In the Forest of Light and Dark

by Kasniak, Mark

  “Yeah, I’ve seen a number of their graves in the cemetery.” I admitted as I looked up at the crow that was now back circling in the sky above us. “I guess a lot of kids have died around here, huh? But, you can’t blame that on a girl who lived close to three hundred years ago. Places got hit by diseases all the time back then, dysentery, cholera, measles, mumps, small pox, bad water, stuff like that. Things back then weren’t like they are today.”

  “Then how do you explain all the bad things that still happen to them now?” Savannah then asked me now sounding implacable.

  “I don’t know if anything has been happenin’ to them lately.” I told her being purposely dismissive. “Like I said, I just moved up here a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Well, you’ll see soon enough then, I guess. Now that there are Barretts back in the village.”

  “What’s that suppose to mean?” I shot back at her as I suddenly felt affronted by the less than welcome welcome wagon we’ve received so far.

  (I seem to have forgotten to note, although you’ve probably already figured it out, that I have a very short temper sometimes. All the time really… Maybe, I should seek some counseling for that.)

  “Well, you do know that Abellona Abbott had been betrayed by the Barretts, right?” Savannah told me as she cocked her head to one side.

  “Um, No, I didn’t.” I responded to her sounding as sarcastic as I could make it. “And that story is probably nothing but a bunch of horseshit too, just like the rest of ‘em.” I then added as I glanced down at my phone checking the time before saying, “Look, I gotta go now. I’ll see’ya around, okay?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Cera. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Savannah then said, giving me an awkward little smile as she tried to simmer my temper. “I hope we can still be friends?”

  “Yeah, sure, no big deal,” I told her feeling a bit foolish over my outburst. And, just then another one of those stray cats showed up behind me having come from somewhere further down the mountain. The cat let out an impressively loud hiss that had startled me and I whipped around searching the area for it. Then, I spotted it. There it was about ten yards beyond me crouched down in a stalking position like it was tracking prey. I knew right away that it was the black cat that I hadn’t seen since the first day I’d arrived in Mt. Harrison. The same one that I found eating the tuna I’d left out on our deck and had fallen asleep in my mama’s lap as she held her.

  She crept towards me and Savannah and I thought I heard a low growling beginning to grow from deep within her.

  “Ugh… Stupid things,” Savannah grumbled, having become suddenly abhorrent after having seen the feline. “You got to watch out for these nasty creatures, they’re everywhere around here, and they’re vicious, little demons.”

  “Yeah, I saw a lot of them at the cemetery, but none of them were vicious.” I said, and then I nodded towards the black cat saying, “And this one here was in my backyard before, but she was as sweet as could be then—mostly.”

  “GO ON. GET OUT OF HERE!” Savannah yelled throwing one of the rocks she still held. “GET!!!”

  I watched as the cat jumped straight into the air as the rock bounced off the ground underneath her.

  “Don’t do that!” I shouted while putting up a hand to try to stop Savannah from throwing another stone. “That one’s nice. She fell asleep in my mama’s lap before.”

  Savannah then dropped the rest of her rocks, looked at me and said, “I think it’s gone now anyway.” as the cat quickly slipped back into the forest. “But don’t let your guard down with any of Mount Harrison’s strays. They’ll turn on you just when you least expect them to.”

  “Alright, well… I’d better be gettin’ back home now anyways. I’ll see you later, okay Savannah?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again real soon, Sara Singer from Saraland.”

  After leaving I quickly made my way back down the hill with the aid of my walking stick helping me from twisting an ankle. Soon I found myself back among the maples and oaks where the prickly ferns that hovered just above the ground restarted their assault on my legs.

  Further down the mountain I came to a halt when I found the black cat standing on the trail before me. She looked at me and I looked straight back at her, and for a moment I thought about what Savannah had said about the cats around here—them turning on you when you least expected it. It caused me to think for a moment that I might be about to have a Mexican standoff with the black cat right there in middle of the forest. But, to my surprise—and my relief—she just let out a yielding meow and started bobbing her head as she inched her way slowly towards me submissively.

  “You’re kinda bipolar, aren’t you?” I said to her as I reached down to pet her supple, dark fur.

  She then let out another meow and purred as she arched her back, rubbing herself against my scratched up legs that were now beginning to itch something fierce. It was at that moment, after having just dawned on me, that I hoped that I hadn’t walked through poison ivy at some point.

  With the black cat now in tow, I continued to make my way through the forest using my GPS app on my phone as a guide. When I’d made it back to the waves of pines that lead down to the Genesee River, I found myself feeling thankful for being back closer to home.

  When I had finally reached the river, I realized that I had navigated my way back down the hills that made up Mt. Harrison’s base slightly askew from the path that I’d taken on my trip up. I was now a lot closer to the walking bridge that I had elected not to use earlier when I’d chosen the downed oak tree to cross instead.

  Looking back behind me, I saw that the black cat had followed me through the forest and down the hillsides. But, as I crossed the bridge I looked back to see if my feline friend was still with me, but she was now nowhere in sight, having disappeared back into the woods again. I wanted to call out to her to see where she might have gone, but then I realized that I didn’t have a name for her, so I just started saying, “Here girl. Where are you girl?” in that gentle voice I liked to use with her. But alas… She was gone.

  Shopping with Mama

  August was concluding and school was going to soon begin in just a week’s time, so my mama had suggested, “Hey, why don’t we go into the village to do a little back-to-school shopping?”

  By this time I was pretty sure that my mama had received a large chunk of her inheritance money from my grandma’s estate after having been released by Schlitzmeyer & Brown. I didn’t know how much of the 436K it was of course, but I did know that I wasn’t about to be told. I did believe though that it must have been sizable because my parents had seemed a lot happier than normal. That week my Step Daddy Cade had even started talking about going to check out the new Ford pickups down at the dealership.

  Check out new pickups! What about my Trans Am? That damn pickup better be for me.

  Before leaving the house, my mama had planned on taking the Cadillac into the village. So, knowing this I annoyingly begged her for like thirty minutes to let me drive, to which she finally caved. (I don’t know why my mama is so apprehensive about me driving. Hell, I’m pretty sure I’m a lot better driver than she is.)

  Once in the village we decided to check out the little shops that lined Fairings Boulevard. Then, if we couldn’t find anything there that I liked, my mama had mentioned that we could take a ride out that upcoming weekend to a few of the malls located out in the Buffalo suburbs.

  The first store in the village we’d visited was a little boutique called The loop and my first impression of it was that it didn’t look very promising. (Up until that point in my life, I had always shopped down at the Walmart for my clothing and along with just about everything else I could think of, so my tastes were kind of set.)

  When I had started searching through the racks I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed by all the trendy stuff they had. That was kind of unusual for me because I don’t normally find myself overwhelmed. I mean… I’m pretty si
mple, really. For me, I find myself most comfortable in just a T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans that I would normally wear while hitting up a kegger. But this place screamed dance party.

  As I was looking through the items, losing hope by the second, my mama had pulled a God-awful pink dress from one of the racks, saying, “This one’s cute.” Man, was she barking up the wrong tree with that choice, I thought. But trying not to hurt her feelings, I just shook my head, giving her a disinterested look than thankfully she put it back on the rack, albeit still seeming somewhat disappointed by my rejection. She then picked up another one and before she could even open up her mouth she must have seen the expression on my face and thankfully put that one back too.

  Fearing having to reject a third of my mama’s choices, I quickly grabbed up a couple of shirts, a few pairs of pants, and some jeans. I then told her that I was going to head into the back of the store (where the fitting rooms were) so I could try them on before she picked out anything else for me. She then told me, “Okay, I’ll be right here if you need me.” and I slipped away. But not before she had tried making me take the next terrible outfit she’d picked out with me.

  Everything was fine up to that point, and I even had actually liked a few of the items I’d picked out. But what I didn’t know was… That when I was in the changing room a few of the local hussies I would come to know as Keri Mahan, Laurie Altman, and Hallie Dune had come waltzing into the boutique.

  As I tried on the clothes, my mama being the friendly, loving soul that she is eventually struck up a conversation with these three little bitches. (“Bitches” is how you’ll hear me refer to Keri, Laurie, and Hallie—the three headed monster as I like to think of them—from this point forward.) She had noticed the girls come into the store and begin peering through the outfits. Given that Keri, Laurie, and Hallie were all about my age, my mama had reckoned that they would be, more than likely, classmates of mine. So, of course, she wanted to talk to the girls and see what they had to say all the cool kids would be wearing when school resumed next week.

  I had come out of the changing room to see what my mama had thought about a black, sleeveless top I had picked out for myself, and to my surprise the bitches were there talking to her.

  “Cera… Cera, over here.” my mama called out to me while waving her hand in the air to signal. “Cera, I want you to meet a few of the girls you’ll be going to school with.”

  I approached tentatively, and could already tell from the way they were smirking at me that most likely these girls weren’t going to be my new best friends.

  “Cera, this is Keri, Laurie, and Hallie.” my mama said gesturing to each. “They’re seniors this year, just like you.”

  “Hello.” I said, mostly perfunctory.

  “Oh, don’t you look cute in that? Girls, doesn’t she look cute?” my mama then said.

  “Yes, very.” Laurie agreed while trying not to laugh as the other two bitches just snickered amongst themselves.

  “Your mom tells us you’re from Alabama.” Keri then said to me in a tone of derision.

  “That’s right, Saraland to be precise.” I said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible, like I was above her contempt.

  Keri then giggled and put a hand up to her face somewhat covering her mouth. “Sarah, from Saraland,” she said as she worked to choke back her laughter, surely thinking that I was too much of an inbred hick to have noticed that my name is also in my hometown’s name.

  “Well, I actually spell my name C.E.R.A. so… It’s not like the town been named after me or anythin’.” I said still trying to sound as cheerful as possible, but I really felt myself becoming ornery.

  At the time, I had really figured that this little bitch was fixing to get her ass whipped right-then-and-there in the store. But I knew my mama would kill me if I did anything to hurt the little princess and thereby ruin my chance at making any friends at my new school. Also, given the fact that my mama had such a hard time going to school here back when she was my age. I was sure that it would’ve broken her heart to watch me go through the same things she had to inure.

  “So, how do you like indoor plumbing now that you’re in New York?” Keri then asked while twirling her cheap, dye-job blonde hair in between her fingers.

  AND, with that, my mama had finally caught on with what was happening.

  “Well, nice meeting you girls, but we’ve really got to get going.” she then said to the bitches while taking me by the arm.

  As we made for the door, I threw down the pile of clothes I’d been holding ever since I’d come out of the fitting room. They landed on a chair that’d been placed next to a wall mirror near the front of the boutique. (I imagine the chair was probably there for poor guys who had to suffer while their woman tried on these gaudy outfits.)

  And, even though I naturally tend to talk with a slight Southern drawl, I did my best to ham it up by sounding like a cousin fucking, trailer-park yokel as I said to the bitches, “Bye-bye, y’all. We’ll catch ya’ll later down by the swimin’ hole after my daddy finishes take me out on our date to the tracker pull!”

  Having realized that I was still wearing one of the boutiques shirts, I tore off its tags before reaching the door of the shop. I was then able to slip outside without any alarms going off. (To be honest, I didn’t think the store even had an alarm system. And I didn’t mind leaving the shirt I’d been wearing behind in the dressing room because I kind of liked the one I had on better anyway.)

  Once outside we started walking down the sidewalk heading back to our car. As my mama walked she kept her head down with one hand up to the bridge of her nose so that it blocked out my view of most of her face. At first, I thought she was crying again, but then a moment later I could see that she wasn’t crying at all, but laughing.

  “What Mama?” I asked as I started to giggle myself. “To hell with those stupid little whores. I would never be friends with jerks like that.”

  My mama just continued to crack up, now even more loudly. Her stomach beginning to hitch as she struggled to take in air.

  “WHAT?” I asked again, also finding myself giggling even more so.

  “It’s just that… It’s just that…” she began but, struggled to get the words out. “When you started talking like a Southern moron… You sounded… You sounded just like your step daddy.”

  When she had said that I could barely contain myself any longer, and I thought I was going to piss myself right there on the sidewalk.

  First Day at School

  The first week of September had rolled around and I have to admit it had snuck up on me. I really thought that at some point before the end of summer, Tucker would’ve come up to visit me along with maybe Lettie and Marzie, but there was no chance of that happening now.

  I had spent most of last night feeling anxious about my first day at a new school. It was a first for me. I’d never had to walk into a place not knowing anyone before. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I’ve already met the bitches.

  A few days before school began I’d received my class schedule in the mail and had already figured out by then that I would be walking to school being that it was so close to my house. (It’s not like I could’ve driven to school in a kick-ass Trans Am or anything like that, right Step Daddy Cade?)

  The morning of my first day I had made myself a couple of strawberry pop-tarts and began my walk a little after 7 a.m. My mama had offered to drop me off because she was on her way out to run errands in the village anyway but I had told her, “No thanks, I think I’ll just walk.” Only because I had seen her grab the keys to the Truckster off the kitchen counter instead of the keys to the Caddy and I wasn’t about to make myself endure the humiliation I would have surely received after showing up to my first day in the lime-green whale.

  As I apprehensively made my way down my street I found myself being joined by a couple of strays that appeared from out of the shrubs that lined parts of the roadway. One was brown with light, black stripes similar to that o
f a tiger. The other white with green eyes and had a patch of matted, clumped up fur on its belly that made it look like it had rolled around in muck or shit. I wanted to pick him up—well, I think it was a boy—and try to see if I could clean him up a little, but he wasn’t having any of it. Every time I would try to get near him, he would dart away from me. I don’t think he seemed scared of me. It was more like he was just playing with me. Like me trying to catch him was some sort of game.

  When I had reached the front steps of the school, I had stopped to tell my new friends that I had to go into the building. And while doing so, I caught a few of the other students looking at me funny. Like I was a crazy bag lady who hoarded them or something.

  Screw them, I thought, but then turned my attention back to the cats.

  It was weird, but the cats seemed to have understood me as they both began to slowly turn around and sulk away from the school. Heading back towards wherever they had originally come from.

  As I watched them gradually leave a third one shot out of the bushes that flanked the school’s central staircase and it quickly joined the others. I then continued on watching them for a long moment wishing I could go with them. But alas, I let out a sigh and dragged my sorry butt inside.

  After only a minute or two of searching the halls I had found my homeroom and took a seat near the back, close to the windows. I had reckoned that at least looking out the windows would’ve kept me occupied until the next bell rang.

  Homeroom kicked off with the usual socialization of, How was your summer? amongst the masses. During which time, none of the other students so much as even bothered to talk to me or even acknowledged that I was there. Which was fine by me.

  As I looked around the room, I could quickly tell that school was going to be ‘school’ no matter where I lived. There were the jocks all decked out in their school football jerseys and letter jackets. Then there were also the pretty but prissy girls that pretended as if interested in every stupid thing that came out of the jocks chowder-head mouths. I did notice one or two burn-outs in the room, though, and thought it might be good to get to know them for recreational purposes. After that, the rest of the room filled out as Average Joes, metal heads, and hoity-toity academics.