Tyla, he thought. She must have gotten off early.
Jacob knew Tyla might think it strange that he saw her and didn’t wait until she came up the driveway to go inside, but he figured that could be dealt with later. He whipped the screen door open and picked up the galosh to get the key, only to find nothing but the dirty back porch floor.
Panic set in as he wondered where he had left the key. He looked under other boots and some shoes too, examined the pocket of his jean shorts, even flipped through his wallet.
Jacob heard the white rocks popping into each other and the low rumbling of the car’s motor. He tried to calm himself. A few seconds later, the memory of throwing the key into the dirt came. Then there was the sound of a car door slamming. Jacob turned and saw his little sister, clad in her work uniform. She pulled the screen door open.
“Hit anything?” Tyla asks.
“Huh. What?” Jacob answered.
“I saw the pistol in the front seat of your car.” She smiled. Yet it wasn’t an accusatory or mischievous smile. It took Jacob a few seconds to put it together.
“Yeah, not much to shoot in the yard. Thought maybe I’d find something at the dump.”
“I like to shoot the rifle, myself. I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with that damn pistol.” She laughed.
“I don’t know what I did with the key.”
His little sister laughed again. “All those brains and you still can’t keep track of anything. I got a key.” Tyla fiddled with the keys in her hand until she found the right one. She reached past him and unlocked the door. Then she walked ahead into the living room. Jacob followed her as close as he could without being too obvious. Tyla glanced down at the notebook on the table, but Jacob casually picked it up before she got a good look at it.
“Just something I’ve been working on.”
“Oh,” Tyla says, and then headed into the next room.
Jacob hurried back to his car and shoved the notebook under the driver’s seat. He grabbed the gun, then went back inside. With the sound of the running shower coming from the bathroom, Jacob put the gun up. He went to his car and drove back to the shale pit.
Chapter 2
Jacob stood by the hill of shale, smiling, with the key to his parents’ house in his hand.
“You’re not what I came for, but I guess you’ll have to do for now.”
Jacob was disappointed that the anticipation he had felt earlier had not returned. But he was glad that the old tension hadn’t returned either. He got back in his car, wondering how long the calm would last. It felt like it could last forever. He wanted to believe that. He didn’t want there to be a rational explanation for it all. He didn’t want there to be a way to explain away his new found feelings or that he had actually experienced himself rising into the sky and falling to the ground. Bringing sense to all this would mean that none of it was real, and if none of it was real, then it was all temporary and he would have to return to how he was.
Driving along, Jacob tried to envision what his future could be like. He tried to see himself approaching things anew, without the tension that had always haunted him. First, he tried to think of being a student. Then he tried to think of practicing law. But he couldn't see these things.
Then there was the girl. He thought of why he had left her and why he hadn’t contacted her again. That was something he had discussed with his therapist. He wondered what she was doing and what her life was like. Was she with anybody?
“I’ll just call her up. Yeah that’s it. Hey, Sonnie, how’s it going? Sorry I haven’t called you for five years.” Jacob laughed. “She’s probably long gone by now anyway.”
But Jacob allowed himself to engage in the fantasy that she wasn’t gone. He allowed himself to think that she hadn’t changed. She was still beautiful. Sonnie continued to occupy his mind right up to when he made the last turn toward his destination. That was when the anticipation started to take over again. It rose faster this time, and it grew even stronger than it had been before.
Up ahead, something seemed to appear out of the blue. It was a yellow Chevy Nova, pulled off to the side of the road. Jacob stared at the car in fascination as he approached. Then, when he pulled up beside it, his own car’s engine died.
Boiling over with excitement now, Jacob looked down at the steering column. He reached down and turned the key. There was no sound. He got out of the car, knowing this was it. What he anticipated was here. There was no one in the Nova, but there were voices coming from below, by the creek. Jacob made his way toward them, thinking that whomever was down there was connected to it all. He would see them and know what the incredible anticipation was all about.
As he came over the hill, his ankle buckled under him and he fell forward. He grabbed two handfuls of grass and his body swung around. Feeling the pain but indifferent to it, he got to his feet. Turning his head from side to side, he scanned what was in front of him. But he only saw the creek. The voices were gone.
“What in the . . .”
He shook his head then rubbed his eyes. Still, there was nothing. A little disheartened, he started to turn around.
“No. I heard them. They were there.”
He waited there for a couple of minutes, hearing an occasional bird and the constant sound of the creek trickling along, but nothing else. So he moved back up the hill. Maybe he would wait by his car for a little while. The owner of the Nova would have to come back sooner or later. But, when he got back up the hill, the Nova was gone.
Jacob stood there for a moment, confused about what to do. Then he walked over to where the Nova had been. He looked for tracks back to the road. But the grass wasn’t disturbed at all.
“I would have heard it leave anyway.”
Jacob got back in his car. He didn’t want to leave. The anticipation, though dwindled somewhat, was still present and still enough to keep him interested. But he didn’t know what else to do. His hand was on the key, ready to turn. Then the anticipation began to pick up again, as if in protest to what he was doing. He turned the key slowly. There was the electric buzz announcing that the car was coming alive. The engine turned over slowly. It became louder and Jacob knew that it was going to start. Then, in what couldn’t have been more then a couple of seconds, the engine faded off into nothing.
Without thinking much about it, he twisted the key all the way down twice. Both times, there was only the sound of metal. The third time he tried, the switch wouldn’t budge. He tried harder, but it was stuck. He leaned up on the steering wheel to get more leverage. That was when he saw something outside of his car that made him stop moving all together.
The Nova was there again. But this time it wasn’t all there. It was transparent and it faded in and out, like it was trying to come into focus. It did this several times before it finally materialized completely.
Jacob opened his door and listened. The sounds of the voices were still not there. Leaving the door open, he got out and ran back down to the side of the hill. Again, it was just the creek.
“Fuck you!” he shouted, dropping down to a sitting position. There, he sat and waited. Minutes ran by and still nothing happened. Then Jacob thought he heard a noise up above, and he turned his attention from the creek for a moment. When he turned back again, there was a blur and the creek went out of focus. When focus came back, so did the creek. The voices were there again, but they were so faint that Jacob wondered if they were real or if he was just hearing what he wanted to hear. A dim image began to appear, but only for an instant of a second.
“Hey! I saw you! Come on! You were there! You were real!”
He looked down at the creek and tried to make the image come up again. But the more he tried to bring it back, the more the creek seemed to be nothing but the creek. So, he relaxed. He closed his eyes and let the anticipation rise. The more it was there, the more he wanted to open his eyes. But, at the same time, it was very soothing, so it was possible to just let it grow. He waited for it to peak again, for it
to get to the level it had just before he saw the Nova the first time. Finally, he felt the anticipation level off. He opened his eyes.
The image faded in and out several times, as the Nova had done earlier. But after a few seconds, they were there, solid and real. It took him just a few seconds to figure out what they were doing. There were two men standing in front of the water with their backs turned to him. They were pissing in Bull Creek. That was all Jacob saw before light disappeared and it was suddenly night.
#
“Holly shit!” Jacob says, as he jumps to his feet. The voices are still there. They are young, Jacob thinks. But they are not much younger than he is. He can’t make out what they are saying, but he hears one of their drunken laughs. One of them has a flashlight and is moving the beam all around in the trees.
The beam shifts toward Jacob.
Jacob shouts, “Hey! What’s going on?”
They don’t respond. They don’t even seem to notice him. Their voices are getting closer. After a few moments, Jacob is able to make out what they are saying.
“I just don’t understand it, man. Why are we out here? We’re at a party. There’s plenty of beer and girls, and you want to come out here? Help me out.”
“Well, first off. Your dumb, ugly ass ain’t going to get laid anyway. Second, the reason you don’t understand why we’re out here is because you’re an asshole.”
The voices are familiar to Jacob, but he does not recognize them.
“Hey guys,” Jacob says. This time they are close enough that they have to hear him. But again, they don’t respond. Jacob steps toward them. He stops when he notices that his feet do not make a sound when he steps.
One of them comes up even with him. Jacob turns and walks next to him.
“You can’t hear me, can you?” Jacob says.
The man turns, but it’s not to Jacob he speaks.
“Hey, Eric. You want to hurry. It’s cold out here.”
Cold, Jacob thinks. Then he notices that he feels no temperature at all.
“Don’t worry, Stan the man,” the other voice says. “I’m sure your little friends are just fine.”
“Stan,” Jacob says. “No. It can’t be.”
The man beside him opens the car door and the interior light shines on him. Jacob begins to wonder if he was wrong. He thinks that maybe he didn’t pull the gun away before he shot himself. He thinks this, because the man beside him has to be a ghost.
The second man gets up to the car and walks over to the passenger side. “Okay. Let’s get this done, so we can get back to the party.”
Jacob realizes what’s going on and where they are going.
“No, Stan. Don’t go!” Jacob says. But it’s futile. They get in the car anyway. Jacob tries the handle on the back door, but his hand slips through without grasping anything. He stands there shocked by this for a few seconds. He touches his hands to each other. They feel real. He tries to touch the door handle again. Again, his hand goes right through. There is the sound of the Nova’s large engine roaring to life. Jacob jumps through the door and lands in the backseat.
Jacob is in a sitting position, but his body does not touch the upholstery. When the car takes off quickly and fishtails, his body is not pulled and swayed like the other two bodies in the car. He floats along with them.
Jacob recognizes the man driving the car as Stan Wayne. He knows that Stan has been dead for almost five months now. The man in the passenger seat is Eric Hower. Jacob is not sure what happened to him.
Stan focuses on the road, but the car still sways a little. Eric lights a cigarette.
“Don’t smoke right now,” Stan says.
“Why not?”
“Just don’t, all right!”
Eric rolls down the window and tosses the cigarette, then he laughs a little under his breath. “Stan the man, I just don’t get you. If you’re too damn drunk to drive, why would you want to come out here.” Eric looks at Stan, who does not answer him. “Damn it, Stan, you’re just too sweet for your own good.”
Stan makes the first turn and nearly ditches his car. He recovers, but he does not slow down.
“Hey, man. Take it easy. I don’t think those kids are going anywhere.”
“I said I would be there at two o’clock. It’s five till now.”
“Of course.” Eric is hunched over in his seat. He shakes his head. “So, Stan, make me understand this. Nobody was ever this nice to us when we were in high school. Hell, nobody is ever this nice to high-school kids, especially guys like you and I who haven’t been out of school so long ourselves.”
Stan comes to the next stop. Jacob is sure that he must have cleared the previous three miles in less than two minutes. He thinks about jumping back out of the car but doesn’t. He is fascinated with all this and wants to see its conclusion.
Stan puts the car in park, then turns to Eric, who moves closer to the passenger door. “All right, Hower. I’ll explain it to you. You’re wrong. Not everyone was mean to us. But I admit most were. And before we had cars, we missed most the action. That was just the way it was. But that doesn’t mean it has to be that way now. You don’t got to keep being a jerk to the kids, just because the older guys were jerks to you. You don’t need it, and the kids don’t need it either. Understand?”
“Yeah, man. I understand. I think it’s a lot of horse shit, but I understand.”
“Fuck you, Hower!” Stan puts the car back in drive and turns. A little later, they arrive at the shale pit. There are empty beer cans scattered everywhere, but the place looks deserted.
“Look, Stan. Those little punks left without cleaning up. They have no respect for this place, not like we did. We got to stop bringing them out here.”
Stan turns the car, and his headlights shine on a body lying face down over by the hill of shale.
“Oh fuck!” Stan says. “Is that Robert Phillups?”
“Yeah, I think so. I hope he’s all right, because you brought him out here.”
Stan looks at Eric. “You better shut up!”
Again, Eric moves closer to the door. Stan opens his door at almost the same time two kids come from behind the hill. One is a boy. He’s wearing an unbuttoned shirt. A girl follows him. She has on a letter jacket, which she holds shut with both hands. She seems to be trying to use the boy’s body to shield her from view.
“It’s Jay,” Stan says, and then gets out of the car.
Jacob jumps through the door and stands amongst them.
“What’s the matter with Rob?” Stan asks.
The boy he called Jay looks confused. Then he looks over at the hill, where the other boy lies. “Oh, he’s all right. Passed out about a half an hour ago. But man, some major shit happened out here tonight.”
“What?”
“Oh man. I’ll tell you. But do you have a couple of smokes we can bum?”
Stan turns back to the car. “Hey, Eric!”
“What?”
“Give me a couple of Marlboros.”
“You ain’t given my cigarettes to those kids.”
“Just do it!”
Eric sits there for a few seconds. Then he comes out. He walks up to the kids and extends a hand with two cigarettes. Jay takes them both. He hands one to the girl.
“Got a light?”
Eric holds his lighter out in a fist and flicks out the flame. Jay lights his, then passes it back to the girl, who uses it to light her own.
“Thanks,” Jay says.
“Whatever,” Eric responds, then goes to the car and sits on the hood. He stares at the girl who looks away, obviously nervous.
Jay takes a puff of the cigarette. “You know Jeff Limerod?”
“Yeah,” Stan responds. “I think I’ve seen him around town a few times. He’s kind of a different looking kid, right?”
“Different my ass!” Eric says from the car. “He’s a faggot if I ever saw one.”
“Thank you, Eric!” Stan says loudly.
Eric looks away and smirk
s.
“Yeah. Jeff’s kind of different looking,” Jay says. “Anyway, he brought some kind of bombs out here. He set one off over behind the hill. Some people cheered, but I think he made a lot more people nervous, because a bunch of them left. Well, then Adrian Cooper told him to cut that shit out and Limerod told him to fuck off. Cooper hammered him one and knocked him on his back. Limerod got up and tried to fight, but Cooper just laughed and tossed him around. Limerod started crying, real pissed off like. Then he took the other contraption out of his stomach pack and said he’d blow everyone up. Man, people got outta here quick as hell.”
“Where did Limerod go?”
“Well, he just sat over by Phillups for a little while. We tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t talk back. He just sat there mumbling under his breath. He finally got up and took off walking across that field.” Jay points off to the west.
“I wonder why he didn’t go towards town.”
“I don’t know, man. He’s strange. I would have tried to stop him, but I was afraid he’d blow me up.”
Stan looks at the field Jay pointed to. “All right, how long ago did he leave?”
“Not long ago. And he was walking slow. I doubt he’s made it across the field yet.”
“Okay,” Stan says. “You two hop in, and we’ll head him off. Then we’ll come back for Robert.”
The two kids get into the back seat of the car. Eric walks up to Stan. “All right, Stan. Helping these kids I can tolerate. But now you want to go help out some freak you hardly even know.”
“I don’t have time for this right now, Eric. You stay here and look after Robert. We’ll come back for you.”
Eric starts to say something but then throws his hands in the air. He walks over to the hill of shale, sits down, and lights up another cigarette.
Stan gets into his car and Jacob gets in beside him. The two kids are silent during the trip to the other side of the field. Jacob thinks it’s because Stan’s driving is scaring them. Stan drives fast and slows very little at the turns.
Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner Page 48
