by D. R. Mather
“Not only will we be doing that Vince, but I can……..” Benny trailed off because he saw Stan walking up to go past them both.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Benny asked, then he saw something, something that scared the shit out of him. He saw part of a woman’s face mixed in with Stan’s. Benny screamed out to someone that Vince couldn’t see, asking for help, then Stan dropped to the floor and the woman’s face was gone.
“Oh that BITCH! Who do they think their fucking with?” Benny was having a fit – slamming furniture and everything else he could grab. He ran out to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water, then threw the water in Stan’s face.
“Wake up asshole.”
“Wh…what…what happened?”
“I’ll tell you what happened Stan my man, apparently one of them can get in our fucking heads, that’s what happened!”
“Who? Where are they now?”
“I hope she’s fucking dead is what I hope. Get up asswipe.” He moved toward Stan, but Vince helped Stan up. Stan walked back over to the chair he had been in and sat down.
“Do you remember what happened to you Stan?”
“No, nothing, the last thing I remember was sitting here listening to you two talking.”
“Shit, well we better all watch our asses from now on. We ain’t ready for them yet, but we will be.”
“So what’s with the human mountain Benny, he one of us?”
Vince stood there and looked at both of them; it was as if he showed up already knowing he would never be number one or number two.
“Nice to meet you Stan,” Vince walked over with his massive hand out.
“Benny, do I have to put my hand in that?”
“Sure, go on chicken shit, you got a spare one if he decides to rip that one off.”
Stan hesitated, then shook Vince’s hand, “Nice to meet you Vince.”
“It’s nice to meet you too Stan, I hope we have a nice rel…”
“Oh quit it with that shit, you two, we have work to do.” Benny headed to the kitchen.
Benny sat at the table; he was reloading a shit load of old shells he had found in the barn. It seemed the farmer was doing his own reloading as well. Benny found enough supplies to maybe make three of four thousand rounds for the 30-06 and the 30-30. He only found enough for the .50 cal. to make maybe forty but, hey that’s forty more, right? Benny couldn’t help but wonder what they’d have if Mark hadn’t tipped off the law on the illegal guns. Benny had no intension of actually paying the guy anyway, it just wasn’t the right time. When he had first seen the guns in the truck, the guy had pros there, and Benny was carrying a pea shooter with him; it would not have ended well for Benny. Benny’s plan was to come back with a gang and take them out, then steal both trucks.
”Fucking Mark,” Benny mumbled to himself.
Stan joined Benny in the kitchen with Vince following.
“So Vince, did you come empty-handed or do you come bearing gifts?”
“OH, OH yeah, wait a sec.” Vince left and was back a minute later. He came back into the kitchen with two M-16’s as well as two 9 mm handguns, and put them on the table. When Benny first saw him carrying them he thought the M-16 looked about the same size in Vince’s hand as Benny’s hand gun looked in his.
“Here ya go, be right back.” A minute later and Vince now had four military ammo boxes, two under each arm, “Here ya go boss, two boxes for each style of weapon.”
“Nice and icy Vince, have a seat, take a load off. How you don’t get nose bleeds up there I’ll never know.”
“Hey boss, what’s the big plan here?” Vince asked as he sat down.
“I’ll tell you Vince. It seems that in a few months, we’re all going on a vacation in Colorado. We need some more people here first though. Hey Stan, you in there jerking off? Get your ass out here, I need Vince to show you how to use this M-16.”
“Right with you Benny,” Stan shut off the Carter’s television and headed out to the kitchen, where he found Vince was already waiting at the back door.
“You’ve never used one like this huh, Stan?”
“Nope, can’t say that I have Vince. I’m sure we can take care of that.”
Two minutes later, Stan was shooting up the side of the Carter’s barn.
Benny jumped up and yanked the door open. “Vince, I thought you were going to teach him the right way? Two or three bursts, don’t let him stand there and shoot the fucking barn down!”
“Ah, right boss!”
Benny saw Vince talking to Stan, “Fucking morons. This thing wants me to win with morons.”
***
By the following week, things were beginning to stink out at the barn. Benny decided it was time to relocate the Carter’s. He had Stan bring the tractor out into the middle of an old corn field, and dig a very deep hole for the Carters to vacation in. Stan and Vince got the pleasant task of relocating the rotting bodies.
“Oh son of a bitch Vince. Holy shit, this is really starting to stink.”
“I guess you two should have thought of that before you went and put them there.”
“Yeah, well, you jump in the hole and send them up.”
Vince jumped in and picked up Mrs. Carter. When he stood up, he was able to throw her right into the bucket of the tractor which was just beside the hole. Stan didn’t want to be carrying any bodies if he could avoid it. Besides, Vince didn’t seem to mind. That thought alone scared the shit out of Stan; he knew this guy had done much worse before.
Two hours later and the Carter family were on a very long-term vacation in the middle of the southern corn field.
As they entered the kitchen, Benny was waiting.
“Boys we need cash. I think it’s time to go shopping.”
The boys went shopping, leaving two dead clerks behind.
Chapter Thirty-One
Kevin and his group were knee deep in dust and dirt. They didn’t know the last time the third floor of the Inn had been cleaned, but everyone agreed it was before any of them had been born.
Kevin looked out the window of room 305 and wondered how the pool could get them to the ‘voice’. It didn’t make sense. Was he supposed to swim out to the very center, or just jump from the edge in the center? And more important, if he could do it, what was to stop anyone else who used the pool from doing it?
“Oh sweetheart…did you retire?”
He turned and Judy was standing there, just as filthy as a road worker after a full day’s digging.
“No, I was just trying to figure out how to use the pool.”
Judy walked over and looked down, “I think you just jump in and start swimming honey.”
This hit Kevin just right, and he started to laugh good and hard. When he had calmed down, he put his arm around Judy and pointed, “I think it’s a gate to get to the voice, only I don’t know how it works.”
Now both of them were holding each other and staring out at the pool. It was the perfect time for April to walk by the open room they were in. She may or may not have been dirtier than Judy was.
“Oh this is nice, we’re in the other room busting our asses and you too are on a romantic interlude.”
Kevin turned and smiled at April, “We love you too honey.”
“Oh that’s just cheating, hit them in the heart when they don’t expect it huh?”
Half an hour later and everyone was in room 305, quietly staring out at the pool.
“Kevin, why does it stick out in the middle? Not the statue sides… I mean the back and front, right at the center of the pool?” Alex asked.
Kevin looked at the whole pool again. It was a big pool; it was rectangular, a lot longer than it was wide. He figured it had got to be about two hundred feet long, by about fifty feet wide. There hadn’t been a lot of snow so the empty pool hadn’t filled up yet. He could see the elaborate tiles that were used for the side walls of the pool. There was snow at the bottom, but not too high yet. The top walkway around the p
ool had snow too, but it hadn’t really wrapped itself around the edge. Alex was right. The pool, as fancy as it was, had a straight line across the fifty foot length and again, down both sides of the two hundred foot length, except right in the center. For five feet either side of the center, it curved inwards, and then flattened out across the face of it for about three feet.
“Huh, very good question Alex, perhaps we should look into this.”
They all headed down and geared up for outside. They needed to go through some snow to finally get to the pool’s center; Colorado may not have seen a lot of snow yet, but the cold that had settled in was downright frigid. Kevin got on his knees and started to check out the inward part of the pool design. He felt the one in front of him, but was looking across to its twin on the other side, as if it helped to guide what his hand was touching. Suddenly he reached underneath and felt what he couldn’t see. One chipped tile was all it took. He stuck his finger in and jumped back.
“Oh, now that really is interesting, wait here, I’ll be back.”
Judy started to follow, “What is it?”
“There’s a broken tile hun, I stuck my finger in the hole it left. I felt, well, rubber.”
Kevin got a bevy of questions now asking exactly what he meant by ‘rubber’ in the hole.
“I mean rubber, as in a gasket to keep water out.”
“But what does that mean honey?” asked Judy.
I’ll tell you but help me in the pool house, we need to find something.”
Everyone dredged through the snow and went into the pool house.
“Okay, it means there’s something behind that wall,” explained Kevin. “Something that more than likely moves, maybe over the center of the pool. I need to see if there’s a switch, but it’s going to be hidden if it’s what I think it is. Great grandpa wouldn’t have wanted it to be found.”
April looked at Kevin, “Oh, like a button or a switch, or even a lever?”
“Exactly like that April.”
They spent the next hour searching with no results. They’d checked the wall, the ceiling, and even the floor with no luck. Kevin was getting pissed because he couldn’t find it; he called everyone back to him.
“Okay, now let’s try using our brains instead; let’s try figuring out what it could be first. Anyone?”
Everyone stood and thought, and then Alex suggested the exact thing it could be.
“A ramp: one that goes over the water, either from both sides meeting in the middle, or one side going all the way across.”
“Good,” said Kevin. “But, at fifty feet, how accurate would the landing on the other side be if it was one long ramp? Not very, too much flexing, so, it’s half and half.”
“If it can flex, then it would need to lock in at the center, and it would have to be arched so that it didn’t just collapse into the pool if you walked on it,” said Judy.
“Right, but if it were me, I’d want to be where I could see the connection being made, so that I wouldn’t have to keep going out and checking.” Kevin looked to the front windows that were facing the pool, the center window was right across from the inset of the tiles. He walked over to that window and looked down at Will’s work bench up against the wall. “I wonder if Will had this put here.”
He pulled on the big wooden bench and it slid out from the wall. Under the center of the window sill was what looked to be two lines in the wood. If dirt had not accumulated, you might never notice the lines. They were separated by about two inches. Kevin lifted up but nothing happened. Then he pulled and it slipped away from the rest of the sill. Under it was a switch. Kevin flipped the switch and a groaning started outside. He watched the far side of the pool and saw a row of tiles pull into the wall of the pool and then move off to each side respectively. A three foot ramp began to work its way over the far side of the pool. After a few feet he could see one going to meet it from this side. Everyone was staring out the windows and watching the two halves as they came together. Just after they connected to each other, Kevin heard some gears and metal clicking and stopping.
“Ladies and gentlemen, for your thrills and amusement I give you, a ramp.”
They couldn’t seem to get out of the pool house fast enough, but stopped just to the side of the now fully extended ramp.
“Okay then, what now,” said Kevin.
“We go on it,” said Beth.
“Ammm…no, I don’t think it would be a good idea if we all just went on, one person is enough,” said Kevin. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his half of the amulet. “Beth, hold this, I don’t want it to influence what might happen. I need to know that it’s not involved.” Beth took it and put it in her pocket.
Kevin wasn’t the kind of guy who screwed around thinking up ways NOT to do something. He grabbed Judy and gave her a huge, deep kiss, “Wish me luck baby.”
He walked out onto the ramp. He slowly walked toward the center and didn’t look back. At the point where the two halves connected, Kevin disappeared.
Judy screamed Kevin’s name and started to run onto the ramp, but April and Alex stop her.
April looked her in the eyes, “Honey, wherever he just went, we have to trust that he can come back. We don’t want to lose two of you if he doesn’t, okay?”
Judy thought it over, “You’re right I guess. I thought he would just, you know, fall down like we do in the library. He’s going to be okay, it’s the same ‘beings’ after all, right?”
They all stood and waited for Kevin to come back to them.
Kevin knew where he was, but he also didn’t know. It was their ship all right, but this wasn’t the same area as before. This looked like, well, if watching those old sci-fi films had taught him anything, this would be the bridge. There were no windows; there were curved panels and a chair stood in front of him. The panels didn’t have buttons, they only glowed lights at certain areas, but the entire front panel was one smooth surface. He moved to the back of the chair and stared at the panel in front of him.
“Planning on taking a trip Kevin?”
He snapped around and stood where there had once been a door, was the ‘voice.’
“I see you’ve figured out the pool ramp,” the voice continued.
“Yeah, you could say that, why does it bring me to the bridge?”
“Because every so often we make trips to the earth and this is the portal to and from. If you look at the place you were first standing, you can see the light.”
Kevin looked back and there was a glowing spot on the floor.
“Why does it take you to the bridge?”
“We can make it come from anywhere we wish, we just thought that the bridge could be the best logical place in case we had to make a hasty exit from this area.”
“Yeah, I suppose that would be the thing to do then. Why does this feel different to the other trips I have made here?”
“Because that was only your mind Kevin, now you are here in the flesh, as you humans would say.”
“Oh, I see. So can I get back the same way I came?”
“Absolutely, in fact, I’m going to need you to do that. I have a lot of work to do right now, but maybe you can ask at a later time and I can give all of you a tour of our home.”
“I think everyone would enjoy that, I really do.”
“That’s fine. So if you would please, and do not forget to close the ramp, anyone can pass through it. Also be sure to hide the switch before you leave the area.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that personally. I guess I’ll talk to you later then,” Kevin walked over to the lit floor and disappeared. As he reappeared, Judy screamed out his name and started running to him.
“No hun, wait there for me.”
She stopped and waited. Kevin got to her and she attacked him with hugs and kisses, “Did you have fun? Did it take you to Pluto? Can I go with you the next time? What was the trip like?”
“Honey, honey, I’ll tell everyone about it as soon as we hide everything again.”
Soon they were all sitting in the living room, still filthy.
Beth stood up, “I need a shower, like, yesterday.” She walked over to Kevin and handed him his half of the amulet, “This belongs to you I believe?”
He took it, “Thank you for watching out for it.”
Beth smiled and headed up the stairs.
***
Things had settled down again. Beth and Alex were watching TV; Roland was at the hospital with Cindy; April was looking through some of the things in the third floor storage rooms. She had seen some items in there that would make a nice display in the new dining room.
Kevin was staring out the front window in the dining room; light snow had started to fall. He didn’t seem to be looking at anything outside; the crews had left for the day. He felt Judy slip up behind him and hug him from behind.
“What’s up honey?” she asked.
Kevin turned his head to his right but he couldn’t see her, “Oh, not a lot right now, I was just in a place I should keep out of.”
“Meaning?”
“OH, meaning the past,” he spun to see her, she didn’t let go but now she was facing him. “I should have been there.”
Kevin looked sad, very sad; Judy could feel it as well as see it. She wasn’t going to talk, this was Kevin releasing more of the past and she knew she had to let him do it so he could heal.
“I was supposed to be home early. Mary even knew it, she just didn’t know how early to expect me. I’d called her and told her that I was going to be freed up in the early afternoon. I was on my way home when I passed the store; it was on a whim that I even went in to it. I thought about some of the things Mary had been looking at the last time we went shopping for the babies’ room. I even had to turn around to get back to the store because I’d already driven past it. I was headed home, you see. What eats at me is when it happened, I was in the store. You can’t understand what that means unless you live it. If I had gone straight home, my van would have been in the driveway. Those scum would have seen that and most likely gone and looked for easier prey. Don’t you see? It was that choice that killed them, it killed them all.” Kevin had tears rolling down his cheeks.
