A Long December

by Richard Chizmar

“Of course, it matters, honey.”

  “Not really.” I helped her over a fallen log. “I’ll be okay with whatever happens. I have to be.”

  She took my hand in hers, and that’s how we walked the rest of the way home.

  “Hey, you’re Rebecca, right?”

  Startled, I looked up from the shallow stream bed, and there he was: the boy from the boat.

  And standing next to him, a very tall and very pretty blonde girl. Wearing very short cut-off jeans.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

  He was shirtless again, and barefoot, and wearing the same red baseball hat.

  “I’m Benjamin.”

  I stood up. “You didn’t scare me. I was…I was just looking for crayfish.”

  He stepped forward and smiled, and it lit up the entire forest. “Not many crayfish round here, but if you follow it back a ways, you’ll find a deep pool crawling with ’em. Just watch out for snakes.”

  And then that smile again.

  “How did you know my name?”

  “My Ma knows your grandmother. Told me you were staying the summer here.”

  I waited for the inevitable “sorry about your folks,” but it didn’t come.

  The blonde girl shuffled her feet and made a noise in her throat.

  “Oh, yeah, this is Kelsey.”

  I started to step forward to shake her hand, but stopped. Don’t be stupid, I thought. “Hi. I’m Becca.”

  The girl looked away, disinterested. “I know.”

  I looked down at my feet, embarrassed.

  Benjamin flashed the girl a dirty look I wasn’t supposed to see and said, “We’re running over to the north side to see some friends. You wanna come?”

  I hoped my face didn’t show how surprised I was by the invitation. “Thanks, but I can’t. I have to help my grandma with dinner.”

  Kelsey grabbed his arm, held it possessively in both of her hands. “Can we please go now?”

  I started walking away. “I have to get back anyway.”

  “Hey, we’re thinking about having a bonfire tomorrow night,” Benjamin said from behind me. “You should come.”

  I stopped walking. I could feel my face flush. “Maybe.”

  “I’ll clear it with your grandma and pick you up.”

  I heard Kelsey hiss something under her breath.

  And then they were gone.

  By the time I got back to Grandma Maggie’s house, it was dusk and a light rain was falling. I was twenty minutes late for dinner and in a daze, wondering if I had imagined the whole thing.

  Police officer: How long were you up in the tree?

  Witness: A long time. My legs started to hurt.

  Police officer: Give me an estimate…ten minutes?

  Witness: Longer. Maybe a half-hour.

  Police officer: You say you didn’t see anyone?

  Witness: (shakes head) No.

  Police officer: Did you hear anything?

  Witness: Just what I told you before. Footsteps in the leaves. Some branches breaking. And then a scream.

  But I hadn’t imagined it.

  At breakfast the next morning, I told Grandma about meeting Benjamin and the girl in the woods, and she told me all about Benny—she had known him since he was a baby and that’s what she had always called him—and his mother, too. Benjamin’s father had died in a logging accident when Benjamin was only five, and Grandma and his mom had grown close over the years. Just a couple of lonely widows, she joked, without a smile.

  “I’m glad you ran into Benny,” she told me, munching on a piece of dry toast. “They’re good people.”

  “So, it would be okay…if I went with him to the bonfire?”

  “Do you want to go?”

  I tried to play it cool. “I’m thinking about it.”

  Grandma saw right through me, as she often did. “Uh, huh, I can see that,” she smirked. “You just keep on thinking about it and let me know when you come to a decision, okay?”

  I flipped a hand at her and didn’t even try to hide my smile. “You hush, Grandma.”

  “Your chariot awaits,” he said with a dramatic bow, as the boat settled alongside the pier.

  He was wearing a t-shirt this time. Faded jeans and tennis shoes. And no hat. He looked beautiful.

  He reached out a hand and helped me onto the boat.

  I was wearing a sleeveless sundress, the only one I had brought with me, and although I felt overdressed, I didn’t care. I never wanted to let go of his hand.

  I sat down at the front of the boat, facing him.

  He pushed off from the pier and cranked the throttle on the outboard and we were off, Grandma’s house growing smaller and smaller behind us.

  I waved goodbye because I knew she was watching from somewhere inside the house, and then my eyes went right back to Benjamin.

  His curly brown hair danced in the breeze and the muscles of his arm flexed as he maneuvered the outboard. He smiled at me and raised his voice above the motor. “You look nice.”

  I felt my face get hot. “Thank you.”

  “You ever been out to Soloman’s Island?”

  I shook my head. “The old prison?”

  He put a hand up next to his ear: can’t hear you.

  Louder this time: “Is that where the old prison was?”

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “From the Civil War. Nothing left of it now except some crumbling sections of wall and part of the old watchtower.”

  “That’s where you have your bonfires?”

  “Usually, yeah. Sometimes, we even camp overnight.”

  “My grandma said I had to be back by ten o’clock.”

  He laughed. “I’ll have you back in time.”

  I silently scolded myself for sounding like a dumb kid.

  “So, do you have a boyfriend back home?”

  I shook my head and wanted to ask if Kelsey was his girlfriend, but I didn’t dare.

  “Why the heck not? You’re gorgeous.”

  I blushed again and then I was smiling, and I didn’t remember a single thing either of us said after that until we reached the island.

  The island was gross.

  That was my first and lasting impression. I think I expected a secluded and tranquil paradise, and instead what I found was a rock strewn chunk of land littered with beer cans and cigarette butts and used condoms. There weren’t even that many trees.

  It was an ugly place, but I understood why they all liked it there. The island belonged to them.

  When we beached the dingy and jumped ashore, the bonfire was already raging, and I could see maybe a dozen or so kids clustered around it. Drinking and smoking and dancing to a boom box.

  I recognized one of the dancing girls as Kelsey, and when she saw us, she made a beeline to a couple of other girls, and then they had their heads together, whispering and scowling.

  I started to think I should’ve stayed home, and it was as if Benjamin read my mind.

  “C’mon, it’ll be okay,” he said. “You’ll have fun.”

  I looked at him doubtfully and he just had time to take one more step before he was tackled off his feet by one of the largest kids I’ve ever seen.

  “Benny boyyy!”

  Benjamin and the human boulder crashed to the ground and rolled to a stop a full five yards away from where they had started. Somehow, Benjamin ended up on top and was holding the much larger boy down by the arms.

  “Jesus, Mark. You gotta stop doing that.”

  Benjamin released his grip and got to his feet, brushing dirt from his jeans and t-shirt. He reached down and helped Mark to his feet. I stood there staring at them both, unsure of what I had just seen.

  “Mark, this is Rebecca. Rebecca, Mark Andrews. All-Conference linebacker on the football team. All-Conference retard everywhere else.”

  I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh.

  “Rebecca, my dear, I am charmed.” Then he actually took my hand and leaned down and kissed it.

 
I looked at Benjamin, speechless, and then we all cracked up laughing, and I thought: maybe he’s right; maybe this will be fun.

  It was like a scene from one of my books.

  A bunch of teenagers huddled together in the dark around a campfire. Telling scary stories. Except it was real, and I was actually living it.

  I sat on a blanket on the ground between Benjamin and Mark. Kelsey was with her friends right next to us, and every once in awhile, I caught her whispering about me or staring at me. I always looked away first.

  When it was Benjamin’s turn, he surprised me by telling the story of the Soloman’s Island slasher. According to legend, there was once a drifter who had gone crazy and started kidnapping local girls and bringing them here to the island. Once he had them trapped here, he would let them go and then hunt them down in a sadistic game of cat and mouse, ultimately capturing them and slicing them to pieces with a hunting knife. Eventually, the townspeople discovered what was happening and they tracked the drifter to the island, where they caught and executed him with the same hunting knife he used to kill his victims.

  But the story didn’t end there.

  For the grand finale, Benjamin got to his feet and walked closer to the bonfire. Turned around and faced us. “According to the legend, the drifter’s evil spirit still inhabits this island. And on very special nights, when the wind and moon are just right, you can actually still hear him taunting his victims, calling out to them as they cower in terror.”

  He lowered his voice for this last part: “But, most frightening of all…it is also said that the drifter’s spirit remains here…waiting…waiting for someone else to come to this island so he can possess them. Someone with dark thoughts and even darker potential. Someone to carry on his evil legacy and—”

  “DIEEEE!!!”

  The bushes suddenly exploded and there was the flash of a knife blade in the firelight, followed by a fleeting dark shadow—and I screamed and scuttled backward on my feet and elbows like a sand crab.

  I screamed until my throat was sore, and I realized everyone else was rolling on the ground—laughing.

  I looked up at the shadow standing above me and watched as Kelsey pulled the hood of her black sweatshirt down and dropped the knife to the ground.

  Benjamin brushed past her and snatched up the knife. “That was a shitty thing to do and you know it.”

  “God, I was only joking,” she said with a victorious smile.

  And then Benjamin was helping me to my feet. “Are you okay, Rebecca?”

  “I…I just want to go home. Now.”

  He took my arm and guided me away from Kelsey and the others. “She didn’t hurt you, did she?”

  But I couldn’t answer. Tears were spilling down my cheeks and it was all I could do not to burst out in sobs.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he said, wiping my cheek with his hand. “It was just a stupid prank. I never would have let her do it if I had known.”

  He helped me into the boat and dropped the knife at his feet before cranking the motor. He held my hand the entire way back to Grandma Maggie’s, and by the time he walked me to the front door and said goodnight, I had almost forgotten about Kelsey and her dirty trick.

  Almost.

  I was eating cereal on the deck the next morning when I heard the sound of tires on gravel in the driveway. I looked up and saw Mom parking next to Grandma’s truck.

  “Mom?” I left my bowl on the table and jogged down to the driveway.

  She got out of the car and smiled at me, looking better than she had in months. She pulled me into a long, tight hug. “God, I missed you, baby.”

  “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

  She laughed. “Whatever happened to ‘I missed you, too, Mom?!’”

  “I did miss you! I do miss you! So much. I’m just surprised.”

  From behind me: “That was the point, kiddo.”

  I turned around to find a beaming Grandma Maggie standing there with her hands on her hips. “We wanted to surprise you.”

  “Well, it worked.” I hugged my mom again. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

  “I have a present for you, too.” She walked back to the car and pulled a plastic bag from the back seat. Handed it to me.

  I opened the bag and pulled out a stack of brand new Stephen King paperbacks. I squealed with delight. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

  “There’s also a new journal in there, so you can write if you feel like it.”

  I gave her a look. “Is that my counselor talking? Or you?”

  “It’s from me, you little smart aleck.” She looked at Grandma. “Now am I too late for breakfast? I’ve been driving all morning and I’m starving.”

  “Let’s see what I can whip up,” Grandma said, and I watched them walk into the house arm in arm like schoolgirls.

  It was the happiest I had felt in weeks.

  After breakfast, Mom and I went for a long walk in the woods. Just the two of us.

  We hiked past the point and into the valley beyond where the lake had long ago eaten into the land forming what Grandma always called Tranquility Cove. It was my favorite part of the shoreline and we spent a lazy hour there, skipping stones on the glassy surface of the lake and looking for driftwood.

  And Mom talked a lot. Of course. I could tell she was worried about me.

  “I’m fine, Mom, I promise.”

  “And you’ve been taking your pills?”

  “Like clockwork.”

  “No more episodes?”

  “I told you, I’m fine.”

  She sighed. “You always say that.”

  I tossed another stone and counted. Four skips. Not bad.

  “I heard you met a boy.”

  I nodded. “He’s just a friend.”

  Another stretch of silence, then:

  “You know what the counselor said. You can’t keep it all inside you. You’ll explode again. It has to have a release.”

  I looked up at her. “This is my release,” I said, gesturing to the lake and the trees and the sky around us. “This is where I come to feel better.”

  She looked around, really looked, and I could tell I had said the right thing.

  “You promise you’re still taking your meds?”

  I crossed my toes inside my right boot.

  “I promise.”

  Police officer: Did you recognize the voice of the person screaming?

  Witness: (shakes head) No. Just that it was a girl.

  Police officer: Then what happened?

  Witness: The screaming stopped.

  Police officer: And then?

  Witness: I heard more footsteps. Running away.

  Police officer: What did you do next?

  Witness: I waited. For what felt like a long time. Then I climbed down out of my hiding place.

  I said goodbye to Mom the next morning after breakfast. She had to work that evening and wanted to get back in time to shower and change clothes. I thanked her again for coming and for the books and watched her drive away until her car disappeared around the bend.

  Grandma was feeling tired—probably because her and Mom had stayed up late talking in the den—so we skipped our morning hike, and instead I walked down to the pier to read.

  The sun was already hot, so I rolled up the sleeves of my t-shirt and dropped my feet into the water. I turned the page and for the next couple hours, I found myself lost in a small Maine town infested with vampires.

  I was just getting ready to take a break and check on Grandma Maggie when I heard the buzz of Benjamin’s outboard. I looked up and there he was: typical Benjamin. No shirt. No shoes. Dirty red hat. Big beautiful smile.

  He cut the motor, drifted the final twenty feet to the pier, tied off the bowline, and plopped down right next to me. I could smell his sweat.

  “What ya readin?”

  I showed him the cover.

  “’Salem’s Lot. Any good?”

  “Better than go
od. It’s amazing.”

  Neither of us said anything for a time. Both of us just staring out at the lake. Then, he moved a little closer, and I could feel the warmth of his leg against mine.

  “Sorry again about Kelsey. She can be a bitch sometimes.”

  “I won’t argue with that.”

  He laughed. “She’s not always like that. She can be sweet, too. I guess she’s just jealous.”

  “Jealous? Of what?”

  He leaned forward so he could get a better look at me. “Of you, silly.”

  “Well, she obviously has nothing to be jealous about. I’m…me. And she’s…Kelsey. All legs and boobs and blondeness.”

  He laughed again. “She is a big deal around here. But you’re…different. And she knows it.”

  “Different,” I repeated.

  He splashed the water with his foot. “And she knows I like you.”

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.

  I felt the pressure on my leg increase, and before I realized what was happening, he was leaning in again, this time so close I could feel his breath on my cheek and then oh, my God, we were about to kiss…

  “Howdy, kids.” Right behind us. “Beautiful morning, isn’t it?”

  I jumped and he pulled back, and it was over. Just like that.

  Benjamin stood up first. “Morning, Mrs. Maggie. How are you?”

  “I’m right as rain. And you?”

  “I’m good. Was heading home and saw Rebecca on the pier. Thought I’d say hello.” He glanced at his boat. “I should probably be going now.”

  “No need to rush off on my account.”

  “Thanks, but I’m already late and you know how my ma gets.”

  Grandma Maggie smiled, and I saw the beautiful young woman she once was. “Your ma is a saint, boy, and don’t you forget it. You say hi to her for me.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I sure will.”

  He hopped down into the boat with practiced ease. “I’ll see you later, Rebecca. Thanks for telling me about your book.”

  “Bye, Benjamin.”

  He cranked the engine and pushed off.