ the customer service representative informed me. ‘Are you in a safe place?’
I didn’t reply, ‘Would it matter?’ because I didn’t want to offend my only hope of rescue. I reported the timeframe to Pa.
He nodded and grunted. ‘I could give you a ride into town, but it’s half an hour up and over the mountain. The road winds around pretty crazy. And that’d still leave your car here to come back for, anyway.’
I heard the crunch of gravel and looked out the screen door to see Troy half-in the driver’s-side door, pushing my car with one hand on the frame and steering with the other. The car was no behemoth, but he was heading uphill. The boy was worryingly stronger than he looked.
‘Where’s he taking my car?’
‘The garage,’ Pa said. ‘Easier to work there. Don’t fret; you gave ’em our address, and they ain’t gonna pass by after drivin’ all the way out here. I mean, if you ain’t already on your way by then.’
Pa’s manner was curmudgeonly enough that it should have convinced me he wanted me to be there no more than I did, but the dominoes of bad luck and appropriate response seemed to fall too neatly, favouring his control, and my distrust was far from alleviated.
I heard feminine laughter and turned back to look outside. Three young women—Rina’s friends, I guessed; they were too close in age to be sisters—bounded up the path behind Troy as he pushed the car. They offered no help; instead, they ran ahead and appeared to be tossing Easter lilies in his path. I would have thought they were taunting the damaged boy, but there seemed trifling malice to the act. As Troy was facing away, I couldn’t judge his reaction (and I suspect I wouldn’t have been able to even if I could see his face), but he did not slow his efforts or wave them away. As they disappeared from view, I heard them beginning to chant playfully, ‘Tanoroar! Tanoroar!’
Rina had attached herself to Geri since we’d returned from the road. When offered a seat, Geri had selected the recliner, with the hope (I thought) of dislodging the teary girl, who nevertheless blithely refused to be shaken; she perched on the broad arm of the chair and leaned her head on Geri’s shoulder. She had shown no reaction to the laughter from the driveway, but immediately upon hearing the distant call ‘Tanoroar!’ she jumped up and dragged Geri from her seat.
‘You must meet my friends!’ she insisted.
‘Oh, thank you, no. You’re very kind, but…’
Rina wilted petulantly. She pouted. ‘Please. I am so sad about Frederick and they don’t understand me. Only you understand me.’
I tried to
help, protesting, ‘I’m sorry, Rina, but we’ll be going soon.’
Pa scoffed, ‘Not soon.’
Tactic two: I feigned an authoritarian tone with Geri, ‘I really don’t think you should wander off.’
‘Ah!’ Pa barked. “There’s nowhere to go outside of shouting distance. But if she’s too much trouble for you . . . Rina, get on out, now!’ He shooed her like an obtrusive pet.
Rina let her arms drop away from Geri, but rolled her forehead on my wife’s shoulder for several seconds more before turning disconsolately away.
Geri smirked at me and rolled her eyes. ‘It’s okay, Rina, I’ll come.’
Rina brightened and her smile bloomed. ‘You have to see our show hens!’
Pa nodded. ‘See, there, that would be fine. They’ll be just over yonder.’
I don’t think Geri had any interest in fancy chickens, but she smiled wanly at me on her way out the door. ‘I’m sure we’ll be fine,’ she said.
I don’t know if I was made more uncomfortable by our separation or by my isolation. Geri may have been off to giggle with the girls in the barn, but that left me with the boys in that shadowed house—for soon after she left, Troy entered from the back. The rifle was still on his shoulder.
‘Any luck?’ Pa asked.
Troy gestured limply ‘come with me’ with one big hand. I didn’t move. He looked at Pa.
‘Guess you’d better go look at it,’ Pa said.
I didn’t know what to do. Troy’s head swivelled between us uncertainly, and then ticked backwards with an idea. He took the rifle from his shoulder and handed it to Pa.
‘Well, what the hell do you want me to do with this?’
Troy gestured to me again. I didn’t want to go. It didn’t seem he’d be able to communicate any issues to me—and as little as I knew about cars, it would do him little good if he could. The act of disarming seemed meant to placate my fears, but it didn’t help much. In the end, I decided to follow him for no other reason than the room was shrinking and becoming unbearably close. I wanted to be back out in the sun.
‘Lead on,’ I said.
He turned and shambled to the back of the house. I moved into the hallway and was momentarily gladdened by the light from the back windows.
And then I learned that, no matter how quickly you plunge into unconsciousness, a rifle butt to the back of the head hurts infinitely more than Hollywood has taught us.
Subsequently, I learned that nice Jewish boys don’t just ‘come to’ and bounce back to their feet. I flitted awake with my vision blurred and my head screaming and knotted by confusion only to drop off again three or four times before I secured a precarious finger-hold on consciousness. A long span of time must have passed, because my precious light was coloured and failing. At least the air was fresh, if oddly tainted; I was outside.
Unfortunately, I was bound. My arms were crossed on my chest and rope was coiled around my entire upper body. I was propped against the oak on the lawn. I assumed I was bound fast to the tree, but discovered otherwise when I slumped to one side and crumpled to the ground. My legs were unencumbered. I was bewildered—was I tied up but free to run? I didn’t care about the incongruity. If I could run, I would run. I sat up and put my back against the tree and got my feet underneath me. I pushed up, my head pounding with every ascending inch. Finally upright, I started to run towards what I thought was the garage. I got twenty feet before the cord that was tied to the tree drew tight. It felt like a punch in the gut and I collapsed, struggling to regain my breath with my face in the dirt.
‘Ayup, just so,’ Pa said. Where he came from I didn’t know, but I had hardly taken the time to look around me.
I rolled to one side and saw his legs in front of me. I surprised myself and attempted the action-hero bit. I lurched and tried to leg-whip him, but he stepped back and easily avoided the attack. I expected an evil chuckle at my feeble attempt, but none was forthcoming.
Instead, he was apologetic. ‘I take no pleasure in this, far from it. I wish it needn’t be so. But it’s back, and I need to protect my family.’
‘What—?’ I panted. “What—?’
Large hands grabbed my shoulders and straightened me, and then went in my underarms and I was hefted to my feet with ridiculous ease. Troy stepped from behind me and went to stand by his father.
‘Tanoroar,’ Troy mumbled. His purple-grey tongue lolled grotesquely long from his mouth. He ashamedly brought up one hand to wrangle it back in.
Pa frowned. He exhaled through flared nostrils.
‘Minotaur,’ he said.
I blinked in disbelief. At least it cleared my vision. “Did you just say—?’ I couldn’t even repeat the word.
‘Ayup. I said it. “Minotaur”—said it ’cause that’s what the cursed beast is.’
‘Tanoroar,’ Troy said.
‘Shut up,’ Pa hissed.
‘What? Half man, half bull?’ I cried incredulously.
Pa seemed to correct me even as he nodded and said, ‘Bull and man.’
I was very afraid then, because I was certain I had been kidnapped by people who were completely delusional. I ran the risk of angering them by arguing, but what other course was available? ‘The minotaur is a myth! A Greek myth, for God’s sake!’ I shouted. ‘There are no animal hybrids like that in nature!’
‘No, there aren’t,’ Pa growled. ‘Not in nature.’
And so I simply stated my viewpoint: ‘You’re insane.’
Pa grunted offense, but he didn’t start raving. ‘Ain’t no reason you should believe. But you will, anyway, soon enough.’
I stumbled backwards and gaped at the placid scene around me. I couldn’t even feel sorry for myself because I was too incredulous of my predicament. As bizarre as these people acted, as remote as the farm may have been, even as much as I was prejudiced to expect some sort of trouble so far from ‘civilisation’, it struck me as impossible that this drama was oft-repeated. Which I summarised as, ‘You can’t live like this!’
‘No, we don’t,’ Pa replied. ‘I’d hoped that damned thing would never set foot on my land again. It’s been years now since it’s been seen in these parts. But I guess I knew it would come back one day. It ain’t like the thing can ever die. But I ain’t gettin’ run off from my own Goddamn farm by man or demon!’
He was beginning to froth. It might have been years since his last eruption or breakdown or whatever he was about to do, but I guessed he was a man under constant pressure—even if it was of his own imagining.
I picked up on part of what he said and wondered aloud, ‘Back . . . ?’
‘It’s rutting!’ Pa shouted. ‘It’s not enough he’s a killer, he’s . . .’ His fists shook and he beat them against his hips. ‘That mixed-up thing don’t know its species and it don’t discriminate. Woe betide any that gets in its way!’
‘The horse,’ I said.
‘Hmmmh?’ Pa returned from far thoughts. ‘Yes, yes. The beast busted into the stables last night. That brave colt protected his fillies.’
I had a dark epiphany and anger emboldened me. ‘But dear Frederick didn’t find his way to the road on his own wounded like he was, did he? He was the lure. You son of a bitch, you put him there!’
He drew close. His face was stretched tight and the veins pulsed in his forehead. ‘You got to protect yours!’
I strained the limits of my tether. ‘Where’s Geri?!’
‘She’s bein’ prepared. The girls are gettin’ her ready. And I’m sorry ’bout what’s goin’ to happen, but it’s just the way it’s got to be. I never wanted Rina to know anything about it, but she learned it anyway. I thought I could protect her by keepin’ her ignorant. I sure as hell made certain her momma never taught her about it. But you can’t stop girls talking. Guess it’s good after all; now the girls got someone to put in their stead. I really do hope he finds your wife first. I know you don’t believe it, but it would be better all round. If he finds you first, you’re dead. I left you enough lead to
at least give you a chance . . . though really you’re here in the hopes of tiring him from sport. But if he finds her first, and everything goes the way it’s supposed to . . . well, you’ll be on your way. And that’ll be the end of it—for us, anyway. Until next time.’
I didn’t understand half of what he was talking about and the rest I didn’t believe, but I challenged him anyway. ‘If you’re so goddamn scared of a cow, why don’t you kill it?’
‘I’ve tried! You think I haven’t? Me and others—it’s been shot near as many times as it’s been seen, to no avail. It don’t show so much as a scar. And it ain’t no damn cow! It’s a bull—and no good bull of this earth, neither. Ain’t no bull can lay with a woman and make the likes of this!’
Pa snatched the sunglasses from Troy’s face. Troy’s right eye looked at me with mortified human terror. The left bulged from its socket, round, glassy, grey-white, a rolling, cataracted bovine eye. My blood froze in my veins and the hairs on my arms stood up. The hump of his shoulders was suddenly more than bad posture or scoliosis. The dragging, twisted leg . . . dear God, I did not want to see that leg.
‘It came upon my wife . . .’ Pa’s body shuddered with repressed sobs. ‘It came without warnin’ that time, but she had her herbs with her. My Maureen was always cautious.’ He nearly punched himself to wipe a drop from his face. ‘Better she hadn’t been ready. Better she let it . . . No, it weren’t no good.’
He was starting to break up. Whatever he was keeping wrapped up strained against weakening cords. He was cinching into a sort of fugue state of remorse and anger, almost unaware I was there. I couldn’t have that, not if I wanted free.
‘Let me out of here!’ I demanded.
‘No. No, no. Better she hadn’t. Better she let it kill her.’
‘Take me to Geri right now!’
‘Better she let it kill her. To lay with an abomination is an abomination. And what of my Rina? I wanted to keep her from it—I saw to it that she should never learn—I tried—so she should never be despoiled so foully.’
The Hidden Back Room Page 4
