Carter froze even more. All out panic set in that drove shivers down his spine as he would’ve preferred a black bear. He knew that the skunk was aware that he was still alive, probably sensed it. Animals can do that, and Carter knew that this is what they did all day. They were scavengers. This one probably had the added benefit of rabies. Carter wasn’t sure what the skunk was going to do to him, but he was dam sure what it could do to him, and he preferred death. He took another peek, barely creating an opening for his eyes, and saw that the skunk had circled around his head and was directly in front of his nose.
He was so defenseless that it made him sick. The skunk lifted its overactive nose from the ground and brought it in front of Carter’s nose. Then it stepped closer. For such a small step, it spoke volumes in Carter’s ear. The tip of the skunk’s nose then touched the tip of Carter’s nose, and he could vaguely hear a sniffing noise. Then it crawled up onto his chest and moved to his other ear.
Every second that went by was at least a minute to Carter. The dam rodent would not leave, so Carter had to remain calm under the worst circumstances. Because he was on his back, looking up at the sky, he was only able to see his intruder with his peripheral vision, so his progress would be slow until it departed. He couldn’t even help himself by kicking his feet to get free. Everything that he needed to do was put on hold.
He was so relieved when the skunk suddenly stopped moving, looked around, and then scurried away from him. He lifted his head slightly and turned in the direction he last saw the skunk, and watched as it disappeared into the woods. However, he had a new problem. The reason the skunk had left was because it was chased away. Another animal had entered the picture that was more terrifying.
There was no question in Carter’s mind that the new animal was more intimidating than a skunk. He knew that the only animal not afraid of a skunk and willing to attack one is the crow, because they have no sense of smell. Skunks had a reputation, and that reputation scared Carter the most. He would certainly agree to an animal switch, but he was nervous beyond belief wondering what animal was now lurking by his head. Who wouldn’t want to know this?
Whatever it was lurking nearby was bad enough to send a skunk running for the hills. Carter was sick and tired of holding still and just wanted to know what he could do to scare it off, so he could figure a way out of his predicament. He was in a life or death struggle with mother nature and he needed out now so he could rescue Brenda and the boys, and he needed to do so before the Oldman’s came for Bradley.
The animal that knocked the skunk out of contention was lurking out of his view, so he could only see its shadow. He had a sense that it was much bigger than the skunk and more terrifying. Carter was so frustrated from holding still and being scared of the uncertainty that he screamed out and tried to shake the branch as he did. The branch made no progress whatsoever, and the only thing his outburst did was stop the shadow. The shadow had been moving about, but Carter was able to detect that the shadow had stopped, but then began closing in on him. Perhaps it hadn’t even detected that Carter was there tangled up in the tree branch, but he would think the animal’s nose would not miss such a thing.
A gunshot rang out and reverberated throughout the neighborhood. That was a sound that Carter had never heard at his house in Boston. He had heard shots fired in his lifetime, but never from his house. Again, he had to remain still and shut his mouth. He knew an animal could sniff around his head and maybe even take a nice chunk out of him, but a gun could put him down six feet. From what he could tell, whatever animal it was that had been dancing around him just moments before was either dead or reunited with the forest. Maybe the animal was a deer and a neighbor tried shooting it. Maybe the shooter was after Carter and missed. That was his biggest concern. What if the shooter was after Carter Spence?
Just to be safe, Carter closed his eyes and played dead, thinking about anybody who would want him that way, excluding Martin. He couldn’t think of anybody; certainly anybody who would think he warranted a deadly gunshot. He was clear in that regard. He then saw a shadow approaching, and also heard the jingle of a chain.
“I told you to get on out of here,” Evan said as he moved in on Carter, who was so relieved to see him. He was always there. It was a good thing and a bad thing, but you have to take the good with the bad. He was always there. Whenever Carter found himself faced with life or death struggles, it seemed that Evan was Johnny on the spot. He was beginning to think of him as a friend, but he did not want to let him into his life completely. There were still so many red flags.
“I’ve been working with houses like yours and the Oldman’s next door for years now, so when I tell you to leave the place, you need to heed my warning. That’s why you’re in the predicament you’re in.”
If Carter was in any condition to roll his eyes, he would have done so, but the last thing he wanted to do was bite the hand that frees him. He remained calm and awaited Evan’s game plan on how he was going to free him. He certainly couldn’t lift the tree branch by himself.
“Nearly got yourself killed,” said Evan, looking down at Carter and leaning against his rifle that was doubling as a cane. “The skunk nearly got you. Skippy scared it away and I hastened its exit with the gunshot. Did you hear it?” Evan chuckled.
“Yeah, I heard it,” said Carter. “How could I not? Why the gunshot?”
“The critter wasn’t moving nowhere.”
“Why didn’t you shoot it?” asked Carter.
“Would‘ve stunk to high heaven if I did. When skunks die, they release all of their goodness.”
Evan had scared the skunk further into the woods with a gunshot after Skippy went after it. He did not wish to wash his dog with tomato juice for the rest of the evening, so he needed to act quickly. His work was not finished though. He needed to free Carter, but the branch was far too heavy to lift off of him. He surveyed his surroundings in an attempt to see what he had to work with. Carter was beginning to lose feeling in his legs, so he and Evan needed to come up with solutions for a way to lift the tree.
When Evan was digging around in the garage, he discovered a shovel. It was not a safe place to be, especially with the collapsed wall and a tree hanging over it, but he saw the shovel from the outside and didn’t have far to go in to retrieve it. The tree had crushed the garage, and fell about two feet short of the roof of the car.
Evan returned to the scene and began digging around Carter’s arms and legs, hoping to create wiggle room enough for him to slide out from underneath his abductor. He had to be careful at the same time because he didn’t want the weight of the branch to shift with his body movement.
Evan continued digging small divots, careful not to pinch or cut Carter, nor create an imbalance and possibly crush him. Carter wiggled his arms and legs while trying to get out from under the weight, but was not having much luck. However, his persistence eventually created enough room to pull himself from that mess. He got to his feet slowly, walking around to rid his bones of the stiffness that had set over them. He didn’t have a lot of time to worry about the condition of his bones because he was responsible for his wife, his son, and his neighbor’s son.
“Brenda and the two boys are gone,” said Carter. “I’m not sure where they are, but they’re not in their room and all I heard was a scream before they left.”
“How do you know they’re not in the bedroom?”
Carter thought about it a bit, but didn’t want to get into his out-of-body with Evan, so he fabricated a story after looking at the ladder that had been lying over the top of him. “I climbed the ladder up to the window and saw that nobody was in the room.”
“Did you go in? What about the closet? Did you check the closet, or under the bed?”
“I actually climbed through the window and checked the r
oom completely. Then on the way down the ladder, I got hammered by the tree.”
“I see,” said Evan. “So Brenda screamed, but they’re not in the room? They couldn’t have gone out the window. Could they have gotten out the door?”
“Locked from the inside,” said Carter.
“They could’ve closed it in the locked position. Why didn’t you unlock the door before you left? Actually, why the hell did you go back down the ladder in that storm?”
“The door was stuck,” said Carter. “I couldn’t unlock it. I didn’t have time to screw around with it and I needed to find Brenda and the kids immediately. Bradley from next door is with them, so I could really use your help in finding them.”
“Sounds a lot like the night Adam…”
“Yes,” said Carter, “it does sound a lot like the night Adam disappeared.”
Evan looked at Carter as they turned to get inside the house. “Are you thinking that Martin has something to do with this?”
“He has to have something to do with this. This is not Brenda. She would never do this on her own, and she was in trouble. By the way, Evan, why did you tell me to leave the house?” Carter opened the door and saw Evan pass through first, then followed him in, shutting the door behind him.
“I was at home and had a real bad feeling about you guys. I decided to brave the elements and take the dog for a walk. Skippy was talking to me. He was barking up a storm of his own when we passed by your house…much the same way he was going ballistic on the Oldman’s home next door. He doesn’t fake it. When Skippy speaks, I listen. I’ve learned to listen. The real reason that I came into this house was because Skippy pulled me to it. Normally I can handle him, but I then realized that he had a powerful message for me, and I felt the need to pass that message on to you. Skippy has never been wrong…not in all of our years together as a team.”
“Evan, you’ve got to help me get them back. We have to find them now.”
Evan looked at Carter and the condition he was in, packaged with the overwhelming fear and grief regarding the whereabouts of his family. “Where do you suppose we start?”
Carter had only one clue, and it made perfect sense because over the years he’d learned that Martin was a creature of habit. He believed that what happened with Adam has happened to all of them now.
“Let’s go to the cemetery,” said Carter, “like we talked about before. That’s the only place I can think of where they’d be, considering who we believe is behind all of this.”
Evan reached into his pocket and pulled out a white handkerchief and lobbed it overhand to Carter. “Hold this to that forehead of yours,” he said. “You’ll be fine.”
CHAPTER 29
Carter and Evan prepared to head off to the town green where the cemetery was located, which was a couple of blocks from their house. Carter managed to back his car out of the garage and quickly drove to the cemetery. The thought of Martin terrorizing them again made him sick to his stomach, but now he was not only messing with Brenda, but he took Adam and Bradley along for the trip. Carter could not get there fast enough. If they were there, then he could get them back and this ordeal would be over, but if they weren’t there, then Carter was screwed.
“You may very well be right,” said Evan, “about the cemetery.”
“Like I said, Martin’s a creature of habit,” said Carter as he hit the gas and watched his house in the rearview mirror.
“He transported Adam there before,” said Evan. “Not sure how he did it, but he sure as hell managed.”
Carter kept on alternating his view from the road to the side of Evan’s head as he pondered this question. “From what Adam said, Martin gets inside his head and makes him act in a certain way. He didn’t remember how he did it or how he got there, but the results speak for themselves. The cemetery is just around the corner from our house, so in the dead of the night, it’s likely that nobody ever sees his work in progress.”
When Carter arrived at the cemetery, he rolled through until he made it to the burial site of his parents, and he could see Brenda, Adam and Bradley. They were huddled near his parent’s tombstones in cult-like fashion. Carter sighed a big sigh as he and Evan made their way out of the vehicle and toward them. Strangely, the trio had missed his parent’s resting place by one site, but they were close enough.
As they approached the grave sites, Evan brought his cane about waist high to get Carter to stop in his tracks. He didn’t want him to proceed for some reason. Carter looked over at Evan as he stared in at Brenda and the boys. There was no awareness on their part. They were totally oblivious to the fact that they had guests. Carter’s eyes bounced back and forth between Evan and the small group formed near his parents. Evan brought his index finger to his mouth to motion for him to be silent, and then stepped closer to the group.
“I don’t think they’re awake,” said Carter, “and I’m wondering why they have their backs to my parent’s grave site. It’s almost like they’re guarding it.” Adam was doing the same thing the night he disappeared, and they couldn’t figure out why. Maybe they were guarding their graves, but that would contradict the theory that Martin was trying to convince Adam that the Spence’s were not really his grandparents. It was a crazy theory, but Martin had put it out there and then sent Adam out to guard them.
Evan slowly made his way in front of Brenda and the boys. He didn’t want to get any closer and startle them. Carter stayed put, where Evan had told him to shush. He assumed that meant to shush his steps as well. He didn’t move until Evan told him to do so. There was too much at stake here, and he didn’t want to be responsible for screwing up a chance to get the three of them back. Apparently it was time because Carter was now summoned by Evan to approach the bench.
Carter slowly made his way to Brenda and the boys and was again reminded to keep quiet. Evan leaned over and whispered in his ear, “You don’t want to startle anybody in this state of mind. They’re too fragile. It would not have a very positive outcome. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that much. Just observe them. They’re at peace, so no need to worry about that much, but the hard part is transitioning them back. That’s the tricky part.”
Carter walked around and saw them head on. All three of them were kneeling with their backs to his parent’s grave. It really did look like Martin wanted them to protect the graves. Carter was a bit mystified because Martin had brought them to Carter’s adoptive parents only to ignore them. Carter continued to look at their blank faces. They were kneeling with their heads bowed, eyes closed, and their hands folded at their stomach. Maybe this was Martin’s way of disrespecting the imposters.
He took a couple steps closer and looked at their positioning. It almost appeared as if they were paying their respects to the grave site next to his parents. They were actually closer to the next site. He moved closer to see where they were facing. The more they examined Brenda and the boys, the more they believed their interest was one gravesite over from the Spence’s.
There was another couple buried next to his parents. Carter glanced up at the names on the tombstones and was astonished that Buchanan was the last name of the couple. This was either a coincidence or Martin was introducing everybody to his relatives.
Carter could not even get his mind to entertain such thoughts. He moved back to Evan and whispered, “Can we bring them home now?”
Evan had been doing this sort of work for some time now, and he knew how to handle this situation without panicking. He was a seasoned professional, and if there was anyone Carter wanted to share a fox hole with at this moment in time, it would have to be Evan. He acted naturally calm in situations as otherworldly as this. Carter just followed his lead.
“Let’s get them all to their feet and into the car. They won’t
even remember us doing so. Let’s get them in the car and back home.”
Carter had zeroed in on the tombstone next door, and the last name of the couple was etched in his mind. Buchanan. Lance and Margaret Buchanan. The tombstones were pretty old and weather-worn, making the date difficult to read, but he kept repeating the names so he would not soon forget. He put his arm around Brenda and held Adam’s hand as they made their way back to the car. Evan ushered Bradley ahead of them. They were safe, but they were not aware of it one way or another. Once the trio was back on their feet, Evan and Carter guided them to the car and away from the scene.
Carter sat in the front seat with Brenda and Adam, while Evan and Bradley sat in back. Carter leaned forward and looked at his family from the side. They were both transfixed on whatever it was ahead of them. It did not look like they were registering anything. Their faces were pasty-white, blank slates. There was no energy in either of them, and they were able to herd them along like sheep, and that’s possibly the way Martin had done it out the front door.
. . .
Since they were only a couple of blocks away from their house, they were home in no time. Carter could no longer use the garage since a tree decided to put an end to that. They got out of the car and made their way into the house through the front door. The trio was returning to normal in that short ride as Martin’s influence was waning. They were not exactly out of the woods, but they were safe and expected to recover.
When they returned home in the early morning, they got into the house with Bradley before anyone next door was aware that someone was missing. At this point, it wasn’t important to keep this from the Oldman’s, but it would have been a different story had they not been able to locate Bradley. When Brenda and the boys were at the cemetery, they were in a trance and there was no communicating with them. However, they had now returned to normal, but were groggy from the incident and lack of sleep.
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 71
