“I’ve been awake as long as the birds outside have,” Alena said slightly frustrated. “Some of them don’t understand how annoying they are when others are pretty good singers.”
“Did you get a good look outside?”
“Yep,” Alena said as she climbed up onto one of the barstool tables along the counter.
“What did you think?”
“Reminds me of that painting at the doctor’s office,” Alena whispered, “The one we had to go see after mom died.”
“Yeah,” Christopher whispered as he felt a wave of awkward sadness wash over him. “Anyway, what would you like to eat?”
“Cereal,” Alena said as she sat looking down to the countertop. She ran her finger along an old crack in the wooden surface.
Christopher searched through the cabinets and found the box of Cheerio’s he had packed for the trip and poured a bowl. He then made his way to the fridge only to remember that he had neither packed nor bought any milk. “About that…”
“You forgot the milk.”
“I did.”
“I suppose I could have it with coffee,” Alena said as she continued to gaze downward as she traced out lines of the wood with a dust covered finger. “If you want to be that kind of parent…”
“I’m sorry Allie,” Christopher said as he let out a heavy sigh. “Let’s see what else we have… Canned ravioli?”
“Gross…”
“You love this stuff…”
“Like, at lunch or dinner,” Alena protested. “You’re the one that eats cold pizza or ravioli for breakfast. I’m still growing; I need something nutritious—and sweet.”
Christopher began to search through the drawers to find a suitable alternative. “There’s some oatmeal here. It looks like we have peaches and cream, strawberry, cinnamon raisin…”
“Strawberry is good,” Alena whispered softly as she turned her head to face Christopher with sad narrow eyes and pouting lips.
“What’s wrong Allie?” Christopher asked as he turned the water on. A stream of yellow water emerged after some growling rumble from the pipes. Once the water was clear he filled an bowl with water and placed it in the microwave.
“This place doesn’t make me feel any better,” Alena said dejectedly. “This house feels sad.”
“You have to give it a try,” Christopher said as he turned and attempted to smile. “Please just give it a few days, can you do that?”
“I can try.”
“That’s all I ask,” Christopher said as he removed the bowl of hot water from the microwave and poured the dry oatmeal mix into the bowl. He stirred it with a spoon and placed it upon the table before Alena. “I need to step out for a little bit, can you hold down the fort while I’m away?”
Alena nodded silently as she poked the mass of oatmeal with a spoon.
“I’ll only be a hour, you can work the TV now right?”
“Yep…”
Christopher took his coffee mug in hand as he slipped into a pair of old brown hiking boots. He left the house, looking back once to see it in the light of day—it had certainly changed in a way. The weeds had grown high against the house and a large cascade of ivy engulfed the right side of the wall clear up to the second story.
Christopher rounded the house and paused as he came across two old rusty cages covered in overgrowth. “Kate and Poppy…” Christopher whispered as he remembered the two red hunting dogs. After all these years, he had nearly forgotten about them. He always thought about getting a dog, he cherished their company in his memories—it was just another thing that he never got around to doing. He was frustrated with himself for how much planning and not actually doing anything that he had allowed to come into his life.
He crossed the high grass into the backyard and walked for a spell until he reached an incline at the edge of a forest of tall trees. He followed up an old worn bricked staircase until he reached to the top of a large hill. In the center of the hill, the trees broke away and the view of the rolling green Ozark Mountains surrounded him. He spent a few moments admiring the view before he turned his attention towards the reason for his morning trek. He placed his hand on an old black iron gate and pulled it open—there he came upon three gravestones. He walked along the high grass and placed a hand against a tall stone that was warm to the touch from the morning sun. The name on the stone read “Mathias “Bones” Janes.
“It’s been a while Bones,” Christopher whispered to the cool morning air. “Probably longer than it should have been. Kylie…she’s gone. I suppose you know that much already. I’m sure she’s happy to see you again. I brought Alena with me—I’ll introduce you to her later. I just wanted to thank you again, for everything.”
Christopher wiped away a tear from his eye as he felt himself breaking down. He then placed a hand against the warm stone belonging to his brother James.
“Hey… James.” Christopher whispered. “I know you’re not here. I know that you are somewhere else—if you can hear me, God I hope you can, I need to be where you are now, I need to come back to that place where you can relive the past. I know you’re still around… that day a blue feather blew into my window on a breeze, I know it was you. If you can hear me, help me. I need help—desperately. Not just for my own sake, but for Alena’s. I don’t know what to do.”
Christopher nodded as he released his hold of the rough stone. He began to walk away. He looked back once to the three graves, he felt an overwhelming sense of grief that he had not chosen to bury Kylie alongside his brother, grandfather and grandmother. In hindsight, she probably would have enjoyed it—that is, if the dead enjoy their resting places. Instead, she resided in a more crowded cemetery along with Christopher’s parents back in Bloomington.
Alena was fixated on the television set when he returned to the house. A half eaten bowl of oatmeal sat in the sink. Christopher set his spent coffee mug next to it as he entered the living room and placed a hand on Alena’s shoulder.
“Would you like to go for a short drive?” Christopher asked as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Yes,” Alena answered simply and then asked, “Where did you go?”
“Just had to check around the house,” Christopher said as he dug his car keys from his pocket.
“You forgot to feed Face.”
“I’m sorry; I’ll do that real quick…”
“I already got him food from the bag, and water…and I put it in my room.”
“Thank you for doing that,” Christopher said as he smiled and took Alena by the hand. “I’ll try and be more on top of that—you know that cat saved my life once?”
“You are always forgetting things…” Alena whispered as she followed behind her father.
Christopher swallowed hard as he nodded. She was right. “Are you ready?”
“Yep,” Alena quipped as she led the way out of the house.
Christopher eyed the red Mazda, lightly dusted with a touch of grey from the rock driveway and rough roads. He remembered back to Bone’s old beat up truck—so rusted that he could not even tell what color it originally was. That old thing had no working radio, sounded like a dying animal as it drove along. He wondered what ever happened to the old beast, perhaps it had finally been put to rest. As they climbed into the car he helped Alena with the seatbelt—who insisted that she was more than capable of doing it herself. They pulled out of the old driveway leaving a trail of dust that hung in the sky like fog.
“Where are we going?” Alena asked as she stared out at the unfamiliar scenery through her window.
“I thought you might like to see the place that your mother and I first met,” Christopher replied as he began the short trip down the pothole filled road.
“I suppose so…” Alena whispered as she stared off into the thick woods. “Where are all the other people?”
“I don’t think anyone lives out here anymore,” Christopher spoke as he navigated his way past another insanely large pothole. “People used to come out here for vac
ations—used to draw a crowd for the lake here. People like us, you know, city people. Over time though, it kind of became a forgotten place. People now head over to Branson or Lake of the Ozarks these days for vacations.”
“So is this like a ghost town?”
“It’s too small to be a town, but…essentially, yes.” Christopher replied with a short nod.
“Are ghosts real?” Alena asked as she brought her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. Usually Christopher would yell at her for putting her feet upon the seat, but lately things like this did not seem to bother him much.
“Do you believe that they are?”
“No,” Alena said as she nervously bit her lower lip. “Otherwise she would have visited me by now.”
“My brother believed in ghosts,” Christopher said as he brought the car to a stop in front of an old worn wooden building. A sign dangled precariously from the roof as the long faded paint barely read ‘Bait ‘n tackle.’ Weeds had overgrown the front of the store, the windows were shattered out and the door was left slightly ajar and creaked in the summer breeze.
“Is this the place?” Alena asked as she undid her seatbelt and rushed to open the door as though she was eager to actually see it.
“This is,” Christopher said as he grew pleased by her excitement.
Alena ran up to the old building, she paused at the open door.
“Wait for me,” Christopher said as he attempted to keep up with Alena. Long years of working behind a desk had ultimately taken a toll. He was not completely out of shape, just not used to too much exertion other than his weekend walks with Kylie—which he had promptly given up on after her passing.
“Can we go in?”
“I don’t see why not…” Christopher said as he pushed against the door. Aisles of shelves lay empty and dust barren. A small counter with an old cash register upon it greeted them as sunlight filtered in through the broken windows. A beam of light refracted against a broken pane of glass and scattered tiny circular rainbows about the vacant shop.
“There’s nothing here,” Alena said as she let out a sigh of disappointment.
“A long time ago your grandmother—Kylie’s mother ran this shop. My first full day in Pine Hollow, I came here with my grandfather in search of my brother James. He had already met her by the time I had arrived and she told him about a story… about a place that was on the property of the house we stayed in—anyway, this is where I first met her. I thought she was the most beautiful girl that I had ever met.”
“What was the story?” Alena asked as she ran her finger along the countertop spelling out her name on the surface.
“There was a girl, about fifteen I believe, that disappeared in a cave a short distance from the house.” Christopher spoke as the memory filled his mind.
“Just disappeared?”
“So everyone thought,” Christopher continued. “It turned out that Kylie’s grandfather was responsible for her death—and Kylie’s father helped hide the body here in this store.”
“In here…?” Alena whispered as she removed her fingertip from the counter apprehensively.
“In the basement—we discovered the body, it was bricked over.”
“How did you find the body?”
“The girl… She kind of led us there. See your mother, James, and I were so intrigued by the story that we started to explore the cave and we sort of stumbled upon this window in the cave wall where we got to relive memories of the past—these memories eventually led us to the discovery. See the girl wanted to be found.”
“Why would it matter to her after she died?”
“She was lonely,” Christopher said as he let out a heavy sigh as he thought of his brother once more. “You remember how we said that James died in the cave during a flood on the last day we were here?”
“I remember…”
“I know this is going to be difficult to believe,” Christopher said as he nervously rapped his fingertips against the counter kicking up tiny swirls of dust that flumed into the air. “He actually chose to stay with the girl. He was in love with her and he sacrificed himself to save your mother from a fall.”
“It is difficult to believe,” Alena repeated as she shook her head. “Why didn’t mom ever say anything about this if it were true?”
“Because we never had any proof. We didn’t want to fill your head with ideas and have people make fun of you for it. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. We just wanted you to have a normal life.” Christopher said as he knelt down and placed his hands upon Alena’s shoulders. “Your mother and I wanted to tell you so badly… We just… Well, we just didn’t know how. I wish she were here to tell you.”
“The girl, what was her name?”
“Alena,” Christopher whispered as he pulled her hands into his. “You’re named after her.”
“So she died, but… She was allowed to live on and take others into her world?”
“I believe that’s how it worked…” Christopher answered as he tightened his grip upon Alena’s hands.
“So mom, she could be here… or in that window in the cave?”
“I don’t know how it works,” Christopher whispered. “I hope so. I didn’t bring you here to just show you where your mother and I first met. I brought you here to hopefully see her again… well, the both of us.”
A glimmer of hope shined in Alena’s eyes moments before she broke out into tears and grabbed tightly a hold upon her father. “Is it really true?”
“I hope so,” Christopher said as he pulled her tightly to his chest. “It happened once… I have to believe that it can happen again.”
“I want to see the place,” Alena said as she wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and pulled the length of her white shirt to wipe away the remaining wetness from her face. “Can we go there?”
“Yes,” Christopher added as he took her by the hand and led her out of the old store. He looked back to the decrepit building and nodded. For a moment his mind flashed an image of James and Kylie standing in front of the store—like a small and instant snapshot. This place, Pine Hollow, used to feel so alive. Now it just felt empty. It gave Christopher that same feeling that he had right after Kylie died—after the service he and Alena were surrounded by people, but he felt nothing, no attachment to the world. In the crowd of people he felt isolated and alone. In his mind he can see himself and Alena standing there as blur of faces pass by, each with something to say, but saying so little. He remembered the photo of Kylie sitting on the head table. She was smiling. She was always smiling, even when things were tough.
“Dad…?”
“Sorry Allie,” Christopher said as he turned away and began walking. He opened up the passenger door for Alena as he allowed his gaze to fixate upon the old store one last time.
“Get in the car before I give you a hard time about naming me after a ghost,” Alena said as she tapped against the window to get her father’s attention.
Back at the house Christopher helped Alena into a yellow hard hat and gave her a small metal flashlight to carry.
“Do I have to wear this stupid thing?” Alena protested as she banged the flashlight against the hat repeatedly like a drum.
“It’s easy to hit your head in caves,” Christopher said as he checked the batteries in the Maglite he got from the car. He adjusted the beam to be wide and shoved a bottle of water into a pair of overalls that he had found in the closet.
“You aren’t wearing a hat.”
“I have less to protect,” Christopher spoke as he knocked against his head with his hand and simultaneously knocked against the wood of the cabinet. “See, all empty inside.”
“You know what the saddest thing about that is?”
“That it’s true?”
“No,” Alena spoke as she shook her head. “That you think you’re being funny.”
“Tough crowd,” Christopher added. It was nice to see a more light-hearted banter between himself and Alena. He missed
it, honestly. He knew that it was the excitement of going down into the cave; he could feel it as well.
Once outside Christopher led Alena in hand as they walked through the overgrown yard. He remembered one thing for certain, to listen to the sound of the creek. Once he gained his bearings they found themselves in the woods. The tall trees surrounded them as they walked along the creek.
“Why did your brother fall in love with a ghost?” Alena asked as she precariously stepped over a fallen tree.
“I suppose, in life, you can’t help who you fall in love with sometimes,” Christopher said as he reached a hand to her and helped her along the way. The grass was higher, there seemed to be a lot more obstacles than he remembered.
“If he didn’t, mom would have died that day?”
“It’s very likely, yes.”
“How did he save her?”
“He transformed himself into a giant bird and scooped her up,” Christopher said as he continued to lead the way. He could make out the edge of a tall bluff at the edge of the almost tunnel-like path that the creek had carved out between the trees.
“What happened then?”
“He said goodbye, as he did—he kind of turned to smoke. I knew then that he wasn’t alive anymore…not really alive in the sense that you and I are.”
“Did you ever see him again?”
“I never did,” Christopher said as he looked down for a moment. He helped Alena over another much larger fallen tree. “Not that your mother and I stopped looking.”
“Why did you leave here?”
“That was well… right after Grandpa Bones passed away,” Christopher said as they reached the point where the creek ran straight into the bluff wall. “I wanted to stay, but I wasn’t old enough to be on my own.”
Christopher pushed back a small tree revealing the nearly hidden cave entrance. The sound of rushing water could be faintly heard in the air as a cool, damp feeling hung in the air. Christopher turned on his flashlight and pointed it into the opening.
“Is this it?” Alena asked as she turned on her own small flashlight.
Window in the Earth Trilogy Page 49
