Children Of Fiends - Part 4 The Dark Heart: An Of Sudden Origin Novella
Page 9
“Stewart.”
Dean, keeping his watch said, “Yes?”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes. Tell the boy to stay close.”
She rose to leave, but he kept holding her hand. He was grateful. Somehow, he had needed permission to act like a father. He hoped the boy.... That Billy would understand. He stood and pulled Eliza close and leaned in. “Thank you.”
She held him away for a moment, her body stiffening. Then she softened, putting her free hand on the back of his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. It was a good kiss. A kiss that promised more kisses.
When the boy returned at dusk, this time wearing a packed rucksack of good military grade construction, Dean took the offering and then put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, guiding him to a wrecked boardwalk that had once made a weak attempt to be a tourist attraction. He said, “There is a photo of you in my home on Nantucket from when you were two. When I think about you and you are not standing beside me, I think of that photo. I know you are not two; that you are twelve going on twenty. I appreciate the hard work you are doing. We all do. But, I want you to stay close now. It’s quite literally a miracle that we are here with each other. Now that I’ve found you I can’t lose you again.”
Billy looked out at the sea for a moment before giving a slight nod, “Is that all?”
Dean smiled. “Sure.”
“Okay. I’ll stay close, but not near your Chosen. I found a boat.”
“You did? What kind of boat?”
“A big one. A sailboat. It’s up in the air.”
“You mean out of the water up in the air?”
“On a trailer up in the air.”
The fifty-foot fiberglass sloop was severely weathered and the wood accents were gray with bits of cracked yellow varnish. The windows however, had good seals. Once they pried the lock off the main gangway hatch, they found the interior musty but dry. The hull didn’t have any visible signs of damage. The mast had been removed, and lay next to the trailer on blocks. The six tires on the heavy duty trailer had rotted and the steel hubs were embedded into the dirt road. The road led in one direction to a large expensive looking home sitting fifty meters away. In the opposite direction, it was another fifty meters to the sea. They found the intact sails and assorted other rigging in a large storage shed near the house. There was no way to replace the tires on the trailer so they pulled the wheels off entirely, allowing it to rest instead on six wood columns that had taken them three days to remove from the big house’s veranda. It was slow progress, but by pushing and pulling they rolled the trailer forward on the columns, pulling them out one at a time as they came free from the back and walking them to the front to roll under again and so on. When the sloop floated free of its submerged trailer, they celebrated with champagne that Cookie had turned up, and served with fried conch and wild fruits and vegetables.
It was with a certain amount of trepidation that the group set sail the next morning. They were very far from home, with more unknown ahead. Then again, they’d already traveled thousands of miles doing just that. The hardest choice was deciding whether to go home at all. They reached a consensus that they owed the news of what they had found to their brothers and sisters up north.
As Sanders took the helm, the rest of the group kept glancing back at the Nicaraguan shore until it finally fell over the horizon. Stewart Dean felt Eliza’s arm wrap around his waist. His son stood before him leaning against the rail, and he rested a hand on Billy’s shoulders while letting his other hand gently massage the back of Eliza’s neck.
Hansel and Gretel stood at the bow with their faces into the wind, their eyes darting about for fish.
EPILOGUE
The national bird of Nicaragua is the Turquoise-browed Motmot or Raven Guard, called the Guardabarranco by the locals. It has beautiful multihued plumage and a long racketed tail. As dusk darkened the jungle floor below, one such bird was returning to its nest. It cocked its head back and forth as it observed countless dots of fire moving through the foliage. Closer inspection revealed biped creatures that it instantly feared. They were walking North by the tens of thousands, and filled the landscape as far as the bird could see. Suddenly the bird felt the grip of something pulling its flight path down. It continued to fly with grace, but with the compelling need to fly directly at one of the bipeds that stared up at it with a wide-open mouth. With a final spiral, the Guardabarranco lost its tug of war and flared its wings to alight on a row of sharp teeth.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
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