Southern House

by Mark Deloy

  I walked alongside the stream as Girl decided to go swimming. Although the water only came up to her stomach, it probably considerably cooled her off. I knew how cold that water was. She bounded through the water like a puppy, splashing, then turning around and running the other way.

  “Goofy dog,” I said.

  She paid no attention to me and kept on playing. I came to a fallen tree that had crashed over the stream. I climbed over it and Girl scooted under. I knew I’d be sore tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, but at the moment I wasn’t thinking about pills, and that was worth the discomfort.

  Girl stopped playing and started growling. The hair on her back stood up. I scanned the woods where she was focused, but saw nothing except more trees and rock. I stood very still and just looked as far as I could through the trees, the way Hickory had taught me when I was a boy.

  Something black ran between two trees about a hundred yards ahead. Then something else, even bigger but brown not black, did the same. It’s amazing how much detail your eyes can see, even with limited lighting and from far away. My eyesight was probably enhanced with adrenaline at the moment.

  I unsnapped the strap across the Ruger. I didn’t unholster, but I had my hand on the butt, ready to draw like a gunslinger if whatever was moving out there didn’t head in the other direction. Girl didn’t bark. I found it ironic that a Wolfhound appeared out of nowhere right after I thought I saw a wolf-like creature in the woods. Could Girl have been hunting the Monster Wolf? Was that why she had showed up out of nowhere? Then stayed to protect me? I thought it was possible. Animals did all sorts of amazing things. Then I wondered again who she belonged to, and who might have set her after the creature in the first place.

  After another minute, Girl calmed down and went back to sniffing along the stream. I wasn’t so convinced we were out of danger. I kept the Ruger unstrapped and moved along beside the stream.

  “Almost time to head ba-”

  I couldn’t complete my sentence. Something dark caught my eye up ahead. It was a familiar shape, but it seemed so wrong way out here. It was a roofline. I could barely make it out through the trees, but it was there. There was some kind of structure out here in the middle of the woods. And it was big.

  “Come on, Girl,” I said, and walked across the stream.

  Whatever I’d seen disappeared once again behind the trees when I got to the lower side of the stream. If I’d walked another three steps without staring in that direction, I would have missed it entirely.

  I tried to remember whether I’d ever been in this part of the woods, and I didn’t think I had. I’d been to the waterfall before, hundreds of times, but that had always been a stopping point for us for some reason. It was where we refilled our canteens before heading back. Papa had never mentioned any kind of building on the land before, neither had my father. Surely they would have showed me, like they had showed me the dozens of strange rock formations, the falls, or the old broken- down car. Did they even know the building was here? Hickory had to have known. He’d explored every acre of the property. Now I wondered if my crafty granddad had always made us stop at the waterfall for a reason.

  I kept moving, while trying to keep a bearing on where I’d seen the building. I still couldn’t see the roofline, even though I was even closer than I was at the creekside. I wondered if I should try to get to some higher ground. I might be able to get a better look at it, or I might lose it altogether. Surely something that big shouldn’t be too hard to find. But as I made my way to where I knew it should be, there was nothing but more trees. Maybe it was just a trick of light and shadow, the bend of a branch made to look like a rooftop. I supposed it was possible, but when you see something, and have convinced yourself you saw it, it was hard to unsee. But I also knew how natural objects sometimes look like something else until you get up close to them.

  There was nothing there. I’d reached where the structure should have been, but there was nothing there, only more trees, and rocks. I walked back to the stream and stood exactly where I had when I’d seen the rooftop clearly, but now there was nothing but treetops.

  “What the hell,” I said out loud. Girl looked at me as if to say, I have no idea ‘what’ you are talking about, crazy human.

  I wanted to keep looking, but the satellite guy was due soon. I actually did feel like a crazy person. I tried to reason that maybe the oxy withdrawals were messing with my head, making me see things, the strange animals, then the house. But I simply couldn’t fathom I’d be seeing strange things after being off pills for just a day.

  We headed back to the house and I tried to forget about what I knew I’d seen. The sun had risen above the treetops and it was really starting to get hot. Sweat was making my shirt stick to me, and Girl was panting heavily. I needed to remember to bring water for her tomorrow.

  When I got within sight of the house, I saw that the satellite guy’s van was parked in the driveway.

  “Shit,” I said. He wasn’t due for another thirty minutes. I ran for it, trying to get within earshot before he left. I ran under the huge tent, waving my arms. I didn’t see the guy, but figured he was on the front porch, knocking on the door.

  I saw him come back to his van and I yelled to him once. I was close enough now that he heard me and waved once back. Then he leaned against the service van and waited for me to come huffing and puffing up.

  “Hey, are you Mr. Grimble?”

  I nodded the affirmative, too winded to talk.

  “You didn’t have to run. I would have waited,” he said with a smile. “I’m Chuck. Do you have any questions before I get started?”

  “Nope,” I managed.

  “Okay, so it’s the main TV and then wireless Internet, right?”

  “Yes, that’s right. Oh, and I have a small TV in the kitchen. I don’t need another box, just a line run to it, if that’s alright.”

  “Sure thing,” he said. “I’ll get started.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I’m going to get some orange juice. Want some?”

  “No thanks,” Chuck said. “I’ll get started.”

  Girl let herself be petted by Chuck before following me into the house. I poured myself a large glass of juice and filled Girl’s water bowl.

  I made myself another egg sandwich for breakfast and took it into the living room. Chuck had finished putting up the small dish on the back patio and was now in the living room attaching the receiver to the television.

  “Good thing you don’t work by the hour,” I said. “You’d stay broke.”

  “Actually, I do,” he said. “I just have five more houses to hook up today and then one service call.”

  “Bummer,” I said.

  “Okay, we’re all hooked up here. I’m going to run a line under the house and then up through the kitchen. Where is your crawlspace entrance?”

  “Out back, I’ll show you,” I said.

  I showed Chuck where the crawlspace was, not envying him having to crawl into that tight space to run the line.

  “I hope there aren’t any animals in there,” I said. “The place is pretty well buttoned up.”

  “Hope not. There’s nothing worse than coming across a pissed off opossum in the dark.”

  “Need me to hold anything? A flashlight maybe?”

  “Nope, I think I’ve got it,” he said as he shimmied into the small doorway with his belt and equipment clanging. “If you could just knock on the kitchen floor so I know where to drill, that would be great.”

  “Will do,” I said.

  I went into the kitchen and used a wooden spoon to knock on the floor. After a minute I heard a soft whirring sound coming from under me and a small hole appeared in the corner of the floor near the cabinets. I saw the end of a coax cable snaking its way through the hole. I pulled it through and hooked it to the outlet on my small twenty-five inch TV I’d set up on the kitchen counter. I liked to watch TV when I was cooking, or in the morning while drinking my coffee.

  After a few minutes,
Chuck came back into the house. He was holding a small device with buttons and a screen on it. He turned the TV on and then went outside. After ten minutes, he came back in.

  “Well, that’s strange,” he said.

  “What’s that?”

  “No signal. The dish is pointed right at the satellite, and there aren’t any trees, or anything to interfere with it, but it’s not getting a signal at all.”

  “What would cause that?” I asked.

  “Probably a defective dish. I know it’s not the receiver because I hooked this receiver directly to the dish and still got nothing,” he said, holding up the small device in his hand. “I have another dish in the truck. I’ll be just a minute,” Chuck said, and went back outside.

  I watched out the window as he hooked another dish up and pointed it in one direction, then another. Then he looked at his mini-receiver, took off his hat, scratched his head, and tried pointing it in yet another direction. Then he tried to get on his cell phone, apparently with the home office to report the problem, or ask them if they knew what was going on. At which time, he realized there was no cell reception, either.

  He came back in a minute later.

  “Hey, Mr. Grimble. Can I use your phone? I need to call this in. There must be some kind of outage. I’ve never seen this before.”

  “Sure, it’s in the hall,” I said.

  He went in to make his call and I could hear a few words of his conversation.

  “Yes, don’t you think I tried that….No, I haven’t, but….Sure, Okay, I’ll tell him.”

  When the kid came back in, he didn’t look happy.

  “The boss says there has never been any service in this area and no one knows why. He wanted me to apologize and tell you I should have checked before coming all the way out here.”

  “I hope you aren’t in any trouble,” I said.

  “Naw, I haven’t been on the job long enough to know, but he says he told me a month ago this was a dead zone. Strange thing is, you should have service. A cell phone I can understand because there are no towers close, but there are available satellites. Its right up there,” Chuck said, pointing out the window, as if I could look out into the sky and see it. “It just doesn’t make any sense. It’s as if there’s something blocking the signal.”

  “Weird,” I said. “Do you think cable would run a line out here?”

  “I doubt it. Comcast only goes out to the county road.”

  “Alright, well, I guess I’m stuck back in the pioneer days. Thanks for your time.”

  “I’ll get everything unhooked and cleared out of here. Sorry, Mr. Grimble.”

  Chuck unhooked everything as promised and filled in the shallow hole he’d dug in the back lawn near the patio. I was kind of bummed I’d be stuck out here with only a couple local television stations and no Internet. But I guess things could be worse. At least I had electricity. I decided I’d go back into town tomorrow, get the best Blue-Ray player Wal-Mart had, and then buy enough movies to keep me entertained for a few months.

  Just then the phone rang. I picked it up on the third ring.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Hick?” a very familiar voice on the other end asked. “Is that you?”

  “Kim?”

  “I took a chance you’d be down there. Is everything alright? You left all of a sudden.”

  “Yes, things are fine. Granny Ellen passed away. I came down here to bury her and settle her estate.”

  “Jesus, Hickory, I would have come with you,” she sniped in the same manner he’d gotten used to.

  “It’s alright,” I said. “I handled everything. How are you?”

  I didn’t want to ask, scared she would tell me her and her new boyfriend were doing great, but I did anyway, and she just said she was fine.

  “Is there a reason you called?” I asked.

  “Well, yes. That depends. Will you be down there for a while?”

  “Yes, but I don’t know for how long.”

  “I was going to wait for you to get back, but I guess if you’re going to be down there, I might as well just tell you. I filed for divorce today. I didn’t want to ever hurt you. I hope you know that. Things just haven’t been working between us for some time.”

  I knew she’d probably rehearsed this speech in her head a dozen times before calling, so I figured I’d throw her something to trip up her plan.

  “You mean since you’ve been sleeping with that guy, what’s his name, Roger?”

  “He doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “Uh huh,” was all I could say. In truth, I hadn’t even known if she was still with the guy. She’d told me she had been dating someone she’d met at the gym. At the time” I thought she had made it up to make me jealous. But now I knew he was real.

  “In any case, I’m sorry, for everything. I’ll have my lawyer send the papers down there. I don’t want anything, just your signature. I’m the one who wants this, so I don’t expect you to pay alimony or anything.”

  “That’s big of you,” I said, sarcastically.

  I could hear her sigh on the other end of the phone. “I just want to get this over with as quickly and painlessly as possible. Can’t you understand I’m just not in love with you anymore? To be honest, I think those drugs were the main cause of it.”

  And there it was, she couldn’t just take the blame on herself and move on. She had to make sure I blamed myself in some way. It had to be my fault in the end.

  “Is that what you told your lawyer?” I was raising my voice now. “That I’m a druggie and you can’t take it anymore? Is that what you told all your bitch friends? Is that what you told Roger? Well, whatever it takes to make you feel better!”

  “You need to get some help, Hickory,” she said, softly.

  “I haven’t been taking any pills for the last month,” I lied.

  She must have known it was a lie, too, because she just sighed again.

  “Call my doctor if you don’t believe me,” I said.

  “I did,” she said. “He said he has been trying to convince you to stop them. He says your back is basically fine and you just need to—”

  “That asshole,” I said. I’ll sue the shit out of him. He can’t reveal any of that to you.”

  “Actually, he can. You signed a HIPAA release when you started treatment that told him he could tell me anything about your records.”

  “Who gives a shit!” I screamed into the phone and then slammed it down on the receiver, ending the call.

  I sat down in the kitchen at the table and a strange thing happened… I felt relief. I was glad it was over. All of her sneaking around, and being secretive. All of the feelings of insecurity and pain were now over. It was over. I took a deep breath and let it out. Girl had come into the kitchen to see what all the excitement was about. I petted her and began to feel even better. This would be my new start.

  I went to the fridge and got out a beer. I usually didn’t drink during the day, but I felt the need to celebrate, with at least one beer. My marriage was worth that. One beer was all I’d give that bitch.

  After I finished my beer and belched hardily, I deposited the bottle in the trash.

  Everything was going to be alright, I thought. I had never in my life been so wrong.

  11

  The revival was due to start at six. I wondered what I was supposed to wear to a revival. A suit? Surely not. I’d had a few more beers since my phone call with Kim and now I had a pretty good buzz.

  Maybe jeans and a button- up shirt, I pondered. That sounded about right.

  “Religious casual,” I said to myself in the mirror, and laughed.

  I got dressed and was ready a little early. I decided to go out and see if Burnside needed any help setting up I’d seen him drive in and go past the house ten minutes before.

  Girl followed me off the back patio and through the first large field, which would serve as a parking lot. When I reached the second field, I could see Burnside talking to three
young boys and pointing back in my direction. They ran off as I walked up.

  “I’m paying them to guide people into spaces,” he explained. “How are you tonight, Hickory?”

  “Not too bad, to tell you the truth. Better than I’d expected. My wife just called to tell me she has officially filed for divorce.”

  Normally, I wouldn’t tell something like that to someone I’d only known for a few days, but I had been drinking and, right about then, I didn’t care what anyone thought.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright? I know that’s a stupid question.”

  “Yes, I’m okay.”

  “Are you sure you want to come out to the service tonight? You know you don’t have to.”

  At first, I thought the reverend had smelled beer on my breath, but the look on his face told me he really was concerned.

  “I promise I’m fine. I might not be later when I’m alone, but right now I’d like to be around people.”

  “You came to the right place, my friend,” he said. “I have word there will be even more people than I previously thought. There’s a church in Columbia that has been talking about the revival as well and I think we’ll be hosting a good portion of their congregation, as well, tonight and perhaps tomorrow, too.”

  “That’s terrific, Jim. I’m happy for you and for the church.”

  “Thank you, my friend. There would have been no way we could have done this without you.”

  “Is there anything I can help with?” I asked.

  “I think we have everything under control,” Burnside said with a grin. “Folks should start arriving any time now. I’m sure they’ll want to get good seats.”

  He was right. Five minutes later, the first few cars began to pull into the driveway, pause at the gate, and then continue past the house and into the field. The three boys guided them into spaces close to the hedge, which separated the two fields and parked them just far enough away so each car could open their doors.

  By 5:45, the field was nearly half full, and there was a line of cars still coming in. Traffic had to be backed up all the way back to Highway 50 now. I wondered how Girl was doing up there with all that excitement. I’d left her in the house. Hopefully, she wasn’t running from window to window, barking her fool head off.