by Aiden James
“‘According to this legend, these people were forced to leave Appalachia by the Native Americans moving into the area at that time. Their existence was partially responsible for the lack of fear many southern tribes displayed when first encountering the European settlers, since most southeastern tribes had reportedly encountered these mysterious white people at one point or another….’
“Grandpa paused and shook his head, an embarrassed smile on his face. Jeremy had begun drumming his fingers once more.
“‘Sorry about getting sidetracked again, boys,’ said Grandpa. ‘Why don’t we grab some dessert, and I’ll finish this up.’
“‘He and I had a piece of pie, and Jeremy lit up another cigarette. When ready to return to the dining room, they each grabbed a beer and I picked up another soda. Once we sat down again, Grandpa continued where he left off.
“‘Let me summarize what’s important and then I’ll skip ahead to the events leading up to your folks’ disappearance,’ he said, sounding somewhat apprehensive about what lay ahead in his story. ‘Dr Stratton felt that the City of Gold’s permanent home in North America had to be in Alabama or Mississippi. Lots of written accounts from settlers mentioned the same types of sightings as the Native Americans, including a couple of very old plantation diaries, where task masters talked of some slaves sleepwalking into the nearby woods, while none of their fellow slaves could shake them awake or dissuade them from their course. These unfortunate folks were never seen or heard from again.
“‘Most accounts centered around Natchez, Mississippi, and here in our own neck of the woods, though there hasn’t been a reported sighting in the Natchez area since just before the Civil War, when the hot spring near the Mississippi River suddenly dried up. Nobody even remembers its exact location. Some folks argued vehemently years ago with Jack Stratton, saying the hot spring never existed—despite documentation he’d tirelessly gathered to the contrary.
“‘Here in our area, there’s been a steady stream of sightings and strange occurrences among non-Indian folks since the place was first settled nearly three hundred years ago. Even at the old fort, legends tell of people disappearing without a trace. Perhaps the fort was closed because of this. But it didn’t stop the phenomenon from continuing on up to the present day. It’s definitely how the ‘Season’ came to be known around these parts. I know my grandmother used it on several occasions when somebody from here turned up missing. She only jumped the gun one time I know of—’
“‘Grandpa, what happened to your talisman??’ I asked, since he hadn’t answered my question yet.
“‘Okay, okay!’ He laughed while motioning for me to hold my horses a moment. ‘Monty accused me of hiding it from him and was going to beat me up. I finally had to tell him I’d already given it to Lisa Ann and she’d in turn given it to her great uncle. I cried, thinking he’d go ask for it back, but he didn’t.
“‘It may just be a coincidence, though I seriously doubt it. A homeless man named Virgil Hannah once hung out near the feed lot, in business even way back then. At that time, Pete Aderley’s daddy, Shannon Aderley operated it. Anyway, Lisa Ann said Virgil started keeping an eye on the Stratton farmhouse and acting real suspicious. This took place not long after Monty threatened me, which happened near the Stratton’s front yard.
“‘A few days later, Dr. Stratton went to look for the talisman in his room. But, it was gone. The talisman was never seen again and neither was Virgil—not by anyone. He simply vanished....’
“Grandpa’s voice trailed off. He remained quiet for nearly a minute, a wan smile on his face.
“‘Are you okay, Grandpa?’ Jeremy actually looked worried.
“‘Yeah…yes, I am,’ he replied, his thin smile fading. ‘Let’s go ahead and get through the hard stuff…. Your grandma, Elsie Smith, changed my life forever when we met. The prettiest creature I’d ever laid eyes on…I was twenty and Dr. Stratton had passed away by then. Lisa Ann and I remained friends, but the romance between us had waned long ago. Dr. Stratton’s funeral, by the way, was closed casket. For a long time the older folks in Carlsdale felt he’d faked his death in order to live out his final days down in Valenzuela, where it was rumored he had another estate. That idea never sat well with me, and I now believe he’s the old man Jack met while hiding in that garden yesterday.’
“Jeremy raised his eyebrows in surprise at this statement and finished his beer. Like me, he’d been following Grandpa’s story closely since our snack break. This last bit caught him off guard, and he seemed to be searching his memory for the details from my story to verify what Grandpa just said.
“‘I’ll come back to this point if we need to, Jeremy,’ Grandpa told him, since he knew I’d already made the connection. ‘For now, I’d better move on, so we’re not sitting here until the wee hours of the morning. All right?’
“My brother nodded and looked over at me, suspiciously.
“‘Thanks, boys, I do appreciate it. We’re headed through some pretty tough territory. Please, bear with me if I struggle some, since what I’m telling you from here on out I intend to never repeat again….
“‘Elsie and I dated for a good three years before I proposed. I remember being a nervous wreck the day I asked her to marry me. Hell, it took me nearly six months to work up the courage! I shouldn’t have been so worried, because as soon as I popped the question she cried ‘yes!’ and threw her arms around my neck so hard I thought she might break it.’
“He laughed, but also tears welled in his eyes. He dabbed at them with a napkin before going on.
“‘I think we both knew in our hearts we’d be married someday from the very moment we met,’ he said. ‘Soon after we officially tied the knot we moved in here, since Momma needed help keeping this place up. My grandma was pretty feeble by then. She passed away a year later, while Elsie was pregnant with your mom.
“‘When Julie was born that summer, this house came to life like it’d never done before. She truly was something special, and as pretty as her mother. Same hair and eyes…her smile lit up any room she stepped into. Smart, too, but I guess I’m getting away from the point of my story again.’
“Grandpa exhaled slowly in an attempt to maintain his composure and finished his beer. He stood up from the table and asked us if we’d like another drink from the kitchen, since he intended to get himself another brew. We both agreed to that, and he left us for a moment.
“Getting later in the evening, he turned on the kitchen light and walked over to the back door. He turned on the porch lights as well, and briefly opened the back door to take a look outside. Satisfied nothing was amiss in the backyard, he closed and locked the door again. He grabbed another soda for me along with a couple more beers for himself and Jeremy, and walked back into the dining room.
“Hopefully, I can finish this rambling monologue before we’ve finished these,’ he said, handing us our drinks. He turned on the room’s chandelier, but before he sat down again, he moved over to the French-paned windows, peering cautiously between the blinds.
“What’s up now, Grandpa?’ I asked.
“I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Maybe it’s just paranoia or perhaps the fact I haven’t slept well these past few nights. I keep feeling like someone’s listening to us over here by the windows. It’s not necessarily a bad feeling, and I’ve checked three times now and there’s nothing going on outside that I can see.’
“He closed the blinds again, shaking his head as he returned to his chair.
“‘I almost got one of these for you, Jack,’ he said, pointing to his bottle, ‘but I still think you should wait a couple of years before indulging in this stuff. Hell, Jeremy had to wait until he was nearly sixteen before I agreed to let him have a sip.’
“He added a playful wink.
“‘That’s okay,’ I said, thinking to myself how little he knew about my older brother’s exploits over the past five years.
“‘Well…there weren’t any more encounters with a talisman arou
nd here, at least not for many years,’ resumed Grandpa. ‘Not until Julie was all grown up and married, and you two lads were among us. Oh, but wait! … There was one encounter I’d almost completely forgotten about until last night. Jack, you know the little girl in the village you told us about, the one called Allyson?’
“Yeah.’
“Your mom had a friend, her best friend, named Allyson Carter. She disappeared without a trace when your mom was a little girl. Allyson lived on the other side of the Palmer place with her mom and older brother. There used to be a house sitting in the field over there, up until maybe twenty years ago.’
“‘I’ll bet anything it’s the same girl, Grandpa!’ I agreed, eager to learn what he knew about her.
“‘You told us last night that your mom’s spirit seemed partial to her,’ he said. ‘For Jeremy’s benefit, and to fill in missing information, Jack, I’ll tell you both what I remember about her disappearance.
“‘Allyson’s mom, Mamie Carter, told Elsie and me that her daughter wasn’t acting like her normal self. This started about a week before she disappeared. She’d sit on her back porch and stare off toward the woods with a peculiar smile and faraway look on her face. Mamie told us she heard Allyson talking quite a bit with an ‘imaginary friend’, too. She overheard her little girl arguing with the pretend person, saying things like ‘No, I can’t go there. I’d get in big trouble’, or ‘My mom says there’s lots of things in the woods that’ll hurt you’.
“‘Allyson’s disappearance devastated your mom, and the timing couldn’t have been worse since it happened just a week before Julie’s eighth birthday. We had to postpone her birthday party on account of it. Your mom would sit for hours out back on that old tire-swing, staring off toward the woods as if waiting for Allyson to return.
“‘I’ve wondered if Julie saw anything like the golden object I found as a little boy in Allyson’s possession, because one day while she grieved I overheard her say something very strange. She said ‘I told you not to listen to them!’ When I asked her about it, she clammed up, and never told me what she meant by her words.
“‘Julie eventually healed from her loss and made new friends. Much more interested in school from that point on, perhaps staying busy with her studies kept her mind occupied and the sadness away. I don’t know.... What I do know is she grew up to be such a wonderful young woman. She excelled in high school and was offered a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, England, as you both know. She decided to stay closer to home, attending the University of Alabama on a full-ride scholarship instead. That’s where she met Frank, from Baltimore and attending school on a football scholarship.
“‘Now, I realize ya’ll know a lot of this stuff. So I’ll skip over as much as I can. Just let an old man tell his tale without interruption, okay?’ We nodded and he continued. ‘Shortly after graduation your folks got engaged and moved to Atlanta, where Frank enjoyed a brief career in professional football playing for the Falcons as a reserve linebacker. They decided to get married the following spring, and did so in Tuscaloosa. Boy, what a fun time that was! I’m sure glad Elsie and I didn’t have any other kids or we wouldn’t have had near enough money to throw her an incredible wedding like we did!’
“Grandpa laughed again, but then sighed deeply.
“‘Your parents soon got their masters degrees at Georgia Tech in Atlanta,’ he said. ‘Frank’s was in journalism and Julie’s in bioengineering. You were already a toddler by then, Jeremy, born four months after your folks got married. We had no idea your mom was pregnant until she was in her sixth month. Elsie thought for sure you’d be a sickly child. She sure was wrong about that, as you’ve grown up to be a strong and healthy young man.’
“Jeremy smiled smugly, nodding his head slightly to confirm this assessment of himself. As for me, I sat almost motionless listening to Grandpa. Starving for information about my parents, I was determined to store every bit of it in my memory.
“‘I know I’m still beating around the bush a little, but we’re about to get to the worst part for me,’ Grandpa told us, his expression much more serious. ‘It ain’t easy, but I’ll get through it as best I can.’
“‘That’s all right,’ I said gently, glancing at my brother. ‘You just tell us when you’re ready.’
“‘Thanks, son,’ he said, taking a few more deep breaths. ‘You were soon on the way, Jack, and despite that, Julie managed to land a very lucrative position with a genetics-testing firm in Atlanta. They even allowed her to stay on and work flexible hours after you were born. Frank had worked his way up in the sports department for a local television news station, and had been in that position for nearly four years.
“‘Twelve years ago this summer, your folks decided to finally spend a couple of weeks with us down here in Carlsdale. Frank hadn’t been here since before the wedding, and your mom hadn’t since she finished her schooling in Atlanta. Neither of you kids had ever been to Alabama yet.
“‘Anyway, we finally got to see all of you on our own turf. The first week was wonderful. Jack, I know you don’t remember anything, though Jeremy, you should remember some. Definitely a great time, until your mom and dad started acting strange during their second week here. They both grew real distant from Elsie and me, and even from you boys. Your mom and grandma started snapping at each other—something I’d not seen them do since Julie lost Allyson, nearly twenty years before this.... I wish to God I’d paid closer attention!!’
“Grandpa lowered his head and began to sob, fighting hard to hold the tears back, shaking and gritting his teeth. He raised his head and looked at us with teary eyes that pleaded silently for understanding. Jeremy and I reached across the table, each one clasping his hands. This surprised him, I think, especially coming from my brother, and he seemed to draw strength from it.
“‘Your mom and grandma kept on fighting,’ he said, once he regained some composure. ‘Even your dad grew hostile. Frank was always quiet, but warm and friendly when you got to know him. Now, that warmth had completely disappeared. He regarded us with suspicion no matter what we said or did.
“‘On each of the last four days of their stay, they left you boys with us and went on picnics in the woods. Very peculiar, and gone for hours at a time. They seemed quite content with this ritual. In fact, on the day before they vanished for good, your mom and dad were gone for nearly seven hours! Their bizarre behavior had us deeply worried, and, to be honest, pretty ticked off.
“‘I should’ve recognized the signs, but you know, I never once thought about the golden object, the ‘Season’, or any of the old stories—not once! Not one frigging time, ya’ll!! I wish to God I knew why I hadn’t!!!’
“He sat up straight, tears streaming down his face.
“‘The night before that fateful day, Julie and Elsie had a major blowup,’ he continued, his voice cracking. ‘I never found out what it was all about. I only remember your mom shouting ‘It’s my life, Mother, and I’ll live it exactly as I damn well please!’ I got mad and hollered at her, and then your dad joined in and it got uglier from there.
“‘Everyone went to bed upset that night, and your grandma and I tossed around and didn’t sleep at all…. Early the next morning, your folks were going out the back gate with their fully packed picnic basket again, and this time they had you boys with them. A horrible feeling came over me, so I grabbed Elsie and we stopped Julie and Frank just before they made it through the gate with either of you. They allowed you to stay with us, and both were quite pleasant for a change.
“After they left, I thought about Julie’s strange smile. Faint, with her eyes absent of their usual glow. I suddenly remembered Mamie’s description of Alyson’s strange expression long ago. By then they were deep in the woods. I should’ve tried to cut them off along the road we took earlier today, but like everything else, that option never occurred to me.
“‘I needed to pick up a few things from town, and decided to take you, Jeremy, along with me. I told Elsie we’d be bac
k in an hour or so. A beautiful sunny day when I left the house, without a cloud in the sky, it took me roughly an hour and a half to get everything I needed. On the way home, I noticed a bad storm blowing in from the west. So, I stepped on the gas in order to get us here before it hit. I ran inside, thinking Elsie and you, Jack, would be protected from the weather. But neither of you were in the house. I panicked and told Jeremy to stay put until I returned.
“‘It’d just started raining hard when I ran out onto the back porch. I didn’t see anything or anyone right away, so I ran down the porch steps and on over to the oak tree. The first thing I noticed from there was the sphere sitting in front of the back gate. Taken by surprise at the strangeness and enormity of the thing, I could only stop and stare stupidly at it. I finally noticed Elsie holding you, Jack, on her knees near the thing. Several bright flashes of lightning struck the ground between the oak and the sphere. I whispered a prayer and ran over to where you and your grandma sat huddled together.
“‘I tried to get her to come out of the rain, but she wouldn’t budge,’ said Grandpa, regaining some steadiness to his voice. ‘She wouldn’t tell me what’d happened, either. She just kept muttering about the ‘angels and the sphere’, and some other mostly incoherent stuff like ‘they’re gone’ and ‘protect the baby—keep Jack safe’. She said this last phrase over and over.
“‘I ran back inside the house and got a thick blanket. Struggling against the rain and a pretty fierce wind, I wrapped her in the blanket and took you, Jack, into my arms. I then hurriedly brought you both inside the house.’
“Grandpa grew silent again and looked toward the living room, where the light from the full moon poured in through the front windows. He shook his head slowly and turned back to our expectant faces. He tried to smile, yet the sadness in his eyes spoke volumes, his grief so profound.
